U.S. Route 70 road trip moves on to Asheville

Continuing our journey on U.S. Route 70 across North Carolina from west to east, the second leg from Hot Springs to Asheville is about 35 miles. We cross over from Madison County to Buncombe. 

The majestic Biltmore Estate, with its 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces, is enormous with “plenty of places to hide,” reports the “Atlas Obscura Guide To Asheville.” 

The Vanderbilts designed their palatial 180,000-square-foot home “with several concealed doors, hidden passageways and secret rooms, which blend in seamlessly with the decor so that they are not noticeable to the untrained eye.

The guidebook states: “In the late 19th century, these behind-the-scenes spaces were used to provide the Vanderbilts and their guests with some added privacy” as well as “to conceal the movement of servants” about the place. 

Entry to secret passages can be gained through the informal breakfast room, which leads to the butler’s pantry, and through the library, which leads to the guest bedrooms. Also within the library is a secret room known as the den. 

“From the billiards room, a secret passage leads to the smoking room, where the men would retire for brandy and cigars,” the guidebook adds. 

All the twists and turns are revealed in the “secret passage” tour package option. Is there a Biltmore “Clue” game in the gift store? 

Another attraction is the Asheville Pinball Museum, located in the old Battery Park Hotel downtown. Here “one entry fee lets you in the door, and the flipper, buzzer, flashing world can be your pinball playground, no quarters needed,” says Atlas Obscura.

 

With 75 machines available and a maximum of 70 patrons at a time, management says that “there is always a game available to play.” Could it be “Barb Wire,” manufactured in 1996 by D. Gottlieb & Co.? 

Edwin Wiley Grove is the fellow who built Asheville’s famous Grove Park Inn. He was a pharmacist in Paris, Tenn., who formulated a tasteless quinine to prevent malaria, a life-threatening disease that permeated the South in the 19th century. 

Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic was rolled out in the late 1890s. He sold more bottles than Coca-Cola and became a wealthy man. His Grove Park Inn opened in 1913. 

(In 1956, a secret deal between the hotel and the U.S. government mandated that in the event of a nuclear attack, the U.S. Supreme Court justices would be relocated to the Grove Park Inn and take over the entire property.) 

The 532-room hotel became The Omni Grove Park Inn in 2013. 

The contemporary flavor of Asheville is found today within the River Arts District, located along the French Broad River. Once the industrial part of town, it began to blossom in the 1970s as an arts enclave that encompasses several city blocks.

 

Asheville also appreciates its rich mountain heritage and culture. Visitors can savor it as well at the Folk Art Center, a museum of Appalachian arts and crafts on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s a partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the Southern Highland Craft Guild. 

The collection of handmade items dates back to the 19th century. Three galleries showcase an assortment of woodworking, jewelry, glassmaking, pottery, sculptures, quilts and paintings. Crafters demonstrate mountain arts such as weaving, cabinetry and broom-making. 

You won’t want to miss Asheville’s Western North Carolina Nature Center, a 42-acre zoological park. It showcases some 60 species of wildlife indigenous to the Appalachians and is home to a pair of endangered red wolves, Garnet and Karma. 

Stars shine bright over Cape Lookout Seashore

Cape Lookout National Seashore could be just the fourth national park site east of the Mississippi River to qualify as an (IDA) Dark Sky Park. 

The three eastern U.S. national park sites that are already certified are: Big Cypress National Preserve at Ochopee, Fla.; Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument at Millinocket, Maine; and Obed National Wild & Scenic River at Wartburg, Tenn.

 

There are 26 National Park Service (NPS) sites west of the Mississippi River that have earned IDA Dark Sky accreditation. All IDA sites “possess an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural/heritage resources and public enjoyment.” 

The NPS is seeking to up its count of IDA parks, both east and west. 

NPS employs teams of night sky specialists to work with individual parks as “preserves of biotic diversity and natural processes as well as the ‘crown jewels’ of America’s most scenic lands. Humans have gazed awe-struck into the universe for millennia, and ecosystems have adapted to the natural rhythms of the moon and stars.” 

