Route 66 in Chambers AZ
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About Chambers, Arizona
Facts, Trivia and useful information
Elevation 5,755 ft (1.754 m); population n⁄a.
Time zone: Mountain (MST): UTC minus 7 hours. Summer (DST) no DST⁄ PDT (UTC-7).
Chambers is a unincorporated community in Apache county in the Navajoland of eastern Arizona, on Route 66.
Time is relentless on Route 66
Arizona has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years, and along the Colorado Plateau lived the Anasazi people. Their southern border was the Puerco of the West and the Little Colorado rivers. They were farmers who reached their peak between 700 and 1150 AD. Then they moved to the southwest into New Mexico where they originated the Pueblo People.
The current native people, the Navajo reached the area ca. 1400 AD. They were like the Apaches, of Athabaskan origin, with their roots in Canada, and migrated south into SW USA.
The Navajo (who called themselves Diné - or "People") were hunter gatherers who later learned farming from the Pueblo people.
In 1539, Francisco Vazques de Coronado reached the area and occupied Zuni Pueblo before moving east through the Rio Grande and into the Great Plains. He sent a group of men under the command of García López de Cárdenas to check out the rumors about a great river, the "Tison" to the west of Zuni Pueblo.
Cárdenas marched west from Zuni and crossed the Rio Puerco of the West near the spot where Chambers is now located. Guided by Hopi Indians, the Spanish reached the Grand Canyon and became first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.
Almost 60 years later, the Spanish returned and occupied New Mexico (1597), which encompassed Arizona, yet they never settled in Arizona; the Navajo were too bellicose.
The Navajo learned to raise goats and sheep (rustled from the villages they raided), and received their name from the Spanish who called them "Apachu de Nabajo" (Apache of Nabajo).
The Navajo raids continued until the US incorporated Arizona (as a part of New Mexico) after defeating Mexico in the 1846-48 war.
A first fort established in Arizona in 1851 by Col. Edwin V. Sumner (Fort Defiance) began the campaign to subdue the Navajo. It concluded in 1864 with the "Long Walk" and internment of the Natives near Ft. Sumner New Mexico. The tough campaign and the harsh internment conditions led to a treaty in 1868 which allowed the Navajo to return to their homeland.
The Navajo Reservation was created and peace finally reigned in the territory.
Trivia Apache County and the Navajos
Apache County has the most land designated as Indian reservation of any county in the United States (68.34% of its area). Neighboring Navajo County is in third place.
Apache County was established in 1879. In 1895 Navajo county was split-off from it western section.
A stage mail route, "Star Stage Mail" ran along the south bank of the Puerco River between Fort Wingate, NM and Fort Whipple (nowadays Prescott) AZ. It had a stop near Chambers, at Navajo Springs. There it met the old military road from Albuquerque to Holbrook. This route had been established by the Beale expedition in 1857.
Beale's Expedition
The Lt. Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale (1822 - 1893) was commissioned to survey and build a wagon road from Ft. Smith to California, and he followed a route that roughly lined up with what is now Route 66.
He passed just south of where Chambers is now located, in 1857. Beale employed camels, imported from Africa as pack animals. Though hardier than mules, the camels scared both horses and mules. The Army decided not to use camels in the future.
The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (Later absorbed by the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Rail Road), built a stop and called it Chambers in 1883; steam engines needed water, and Chambers had a good well.
The Name: Chambers
It was named after Edward Chambers who was Vice President of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.
It is an "occupational suname" for those who were employed in the private living quarters of their masters, his 'chamber' or room.
However and, this is a coincidence (just like in the case of neighboring Sanders), a person named Charles Chamber had operated a trading post there at that time.
The post office opened in 1908, and briefly chaged its name to Halloysite in 1926 but returned to its original name in 1930. Hallosyte is an aluminosilicate clay mineral found in association with other mineral clays. It was named after the Belgian Geologist Omalius d'Halloy. The clay mine was exploited by the Filtrol Company of California in 1929 and used as a filtering medium in the chemical industry.
Route 66 was aligned through the town in 1926, and some trading posts were established to cater to the travellers.
Surprisingly it does not appears in the Rand McNally road map of 1927. The Arizona State Highway Road Map of 1935 does show it, (7.8 mi. from Navajo and 6 mi. from Sanders); it also shows that Route 66 had been paved by then. Route 66 was later replaced by I-40 in the 1960s but overlapped the old Route 66's alignment.
Where to Stay: your hotel in Chambers
There is lodging on Route 66 in Chambers itself:
> > Book your Hotels in Chambers
More Accommodation near Chambers on Route 66
There are plenty of lodging options in the cities and towns along Route 66; click on the links below to find your accommodation in these towns:
You are so close to Las Vegas!
