A likely arson fire destroyed the restaurant building Wednesday at the long-closed Road Runner’s Retreat complex near Chambless, California.
Beth Murray reported the fire began about 4:15 p.m. The sign and service station remained intact, but the restaurant was “a total loss.”
After the bad news, Murray set up a fundraiser with a goal of $5,000. About $950 had been raised as of Saturday morning.
We will need to clear this building at some point, your help with dumpster funds or demolition would help. Not what we wanted to do with the building but we will go on; thank you for your donations.
Murray posted a four-minute video of the damage:
Murray also posted photos of the restaurant’s interior before the fire:
The site still is scheduled to hold its annual cleanup weekend Oct. 17-18 to finish cleanups inside the service station, remove and clean up perimeter debris, remove shrubs from the fence line, remove old well pipes and pumps, install solar lighting, finish electrical conduit repairs and junction box repairs and repair the fence as needed.
Organizers are asking for participants to sign up online so they can have an accurate headcount for the event.
Roy and Helen Tull built Road Runner’s Retreat along Route 66 near Chambless, California, in the early 1960s. The business closed in the mid-1970s after Interstate 40 bypassed the area, choking off traffic. Bill Ross Murphy purchased the property after it had been closed for some time, with the intent of never reopening but maintaining it as much as possible due to its Route 66 significance.
Ryan Anderson, grandson of the restaurant’s last owner, is the property’s owner and caretaker.
(Image of Roadrunner Retreat near Chambless, California, by Steve Walser via Flickr)
Another ‘firebug’ who takes pleasure in destroying other people’s property and watching it go up in flames – or someone who wants to buy the site as cheaply as possible, to put another building on it?
Very doubtful on the latter.
Chambless, California, isn’t the end of the world, but one can see it from there. The glory days or golden era of Route 66 between Needles and San Bernardino are OVER, probably forever. Nothing new will ever be built in that area; not, at least, for the Route 66 tourist.
Who remembers that some artists wanted to install a “philosophers’ library” inside the Road Runner Retreat restaurant? That idea was a chimera if ever there was one. The whole thing was absolutely pointless except perhaps as a large-scale art installation, and left me wondering…
WHY?
Such a project would have required round-the-clock security by personnel who lived on the property. Even if that could be arranged, who would stop there? Why would anyone want to look at a library full of books that few people ever read, certainly in the USA. At the risk of sounding like — whatever — I have observed, and lately with a greater clarity, that my fellow American exhibit little penchant or patience for subtle philosophical distinctions.
(However, I dd save the reading list from that website and have discovered a few modern literary gems, the existence of which would have escaped me otherwise.)