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Did you know you can visit the town that inspired Radiator Springs?

Plan a Route 66 road trip to Seligman, Arizona, where historic travel meets the hidden history behind the town that inspired Pixar’s Cars. Scott and Jenn explore the town’s connection to the Mother Road, share what travelers can see today, and offer a lively stop to add to your next Arizona itinerary.

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Imagine driving down a sun-drenched two-lane highway in northern Arizona in

the 1950s, surrounded by vintage cars, packed diners, and gleaming chrome.

Route 66 was in its golden era, buzzing with cross-country

road trips and returning World War II veterans heading west.

Then, in September 1978, the interstate bypassed the town overnight.

In a single afternoon, the roaring stream of traffic vanished.

Diners went quiet, motels emptied, and the bustling Main Street was

threatened with becoming a ghost town, the exact heartbreak depicted

in Pixar's animated classic, Cars

Instead of fading away, a local barber named Angel Delgadillo took a stand.

In 1987, he and his neighbors organized to declare this stretch the birthplace of

Historic Route 66, successfully lobbying Arizona to preserve the road and launching

the grassroots movement that revived the Mother Road across the country.

When Pixar director John Lasseter traveled Route 66 scouting locations

in 2001, he sat in Angel's barber chair for hours listening to those stories.

And from that small town grit, Radiator Springs was born.

Welcome to Talk with History.

One filmmaker, one historian, leading history-inspired world

travels for the curious, the history lovers, and the explorer in us all.

I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife, and historian, Jenn.

Hello.

Today, our Route 66 centennial road trip pulls right onto the real-life

Main Street that inspired Pixar's Radiator Springs, Seligman, Arizona.

If you've ever watched Cars and gotten emotional during the flashback montage

when the interstate comes in, walking through Seligman will give you chills.

We're taking you inside Angel Delgadillo's historic barber shop,

where those conversations with Pixar actually took place, exploring the

vintage storefronts and neon signs and showing why this town is known as

the birthplace of Route 66 revival.

We'll also talk about the town's origin from an 1880s railroad hub to a

post-war boom town, what it's like to hit the longest continuous stretch of

original Route 66, and our fun encounter holding original 1960s highway signs

with Big Mike at Route 66 Road Relics.

I'm Scott Bennie, so turn your headlights on for a cruise down Main Street.

We're exploring the real Radiator Springs in Seligman, Arizona.

Okay, Jenn.

This was a fun one.

Mm-hmm.

This was one, I think when we planned the Route 66 road trip,

this was kind of like an anchor.

This was one of the first ones we basically knew we were gonna do.

Gateway Arch, Cadillac Ranch, and Seligman were, like, three we knew

for a fact we were gonna stop there because these are absolute must-visits

when you're driving Route 66.

Yes, and, you know, we are fans of the movie Cars because we have

two boys, and, uh, I remember… Uh, Cars came out in 2006.

Our oldest was born in 2011, but I remember not really watching that movie

when it first came out because we were not kids- Yeah … and we didn't care.

But when we had kids and then they were old enough to kind of be interested

in it, I watched it with my son, and I didn't really know the story of Route 66.

I was not really aware of the history.

And so that movie, when it shows how much, how vital Route 66 was to America,

but as soon as Interstate 40 goes in, how people just stop going and stop visiting.

And so many people had built their lives and their businesses along

Route 66, basically lost everything.

And that- Radiator Springs, that town and that depiction of how close it is off of

40, but how much 40 just cut it off, um, is really depicted in, in S- in Seligman.

Yeah, and it's one of those things that it's, it's kind of that story of the

highway by- bypassing the, the s- the Americana that you can see on the country-

in the American countryside, right?

The, the, especially in the West.

That story wasn't really a thing- Mm-hmm … until the movie Cars was made.

Yes.

Right?

So that, a- and we look back on it now, I mean, it's 20 years after the fact-

Mm-hmm

… and we're like, "Oh yeah, you know, that story's always kind of been

there." And that's not true, right?

