Day 13: Seligman

Back then and now. Seligman clearly seeks to sell an experience of the past.

Route 66 occupies a special place in the hearts of Americans, forming the setting of John Steinbeck’s hugely popular novel, Grapes of Wrath, which depicted the economic woes that Americans suffered as a result of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, in the process earning the moniker of the “mother road” (Taylor, 2015).. However, following Dwight Eisenhower’s 1956 Federal Highway Act, which led to the building of Interstate 40, America’s first highway began to lose its purpose (Taylor, 2015). In this respect, the town we visited, Seligman, which acts as the starting point of the “mother road” (Ward, 2013:308),, would also have been expected to have become a ghost town, due to losing its main economic reason for being. And on September 22, 1978, there was good reason to suspect that it would, with Angel Delgaldillo, one of the key figures in the revival of Seligman, stating that “on that day…traffic stopped” (Witzel et al., 2007:234). Yet, having learned of the “nostalgia” that Americans had for Route 66 (Angel & Vilma’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop), Delgaldillo seems to have brought life back to Seligman and the “mother road”, as attested by the streams of tourists that pour out of coaches, as we pull up on the main street. It is lined with what one might expect to have encountered in the 1950s, in the form of old and quirky styled shops, restaurants, cars etc. So, evidently, what Seligman is trying to sell is a time capsule, an experience of history, what Americans might have been experiencing prior to Interstate 40. Yet, whilst Seligman has been successful in reinventing itself, it is also testament to the fact that in such a mobile society, American towns are always at threat, as the nation continues to seek further development and people are blown about like dust. 

Angel & Vilma’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop (n.d.) The Angel of Route 66. Available at: http://www.route66giftshop.com/the-angel-of-route-66/ [Accessed 14 May 2016]

Taylor, C. (2015) US road trip: a guide to Route 66. The Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/feb/28/us-road-trip-route-66 [Accessed 14 May 2016]

Ward, G (2013) The Rough Guide to Southwest USA. 6^th edn. Rough Guides.

Wiztel, M.K., and Wiztel, G.Y. (2007) Legendary Route 66. St. Paul, Voyageur Press.