Where is the wigwam motel in arizona

Contact accommodation for availability. Full view. View all photos 1, 1, Travelers' Choice. For guests with a vehicle, free parking is available. Enjoy your stay in Holbrook! Read more.

Property amenities. Free parking. Free internet. Non-smoking hotel. Air conditioning. Non-smoking rooms. Languages Spoken. Show Low Airport 45 mi See all flights. Rental Cars See all Holbrook rental cars. Write a review. Traveler rating. Selected filters. All reviews old cars classic cars taking pictures tee pee route history small museum small tv train tracks road trip traveling route cable tv petrified forest painted desert nostalgic office shower americana stop motel icon vintage memorabilia.

Wendy P wrote a review Oct Michigan 60 contributions 31 helpful votes. Such a cute place to stay - the rooms are not huge, but were perfectly sized for two people.

This is certainly not a resort - but who wants it to be? Our wigwam was clean, cozy, the beds were comfy and we really enjoyed our stay. The front desk staff and even the other guests in the office were friendly and helped us find places to eat that evening.

Overall - my favorite place that we stayed in Arizona. So cute!! Date of stay: October Location. Sleep Quality. Helpful Share. Joebob wrote a review Oct Neenah, Wisconsin contributions 76 helpful votes. I think I got the bad room. We were in Wigwam 9 and the room smelled like mildew and when we turned on the air conditioning, it got even worse. The door rattled and we thought someone was knocking several times until we figured out what the noise was.

There were spiders in the corners of the ceiling. Yes, I totally get the nostalgia, or maybe from the Cars movie, but I don't think I'd stay here again.

The museum in the back of the main office is really cool, and is definitely worth looking around at. Date of stay: September Location. Ashby, Massachusetts 91 contributions 23 helpful votes. My husband says this was the highlight of our trip. Motorists preferred the destination to the journey, and I was the straightest line between two points. As with other businesses along Route 66, the Wigwam Motel struggled and Lewis's father was ready to pull the plug. But first, his dad asked him to return.

The time of the tepees was over, his father believed, but the land still held possibilities, not the least of which was a museum devoted to the family's collection of petrified wood. Lewis's siblings were firmly rooted in places far from Holbrook, leaving his father few choices when it came to finding a successor.

The Spanish professor looked deep within, and was surprised to find pride in the family business still part of his DNA. Not long after he returned in , Lewis realized the treasure was not the land or the museum.

It was the motel, which held memories for his family and nostalgia for the guests. He and his wife settled in and started a family. Lewis taught Spanish part-time at Northland Pioneer College in Show Low, an adjunct professor who pumped gas when he wasn't delivering lessons.

For the second time in his life, Lewis split his time between school and the Wigwam. It turned out to be too little, too late. A few years later, Lewis's father decided it was time to close the motel. The gas station remained open for a few more years, but it too was no match for I It closed for good in A year later, Lewis accepted a full-time position at the college.

Over the next five years the motel faded, weeds sprouting through the hardpan. Lewis watched its slow decay. In the months after his father died in , Lewis heard from his brother John and his sister Elinor. They, too, were pained by the state of their childhood home. Pooling the necessary funds, the three financed an extensive renovation, done as a tribute to the late Chester Lewis.

As the only sibling in Holbrook, Clifton agreed to run the motel, soon putting his brood to work. And just like his father, Lewis eyed his growing children with curiosity, wondering who among them would take over the Wigwam Motel and uphold family tradition. He would finally understand how his father felt so many years ago when his children left one by one, ready to see what the world had in store for them. The Baby Boomer-fueled nostalgia of the s and early s was kind to Route 66 and the Wigwam Motel.

Vacationers eagerly turned off the interstate to seek remnants of a highway quickly vanishing. The tepees stood as a beacon of simpler times. Most, if not all, were filled on summer nights by adults swimming in memories as kids complained about the lack of a pool. The sameness was comforting, from the motel down to the people caring for it.

The Wigwam remained a mom-and-pop operation, just as when it opened. That meant if you were a Lewis, your birth was also a job interview, duties to be assigned on an age-appropriate basis. When the motel reopened in , Karina Lewis Pack joined her siblings in the climb up the career ladder from sweeping to dusting to laundry and beyond. The Wigwam imparted life and business lessons you couldn't get in a classroom.

Still, when she graduated from high school, she put the Wigwam in the rear-view mirror, ready to see what the world had in store for her. She earned a degree in agribusiness at Arizona State University and married her childhood sweetheart, who was a pre-med student on his way to becoming an emergency-room doctor. They started a family, welcoming six children over 12 years. His job took them to Kalamazoo, Mich. Life wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close.

She listened to her father talk about retirement, how the Wigwam needed more energy than his year-old body could muster. Pack spoke with her husband about returning to Arizona. Yes, they'd established a good life in Klamath Falls, but their parents — all in Holbrook — weren't going to be around forever.

And then there was the motel. It didn't seem right for it to be in hands not belonging to a Lewis. In the summer of , the Pack clan returned to its roots — mostly to be closer to their parents, where their kids could get to know their grandparents.

But also for the Wigwam. It pulled at Karina, given its role in the Lewis family. The Wigwam Motels were designed by Frank A. Redford after the teepees of the Plains Indians.

He built the first units in at his museum where he displayed a collection of Native American art. In , Redford received a patent on the design, calling them Wigwam Villages because he felt it sounded better Teepee Villages. Lewis discovered the unique roadside motel when passing through town.

As part of the agreement, coin-operated radios were installed in the Holbrook Wigwam Village and every dime inserted for 30 minutes of play would be sent to Redford as payment.