Winslow, Arizona – A song made it famous, and now the town is capitalizing on the song!

If you’ve ever traveled across the country on old Route 66, or you’ve taken the Winslow exit off I-40, you may remember the town of Winslow as a dusty, sleepy gas and food stop on the l-o—o-o-n-g trip through that part of Arizona. Certainly there wasn’t much of anything that would capture anyone’s interest in town.

Today, though, it has been spruced up. One of its newest features is a sculpture and a painted mural on a street corner that brings back fond memories of The Eagles and their song, “Take it Easy.” The words, “Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see” put Winslow on the map a few decades ago. That street corner, pictured above, now features a sculpture by Ron Adamson, presumably of a member of the Eagles group with his guitar. Behind it is a mural by John Pugh that looks like a reflection in the window of a business. There, immortalized for all to see, is the girl in the flat-bed Ford (from the song) who is slowing down to take a look back at the statue.

If you love Eagles music, you’ll recognize the scene. The corner park is a fine tribute to the song because the mural that captures the essence of the song is top quality and very realistic. It causes viewers to quickly glance around to see if a girl in a flat-bed Ford is actually driving by.
Besides the famous corner, La Posada Hotel, a Fred Harvey hotel built in 1929, is being restored to its original grandeur and is worth a visit to see the magnificent design of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter.

There are also some natural scenic wonders in the vicinity of Winslow, including Meteor Crater, where a giant meteor crashed to earth about 50,000 years ago and created a huge depression more than 4,000 feet across with a force estimated at greater than twenty million tons of TNT. There are also the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest nearby. Now I’ll have to admit that the first time I saw those two areas, I wasn’t very impressed, but then again, I saw them under the harsh sun of a cloudless November day when it was cold, windy and basically uncomfortable. And there is no standing forest, in case you wonder about the petrified trees. Instead, broken logs lie scattered on the ground, but they are indeed petrified wood.

Arizona is full of natural wonders, and there’s something for everyone—whether you like forests, mountains, deserts, or simply enjoy the many activities the State offers. I’ll be writing about some of the other “wonders” that you can see or participate in within the borders of Arizona, including panning for gold.