“In recent years,” however, the NPS scientists said, “light pollution has encroached upon lands that were once remote from large cities, such as national parks. Keeping such treasures unimpaired for future generations relies on science, reliable data and sound judgment.”

 

“Light pollution from human development has a wide range of impacts. Artificial light at night affects the health of animals and plants that rely on natural cues visible only in the dark. Illuminating the night uses large amounts of energy.” 

Del Mar Fans & Lighting of Daytona Beach, Fla., a family-owned business, is an online ceiling fan and lighting retailer. The company believes that “unshielded light fixtures emit about 60% of their light skyward or sideways.” As such, “only 40% of the light emitted actually illuminates the ground.” 

The Design Lights Consortium in Medford, Mass., is working on standards and specifications for outdoor lighting that both protects the night sky and saves electricity. Its CEO Christina Halfpenny says “wasted lighting” costs U.S. building owners $3.3 billion a year in electricity. 

“Adhering to the principle of the ‘triple bottom line,’ companies of all kinds are looking at not just financial profit, but also benefits to people and the planet when measuring their success,” Halfpenny wrote. 

Research shows a 2.2% annual growth in artificially lit outdoor areas worldwide, she added. 

The consortium urges state and local governments to establish ordinances and policies for outdoor artificial lighting that are based on common sense. 

Light beams should be directed downward. Lights should be no brighter than necessary. Lights should be controlled with timers, motion detectors and other technology. 

“As lighting project designers, architects and facility owners and managers weigh the economic pros and cons of transitioning to more dark sky friendly lighting, it may be helpful to put this decision-making in context,” Halfpenny said. 

More than 80% of people worldwide – and 99% of Americans and Europeans – live under “sky glow,” a condition that “reduces the contrast of stars or other celestial objects against the dark sky background,” making them appear dimmer. 

Halfpenny says sky glow profoundly alters “a fundamental human experience – the opportunity for each person to ponder the night sky.” 

My mind is drawn to the slow-dancing classic tune “A Thousand Stars.” 

That’s the cue for the DJ to put the 1960 recording by Kathy Young and the Innocents on the turntable.

 

“Each night I count the stars in the sky.” 

U.S. Route 66 shouldn’t have all the fun

 Did you know that U.S. Route 70 shares a birthday with America’s historic U.S. Route 66…as in “get your kicks on Route 66?”

 Both highways were established as official “federal highways” on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) in 1926. 

U.S. 70 needs a catchy slogan, too, won’t you agree? But, what rhymes with “seventy?” Not much.

 

The RhymeZone.com website includes several words that score in the 84% to 92% “rhyming range” with “seventy.” Possibilities include: “heavenly, identity, pleasantry, serenity, popularity, effervescently, loverly, divinely and authenticity.” 

While U.S. 66 gained celebrity status as America’s “Mother Road,” U.S. 70 was dubbed as the “Treasure Trail.” U.S. 70’s “brand” never gained much traction…but there is hope. 

We are coming up on the 95-year anniversary of the highway this November, so let’s unlock the “treasure chest” of ideas. 

The North Carolina portion of U.S. 70 drapes across the breadth of the state, from west to east, like a 488-mile jeweled necklace.

 

Coming from Tennessee, U.S. 70 enters North Carolina in Madison County, near the communities of Antioch and Paint Rock. It’s only 9 miles for motorists to reach Hot Springs, a popular tourism destination situated at the confluence of the French Broad River and Spring Creek. 

Its naturally hot springs offer visitors therapeutic relief for whatever ails them. 

Native Americans were the first to discover the 100+ degree mineral waters, and colonial settlers were visiting the springs by 1778 to experience the waters’ healing properties. 

In 1886, a “higher temperature spring” was found, prompting a change of the town’s original name from Warm Springs to Hot Springs. 

Today, the main attraction is the Hot Springs Resort and Spa, structured so the average working family could afford to stay

 

Accommodations range from six hotel-style suites (four with heart-shaped hot tubs), several deluxe cabins, 16 rustic cabins and more than 100 campsites to accommodate both RVs and tents. 

