A NAME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOJAVE
Siberia sits on historic Route 66 between Ludlow and Bagdad. Its exotic name belonged to a pattern of desert railroad sidings with faraway names, but its purpose was practical: support rail traffic and later motorists crossing an unforgiving landscape.
RAILROAD WATER STOP
Steam-era railroads depended on regular supplies of water and service points. Siberia functioned as a Santa Fe siding and water stop before highway travel added another reason for the settlement to exist.
ROUTE 66 YEARS
When Route 66 carried travelers across the Mojave, small stops like Siberia could survive by serving passing vehicles. The community never became a major town, but it formed part of the chain of desert waypoints that made long-distance automobile travel possible.
BYPASSED AND ERASED
Interstate 40 opened away from the old alignment in the early 1970s. Without through traffic, Siberia lost its economic purpose. Reference histories state that by the early twenty-first century essentially all visible traces of the town had been removed.
A GHOST TOWN OF ABSENCE
Many ghost towns are photographed for their buildings. Siberia is more extreme: its significance lies in knowing a community occupied the landscape even when little physical evidence remains.
NO DOCUMENTED HAUNTING
Its name and emptiness encourage supernatural storytelling, but ODDKNOWN found no authoritative documentation of a recurring apparition or paranormal event specific to Siberia.