Built by Rice & Shippee of Mojave to speed stage transportation from the Southern Pacific railroad station at Mojave to the rich gold mines in the Randsburg area, the Randsburg Mojave Road began service on November 22, 1898. The stage left Mojave at 9 o’clock and arrived at Randsburg at 2 o’clock, making the trip in five hours. The new route was 36 miles, compared with the 54-mile, eight-hour route through Garlock, and a one-way ticket cost three dollars. The road followed the Twenty Mule Team Mojave/Death Valley road from Mojave to this point, then angled north; near Randsburg, the old road went through the hills west of present-day Highway 395. Besides gold, the Rand mining region produced tungsten at Atolia, essential to World War I hardened steel production. A rich silver strike south of Johannesburg in 1919 led to the rise of Osdick, later Red Mountain. By 1915, automobiles were replacing horse-drawn transportation: stages still ran between Randsburg and Atolia, auto stages ran to Barstow and Mojave, and miners could ride desert jitneys to work and back. In 1924, Kern County surveyed the Randsburg-Mojave Road and took possession of it as County Road #636.