The Victorville Route 66 Museum is a fun attraction in Victorville, California…particularly if you are exploring Route 66 across the country or are a Route 66 enthusiast. If you’re visiting from out of state or out of country, or if you’ve just driven past it every day and never stopped to see what’s inside, now is the time to take a few minutes to explore! There are lots of cool treasures inside that people have donated and it is a diverting way to spend the morning or afternoon.
Going on a Route 66 road trip? Check out this road trip guide to make sure you have everything you need!
What’s Inside the Museum?
As soon as you enter, you’ll find the museum packed with all sorts of route 66 paraphernalia and memorabilia. This museum consists of only three rooms, but it sure does pack a punch!
If you’re exploring other areas of Route 66, you probably already know that there are a ton of Route 66 museums. So why visit this one? This museum primarily covers the stretch of Route 66 from Victorville to Barstow, so you’ll find the volunteers inside to be very helpful and knowledgeable about this stretch of road. If you’re planning to drive along this part of the road, they even have a guided map you can pick up for free to help you see some of the best sights between Victorville and Barstow!
Inside the front room, you’l find a little VW bus photo booth…complete with wigs and sunglasses to help you take that perfect Route 66 photo. Many of the volunteers are also happy to take your picture for you! They even have a set of poses they help you run through, like the one above where I’m going around a curve way too fast…which is totally my driving style 😉
The museum has been remodeling to try to make room for all their different exhibits, because space is limited inside. So many people have donated memorabilia that they are running out of room! Because of the remodeling, some of the placement of the exhibits may be changing, but in the front room you will currently find a lot of old road signs, a Route 66 “rest stop” (aka outhouse), and a lot of roadside attraction signs as well that were originally used on the Victorville stretch of Route 66.
Entering the second room, you will find a range of exhibits from early phones, to road signs, to a really old Model T that’s basically a converted wagon! You can sit in this Model T to take a picture, and one of the volunteers may also help explain how it works and what you would have to do to drive it. The pedals do way different things from our modern cars today, and the gas is in a truly unexpected place…so it is fun to get to experience what it would have been like to try to drive this early car.
The third room is all about Victorville’s history, including lots of Roy Rogers (aka the “King of the Cowboys”) memorabilia because he lived in Victorville for many years. It is fascinating to see all the old pictures of Victorville and the surrounding areas, so be sure to pop into this back room to take a look. There is even an old wooden water pipe and a Victorville board game!
When you’ve finished looking inside all three rooms, return to the front room. Here you will see an old but still working jukebox! There are quarters at the gift shop that you can pick up to play some tunes (or it’s likely a volunteer will have handed you a quarter by now). In the jukebox, you’ll find all the best old songs that you could wish for, and with one quarter you get to choose three songs to play. So have some fun picking your songs and then watch as the arm pulls out the correct record to play! For someone like me who never got to experience jukeboxes in their heyday, this was a really fun experience.
The volunteers are all very friendly and are happy to talk with you and share all they know about the Route 66 memorabilia in the museum. In many cases, they also have first hand knowledge of Victorville and some of the old stops on Route 66…and they often have their own Route 66 stories from across the country as well. It’s a lot of fun to talk with them and hear their stories!
Visiting the Route 66 Museum in Victorville, California
You can find the Route 66 Victorville Museum at 16825 D St, Victorville, CA 92395. It is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but open for several hours every other day of the week. Check their website to see their opening hours during the rest of the week.
There is no fee to enter the museum, but donations are accepted. You’ll find the donation bowl near the door and can leave a donation if you enjoyed your time here.
There are also maps on the walls where you can place a pin to show where you are from (there is one for the United States and one for the rest of the world). Looking at the maps is surprising because you can see how many people have visited from all over the U.S. and from countries all over the world. I thought it was surprising how many people have visited from out of California, but while I was in the museum there were other people who were visiting from Brazil, Italy, and Germany…so it really is an international attraction!
You will also find a cute gift shop inside with lots of Route 66 themed items, including “Route Beer” (aka Root Beer), which made me happy because puns are fun. If you’re looking for a Route 66 souvenir this is a good place to get one!
And if you want to know more about the roadside stops and Route 66 sights on the Victorville to Barstow stretch of the road, the museum volunteers are happy to assist you by sharing a Route 66 attractions map with you. There are some cute diners, interesting sights like a bottle tree farm, and several filming locations along the way.
With so many things to see on Route 66, you really could make a full day out of just exploring this museum and all the highlights along the road. But after exploring this museum, you will certainly leave with a new appreciation for America’s most famous highway!
If you need help deciding what to pack for your California vacation, check out this packing list!
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