4. Bottle Tree Ranch, Oro Grande, California

Since we had an extra night at the Route 66 Motel, we had an extra day to cover some of Route 66 that we originally would have missed. When we were checking in, I told Ved (the Route 66 Motel proprietor) we were thinking of traveling the next day to Victorville, 36 miles back to the west (actually southwest) along old Route 66 (now designated I-15 from Barstow westward). “Be sure to stop at the ‘glass house'” is what I understood Ved to say. But first….

The first roadside attraction that caught my eye–it would catch anyone’s but the least observant–was a sign behind a barbed-wire fence in an otherwise vacated lot bearing a huge, colorful parrot with characteristic green plumage advertising Polly Gas and Newton’s Towing. The prices on the sign–18.9 cents for regular and 21.9 cents for ethyl–were permanently marked! How stable the price of fuel must have been then. Such a contrast to today’s volatility of the market!

The two-lane road, periodically imprinted with a large, white, stenciled Route 66 shield, passed through desolate, sagebrush landscape.

We hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, so Molly Brown’s Country Cafe in Hellendale was a welcome sight. We enjoyed home cooked breakfast with portions that were generous and prices that were reasonable. The restaurant corned its own beef (if that’s the right expression) and processed that for its corned beef hash.

Satiated, we continued westward. Soon the “glass house,” the Bottle Tree Ranch, appeared on the right.

We pulled over and parked alongside it. Fascinating. Certainly unique.

Though the acreage of the “ranch” was not all that large, the “forest” of metal poles whose “branches” were foliated with color glass bottles was dense. Articles from an eclectic aggregation of artifacts either topped “trees” in the “forest” or formed “underbrush”: an Underwood standard typewriter, …

…a bubble gum machine, pick axes, a bugle, a jug with a miniature moonshine still, a jeep, a Coca- Cola advertising sign and cooler, a serving tray from a drive-in restaurant hanging on a rusted car door, a row boat, an antique tubular metal foot board of a bed with a rifle attached, a gas nozzle, a vintage cash register, an antique wooden wall telephone, a tricycle, gas lanterns, various road signs. The list goes on ad infinitum.

I had been exploring and photographing this exhibition for a bit when Elmer Long, the creator and owner of this “ranch,” came out from his house, which was camouflaged in the back of the lot.

Obviously very gregarious, Elmer freely talked about his life. Back in the ’70s he bought this desert lot right on Route 66 just east of the town of Oro Grande, where he worked in the cement plant. At that time, the area was sparsely populated, but now that is changing, at least relatively. He retired at the age of 55. Growing up, he camped with his father in the desert. “There’s only so much you can do around a campfire in the desert,” Elmer waxed philosophically. So, he and his father scavenged for glass bottles and any other artifacts they could find. Later in life, Elmer retrieved this extensive collection from his father’s estate and added to it. In 2000, around the time of his retirement, Elmer started creating his Bottle Tree Ranch. Elmer mused that he doesn’t have the same energy as he used to have and so was slowing down on his creations. But it seems to me that even if he didn’t “plant” another “tree,” this one-of-a-kind outdoor museum already had plenty to make it a “must see” roadside attraction.

(To be continued….) SUBSCRIBE to my Blog at the very bottom of the page!