Peach Springs, AZ

[agentsteel53]

what the Hell is up with this town?  it's on old 66, but unlike every other town on old 66 in Arizona, it has absolutely no historical character.  just a bunch of bureaucratic buildings and a prison facility.

yet this is used as the control city for AZ-66 heading east out of Kingman.

what's ADOT's hard-on for this town that is so sad that it's a Walmart Town that doesn't even have a Walmart?

[corco]

It's a rez town- that's the administrative center for that area so probably is more significant to locals than other towns along that route with more historic character since that's where health services/schools/etc for the area are.

[J N Winkler]

Neither Peach Springs itself nor the county it is in appear on any poorest-100 lists, but Peach Springs has a higher percentage of its population living under the poverty line than Detroit, which is currently number one among US cities with population 250,000 or greater.

[agentsteel53]

there is a development on the west side of town that looks to be pretty upscale... and quite depressing, in that the Traditional Arizona Beige color of the housing has been extended to the land: yep, all the "lawns" are unadorned dirt, stripped of natural desert vegetation with no replacement offered.  yep, pervert developer is pervert.

I wonder what the town was like in the 66 days, when all the traffic was coming through.  a lot of the buildings look very modern; what did they raze to make them?

[J N Winkler]

Traditional Arizona Beige color

You mean "Del Webb white," don't you?

. . . of the housing has been extended to the land: yep, all the "lawns" are unadorned dirt, stripped of natural desert vegetation with no replacement offered.  yep, pervert developer is pervert.

This development doesn't sound so very upscale if that is the type of landscaping it has.  The usual xeriscaping treatment is transplanted desert vegetation (landscape gardeners and their suppliers are, in fact, among the most dangerous enemies of the saguaro cactus in the wild), plus a layer of small stones which is supposed to imitate desert pavement and resist wind erosion.

I wonder what the town was like in the 66 days, when all the traffic was coming through.  a lot of the buildings look very modern; what did they raze to make them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach_Springs,_AZ

I am not sure there has been that much demolition--Peach Springs had 787 population in 1990, but has 1090 population now, so presumably a lot of the new-build is to accommodate almost 40% population growth in 20 years.

Peach Springs was on US 66-as-main-route for about forty years, but the only bit of infrastructure the article mentions that is plausibly connected to Route 66 is the gas station, which closed and has reopened only with the help of a grant.  Before that, the town was an AT&SF entrepôt, but I don't know if that meant it had a Fred Harvey hotel back in the day.

[agentsteel53]

You mean "Del Webb white," don't you?

probably.  a google of that exact phrase did not reveal a pantone match or anything quite so specific; just a rabbit hole by which I learned about Del Webb homes, and once I clicked on image search on that, yep there's my greatest nightmare in terrifyingly dull monotone.

seriously, who the fuck falls in love with beige?  who decides on a whim "oh!  I want my life to be precisely this neutral, precisely this curated, precisely this degree of allowing me to escape from thinking and feeling and being human". 

can we find these people and overdose them on heroin and fuck them off to gently die for their benefit and ours?

This development doesn't sound so very upscale if that is the type of landscaping it has.  The usual xeriscaping treatment is transplanted desert vegetation (landscape gardeners and their suppliers are, in fact, among the most dangerous enemies of the saguaro cactus in the wild), plus a layer of small stones which is supposed to imitate desert pavement and resist wind erosion.

the houses were new, and had many garages and much square footage.  they looked as "upscale" as the latest crawling horror masquerading as outskirts-o-Temecula, ostensibly designed to appeal to the people who could afford it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach_Springs,_AZ

I am not sure there has been that much demolition--Peach Springs had 787 population in 1990, but has 1090 population now, so presumably a lot of the new-build is to accommodate almost 40% population growth in 20 years.

Peach Springs was on US 66-as-main-route for about forty years, but the only bit of infrastructure the article mentions that is plausibly connected to Route 66 is the gas station, which closed and has reopened only with the help of a grant.  Before that, the town was an AT&SF entrepôt, but I don't know if that meant it had a Fred Harvey hotel back in the day.

I think it was more than 40 years... 1926-1978 or so would be my guess. 

what was the population in 1950?  I am alas having trouble finding the relevant census figure.

[NE2]

what was the population in 1950?  I am alas having trouble finding the relevant census figure.

I don't know if they broke it down that finely in 1950. All I can find is Mohave County district 3, which included 66 form the county line west to Kingman and a lot more, and had 3883 (2779 in 1940).

http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/23761117v1.zip (250 MB) chapter 4, pp. 26-30

[Sonic99]

I've only been to Peach Springs once, to visit the Caverns, but is it possible that just the Route 66 history, and how it was bypassed (one of the towns that inspired Radiator Springs in the movie Cars), and along the longest continuous section of Route 66 that probably contributes to the notoriety of the town. I do agree though, Seligman and Williams (my town) have a LOT more character to them.

[agentsteel53]

the longest continuous section of Route 66

I thought Ludlow to nearly Needles via US-95 east of Goffs was longer - or does the break for the I-40 interchange just past Essex make that not count?  I think it's 96 miles vs. 87.