“The resort spreads across 100 acres and boasts 17 outdoor hot tubs pumping in that prized mineral water,” wrote Bryan Mims of BusinessNC magazine. Book your private “mineral bath,” and “let the sulfate of magnesia ease your sore muscles, the chloride of potassium soothe your nerves and the sulphate of potassium help your heart.” 

For a town with fewer than 550 residents, “Hot Springs bubbles” with places to eat, drink, sleep, relax and enjoy romance, Mims said. “Getting in hot water is such a cool way to forget your troubles, and in this town, nirvana springs eternal.”

Hot Springs is known for outdoor recreation. The Appalachian Trail, completed in 1937, runs through the downtown, and climbs the mountains on either side of the French Broad River. Rafting, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, backpacking and sightseeing opportunities abound. 

Katie Saintsing of Our State magazine says one Hot Springs eatery is on her top-six list of “mountain meals worthy of a road trip.” 

“Hikers walk out of the woods and up the street to Genia Hayes Peterson’s restaurant, Smoky Mountain Diner, to the delight of everyone who works there. “My girls so look forward to it because they love to hear the stories,” Peterson told Saintsing. 

Peterson has “introduced some healthy changes to the menu, but the recipes, at their heart, are still old-fashioned home cooking,” Saintsing said. “Many recipes have been handed down through generations, especially from her great-grandmother,” including “Poorman’s Supper” dish.

It’s a heaping plate of pinto beans, cornbread, coleslaw and potato cakes, crowned with a spicy-sweet pepper relish that’ll “set your fields afire.”

Dark skies are a magnet to reel in astrotourists

University economists from Missouri State University recently confirmed that dark skies are good for tourism. 

Professors David Mitchell and Terrel Gallaway studied the “economic impact of dark sky tourism” within the Colorado Plateau region in the American Southwest. 

They reported: “We know that experiencing nature and viewing scenic vistas are consistently important factors to many visitors to public lands. Dark skies are a valuable resource.”

 

“This presents local communities and parks within the Colorado Plateau with unique opportunities for partnership. If public land managers and local communities were to work together to promote dark sky tourism and increase the number of visitors to the area, the economic impact would be substantial.” 

The researchers added: “Preserving dark nighttime skies also helps protect the health and diversity of local wildlife populations, which are often the primary amenity that visitors to national parks are seeking.” 

Closer to home, “the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina stood as silent witnesses to the uninterrupted, nightly rain of starlight for nearly a half-billion years, but artificial light now threatens this nightly show,” wrote Tim Gardner of High Country Press in Boone. 

The western mountain counties of Avery, Mitchell and Yancey are sensing astrotourism benefits directly related to the presence of the state’s only official International Dark Sky Park – designated by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). 

This is a unique public/private partnership administered by Mayland Community College, consisting of an Earth to Sky Park and the Bare Dark Sky Observatory. The facilities are situated on a 6-acre site within the ultra-dark Pisgah National Forest. The location is about midway between Spruce Pine and Burnsville.

 

Nationally acclaimed, the Mayland site was the first in the southeastern United States to be certified by the IDA (in 2014). At an elevation of 2,736 feet, the park and observatory combine to form one of the top stargazing sites east of the Mississippi River. It is rated as one of 23 “best dark sky venues” in the world. 

Observatory director Dr. Steve Brunton says stargazers travel to Mayland from many U.S. states. All are “coming to witness the sky in a way that is unavailable in brightly lit urban areas.”

Visitors are “blown away by the canvas of stars overhead or being able to see Jupiter or Saturn for the first time,” Dr. Brunton commented. 

The opportunity looms to make yet another “mountains to the coast” connection. It’s about 400 miles from Spruce Pine to Carteret County and Cape Lookout National Seashore…and all down hill. 

Cape Lookout park officials are applying for IDA recognition, in cooperation with the Crystal Coast Stargazers Club. A club official said: “If we have dark skies, they will come.” 

“They” are the astrotourists who move about the land seeking total darkness to gaze at stars in the sky. 

