From the very earliest days, Cool Springs camp and service station were an important stop for motorists traveling Arizona’s Route 66. Cool Springs was built in the mid-1920s and has been connected with Route 66 from the very start. The legacy of Cool Springs reflects the larger story of Route 66. The Mother Road gave it life. The heyday of Route 66 was the heyday of Cool Springs. When Route 66 declined in this area, so too did Cool Springs. Route 66 is the most celebrated of the old US highways, and the Cool Springs area is perhaps the most spectacular and unique stretch of the Mother Road to be found anywhere between Chicago and Santa Monica; a “must-see” for the adventuresome automobile enthusiast or historian. Cool Springs is on the eastern slope of the Black Mountains, the rugged range along the Colorado River in northwestern Arizona. This is a vast land, wind-blasted and sun scorched. It can be a hostile land. But it is also a land of unparalleled beauty. The old highway leaves Kingman, Arizona, going west and crosses the Sacramento Valley. Old Route 66 follows the contours of the land with all its dips and swells. This is flash flood country during the short rainy season. Most of the year, though, rain is but a hoped-for respite.
Cool Springs was important at this time because it provided a welcome stop for weary travelers to rest up and check their automobiles before tackling the treacherous Gold Road Hill up to Sitgreaves Pass or to calm their nerves after descending this steep pass. A stop at Cool Springs during those days might just have saved many lives. Then in the early 1950s, something happened that foreshadowed the changes to come for Route 66. This part of Route 66 was bypassed by a new, straighter alignment of Route 66 through Yucca, Arizona, which eliminated the need to traverse the steep mountain grades of Sitgreaves Pass. Interstate 40 follows this newer alignment of Route 66 across the desert today. This new alignment of Route 66 also bypassed the town of Oatman, Arizona, effectively turning it into a ghost town. After the mines closed during World War II, Route 66 had provided the economic base for the old mining town and the businesses, like Cool Springs, located along her route. When the newer alignment of Route 66 was opened, the busy days of Cool Springs became numbered.
After almost 40 years, Cool Springs is now open for business again. It is now presented as a welcome stop for people to enjoy and cherish. It represents the end of the old era and the beginning of the new appreciation for the days of the past. route66coolspringsaz.com/
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