The, I mean, they were scouting this movie in 2001.

Yes.

So if you think about it, 20 years before that is about when

th- this, this town was bypassed.

Yeah.

A little over 20 years.

And so that wasn't there until Cars came out, and so they were, you know,

the, the Pixar folks, you know, props to them for coming up with this idea

of like, "Oh, we should travel…" Now, Route 66 was still a thing.

It was.

We've talked about it.

It's been in pop culture and, um,

it- But it was a thing for the generations before, right?

Yes.

Like, you talked about World War II, and we'll talk about that the

World War II veterans coming home really stopped in Seligman, right?

Because they were driving, they were making their American dream, they were up,

you know, picking up, uh, themselves and, and finding new places to live, and they

were driving Route 66 heading out west.

So they would stop there, and that was a lot of, like, where that

commerce happened, where those, uh, hotels and drugstores, they were

really revitalized in World War II.

So that generation would remember it, right?

That generation would be like, "We should stop. This is where your

mo- your grandma and I stopped."

But it was the next generation- Yeah … our generation, who really

didn't appreciate what Route 66 was or is until Cars really revitalized it.

So that's what I would say.

It was one of those where the generations before us really knew Route 66, but

we were, all we knew was interstate.

Yeah.

And so we were not aware of what was there beforehand until Cars came out, and Cars

really, like, gave it a lot of heart.

And for me, it was one of those things where I, I remember

just crying watching it.

You, and you even mention that in the video.

Yeah.

And I was like, "We- I wanna travel this. How important is this road?" And

that's when you, you reach back and you find it, Grapes of Wrath, right?

And, and you know it's there, but now you really wanna, like, be a

part of it, and drive it, and see it.

So this was our way to take our kids and drive it.

We- I've been showing you the license plate we've got, uh, along

the way, so you can kind of see Seligman is right here in Arizona

right after we did the Grand Canyon.

And so we're heading out to California here.

Um, and we talk about this being one of the longest continuous original

routes, because from California all the way out here and past

Seligman is an original route.

And we stopped at that sign that you could see, uh, and know that this

is an original route of Route 66.

But it really is parallel to the 40.

I- I mean, you can almost see the 40 from Seligman.

Like, when we stopped, and I'll show… I'll, I'll cut over some B-roll of us, you

know, at the sign kind of outside of town.

But we, uh… Y- you can essentially see the 40 from where we're at.

Now, the one thing I will say is this was probably one of the easier

stretches of Route 66 to drive because you're going through Seligman, so it's

actually probably a little bit better maintained, and you're driving closer to

highway, typical highway speeds- Mm-hmm

right?

Probably not, like, 70 to 80 miles an hour like you would on the 40.

We were doing 65, maybe 70 or something like that.

Yeah, and it was straightaways- Yeah … not like driving to Oatman.

Wasn't, wasn't curvy.

And we'll talk about Oatman.

Uh, well, we've, we've, we've mentioned it briefly before.

Yeah.

Maybe we'll talk about it at the end of this, because we're kind of starting

to wrap up our Route 66 series here.

So let's talk about the, the history and kind of where Seligman started.

Now, I alluded to it in the beginning that it was really kind of the, the railroad.

The trains came through there.

Yes.

So it really was, um, a, a wagon road and, uh, a stage road.

And what's interesting is it was on Beale's Wagon Road.

And I was looking this up, and I was like, wagon- Beale's Wagon Road in

1857 was an expedition led by Edward Fitzgerald Beale, and he was tasked

with establishing a trade route along the 35th parallel from Fort Smith,

Arkansas, to Los Angeles, California.

Okay.

So that's where this town starts.

It's a stage stop, right?

It's a stop along this route.

And I'm like, Beale- We live in Memphis I

was gonna say, is that like Beale Street?

Is that Beale Street?

Is it named for Edward Fitzgerald Beale?

And it is.

Really?

