Visiting James Dean’s Last Stop & Crash Site

On September 30, 1955, James Dean lost his life after a fatal car accident east of Cholame, CA where Highway 466 met Highway 41. The accident ended his promising career that was just beginning and turned him into the legend he would become.

Before the accident, Dean made one final stop at Blackwells Corner to grab a snack. Now, Blackwells Corner and the accident site are major tourist destinations along California State Route 46. In this video we visit Blackwells Corner, the site of the infamous crash (sort of), and a memorial to James Dean placed about a half mile from where the accident occurred.

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right now we’re in blackwell’s corner and we’re going to be visiting james dean’s last stop and the location the accident that cost him his life [Music] right now we’re on highway 46 in blackwell’s corner now back in james dean’s time this was highway 466 and right behind me at this corner is where james dean made his last stop on september 30th 1955 shortly before he was involved in an accident a little west of here so let’s take a look around blackwell’s corner and then we’re going to head out to the accident location blackwell’s corner is located at the intersection of state route 33 and state route 46 it is named for george blackwell who started a rest stop here in 1921. blackwell’s corner once claimed to be home of the world’s largest parking lot but now is mainly known as the last place james dean stopped before his fatal crash blackwell’s corner today looks nothing like he did in james dean’s time everything here was built long after 1955. james dean reportedly stopped here for a snack with some versions of the story being he bought an apple and a coke the choice of snacks available here now is probably a lot bigger than it was in james dean’s time in addition to snacks there are also quite a few james dean and other americana souvenirs and even a 50 style diner on the premises [Music] blackwell’s corner also has a lot of information on james dean’s last drive and the crash itself and probably most amazingly is a pair of james dean’s goggles that were found after 62 years but now let’s head to the intersection where the accident happened and talk about the crash itself at 5 15 pm on the date of his fatal crash dean left blackwell’s corner heading down highway 466. he was driving a porsche 550 spider which he had recently purchased with his mechanic in the passenger seat he was heading to salinas for an auto race right now we’re heading down highway 46 towards the crash site or an approximation of the site which we’ll get to in just a minute when the crash happened on september 30th 1955 james dean was an emerging star only one feature film that he had starred in had been released east of eden and he had just finished filming two other films rebel without a cause and giant in 1955 state route 46 was highway 466 but where we’re driving now is not the actual road james dean was driving on the highway was realigned later and when looking at a satellite image you can clearly make out where the original road was to the south when you were driving eastbound on highway 46 the old road is clearly visible as well and even some old bridges remain [Music] at approximately 5 45 pm on september 30th 1955 a black and white 1954 tutor was headed east on route 466 just west of the junction with highway 41. the driver was donald turnip seed a 23 year old student and navy veteran turnip seed was making a left turn onto route 41 headed north as turnip seeds ford began to turn dean saw this and apparently tried to swerve the spider in a sidestepping racing maneuver but with insufficient time and space the two cars collided almost head-on a witness saw the spider cartwheel two or three times before landing in a goalie at the northwest of the junction the much heavier ford slid about 39 feet down the road [Music] dean’s passenger had a broken jaw and serious hip and femur injuries that required immediate surgery turnip seed only had slight injuries with facial bruises and a bloodied nose unfortunately james dean had a broken neck multiple fractures of the upper and lower jaw both right and left arms broken and internal injuries a faint pulse was detected at the scene but he would die on the way to the hospital [Music] on september 30th 2005 the junction of highway 46 and highway 41 which we’re approaching now was dedicated as the james dean memorial junction as part of the state’s official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death it is worth noting however that due to the realignment of the highways over the years the crash actually took place to the south of the current intersection [Music] we made it to the intersection of the 46 which was the 466 in james dean’s time and the 41. as you can see behind me this is a very busy highway and i know they’re not going to rename this the sidetrack adventures memorial junction if something happens so i’m going to be pretty careful walking over to the memorial site here where supposedly the car ended up after the accident so we’ll walk over there and take a look at it and we’ll talk a little bit more about it [Music] [Laughter] [Music] from the makeshift crash site memorial here’s a view to the east where turnip seed would have been coming from and a look to the west where james dean would have been coming from keeping in mind that this isn’t the same road that they would have been driving on in 1955 as it’s been widened and moved to the north and here’s the little makeshift crash site memorial where people have decided that james dean’s car ended up though the actual location was probably under where the current road is now [Music] it’s kind of interesting seeing all the different items that have been left at the memorial a lot of items that you wouldn’t really associate with james dean there’s a nike hat there’s a cd let’s see what the cd is i have no idea what that has to do with james dean here’s a bikini top bubble gum cigarettes bottles of water a popcorn bucket from a movie theater this has a bottle opener on it pretty interesting now that we’ve seen the crash site there’s one more thing that we want to check out there’s a memorial for james dean a little bit further down highway 46 at the jack ranch cafe so let’s head there next [Music] about a half mile from the accident location is this memorial that was created by seita onishi and put here in 1983. this memorial was designed in kobe japan in 1977. seito nishi transported it here and he originally wanted to place the sculpture at the intersection of highway 46 and highway 41 but after realizing that there was no way for people to safely visit it there this location was selected it was dedicated on july 4th 1983. the memorial includes several plaques and a section from james dean’s favorite poem and much like the crash site people like to leave objects for james dean here as well [Music] so that’s our look at james dean’s last stop and the location of his fatal accident thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up consider subscribing and we’ll see you next week