Kelso Depot seems like a quiet anomaly in the middle of the desert—but for the 

Union Pacific Railroad, it was a thriving necessity. Since its inception in 1862, the 

Union Pacific (UP) wanted a foothold on the west coast. After reaching Portland, 

Oregon, UP turned its attention to the rich California markets and the ports around 

Los Angeles. To get there, it needed to construct a railroad across the Mojave Des‐

ert. Kelso was crucial to reaching that goal.

A Railroad Through the 

Desert

San Pedro, Los Angeles, 

& Salt Lake Railroad

A Railroad Town at Kelso

In August 1900, Montana Senator William A. 

Clark, a wealthy mine owner, bought a small rail‐

way in Los Angeles. With this purchase, he started 

construction on what would become the San 

Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. In 1902, 

UP made a deal with Clark and purchased half the 

stock of the railroad before it was even completed.

 

Construction of the line, known as the Salt Lake 

Route, began at the two ends near Salt Lake and 

Los Angeles and spread across the Mojave Desert 

in between. By 1905, the route had grown to nearly 

235 track miles and reached Siding #16. The site 

gained its present name when two warehousemen 

put their names into a hat along with that of a 

third worker, John Kelso. They drew out a name, 

and Siding #16 was renamed “Kelso.”

By the end of 1905, the track stretched from the 

west coast port of San Pedro to Salt Lake City, 

giving UP access to markets in southern Califor‐

nia. Later, UP persuaded Senator Clark to sell his 

stock in the Salt Lake Route, giving UP full own‐

ership of the line.

The steep two percent grade from Kelso to Kessler 

Summit (later renamed Cima) required “helper 

engines” to be stationed nearby to assist locomo‐

tives up the 2,078‐foot ascent. Additionally, steam 

locomotives of the era desperately needed water. 

Kelso had a reliable water source from a spring in 

the Providence Mountains, so it became the site of 

the “helper engine” station.

The first depot at Kelso opened in 1905, followed a 

few months later by a post office, an engine house, 

and an “eating house” to serve railroad employees 

and passengers on trains without dining cars. Over 

time, the town grew as more workers were needed 

and their families moved to Kelso to join them.

The original Kelso Depot was relocated to serve as housing and office space after the current depot was built.

Mojave National Preserve National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Kelso Depot Visitor Center
The Kelso Club House & 

Restaurant

In the early 1920s, the Los Angeles & Salt Lake 

Railroad began planning for new depots, restau‐

rants, and employee facilities at several towns, in‐

cluding Kelso. The railroad chose to design these 

new buildings in the Spanish Mission Revival 

style. Inter-railroad competition was lively, and UP 

was determined to put up buildings that would 

rival the Harvey Houses of the Santa Fe lines. The 

style would, as UP Chairman Lovet wrote, “add 

very little to the expense but a great deal to the 

appearance of the place. It is a dreary country 

and the lack of anything of this sort contrast very 

conspicuously with the Santa Fe.”

Railroad civil engineers in Los Angeles drew up 

plans in 1923, labeling the drawing “Kelso Club 

House & Restaurant.” For UP, a “Club House” 

was a company rooming and boarding house with 

recreational facilities (in later years the build‐

ing was commonly called the Kelso Depot). The 

building would have a conductor’s room, tele‐

graph office, baggage room, dormitory rooms for 

staff, boarding rooms for railroad crewmen, a bil‐

liard room, library, and locker room. Construction 

started in 1923, and the depot opened in 1924.

Originally, the restaurant (sometimes called “The 

Beanery”) and telegraph office were operated 

around the clock. This continued through the 

boom years of the 1940s and ‘50s, when Kaiser’s 

Vulcan mine contributed to Kelso’s growth. In 

those years the population grew to nearly 2,000. 

When the mine closed, and diesel engines re‐

placed steam, jobs and families moved away from 

Kelso. The depot function ended in 1962, but the 

restaurant and boarding rooms remained in use. 

In 1985, with a dwindling need for crew members 

to eat or stay overnight, UP decided to close the 

Kelso Depot.

The lunch counter was rebuilt in its original U-shaped 

configuration.

Life After Closing Believing that the now-empty Depot would 

become “a target for vandalism, unauthorized 

entrance, and a legal liability,” UP Division Su‐

perintendent G.R. Jenson made plans to raze the 

building. Local residents and others across the 

region heard about the proposed demolition and 

began to publicize the building’s plight.

The group organized the Kelso Depot Fund and 

set about saving the building. After successfully 

preventing demolition, however, the group found 

the costs of restoration too steep and turned to 

local politicians and the federal government for 

assistance. At that time, the Bureau of Land Man‐

agement (BLM) already managed much of the 

land around Kelso as the East Mojave National 

Scenic Area. It made sense for the BLM to gain 

ownership of the Depot. Members of Congress 

who represented the area went to work and, by 

1992, the BLM had the title to the building.

With the passage of the California Desert Protec‐

tion Act of 1994, the East Mojave National Scenic 

Area became Mojave National Preserve, and the 

Depot passed into the hands of the National Park 

Service. Renovation began in 2002. Kelso Depot 

reopened to the public as the primary visitor cen‐

ter for Mojave National Preserve in October 2005.

Counter in the ticket and telegraph office before (above) 

and after restoration (below).

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICATM