by Diane Brady

t’s really more like a teepee, but it’s called the Wigwam Motel.

In the heyday of Route 66, there were no chain motels, so they didn’t all look like a Holiday Inn. The “motor courts,” as many of them were called, were family owned, often nondescript units, such as small bungalows or cabins. But many were flights of whimsy, highlighted by places like the Wigwam Villages.

Begun in 1934 in Kentucky by Frank Redford, seven villages were in operation by 1949. There were no franchises then, so each was an independent operation. The only revenue Redford received was that each room had a coin operated radio, and he received 10-cents for each half-hour of play. Of the seven that were built, only three remain; Cave City; Kentucky; Holbrook, Arizona; and Rialto, California. We stayed in the village located in Rialto (near San Bernardino).

The businesses along roads like Route 66 began to be abandoned when the interstate highway system was built. This was illustrated in the Disney/Pixar film Cars, where the town of Radiator Springs showed what had happened to the towns along the old highways. Homage was paid to the Wigwam Villages with the “Cozy Cone Motel,” but the units were traffic cones, rather than teepees.

Each “wigwam” is about 30-feet tall and 15-feet in diameter. You would expect to see a pointy ceiling when you enter, but that is not so. The room has a conventional ceiling about eight-feet high, so you are just staying in a round room.

Homage was paid to the Wigwam Villages with the “Cozy Cone Motel,” but the units were traffic cones, rather than teepees.

According to Wigwam lore, back in the ‘50s a family was traveling and stopped at one of the villages. They got out of the car to look the place over, and left their four-year-old daughter in the car, asleep. She woke up, looked around, saw all the teepees and thought they had been captured by Indians.

Share a piece of history with your family or friends by surprising them with a stay in a wigwam.

Wigwam Motel: tel. 909/875-3005; www.wigwammotel.com.

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