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Heading West
- 47 mi. Holbrook
- 79 mi. Winslow
- 114 mi. Twin Arrows
- 137 mi. Flagstaff
- 147 mi. Bellemont
- 174 mi. Williams
- 192 mi. Ash Fork
- 213 mi. Seligman
- 249 mi. Peach Springs
- 286 mi. Kingman
Grand Canyon Hotels
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Heading East. In Arizona and New Mexico
- 49 mi. Gallup
- 111 mi. Grants
- 131 mi. Acomita Pueblo
- 190 mi. Albuquerque
- 225 miles. Moriarty
On the Santa Fe Route 66 segment in New Mexico
- 248 miles. Motels and Hotels in Santa Fe
Find your hotel room nearby in Holbrook:
Booking.com>> There are RV campgrounds near Chambers, in Holbrook AZ
Weather in Chambers
Location of Chambers on Route 66
Chambers's climate is semi-arid and dry. Summer is hot and winter is cold. The day-to-night temperature swing is considerable throughout the year due to the low relative humidity; this means that Summer nights are pleasant and cool, but winter nights are quite cold.
The average high temperature during summer (July) is around 95°F (35°C) and the average summer low is approx. 59°F (15°C).
The winter (January) average high is 50°F (10°C); and the average low is 21.9°F which is below freezing (-6.1°C).
The arid area does not receive much rainfall, only 9.5 inches per year (240 mm). Half of it falls during the Summer Monsoon period from July to October (5 in. - 127 mm). There are some 49 days with precipitation every year.
Snowfall is light with about 6.5 in. per year (16.5 cm), which falls between October and April.
Tornado risk
There is almost zero tornado risk in Chambers: Apache County has no Tornado watches. The area west of this point has no tornado events at all.
Tornado Risk: read more about Tornado Risk along Route66.
Map of Route 66 through Chambers Arizona
Map of US 66 in Chambers AZ, 1937. Source
Click to enlarge
Route 66 from 1926 to 1964 is overlaid by the freeway built in 1964 through Sanders and westwards all the way to Navapache(purple line in our custom map.)
At Navapache the 1926 highway continued west following Highway 7060 for 2.3 miles into Chambers where nowadays it ends at its junction with US 191 (map of this segment.)
Route 66 continued west along a roadway that has been erased: Our missing segments map marks the N.O.T to 1926 alignment with a pale blue line, and the 1930-40s US66 with a blue line.
Just two miles west of Chambers after a small creek was the Indian Village Trading Post; here, the highway took a NE to SW direction for another two miles as shwon in this 1926-40s US 66 map from Indian Village T.P. to Rio Puerco Station by Exit 330 on I-40.
In the 1940s it was realigned to where I-40 now runs, along US191 Frontage Rd. and it is possible, but the evidence in the maps does not show this, that in the 1950s, a straighter course was built through Chambers as marked with a red line in our custom map. West of Chambers, the 1940s to 1979 US 66 ran westwards as shown in orange in our custom map.
Route 66 Alignment near Chambers
With maps and full information of the old roadway.
- Winslow to Winona (next)
- Lupton to Winslow (Chambers's)
- Albuquerque to Lupton (previous)
Chambers, Arizona, its Sights and Attractions
Things to Do and Places to See
Historic Context
During US 66's heyday, Jack DeVere Rittenhouse in his "A Guide Book to Highway 66" published in 1946 describes Chambers as having a population of 59, adding:
Chambers... Consists of one small tourist court, 2 gas stations, Riggs Cafe, and a few buildings Rittenhouse (1946)
Chambers' stores in the 1962 Winslow phone directory were: the Chieftain motel, Teck's Trading Post, Texaco Trading Post, Chambers Trading Post, the White Elephant Lodge offering "Motel & Cafe, automobile mechanic, curios - Chevron products... open 24 hours of every day.... 83 miles east of Winslow."
A Tour of Chambers during your Road Trip!
Drive west towards Chambers from Sanders along the North Frontage Rd. (get on it at Sanders Exit 339). As we mentioned further up, the original road was disturbed when the freeway was built and buried by it. After 2.5 miles, to your right is the site of the White Elephant Lodge:
White Elephant
Berry's White Elephant, Sanders AZ, 1940s. Source
The White Elephant was a lodge, bar and curio shop had been built by Mitchell Dickens and R.W. "Bob" Cassady Jr. They had run it as the Chamese Lodge. In 1948, Cassady was tried in 1948 for the bribes he paid to avoid prosecution "in the operation of a certain gaming device by the use of slot-machines at Chamese Lodge, adjacent to U.S. Highway 66, Apache County, Arizona" (Source).
