I have slept in a wigwam!

Submitted by Rusty June 20th, 2011
Certifikitsch Winner

Inspired by signcollector’s post on Holbrook, Arizona’s Wigwam motel, I had to share some of my photos from Spring 2010 when I slept in a wigwam. Sleeping in a wigwam was just one marvelous stop on a great Rte. 66 journey. And as you will see at the end of the post, I caught some mighty big dreams too. Gotta dream big is what I say!

I submitted this pix of me to Alameda Sun for its readers' series "The Sun Goes Everywhere". They printed it!

Rusty Blazenhoff of Alameda wrote this to the Alameda Sun in April: “As a child, our family traveled Route 66 a few times and I became enamored with the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Ariz. We never got to be motel guests back then and now, 20-something years later, I got my opportunity. I finally got to spend a night in the wonderfully kitschy Wigwam Motel and I can now cross it off my ‘bucket list’. It was almost exactly as I had imagined it and I got to bring a little piece of home with me on the journey, the Alameda Sun.”

Looking out the window of a wigwam.

The interior of Wigwam room #1.

Only the finest double bed for our wigwam.

The bathroom is tiny and the mirror is on a slanted wall.

Ain’t it a beaut?

Giant novelty dream catcher ftw! I caught some big dreams in this bad boy.

All photos by Rusty Blazenhoff.

10 Responses to “I have slept in a wigwam!”

  1. Allee Willis

    I love seeing these photos as I just spent Saturday night at the Wigwam Hotel on Route 66 in San Bernardino, California. https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2011/06/20/allee-willis’-kitsch-o’-the-day-–-the-wigwam-motel-on-route-66-ca/

    I always wanted to stay at one of these. Who wouldn’t?! When I drove cross-country from Manhattan to move to Los Angeles in 1976, the year of the big Centennial, our big goal was to stop at the Wigwam in Arizona, the one you spotlight here, and to buy a pair of special edition Centennial cowboy boots at the Tony Lamas factory located a few miles away. I spent 200 of the $400 I had to make it to LA on the boots but saved a little money snoozing the car as the Wigwam had been sold out for months. I was heartbroken and couldn’t even take photos of it because in those pre-digital camera days film was something that had to be considered in one’s budget. So I’m so happy to see your report now. I’ll make it there one day…

    What’s that dome-like thing next to the giant dream catcher?

  3. kookykrafts

    Wig Wam camping is the best! Except for the shag carpeting which is probably full of dust mites and athletes foot…