The initiative has the support of several local governments, business leaders and community organizations within Carteret County. 

As park rangers are known to say: “Half The Park Is After Dark.” 

NPS management policies emphasize: “Dark night skies are valued both as a natural and a cultural feature. They are important to wilderness character and air quality.” 

“Not only do pristine nightscapes enhance visitor experiences, they are also important to wildlife survival and the integrity of the ecosystem,” the NPS remarked. 

Molly Harrison, a contributor to Our State magazine, observed from Portsmouth Island, at the northeastern tip of Carteret County: “At night…the dark is solid black, pierced with the most stars you’ve ever seen.”

State’s first true hospital was located in Portsmouth

In the early 1800s, there was some scuttlebutt about Portsmouth, N.C., becoming the “Boston of the South” – the next great thriving American port city. 

In those days, more than 1,400 cargo vessels a year came into Portsmouth. The island village population swelled to about 800 people at its peak. 

As many as “30 to 60 sail of ship” were routine in the roadsteads around Portsmouth, said Dr. Marvin P. Rozear, a neurologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He authored an article about Portsmouth’s early history that was published in the North Carolina Medical Journal in 1991. 

With the boost in commerce, however, came an influx of “sick seamen…with scurvy, smallpox, dysentery, fractures, infected wounds, venereal disease, insanity, yellow fever, ague and miasmas,” Dr. Rozear said.

 

“Being unfit for duty…these sick sailors were ‘dumped’ on the island more or less to fend for themselves,” Dr. Rozear said. “They…were a major problem for the islanders. Care was provided in homes, haphazardly. There was no physician within 40 miles of Portsmouth until 1828. 

The first doctor to establish a practice at Portsmouth was Dr. John W. Potts, who came in 1828, but “he subcontracted with Dr. Samuel Dudley the next year,” Dr. Rozear noted. 

“Everyone could see this was an intolerable situation. The lightering business kept building, and the sick and disabled seamen kept coming,” Dr. Rozear said. 

The U.S. Congress first recognized the need to provide medical care for sick and disabled mariners in 1798, but funding for a U.S. Marine Hospital in Portsmouth was not appropriated until 1842. 

The 16-room hospital opened in 1847. It was the very “first facility in North Carolina to be built specifically as a hospital.” And Dr. Dudley was proud to be the medical director. 

However, the effects of the Hurricane of 1846 put a damper on the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Two new inlets had been created by that savage storm. 

One inlet was just below Hatteras, and the other was formed between Bodie and Pea islands. It became known as Oregon Inlet, named for the first ship to sail through it. 

As a result, sea trade moved farther north up the Outer Banks. The Hatteras Inlet became the preferred sea lane. It was a punch in the breadbasket of Portsmouth. Jobs began to vanish.

 

More “damage” was caused by the arrival of railroads in eastern North Carolina. The smaller “inner banks” ports diminished in their importance. 

Next came ominous clouds associated with The War Between the States. Oh, Lordy. 

The approach of Union troops toward the Outer Banks during Civil War in 1861 drove most Portsmouth residents off the island. They were fearful of what might happen. 

North Carolina seceded from the United States on May 20, 1861, and Gov. John Willis Ellis immediately dispatched the “Washington Grays,” an artillery company based in Beaufort County, to “proceed to Portsmouth.” 

Orders were to “seize the U.S. Marine Hospital” there “and to hold it to be used as quarantine,” reported historian James E. White III of New Bern. 

Led by Capt. Thomas Sparrow III of “Little Washington,” about 500 Confederate soldiers established Camp Washington at the hospital. 

Camp Washington and Fort Ocracoke on Beacon Island were strategically positioned to defend Ocracoke Inlet. 

For most of the summer of 1861, White shared that the Confederate troops had “quite a pleasant time fishing, crabbing, clamming and oystering – nothing much to do but drill and keep guard.” 

Pleasantness evaporated, however, when Union forces invaded the Outer Banks in late August 1861.

