Seligman Arizona: A Recent Visit
According to Eric, an employee at The Rusty Bolt (his mother, Linda owns the shop), COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the small but usually vibrant town of Seligman, Arizona.
Written by John R. Beyer
“Most of our tourists are from out of this country,” Eric stated. “I’d say seventy to seventy-five percent, actually.”
For this iconic place along Route 66 between Kingman and Flagstaff, that is a lot of shoppers to lose from a pandemic – actually, a loss like that could be fatal for any business.
The small store sells Route 66 memorabilia, leather goods and beautiful handmade jewelry.
“Most of our customers come from France. They love hanging out in town and taking in the Old West flavor.”
I’ve heard this from many of the folks I met along Route 66 over the past couple of years. Most tourists, when tourists are actually being tourists, and traveling along Route 66, are Europeans. Mainly French and German, with a smattering of everyone else from across the pond.
The day Laureen and I were visiting showed a stark contrast from our earlier visits to this high desert plains town.
In fact, we spent a bit of time there when I was doing research for my first novel, Hunted – yes, that’s an unabashed plug for a great book.
When we were there, the place was rocking with tourist buses, rental cars, and lots and lots of motorcycles. Restaurants like the Roadkill Café and OK Saloon were jammed packed with people who wanted to spend a moment experiencing the allure of the Old West and the glamour of the bygone era of Old Route 66 in its heyday. Most of the motels, all with that distinctive 1960’s appearance, had blinking lights stating there was no vacancies to be had.
It was a rollicking and rolling town.
This last visit though, looked more like a ghost town. A ghost town with all the shops and restaurants open, and few, if any vehicles in the parking lots.
It was sad.
We bought a couple of items from the Rusty Bolt, bid ‘Au revoir’ and ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Eric, and went out to walk the empty streets of Seligman.
In the beginning, the large valley was home to the Havasupai tribe, who resided where present day Seligman is located. Lots of flat land, sparse trees, but teeming with wildlife that made it a perfect place to live. In fact, on our way to Seligman along Interstate 40 – yes, we do take these faster routes sometimes — we saw dozens of elk, deer and other critters running here and there.
Soon settlers were making their way into the Chino Valley in northern Arizona along a well-worn trail which was called Beale’s Wagon Road. It was named after the 19th century explorer, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, whose job it was to find a trade route from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles.
After a few decades, the railroads started laying tracks across Beale’s Wagon Road and presently a junction was created with the Santa Fe mainline and the Prescott and Arizona Railway Company. The name of the junction soon became known as the Prescott Junction since it was the major turning point south to the town of Prescott. In 1886, the junction was renamed Seligman.
Why Seligman? There was no hanky-panky with people putting their names in a hat and drawing one out, nope – Jesse Seligman was the person who helped finance the railroad line. He was out of New York, and had formed a rather large investment bank named, J. & W. Seligman & Company.
“Mr. Moneybags, what should we name the area you are financing to build a railroad?”
“Let me think, hmmm, how about after me? Yes, Seligman sounds like a perfectly good name for a junction. I don’t care for the name Prescott Junction, and I hear Petticoat Junction isn’t available due to a future television show.”
“What’s a television?”
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- John Beyer at Seligman
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- Laureen is locked up
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- Scenes around Seligman
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- Scenes around Seligman
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- Laureen's new car
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- Many of the murals around Seligman
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- Scenes around Seligman
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- Scenes around Seligman
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- Scenes around Seligman
The flatness of the area, allowed ranchers to bring their cattle to the railroad for shipping, and the railroad built huge switching yards to accommodate more trains. After a while, the area became so popular, as a terminal point for changing train crews, that cottages and more permanent buildings began to rise up from the high plains.
Well, actually people built the buildings – they didn’t rise up on their own. Just wanted to point that out, in case there was any confusion.
“Look ma, that there saloon just popped up like a weed from the ground.”
“Sounds like you been visiting that saloon too much, young man.”
In 1905, Fred Harvey, the hotel and restaurant entrepreneur, opened the Havasu House – it was the same concept of all the other Harvey Houses, but this one was named in honor of the Havasupai peoples living in the area.
With passenger trains stopping in Seligman on a regular basis, as well as all the other train freight that rolled along the tracks, Seligman became a very popular place to visit.
The town boomed.
Soon that black ribbon, known as Route 66, raced across northern Arizona, and the town became a popular respite for road weary travelers. Gas stations, tire repair shops, restaurants, motels, and all the other businesses which were needed for a thriving community were built to welcome those weary travelers.
But, as with all these stories dealing with Route 66, things changed.
Here we go again – a pioneer trail beckons a railroad stop, that turns into a booming town, and with the construction of Route 66 really becomes a place to expand, and then Interstate 40 comes along. Whammo, the town dries up and blows away in the wind.
Not so for Seligman.
In 1978, when Interstate 40 opened, the citizens of Seligman felt the stranglehold of a faster route through Northern Arizona, and realized that time was of the essence if this historical town were to continue to exist.
This town had the true western fighting spirit.
It is reported, that when this pugilist attitude was reported internationally, the famous British secret agent, Austin Powers, was heard to exclaim, “Yeah, baby!”
The local residents stood together, and convinced the State of Arizona to dedicate their section of Route 66 a historic highway.
According to azcentral.com, ‘In fact, Arizona touts the longest continuous stretch of uninterrupted two-lane asphalt grandeur: 158 miles stretching from just outside Ash Fork in the east to the Colorado River in the west.’
And Seligman sits pretty much in the middle of that stretch of Route 66.
The plan and effort of the people worked and the businesses survived. Just being a short distance north of Interstate 40, people would visit the historical town in great numbers, all year long.
Seligman is a place to experience. It is kooky, eclectic, and strange – store fronts, as well as porches and roofs sport mannequins, antique vehicles are parked everywhere, the famous Black Cat Bar has been around since the early 1900’s and is still going strong.
It is truly a place one can enjoy spending some time in.
Unfortunately, the Havasu House only made it to 1954 when it closed for good. It was demolished in 2008.
Such a waste of a historical place.
But, (and isn’t there always a but in these sort of stories), the town is open and inviting all visitors to come and experience the history of not only an old western destination, but one that proclaims the future is still looking pretty good for Seligman.
Of course, all serious precautions are taken for this cursed pandemic of COVID-19 through the town, but with that caution, a traveler will still have a great time learning about a part of Americana that still exists in the Southwest.
What else would be expected while traveling the ‘Mother Road’ of America?
John R. Beyer – bio
As a novelist, traveler and researcher, John loves nothing better than to share those experiences with his readers. Often in the company with his lovely wife, Laureen, stories emerge of the places they visit and the people they meet. In his weekly travel feature for the Daily Press Newspaper, Beyer’s Byways, John takes his readers along on his adventures. Some funny, some sad, but these are the stories that need to be told.
April 14, 2021 @ 4:40 pm
We welcome John to our TEAM. His research, writing style and photos add great value to our goal of bringing to the public, professional yet personal, stories of Route 66.