‘Standin’ on the corner in Winslow, Arizona’

Only a few small towns in America are as well-known as Winslow, Ariz. 

Everyone who grew up listening to good old rock’n’roll music on the radio has heard about Winslow and knows the story. 

It was in the early 1970s when singer-songwriter Jackson Browne experienced car trouble and had to layover in Winslow until mechanics at a local garage could fix his vehicle. So, he wrote about his stay. 

Well, I’m a standin’ on (the) corner

In Winslow, Arizona,

And such a fine sight to see

It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford

Slowin’ down to take a look at me…. 

Browne’s good friend Glenn Frey was credited as co-writer of the song “Take It Easy.” Frey had just formed a new band named the Eagles. 

“Take It Easy” became the Eagles’ first recording in 1972. A smash hit, the single peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard “Hot 100.” 

Browne later let it slip out that he might have been in Flagstaff, and the girl might have been driving a Datsun or Toyota pickup, but it all still happened along the “Mother Road” – U.S. Route 66. 

A large “Route 66” emblem is painted on the pavement at the intersection of 2nd Street and Kinsley Avenue in downtown Winslow. 

This is where community leaders decided to create Winslow’s “Standin’ on the Corner” Park, which was dedicated in 1999. The centerpiece is a 6-foot-tall bronze statue of a young, floppy-haired, denim-clad troubadour holding his acoustic guitar. The sculptor was Ron Adamson of Libby, Mont. He named the monument “Easy,” and his son Dustin was the model. 

The backdrop is a magnificent, two-story mural that was painted by John Pugh of Truckee, Calif. He is one of America’s premier muralists, employing an illusionary three-dimensional technique that “fools the eye.” 

His mural in Winslow features a girl driving a 1960 model red flatbed Ford. She appears as a cleverly cool window reflection.

 

To add even more realism, a bright red 1960 Ford flatbed truck is parked nearby to woo tourists. The truck belongs to Casey Gilliam. Various community members helped breathe new life into the old truck.

Winslow was established in 1880 as a division point on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad. Division points had large rail yards and were important during the steam era. Trains would run from division point to division point and completely re-switch and change engines at each division point. 

The town was named after either railroad executive Gen. Edward F. Winslow or old Tom Winslow, a wily prospector and local hermit. 

When U.S. Route 66 was approved in 1926, running from Chicago to Los Angeles, Winslow was dead center on the route. 

This led the Fred Harvey Company to select Winslow as the site for development of a major hotel and restaurant complex. Harvey built and ran all the hotels and restaurants of the Santa Fe Railway, eventually controlling a hospitality empire that spanned the continent. 

(By now, the Atlantic & Pacific had been absorbed by the legendary Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was commonly called the Santa Fe.) 

“Winslow was the next to last Arizona town to be bypassed by Interstate 40,” said Diane Patterson, who owns a downtown gift shop. “We used to watch hundreds of trucks roll by day and night.” 

“Then one morning in 1979, they opened I-40 and everything stopped. For about 20 years, nobody knew what to do.”