|
|subdivision_type1 = State |subdivision_name1 = |subdivision_type2 = County |subdivision_name2 = San Bernardino |government_type= |leader_title= |leader_name= |established_title=Incorporated |established_date=October 30, 1913 |unit_pref=US |area_footnotes= |area_total_sq_mi=31.275 |area_land_sq_mi=30.808 |area_water_sq_mi=0.467 |area_total_km2=81.002 |area_land_km2=79.793 |area_water_km2=1.209 |area_water_percent=1.49 |elevation_footnotes=〔 |elevation_ft=495 |elevation_m=151 |population_as_of=2010 |population_footnotes= |population_total=4844 |population_metro= |population_density_km2=auto |population_density_sq_mi=auto |timezone=Pacific |utc_offset=−8 |timezone_DST=PDT |utc_offset_DST=−7 |postal_code_type=ZIP code |postal_code=92363 |area_code_type=Area codes |area_code=442/760 |blank_name=FIPS code |blank_info= |blank1_name=GNIS feature IDs |blank1_info=, |website= |footnotes= }} Needles (Mojave: ''ʼAha Kuloh'') is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It lies on the western banks of the Colorado River in the Mohave Valley subregion of the Mojave Desert, near the borders of Arizona and Nevada and roughly from the Las Vegas Strip. The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95. The population was 4,844 at the 2010 census, up from 4,830 at the 2000 census. Needles was named after "The Needles", a group of pinnacles, mountain peaks in the Mohave Mountains on the Arizona side of the river to the south of the city. The large Mohave Native American community shares the nearby Fort Mojave Indian Reservation and the town. Needles is a gateway to the Mojave National Preserve. ==History== The Mohave, one of the traditional Native American Colorado River Indian Tribes, are people that have been living in the Mojave Valley area for thousands of years prior to the European exploration of the area. In the Mohave language, they call themselves the ʼAha Makhav. Their name comes from two words: ''ʼaha'', meaning 'river', and ''makhav'', meaning 'along or beside', and to them it means 'people who live along the river'. The historic Mojave Road now goes through the Mojave National Preserve. Along it, in 1859, Fort Mojave was built to protect new pioneer immigrants to California and other travelers from the Mohave.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History of Needles )〕 The city was founded in May 1883 as a result of the construction of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway which originally crossed the Colorado River at this point. The name was derived from the Needles, pointed mountain peaks where the wind-blown holes in them (which can only be seen by boat from the Colorado River), at the south end of the valley. This point on the Colorado River was a poor site for such a bridge, lacking firm banks and a solid bottom. Also the bridge was not of the best quality, which was criticized as a "flimsy looking structure," and an obstruction to navigation since it lacked a draw to allow boat traffic. The flooding and meandering of the Colorado River destroyed the bridge in 1884, 1886 and 1888. Finally the railroad surrendered to nature and built a high cantilever bridge at a much narrower point with solid rock footings, ten miles downstream near modern Topock, completing it in May 1890.〔(Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978 )〕 Originally a tent town for railroad construction crews, the railroad company built a hotel, car sheds, shops and a roundhouse. Within a month the town also boasted a Chinese washhouse, a newsstand, a restaurant, a couple of general stores, and nine or ten saloons. The town became the largest port on the river above Yuma, Arizona.〔 The Railway and the Fred Harvey Company built the elegant Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts style El Garces Hotel and Santa Fe Station in 1908 which was considered the "Crown Jewel" of the entire Fred Harvey chain. The landmark building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is being restored. Needles was a major stop on the historic U.S. Route 66 highway from the 1920s through the 1960s. For immigrants from the Midwest Dust Bowl in the 1930s it was the first town that marked their arrival in California. The city is lined with motels and other shops from that era. The "Carty's Camp" which appears briefly in ''The Grapes of Wrath'' as the Joad family enters California from Arizona is now a ghost tourist court, its remains located behind the 1946-era 66 Motel. In 1949 the US Bureau of Reclamation began a mass project to dredge a new channel for the Colorado River that would straighten out a river bend that was causing massive silt problems since the Hoover Dam was completed.〔("Putting A River In Its Place" ) ''Popular Mechanics'', July 1949〕 Needles is a tourism and recreation center, a tradition going back for decades. The city is the eastern gateway to the Mojave National Preserve, a scenic desert National Park. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Needles, California」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|