Dateland Travel Center

Dateland's location in the middle of the desert between Yuma and Gila Bend make it an ideal travel stop. For three generations now, people have visited Dateland during their travels across southern Arizona for date-flavored everything, especially their famous date milkshakes.  Established in the early 1920's, Dateland was originally a water stop along the railroad lines. Back then, the old steam engines had to stop every 5 or 6 miles for water. Dateland was a welcome site to travelers during the hot summer, as the irrigation pond substituted as a swimming pool on a regular basis to travelers that would dive in, clothes and all. It was a popular spot, especially in the era before cars had air conditioning. Dates are the oldest fruit cultivated by man, and there are over 30 known varieties.  Nowadays, the nine-acre date palm grove behind the travel center grows eight of those varieties, including the Medjool Date, Dateland's specialty, once grown exclusively for ancient royalty and considered to be the very finest date in the world. The Travel Center food court offers the Dateland world-famous date milkshakes (truly phenomenal) and four flavors of homemade ice cream, including date. The date bakery features homemade date cream pies, date bundt cakes, date cookies, date muffins, date squares, and date bread. There is also a Quiznos and gift shop. Next to the travel center are a number of outdoor pet kennels that can be rented for a nominal fee.