A mysterious road stretching almost 80 km across the Mojave Desert in a straight line

The Mojave Desert in California is a place that contains some curious or enigmatic sites, as we have already seen here.

The strange case of a beacon in the middle of a desert and more than 160 km from the coast
The remains of a secret military base where the US tested a light weapon in World War II

There you can find what appears to be a maritime lighthouse 160 km from the coast, as well as three abandoned bombers from the Cold War era, an old secret base where a light weapon was tested during World War II and an abandoned military base of the LORAN system. However, the biggest enigma of the Mojave is a dirt road of almost 80 kilometers between Barstow and Palmdale, in the middle of the desert.

This road is clearly visible on Google Maps, as it runs straight across the desert for a considerable distance. However, that website does not list its name, and it is not listed as a registered route. In its southwestern section, Google Maps identifies it as "Silver Mountain Rd," but it is commonly known as "Barstow-Palmdale Road" or "Mystery Road." It is unknown who built it or for what purpose. It first appeared on topographic maps in 1943, so it may have been a military route constructed during World War II.

For much of its length, the road runs straight ahead, ignoring the terrain, which was unusual for 19th-century stagecoach routes. There are no telephone poles or power lines alongside the road. Two dilapidated greenhouses stand beside the road, one of them surrounded by an earthen wall, which is highly suspicious. There are also a few abandoned settlements, only one of which has a name: Houze Place.

A few days ago, the YouTube channel Sidetrack Adventures published a video in which they explore this mysterious road and consider some possibilities about its origin:

You can see some screenshots from this interesting video here, which has gone viral, becoming one of the most viewed on that channel. We begin with an impressive image of this enigmatic road seen from a drone.

A sign in the middle of nowhere. It contains no text to provide any information about this road. According to Sidetrack Adventures, this road was already almost completely destroyed in some sections by 1948, which reinforces the idea that it was a road built by the Army as a possible supply route during World War II.

The mysterious road is crossed by Federal Route 395, a freeway that runs north to south through inland California. Someone bothered to put a stop sign on an abandoned road.

This is the largest of the dilapidated greenhouses that appear along the mysterious road. In the middle of nowhere, someone bothered to build an earthen wall to make it less visible. Where did the water for this greenhouse come from? It's a desert where it rarely rains and there are no water pipes.

---

Main image: Sidetrack Adventures.