Folks tell us all the time that they love our unusual highway signs.

You know the ones we're talking about; the funny little sayings promoting traffic safety by riffing off of pop culture or holidays. People always comment on which is their favorite, offer their own suggestions, and our annual contest receives thousands of entries, so the driving public is getting a kick out of them.

We won't pretend to be the first to put amusing sayings on highway signs or even to be the most clever at it. Mainly because long before a department of transportation tried its hand, someone else was king of the road signs.

We are talking, of course, about Burma-Shave.

Drivers of a certain age will recognize the Burma-Shave sign to the right, which was captured by one of our ADOT photographers on State Route 66 near Seligman recently.

For all the younger folks out there, Burma-Shave was a shaving cream company that got going in 1925, founded by the Odell family out of Minnesota. After a whopping 143 different tries, a chemist working for the family came up with one of the holy grails of men's toiletries at that time – a brushless shaving cream. By the way, we can only give you a thumbnail sketch here, but if you want to read the full, fascinating story of the company, Route Magazine did a fantastic and informative look at them. 

As the article pointed out, they had a good product, but it's just shaving cream. There's nothing really special to differentiate it from other brushless shaving creams coming out around the same time from bigger, more established companies such as Gillette or Barbasol. They were little fish in a big pond and the cream wasn't exactly selling well.

That's when Allen Odell, son of the company's founder, approached his father with an off-beat idea. He wanted to take the well-established concept of a product jingle and apply it to the still new concept of road sign advertising. In short, he wanted to make a series of signs meant to be read sequentially, each having one line of the jingle, ending with the company's name. 

His father didn't jump at the idea. After floating it around to friends and family, he was told unanimously that Allen's idea wouldn't work. But his son was persistent and was eventually given $200 to try it out. The first boards went up along two local roads in Minnesota. It wasn't too long after that the older Odell noticed drug stores along those routes were repeatedly purchasing more of the shaving cream. The cheeky advertising schtick seemed to be paying off.

Soon drivers across America started seeing Allen's jingles pop up along their drive.

The majority covered cute sayings about saving money, getting a superior shave or attracting a significant other. In 1934, drivers would have seen this diddy along the road:

He had the ring

he had the flat

but she felt his chin

and that 

was that 

Burma-Shave

However, they, much like ourselves, sometimes dove into slightly more serious topics with verses warning against things such as drunk driving. For example, this verse from 1940:

It's best for

one who hits

the bottle

to let another

use the throttle

Burma-Shave

If you are really interested, you can go to Burmashave.org and read every jingle, sorted by year. They range from clever to groan-inducing, but they almost always elicit at least a chuckle. 

The company continued to grow, and at its peak had 7,000 signs in 45 states. The signs were painted red and white to make them stand out from other advertisements. They were also placed in sets of six, each 100 feet apart so passengers had three seconds to read each one when going at a speed of 35 mph (things went a lot slower back then). Since they evoked such a sense of Americana, Burma-Shave signs were even erected to help ease homesickness for U.S. troops in Korea and even Antartica. 

As these sign jingles grew in popularity, the company had the same idea we did – why not have an annual competition and throw open the doors for anyone to come up with a clever jingle? 

Much like us, the company had standards for what could ultimately go up on their signs. One of the Odell children recalled that he always knew when the sign contest was happening because of the ones that were not so appropriate. His father would get a list of the off-color jokes, bring them home and – after getting safely behind closed doors – would have a good laugh over them with his wife. 

So what happened to this iconic bit of advertising? Well, Burma-Shave was bought by the American Razor Company in 1963 and the signs started to come down after that. Only one complete set of original signs remain, and those are housed in the Smithsonian.

But, you might ask, what about your photos here from State Route 66 near Seligman? Well, it's all a part of the town's carefully crafted aesthetic to recapture the magic of the mother road. Several sets of signs were set up along the highway and permission was even obtained to use some of the original Burma-Shave messages, though they are a five-sign variant instead of the usual six-sign sayings. These signs are also kind of ironic, as Arizona was one of the five states not to have Burma-Shave signs before the company was bought out. 

The clever reminder to slow down that's running through this blog is from SR 66 as you are heading westbound from Seligman.

Along that same stretch you'll also find this helpful reminder:

Cattle crossing

means go slow

that old bull 

is some cow's beau

Burma-Shave

If all this sounds like something you want to get a look at yourself, or you just want to capture the motoring spirit of yesterday, then SR 66 is the drive for you.

But please do us one favor. Just like with ours, we ask that you heed the signs.

It seems like we can't get enough of talking about old US Route 66. Though it has been a defunct designation in Arizona for 35 years now, the legacy of the great Mother Road continues to inspire and inform us today.

Perhaps that can be seen nowhere clearer than in the towns left along its route. Which brings us to this photo. As you might be able to see, this is an undated photo of Ash Fork, which today sits at the junction of State Route 89 and Interstate 40. There's no date on it, but we figure that there are enough context clues – unpaved roads, vintage vehicles, buildings, old time gas pumps – to give someone enough information to track down a rough year. If that person is you, please give us your best guess! The only thing we can say for sure is that it was in a collection of photos that predate 1950. 

