About Ash Fork
Route 66 used to go through downtown Ash Fork as a two-way street, but sometime during the history of Ash Fork it changed to two one-way streets going through town. Park Ave. is the Eastbound portion of Route 66 and Lewis Ave is the Westbound portion. There are still some original buildings on both segments of the highway. Unfortunately, many of the original buildings along Route 66 in Ash Fork were destroyed in fires in 1977 and again in 1987.
There is also an original alignment of Route 66 that is now called Pine Ave. that dead ends at the Route 66 Museum in Ash Fork. Past the museum, the original alignment has been covered over by Interstate 40.
Ash Fork is at an elevation of 5,160 ft.
The population is 698 (2019)
Planning Your Visit
There is not a lot to see in Ash Fork, but if you do a little research before going like reviewing this page, you’ll need about an hour and a half to two house if you don’t stop for meals. We stopped to take a lot of pictures and video on our visit, so we spent a little more time than most people. We also did some research ahead of time so we knew what old Route 66 sites to look for.
You’ll want to start your visit at the Ash Fork Route 66 Museum and Visitor’s Center. If it’s open, plan on spending 20 minutes or so. Unfortunately it was closed when we were there, but from what I’ve seen and heard about it, I would really recommend going there first. You can study the model of the main Route 66 roadway and get a feel for the layout of Route 66 through town and the sites to see. There are a couple of classic original motels in town, the famous DeSoto’s Salon which was an old gas station and is now an Airbnb place to stay.
Make sure you travel on both sides of Route 66 from one end of town to the the other. Legion Ave is one way Westbound and Park Ave is one way Eastbound. There are sites to see on both streets, but most of them on Legion Ave. There is also a shorter section of an earlier alignment of Route 66 that goes right by the museum but dead ends where the old highway was covered over by Interstate 40.
History of Ash Fork
In the late 1850’s Edward Fitzgerald Beale was sent by the US Government to survey and build a wagon road later called Beale’s Wagon Road, which many settlers used to move the West, and which later became part of Route 66 and the route for the Transcontinental railroad. His route pass just North of Ash Fork. It was the first federally funded roadway and was surveyed and marked out along the 35th parallel and is the general route followed by U.S. Route 66, the Santa Fe Railway, and Interstate 40.
Unfortunately for Ash Fork, where U.S. Route 66 went through the center of town, Interstate 40 bypassed it entirely to the South and so did the traffic.
Ash Fork Visitor’s Center
The Ash Fork Route 66 Museum is run by the Ash Fork Historical Society and a volunteer staff. In addition to information about Route 66 in Ash Fork, there is also a lot about the local history. It’s located in a building that dates back to 1922 when the National Old Trails Highway was built and served as the Ash Fork Maintenance Camp #1 before Route 66 was even commissioned. Later it was taken over by the Arizona Dept. of Transportation and provided maintenance to Route 66. It’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s a good place to begin your tour of Ash Fork. They have a large scale model of the historic Grand Harvey House, The Escalante Hotel, which no longer exists. It also features a model of some of the historical buildings that were located on Route 66 in town. Some are still standing, but many were lost to fires.
Ash Fork Route 66 Museum & Historical Society
Old Buildings in Ash Fork
Ash Fork is full of old abandoned buildings, old hotels, and more.
The Oasis Lounge
The Only Bar in Ash Fork?
This is the Oasis Lounge… what seems like the only bar in all of Ash Fork. Housed in this flagstone building on the Eastbound stretch of Route 66 through town, this bar goes back a number of years.
Classic Route 66 Motels
Copper State Motel
The Copper State Court Motel has been in business for a long time. It features a stone building where rooms at one time included a garage to park your car. If you look closely at this before and after shot you can see that in the vintage photo on the left that the office for the hotel used to be a Standard gas station right there on the motel property. That building now serves as the motel office.
See more about the Copper State Motel
zxcvzxcv
zxcvxzcv
The Hi-Line Modern Motor Court Motel
Classic Motel in Need of Repair
Right next door to the Copper State Motel is the Hi-Line Motel which appears to have fallen on hard times. It was closed with a For Sale sign out front on the day we visited. I’m sorry to see these old vintage Route 66 motels close, but it’s also fun to see what they were like in the early days of Route 66 as a “Modern Motor Court” and what they are like today.