Yeah, so our Beale Street in Memphis is named for the same man who

started this road in 1857, uh, and that's where Seligman got its start.

Oh,

no way.

So Beale Street is named for him.

Uh, uh, he's part of Beale's Wagon Road.

He basically was a, um, uh, uh, he was a, a veteran and an explorer,

and he ends up in, uh, California.

So yeah, so Beale is named for him.

So think of it as one of these early routes, right?

Sure.

And you're definitely going through, uh, Indian country, right?

Yeah.

So this is all, uh, na- natives that live here.

Uh, I f- wanna make sure I get their names right.

The Havasupai?

Yeah.

That, that sounds right.

I mean, 'cause Lake Havasu isn't- Mm-hmm … too far, is, is well-known in Arizona.

Yep.

So those are the people that live there.

And, uh, so you're going through American Indian country as well,

but you're making your way out west.

That's the whole point, to get to LA.

So it's a stage stop on the Mojave Road.

Okay.

So it's also taking you from the Mojave out west.

Yep.

So it's kinda like a crossroads of those two areas.

So that's really where it gets its start.

And so you can imagine when Route 66 comes through, it's looking for places

where people can rest or get gas or stop.

So this is already an established route, and so they, it make it part of Route 66.

Yeah, and that's kind of the, that's the, the underlying story

along all of Route 66, right?

It's not that they're, they didn't know that the Highway 40 was the better way.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

They were kinda connecting the dots, right?

So they, they did the railroads first.

Obviously, the railroads, everybody wants trade routes just like anywhere else.

Mm-hmm.

Any, any other country in the world.

Yep.

You're trying to get, you know, travel across the country so you can trade,

so people can live and all the stuff.

And so the railroad built this out.

Pretty cool that we have our own Memphis tie- Yep … to Seligman with Mr. Beale.

Yeah, with Mr. Beale.

So it was originally called Prescott Junction because the railroad stop on the

Santa Fe mainline was at that junction of Prescott and the Arizona Central Railway.

So, uh, it really was a, you know, it starts as a stage stop.

It becomes a railroad stop- Yep … uh, called Prescott Junction.

And then, um, then it'll eventually be called, named Seligman.

Uh, but it's original feeder line for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1891.

So you can see how it's getting just- Bigger and bigger

And so it makes sense that, you know, industry, a little bit of

industry grew up there, right?

There's hotels.

Mm-hmm.

There's a little city, everything like that, just like there would be

anywhere else along a trade route coming through any country, right?

Yeah.

So along the, along the railroad, and then that's why it was known in the 1930s and

'40s, people were out there traveling, and cars became more accessible.

Travel across the country became more accessible, and so this was kind

of its boom, you know, its golden era in those '30s, '40s, and '50s.

Yeah, and it becomes… The reason why it, it gets renamed in 1886 to Seligman is,

um, Jesse Seligman, one of the founders of the Seligman company in New York,

helped finance those railroad lines.

Oh, okay.

So it's one of those, like, pay homage to the man- Sure … who's kind of

making your town a dot on the map, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

And so that's why it gets the name.

It's named for a railroad man after it's already a stage stop.

But what's neat about it is, like you had talked about, so many people had

utilized Route 66 after World War II.

You get all the baby boomers, right, who come home, get married, and wanna make

their American dream story come true.

They head west, right?

And they're stopping along the way, and they stop in Seligman,

and they stay at the hotel.

They eat at the diner, and they have a good time.

And, and so it's close enough to Los Angeles as well or California

that sometimes people could go out there just for a trip, especially

if that's where you're honeymooning or things along that nature.

Um, when we talk about, uh, Oatman, they say Clark Gable

actually honeymooned in Oatman.

So it really was kind of not far enough away from Cali that people

would come out there to kinda reminisce and remember the old times.

So that's really where Seligman has its memories.

It's from this- Yeah

revitalization of World War II, and that's where these businesses are able to thrive.

The barber shops are able to thrive.