Village of Portsmouth has a population of 0…

But it’s not a “ghost town” insists David Frum. He spent many years as the historic preservationist and caretaker at Portsmouth, employed by Cape Lookout National Seashore. 

“No one lives there now, but I feel like there’s a strong presence, something of a closeness to the spirit of the past,” Frum said. “You get the sense that important things happened here.” 

“It’s one of those places that gets in your heart,” he said. “It has a draw on you. If you spend time there, it grips ahold of you.”

 

Frum was interviewed by Molly Harrison of Nags Head, a freelance journalist, for an article published a few years ago in Our State magazine. 

She wrote that the village is silent, “but it has not been forgotten. It may look empty, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels as if the old villagers will be right back in a minute.” 

“People who have family ties to Portsmouth will tell you they fiercely love the island,” Harrison said. They “laugh about the impracticality of feeling most drawn to the place that’s the least comfortable and the hardest to reach.” 

It was 50 years ago – in 1971 – when the last two permanent residents of Portsmouth threw in the towel and left their homes to move off the island. They were Elma Dixon and her niece, Marian Gray Babb.

 The last male resident of Portsmouth, Henry Pigott, had died earlier that year, so the women’s last remaining family member decided “it was time” to reel them in from the isolated island and move to Beaufort. 

A U.S. National Park Service (NPS) document reported that Henry Pigott’s ancestors came to Portsmouth as slaves. After their emancipation, Henry’s grandmother, Rosa Abbot, became the provider of medical care to the islanders – as a midwife, medic and nurse. 

Of her seven grandchildren, only Henry and Lizzie chose to remain in Portsmouth. 

Lizzie was the village barber and oystered in between “appointments.” She played the accordion, sang like a lark, was the best baker of bread and grew the island’s loveliest flowers. 

Henry distributed the mail. He would “pole out” to meet the mailboat, running up Core Sound from the village of Atlantic in Carteret County, to transfer mail and passengers.

 

The NPS said: “A reporter from New York City once came to Portsmouth to write an article about the village. She was given a tour of the village and was later introduced to Henry.” 

“The reporter began to criticize the island lifestyle, telling Henry that he was crazy to live among the mosquitoes with no electricity and no running water.” 

“Pigott replied that he had been to New York City and seen all the modern innovations. Then he paused and added, ‘And I’m not sure which one of us is crazy.’” 

Today, Portsmouth is preserved and frozen in time. Now fully contained within the boundaries of Cape Lookout National Seashore, the property became part of the NPS in 1976. The 20 or so structures within the village whisper a welcome to all visitors who choose to listen…and take a walk back in time. 

Visitors are advised to take along “everything” you will need…especially bug spray. 

It’s hard to believe that Portsmouth was once a thriving maritime port. But it was.

 

In fact, Portsmouth was North Carolina’s first successful “planned community,” authorized in 1753 by an act of the colonial assembly. Portsmouth was the first town on the Outer Banks…and the largest.

Views from Flagstaff are ‘out of this world’

With an elevation of about 7,000 feet, Flagstaff, Ariz., is where Percival Lowell of Boston chose to build an observatory to study the planet Mars in 1894. Flagstaff was the ideal site – “remote, elevated and having few cloudy nights.” 

Lowell was a successful businessman who was obsessed with astronomy. He constructed Lowell Observatory atop a mesa that was named “Mars Hill,” when Arizona was still a U.S. territory. (Arizona was the 48th state to join the union in 1912.)

 

Percival Lowell

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, a young astronomer working at the observatory, discovered a new planet beyond Neptune in the Solar System. Tombaugh’s discovery was international news.

                                                                         Clyde Tombaugh

While discussing “current events” at the breakfast table with her grandfather, Venetia Burney Phair, an 11-year-old British school girl, suggested the name “Pluto.” 

“I was fairly familiar with Greek and Roman legends from various children’s books that I had read, and, of course, I did know about the…names the other planets have,” Venetia said.

 

“I suppose I just thought that this was a name that hadn’t been used,” she commented. (Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld; his two brothers, Jupiter and Neptune were already in the heavens.) 

