updated 10/5/23
Prayer podcasts: for the city | for the officials
YERMO
Yermo which means wilderness in Spanish; unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert It is east of Barstow on Interstate 15, south of the Calico Mountains.
Demographics; estimated population [2021] 1,672; overall crime grade is D- [see below for more details]; 17% <high school; 66% high school grad; college 17%; median house is $259K; average family size is 3; average income $58K; median age is 40; 75% white; 2% African American, Asian and American Indian; other races 16%; 47% married; 33% have children in home; 48% own; 29% rent; 23% vacant; 49% work full time; 5% part time; 46% no earnings.
Yermo City map
Location of Yermo city in SBC
History | Recent Footage of Yermo
Began in 1902, originally named Otis, Yermo is near the Union Pacific Railroad line. A post office was established three years later with William J. Flavin serving as Yermo's first postmaster. It later developed around serving motorists traveling the Arrowhead Trail (later U.S. Route 91), which ran through the community.
Today, Yermo is governed by an elected five-member board of directors comprising the Community Services District authorized by the County of San Bernardino. The board, which meets monthly, oversees the community's volunteer fire department, the Yermo/Calico VFD, as well as its street lighting, parks and water system. Yermo hosts the 1,859-acre storage and industrial annex of the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow.
Like many small towns, when Interstate 15 opened in 1968, Yermo was bypassed by traffic traveling to and from Las Vegas. This resulted in 90 percent of its local businesses closing. During its heyday, Yermo had many gas stations with mechanics, lots of bars, two grocery stores, a hardware store, a pizza shop, 4 real estate offices, 3 motels, a thrift store, several restaurants, roadside camping sites and two parks. In 2009, it went down to one grocery/general store, one bar, one thrift store, three restaurants, four gas stations, one park, and one motel 3 miles to the south. The fast-food restaurant chain Del Taco was founded in Yermo in 1964; the original structure remains active as a local fast-food restaurant, The Burger Den.
Yermo once had a California agriculture inspection station for traffic heading south on Interstate 15. It relocated in 2018 to north of Mountain Pass, between Yates Well Road and Nipton Road.
Calico is an old West mining town that has been around since 1881 and was abandoned in the mid-1890s after silver lost its value. The town that once gave miners a good living lost its hustle and became a “ghost town.”
Walter Knott purchased Calico in the 1950’s architecturally restoring all but the five original buildings to look as they did in the 1880’s. Calico received State Historical Landmark 782 and in 2005 was proclaimed by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be California’s Silver Rush Ghost Town.
"Gateway to the Calicos"
Specific Prayer Points
Spiritual: intercessors to arise and pray for their city; pray for the economy to improve, creative ways to bring business and create jobs; more people work; 46% no earnings is high; Churches experience revival; encouraged to keep going despite the pandemic losses
Governed by: Yermo Community Services District | County Third District
Schools: Yermo school [K-8]; Silver Valley High school
Points of Interest: Original Del Taco; Calico Ghost Town & Mountains, Doran Loop and Odessa Canyon; Mule Canyon Road; Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow [Video of Calico Ghost Town]
Crime statistics: [2022] crime occurs every 6 days 16 hours (on average) in Yermo; overall crime grade is C; violent crime is D; property crime C+ and other crime is C-; top crime issues are drugs 12%; vandalism 10%; assault 7%; burglary 6% and theft 5%.
Churches [not exhaustive]
Silver Valley Baptist church [Pastor Cody Frazier]
Yermo Bible Church [ICFA]
Comments