In the before and after pictures below, you can see that what is now the office for the Hi-Line motel used to be a Shell Service station with the gas pumps right up front next to the highway. Notice the old gas pumps, the SHELL sign above and the oval Pennzoil sign to the side of the gas pumps. Also note the retro neon Hi-Line Modern Motor Court sign above. I’m a fan of old porcelain and neon signs so it’s unfortunate, that of those cool old signs seem to be long gone.
McCoy Motel
The McCoy Motel has seen better days.
This property was listed in the 1960 Ash Fork Yellow Pages as The McCoy Motel and is on the original alignment of Route 66 in Ash Fork which is now called Pine Ave. on the western end of town. The name was changed years later to the Stagecoach Motel.
DeSoto’s Salon
Former Texaco Service Station… Salon… AirBnB
This is the DeSoto’s Salon as it stands today (2021). It used to be a Texaco service station located on the main Route 66 highway through town. You can see what it looked like in the before and after image below. It had an office, two service bays, and a pump island in front. In an overhead view on Google maps, you can still see the outline in the pavement where the pump island used to be. It was recently paved over so I’m not sure how much longer that will be visible.
The Texaco station was converted to the DeSoto’s Salon and Barbershop but it is no longer open. The building is, however, operating as an Airbnb location and you can spend the night in this historic location on the original Route 66.
Here’s a before and after shot of the old Texaco Station and now DeSoto’s Salon
Old & Abandoned Buildings in Ash Fork
Old Country Store Building
This old building located on the eastbound part of Route 66 through town was originally the community general store and dates back to 1903. It’s obviously been vacant and just sitting for a long time.
Across the street is an abandoned gas station that dates back to 1954. It used to be a station right on Route 66 through town but when Interstate 40 bypassed the it, their wasn’t enough business to stay open. It’s been closed and vacant for a number of years.
Zettler’s Market
Zettler’s Market was originally opened by Homer and Marie Zettler and family in 1929 as the City Bakery. In 1940 they added a small grocery section and meat counter in the store. In 1946 when their son, Vern, returned from the war, he and his wife, Marge, bought the business and ran it until they retired in 1984. They sold the store to Mary Ann Breon. She kept the Zettler’s name on the store because of the history behind it and operated it until the business was closed in 2012.
The store was closed for four years , but in 2016 it was reopened as Zettler’s Route 66 Store by Kirk and Yvette Slack along with Tony and Marty Slack Mittone. They knew it was an original piece of Route 66 history and they kept the Zettler name. The store offered a wide variety of classic Route 66 memorabilia, apparel, colorful characters and often classic cars and motorcycles. The Slacks ran the store for a year before putting it up for sale when they moved to Hawaii.
After being closed for four years, Zettlers Market – also known as Zettler’s Route 66 Store has a new owner, and reopened in September, 2020.
The new owner was Terry Tapp who, with his son James, runs Top Shop in Phoenix, a high end automobile and antique upholstery business.
Zettler’s Route 66 Store is located at 242 Lewis Ave, Ash Fork, AZ 86320
Arizona Cafe
Once a bar, but now a church!
A far cry from the original Arizona Cafe which was a bar and grill. It now serves as a church on the old Route 66 in Ash Fork.
Escalante Hotel
The Grand Harvey House
There was a Harvey House Hotel near the railroad tracks in Ash Fork. The original wooden structure burned in 1905 and was replaced by a beautiful stone hotel in which opened in 1907. It was a busy place when there was a lot of railroad traffic in Ash Fork. The hotel covered a space over 420 feet long and 250 feet wide. That’s a building longer than a football field.
On the ground floor of the structure was a lunch room fitted with a circular counter, a large gift shop, newsstand and reading room, and a barber shop.
Ash Fork was an important railroad junction at that time. Passengers and freight bound for central and southern Arizona boarded the trains at the famed Hotel Escalante. The hotel closed in 1948 and was demolished in the early 1970’s. The lot where the hotel stood is now used for storage by a local flagstone company. There is nothing left of the hotel.
This historical marker near where the Escalante Hotel used to stand is all that remains.
Favorite Pictures from Ash Fork
