VALENTINE, AZ ~ May 13, 2007

The old town of Valentine is located about four miles beyond Hackberry, in scenic Truxton Canyon where Route 66 and the Santa Fe railroad tracks run side by side. The town was named in 1910 in honor of Robert G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1908-1910. The large brick Indian School that had been established there for the Hualapai children in 1900 is now closed but the site is still the headquarters for the Truxton Canyon Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A couple of miles down the road, there is a little red one-room schoolhouse that was used by the town’s white children. The corner entrance looks like it had been remodeled at one time. If you walk up the steps and peek in the front door, you can see that most of the wooden floor boards have rotted away leaving wide gaps where you can peer down into the basement. At the rear entrance there is a set of steps that leads downstairs, and what looks like a coat closet. Most of the old tin ceiling tiles remain intact. Two outhouses (perhaps boys and girls?) stand on one side of the schoolyard, still with their wooden seat. However, nothing remains of the Valentine post office, grocery store, or gas station.

A few more miles down the road from Truxton Canyon is the actual town of Truxton. Edward Beale’s famous camel expedition stopped at the spring here in 1857. Lieutenant Beale (1822-1893) must have named the town for his one-year-old son Truxton (1856-1936), his older brother Truxton (1820-1870), and/or his mother, Emily Truxton Beale (1832-1880). In the 1950’s, Truxton was the site of a busy Route 66 gas station and café.

HISTORIC ROUTE 66 ~ February 11, 2007

U.S. Highway 66 (aka “The Mother Road” and “Main Street USA”), established in 1926, covers a distance of 2,300 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. During the Great Depression in the 1930’s, thousands of families emigrated from the Dust Bowl to fertile lands of California by way of this road, most of which was unpaved at that time. Paving was completed by 1937.

After World War II, Route 66 became the scene for glamour and adventure, enticing many to travel and experience the life of the open road. In the 1950’s, Route 66 became popular with families taking cross-country trips and vacations to the scenic Southwest. The popularity of automobile travel coincided with the rapid expansion of independently owned roadside motels, trailer courts, gas stations, souvenir/curio shops, and drive-in restaurants.

Route 66 and its attendant structures pretty much fell by the wayside with the advent of Interstate 40, when high-speed travelers became more interested in making good time than in having a good time. The last active piece of Route 66 near Williams, AZ was decommissioned in 1986. Today, Route 66 attracts nostalgic visitors seeking to recapture that old spirit of adventure and fun while enjoying Arizona’s classic scenic beauty.

The longest remaining continuous stretch of the original Route 66 is located right here in Arizona, running from Topock to Ash Fork. On this trip we had already traveled the portion from Topock to Oatman and Gold Road. From there we continued on through Kingman, Hackberry, Valentine, Truxton, Peach Springs, Seligman, and Ash Fork. It was a really nice drive off the beaten path, one of the most enjoyable routes we’ve ever taken. Once we left Kingman it was like we had the whole road to ourselves, so it was the perfect place for our 16-year-old student driver to obtain miles of experience – no mountains on this part, either, just rolling hills and sweeping vistas across far-reaching plains.


Things to See Along the Way:

Hackberry General Store, Hackberry School, Valentine Indian School, Little Red Valentine Schoolhouse (Mile Post 86), Valentine Post Office Ruins (Mile Post 87), Hualapai Indian Nation, Grand Canyon Caverns (Mile Post 115), Seligman Barber Shop/Route 66 Museum, Snow Cap Drive-in, Ash Fork Monument.

http://www.route66giftshop.com/main.html - Angel Delgadillo and his brothers and sisters grew up watching the traffic flow by on America's Main Street, starting with the folks from the Dust Bowl Era driving by in their automobiles full of everything they owned. It was an amazing caravan of poor folks heading west, seeking opportunities to better their lives.

Swansea/Oatman/Route 66 ~ February 9-11, 2007

Traditionally we like to take a Valentine’s Day trip, and since Valentine’s Day was on a Wednesday this year we decided to go on the weekend before. We’d been wanting to visit Oatman and the ghost town of Swansea for a long time, and ever since getting the Pixar “Cars” movie for Christmas, we’ve been interested in Route 66. So this was going to be our ghost town/Route 66 trip. While it may seem like ghost towns and Valentine’s Day don’t really go together, we did visit the honeymoon suite of Cary Grant and Carol Lombard, plus we got to drive through the town of Valentine, AZ!