Category: Postcards From Another Millennium

This is a typical specialty motel of the 1940s, with unusual construction designed to replicate the  tipi style tent construction of the Native American tribes of the Great Plains. It is misnamed the wickiup likely because the owner did not understand the distinction between the two construction styles. However, the wickiup was used extensively in the southwest, though it was hemispherical in shape and not a truncated cone.
The motel was built in 1950 and has since been renamed the Wigwam Motel, a variant of the term wickiup, but still incorrect regarding the structures’ shape.
The white patches on the image are from where the card became wet and the emulsion was detached after being stuck to another card. This card clearly dates from the 1950s, shortly after the motel was constructed.

This landform was visible from the highway, or from a scenic viewpoint just off the famous Route 66. It is typical of the remnant harder rock left behind after millennia of erosion stripped away the softer surrounding material.

The town mentioned, Oatman, Arizona, still exists and is a thriving tourist destination for those traveling along the old Route 66.
This postcard dates from the 1940s.

This image is of an otherwise unnamed peak along the route of Highway 66 through Arizona. The name listed on the postcard is not traceable in any current maps that show landforms with this name in this location, and the only current feature that had this name was far to the south of the route for Highway 66.
Such names were often used to provide tourists some local color to the otherwise bleak landscape, and it is quite likely that this name was not officially associated with this peak. Most such names were changed to less offensive and more Native American traditional names.
This postcard dates from the 1940s.

This image continues the current theme one additional day, showing the new Highway 66 bridge across the Colorado River in Arizona.

This features another example of a subject popular at the time: highway construction in the intermountain west. This image not only shows the sinuous path of the legendary Highway 66 through the Arizona desert, but also, at the right, a long turnout to the top of a hill. This was no doubt graded to allow travelers a chance to stop and take pictures from the hilltop.
This card has no description on the back, just a stamped indication of where to write your address and message. It likely dates from the 1940s.

This picture features a common subject of the west in the early post World War 2 period: pictures of highway construction. Among the favorites were pictures like this, of winding roads that climbed and descended complex mountain and valley routes.
This picture appears to have been taken near the side road that led to the Gold Road mine. The color in the upper center is a printing error for this image.
There is no description on the back of this card, but the image dates from the 1940s.

This week we visit Gold Road, as it was known, that ran through Arizona in the mid-20th Century.
Gold Road was a ghost town that remained of a gold mining operation in Arizona, whose access road branched off of Route 66, as shown in this picture. It had its own Post office until 1942, and was completely demolished in 1949.
There is no description on the back of this picture. The cars indicate this picture was taken in the 1940s before the town was razed.