City approximately 57 miles (92 km) southeast of Flagstaff, where U.S. Route 66 originally routed through the city and achieved national fame in 1972 for the Eagles / Jackson Browne song “Take It Easy”
From Flagstaff (11 mi) Follow I-40 E to Walnut Canyon Rd. Take exit 204 from I-40 E. Turn right onto Walnut Canyon Rd.
Overview
Winslow (Navajo: Béésh Sinil) is a city in Navajo County, Arizona. It is approximately 57 miles (92 km) southeast of Flagstaff, 240 miles (390 km) west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and 329 miles (529 km) southeast of Las Vegas. Winslow was named for either Edward F. Winslow, president of St. Louis and San Francisco Rail Road, which owned half of the old Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, or Tom Winslow, a prospector who lived in the area.
The last Harvey House (La Posada Hotel), designed by Mary Colter, opened in 1930. The hotel closed in 1957 and was used by the Santa Fe Railway for offices. The railroad abandoned La Posada in 1994 and announced plans to tear it down. It was bought and restored by Allan Affeldt and it serves as a hotel.
U.S. Route 66 was originally routed through the city. A contract to build Interstate 40 as a bypass north of Winslow was awarded at the end of 1977. I-40 replaced U.S. Route 66 in Arizona in its entirety.
Winslow achieved national fame in 1972 in the Eagles / Jackson Browne song “Take It Easy” which has the line “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona."
The nearby Meteor Crater, sometimes known as the Barringer Crater and formerly as the Canyon Diablo crater, is a famous impact crater.
The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are about 60 miles (100 km) east of Winslow. The Little Painted Desert is 18 miles (29 km) north of Winslow.
Standin' on the Corner Park is a public park in Winslow, Arizona, opened in 1999, commemorating the song "Take It Easy" which was written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and most famously recorded by the Eagles. The song includes the verse "Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me." The park contains a two-story trompe-l'œil mural by John Pugh, a flatbed Ford truck, and a bronze statue by Ron Adamson of a life-sized man who is standing on a corner with a guitar by his side. The park is surrounded by a wall of bricks, with windows to peer into; each brick has a donor's name on it, and a story by each of the donors describing their fondness for Winslow, Arizona.
Until the 1970s, Winslow was a thriving town in northern Arizona just off Route 66. When I-40 bypassed the community many local businesses disappeared, the tourism sector being among the hardest hit. While some local jobs remained (Winslow is the base of operation for nearly 1,000 railroad workers), the local downtown was badly hurt by the influx of national chains such as Walmart and McDonald's along the new interstate highway to the north of the town. Twenty years passed and Winslow was stuck in a commercial rut.
The Standin' on the Corner Foundation was formed to create a renaissance of Winslow. Determined to build on tourism, the foundation took advantage of the town being mentioned in the song "Take It Easy" made famous by the Eagles. From 1997 until 1999, the foundation sought out donors and planned design concepts. On September 10 and 11, 1999 the park was opened to the public.
In September 2016, a statue was unveiled at the park in the likeness of Glenn Frey, who died earlier that year.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Winslow, Arizona", and "Standin' on the Corner Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
