Frontier Cafe Sign

About

The towering Frontier Motel sign is one of the most visible remnants of Truxton’s brief but busy Route 66 era. The Frontier Motel and Café opened in the early 1950s, shortly after Truxton developed as a roadside community, and its oversized neon sign advertised lodging, a restaurant and café to motorists crossing northern Arizona. Alice Wright established the property, and Ray and Mildred Barker took it over in 1957, becoming closely associated with the motel and the Route 66 community that surrounded it. Today the pale-blue sign remains standing beside Historic Route 66 even though the motel no longer operates, making it one of Truxton’s most recognizable roadside relics.

After decades in the desert, the neon sign had deteriorated enough to prompt a preservation effort by the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona with support from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. A matching grant helped restore the sign in the early 2000s, preserving a piece of the roadside advertising that once competed for travelers’ attention along the Mother Road. Time and the Mojave climate have weathered it again, but the faded sign remains a favorite photo stop and a tangible reminder of the motels, cafés and service stations that flourished here before Interstate 40 bypassed Truxton in 1978.

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