The beautifully restored depot of Kelso on the Union Pacific Overland Route between Los Angeles-Barstow-Las Vegas and Salt Lake City was built in 1924 in the Spanish Mission Revival style, with a conductor’s room, telegraph office, baggage room, dormitory rooms for staff, boarding rooms for railroad crewmen, a billiard room, library and locker room. Kelso was important in steam days as location for helper locomotives for the 2.0 % grade up to Cima summit and had a five stall concrete roundhouse then. Since 2005 it houses an exceptional museum and the new visitor center for Mojave National Preserve.
