Angel Delgadillo has been cutting hair in Seligman, Arizona, since 1950. He still does. His shop is a small, cluttered, extraordinary place where the walls are covered with photographs and signatures and license plates sent by people from every country on earth who drove to Seligman specifically to meet him.
When Interstate 40 bypassed Seligman in 1978, it killed the town almost overnight. The trucks stopped coming. The motels emptied. Businesses closed one after another like lights going out down a street. Seligman’s population, already modest, shrank to the point where you could walk the whole downtown in five minutes and not see another person.
Delgadillo refused to accept that. In 1987, he organized a meeting of Route 66 business owners and proposed forming an association to preserve and promote the old road. He called it the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. He drove to Phoenix himself to petition the state legislature to designate the old highway as a historic route. He worked the phones and wrote letters and talked to anyone who would listen.
The movement spread. Illinois designated its section in 1990. Other states followed. The road that had been officially dead for a decade started coming back — not as a working highway, but as a destination in its own right.
Delgadillo became famous enough that Pixar modeled a character in Cars after him. He still finds this slightly bewildering. He’s not a Hollywood story. He’s a barber who loved his town and decided the interstate wasn’t going to have the last word.
Sometimes the most radical thing a person can do is just refuse to leave.
We are offering licences for ROUTE 66® Beer in specific territories. An invitation to others to become part of this story. To carry a piece of the road with them and to contribute to the story. We will share a percentage of royalties with Route 66 associations to keep the story alive.
The journey continues. This story is brought to you by ROUTE 66® BEER. Find us at ROUTE66BEER.COM
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