Chiriaco summit (see pictures above) has always been a favorite stopping place for me. It lies almost midway between Phoenix and Los Angeles. It is east of Palm Springs and in the middle of nowhere. There are no subdivisions, no ranch houses, no other stores, restaurants or stops within miles of place. It is a little Oasis with a C store, a restaurant with good food and the Patton museum It is still run by the Chiriaco family. Joe Chiriaco, the founder came west in 1927 to see Alabama play Stanford in the Rose bowl. He never returned to Alabama, but found employment with the LA Bureau of Water and Power as a surveyor. He made his first trek into the desert when his work brought him into a desert area known as Shaver Summit. After several years he gave up his job with the Bureau and settled down at the Shaver Summit site, which he later purchased from J.E. Cram of Mentone, California.
In the early 1900's there was a gravel road out of Box Canyon that passed by Shaver Summit, running east toward Blythe. With rumors of a new paved road between Indio and Phoenix, Joe began constructing a building, and on August 15, 1933, Joe Chiriaco opened his gas station and general store. He had one dollar in his cigar box till, and that dollar remains at the Summit. That same day, the new two-lane blacktop to U.S. 60 also opened, passing in front of Shaver Summit. The gas station thrived and Joe married a beautiful blonde Norwegian nurse from Minnesota named Ruth Bergseid, who worked at the Coachella Valley Hospital in Indio. They married June 25, j1934. Those first days were primitive, gas lights, generators for power, a limited supply of water and long 18 hour days. And no air conditioning. The generators were used until June 21, 2000 when commercial power finally reached the Summit.
In the Spring of 1942, General George S. Patton established the Desert Training Center with its headquarters at Camp Young adjacent to Shaver Summit. Joe's store was the only oasis for the soldiers and drew the men like bees to blossoms. In 1945, Joe and Ruth established a rugged memorial to General Patton and the Desert Training Center. Today there is a modern, marvelous musuem which honors the Great American Hero. In 1958, with the establishment of a rural branch of the U.S. Post Office, Shaver's Summit was changed to Chiriaco Summit. Joe and Ruth are gone, passing away within months of each other in 1996. The family continues to carry on, serving the traveling public on wheels. On any day, but especially weekends and holidays, you will find the place packed with both cars and 18 wheelers. If you go from Phoenix to LA on I - 10, stop in. You won't regret it.