The drugstores are able to thrive, but it's… And, and that's also where

once Interstate 40 goes in in 1978- The barber there actually tells that story.

It's like the very next day, cars stop driving through Seligman.

And it's just very sad because, like you said, it's so close to 40.

It's like you can see the cars over there.

I mean, it, it is quite literally right there.

I'll, I'll cut over… I think I'd got some decent drone shots of just that sign

that's just outside of town, and I'm, and I'm… The drone's kinda going up.

It goes a couple hundred feet up, and it's looking down the road towards

Seligman, and just off to the left, you can see, you know, just in the corner

of, of the screen, you can see the 40.

So it's right there.

So Seligman, you know, it's gonna not, it's n- not gonna

go down without a fight, right?

So it tries to rename itself as the birthplace of Route 66.

It tries to claim that because so many people did visit and

stop during World War II.

So 1987, it gets that moniker, Birthplace of Route 66.

Now, I- we've- I've- we made this video.

A lot of people comment, "Oh, it's not the birthplace. Tulsa's the birthplace,

or St. Louis is the birthplace. There's Chicago." And yes, there's a

lot of places that claim the capital Route 66 or the original Route 6…

Like, there's a lot of those because everybody at that time was trying to

bring back the tourism to their area.

And so you can see, 1987, this is, uh, almost 10 years after 40

has gone in, and they're trying to bring back the memories and this

nostalgia and people to come here.

So that's when it gets that official moniker, Birthplace of Route 66,

and that's the sign as you're driving in, and that's kinda where

we stop and, and tell that story.

Now, this is '87.

This is long before Cars and everything, but they're already trying to revitalize

the, the industry, the tourist industry of what made Seligman, uh, popular-

Yeah … what put it on the map.

Yeah.

So you can see, um, that wasn't because of Cars.

But it's because of that and the story that Cars comes here and is

so inspired, uh, by the barber.

And what's neat is we actually got to go into that barbershop,

sit in that barber chair-

Yeah, they let you sit in it

… and kind of realize the, the, the stories of this.

And I always say that, um- Great storytelling is, has that real heart at

the center of it, and that's what this is.

So when you sit and Barbara Angel Delgadillo, he, the, the produ-

like you said, the directors came in and, um, John La-

Lasseter

Lasseter came in and he told him that whole story of how that very

next day cars stopped coming through, so many businesses had to close,

so many people had to move away.

It's a small town to begin with, but that was, that even

devastated the town even more.

And how he has kept going, but this has been really hard for them and how they

just keep trying to find this resurgence.

And so I think he was very inspired to tell that authentic story.

Oh, yeah.

And when you see Radiator Springs in Cars, and at the end when they show the

map, and you show it, like, right off of 40, but then it's kind of comes back

when people wanna visit because Lightning McQueen now lives there, that's his

base camp, um, it's where Seligman is in

Arizona.

Y- yeah, and like any story or any, any storyteller, he, that's what

they were out there looking for.

Mm-hmm.

He, they, he probably had the seed of an idea.

Mm-hmm.

And then he gets out there and talks to Angel Delgadillo in Seligman, who's been

trying to kinda revitalize his hometown And he s- and it says, like, John Lasseter

sat in his barber chair and listened to Angel Delgadillo tell stories for hours.

And that- Is so authentic … that right there is the c- is so authentic,

and it's, it's the core of it, and the nostalgia and all the things.

And if you think about it, that's the core of the movie Cars.

That's what made the movie so big.

So not only does Seligman owe a lot to Cars, but Cars and, and Pixar owes a

lot to, to Angel and to, to Seligman.

And what's neat, when you go there today, they've embraced that.

There's recreations of Lightning McQueen- Yeah, it was fun … and

Tow Mater and the sheriff car.

Like, they're all along the road.

They are- have diners named for the Cars now, and it's really neat.

We ate at the Road Runner Cafe, super cool.

Uh, and we actually met, uh, Big Mike, and Big Mike had an original Route 66,

they call them shields, a shield sign.