After they went broke, it was acquired by Al Berry, of the Log Cabin Trading Post further east; his name appears painted on the building -see image.
Site of White Elephant Lodge. St. view
Click to enlarge
He sold it to Skeet and Maude Eddens; their postcard below says:"Skeet and Maude's White Elephant Lodge (Hi-way 66). 83 miles E. of Winslow, Arizona - 44 miles W. of Gallup, N. Mexico... Open 24 hrs. One stop. Cafe-Bar-Curios-Motel-Gas-Oil-Garage." The 1953 telephone directory mentions Skeet and Maude's White Elephant Lodge as being located in Chambers. These distances, considering the 1950s highway alignment would have placed it in the spot marked by this map and you can see the building (L-shape, upper right) in this aerial photo taken in 1969. The image below show the same bluff whose western and eastern tips can be seen in the two postcards, and nowadays.
Bar in ruins
Next to it are the ruins of a bar, cafe that can be seen in the 1969 aerial photo mentioned further up. and that appears as the "Apaloosa Corral Bar" in the Arizona Route 66 Survey. It is pictured below.
Just one and a half miles west, the alignments part, with the Freeway and the 1964-79 US 66 heading towards the SW and the 1926-64 US66 running straight into "Navapache".
Navapache
Aerial photo of Navapache in 1964. Source
Click image to enlarge
The original Route 66 alignment follows Highway 7060. Here the north Frontage Rd. of I-40 forks to the right away from the freeway. At the fork was the "town" of Navapache described by Rittenhouse in 1946 as "another small "town" consisting of one tourist court, a gas station, garage and store."
The image, looks west, and was taken during the freeway construction in 1964. Click on it to enlarge it. You can see the original Route 66 heading off to the right towards Chambers. Navapache trading post and complex was located at the fork and can be seen in the image.
Chambers
The highway continues straight west for another 2 miles and reaches Chambers. Rittenhouse gives it a population of 59 and mentions two gas stations, Riggs Cafe and a small tourist court (motel) plus a few buildings. Little remains of them.
Eaves trading post, Chambers c.1940. Source
The Wide Ruins Trading post is often mentioned as being located on Route 66, however it isn't. Wide Ruins is about 17 miles north of Chambers along US 191. It is the site of a former pueblo ruin known as Kin-Tiel with formidable stone walls, lost when they were pillaged to build the trading post in the 1890s.
Chambers had several stores and trading posts over the course of the years many mentioned in the telephone directories, but we don't know where they stood: Richard Eaves owned a grocery and station with a post office (see picture), Norris Douglas a service station. We do know where was the Cassady & Dickens cafe (in the 1948 phone book): it was the White Elephant. Young Frank added his general Store in 1949.
At the junction of the 1930 - 1940s US 66 with US 191 in "downtown" Chambers there were several buildings. US 191 was a state highway during the Route 66 days.
The motel must have stood on the NE corner, because the 1937 map of the town shows a building there with six rooms. Notice that current 7180 US 191 Frontage Rd. didn't exist at that time.
There was a gas station on the NW corner. Later it became a restaurant. Still standing, now as the local Baptist Church. The image below shows the former 1930-1940s alignment west of Chambers (dashed red lines) overgrown with shrubs. The power poles mark the road's course. Perhaps it was Eaves store?
Chambers depot was located further south, and a dirt trail linked it with the buildings along Route 66, this road can be seen in the 1937 map on the left side with an upper right-to-lower left course.
Route 66 West of Chambers
The 1926-40s US66
From the old gas station Route 66 in its N.O.T. to 1940s alignment ran westwards. Our missing segments map marks the gap in the N.O.T to 1926 alignment with a pale blue line, and the gap in the 1930-40s US66 with a blue line.
The road reappears beyond this gap and has some attractions along it (the Indian Village and the Rio Puerco gas station). You have to take the later alignments to visit them. Below we describe this itinerary.
1926-60s alignment
Perhaps due to WW II and the heavy traffic it caused, the highway was improved across Arizona around 1947. So Route 66 in Chambers turned sharply south along a new road, what is now US 191 Frontage Rd., as shown in this 1940s-60s alignment map (or maybe 50s?). It turned sharply west where the westbound lanes of I-40 are now located, and run west as shown in orange in our custom map.
1950s? Alignment
It is possible, but the evidence in the maps does not show this, that in the 1950s, a straighter course was built through Chambers as marked with a red line in our custom map. These lanes were overlaid by I-40s eastbound lanes. The USGS maps don't provide evidence of this but the aerial photographs taken during the construction of I-40 ⁄ US66 in 1964 do show that the highway no longer ran through Indian Village. And that modern US-191 was built with the overpass.
