More Waitresses of the Great Depression

It looks like these two are in some small town out in the middle of nowhere or in some sort of mining camp.  Then again, during the depression, the government started building huge dams in the western United States.  Whole towns were also built to house workers and their families.  Maybe these two worked in the private towns, full of gambling, liquor, and others vices, that cropped up to provide the less approved activities. 

Small Towns in the Desert

Where is this town?  The picture is clearly pre-World War 1.  The cars look like 1910 or so.  The dirt road is sandy and it sure has a desert feel.  But why would these well dressed people and their lap dog be out in the desert?  When this picture was taken, Palm Springs wasn't a resort destination, and no one was headed north to Las Vegas, at the time,  little more than a few buildings and a railroad watering stop.  Perhaps they were off on an adventure.  Suites, stylish dress, and one little dog may not spell adventure in our day, but back then a 100 mile road trip was something.  And there was no reason not to dress well.

Roads in the Desert

The California desert is criss-crossed with dirt roads. When I hike across the Mojave, more often than not, I'll spend at lest some time following an old jeep route. But where do they go? I'll follow the track across the desert and it'll just end, way out there, in the middle of nowhere. At one time there was a logic to all that road building. Mines now filled in, old homesteads, blown away by the desert winds, World War 2 bombing ranges and observation posts. I'm sure this road was well used when this photograph was taken, and there was a reason for these three people to be there. But what was it? There is a small building in the depression in the background.