And he said they were only produced in two states, Missouri-

And California

… and California.

And I think he had an original Missouri one.

Yep.

And, uh, you can hold the sign, you can take a picture, uh, and he, he'll

put it on his, uh, Facebook page.

But it's so neat to be able to hold that original Route 66 sign and go in there.

And again, all part of that s- authentic story of what this

town meant to American history.

There's also a very famous, uh, Old West gunfighter from there.

His name is Commodore Perry Owens.

Hmm.

And, uh, when I looked him up, his house is there and his gas station is there.

That's where he retired.

He retired to Seligman.

What was he a commodore of?

So this is very interesting.

He's, he's called Commodore Perry Owens because his father was named Oliver Perry

Owens after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.

Oh, no way.

Yes.

Huh.

So they called him Commodore Perry Owens, just in a moniker, uh, because, uh, he,

he was named for- Oliver Hazard Perry So

he just got that nickname because his dad was named after Oliver Hazard Perry.

Yeah.

Well, his first name was actually Commodore.

So it's Commodore- Oh, it was … Perry Owens.

Yeah.

Oh, wow, okay.

Yeah, that's his name.

So it wasn't a nickname, like they just named him that.

Yep.

But what's very interesting about this lawman, I mean, he is your typical, he's,

he's born out east, runs away from home, joins Buffalo Bill in killing buffalo

out west, makes his name, but he makes his name because one of the Clanton boys

who gets away from the Earps, uh, he actually tracks them down and kills him.

Oh, really?

Yes.

No way.

So it's so connected to American history.

Now, he doesn't personally kill, uh, Ike, I think it's Ike Clanton, uh, but

he, uh, deputizes the man who actually will pull the trigger and kill him,

like he sends him out to get him.

And if you guys like the whole Wyatt Earp story, please hit follow, because

we visited Tombstone on the way back.

Yes.

And so in a couple weeks we will probably, maybe in a month or two, but

stay tuned, hit follow, because we will be talking about Tombstone, Arizona,

because we did visit Tombstone on our way back from California to Tennessee.

But that's really cool that, you know, tied, tied to, even tied

to us, 'cause we lived in Erie-

which is where Oliver Hazard Perry was from and all the stuff.

So,

um- And Beale.

Yeah Right?

So what's interesting is, he, once Ike Clanton is killed, the whole

cowboy wrestlers, that's what puts an end to it, and he's the one who

basically makes sure that's done.

And then he'll retire to Seligman, and his house still stands there today,

and his gas station still stands today.

So this stops for people who wanna see old gun, uh, slinger, uh-

Kinda like the Wild West history

… lawmen.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

Who's connected to Tombstone, and, uh, so that's kinda neat there in Seligman.

Uh, and of course it's the Beale Wagon Road.

There's a s- there's a historic marker to that as well.

Cool.

And all of the history that's just in this one little town, part of America.

So it was really fun to go there and celebrate, and if you wanna look at

our video and find out more, please, uh, check out Walk with History.

As you pull away from the curb in Seligman and watch the vintage neon signs glow

in your rearview mirror, you realize the town is living proof that a small

community with heart can change history.

When the interstate threatened to wipe them off the map, Angel

Delgadillo and the people of Seligman refused to let their heritage fade.

They turned their heartbreak into a national revival, reminding all

of us that the journey matters just as much as the destination.

Pixar may have put Radiator Springs on movie screens around the world, but

the spirit, the grit, and the warmth of that story were built right there

on those two lanes of Arizona pavement.

Ahead of us lies 160 miles of uninterrupted Historic Route

66, the longest continuous stretch left on the map.

Make sure you subscribe to Talk With History in your favorite podcast app so

you don't miss our next stop as we make our way toward the California coast.

We'll talk to you next time.

Thank you.

This has been a Walk With History production.

Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Bennie.

Episode researched by Jennifer Bennie.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.

Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player,

and we'll talk to you next time.