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| Clickable Map. Hackberry is on the
longest continuous section of Route 66 in the nation. That
section was bypassed by Interstate 40 in 1978. |
The mother lode of mother road memorabilia. Inside and out, the
Hackberry General Store is a
museum of old Route 66. Though no gas is sold, vintage pumps
punctuate the storefront. Mobilgas' Pegasus leaps from the roof, and
the Greyhound dog welcomes bus travelers.
Inside, visitors can try on Route 66 clothing, pick up Route 66
trinkets, walk through a vintage diner, and even have a bottle of Route 66
Beer (root beer, not beer beer). Virtually every trinket bearing the
Route 66 theme, from neon to key chains, can be found in the store.
Outside, Berma-Shave signs recreate the era when their terse verse
amused passing motorists. A yellow sign bearing a skull warns of 300
miles of desert ahead and offers life saving water bags and ice.
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| A reproduction of an old garage is tucked away on the east side of
the Hackberry General Store. Inside an old Ford flatbed tuck
sits as if it were awaiting service for journey along the newly
designated Route 66 highway. |
East of the store, an old garage services a Model T flatbed truck, and
cars of more recent vintage line up with still more Berma-Shave signs.
Other buildings appear to be sprouting behind the store for what is likely
to become an expanded Route 66 experience.
Red 'Vette! The pièce de résistance is a red 1956
Chevrolet Corvette parked in front of the store. The Corvette has
been the quintessential Route 66 touring car ever since Tod Stiles (Martin
Milner) and Buz Murdock (George Maharis) traveled the highway in search of
adventure on the CBS television show, Route 66 (1960-1964). Although
television was only black and white then, viewers just knew that the
Corvette had to be red--and issues of TV Guide proved them right.
 |
| A beautifully maintained vintage 1956 Chevrolet Corvette sits in
its designated parking spot at the Hackberry General Store. On
TV, Route 66 might have been in black and white, but the Corvette
was always red. |
Under new management! The Hackberry General Store is
clearly not what its originator intended. It was built to purvey
needed goods to the growing community of Hackberry, just across the
railroad tracks. As town industry withered, Route 66 provided store
revenues. But when I-40 bypassed Route 66 from Seligman to Kingman,
the store died.
In the early 1990's artist Bob Waldmire parked his Volkswagen van next
to an abandoned Hackberry General Store to sell his artwork. Bob was
no stranger to Route 66 enterprises. His father invented the Cozy
Dog and the family still operates another Route 66 institution, the Cozy
Dog Drive-In in Springfield. The mother road beckoned Bob in the
late 1960's. Since then, he's been traveling the road, selling his
art in the form of postcards, stickers, posters and maps from the van.
His postcards may be found at many shops long the road--they are the
reproductions of detailed pen and ink drawings.
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| John Pritchard presides over the Hackberry General Store. |
In 1992, Bob announced that he would be re-opening the long abandoned
store. This time, it was to be reincarnated as the
International-Bioregional Old Route 66 Visitors Center. He bought
the store and began restoring the building. He repainted signs and
Route 66 shields, and cleared the parking lot.
When the center opened, it offered visitors the chance to peruse an
impressive collection of maps, books, signs and artifacts relating to the
historic road. One wall was a tribute to his father, the inventor of
the corn dog on a stick.
By 1998, Bob had succumbed to wanderlust again. John and Kerry
Pritchard bought the Hackberry General Store from Bob. The purchase
gave them a place to display their lifetime collection of roadside
memorabilia and expand the store that Bob reopened.
| The Hackberry Tree |
| Scientific Name |
Celtis occidentalis L. |
| Description |
A tall, triangular shaped tree, adult trees are
generally 50 to 88 feet tall. |
| Distribution |
Requires moist to medium dry soil; found near small
creaks, streams, ponds, and swamps. |
| Fruit |
Produces a small, berry sized fruit, about 1/3"
in diameter. The fruit is in the drupe or stone fruit family, and is
similar to a cherry having a thin, purplish skin, sweet yellowish
flesh and a single seed covered by hard stone. Also called
"sugarberry". The fruit ripens around September and
may stay on the tree most of the winter. |
The Hackberry Silver Mine. Hackberry's origin dates back
to 1874 when prospectors set up a mining camp near a spring on the east
side of the Peacock Mountains. The Hackberry Silver Mine was named
for a large hackberry tree growing near the spring.
When mining ceased in 1919 as a result of litigation among the owners,
$3,000,000 in gold and silver had been produced. In 2000, the owner
of the 750 acres which include the old Hackberry mine was seeking a sales
or exploration agreement with an eye toward a leasing or selling the
property.
Along came the railroad. The railroad reached Hackberry in
1882, and shipments of cattle began. Hackberry became an very
important debarkation point. At its peak it shipped the third
largest number of cattle from Arizona. |
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