The starting point for this investigation was an old photo of Ash Fork taken from the east side right on Route 66. It got interesting when I zoomed in on the photo and saw a train which puzzled me because I was not aware that there had been a train line running on the east side of Ash Fork heading to the south. So here is the photo:
Here is a current shot from very near the same location.
Here is a zoomed in image. You can see the train cars and the smoke from the engine beyond them. From the angle the cars are on a curve approaching the north side of town.
Here is the path the train track took. You can still see the remains of the road bed headed south until you reach the point it joined the current track headed south. The blue push pin is approximately the spot where the current photo was taken.
This is a 1946 topo map of the area. You can see how the eastern branch went south and merged with the southbound line.
This building at Lewis and 4th has a personal connection. When I was a kid my dad and I were on a trip to our motel and he took me into town where we stopped and watched the craftsman making the thunderbird image. We visited with him for awhile. I believe this was filling in an existing window not the new construction of the building. Would have been just about 1960
Additional information about the motel
A photo of the original sign when the motel was built about 1958.
A shot of the neon sign installed shortly after. That is me playing at the bottom. The Sleepy Hollow Motel is in the background.
There were several of these trees with benches attached around the property. The Willys station wagon was the first car I learned to drive. My sister Sherry is in the picture.
This house was on the property just to the east of the motel building. The care taker and his wife lived there. There was no water on the property so there was a water tower that was filled by a tanker truck to supply fresh water. Rain water was collected for watering plants.
This is the only picture I have ever seen of the Sleepy Hollow Motel in Ash Fork. It was located next door just to the West of Martin’s motel. We would go over there for breakfast in the cafe since we didn’t have one. The road in front of it is 66. Don’t know when it was torn down but there is now a business selling flagstone on the empty lot.
