Prehistoric humans found their way into the Ash Fork, Arizona, area and left behind pottery shards, arrowheads, and pictorial writings. Spanish conquistadors and fur trappers also passed near Ash Fork. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, Congress sent a number of exploration expeditions to the Southwest. Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves and Lieutenant Amiel W. Whipple, United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, surveyed the 35th Parallel for a proposed railroad in this area. It was in the Ash Fork area that Edward Fitzgerald Beale as a member of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and a retired Navy Lieutenant experimented with twenty-two camels loaded with supplies and tools for himself and his road crew. Local mule skinners found the camels to be “foul-smelling, evil tempered, and ugly.” The camels trudged across northern Arizona while Beale’s crew cleared a ten-feet wide track to allow wagons to travel on the track.

            In 1881, construction began on the transcontinental railroad across Northern Arizona. A year later Ash Fork was founded with the arrival of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Marshall Trimble, Arizona State Historian, wrote that the railroad built the line with a peavine of switchbacks and lazy loops which ran to Phoenix and the southern mainline and more kinks than a cheap lariat. Trimble grew up in Ash Fork during its golden years of the rails and Route 66. He began his career as an Arizona folk singer during the 1960′s, and today he is the official Arizona State Historian and the author of more than 20 books. Trimble has taught Arizona history for more than thirty-five years and his letter sweater is one of the museum’s exhibits.

            The museum celebrates the railroad with train exhibits and the Fred Harvey restaurant, Escalante, which was built in 1907. The Escalante was one of the classic Fred Harvey hotels. The museum exhibit was constructed from old photographs and people’s memory of the hotel. Harvey’s meals were served with sumptuous portions that provided a good value for the traveling public and pies were cut into fourths, rather than the industry standard of sixths. The Harvey Company established a series of signals that allowed the dining room staff to feed an entire train in just thirty minutes. Harvey Houses served their meals on fine China and Irish linens. With the decline in train travel and the bypassing of the town by I-40 along with several disastrous fire in the business district the town went into decline. Ash Fork’s economy was helped when it became the Flagstone Capital of the World. Flagstone was quarried for the railroad to build bridges and private industry began shipping the stone for public buildings, churches and office buildings.

            The longest original, uninterrupted stretch of Route 66 still in existence, approximately ninety-two miles long, is between Ash Fork, Arizona, and Kingman, Arizona. Road. Route 66 boosted the town’s economy in the 1950′s, but construction of the divided highway through the town resulted in the destruction of many storefronts, sidewalks and residential streets. Part of the old Route 66 running directly through Ash Fork, is now known as Lewis Avenue.

            Outdoor exhibits at the museum include 1950′s Allis Chalmer Grader #284 donated by the Arizona Department of transportation, farm Equipment and a cultivator from Schucking Homestead, a dump hay rake from Schucking Homestead, a wagon frame from Schaeffer Ranch a fresno from Schaeffer Ranch donated by Roy Hume, a main water meter from the 1930′s donated by Ash Fork Water Service. The 1946 fire truck was donated by the volunteer Ash Fork Fire Department.

            Interior exhibits include Ash Fork building models which reflect the town and railroad life. At the museum you can visit the Golden Slipper saloon and step into if only briefly, the Ash Fork jail. The Ash Fork School exhibit dates from the 1800’s to the new school in 1915. In 1959 a new high school was built.

Ash Fork Historical Society Museum, 901 West Old Route 66, P.O. Box 1234, Ash Fork, Arizona 86320

Phone: (928) 637-0204, Fax (928) 637-0394, Web Site: http://ashforkrt66museum.com

Back then I considered “sleeping in” was waking up at 6 AM, and was able to talk my wife into heading out early and fitting in a trip to Lake Havasu which was not far away.     We woke up, went to the El Garces Harvey House in Kingman, took a few pictures and headed down the Freeway to Lake Havasu.

66 Motel at Dawn

After a short visit to Lake Havasu, we headed back north and up to Topock.      The road between Golden Shores and Oatman was gravel back then, but it was just good to be on the mother road again and before long we we’re in Oatman Arizona yet again.    To this day, I’ve never been on Interstate 40 to Kingman.   We always go through oatman because the pull is too strong.

