Wigwam Village #6

Fifteen concrete teepees stand in a semicircle here, each thirty-two feet tall, and travelers still leave the interstate to sleep in one. Chester Lewis built Wigwam Village #6 in 1950 after paying Frank Redford for the design he had admired in Kentucky, covering the royalty through coin-operated radios bolted to the rooms. Interstate 40 bypassed Holbrook and closed the place around 1982; Lewis died in 1986, and his family reopened it two years later. It inspired the Cozy Cone Motel in the film Cars and survives as one of only three.

What the plaque says

Dear Mr. Paul Lewis , It is my pleasure to inform you that the Wigwam Village #6 at 811 W. Hopi Dr. in Holbrook was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 2002., As you know, the National Register is the official listing of the Nation's cultural resources worthy of preservation: , Congratulations!, Sincerely, Christine M Wahlstorm , National Register Coordinator/Historian , Arizona State Historic Preservation Office

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Holbrook — 0.5 mi
  A Santa Fe railroad town once too tough for women and churches, now the seat of Navajo County, gateway to the Petrified Forest, and home to the concrete teepees of the Wigwam Motel.

More markers nearby

• Henry R. Holbrook — 0.5 mi
• Navajo County Courthouse — 0.6 mi
• Little Colorado River Bridge — 0.8 mi
• The Old Fort — 9.4 mi