But, this was a good opportunity to look into the history of Ash Fork and where it came from. It's origins are actually tied to transportation, but predate the Main Street of America by decades. It's also been very fortunate to always sit at important junctions.

In his "Roadside History of Arizona" state historian Marshall Trimble says the town was founded in 1882, when Cooper Thomas Lewis built a small grocery store next to the local railroad tracks. Skip forward a few years and the community was also graced with a post office and Wells Fargo station. In 1893 the townsite moved to the southside of the rail line because all the buildings at the original townsite on the north side were destroyed by a fire.

The early 1890s also had plenty of good in store, as a rail line connected it with Prescott and eventually Phoenix. The aptly named Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix line may have been longer that the competing route going through Black Canyon, but as our Arizona Transportation History says, it was actually quicker and more comfortable. This established rail route, which also went through Wickenburg, may have also been a factor when the original Phoenix-to-Prescott road was built in the early 20th century.

Trimble also says that the connecting of Phoenix and Prescott via the railroad is where many historians date the closing of Arizona's frontier period.

In the 1920s, with arrival of the automobile age and the start of the famous US 66, Ash Fork became one of many towns served by the motorists now traveling between Los Angeles and Chicago. Ash Fork even boasted the Hotel Escalante, of the famouse pit stops/restaurants/hotels run by tourism magnate Fred Harvey.

The community was hit by a series of setbacks, such as the railroad line moving 10 miles to the north in the 1950s, and Interstate 40 deciding to bypass it in the 1970s. 

Though the highway doesn't run through town any more, Ash Fork still sits were State Route 89 meets I-40, meaning there is still a need for gas, snacks and a place to stop. As this photo and modern Ash Fork could tell you, location really is everything.

As you might have noticed by now, we do love our historical transportation photos. 

It's not really for their aesthetic value – though it's hard to mess up a shot of the inherently beautiful of Arizona's landscape - but rather what interesting tidbits we can glean from them.

Take today's example as two clearly older vehicles make their way down a twisty rural route that is marked as "U.S. Highway 66, Oatman to Kingman, Arizona."

The thing that caught our attention (and which might have caught yours as well) is that the road between those two communities today is not a US nor a state route. Instead, the Oatman Highway is a county road. But the photo clearly identifies this as part of the famous "Mother Road," US 66. So... what happened? 

To root out this puzzle we turned, like we so often do, to our exhaustive history of transportation in Arizona. Here we learn many of the basics of US 66's story: How the Arizona portion developed out of the National Old Trails Highway in the 1910s and the Santa Fe Highway in the 1920s, how many followed it west in the 1930s in the mold of "Grapes of Wrath," and how following World War II it became a main route to carry vacationers and job-seekers alike between Chicago and Los Angeles, and how it was finally decommissioned in Arizona in 1985. 

Finally, after much digging, we found what we were looking for. In the early 1950s an improvement project rebuilt 170 miles of US 66 in the state to help undo the damage from the hordes of vehicles that now used it. As part of these improvements, US 66 was routed away from Oatman in 1952. The new alignment was meant to eliminate a twisty, hazardous section of highway and replace it with something safer. It would turn out to be one of the earliest of many realignments away from communities in coming years as the interstate system came into being.

That's just one bit of highway history that we could glean from this photo. As you might have noticed from our Throwback Thursday series, there's a lot more to be found in our archives. If you are also interested in learning more about Arizona's roads, feel free to take a deep dive through our albums of historical photos on Flickr! 

By Steve Elliott / ADOT Communications

Need a Route 66 fix? That's easily done from Interstate 40 if Seligman is on your list. And it's going to be even nicer this coming spring, when we're scheduled to complete upgrades to bridges along one of two paths between I-40 and this community rich in motoring history.

These pictures from this week show where we're at with a $4.3 million project replacing the decks of three bridges between I-40 exit 121 and the west side of Seligman. While this route is closed for the work, we have signs directing motorists to I-40 exit 123, which provides convenient access to Seligman's east side.

We've worked closely with the community to develop a project that affects only one of the summer seasons that are so important to Seligman's businesses, to maintain convenient access from I-40 throughout and to share word that the town is easily accessible while these improvements are underway.

Meanwhile, this 10-month project is doing the important work of updating bridges that are between 40 and 50 years old. And access to Seligman via Route 66 isn't affected.

By John Dougherty / ADOT Communications

Today we’re taking you from standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, to the old train depot in Holbrook along historic Route 66. Just click through the slideshow above, and you're on your way.

Why the tour? We’re feeling nostalgic after our Route 66 plate was recently named best license plate in the nation.

If you’re interested in getting the plate for your vehicle, visit the MVD website and then order online at Service Arizona. If you missed the award ceremony, take a look at our Route 66 Specialty Plate Flickr album. There are some very unique classic cars included in the album!

By Doug Nick / ADOT Communications

It’s stylish… good-looking… useful… and very, very popular.

