Angel Delgadillo archives given to university

Northern Arizona University announced Friday it accepted the archives of longtime Route 66 champion Angel Delgadillo to its collection.

The announcement came in Delgadillo’s hometown of Seligman, Arizona, on the 90th birthday of Route 66. Delgadillo, 89, known as the Guardian Angel of Route 66, founded the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona and lobbied the state to place “Historic Route 66” signs along that long stretch of highway.

Angel’s brother, Juan, founded the Snow-Cap Drive-In restaurant in 1953, a short distance down the road, He ran the crazy-quilt restaurant and pulled pranks on thousands of customers until his death in 2004. His family continues to run the restaurant.

A celebration of the announcement — including 90th birthday cake for the Mother Road — was held in the building that houses Delgadillo’s now-legendary barbershop on Route 66 in Seligman, which now serves mostly as a Route 66 souvenir store. The documents will be cataloged and held by the Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives at the university in nearby Flagstaff.

Sean Evans, an archivist at the library, provided some details of what is in the archive:

• Delgadillo family history since 1917
• Delgadillo family business records
• Seligman civic records
• Angel’s barber records
• Angel’s correspondence about Interstate 40 bypass of Seligman, Route 66, Seligman issues, more than 1,000 interviews and the founding of Historic Route 66 Association;
• Photos; clippings and magazine articles dealing with Angel and Route 66, and more.

Evans said the university will receive six known boxes of material, plus an estimated eight to 10 boxes the family still is processing.

Evans also provided some details Friday from the ceremony:

The Deladillos closed the store today and removed all of the stock from the floor. The event began at about 2:15 today. I made a few comments about the history of 66 and how Angel’s collection will support research into Route 66.

Angel then spoke for about 30 minutes and basically brought the house down with great stories and some wonderful pearls of wisdom. Food and drink was presented and there was a lot of mingling with Delgadillo family members, local friends and neighbors and members of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. We (myself, Peter Runge, Kathleen Schmand representing NAU) accepted the single “sampler” box of material.

CLARIFICATION: The closure of the shop and clearing the merchandise was for just that day. A lot of space needed to be cleared to seat family members during the ceremony. The shop continues to operate daily and will for the foreseeable future.

Evans said NAU getting the archives sprung from when the university began recording oral histories with the Delgadillo family almost 10 years ago.

“Discussions picked up in May 2015 when the family visited and toured the archives,” Evans wrote in an email. “Essentially though, everything to date has occurred with the counsel, leadership and input of many family members.”

Because of his enthusiasm for travelers and vivid memories, Angel Delgadillo pretty much has become a one-man, must-see Route 66 landmark.

This terrific interview segment from “Route 66 — Ten Years Later” shows why:

Delgadillo’s legend further was cemented when the Pixar Animation Studio crew met him during its research for the Route 66-inspired film “Cars.” Delgadillo’s story about how Seligman instantly withered when Interstate 40 opened proved impactful for this key scene:

The rest is history. And Route 66ers should be glad NAU is preserving some of that history.

(Images from the ceremony courtesy of Sean Evans)