The Zoo Country Dance Club - Flagstaff, AZ - Dance Clubs on Waymarking.com

?The Museum Club is a chameleon as a Route 66 roadside attraction, the Dean Eldredge Taxidermy Museum, a country music night club, a bar & restaurant, the world's largest log cabin, as well as listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


The King of Clubs
By Peg Brinkhoff/Country America
02/01/94
If you ask country and western dancers about their favorite places to scoot their boots, expect to get impassioned responses. We sure did! Our call for favorite dance club nominations in one of last year’s issues inspired many a two-steppers to tell us why they love their clubs.
Picking a winner was as difficult as doing the Sweetheart Schottische with two left feet. But we bet you’ll be swept away with our prize pick – The Museum Club in Flagstaff, Arizona – as well as its close contenders from across the country.
We found attention to detail touches a dancer’s heart – so does a friendly staff, adequate dance space, good ventilation, great music, and a fascinating history.
Sylvia Shafer of Flagstaff convinced us that The Museum Club has just the right mix. It’s the perfect place to strut you stuff or simply tap your toes.
“I was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee,” Sylvia says. “My parents brought me up on country music, so I know good country tunes when I hear them. The Museum Club, nicknamed the Zoo, has the best that northern Arizona has to offer. I love dancing, and I go to the Zoo two to three times a week (and that’s for more than six years now). The owner is as friendly as his staff. They all make you feel like part of the family. I’ve traveled to 26 out of the 50 states and danced in clubs from the smallest to the largest, but the Zoo is the best!”
ALL THE RIGHT STUFF
What else is so special about The Museum Club? Well, says Sylvia, location, atmosphere, and history, for starters. Built on a stretch of Route 66 (now also called Santa FE Avenue), the club was once a trading post and office space for taxidermist Dean Eldredge. In 1918, Dean used ponderosa pine to build The Dean Eldredge Museum around five live trees. (He encased the bases of the trees in concrete to keep them sturdy.) Beneath the building’s 40-foot ceiling, he placed his mounts of bobcats, cougars, black bears, foxes, owls, and other animals and birds. Dean often greeted his customers here with offers to stuff a gopher, weasel, or chipmunk for $3.50. Larger game, of course, cost more.
In the late thirties, The Museum Club switched from a hunter’s heaven to a dancer’s dream under the ownership of Doc Williams. Other owners – namely Don Scott, a musician who played with Tommy Dorsey and Bob Wills – helped turn the club into a true roadhouse.
During the next two decades, he and his wife Thorna, brought in such singers as Bob Wills and outlaw upstarts Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. The Scotts’ success story, however, ended in tragedy. Thorna died after falling down a set of the club’s stairs. (According to local legend, the club has since been haunted.)
Today, owners Martin and Stacie Zanzucchi invite rising country recording artists as well as popular regional bands to perform on Tuesdays through Saturdays.
To preserve The Museum Club’s atmosphere, the couple has replaced some of the animal mounts that disappeared over the years with changes in ownership. Along one of the walls, Martin placed his prize purchase: an 1880s mahogany bar and matching back bar.
Customers who belly up a little too much can take advantage of Operation Safe Ride, a free round-trip taxi ride for over-indulgers.
If you’re interested in following Sylvia’s lead, the club is located at 3404 East Route 66 in Flagstaff. For more information call (602) 526-9434.
"The King of Clubs," was written by Peg Brinkhoff and printed in Country America Magazine on Feb. 1994.

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