Ghost Town Tuesday; Santa Claus, AZ (Santa literally for sale)

I figured that I would start this series off with something festively Christmas themed given it is December; the ruins of Santa Claus, AZ.

Circa 2011-2012 I often found myself traveling to Clark County Nevada for work and would often utilize US Route 93 to do so. About 14 miles north of Kingman I often noticed a weird accumulation of festively themed buildings on the south side of US 93. After looking into a map of Mohave County, Arizona on Ghosttowns.com I learned what I was looking was once an inhabited place called Santa Claus.

With the completion of the Hoover Dam in 1936 travel directly between Kingman and Las Vegas had become possible first with US 466 followed by US 93 likely in 1938. Santa Claus traces it's roots back to 1937 when Santa Claus was opened by Nina Talbot. The original vision for Santa Claus was a resort-like community surroundings the Christmas shop which was to act as a centerpiece so to speak. Santa Claus essentially was a company town which was populated by workers of the Christmas shop. Apparently the size of Santa Claus (more likely the notable name) actually warranted post office service.

After decades of decline the Santa Claus Christmas shop shut down and the site largely has been for sale ever since off the side of US 93. Apparently there was still roughly 10 people living in Santa Claus as of 2000 but they were all apparently gone by 2006. My understanding is that postal service continued to 2005. Back in 2012 the Christmas shop was still standing off the western side of US 93, it is still standing on the 2016 Google Car Image. I found the town sufficiently weird and kind of creepy to warrant my attention on the way back from Las Vegas on the way home from a work trip.

Comments

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue. Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue. During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange. This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned. Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains. The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road. This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection. Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Zayante Road and Upper Zayante Road

The combined 11-mile corridor Zayante Road and Upper Zayante Road is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Felton in Santa Cruz County. The corridor begins as Zayante Road at Graham Hill Road near the Felton Covered Bridge. Zayante Road passes through the namesake community of Zayante where it becomes Upper Zayante Road upon intersecting Old Mountain Road. Upper Zayante Road makes a final ascent to California State Route 35 at Summit Road via a grade which peaks at an incline of 11%. Zayante Road was built as a frontage of the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1879. As originally configured Zayante Road terminated a short distance north of Zayante Station. Zayante Station itself was commissioned in 1891 to service the resort at Gibbs Ranch. Upper Zayante Road would later be constructed in the first decade of the Twentieth Century as a continuation of Zayante Road to Summit Road. Part 1; the history of Zayante Road and Upper Zayante Road B...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog