Cottonwood, AZ to Show Low, AZ; Show Low to Holbrook, AZ (Hwy 260 to Show Low, Hwy 77 north to Holbrook)
I have another wind warning to deal with so Augie and I hit the road early, leaving Cottonwood and heading east on Hwy 260. A hot air balloon wafts above the valley in the hazy dawn.
After crossing I-17 I am surprised at how quickly the terrain changes. Gone are the semi-arid juniper clad hills of the Verde Valley and all of a sudden I am enclosed in a wall of green. Who knew that a crescent through the middle of Arizona from Flagstaff in the north to Show Low in the east covers the largest Ponderosa Pine forest in America? There is minimal activity on the rather lonely road with towns few and far between. The forests follows the Mogollon Rim, a geologic feature of Arizona that for nearly 200 miles marks the dividing line between the Colorado Plateau to the north and the Sonoran Desert to the south. The Rim is essentially a cliff, rising from rugged hill country at its base and at the top flattening out to the plateau that stretches north. The road is a striking line in the forest. The highway stays away from the rim but an occasional view off the rim looking to southeast towards the desert can be seen.
Show Low is a town of about 8,000 people near the edge of the rim in eastern Arizona. It is primarily a center for outdoors recreation. The population triples in the summer as desert dwellers flock to their cabins in the woods. There really isn’t much of a “structured” town in Show Low, instead a “T-shaped” strip along Hwy 60 east/west and 260 heading south. An attempt to “beautify” the 60 strip seems to consist of three blocks of tasteful street lights. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Show Low is how it allegedly got its name. Around 1870 two early settlers in the area, Corydon Cooley and Marion Clark, decided that one of them had to move farther away because it was too crowded (they had about 100,000 acres between the two of them) and decided to use a card game to decide who needed to leave. The game “Seven-Up” was widely played on the frontier in the late 1800’s where the low card won. After playing for a while the issue came down to the last hand, when Clark allegedly said to Cooley “show low and you win.” Cooley won and the small town that grew up near his ranch was named Show Low. I didn’t realize how narrow the band of Ponderosa Pine is until I zipped through Show Low and turned left on Hwy 77 north to Holbrook. Within a mile of the intersection the transition from the Mogollon Rim country to the dry and treeless plateau began to unfold. Here’s a series along the 40 miles between the two towns, starting with the rather sharp change between the Ponderosa Pine to the south and now a juniper forest to the north.
50 minutes later the grasslands stretch towards the beginnings of the mesa country of northeast Arizona. The little town of Holbrook is on the right, under the white water tower.
Holbrook, AZ
Holbrook sits on the northern side of the Little Colorado River (remembering in the dry Southwest it seems like any year-round source of water is called a river; the stream was about two feet wide and six inches deep at the bridge leading into Holbrook…) In 1857 the US Army laid out a wagon road heading west through the area and Horsehead Crossing was the site where the road forded the wide river course (even though the water stream is quite small, ferocious floods frequently changed the path of the river over a wide flood plain and even today downtown Holbrook is protected by a high levee that runs east/west parallel to the train tracks that form the southern boundary of the town.) The railroad came through in 1881 and a station was established near Horsehead Crossing and named Holbrook. The second early event that shaped the growing town occurred in 1886 when the railroad sold a million acres of land to the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, better known as the Hashknife Outfit, so named because their cattle brand resembled a hash knife used by chuck wagon cooks. The Hashknife leased an additional million acres and essentially controlled the area between Flagstaff and the New Mexico state line. The cowboys became notorious for coming to Holbrook and causing trouble. The town was destroyed by a flood in 1885 but quickly began to rebuild. The historic Navajo County Courthouse was built three blocks north of the railroad tracks in 1898.
Bucket of Blood Street runs parallel to the railroad tracks on the south side and is so named because allegedly a patron of one of the saloons, upon entering the establishment shortly after a shoot-out, noted that the floor looked like it had been washed with a “bucket of blood.” Original buildings from the 1890’s are slowly crumbling under the hot sun around the intersection of Bucket of Blood and Navajo Street, the major north/south street through town. The original Santa Fe train depot with a later addition takes up the north side of Bucket of Blood.
The original 1892 station is to the left, the 1912 addition is on the right.
