Could you imagine racing down the longest driveway in the United States? While you can’t do it anymore, the story behind the iconic roadway is pretty cool.
There is a road in the Mojave Desert that appears to be nothing more than an abandoned asphalt strip. For a little more than four miles, there runs an isolated, flat, and straight road that was once a driveway, not a lost highway. Thanks to one woman who refused to be forced off her land, the longest driveway in America was born.
Bonnie Margaret Orcutt was her name. In the 1960s, officials offered to buy her out when plans for Interstate 40 threatened to isolate her ranch from the outside world. „No“, she said. Instead of conceding to their offer, she started a campaign of persistent letter writing to the governor of California, state legislators, and even the president at the time, Lyndon Johnson.
The government finally gave in. In 1965, a construction crew began to pave a new road from her front door to the closest exit. What originally was intended to be a driveway actually appeared more like a desert runway given its length of over 4 miles, running alongside one of the longest highways in the U.S., Route 66. Little did she know, this was the beginning of what was to become a secret high-speed test facility for car reviewers, racers, and petrolheads alike.