“It” is the Route 66 specialty license plate that’s been available since December 2016 and has really found a place in the hearts – not to mention on the rear bumpers – of a lot of Arizona motorists.

Thousands of these plates have flown off the shelves, and the best part of that is more than $51,000 has been raised already for Route 66 preservation efforts.

In case you didn’t know, Route 66 isn’t a federal highway any more. It was officially de-commissioned in the 1980s when I-40 was completed. But many parts of the roadway are not only usable, they’re vital to their communities. Flagstaff, Kingman, Holbrook and other cities and towns rely on Route 66 for more than nostalgia; plenty of thriving businesses have a Route 66 address.

But if it’s nostalgia that puts air in your tires, Route 66 fills that role. So that specialty plate money, which will only continue to grow as the years go by and more plates are sold, comes in handy to make sure people are reminded about the countless lives that have been touched in some way by the “Mother Road.”

Now, did we say the plate itself is stylish? Yes, we did, but you don’t have to take our word for it. The plate just won a national award as “Best New License Plate” in the U.S.

That honor came courtesy of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association. Not too long ago they dropped by to share the award. You can take a look at the video above.

If MVD was a roadside diner, this plate would be today’s special. If we’ve whetted your appetite, you can order one here: azdot.gov/mvd.

By John Halikowski / ADOT Director

Specialty license plates are a big deal to a lot of people, and they are very, very popular. And there’s something of a competition that exists to see which state comes up with the most attractive and useful design each year.

I’m proud to say that Arizona is one of only two states in the nation that have been honored three times with the “Best New License Plate” award given by the American License Plate Collectors Association.

For 2016, the honor goes to the plate that commemorates the iconic Route 66.

The “Mother Road” has been celebrated in movies, television and popular songs such as “Get your kicks on Rt. 66” which mentions three Arizona communities. Now it earns a coveted spot on vehicle bumpers that will travel every mile of Arizona and beyond.

So it’s no stretch to say Arizona means a lot to Route 66, and the road means just as much to the history of our state. That’s why I’m so pleased that in just a few months of being made available, the sales of this award-winning plate have netted more than $51,000 for preservation efforts.

That number will continue to grow over the years, and it’s added to an astounding amount of money that specialty plates raise for worthy causes. In fact, in 2016 specialty plate sales raised about $9.4 million for Arizona causes.

Encouraging generosity and award-winning good looks are a great combination!

---

 

This post originally appeared on ADOT Director John Halikowski's
LinkedIn page. He has led the agency since 2009.

 

By Peter Corbett / ADOT Communications 

Historic Route 66 will see a surge of traffic this weekend with close to 800 vintage vehicles traveling from Seligman to Topock for the 30th annual Route 66 Fun Run.

The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona has events planned along Route 66, Arizona’s most celebrated highway, from Friday to Sunday. Seligman and Kingman will host preliminary events on Friday.

The 135-mile Fun Run starts at 10 a.m. Saturday with a wide array of historic and late-model cars motoring west on Route 66 from Seligman to Grand Canyon Caverns, Peach Springs, Truxton, Valentine, Hackberry and Kingman.

The final 50-mile leg of the Route 66 cruise will leave Kingman at 9 a.m. en route to Oatman, Golden Shores and Topock on the Colorado River. A restored Kingman police car, a 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air referred to as “Jingles,” will lead the rally out of Kingman.

Route 66 associations from Australia, Canada, France and the Czech Republic will participate in the Fun Run along with individuals and car clubs from Arizona and the West, said Jan Davis, Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, director of operations.

“It’s like a family reunion for some of these people,” she said, noting that Steve Clifford of Westminster, California, has made the Fun Run every year in his 1962 Corvette. “This 30th (Fun Run) is a little special for them.”

Interstate 40 replaced Route 66 across Northern Arizona from the 1960s through 1984, when the Williams bypass was completed. A year later, federal highway officials decommissioned U.S. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles after 59 years as a cross-country highway.

The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, led by Seligman barber Angel Delgadillo, successfully lobbied in 1987 for a historic designation of Route 66 in Arizona to promote. The first Fun Run was held in 1988 with about 50 participants.

Last fall, the Arizona Department of Transportation began selling specialty Route 66 license plates for $25, with $17 of that going to the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. The black and white plates are available from ServiceArizona.com.

By Caroline Carpenter / ADOT Communications

Looking for someplace out of the way to take your dear one? How about Love or Valentine?

If you’ve never heard of these two Arizona towns, it might be worth a road trip with your beloved.

Love is just off US 60, east of Salome. It was once called Lockhart but was renamed in honor of Ernest Love, who was killed during World War I. For more interesting spots along US 60, read our US 60 Road Trip blog.

For another romantic drive, you can visit Valentine, at the intersection of State Route 66 and Valentine Way, 30 miles east of Kingman. It's named for Robert G. Valentine, former commissioner of Indian Affairs. In 2016, Valentine reported a population of 38.

These tiny towns may not have a lot of restaurant options, so pack a picnic just in case and share a picture of your adventure via Twitter (@ArizonaDOT) or Facebook (facebook.com/AZDOT).

You can click on either map for a larger view.