US 93 enters Arizona at the Nevada state line via the Hoover Dam. It travels south for a good 200 miles before it meets its end at US 60 in Wickenburg. Along the way it passes through some curiously named towns such as Chloride, Grasshopper Junction and Nothing. There is one place, though, that once lived up to its jolly moniker.

And that is Santa Claus.

Located just 14 miles northwest of Kingman, Santa Claus was the brainchild of Nina Talbot, the self-described “biggest real estate agent in California” (not for her success at selling homes, but for her physical size).

Nina and her husband were operating a Kingman motel in the 1930s when she decided to buy up a bunch of land with the intention of creating a resort-style subdivision. But she needed a hook, and what better than a desert oasis for everyone’s favorite winter houseguest?

Multiple buildings adorned with peppermint stripes and jolly green rooftops were quickly erected, including an office for the jolly old elf himself. This was all in hopes of luring people off the highway to take a look. There was even a little train that chugged around the nascent community, bringing children from attraction to attraction.

Soon, Talbot also established Cinderella’s Chalet (a storybook-themed area) and the sumptuous Santa Claus Inn, a restaurant that offered such delicacies as Chicken a la North Pole and Dasher-and-Dancer omelettes. Santa Claus was becoming a pretty popular tourist destination, but nobody was actually moving to that part of the desert.

After owning and managing Santa Claus for 12 years, and not seeing a drop of land sales (the only people living there were people who worked at the attractions), Talbot sold her big idea in 1949 and, by all accounts, never made such an outlandish venture ever again.

By this time, a post office had joined the other attractions and became a highly treasured destination to send letters around Christmastime, as they would be returned “From Santa Claus.” And if they were lucky to make a stop, children could visit the town’s namesake (or maybe it was just one of his helpers?) any time of year.

Sometime in the 1950s, The Santa Claus Inn was renamed The Christmas Tree Inn and was remarkably praised for its quality and affordability. A big farmhouse breakfast was only 75 cents and Duncan Hines (Yes, THAT Duncan Hines), called it one of the go-tos for good eats near Route 66.

However, the novelty started to wear off and the popularity of Santa Claus dropped considerably in the 1970s. It languished through the 1980s with one or two gift shops shilling knick-knacks and the Christmas Tree Inn still serving up items like Rum Pie a la Kris Kringle.

Santa Claus hung on by some very thin thread (red, I suppose). By 1995 the final attractions were shuttered, leaving behind the remnants of a once-must-stop for tourists on their way to or from the Hoover Dam and a mailing destination for children all over the country. Their mail now gets sent to Santa Claus, Indiana.

Drive by today on US 93 and you just might catch a glimpse of some old, boarded up, vaguely holiday-themed buildings between mileposts 57 and 58… if you don’t blink.

Does Nothing from nothing leave nothing?

It does, except in Arizona, where Nothing is a ghost town, and that’s not nothing!

Its wind-weathered sign on US 93 between Wickenburg and Kingman is a faded reminder that Nothing’s population – once a thriving 9 – is now, well, nothing.

Nothing might be more accurately described as a ghost settlement, since it never gained incorporated status. It was more of a wide place along the road about 100 miles northwest of Phoenix at milepost 148.5.

But during its heyday, Nothing boasted the “Taint Much Ado” bar, a store, taco stand and gas station. Richard “Buddy” Kenworthy built the businesses after settling the outpost in 1977. The place managed to snag some gamblers and other ramblers traveling between Phoenix and Las Vegas.

After a 1988 fire destroyed Kenworthy’s businesses, he rebuilt the store and garage, but it wasn’t enough to return Nothing to something.  Kenworthy moved on in 2005.

Nothing had a near revival in 2008. A businessman, Mike Jensen, took a liking to Nothing and set up a pizza stand with a portable oven. He even spiffed up the place up with the goal of creating accommodations for RVs.

But by 2011, he too had moved on. It’s tempting to say nothing remained in Nothing, but the worn-out signs and collapsing structures are still there, providing a break in the scenery on the 128 miles between Wickenburg and Kingman. 

You could say it was all for Nothing, like the sign in Nothing:  

Town of Nothing Arizona. Founded 1977. Elevation 3269 ft.
The staunch citizens of Nothing are full of Hope, Faith, and Believe in the work ethic. Thru-the-years-these dedicated people had faith in Nothing, hoped for Nothing, worked at Nothing, for Nothing.

If you think about it, US 93 is a bit odd.

Don't get us wrong, it's a fine highway. But it does have one particular quirk: Its mileposts go up as you to north to south, rather than the usual south to north.

As we mentioned in a post about exit signs some time ago, there is a general rule for how the milepost on highways are supposed to go. As a quick recap, highways start at mile marker "0" at the western or southern state line or terminus and increase as you head east or north.

Then there is US 93. 

Despite what we just said, milepost 0 is not at its junction with US 60 in Wickenburg, but rather where it enters from Nevada. 

