Dinosaur Dreams and Wigwam Wonders: A Nostalgic Journey to Holbrook's Quirky Attractions

 Photos and Story by Ken Hulsey

In its heyday, Route 66 was a literal haven of roadside attractions and souvenir emporiums. Some of these landmarks were rather interesting, while the others truly deserved the title 'tourist trap'. Indeed, the 2,448-mile highway that spanned from Chicago to Los Angeles was a thing of wonder for anyone who pulled over from time to time as well as anyone who simply spent the hours staring out the window.

As the decades passed, many of these eccentric locations began to close down, many becoming abandoned eyesores and targets for bored teenagers with spray paint cans along the roadway. By the mid-1970s, the construction of Interstate 40 was the coffin nail for all but a handful that remained. The new highway simply bypassed many of the locals and towns that the old roadway once served. 

The old tourist traps simply fell out of favor in the age of Star Wars and MTV. 

Strangely, this was the exact time that a couple from the Midwest moved to Holbrook (Arizona) and decided to build their own little slice of tourist trap heaven alongside I40. Armed with a collection of weird giant dinosaur statues that were castoffs from another failed roadside attraction and a village of metal Indian teepees, this ambitious couple hoped that these oddities would be enough to lure potential customers off the road and into their newly constructed store that sold souvenirs from local Native American artists. 

Where once you couldn't throw a rock in the state of Arizona without hitting either a bizarre dinosaur statue or a metal wigwam, today the site really stands out. Admittedly, it takes a lot of guts to build something like this in an age when things like it were folding up all around it. I'm certain that back in 79 people were laughing their heads off and calling the owners of the Painted Desert Indian Center dimwits, but it was those intrepid tourist trap enthusiasts that had the last laugh. 

The darn thing is still alive and kicking over forty years later.

People from all over the world make a pilgrimage to the location to get their pictures taken with those wacky dinosaurs, and they also venture inside the store to purchase something to remember their experience by. It sounds really old-fashioned in this day and age, but it's working. Thankfully, this throwback to an age when people took car trips across our great country is still around to remind us of it.

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