Mrs Zip in Oatman

We spent our Saturday  afternoon in Oatman and then into Kingman to crash for the night and head out again to see more Route 66.   Robyn and I had done this route a year earlier on the Magna, but It never got old.   Besides, we still needed to find our bridge we’d been looking for from the picture.    Maybe this time was our lucky day.

On the way down from Oatman we passed by cool springs, which we’d seen before.   I was surprised to see it had been rebuilt, but not very well:

Cool Springs was being prepped to blow up for a movie

I wasn’t sure why.   Old windows we’re put in to look old, and the back of the building wasn’t finished.    I was in construction at the time, and hadn’t seen this kind of a building method before.    Last time we’d seen Cool Springs, it was just a foundation and a couple of stone pillars.   Even so, it was cool to see something happening with this part of the mother road.

We rolled into kingman and got our room at the Quality Inn, which seemed like a really route 66 friendly spot in the road.   In 1991,  so many Arizona route 66 towns still seemed to be figuring out how to rebound from being bypassed.   Kingman didn’t quite have the route 66 pride it has today, so when we saw the Quality Inn Showing Route 66 Signs outside, we figured we’d give it a try.    We also knew by our route 66 newsletters that the owner was part of the state route 66 association.     The quality Inn puts a plaque on the door of the famous people that had stayed there, and our room was Will Rogers Jr.    Good enough for Us.

Mrs Zip and I at the Quality Inn in Kingman

The Next morning we woke up early again and headed out to hit the mother road again.    It was a beautiful September Morning as we stopped by a place we didn’t think too much of at the time, and I remember my new wife wondering why we stopped at the Hackberry General Store:

This is what it looked like in 1991:

Hackberry General Store in 1991

Hackberry General Store in 1991

This is what it looks like today:

Hackberry General Store 2008

It’s neat to see how someone fixed it up and it’s been a viable business for quite a few years now.   Route 66 is doing good again!

I’ve probably said on this site a million times what got me into Route 66, so forgive me if I say it again.    I was reading a Motorcycle magazine in the late 80′s that had an article on Route 66.   It had a picture of a place the author visited on his bike that had a mature tree growing out of an old bridge that struck me.   I wanted to find that Bridge.   I showed my future wife who is always up for a road trip adventure, so we set out to find that bridge.    We looked for it before we we married and still hadn’t found it.   We only knew it was in Arizona.

Crookton Road East of Seligman

I’d gotten pretty good at following old abandoned sections of roads while Driving.   I started looking down washes and riverbeds this run to see if I could spot our bridge.   After we got back on 1-40 on Crookton Road I spotted it out of the corner of my eye before we hit Ash Fork.    I told Mrs Zip and we knew we were close.   We got off at the next exit and tried to double back and after a mile of dirt roads and crossing railroad tracks in our little car, we doubled back to the crookton exit and found the cinder alignment of Route 66 that was active from 1920 to 1965.   We pulled up and saw our bridge!

Partridge Creek Bridge Route 66 . This was Route 66 from 1920-1965

Once we basked in the glory of our road finding skills, we got back on the freeway and headed into Ash Fork to find the answer to another more recent mystery:

Ash Fork Arizona Universal Soldier Set

In Ash Fork, they were clearly filming a movie.   We’d been this way before and aside from being the Flagstone Capital of the world, its a pretty sleepy town.   When you see massive semi trucks from hollywood and movie sets, you recognize it immediately.    We talked to one of the security guards watching the weekend sets to find out that they were  filming for a Jean Claude Van Damme Movie Called Universal Soldier.     That explained Rebuilding of cool springs!     We took spome pictures and headed on up the road toward Williams.

What it looked like in the movie

So I might as well show Cool Springs blowing up too...

After Williams, I could see what I know know is an old abandoned 1931 section of the National Old Trails Highway, which eventually became route 66.    Because of the rain, we couldn’t get back to it, so we got off at Devil Dog and searched for it on that side of the freeway.    We found it.

Devil Dog Culvert, built in 1922 till 1932

We drove around as much as we could see here and saw where future alignments and improvements in excavating bypassed Devil Dog in 1952 till I turned into Interstate 40 in 1984.

Old Arizona Route 66 Alignment from 1952 meets It's Replacement

From there, we drove up to Parks to drive yet again another old alignment of the mother road.    Parks Arizona to this day is still one of my favorite Sections of Route 66.

