Latest news with #AngelDelgadillo
Miami Herald
03-07-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Route 66: Meet the mother road's 98-year-old ‘guardian angel'
SELIGMAN, Arizona - They came suddenly and in numbers, cars and trucks weighed down with their owners' worldly possessions. Angel Delgadillo was a boy when those hundreds of thousands of Dust Bowl refugees drove through his tiny hometown on Route 66, heading for California and the promise of work on farms so fertile, it was said, that fruit fell from the trees. He and his friends used to run to a nearby building at night and wait for the passing vehicles' headlights to cast their shadows on the white stucco wall. They danced and watched their shadows change as the cars neared. "And as a car left," he remembered, "our shadows went with them." Delgadillo's entire life, all 98 years, has played out along what John Steinbeck called "the mother road, the road of flight." He and his eight siblings grew up on the route; he went to barber college in the Route 66 town of Pasadena, California, and then apprenticed for two years at a barber shop in another route town 43 miles east of his home - Williams, Arizona - before returning to Seligman to run his parents' pool hall and barbershop. As Route 66 aficionados look to the historic roadway's 100th anniversary next year, most agree there would probably not be a centennial to celebrate if not for Delgadillo. "They're right," he said with a smile, sitting in his barbershop chair on a Friday in June. An estimated 9,000 cars once passed through Seligman every 24 hours, Delgadillo said, until Interstate 40 bypassed it and other towns along Arizona's Route 66 corridor. The time, he recalled, was around 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1978. "When you lose something so important, your livelihood, how can you forget that moment?" he said. "Listen to me: We knew we were gonna get bypassed, but we did not know how devastating it was going to be. The world just forgot about us. County officials didn't know about us. State officials, highway officials, the feds - it was like they told us, Angel, if you can swim out of it, swim out of it. If you can't, drown." Businesses shuttered. People left. Delgadillo, his wife, Vilma, and four children considered doing the same. Seligman was heading to its grave. "It was a very, very sad moment," he said. "First, it was so sad. Then I got so angry." Then he did something about it. Enlisting the help of his older brother Juan, who built the Seligman institution Delgadillo's Snow Cap, and others, he formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in February 1987. They wrote letters to state highway officials telling them to step in and preserve the route. At first, they were ignored. "But, you know what," he said, "those big boys in Phoenix didn't know who they were up against." By November that same year, the state's transportation department designated 83 miles of Route 66, from Seligman west to Kingman, as a historic road. Delgadillo's association kept up its pressure, eventually convincing the state to add more miles. Today, the entire expanse is recognized by the state as a historic road, and Arizona boasts the longest remaining stretch of uninterrupted Route 66 in the country, starting at the California border and ending nearly 160 miles east near Ash Fork. "To fight the government, you lose. Go to city hall and try to convince them, you lose," Delgadillo said. "We had to fight our state government and we succeeded. We the people." Delgadillo soon fielded phone calls from would-be preservationists in the other seven states the route traverses. They wanted to know how they could protect their portions of the road. Form your association, he told them. Delgadillo's efforts have earned Seligman the title of the "birthplace of historic Route 66," and Delgadillo, the "guardian angel of Route 66." He retired from cutting hair a few years ago; the barbershop inside the Route 66 gift shop that bears his and Vilma's names is now something of a shrine to his and his family's legacy. Route 66 travelers from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Seligman to see him. More often than not these days, they see a life-sized cardboard cutout of his likeness instead. When he does stop in, like on that Friday in June, he's quickly surrounded by people wanting to have their pictures taken with him. "It's as though they have known me forever," he said with a chuckle. "It's overwhelming. They're so thankful. It is mind boggling." In retirement, he continues to help celebrate his beloved town and route. He started building birdhouses constructed using 100-year-old lumber from his grandparents' Seligman restaurant that once stood on Route 66 before it was torn down. Each birdhouse is numbered. Last week, he finished number 268. He has enough wood for another 30. They sell for $100.66 at the gift shop. The proceeds are being donated to help Seligman construct Route 66 welcome signs at either end of town ahead of next year's centennial. ________ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Route 66: Meet the Mother Road's ‘Guardian Angel'
