The Old Trails Garage dates to 1915. It was built by J.W. Thompson for M.G. Wagner who had operated the original Old Trails Garage on South Front Street, now Topeka Street. At the time this was the course followed by the National Old Trails Road. This is one of the...
An article published by the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2010 detailed a discovery that confirmed a local Kingman, Arizona urban legend was in fact true. Quote, “That bodies are buried under a high school football field and adjacent parking lot is more than folklore....
Pontaic, Illinois harnessed Waldmire’s popularity in the Route 66 and folk art community as an integral component in the development of tourism that literally transformed the town into a destination. Kingman, Arizona has an an orignal Bob Waldmire mural, and a display of his orignal work, at TNT Engineering, orignally a Ford dealership built along Route 66 in the 1960s.
Waldmire’s work isn’t recognized or promoted in the Kingman’s official tourism marketing. An innovative narrated self guided historic district walking tour developed by Kingman Main Street finally put the mural and other public art displays in the spotlight. But a year after its introudction the walking tour still hasn’t been included in the city’s tourism marketing initiatives.
One of the first discoveries made in my quest for answers was this article published in the Tombstone Epitaph on July 7, 1928. "TOURIST HOTEL CHANGES HANDS HERE LAST WEEK - Joe Hood Is New Owner of Well Known Hotel Here; Will Repair Building. The Tourist Hotel, for...
In 1926 it was simply one of the roads in the newly minted U.S. highway system. But by 1950 it was without a doubt the most famous highway in America. And today that fame has spread throughout the world even though officially Route 66 no longer exists. For me personally, Route 66 was one of the highways that we followed on our journey west from Virginia in the summer of ’59. And in June of 1966, it was the primary highway that we traveled in our epic move from Michigan to Kingman, Arizona. Then, for the next few years, it was a part of annual pilgrimage to visit with family in Michigan, in Tennessee and in Alabama.
What do you call a town that is linked to Route 66 because it was named in a song that reminded us to not forget Winona, because it has an original Bob Waldmire mural, and because it was the primary location for the 1984 movie Roadhouse 66 starring Willem Dafoe and...
Rudolfo Anaya is a renowned writer with a long list of published novels, short stories, essays and even poems. His best known work was also his first novel, Bless Me, Ultima. Published in 1972, the novel tells the fascinating story of Antonio, a young boy growing up...