Venetia’s grandfather was Falconer Madan, former head librarian at the University of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. 

He passed along the idea of naming the planet Pluto to his friend Herbert Hall Turner, who was a professor of astronomy and director of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford. Turner, in turn, cabled the idea to the American astronomers at the Lowell Observatory. 

Roger Lowell Putnam, one of the Lowell trustees, said that because the first two letters of Pluto also are the initials of Percival Lowell, the name would be a “proper and fitting memorial” to the observatory’s founder. 

(According to outer space protocol, it was the responsibility of officials at the Lowell Observatory to select a name for the new celestial object.) 

The scientific community was quick to acknowledge: “Venetia Burney Phair comes from a family of people who name heavenly bodies.” 

Her great uncle Henry Madan named the two moons of Mars as “Phobos and Deimos” in 1877. At the time, Henry Madan was the esteemed “Science Master” of Eton College, located near Windsor in Berkshire, England. 

The moons of Mars were actually discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall III at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. He deferred to Madan, a “professional colleague,” to come up with appropriate names for the moons. 

Hall and Madan were scientists who shared a common bond. Each had a deep scholarly interest in Greek literature. 

Phobos and Deimos, who come from ancient Greek mythology, were twin sons born to Aphrodite and Ares. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty and sexuality. Ares was the god of war. 

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto from a major planet to a dwarf planet.

 

Clayton Kershaw, ace pitcher with Los Angeles Dodgers (winners of Major League Baseball’s 2020 World Series), revealed that he is the great-nephew of Clyde Tombaugh. 

Kershaw laughingly told NBC television’s Al Roker on Oct. 28, 2020: “In our family, Pluto’s still a planet.” 

Astrotourism can lead to all sorts of discoveries. 

It’s not always about looking up. 

Sometimes, astrotourism involves looking down and around. Such is the case in rural northern Arizona where astrotourists can view the massive Barringer Meteor Crater that measures about 3,900 feet in diameter and is 560 feet deep. 

The Apollo 11 moon mission astronauts trained here in the 1960s.

Look to the stars…and cash in on constellations

Four Corners Navajo Tribal Park is the hub of the famous Colorado Plateau, encompassing large chunks of four adjoining states – Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Tourism is a shared vital industry here. 

The Colorado Plateau has the greatest concentration of U.S. National Park Service (NPS) units in the country outside of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The national parks of the plateau include: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Mesa Verde and Petrified Forest.

There are also 18 national monuments in the region, and one of them is Natural Bridges, located in southeastern Utah, about 50 miles from the Four Corners marker. The monument’s three bridges are connected by separate 9-mile scenic driving and hiking loops. 

In 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association named Natural Bridges as America’s first International Dark Sky Park; it has some of the darkest and clearest skies in the entire United States.

Booking.com, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is one of the world’s leading digital travel companies. It ranks Natural Bridges as “the best astrotourism site in America. When the sun goes down, all eyes are drawn to the sky. With nearly zero light pollution, it is…perfect for stargazing.”

 

Utah’s tourism office says: “There’s just something about a sky full of stars that makes you feel connected with the world – and galaxy – around you. Natural Bridges is the perfect place to see the Milky Way in all its glory. You can see as many as 15,000 stars with your naked eye.”

In 2019, professors David Mitchell and Terrel Gallaway of Missouri State University reported: “Tourists to national parks are increasingly interested in observing this natural recreational amenity (stars in the night sky) – especially considering that it is an ecological amenity that is quickly disappearing from the planet.”

 The stars aren’t dimming; their brilliance is just being diluted by increasing urbanization. Intensified lighting within metropolitan areas creates a ‘sky glow’ that can be seen from more than 100 miles away,” the professors said. 

Drs. Mitchell and Gallaway give five gold-star ratings to the national parks in the Colorado Plateau region for providing visitors with the “opportunity to experience nature and see wildlife and picturesque vistas” by day…and also experience “the nocturnal world in its wild and natural state” by night.

 

The Missouri State economists said: The Colorado Plateau “is an immense area with skies dark enough and clear enough to make it the envy of the world.” 