Holbrook slumbered on as a small stop on the railroad tracks for years until the arrival of famed Route 66 in 1926. Highway 66 pierced the center of town, descending from the low bluffs to the north down Navajo Street and then taking a hard right on Hopi Street heading due west towards Flagstaff. The highway was paved in 1929 just in time to serve as the primary path for thousands of refugees from the Dust Bowl of the early 1930’s as desparate people packed all they could carry and headed for California, the promised land at the end of Route 66. For the next 30 years, until the construction of Interstate 40 in the 1960’s, Holbrook was a primary resting spot for weary travelers. Navajo and Hopi Streets were lined with modern motor courts and motels, each with a distintive neon sign beckoning to the weary traveler. Unfortunately the completion of I-40 spelled the end of the boom. People can now travel farther and faster which led to Holbrook losing its’ place as a natural stopping place. The decline that began in the 1960’s continues to this day as nothing really replaced the level of economic stimulus that the travelers had provided. Today Navajo and Hopi Streets are lined with the slowly decaying memories of a bygone era…
One of the iconic motel chains of the era were the WigWam Motels. Seven of these motels were built across the United States during the 1930’s and 1940’s and the one in Holbrook is one of the three remaining.
The most significant remaining “draw” to Holbrook is the existence of Petrified Forest National Park, located about 25 miles east of town on I-40. A short drive takes us on a loop from Holbrook to the north entrance on I-40, south through the park to the exit on Hwy 180, and back to Holbrook on Hwy 180.
Petrified Forest National Park
During the Triassic Period, 225 million years ago, northeastern Arizona was hot, humid and home to dense forests. Early dinosaurs and other creatures roamed the area. As the climate changed over the eons, the desert landscape as we know today came into being. One of the results is that remnants of the great forests became encased in sand and gradually “fossilized”, turning into rock. Erosion has exposed the tree parts over the years. The primary road from the east to California (now I-40) crossed just north of the greatest concentration of fossilized trees, through an area known as the Painted Desert. Interest grew in the petrified wood and in 1885 the Arizona Territorial Legislature petitioned the US Congress to protect the area. President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation creating the Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906 and the area became a national park in 1962. Highway 66 crossed the northern part of the protected area and in the late 1930’s a small inn overlooking the colorful desert was remodeled by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of the government response to the Great Depression into the Painted Desert Inn, which now serves as the northern visitor center for the national park.
South of the main building are a few of the remaining adobe cabins where travelers stayed.
The inn offered meals for the hungry traveler in a restaurant with spectacular views.
Turning south the road through the park passes through a multi-colored landscape before crossing over I-40, crossing the Little Colorado River flood plain and then rising into the rolling desert to the south.
For thousands of years the Little Colorado River provided a path for humans to cross this hostile environment. Many settled along the river, farming in the river flood plain (growing corn, beans and squash) and building small pueblos before moving on as the climate changed. The Puerco Pueblo was inhabited around 1250A.D., eventually containing around 100 rooms. Foundations of the pueblo are scattered around a small rise south of the flood plain.
A bit more fascinating were the numerous petroglyphs on the rocks below the pueblo. The pueblans revered the sun and the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its’ peak in the sky, was a huge event in the lives of the ancient people. They created a sun dial that kept track of the sun’s position by tracking a line of light made by a crack in the large rock on the left as it moves across the darkened face of the small rock on the right. The sun reaches its peak when the shaft of light touches the center of a small spiral drawn on the opposite rock.
A close-up shows the spiral more clearly on lower right.
The road continues south, away from the Little Colorado, and the landscape becomes more arid.
I turn a corner and pieces of the petrified trees begin to be seen, scattered across the desert.
A pull-out parking spot overlooks a massive forest remnant cascading down the far canyon wall and collecting on the desert floor below me.
The southern visitor center is located at the side of an ancient log jam.
Close-ups of the petrified wood reveal a stunning display of colors in the rock.
Let’s walk through the forest…
A mile from the visitor center the road ends and we turn north on Hwy 180 to return to Holbrook and head west to Flagstaff. You can’t visit the area without noting all of the places peddling rocks and fossils to the tourists. Some are more entertaining than others…
I-40 replaced Hwy 66 all across northern Arizona, bypassing the small towns that historically served as stops for those who were traveling first on horse, then by train, and finally by automobile. Holbrook was a major stop in the 1950’s and 1960’s for those travelling by car, but earlier travelers by train stopped for the night 30 miles further west in the small town of Winslow before heading on to Flagstaff, the next stop in our road.
Next up: Are those REAL mountains?
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