The May 1955 Arizona Highways magazine describes the highway at that time as having been upgraded -though still a two-lane highway, to where Exit 330 is now located:
Up sto four miles west of Chambers, "66" has been modernized all the way from the state line, with wide asphaltic paving, easy curvature ad grades. From there westward the highway is being modernized as fast as possible because the daily traffic count indicatwes a total of almost 3,000 cars per day... Arizona Highway Magazine 05/1955
1964 aerial picture of Chambers. Source
Click to enlarge
The two images above (click on them to see large size views of them) show the current Exit 333 when it was being built in 1964 and nowadays. You will see that what is now US 191 that uses the overpass, did not exist at that time. Instead what is now the Frontage Rd. of US 191 was the only link at that time (just west of the bridge), and part of the post-1940s US66. The main landmarks are identified in the picture. It seems possible that the EB lanes of I-40 upto the exchange, and then, the WB lanes beyond it, carried US 66 in the 1950s and early 1960s, as marked with the dashed line.
Sights next to the 1940s - 60s alignment: the Motel and Red Garage (this map will take you to them.)
The Motel in Chambers
> >You can Book a Room in the Days Inn
The motel predates the 1964 freeway construction as you can see in the image above. The pool is still there, but enclosed in a pavillion. The slanting roof on the main building (right) is now interrupted by a second floor with a gabled roof matching the rest of the rooms. The sign has moved further west, in front of the main building.
Drive west, you can take the N Frontage Road to visit the garage and gas station from the 1950s.
Red Mesa Garage
On the north frontage road, to your ritght. This building dates back to the 1950s. according to the Arizona Route 66 Survey, and is pictured below.
Now head west along the freeway, it overlays the 1940s-1979 US 66 alignment. Below is a view, west of Chambers, in 1964 and nowadays.
1964 aerial picture west of Chambers. Source
Click to enlarge
The red box in the 1964 image marks the same spot that can be seen in the "Then and Now" sequence below that shows a 1950s alignment west of Chambers, with only 2 lanes, long before the freeway construction began.
Same ridge now and in the 1950s. Click for St. view. 1950s view, Street view.
Click image to enlarge
The image above shows the ridge west of Chambers in the 1950s and now. The cliffs to the left, and the ridge are the same. The billboard in the 1950s picture is one mentioning the "Big Arrows" trading post in Houck.
Rio Puerco Gas Station
At Exit 330, the highway took a NE to SW direction, and here was the "Rio Puerco Service station; gas only" mentioned by Rittenhouse
We believe that the gas station was located on the north side of Exit 330 (1969 aerial photo) though it could have been on the south side too. Both spots are shown in the images below.
Looking east from Rio Puerco gas station. St. view
Click on image to enlarge
Looking west from Rio Puerco gas station. St. view
Click on image to enlarge
Indian Village
Ahead, at Exit 330, take a right and drive east along old Route 66 (map), this is private property, and the site of a Trading Post. Beyond it is aa small creek, whose concrete Route 66 bridge is still standing, Rittenhouse mentions " Indian Village Trading Post. No gas", you can see where it is, in this map showing the spot, the aerial photograph shows that the Post has several hogans still standing; they also appear in this 1969 aerial photo. It was owned in the 1950s by Charley Jacobs. Below is a vintage picture from the 1930s:
West of this point, the alignment towards the town of Navajo is cut by the freeway at Exit 330, here, the original roadway that ran parallel to a long cliff, moves to the south side of I-40, the brown line in our custom map shows the gap in the road.
Head to the south side of I-40 and drive west along Hwy 7386, it is paved for about one mile to the McCarrell Memorial Cemetery, after there it becomes a rough, dirt-surfaced, back country trail So think twice before trying to drive along it. This segment is almost 4 miles long and is shown in this map (Exit 330 to Navajo).
Continue your Road Trip
This leg of your Route 66 road trip in Chambers ends here. Head west to visit the next stop in your journey: Navajo and beyond it, the amazing Petrified Forest National Park (read below).
National and State Parks, Outdoors
Petrified Forest National Park
Tip: consider visiting the Petrified Forest National Park (near Holbrook) on your Road Trip.
Only National Park on Route 66
Sponsored Content
>> Book your Hotel in Holbrook
Credits
Banner image: Hackberry General Store, Hackberry, Arizona by Perla Eichenblat
Jack DeVere Rittenhouse, (1946). A Guide Book to Highway 66
Stefan Joppich's The alignments of Route 66 through Arizona (2004).