Holbrook Historic Route 66 District

The most rewarding way to experience the Holbrook Route 66 district is on foot, walking the central portion of Hopi Drive between roughly Navajo Boulevard and 1st Avenue. The walk is about a half mile in each direction; allow 1-2 hours for a thorough self-guided tour with stops for photography and casual exploration. Start at the Wigwam Motel (the most photogenic single property) and walk east; pass several surviving motel signs (some still functional, some preserved as decorative artifacts), the Rainbow Rock Shop (covered below), the Navajo County Courthouse Museum (covered below), and a series of smaller Route 66-era buildings that have been adapted for current commercial uses.

Notable surviving signs along the corridor include the Wigwam Motel sign (no longer functional but preserved as a property feature), the original Globetrotter Lodge sign (an undated mid-century neon sign still partially functional), several smaller commercial signs from various decades, and a few preservation-grade highway signs marking the historic Route 66 alignment. The signs are the visual signature of the district and are the primary reason photographers and Route 66 enthusiasts make the walking tour.

Several surviving motels along the corridor — beyond the Wigwam — continue to operate as functional lodging properties. These are generally simpler mid-century motel properties without the Wigwam's distinctive architecture, but they have authentic Route 66-era roots and offer budget accommodations for travelers who want to stay in a genuine Route 66-era property even when the Wigwam is full. Notable surviving operators have included the Globetrotter Lodge, the Sahara Inn, and various other small properties; the specific operating status of individual motels changes over time as ownership transitions.

The Rainbow Rock Shop is one of the most distinctive small businesses along Hopi Drive — a Route 66-era rock-and-fossil shop that has operated continuously since 1949 and is famous for the large concrete dinosaur statues parked outside its building. The dinosaurs (typically including a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Brachiosaurus, a Triceratops, and several other species depending on which sculptures are currently on display) were added to the property by the shop's owners in the 1960s and 1970s as roadside attention-grabbers. They have since become some of the most photographed objects in Holbrook outside the Wigwam Motel itself.

The shop interior sells petrified wood, mineral specimens, fossils, Native American jewelry, and various Route 66 souvenirs. The petrified wood is legally sourced from private land outside Petrified Forest National Park (where collecting is prohibited) and is the shop's signature product — slices ranging from small specimens for a few dollars up to large furniture-grade pieces for thousands. The shop is generally open 9am to 6pm daily and is genuinely worth a 15-20 minute browse for visitors interested in mineral specimens or Route 66 souvenirs.

The dinosaur statues outside are free to photograph and are a standard required stop for any Holbrook Route 66 photo tour. The combination of the dinosaurs, the Wigwam Motel's teepees, and the various vintage signs along Hopi Drive produces a richly photogenic walking tour that compresses substantial Route 66 visual culture into a relatively small geographic area.

The Navajo County Courthouse Museum (also serving as the Holbrook visitor information center, covered separately in this guide) is housed in the 1898 historic Navajo County Courthouse — one of the oldest surviving public buildings in northeastern Arizona and the seat of county government from 1898 until a new courthouse was built in 1977. The building is a substantial two-story masonry structure in late-Victorian commercial style; the original courtroom, jail, and various ancillary spaces are preserved as museum exhibits.

The original 1898 jail is one of the most distinctive features — a small iron-bar cell block on the courthouse's ground floor that housed prisoners from 1898 through the 1970s. The cells are tiny by modern standards (roughly 6 feet by 8 feet) with iron bars, basic bunks, and minimal amenities. Visitors can walk through the cell block freely and photograph the original cells; the interpretive signage covers the jail's history including some specific historical prisoners and notable incidents from the territorial period.

The original courtroom on the second floor is preserved with its original 1898 furnishings — judge's bench, witness stand, jury box, attorneys' tables, and gallery seating. The room is occasionally used for community events and historical reenactments but is generally accessible for visitor walk-through during regular museum hours. The combination of the courtroom, the jail, and the surrounding exhibits on Holbrook and Navajo County history makes the museum one of the most substantial small-town history museums in northeastern Arizona.

The Hashknife Pony Express is the United States' oldest officially-sanctioned Pony Express ride — running annually since 1958 — and is headquartered in Holbrook. The ride is operated by the Navajo County Sheriff's Posse and carries U.S. mail under a special agreement with the United States Postal Service across approximately 200 miles from Holbrook to Scottsdale, Arizona over multiple days in late January and early February each year. Riders carry mail in genuine 19th-century-style leather mochilas (saddle bags) and ride relay-style with overnight stops in various Arizona towns along the route.

The "Hashknife" name comes from the historic Aztec Land and Cattle Company — a massive late-19th-century cattle operation in northeastern Arizona that branded its cattle with a stylized hashknife brand (resembling the cooking knife used by trail cooks to chop meat). The Aztec Land and Cattle Company at its 1880s peak controlled over 2 million acres and ran approximately 60,000 cattle across northern Arizona; the hashknife brand became one of the most recognized cattle brands in the territorial American West. The modern Pony Express ride uses the historical hashknife name to honor the region's cattle-ranching heritage.

The annual Hashknife ride is a major Holbrook community event. The ride traditionally launches from the Navajo County Courthouse with substantial ceremony — a community breakfast, a brief ceremony with civic leaders, and the formal handover of mail to the lead rider. The ride is open to public viewing both at the launch and at intermediate stops along the route; the specific 2026 ride schedule is typically announced in November 2025. Visitors interested in seeing the launch should plan a late-January Holbrook visit timed to the ride dates.

The historic Route 66 district pairs naturally with the other major Holbrook stops covered in this guide — the Wigwam Motel (the corridor's anchor lodging property), Joe & Aggie's Cafe (the corridor's signature diner), and the Holbrook Visitor Center co-located with the Navajo County Courthouse Museum. A logical half-day plan: park at the Wigwam Motel by 10am, walk the Hopi Drive corridor with stops at the Rainbow Rock Shop and other vintage-sign properties (60-90 minutes), tour the Navajo County Courthouse Museum and visitor center (60-90 minutes), then have lunch at Joe & Aggie's Cafe before continuing to Petrified Forest National Park for the afternoon.

For Route 66 enthusiasts on a multi-day eastern Arizona itinerary, the Holbrook historic district is the standard first-day stop for travelers coming westbound from Gallup, New Mexico (80 miles east). Plan to arrive in Holbrook by mid-afternoon, walk the historic district before sunset, stay overnight at the Wigwam Motel, and dedicate the second full day to Petrified Forest National Park. Day three then continues west toward Winslow (35 miles west) and Flagstaff (about 90 miles west of Holbrook).

For families with kids, the walking tour can be compressed into a shorter visit focused on the highest-impact stops — the Wigwam Motel teepees (15-20 minutes of photography and exploration), the Rainbow Rock Shop dinosaurs (15-20 minutes of dinosaur photography and a quick shop browse), and the Navajo County Courthouse jail (kids generally find the historic jail cells fascinating, 20-30 minutes). This compressed kid-focused plan produces about 1 hour of engaged kid-friendly Route 66 sightseeing and pairs well with a Joe & Aggie's lunch.