Sandberg, California

The Ridge Route linked the Greater Los Angeles area to the San Joaquin Valley and Central California from 1915 through 1933.

[11]Harald Sandberg, a native of Norway, settled in the Antelope Valley with his brother, Albert, in 1882, and they developed large areas there.

[12] On April 2, 1897, Harald filed homestead papers on ranch property just north of the parcel that later housed his hotel and inn.

[11] In December 1900 the brothers made news when they " captured a very large specimen of the California condor on their mountain ranch at Neenach, near Newhall, last Saturday."

"[13]Harald built his lodge in 1914,[12] just one year before the opening of the Ridge Route resulted in a parade of cars by his front door, seven days a week.

Some time after 1921 the owner turned it into a three-story log hostelry set amid a grove of California live oaks.

[11] "It was a small tourist community," Bakersfield resident Frank Kaufman told Interviewer Harrison Irving Scott (author of a history of the Ridge Route); it had a repair garage that advertised "Labor $2, after 6 p.m. $3; never closed."

[11] In September 1929, attorney and real estate developer Ulysses S. Grant Jr., the son of the 18th American president, checked into Sandberg's with his wife and nephew for a visit.

By the time of Harald Sandberg's death, there were new operators for the place, a newspaper advertisement having proclaimed: " Grand Opening and Free Barbecue Sunday, May 28, 1939.

"[11]But the hotel never regained its former popularity: An alternate to the Ridge Route was opened, an event that virtually stopped traffic through Sandberg.

" Cox sold the operation to Lillian Grojean, who turned the hotel garage into a ceramics factory;[16] her lease from the Forest Service amounted to $90 a year.

[18] Eight years later, he said he wanted to open the spread of 20 acres (81,000 m2) as a children's ranch,[19] and he did succeed in acquiring money, furniture, and used clothing.

A district forest ranger said the blaze was apparently started by sparks from the chimney,[2] and Stevens told an interviewer later that he had been burning trash when the flames began.

[11] The Forest Service canceled Stevens' lease in 1963,[11] and nothing remains on the site today but a historic marker, some stone steps, a bit of foundation, trees, and shrubbery.

Nevertheless, in May 1981 reporter Gerrard found two people living at the station — a college student-caretaker and a man experimenting with the prototype of a modular wind turbine.

The other two people living in Sandberg in that month were Willard Sparks, captain of the Quail Lake Fire Station, and his wife, Shirley.