Parks Arizona 1931 Alignment of Route 66

Parks alignments are interesting.   From the turn of the century to 1984 this section of mountainous route 66 changed many times, sometimes for only several feet.   The general store and post office in Parks between 1931 to 1932 changed the front door of their establishment from the south side to the north side becuase the new road moved to the other side of them.   The pavement there is still in good shape but the forest is slowly taking it over.    Its one of the best sections of the entire road called route 66 I think.

Once we we’re done screwing around in Parks, for some reason we decided to double back.  I don’t remember if we got the motel room for 2 nights, or we wanted so see something we missed, but in any case we headed west again.    We had the added bonus of going through seligman again to have our 2nd hamburger ever at the snow cap if we hurried.

I’m pretty happy that in my 20 years travelling route 66 I’ve been able to meet some of its most colorful and enterprising people.   Angel Delgadillo is regarded as Route 66′s “angel” for his efforts to bring the mother road back into the world’s consciousness.    If Angel is the Angel, then his brother Juan is the clown.     He was truly one of a kind, and regardless of your day he had the ability to put a smile on your face with his antics.   If your heart was somehow made of stone enough to resist that, his hamburgers would certainly do the trick.

Juan Delgadillo in 1991

Juan Passed away in 2004 after working all day at the restaurant he built from scrap wood 50 years earlier.   It was a sad day.   Juan made everyone smile, and was a pure nutjob that built his local business in the middle of nowhere into a place that people would travel the globe to come visit, and thats no exaggeration.      I am proud my wife and I got to see the master at work several times, and am proud to say that the beat goes on with his kids.   I’ve taken my daughter there, and she laughed too.

For a good article on Juan Delgadillo, click here.

From the Snow Cap it started raining again, and we drove the whole way to Kingman in the Rain and it was just a nice trip.     I’ll always have the picture in my head of racing the Freight trains down to kingman in the pouring rain.    We stayed the night in Kingman again.   Tomorrow was labor day monday, and we’d need to head home again.

The next morning, we doubled back to Oatman.   On the way there, we passed cool springs again and the Universal Soldier guys must have worked that weekend, because the cool springs movie set had been blown up.     I wished I’d taken a picture of it.   Everything was swept off the road and in piles.

Wild Burros in Oatman Arizona

We stopped in Oatman again, petted the burro’s and had some food at a cool old restauraunt built out of plywood that I’ve never seen since (it was built around Joshua Trees), then made time to get to Topock,  Needles and then Home.

Colorado River Route 66 Sign near Topock

It was a great route 66 Trip that I’ll always remember.

]]> http://mrzip66.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/grand-canyon-jerome-arizona/ Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:33:36 +0000 MrZip66 http://mrzip66.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/grand-canyon-jerome-arizona/ Randy Beckstrand is a great friend, and has been for a long time. I really owe him a lot, he got me into riding. The stories that Randy has about riding are plentiful, and quite frankly with the exception of my brother Pat, theres noone I love riding with more. It doesnt matter how many miles, or what bike he has, randy is up for a ride. Before he got married, and I got married, we had plans to ride from the 4 corners of the USA, so its rides like this I really enjoy.

Dave Grisham I’ve known since high school. He’s an intense guy, and always has something interesting to talk about. Plus he is down to ride long rides.

Randy Lives in Kanab, so Dave and I headed out about 3 from St George to meet randy. We hooked up with him in Kanab about 5 or so, and started out across the desert.

You could feel the electricity in the air, and almost taste the storm that was just miles away. I wasnt sure if we would hit it, because it looked pretty heavy. Just a few miles away from the gas station outside of Glen Canyon dam, it hit. It hit HARD. Im not exaggerating when I say it was one of the hardest cloudbursts Ive ever seen, let alone rode a 700 pound motorcycle through. Cars were pulling over it was so hard, but we kept going untill finally we couldnt see anything anymore, so we just stood by our bikes and just enjoyed the moment, because all we could do is laugh.

We were all soaked. My leathers were saturated and heavy. It was great. The nice thing about rain in an August Desert is once the rain stops, you’re air conditioned for quite a while, depending on how long the sun is out. Since it was evening, I was pretty sure it was going to be a cooler ride till we hit flag.

The rain finally broke as we waited at the Gas Station, and we headed out. It was good weather the rest of the way, and by the time we started to climb the mountain heading into flagstaff, the sun had long set and it was dark. We rode through town, and checked into our room about 9 or 10 O clock. We then got a cab, and headed out to get a beer and dinner. Really, a perfect day.

