Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde -

She never checked into the hotel she’d reserved in Barstow.

But it’s what happened after the divorce that turns Cubbi from a footnote into a mystery. cubbi thompson van wylde

To this day, the journal sits in a climate-controlled box. Catalog number: MS.VW.1928.0001. Status: She never checked into the hotel she’d reserved in Barstow

Two weeks later, the car was found parked neatly off an unpaved road near Kelso Dunes, keys inside, tires full of air. The journal was on the passenger seat — still locked. No footprints led away from the car. No ransom note. No body. Catalog number: MS

Since “Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde” doesn’t correspond to a widely known historical figure, I’ve written it as a fictional or mysterious “forgotten character” piece — fitting for a blog that explores oddities, unsolved mysteries, or obscure Americana. The Strange Disappearance of Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde: Heiress, Adventurer, or Ghost?

In April 1928, Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde drove a rented Pierce-Arrow from Los Angeles to the Mojave, telling her housekeeper she was “going to see what Julian was so scared of.” She brought a .22 caliber revolver, three changes of clothes, and a leather-bound journal with a brass lock.

She charmed jazz-age New York, vanished in the Mojave, and left behind a locked journal no one could open. If you’ve ever thumbed through a yellowed 1923 society page or squinted at a faded passenger manifest from the SS Majestic , you might have stumbled across a name that feels almost too peculiar to be real: Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde .