Route 66 Wednesdays; Wigwam Village Motel #6; Holbrook, AZ

Back in 2011 while I was passing through Holbrook, Arizona I stopped on Old US Route 66 on Hopi Drive to check out the Wigwam Motel.

The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook is officially known as "Wigwam Village Motel #6." The Holbrook Wigwam Hotel was one in a series of seven Wigwam Motels that was constructed between the late 1930s and the 1950s. The Holbrook Wigwam Motel is based off the designs of the original in Cave City, Kentucky. The Holbrook Wigwam Motel was sixth opened in 1950 and has remained serving travelers on US 66 since. The Wigwams are actually technically teepees but the I'm to understand the designer didn't want to call them that.

NPS.gov on Wigwam Village #6

The Wigwam Motel is very accessible and has several vintage cars mostly from the 1950s on display to attract visitors.

Holbrook is the County Seat of Navajo County and was incorporated in 1917. Like most of the communities on US 66 in Arizona the founding of Holbrook dates back to when it was a Rail Siding of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad. Holbrook first appears on the 2nd Operating Division Map of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1882.

1882 A&P Operating Map

Traveling eastward on US 66 would have entered Holbrook on what eventually became a four-lane divided highway that converged on Hopi Drive. US 66 would have exited Holbrook to the east via Navajo Boulevard headed towards Petrified Forest National Park. At the corner of Hopi Drive, Apache Avenue, and Navajo Boulevard US 66 met several different other US Routes:

- US 70 from 1926 to 1932

USends on US 70

- US 260 from 1932 to 1962

USends on US 260

- In 1961 the second US 180 was extended through Holbrook to the Grand Canyon.

USends on US 180

US 180 still runs through Holbrook on Hopi Drive west to I-40. Arizona State Route 77 splits from I-40 at Navajo Boulevard and crosses through downtown southbound headed towards Tucson.

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