Winslow: Standing on the Corner Since Eighteen Eighty

Winslow was founded in eighteen eighty when the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad laid out a townsite along the Little Colorado River, naming it, most likely, for Edward Winslow, president of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, a co-owner of the line. It grew fast enough that the railroad thought it might rival Santa Fe.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe bought the line in eighteen ninety-seven and moved its Arizona division headquarters here, bringing in thousands of railroad workers. In nineteen thirty, the Fred Harvey Company opened La Posada, the last and most extravagant of the Harvey House hotels, designed by architect Mary Colter in the style of a Spanish hacienda. It was the grandest railroad hotel in the Southwest.

When Route Sixty-Six followed the railroad's path, Winslow became a fixture on the Mother Road. In nineteen seventy-two, the Eagles released 'Take It Easy,' with its opening line about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Jackson Browne had written the lyric after being stranded here. Today the corner has a bronze statue and draws visitors who come specifically to stand there. La Posada, nearly demolished in the nineteen nineties, was restored and is still operating as a hotel.