Road West to California 1931 Great Depression #shortvideo #history #route66

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]A young family's journey west to [music] the promised land, 1931.

[00:00:05]Toledo, Ohio to San Bernardino, California during the Great Depression.

[00:00:10]Probably not the best time to leave Ohio for Southern California, but that is exactly what Walter Robinette and his young family did in the summer of 1931.

[00:00:21]Like so many Americans of that era, they carried with them little more than determination, hope, and all of their worldly belongings packed into an automobile.

[00:00:31]The family first arrived in San Bernardino in July of 1931 after an 8-day journey covering more than 2,400 miles.

[00:00:40]In those days, such a trip was no small undertaking. Roads were often narrow and rough, cars unreliable by modern standards, and roadside comforts few and far between.

[00:00:53]It still retained something of the pioneer spirit. Leaving Toledo, they likely followed portions of the old National [music] Road before connecting with the developing US Highway System that became famous as [music] Route 66.

[00:01:07]Long before the highway was immortalized in song, [music] travelers heading west passed through places like St. Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, [music] Gallup, and Flagstaff.

[00:01:20]To Depression-era families chasing opportunity, those towns must have sounded almost mythical.

[00:01:26]Once they crossed Arizona, the family pushed on through the Mojave Desert heat before finally reaching San Bernardino, where relatives who had arrived earlier were waiting for them.

[00:01:37]Their stay there [music] was brief. By 1932, they had moved farther south into San Diego County, where they attempted to establish themselves on federal land during those [music] difficult years.

[00:01:50]Only a few photographs survived from that journey west. One shows a small Pueblo village somewhere along Route 66, probably west of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[00:02:01]My grandmother later told the story that my mother, still a little girl at the time, became so fascinated by the Native American settlement that she [music] announced she wanted to stay there and live with the Indians.

[00:02:13]The village must have left a deep impression on her because for the rest of her life, she collected Southwestern Native American art and jewelry whenever she could.

[00:02:22]Looking back now, it is remarkable to think of a young family crossing half the continent in 1931 with no guarantees waiting for them at the other end.

[00:02:33]Yet thousands did exactly that during those hard years, driven by equal parts necessity and optimism.