Barstow

History

Prehistoric Native American tribes inhabited the region as long as 3,000 years ago. The Native Americans hunted, fished and gathered turquoise. The indigenous people left hardly any discernible footprints along faint pathways as they traveled up to the Mexican territory to trade goods. The written history of the Mojave Valley dates back to the 1700s and the missionary excursions of Spanish Franciscan friar Francisco Garcés. Garcés followed the earliest faint footpaths to the Mojave River Valley and from there across the desert around Barstow on his way to Spanish missions beyond the mountains of California. The settlement of Barstow began in the late 1840s in the Mormon Corridor. Every fall and winter, as the weather cooled, the rain produced new grass growth and replenished the water sources in the Mojave Desert. People, goods, and animal herds would move from New Mexico and later Utah to Los Angeles, along the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe, or after 1848, on the Mormon Road from Salt Lake City. Trains of freight wagons traveled back to Salt Lake City and other points in the interior. These travelers followed the course of the Mojave River, watering and camping at Fish Ponds on its south bank (west of Nebo Center) or 3.625 miles up river on the north bank, at a riverside grove of willows and cottonwoods, festooned with wild grapes, called Grapevines (later the site of North Barstow). In 1859, the Mojave Road followed a route that was established from Los Angeles to Fort Mojave through Grapevines that linked eastward with the Beale Wagon Road across northern New Mexico Territory to Santa Fe. Troubles with the Paiute, Mojave, and Chemehuevi tribes followed, and from 1860 Camp Cady, a U.S. Army post east of Barstow, was occupied sporadically until 1864, then…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , 99.98% land and 0.02% water. Barstow experiences an arid climate, and has four seasons. Summer days are very hot, with highs typically exceeding . Winter, in contrast, is characterized by cold mornings, with lows near . Daily temperature ranges are largely a result of the low atmospheric moisture, typically between difference. There are an average of 133 days with highs of or higher, an average of 68 days with highs of degrees or higher, and an average of 32 days with lows of or lower. The average annual precipitation is , with nearly 80% of rain typically falling during the cooler months (Nov–Apr). Snowfall is uncommon in winter, and many years can go by without any measurable snowfall. There are an average of 24 days annually with measurable precipitation. The record high was on July 23, 1996, and the record low was on January 13, 1963. The wettest year was 1918 with and the driest year was 1904 with . The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998. The heaviest rainfall in 24 hours was on September 10, 1976. The most snowfall in one month was in January 1949, including January 12; that month was one of the coldest and snowiest in southern California history. The native vegetation is dominated by high and low desert shrubs such as creosote bush. City residents have introduced many non-native plants, prominent among which are trees such as Aleppo pine, Morus alba, Italian cypress, fan palm, ailanthus, ash, palo verde and redbud.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  752
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  448
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  442
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  309
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  294
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  291
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

  Setophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  291
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  250

Most recent

• M 2.62 — 2026-09-24
  17 km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
• M 2.96 — 2026-09-23
  17 km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
• M 3.18 — 2026-09-23
  17 km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
• M 2.51 — 2026-09-23
  17 km WSW of Johannesburg, CA
• M 2.62 — 2026-09-11
  6 km W of Edwards Air Force Base, CA
• M 2.67 — 2026-09-08
  39 km NE of Big Bear City, CA