Purchased in 2005 by Albert Okura, Amboy now honors the Japanese American man who spent his life preserving symbols of Americana
This small town, like so many along Route 66, should be dead. Doomed by the rise of modern highways and the harsh Mojave Desert environment, Amboy should look like its abandoned neighboring towns. Yet, on a crisp November day, Amboy thrummed with friends and travelers swapping stories about the area’s history, the family that saved it, and the road that led them there.
“It’s the mother road,” said Digger Simpson, 61, gesturing towards the legendary Route 66 that once was the nation’s main artery for travel from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. “It’s Americana – it’s mom-and-pop restaurants and gas stations,” he added, reflecting on the nostalgia that drew him from Twentynine Palms to Amboy to celebrate Albert Okura, the man credited with injecting life back into the town.