I had no idea Peach Springs was bypassed.  the town's main drag certainly seems to be along the current road.

[NE2]

I get 158 miles from the Colorado River to west of Ash Fork (if the frontage road/detour just west of Kingman through the I-40 interchange disqualifies it, 108 miles east of Kingman). West of Needles to Ludlow is 98 miles.

North of Springfield IL to East St. Louis (via Carlinville) is 118 miles, with only a minor change east of Worden caused by I-55.

But none of that matters - Strafford MO to Oklahoma City is 327 miles of no frontage roads and minimal realignments (that weren't also 66).

[J N Winkler]

You mean "Del Webb white," don't you?

probably.  a google of that exact phrase did not reveal a pantone match or anything quite so specific; just a rabbit hole by which I learned about Del Webb homes, and once I clicked on image search on that, yep there's my greatest nightmare in terrifyingly dull monotone.

seriously, who the fuck falls in love with beige?  who decides on a whim "oh!  I want my life to be precisely this neutral, precisely this curated, precisely this degree of allowing me to escape from thinking and feeling and being human". 

can we find these people and overdose them on heroin and fuck them off to gently die for their benefit and ours?

The people in Arizona who buy houses colored in that very restricted palette are generally snowbirds on fixed incomes looking for secure investments.  A typical house in a Del Webb development (such as Sun City Grand in Surprise, northwest of Phoenix) doesn't just come with Del Webb white inside and out; it is basically a patio home on steroids, with all landscaping taken care of (no provision for customization with your own plantings), no ability to use colors anywhere outside the approved selection (bright, bold colors are especially frowned on), and even limits on how many days of the month you can have guests aged under 18 staying with you.  These restrictions are oriented not just at maintaining the value of your house, but also at ensuring that nothing you do to your house injures the resale value of your neighbors' houses.  This means that their sale prices are predictive of the price your house will fetch when sold.  In short, these various restrictions (amounting to "widgetification" of the dwelling) drain uncertainty out of the investment to the greatest extent practically possible, and that is very appealing to older people who don't have the financial headroom to take on large amounts of risk.

As it happens, I have relatives who live part of the year in Sun City Grand, so I understand this mindset even though I don't share it.  The relatives in question built their fortune in Wichita before they started dividing their time between Minnesota (summer) and Arizona (winter).  Unlike my parents, who have lived in the same house for 34 years, and also unlike my grandmother, who had almost finished her 40th year in her last house the day she died, these relatives kept their movables to the bare minimum and lived in at least six different places in Wichita over 30 years.  In each case they flipped the property after a few years--i.e., sold it for more than they had paid for it.

This isn't the kind of lifestyle I would want personally, but it takes all types to make a world.

[Henry]

I'll bet a lot of people wonder if this was the inspiration for the fictional town of Radiator Springs in Cars. After all, they're both in the same location, were once served by Route 66 but have since been bypassed by I-40. (And they both have "Springs" in their names!)

[rte66man]

Strafford MO to Oklahoma City is 327 miles of no frontage roads and minimal realignments (that weren't also 66).

You could add on another 30+ miles as the original roadbed is still driveable west through El Reno to south of Geary.  Until recently, it went much farther west, but the rebuild of Spur 281 meant the original bed was demolished. 

Trivia Note:  A piece of the demolished pavement is now in the Smithsonian.

rte66man

[agentsteel53]

wait, what do these people care how much their house is worth?  they're gonna be dead.

(make your own jokes here about how Del Webb living ain't living at all.)

[NE2]

Strafford MO to Oklahoma City is 327 miles of no frontage roads and minimal realignments (that weren't also 66).

You could add on another 30+ miles as the original roadbed is still driveable west through El Reno to south of Geary.  Until recently, it went much farther west, but the rebuild of Spur 281 meant the original bed was demolished. 

Is there a non-freeway route north of downtown OKC, where US 66 switched from Kelley to Lincoln on Grand Boulevard (now I-44)?

[rte66man]

Strafford MO to Oklahoma City is 327 miles of no frontage roads and minimal realignments (that weren't also 66).

You could add on another 30+ miles as the original roadbed is still driveable west through El Reno to south of Geary.  Until recently, it went much farther west, but the rebuild of Spur 281 meant the original bed was demolished. 

Is there a non-freeway route north of downtown OKC, where US 66 switched from Kelley to Lincoln on Grand Boulevard (now I-44)?

Crud, I keep forgetting about that 1/4 mile, although you could argue that I44 there is on top of the 1950's alignment of 66.....  weak, I know.

One of the "lost gems" of the old road is in that area.  Beverly Dr runs north from NW 50th just to the west of Lincoln.  It was US66 until Lincoln was widened and realigned around 1950.

rte66man

[texaskdog]

That drive was listed as "scenic" on our map once, was the most boring stretch of road I'd ever driven on.

[Scott5114]

That drive was listed as "scenic" on our map once, was the most boring stretch of road I'd ever driven on.

Is it any worse than Interstate 39 (which I seem to remember was the consensus choice in the "most boring highway" thread)?