The Kingman (Ariz.) Daily Miner has a story about the resurrection of the Kingman Route 66 Association.
The goals, according to association President Tim McDonnell:
The first is to establish a new Web site promoting the city’s proximity to other Arizona attractions, including Oatman, Peach Springs and the Grand Canyon. The Web site, dubbed “Destination 66,” is being constructed with help from Cullen Linn of the local Web design firm Linn Logistics and will be designed to attract both businesses and hotels to the area, as well as to emphasize Kingman as a destination, rather than a place to stop on the way to somewhere else.
“Hotel occupancy rates for Kingman hotels are at the top of the charts, and there are lots of hotels that will build in Kingman because we’ve got the kinds of occupancy rates they want,” McDonnell said. “But the average check-in time is eight at night, and the average check-out time is eight in the morning. We want to create a destination, give people a reason to stay a little while.” […]
But the association hopes to give more reasons for staying in the city limits, as well. Over the last several months, McDonnell and company have been working closely with the Downtown Merchant’s Association, the Route 66 Cruizers car club and the Kingman Chamber of Commerce to organize “Chillin’ on Beale Street,” a series of events designed to attract foot traffic to the downtown commercial district with games, live music, prize giveaways and other attractions. […]
In order to further highlight Kingman’s historic appeal, the association plans to hire a mural artist to paint scenes of Kingman’s past around town, starting at the Old Trails Garage building at the corner of Third Street and Route 66, which once served as a Packard dealership decades earlier. The plan is to have the mural artist recreate the original scene Kingmanites would have once observed through the window of the dealership. […]
“We have the original Packard sign that used to hang on that building, and we have full cooperation from the building owner to pull this thing off,” he said. “We can put that whole thing together just like it was in the ’40s – there’ll be people from all around the world who will come to take pictures of the building, and take pictures of those murals and take pictures of that sign.”
And that’s just their first project. Ultimately, the association wants to paint another mural on the FastTrax building at 1301 Beale St. to mark its proximity to the road that once led to a Hualapai tribe internment camp at Fort Beale.
Membership fees have been lowered from $100 to $50 through the end of the year. Call (928) 377-9684 or e-mail at kingmanroute66association(at)gmail(dot)com for more information.
awesome.