SELIGMAN, Arizona — They came suddenly and in numbers, cars and trucks weighed down with their owners' worldly possessions. Angel Delgadillo was a boy when those hundreds of thousands of Dust Bowl refugees drove through his tiny hometown on Route 66, heading for California and the promise of work on farms so fertile, it was said, that fruit fell from the trees. He and his friends used to run to a nearby building at night and wait for the passing vehicles' headlights to cast their shadows on the white stucco wall. They danced and watched their shadows change as the cars neared. 'And as a car left,' he remembered, 'our shadows went with them.' Delgadillo's entire life, all 98 years, has played out along what John Steinbeck called 'the mother road, the road of flight.' He and his eight siblings grew up on the route; he went to barber college in the Route 66 town of Pasadena, California, and then apprenticed for two years at a barber shop in another route town 43 miles east of his home — Williams, Arizona — before returning to Seligman to run his parents' pool hall and barbershop. As Route 66 aficionados look to the historic roadway's 100th anniversary next year, most agree there would probably not be a centennial to celebrate if not for Delgadillo. 'They're right,' he said with a smile, sitting in his barbershop chair on a Friday in June. An estimated 9,000 cars once passed through Seligman every 24 hours, Delgadillo said, until Interstate 40 bypassed it and other towns along Arizona's Route 66 corridor. The time, he recalled, was around 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1978. 'When you lose something so important, your livelihood, how can you forget that moment?' he said. 'Listen to me: We knew we were gonna get bypassed, but we did not know how devastating it was going to be. The world just forgot about us. County officials didn't know about us. State officials, highway officials, the feds — it was like they told us, Angel, if you can swim out of it, swim out of it. If you can't, drown.' Businesses shuttered. People left. Delgadillo, his wife Vilma and four children considered doing the same. Seligman was heading to its grave. 'It was a very, very sad moment,' he said. 'First, it was so sad. Then I got so angry.' Then he did something about it. Enlisting the help of his older brother Juan, who built the Seligman institution Delgadillo's Snow Cap, and others, he formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in February 1987. They wrote letters to state highway officials telling them to step in and preserve the route. At first, they were ignored. 'But, you know what,' he said, 'those big boys in Phoenix didn't know who they were up against.' By November that same year, the state's transportation department designated 83 miles of Route 66, from Seligman west to Kingman, as a historic road. Delgadillo's association kept up its pressure, eventually convincing the state to add more miles. Today, the entire expanse is recognized by the state as a historic road, and Arizona boasts the longest remaining stretch of uninterrupted Route 66 in the country, starting at the California border and ending nearly 160 miles east near Ash Fork. 'To fight the government, you lose. Go to city hall and try to convince them, you lose,' Delgadillo said. 'We had to fight our state government and we succeeded. We the people.' Delgadillo soon fielded phone calls from would-be preservationists in the other seven states the route traverses. They wanted to know how they could protect their portions of the road. Form your association, he told them. Delgadillo's efforts have earned Seligman the title of the 'birthplace of historic Route 66,' and Delgadillo, the 'guardian angel of Route 66.' He retired from cutting hair a few years ago; the barbershop inside the Route 66 gift shop that bears his and his wife Vilma's names is now something of a shrine to his and his family's legacy. Route 66 travelers from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Seligman to see him. More often than not these days, they see a life-sized cardboard cutout of his likeness instead. When he does stop in, like on that Friday in June, he's quickly surrounded by people wanting to have their pictures taken with him. 'It's as though they have known me forever,' he said with a chuckle. 'It's overwhelming. They're so thankful. It is mind boggling.' In retirement, he continues to help celebrate his beloved town and route. He started building birdhouses constructed using 100-year-old lumber from his grandparents' Seligman restaurant that once stood on Route 66 before it was torn down. Each birdhouse is numbered. Last week, he finished number 268. He has enough wood for another 30. They sell for $100.66 at the gift shop. The proceeds are being donated to help Seligman construct Route 66 welcome signs at either end of town ahead of next year's centennial.