We'll be honest: Why the highway is numbered like this is extremely hard to pin down. We don't have a firm answer, but there are two good intertwined guesses that rise to the top as we look at its history.

The first involves the fact that the stretch between Hoover Dam and Kingman was not originally US 93. It was US 466, a road comissioned in 1934 that ran from Morro Bay, California, to Kingman. However, starting the next year, Arizona was already petitioning to bring US 93 from its current terminus in Glendale, Nevada, down to Kingman and even beyond. The whole slew of proposals to bring US 93 further into the state, with too many ups and downs to mention in this post, is well-documented in the Federal Highway Administration's page on the history of US 93. Suffice it to say that in late 1935 extending the US 93 designation to Kingman was approved.

By 1939, road logs from the FHWA show US 93 as ending in Kingman, though we found other sources out there saying the designation didn't become co-signed with US 466 until as late as 1951. Either way, the US 466 designation was eventually given the ax in 1971, when California, Arizona and Nevada petitioned the American Association of State Highway and Transporation Officials to get rid of it because it had been mostly taken over by I-15 and US 93.

And this is the first guess about why US 93 is numbered the way it is. Even though it ran more or less north-south when it entered Arizona, US 466 was a west-east highway. So its mileposts would have started at "0" at the Nevada state line and increase as it went toward Kingman. Since US 93 was essentially overlayed on top of US 466, it stands to reason that the mileposts were simply not changed.

Our second guess goes back to those whole series of proposals to extend US 93. There were several proposed routes, including along what is today State Route 89 through Ash Fork and Prescott, and a few petitions to get the highway all the way to the international border with Mexico. So if the state was unsure where the road would eventually end, they couldn't very well number it south to north, something that would change depending on what would be eventually approved.

These two guesses are not necessarily mutually exclusive and each may have had a part to play in why US 93 is numbered liked it is. All of this goes back to the early days of numbering, when the state highway system was still taking shape. And, funny enough, US 93 is not alone in this quirk. State Routes 67, 587 and 85 (the portion extending from Gila Bend to Why and then the international border with Mexico) also have a north-to-south numbering scheme. But those are blog posts for another day.

If 50 years of "Star Trek" has taught us anything, it's that virtual communication is the wave of the future. Kirk, Spock, Picard, Janeway and all the rest are constantly using viewscreens, communicators and holograms to connect with people who might be worlds away. 

While we may still be a long ways away from teleporters and starships, during the current public health situation we are looking toward technology to continue offering training and services.

Road projects have continued to move forward during this time, which means ADOT had make sure the public could have plenty of input. As we told you about recently, with traditional public meetings a non-starter we used a virtual town hall format for some projects, such as the future improvements to the Interstate 40 and US 93 interchange. People were able to use their communicators – known in this century as cellphones – to call in and listen to the presentation. The meeting was also broadcast via two radio stations. The number of comments we received from this meeting rivaled those of a tradition in-person open house.

When it came to continuing our offerings to help small or economically disadvantaged businesses seeking federally assisted contracts, those too are now being done virtually. These businesses can now receive counseling or take advantage of other tools, such as our 21-week Business Development Program, completely online.

Back in April, ADOT's Border Liaison Unit launched a webinar for Mexican truckers to discuss emergency restrictions and exemptions for commercial vehicles using the state's ports of entry. This proved so successful that future webinars are planned that will incorporate material from the in-person safety training the unit has been doing since 2016.

This month we also held another session of our popular Construction Academy to help women, veterans, minorities and other disadvantage groups get the necessary training to get into a career in construction. The majority of particpants were able to receive the necessary classroom training through video conferencing and online construction. 

And the best part is that these virtual tools have proven popular and useful enough to help our communication and training efforts live long and prosper even after the need to socially distance ends.

The technology we are using may not be as cool as what you'd find on the bridge of the Enterprise, but it's still allowing us to boldy go forward in our continuing mission to better communicate and serve the drivers of Arizona.

Despite the current public health situation, highway improvements continue. And since public involvement is a crucial part of a highway project’s schedule, ADOT needed to get creative to keep the public engaged.

And that brings us to ADOT’s first project-level virtual public hearing on Thursday, May 28, for the I-40/US 93 traffic interchange project in west Kingman. This virtual public hearing will be a call-in event where the public can call in to listen to a presentation on the current status of the project and give their input and feedback.

The virtual hearing will also be broadcast live on local radio stations in the Kingman and Bullhead City area for those who just want to listen in.

Virtual meetings, which allow ADOT to gather public input and answer questions like it would at an in-person public meeting, are planned for upcoming construction projects in Tucson and Prescott Valley. 

It’s important to find ways to hold these hearings and keep the public involved so project schedules don’t get behind. Temporary solutions like virtual public hearings and meetings are creative solutions to keep the public involved and projects on schedule during a time where we can’t meet together.

The public comment period is also open right now until Saturday, June 6. People can offer their comments online, through email, phone or mail. Every comment received gets recorded in the environmental record.

For more information on how to participate, please visit azdot.gov/WestKingmanTIP.