Winslow, Arizona

• 1. Introduction

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  Winslow, Arizona sits on the high desert plain of Navajo County, about 57 miles southeast of Flagstaff, where the air is dry and the sky runs wide. A city of roughly nine thousand people, it perches along a stretch of road that was once the most celebrated highway in America. What keeps Winslow on the map today is a tangle of things: a song recorded in 1972, a hotel rescued from demolition, an airport designed by a transatlantic pioneer, and a memorial built from the wreckage of a September morning that changed a country. How did a small Arizona city become the crossroads of so many distinct American stories? That question runs through everything that follows.

• 2. A Name With Two Stories

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  Even the origin of Winslow's name is disputed. One account credits Edward F. Winslow, president of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, which owned half of the old Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Another points to Tom Winslow, a prospector who simply lived in the area before the town had a name. The railroad connection matters because the rails preceded almost everything else here. The BNSF Southern Transcon route, running between Los Angeles and Chicago, still passes through the city today, and the Winslow Amtrak Station still receives twice-daily service from the Southwest Chief. A city born from the iron logic of freight movement has never fully shed that identity.

• 3. La Posada and Mary Colter

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  Mary Colter designed the Harvey House that opened in Winslow in 1930, and it was something genuinely rare: a hotel built at a moment when rail travel still felt like civilization in motion. The building closed in 1957. Early in the 1960s, the Santa Fe Railway gutted much of the interior and converted it into company offices. By 1994 the railroad had abandoned the property altogether and announced plans to demolish it. Allan Affeldt bought the building and led its restoration. It now operates as the La Posada Hotel, returned to something close to Colter's original vision after decades of bureaucratic storage and institutional neglect.

• 4. Route 66 and the Bypass

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  U.S. Route 66 originally ran straight through Winslow, threading the city into the mythology of American road travel. That changed at the end of 1977, when a contract was awarded to build Interstate 40 as a bypass routed north of the city. The Business route through town retains the historic Route 66 designation, but the bypass shifted traffic away from the commercial center that the old highway had fed. Standin' on the Corner Park now anchors downtown with murals depicting the imagery from the 1972 Eagles song "Take It Easy," which immortalized Winslow in a line about a girl, a Lord, and a flatbed Ford. The annual Standin' On The Corner street festival, traditionally held the last week of September, draws visitors back to the stretch the interstate bypassed.

• 5. The Airport Charles Lindbergh Designed

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  Winslow-Lindbergh Regional Airport carries a name that hints at a grander chapter. Transcontinental Air Transport originally constructed the facility, and it was designed by Charles Lindbergh himself. That connection places Winslow inside the early American aviation network that Lindbergh helped plot across the continent. The airport predates the interstate era, making Winslow a city that has been a node in multiple American transportation systems: rail, road, and air, each arriving in a different era and each leaving its mark on the physical landscape.

• 6. People Who Passed Through

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  Winslow has produced or harbored a striking range of people for a city of its size. Nick Hysong won a gold medal in pole vault at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Deb Haaland, the first Native American woman elected to Congress, went on to serve as the 54th United States Secretary of the Interior. Richard Kleindienst served as United States Attorney General under Richard Nixon. Jay R. Vargas received the Medal of Honor for service during the Vietnam War. Paul M. Lally, who produced, directed, and wrote for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, resided in Winslow in the late 1950s. Tommy Singer, a Navajo silversmith who specialized in chip-inlay jewelry, built a body of work from here. The 9-11 Remembrance Gardens in the city was constructed using two beams recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers, connecting Winslow's landscape to a national wound in a concrete, material way.

• 7. Who Lives Here Now

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  The 2020 census counted 9,005 residents, a slight decline from the 9,520 recorded in 2000. American Indian and Alaska Native residents make up 33.3% of the population, and Hispanic or Latino residents of any race account for 32.4%. The median age in 2020 was 34.3 years. The city spans 12.3 square miles, all land, in a high-desert climate that averages 56 degrees Fahrenheit annually, receives just over seven inches of precipitation per year, and accumulates an average of 8.1 inches of snow per season. Hopi Senom Transit runs bus service from Winslow out to the Hopi Reservation, a connection that speaks to the city's role as a practical hub for surrounding communities. Northland Pioneer College maintains its Little Colorado Campus here, giving residents access to higher education within city limits.