Neighbors of the Mojave

The Santa Fe Railroad cut through the Mojave in the 1880s — Needles to Barstow, breaking the Southern Pacific's grip on rail access into Southern California. The fare war that followed dropped a coast-to-coast ticket from $125 to $25. By the 1920s, circus trains were using that line. A hundred cars, nearly a mile long, 1,100 people living on board. When the train sat on a desert siding waiting for a mail car to pass, one of those people stepped off. He was a character artist. The desert had company.