Peach Springs Trading Post - Peach Springs, AZ - National Scenic Byways on Waymarking.com

Peach Springs is located on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. When U.S. Route 66 was developed this became an important exchange point between the Hualapai and passing motorists. After a long day driving on primitive roads in early cars the chance to rest, restock and purchase souvenirs was appreciated by the tourists and the Indians benefited from the cash flow. Interstate 40 bypassed Peach Springs and the tourist trade dried up in 1978. The building is now occupied by the tribal Department of Fish and Game.
"Peach Springs lies within the traditional territory of the Hualapai people. The springs were reliable water sources that were used by American Indians for centuries. Euro-American colonists became aware of the springs during explorations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Beginning in 1858, emigrants along the Beale Wagon Road increasingly used Peach Springs as a rest stop and watering place.

With the "Good Roads" movement of the 1910s came the National Old Trails Road, which led to a new era of prosperity for the town. By 1917, E. H. Carpenter opened a trading post. In 1921, his friend Ancel Early Taylor bought a half interest in the store, and by 1924 Taylor was the sole owner of the Peach Springs Trading Post. In 1926, the National Old Trails Road became part of Route 66. With the widening and improving of the road, traffic through the town steadily increased. Taylor’s trading post business boomed, and two years later he razed the frame store and constructed a new stone building to house the trading post.

"The 1928 Peach Tree Trading Post had stone walls, stepped parapets, heavy Ponderosa Pine vigas (exposed beams), and massive chimneys. Rocks were hauled from a spot on the side of a nearby hill, and pine logs were brought from the forest in the northeast part of the reservation. The building’s appearance reflects a blending of prehistoric and historic southwestern architectural styles, likely designed to appeal more to Route 66 tourists than to the surrounding Hualapai Tribe it also served." (visit link)

Program: America's Byways Website: [Web Link] Official Name: Historic Route 66

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