Chicago Tribune
13-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Route 66: Meet the Mother Road's ‘Guardian Angel'
SELIGMAN, Arizona — They came suddenly and in numbers, cars and trucks weighed down with their owners' worldly possessions. Angel Delgadillo was a boy when those hundreds of thousands of Dust Bowl refugees drove through his tiny hometown on Route 66, heading for California and the promise of work on farms so fertile, it was said, that fruit fell from the trees. He and his friends used to run to a nearby building at night and wait for the passing vehicles' headlights to cast their shadows on the white stucco wall. They danced and watched their shadows change as the cars neared. 'And as a car left,' he remembered, 'our shadows went with them.' Delgadillo's entire life, all 98 years, has played out along what John Steinbeck called 'the mother road, the road of flight.' He and his eight siblings grew up on the route; he went to barber college in the Route 66 town of Pasadena, California, and then apprenticed for two years at a barber shop in another route town 43 miles east of his home — Williams, Arizona — before returning to Seligman to run his parents' pool hall and barbershop. As Route 66 aficionados look to the historic roadway's 100th anniversary next year, most agree there would probably not be a centennial to celebrate if not for Delgadillo. 'They're right,' he said with a smile, sitting in his barbershop chair on a Friday in June. An estimated 9,000 cars once passed through Seligman every 24 hours, Delgadillo said, until Interstate 40 bypassed it and other towns along Arizona's Route 66 corridor. The time, he recalled, was around 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1978. 'When you lose something so important, your livelihood, how can you forget that moment?' he said. 'Listen to me: We knew we were gonna get bypassed, but we did not know how devastating it was going to be. The world just forgot about us. County officials didn't know about us. State officials, highway officials, the feds — it was like they told us, Angel, if you can swim out of it, swim out of it. If you can't, drown.' Businesses shuttered. People left. Delgadillo, his wife Vilma and four children considered doing the same. Seligman was heading to its grave. 'It was a very, very sad moment,' he said. 'First, it was so sad. Then I got so angry.' Then he did something about it. Enlisting the help of his older brother Juan, who built the Seligman institution Delgadillo's Snow Cap, and others, he formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in February 1987. They wrote letters to state highway officials telling them to step in and preserve the route. At first, they were ignored. 'But, you know what,' he said, 'those big boys in Phoenix didn't know who they were up against.' By November that same year, the state's transportation department designated 83 miles of Route 66, from Seligman west to Kingman, as a historic road. Delgadillo's association kept up its pressure, eventually convincing the state to add more miles. Today, the entire expanse is recognized by the state as a historic road, and Arizona boasts the longest remaining stretch of uninterrupted Route 66 in the country, starting at the California border and ending nearly 160 miles east near Ash Fork. 'To fight the government, you lose. Go to city hall and try to convince them, you lose,' Delgadillo said. 'We had to fight our state government and we succeeded. We the people.' Delgadillo soon fielded phone calls from would-be preservationists in the other seven states the route traverses. They wanted to know how they could protect their portions of the road. Form your association, he told them. Delgadillo's efforts have earned Seligman the title of the 'birthplace of historic Route 66,' and Delgadillo, the 'guardian angel of Route 66.' He retired from cutting hair a few years ago; the barbershop inside the Route 66 gift shop that bears his and his wife Vilma's names is now something of a shrine to his and his family's legacy. Route 66 travelers from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Seligman to see him. More often than not these days, they see a life-sized cardboard cutout of his likeness instead. When he does stop in, like on that Friday in June, he's quickly surrounded by people wanting to have their pictures taken with him. 'It's as though they have known me forever,' he said with a chuckle. 'It's overwhelming. They're so thankful. It is mind boggling.' In retirement, he continues to help celebrate his beloved town and route. He started building birdhouses constructed using 100-year-old lumber from his grandparents' Seligman restaurant that once stood on Route 66 before it was torn down. Each birdhouse is numbered. Last week, he finished number 268. He has enough wood for another 30. They sell for $100.66 at the gift shop. The proceeds are being donated to help Seligman construct Route 66 welcome signs at either end of town ahead of next year's centennial.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Party like it's 1959 with classic cars, tunes and the neon glow of Route 66. Here's how
It is one of Arizona's most iconic images — like the Grand Canyon or a grove of saguaros at sunset. Except this sight has more tail fins. Hundreds of classic cars will travel a legendary highway across northern Arizona on a very special spring weekend. Fun Run is almost here. The Route 66 Fun Run is a rolling party that celebrates the road once known as 'America's Main Street' and Arizona's role in saving it. The annual event takes place May 2-4 this year. More than 800 registered classic cars, trucks, motorcycles, hot rods, street rods and just about anything drivable starts out in Seligman and journeys southwest to Topock on the California state line. Route 66, stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, was established Nov. 11, 1926. But the only reason we can celebrate is because of the work done by a few Seligman residents led by the town barber, Angel Delgadillo. U.S. 66 never even got to blow out the candles on its 