Arizona Outback & Salome, AZ: the Original "Sin City"

Westward Motel, Salome, AZ

There’s a beautiful nostalgia for old things. Part of the wonder of ghost towns and historic places is marveling at how the sights before you have been preserved all this time, while times changed and towns grew and travelers changed course, this has stood untouched. Though we may take the contemporary and familiar for granted, the past is unfamiliar and ripe for rediscovery. In the case of Salome, Arizona, off-the-beaten-path on US 60 heading towards LA, few may realize that this desert town was once a prequel to Las Vegas, alive in the 1930’s with gambling, eager lovebirds and illicit prostitution long before “Sin City” came into being.

Sheffler's Motel, Salome, AZ

The so-called “Arizona Outback” along US 60 from Wickenburg to I-10, 17 miles from Quartzsite, was once the main thoroughfare from Phoenix to Los Angeles. Overshadowed in the 70’s by the Interstate, today it is relatively seldom traveled and to some, even undesirable. Yet for the right kind of traveler with an interest in glimpsing into the authentic, gritty and yes, desolate past, when times were less convenient and slower yet more raucous, the route offers authenticity and even some hospitality.

In its heyday, Highway 60 was a transcontinental highway from Virginia to LA. Alive and well in eastern Arizona today, starting on the New Mexican border, it offers a 5,500-foot change in elevation and diverse scenery, including a 1,000-foot-long mountain tunnel, as it snakes its way across the state through Show Low and Globe, merging with Grand Avenue as it crosses the Valley. 

Saguaro Motel, Aguilar, AZ

Back in the “Arizona Outback,” several Western towns were left stranded by travelers who prefer to cut through the desert at Interstate speeds. Aguila, Wenden, Salome, Hope and Brenda, are remote, sparsely populated and rugged. Some consist of little more than RV campgrounds and loose settlements. However, to those interested in an off-the-beaten-path exploration of towns frozen in time for nearly a century, Highway 60 offers an interesting journey with some charming surprises, of which Salome’s Westward Motel is but one example.

The Westward Motel is a four room motel, with a fifth room serving as a common area and kitchen, built in 1942. Renovated in mid-2000s by former rock band roadie, Rande Wolters. The motel is self-described as the “hippest little place in Arizona” and “an unconventional, charming, well appointed motel in the Arizona Outback.” In an interview with Arizona Highways, Wolters said he purchased the Motel because it reminded him of iconic stops on Route 66. He said he enjoys offering an unexpected gem in the desert, “‘We don’t do anything normal. That’s our goal.” 

Tire Shop, Bouse, AZ

When I caught a glimpse of Salome’s Sheffler’s Motel, with the raised aqua blue rim around a no doubt historic pool, I could not help but snap a picture. Searching online I uncovered fascinating and very unexpected history about Salome’s, at times, salacious, past. In the 30’s it was a haven for Californians eager to tie the knot in spite of California’s intolerable three-day waiting period for nuptials. Around the same time, California clamped down on illegal gambling ships and the Sheffler brothers relocated from LA to create a gambling resort. In short, the town appears to have been a prequel to Las Vegas, including illicit prostitution. Researchers date the Motel to 1939.

When I spied the sign for the Saguaro Motel in Aguila, Arizona, standing in perfect tandem with a stately, real life saguaro cactus, I was itching to come back for a photo. The wealth of online photos of the sign, now on private property surrounded by barb wire, festive music blaring on a dark Sunday evening, proved to me I am not alone in admiring its rustic charm. Yet tracking down history on the motel proved to be much more difficult. Aguila, itself, is largely an agricultural community with mining roots. It first made the U.S. Census in 1920, though its train depot was built in 1907 by the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway. It appears Aguila was once home to the rustic, Burro Jim Motel (online photos portray an equally rustic sign, which I did not see on my journey), however, this historic motel appears to have closed within the past five years.

A trip from Salome up AZ-72 to Bouse, established in 1908 as a mining camp, also offers a roadside view of many historic buildings still standing, such as the Bouse Tire Shop. The town served as a top secret location of Camp Bouse for the army in the early 1940s.   

Founder of Salome and former resident of Wickenburg, humorist Dick Wick Hall, described the solace he found in this corner of the desert, which no doubt many travelers can relate to today: “The first time I came to this valley it appealed to me; not only in its abundant warmth but the wonderful peace and quiet of it. I found it to be a place where I could get acquainted with myself and find something which every man in his own soul is consciously or unconsciously searching for.” 

For more information:

@thewestwardmotel

https://www.arizonahighways.com/eat-sleep/lodging/westward-motel

https://www.phoenixmag.com/2012/02/01/salome-baby/

https://azdot.gov/adot-blog/road-trip-arizona%E2%80%99s-piece-us-60-original-transcontinental-highway

http://www.ontheroadarizona.com/salome.html

http://bouseazchamber.com/HistoricBouse.html