Barstow (pronounced BAR-stoh) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States, in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Located in the Inland Empire region of California, the population was 25,415 at the 2020 census. Barstow is an important crossroads for the Inland Empire and home to Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow.
History
Prehistoric Native American tribes inhabited the region as long as 3,000 years ago. The Native Americans hunted, fished and gathered turquoise. The indigenous people left hardly any discernible footprints along faint pathways as they traveled up to the Mexican territory to trade goods. The written history of the Mojave Valley dates back to the 1700s and the missionary excursions of Spanish Franciscan friar Francisco Garcés. Garcés followed the earliest faint footpaths to the Mojave River Valley and from there across the desert around Barstow on his way to Spanish missions beyond the mountains of California.
The settlement of Barstow began in the late 1840s in the Mormon Corridor. Every fall and winter, as the weather cooled, the rain produced new grass growth and replenished the water sources in the Mojave Desert. People, goods, and animal herds would move from New Mexico and later Utah to Los Angeles, along the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe, or after 1848, on the Mormon Road from Salt Lake City. Trains of freight wagons traveled back to Salt Lake City and other points in the interior. These travelers followed the course of the Mojave River, watering and camping at Fish Ponds on its south bank (west of Nebo Center) or 3.625 miles up river on the north bank, at a riverside grove of willows and cottonwoods, festooned with wild grapes, called Grapevines (later the site of North Barstow). In 1859, the Mojave Road followed a route that was established from Los Angeles to Fort Mojave through Grapevines that linked eastward with the Beale Wagon Road across northern New Mexico Territory to Santa Fe.
Troubles with the Paiute, Mojave, and Chemehuevi tribes followed, and from 1860 Camp Cady, a U.S. Army post east of Barstow, was occupied sporadically until 1864, then permanently, by soldiers occupying other posts on the Mojave Road or patrolling in the region until 1871. Trading posts were established at Grapevines and Fish Ponds that supplied travelers on the roads and increasingly the miners that came into the Mojave Desert after the end of hostilities with the native people.
Barstow's roots also lie in the rich mining history of the Mojave Desert following the discovery of gold and silver in the Owens Valley and in mountains to the east in the 1860s and 1870s. Due to the influx of miners arriving in Calico and Daggett, railroads were constructed to transport goods and people. The Southern Pacific built a line from Mojave, California through Barstow to Needles in 1883. In 1884, ownership of the line from Needles to Mojave was transferred to the Santa Fe Railroad.
Paving the major highways through Barstow led to further development of the city. Much of its economy depends on transportation. Before the advent of the interstate highway system, Barstow was an important stop on both Routes 66 and 91. The two routes met in downtown Barstow and continued west together to Los Angeles. The intersection of U.S. Route 91 and U.S. Route 466 was among the busiest intersections in the country—with about 800 gallons of gasoline being pumped per day nearby, during the year before Interstate 40 was extended to bypass Barstow. By the end of the 20th century, U.S. Routes 40, 91, and 466 were renamed or truncated as to no longer cover California and Nevada—with Interstates 15 and 40 now being the main interstate highways going in and out of Barstow.
Barstow is named after William Barstow Strong, former president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Some early Barstow names were Camp Sugarloaf, Grapevine, Waterman Junction and Fishpond.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , 99.98% land and 0.02% water.
Climate
Barstow experiences an arid climate, and has four seasons. Summer days are very hot, with highs typically exceeding . Winter, in contrast, is characterized by cold mornings, with lows near . Daily temperature ranges are largely a result of the low atmospheric moisture, typically between difference. There are an average of 133 days with highs of or higher, an average of 68 days with highs of degrees or higher, and an average of 32 days with lows of or lower.
The average annual precipitation is , with nearly 80% of rain typically falling during the cooler months (Nov–Apr). Snowfall is uncommon in winter, and many years can go by without any measurable snowfall. There are an average of 24 days annually with measurable precipitation.
The record high was on July 23, 1996, and the record low was on January 13, 1963. The wettest year was 1918 with and the driest year was 1904 with . The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998. The heaviest rainfall in 24 hours was on September 10, 1976. The most snowfall in one month was in January 1949, including January 12; that month was one of the coldest and snowiest in southern California history.
Vegetation The native vegetation is dominated by high and low desert shrubs such as creosote bush. City residents have introduced many non-native plants, prominent among which are trees such as Aleppo pine, Morus alba, Italian cypress, fan palm, ailanthus, ash, palo verde and redbud.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Barstow city, California – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)9,1637,7466,64643.39%34.22%26.15%Black or African American alone (NH)2,3493,1324,68411.12%13.83%18.43%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)3692603051.75%1.15%1.20%Asian alone (NH)6246596962.95%2.91%2.74%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)1862493120.88%1.10%1.23%Other race alone (NH)44241430.21%0.11%0.56%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)6768691,3343.20%3.84%5.25%Hispanic or Latino (any race)7,7089,70011,29536.50%42.85%44.44%Total21,11922,63925,415 100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Barstow had a population of 25,415 and a population density of . The census reported that 93.6% of residents lived in urban areas and 6.4% lived in rural areas.