60th birthday cake. With the expansion of the interstate highway system, the old road was decertified in 1985. All signs were taken down and it was removed from maps. The Mother Road immortalized in novel, song, film and television ceased to exist. America no longer had a Main Street. Like so many towns bypassed by the new interstate, Seligman struggled to survive. Where once thousands of cars streamed through daily on Route 66, they now hurtled past on Interstate 40. Businesses shuttered and residents fled. In 1987, Delgadillo and his brother Juan organized a meeting of concerned business owners. They formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, the very first of its kind. The association lobbied the state to designate Route 66 a historic highway and, lo and behold, they succeeded. That provided a blueprint for all other states to follow. Today, the old highway is back, now known as Historic Route 66 and it exists on a state-by-state basis. After achieving the historic designation, the association wanted to get the news out. They organized a memorable three-day event called the Historic Route 66 Fun Run Car Rally and Show that took place April 22-24, 1988. The dedication event attracted 152 entrants. Gov. Rose Mofford cut the ceremonial ribbon and Will Rogers Jr. served as grand marshal. Participants traveled the newly preserved Historic Route 66 between Seligman and Topock for 140 miles — part of the longest stretch of Route 66 still in existence. The event proved to be such a success that everyone wanted more. Fun Run became an annual event, growing larger each year. The Route 66 Fun Run 2025 is especially significant since it will be the final tune-up before the Route 66 Centennial, which kicks off in 2026. All are welcome at the Route 66 Fun Run 2025. The event draws people from all over the world. Route 66 is very much an international icon because it symbolizes freedom and a sense of adventure. That resonates with nearly everyone. The Route 66 Fun Run is free to attend or drive. You can make the complete journey in your own vehicle or just go part of the way. Or choose a spot and simply watch the hundreds of shiny classic cars roll past. Stake out a favored photo op. Attend one of the scheduled events. Whatever you choose. Only the vehicle owners who want to have their rides judged at the Show N Shine Car Show in Kingman on Saturday pay a registration fee. And all those 800-plus slots have already been filled for the Route 66 Fun Run 2025. Here's the schedule of events for Route 66 Fun Run 2025 weekend: Friday, May 2 Everyone gathers to register in Seligman. Vintage vehicles line the streets for a preliminary car show. At 4:30 p.m., Angel Delgadillo will present a $20,000 check to the Seligman Community Foundation for centennial monument signs at the town gazebo. Starting at 5 p.m., the evening cruise rumbles up and down Route 66, a taste of what's to come, especially when the neon flickers on. There's a DJ-led dance party at Delgadillo's Snow Cap from 6-10 p.m. And they start rocking the rafters at the Black Cat Bar at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 3 The Early Bird Line Up on 66 begins at dawn. Breakfast is served at the Snow Cap at 8 a.m. At 9:30 a.m., Delgadillo starts the car parade from Seligman to Kingman, a distance of 88 miles. It's a lovely sight as spectators line the roadway with lawn chairs and cameras to watch so much history roll past on America's most famous road. Everyone moves at their own pace as they cross the windswept plains of northwestern Arizona and the wide valleys framed by mountains. And it seems like no matter where you pull over, you'll find a little party going on. At Peach Springs, the Hualapai Cultural Center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's hosting the Hualapai Children's Art Expo, with art demonstrations, vendors, traditional food sampling and Hualapai Bird singing and dancing. The Hackberry General Store will have live music and a food truck from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registered vehicles gather in the car show area in downtown Kingman and are on display until 4 p.m. A sock hop ice cream social goes from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Best Western Plus Kings Inn & Suites. There will be '50s music, ice cream, maybe some swinging outfits and more classic cars. Sunday, May 4 Coffee and breakfast are available at 8 a.m. in Locomotive Park, where the awards presentation will take place from 9-10 a.m. The vehicle parade leaves Kingman at 10 a.m., making the drive across the desert followed by the scenic twisted climb into the Black Mountains to Oatman, where wild burros and gunfights await. The day ends at the finish line at the Topock/Golden Shores Community Center with a barbecue, raffle, car show, music and drinks. Registration is open for the 2026 Route 66 Centennial Fun Run, scheduled for May 1-3. This one will be the biggest, most significant bash since the original event in 1988 that announced to the world that the Mother Road was back and here to stay. Classic-car drivers can sign up at historic66az/fun-run. The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the Route 66 Fun Run is a fundraising event whose proceeds go back into the Route 66 community. Sign up and be part of history during the Route 66 Centennial. Find the reporter at Or follow him on Facebook at Arizona Republic contributor and author Roger Naylor is giving presentations about his books. Here are some scheduled talks. They're free to attend. Cottonwood: 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at Cottonwood Library, 100 S. Sixth St. This talk kicks off the Verde Valley Nature and Birding Festival and will be on the book "Awesome Arizona: 200 Amazing Facts About the Grand Canyon State." 928-634-7559. Sedona: 1 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at Sedona Library, 3250 White Bear Road. The topic will be the book "Arizona National Parks and Monuments." 928-282-7714. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Route 66 Fun Run: Classic cars, neon glow in Arizona