“Consequently, the Colorado Plateau has a very unique and substantial potential for night sky tourism. Importantly, dark skies give tourists a reason to extend visits to include one or more overnight stays.” 

The professors rationalize: “Most national parks have a surge of visitors in the summer months, but far fewer visitors in the other seasons. Stargazing is, in many ways, better in the late fall, winter and early spring, due to longer nights.” 

Hence, “dark skies grow in value as an amenity during off-peak times and can, therefore, be used to spur tourism during the off season.” 

The numbers are staggering. “In the 10 years from 2015 to 2024,” the economists forecast “visitors will spend nearly $5.75 billion visiting NPS parks on the Colorado Plateau trying to see a dark sky at night. 

“The total effect…is to create an average of 10,127 additional jobs per year, increasing wages in the states by more than $2.423 billion.”

Historic Route 66 runs through Seligman, Ariz.

How did U.S. towns get cars off the Interstate once their communities were bypassed by super highways? Not by twiddling their thumbs or just wishin’ and hopin’. 

Communities that were once connected by the “Mother Road” – U.S. Route 66 – wrestled with this challenging question when Interstate 40 was extended from middle America to the West Coast in the late 1970s. 

Folks in Seligman, Ariz., figured it out. The community has not only survived, it is beginning to thrive as a cultural and heritage tourism hot spot.

 

As background, Seligman was smack dab on the original Route 66, built in the late 1920s. 

Most local communities failed to anticipate how much the new super highways would revolutionize transportation in this country…and how harmful they would be to local economies. 

Celebrating livestock, the Santa Fe Railway, the Seligman High School antelopes ...and Route 66!

Seligman’s elder statesman, 94-year-old Angel Delgadillo, is a visionary. He said: “I-40 gets you from Point A to Point B the fastest way. You just drive. You don’t talk to people. You don’t see anything. You go around towns, not through them.”

Delgadillo is a respected businessman in Seligman. He was the town’s barber and pool hall proprietor (three tables). He and his wife, Vilma, had a little souvenir stand on the side. 

Today, Angel Delgadillo is revered as the honorary Mayor of the Mother Road, the fellow most responsible for getting Route 66 classified as “Historic Route 66” in 1987…and back on the map of Americana. 

“I think people go looking for Route 66 because they want a slower pace that has disappeared from their lives,” Delgadillo said. “They’re looking for something, just like all those people who drove it during the Depression. Those people were on a highway of hope. Now it’s a highway of dreams.” 

It’s surprising how much Seligman, Ariz., resembles Radiator Springs, the fictional town in the animated movie “Cars,” which was released in 2006. It could be due to the fact that Delgadillo spent many hours talking with John Lasseter, the film’s director, about the historical significance of Route 66. 

Listen to a prominent character from the movie named Sally Carrera, a 2002 Porsche 911. She shared with the audience her perception of the way things were before the Interstate: 

“Back then, cars came across the country a whole different way. Cars didn’t drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time.” 

When the Seligman bypass opened on Sept. 22, 1978, Delgadillo said he “remembers feeling that it was the day the world forgot about us.” 

One of the businesses that was severely impacted was owned by Angel Delgadillo’s older brother, Juan. Known as Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In, the quirky restaurant was built in 1953, using scrap lumber.

 Lunch specials included “dead chicken sandwiches” and “cheeseburgers with cheese.” These items are still on the menu, thanks to “retro tourism,” as championed by the Delgadillo family. 

Seligman’s local chamber of commerce is “the voice of business, tourism and economic development.” Its current president is John Delgadillo, a son of Juan. He took over management of the Snow Cap after his father died in 2004. 

At the Snow Cap, John has assumed the role of “clown prince of condiments.” Be prepared for a squirt from a plastic squeeze container of ketchup or mustard, blasting you with a skein of red or yellow yarn. 

The old barber shop and pool hall is now known as Angel and Vilma Delgadillo’s Route 66 Memorabilia & Visitor’s Center.

 

Now, that’s progress.