31.0% of residents were under the age of 18, 9.7% were aged 18 to 24, 26.3% were aged 25 to 44, 20.9% were aged 45 to 64, and 12.0% were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 30.9 years. For every 100 females there were 94.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.8 males age 18 and over. The census reported that 98.7% of the population lived in households, 0.8% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.4% were institutionalized.
There were 8,790 households, of which 40.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 33.9% were married-couple households, 9.2% were cohabiting couple households, 22.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 34.7% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 26.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85. There were 5,970 families (67.9% of all households).
There were 9,620 housing units at an average density of , of which 8.6% were vacant and 91.4% were occupied. Of the occupied units, 43.8% were owner-occupied and 56.2% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%, and the rental vacancy rate was 7.8%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 9,464 37.2% Black or African American 4,965 19.5% American Indian and Alaska Native 689 2.7% Asian 742 2.9% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 346 1.4% Some other race 4,962 19.5% Two or more races 4,247 16.7%
2023 estimates In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that 9.9% of the population were foreign-born. Of all people aged 5 or older, 75.4% spoke only English at home, 21.7% spoke Spanish, 0.4% spoke other Indo-European languages, 2.0% spoke Asian or Pacific Islander languages, and 0.4% spoke other languages. Of those aged 25 or older, 83.8% were high school graduates and 11.1% had a bachelor's degree.
The median household income was $51,811, and the per capita income was $25,531. About 18.3% of families and 23.2% of the population were below the poverty line.
Arts and culture
Barstow has a series of murals along Main Street, depicting scenes from the city's history. These murals were created by Main Street Murals, a local non-profit organization.
Barstow Branch Library is located at 304 E. Buena Vista Street. It is a community venue, running various activities such as a summer reading program for children, story and craft sessions as well as a mystery book club.
Entertainment Skyline Drive-In, a drive-in theater located in the north-east outskirts of the city at 31175 Old Highway 58, is one of the last operating in San Bernardino County. It has two screens; each screen shows two movies every night during operating season.
Barstow Station Cinema is D'Place is the city's indoor cinema. It has six screens and can be found at 1503 East Main Street, in the east side of the city.
Barstow Community College has a $22 million Performing Arts Center which hosts college theatre and music performances, and traveling professional performances.
Museums
Barstow has a number of museums: Mojave River Valley Museum, Route 66 Mother Road Museum, the Western America Rail Museum, and the Desert Discovery Center.
Once a year a family opens their Black History collection to the public and nearby Fort Irwin is home to the 11 Cavalry and ACR Museum. The Old Woman meteorite, the largest meteorite found in California and the second largest in the United States, is housed in the Desert Discovery Center.
The Casa Del Desierto, built in 1911 as a Harvey House hotel and train station, now houses the Route 66 Mother Road Museum, the Western America Railroad Museum, and still functions as an (unstaffed) Amtrak station. The Barstow Chamber of Commerce sponsors an annual sandcastle contest in the dry riverbed across from the Harvey House.
Barstow Station Opened in 1975 and operating 365 days a year, Barstow Station is built to resemble a railway station. The location serves 20,000 tour buses a year and is a popular stop for travelers on Interstate 15. It includes a number of gift and fast food shops, an ice cream parlour, KHWY radio station, and a Greyhound ticket terminal.
The McDonald's restaurant at Barstow Station consists of three side-by-side railroad cars—a reference to Barstow's railroad heritage. In September 1986, the restaurant was destroyed by fire when a customer's car burst into flames at the drive-up window. In June 1997, the re-built restaurant received national attention when a gunman opened fire during a botched robbery, injuring several people and killing a nine-year-old girl. The gunman was mortally wounded by an off-duty police officer after the ensuing gun battle and later died in a hospital.
Retail Located southwest of the town is the upscale Outlets at Barstow, which is a popular stop for tourists traveling between Greater Los Angeles and Las Vegas. An older shopping center of outlet stores, the Barstow Outlets (formerly Factory Merchants at Barstow), is located opposite of the Outlets at Barstow, but has since closed.
The city has an enclosed shopping mall, Barstow Mall, built in the 1970s. It was renovated in 2010 and now includes the County of San Bernardino's new social service office for the Transition Assistance Department and Children and Family Services.
Near Barstow