RURAL CALIFORNIA THROUGH THE LENS · RANDSBURG NEWS
RANDSBURG, Calif. — The destination in Offroad Destinations’ 2025 video is Butte Avenue. The route to get there is part of the attraction: the creators describe a ride from the California City area and a rock crawl near Government Peak. In 2026, federal restrictions changed which West Mojave routes are available to off-highway vehicles. That makes older videos a record of how visitors arrived and why those trips mattered to some businesses.
The soda fountain and the business that moved up the street
Veronica Hill’s 2013 California Travel Tips video makes the historic General Store a centerpiece of the visit. A 2022 news segment covers the impending closure. In September 2026, The Loop Newspaper reported that the former operators had opened The Vault up the street. Together, the videos and later reporting explain why someone looking for the soda counter from an old travel video could arrive at a shuttered storefront even though the former operators still do business nearby.
Joanna Kalafatis’ 2018 tour frames Randsburg as an abandoned place. The older General Store footage and the later reporting about The Vault show how that framing can miss the businesses operating at different points in the town’s history.
The mining district spans more than one town
Remote Trooper’s 2024 video frames Randsburg around its mining past and the people still there. Ghost Towns and More widens the view to nearby Johannesburg. Friends of Jawbone includes Red Mountain and Atolia in the district as well. That wider geography is visible in the collections of the Rand Desert Museum, which lists weekend hours and visits by appointment at its Butte Avenue location.
What changed for off-road visitors in 2026
The Bureau of Land Management says a federal court order requires closure of designated critical habitat to off-highway recreation in the West Mojave planning area. It also lists a free permit requirement for OHV recreation in the Rand Mountains Management Area. Check the agency’s current notices and maps before relying on a route in an older video.
SFGATE’s May reporting described how one Butte Avenue business owner depended on off-road customers and was reconsidering his plans for the historic storefront. That account describes the experience of one operator. There is no townwide sales tally in the sources reviewed for this article.
For more local reporting, see Randsburg News, California58’s reporting on off-highway recreation grants and the county-by-county ghost-town index.
Help this community newspaper grow
Your support helps build coverage for the people and places this local newspaper serves.
Donate once by card ↗Support Randsburg News
Choose how to support Randsburg News:
Credit / Debit Card via StripeChoose an amount from $1. One-time support through the publisher's LINKERNO Stripe account.
Continue with PayPal Continue with ZelleZelle payments go to Vitaly Ataev Troshin. Please verify the recipient in your bank before sending. Availability depends on your bank.
Optional reader support. When possible, add “Randsburg News” to the payment note. Contributions are not advertised as tax-deductible. Support does not influence editorial decisions.More from Randsburg News
- Randsburg News: Tracking Thursday’s Trona Power Outage Without Assuming Local Impacts →
- Randsburg Desert Road Safety: Nearby Searles Valley Rain and Regional Flood Threat →
- Randsburg Drivers: Searles Valley Gasoline Report Puts Cash Price at $5.69 →
- Randsburg: Groundwater Legislation and the Official Ridgecrest Record →
- Randsburg News: November 3 Election — What Local Readers Need to Know →
COMMUNITY
Comments
Join the California58 conversation. You must be signed in to comment.
Create a free California58 account or sign in with an available social provider.