Dave noticed a noise in his bike, a bit of a grinding sound. Sounded like it was down by his primary. The next morning, we headed to the harley dealership in Bellemont to have them take a look. We hit the highway down to bellemont, which was about 15 miles away or so. We went through route 66 near parks, and stopped at the dealership. Dave took it all in stride. He rented a full dresser Ultra, and they told us theyd call us.

So we headed out, down I-40 to Williams. We stopped and ate at a outside restaurant in williams, and the town was pretty packed. Williams, everytime I go there has either some route 66 celibration, a classic car run, or a ton of motorcycles. Being the last town to be officially called Route 66 makes williams a pretty proud route 66 town. You always have to stop there.

We rode west out of williams, down 1-40 to Ash Fork. Ash fork claims to be the flagstone capital of the world, but to be honest theres not alot there. Its a tiny little town, that usually doesnt show much of a pulse to me as route 66 towns go, but Ash fork is another town that has history for me. Just outside of Ash fork is an old section of route 66 thats long been bypassed, that Robyn and I spent 2 years finding, from a picture in a magazine in 1990 that showed a bridge with a mature tree growing out of it. Everytime Im in the area, I head down and see that bridge.

At Ash fork we headed south, down Arizona Highway 89, and got gas in Chino Valley, then west to Jerome. I’d been to Jerome before, but never on a motorcycle.

Jerome is another really unique town. Its an old mining town built on a hillside, and the winding roads leading up to Jerome are great to ride. We pulled into Jerome and caught a really good, live band playing at a biker bar there. There were alot of bikers there, and it seemed like everyone was really friendly. Jerome is another ride I’d like to do again. Its worth the wide swing to hit it.

While we were in Jerome, Dave got a call from the dealership about his bike. They fixed it! It was a loose bolt in the primary drive, and was really close to coming off. If it had come off, it would have been a big deal. Like Complete rebuilt, expensive big deal. Instead, it was just 150 bucks deal. The riding god’s were with us. With that news, we needed to head back and get Daves bike. We had 3 or 4 hours.

So we mounted up, headed through sedona and north up through cottonwood canyon to get home. By this time, it had started raining again. It wasnt bad, but it was steady. The kind of rain that doesnt even bug you, because it just makes a cool ride interesting. Once you’re wet, you’re wet. Slow down, and enjoy the ride. It rained all the way back to Flagstaff, then broke and we headed west again into Bellemont to get Dave’s bike.

The dealership in Bellemont is great. One of the better dealerships, they worked hard and were extremely helpful in getting us back on the road from everyone we dealt with. MUCH better than Zion or Las vegas harley davidson, who I’d rather not give money to. Bellemont HD, you rock.

We spent the night in Flag again and crashed early. In the morning we headed back to williams on the freeway, and headed up to the air museum. Spent about an hour there, and then blew through the park, took a picture, and made time to head home.

Once the grand Canyon was out of sight, the vacation was over and we just made time to get home.

This will always be one of my favorite rides. 2 great friends, the rain, and the whole experience just made it nearly perfect. “effortless” as randy would say. I hope we can do it again.
It was a great ride

At Seligman I had the best burger I’ve ever had in my life at Juan Delgadillos Snow Cap. Juan is a nut. We took a walk down Seligman and found his brothers store, that had all sorts of route 66 stuff. We bought 2 T-shirts and a book, and talked for an hour or so. Seligman is a town that refuses to die, and it seems mostly due to the delgadillo brothers. Out of all the route 66 towns Amboy and Seligman seem to have the 66 spirit and wont let it die. The others don’t seem to care too much that I noticed, they were dealing with it.

Anyway, we took a few pictures and some info and left seligman. We passed the crooktown road exit and went into ash fork to get gas athe chevron station. Tried to find the road and bridge that was in the Rider magazine. We never found it. We crossed the railroad tracks, but I think we should’ve gone left instead of right. I was afraid of getting a hole in my tire, and wasnt all that sure it was, so we headed back through ash fork and said goodbye to route 66. On the way to williams, there was a really big abandoned stretch we noticed.

We went through Williams and the ride was great untill we got to the grand canyon. What a crowded tourist trap! We stayed just outside the park in Tusayan and it sucked. Windy, dirty and noisy. Helicopters constantly landing and taking off right next to the campground.