Wigwam Village #6 in Holbrook, Arizona, is a classic Route 66 landmark built in 1950 by motel owner Chester E. Lewis after he licensed Frank Redford’s teepee-shaped “Wigwam Village” design through a quirky deal that sent Redford royalties from the coin-operated radios in each room. Located in a busy travel stop between Flagstaff and Gallup and near Petrified Forest National Park, the motel featured fifteen 32-foot concrete-and-steel teepees arranged around a central office. It closed in 1974 after Interstate 40 diverted traffic away from downtown Holbrook, but Lewis’s children restored and reopened it in 1988, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Still operated by the Lewis family, it remains famous for its vintage cars, glowing “Sleep in a Wigwam” neon sign, and its likely influence on the Cozy Cone Motel in Pixar’s Cars.
