DESOLATION
BOULEVARD
THE AMERICAN DREAM
GOES BELLY-UP
Story and photos By Steve Alba
Back in the '50s and '60s-when people
still cared, you knew your neighbors, and
you could buy a house for under 30
grand-folks travelled west, for California
was the promised land, and Route 66 was
the yellowbrick road which led the way to
economic growth, new prosperity, and the
American dream.
Route 66 was one of those magical highways
blessed with inspiring countless books, picto-
rials, TV shows, songs, films and movies,
people, and personalities. It was a road of
hope and change-"a better life around the
bend," as the old-timers put it. All along the
highway, boomtowns popped up and dotted
the landscape. From the plains of Texas
through rural New Mexico, the scorching
deserts of Arizona, and the foothills of
California, Route 66 blazed a trail through the
San Bernardino mountains, last stop before
reaching the City of Angels. And it's at this last
stop where our little story begins...
HISTORIC
CALIFORNIA
US
66
ROUTE
Those Were The Days
Route 66 connected the communities of San
Bemardino, Bloomington, Rialto, and Fontana, and it was
in these cities where a lot of migration from the south-
eastern states-namely Kentucky, Ottio, and
Pennsylvania-flourished in the early days of the Inland
Empire, as it has become known today. Good paying jobs
at Southern Pacific Railroad (the main link to the West
Coast), Norton AFB, The County Hospital, and Kaiser
Steel Mill employed literally thousands of people, allow-
ing real estate developers to cash in on the sweet success
of suburbia. And the steady flow of Route 66 travelers
turned the immediate area into a great metropolis of din-
ers, restaurants, museums, theaters, hotels, motels, sou-
venir shops, and drive-ins. Back in the day, housing
brochures boasted of swimming pools, clean mountain
air, good neighborhoods, and schools to bring up the
kids-all the stuff parents dream of. Highlights of the times
were cruisin' down Route 66 on the weekends, drag
racing in the sticks, partying at the teepees, seeing a
boxing/wrestling match at the San Bernardino
Auditorium, local skiing at Big Bear a mere 20 minutes
away, and seeing bands at the Orange Show Fairgrounds,
which was a major touring spot for '50s bands like Buddy
Holly and later The Stones, Hendrix, and The Doors.
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Clockwise from top left:
Nuggets waiting to be smoked.
Sam Hitz has all the hits at
the Flower Shop while new
poppa Salba shows the lines.
The Back East Connection
Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana probably
employed at least half the population early
on, and since Californians generally didn't
know how to run a steel mill, lots of peo-
ple relocated from the mills of Kentucky
and so on, and along with them came their
traditions, beliefs, religions, ethics,
upbringings, superstitions, prejudices...
well, you get the picture. In the beginning,
it was pretty much affluent while families,
blue collar workers, and migrant workers
who worked in the grape orchards (wine
making was huge) and citrus groves. It
was the same ol' story with the rich living
nearer the mountains, the blue collars in.
the middle, and the poor on the other side
of the tracks. There wasn't much color,
suffice to say, but the attitude of people
then amounted not to racial unharmony,
but indescribable tension when the darker
shades came through town. Police harass-
ment was the norm, and there were
rumors of KKK connections to some of
the more prominent folk and city officials.
I know for a fact that the KKK used to
openly advertise on freeway billboards in
the mid-'50s when the shit started to hit
the fan. Times were a' changin'!
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10
KOD
Damage Report
The '70s presented major problems due to rising
war costs, mass inflation, unemployment, and clo-
sures and cutbacks at every major powerhouse
on the region. Kaiser was shutting down, the rail-
road was laying people off, Norton AFB was slow-
ly being deactivated, the whole place was going up
in flames, drinking and violence statistics went up,
domestic violence and divorces soared, and mur-
der and robbery were more prevalent than ever.
The second and third generation families were
falling apart, the kids didn't care anymore, they dis-
respected and disregarded every parental initia-
live (remember this was the '70s), and the neigh-
borhoods and social structure disintegrated into
desperation and damaged goods. As the jobs dis-
appeared, so did the proud people who once called
this place home. Housing prices dropped, and the
poor started moving in, causing major repercus-
sions that would be felt to this day.
Basically, the bottom fell out, and the profes-
sionals moved out first, followed by the blue collars
next, while the hardcore stayed behind, praying
for a miracle and resurgence of times past when the
pot was full. But now the river was drying up, swal-
lowing up with il parched dreams, drought-inflicted
misery, and racial injuslices inspired by the Back
East connection. All in all it was a very bad scene
for 90% of the population, who had settled in the
vicinity of Route 66. Of course, it was great for me.
Fontucky Woman
Fontana was always a shithole. First off, the.
closer to the steel mill you lived, the worst off
you were. So, you were screwed right off the
bat already-three strikes against you and
your family, because Fontana lay directly in
the path of the fumes and toxic waste that
expelled from the plant at all hours of the day.
The wind always blew in Fontana, and the
Santa Anas made it worse, causing people to
get sick (that's why Kaiser started Kaiser
Medical). The people who lived in Fontucky
were, for the most part, the low man on the
totem pole, for the city hosted the only nude.
dancing bars, more drunks, a higher crime
rate, hookers, KKK members, a haven for bik-
ers, hideouts for speed-making animals (the
wind blew the caustic fumes away), and other
miscellaneous law-breaking, outlaw type
behavior. Section 8 and HUD housing became
the standard after the Damage Report, and
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SUB
COTT
SA
LOSTES
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