Okay you asked for it....
Las Cruces is LostAs World War two came to a close in the mid forties the State of California embarked on an ambitious expansion of its freeway system. This included straightening out and speeding up the coast highway for faster moving and mechanically more efficient vehicles. Travelers were impatient with slowdowns through Podunk service towns. They wanted to get to their destinations with a vigor and speed unseen before the world war. Cars were designed to reflect developments in aerospace and aviation that were unfolding after the war, creating a craving for sleek and speed.
War developments were also being incorporated into civilian vehicles offering unseen amenities that soon became necessities. While this was good for the motorist, it did not bode well for the small service towns. Many two pump stations found themselves without a highway or clientelle to support them.
Las Cruces was a casualty of just such development as the necessary range between stations was extended from 15 miles to 30 miles and more. Being on the in between and no longer at an important cross roads, the service stations and garages started to dry up, leaving one station to manage the light load.
J.R. Loustalot’s Chevron service station and store was the only survivor by the late 1950’s. It helped that the Loustalot’s owned the property and could hang on without having to “pay the rent”. Throughout the war Cessarina Loustalot had served sandwiches and soda to the thirsty servicemen traveling up and down the coast and earned a reputation as a gracious and beautiful host. A society lady originally from Santa Barbara, she found herself in the unlikely position of service station and store owner, but adjusted to the job well and made the stop memorable for many.
Perhaps it was Cessarina that brought them back after the war, as the servicemen now became tourists instead of soldiers traveling the coast of California in the 1950’s.
This is what was left of Las Cruces after World War II
The station lasted at least into the 60's as this license shows.
It certainly lasted long enough for the development of color postcards. And who wouldn't want to send a postcard of a service station to their family back home?
By the seventies, Las Cruces was completely lost. A casualty of an oil embargo, more efficient vehicles and the passing of the highway. At least the ghosts still remain to remind us of this small service town tucked into a niche where California's coast highway turned inland through the coastal valleys on its way to San Francisco.
