This November marks 100 years since the establishment of Route 66. The iconic highway ran from Chicago to California through several states, including Arizona.
One Arizona town along that route helped inspire a popular Pixar film.
In the 2006 movie “Cars,” a talking, animated rookie racecar named Lightning McQueen is on his way to California to compete in the Piston Cup, the film’s stock car racing championship, when he finds himself stranded in a place called Radiator Springs. One of the film’s other characters, a tow truck named Mater, calls it “the cutest little town in Carburetor County.”
While the look of the fictional town is based on various landmarks along Route 66, a key piece of its storyline came from Seligman, Arizona. It was one of several towns bypassed by the I-40 in the late 1970s. Seligman lost business from thousands of daily travelers overnight, a similar tale to the one Sally, a blue Porsche residing in Radiator Springs, tells McQueen in the movie.
LIGHTNING MCQUEEN: “Look, they’re driving right by. They don’t even know what they’re missing.”
SALLY: “Well, it didn’t used to be that way.”
MCQUEEN: “What happened?”
SALLY: “The town got bypassed just to save 10 minutes of driving.”
The DVD included a special feature where director John Lasseter talked about the inspirations for "Cars," including a barbershop owner from Seligman, Angel Delgadillo.
“When we were bypassed, the world stopped,” Delgadillo said in the video.
Lasseter interviewed Delgadillo while he was working on the film in 2001, hearing how he refused to let his town die. In 1987, Delgadillo established the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona and campaigned for "Historic Route 66" signage on the former U.S. highway to put it back on the map.
Seligman resident Nancy Echeverria told the story to KJZZ at the town’s Route 66 Centennial Celebration in April.
“So, we're not the birthplace of 66,” Echeverria said. “That's in Missouri. We are the historic birthplace of Route 66.”
Delgadillo worked tirelessly to get a stretch of road from Crookton all the way to Kingman historicized.
“That's the longest stretch of Route 66 that's open in the entire United States,” Echeverria said.
Delgadillo and his wife opened a gift shop selling Route 66 merchandise and the town rebranded itself as a nostalgic tourist destination, reminding travelers — much like in the movie “Cars” — to slow down and enjoy the journey rather than the destination.
Eventually, similar historic associations were founded in eight states to preserve the “Mother Road.” That’s why Delgadillo has been dubbed the "guardian angel" of Route 66. At 99 years old, he celebrated the highway’s centennial with the community he pulled together nearly 40 years ago.
“We were raised in an era when you had to fight for everything that you had or wanted,” Delgadillo told KJZZ. “So when our government ignored us, it didn't faze us because we were not used to giving up and here we are.”
Today, Seligman’s ties to the Pixar movie are celebrated by its residents. The streets are lined with old cars painted with faces like the animated characters.
“Speaking of ‘Cars,’ we are going to have Lightning McQueen here today,” said Angel’s daughter, Mirna Delgadillo, as she pointed to a life-sized replica of the film’s main character. Mirna planned the town’s celebration.
“If it wasn’t for [my parents], Route 66 would be dead,” Mirna said. “Two years ago my dad said: ‘I want to live to see Route 66 turn 100.’ I said, ‘OK, you know what? To honor my mom and dad and to honor Route 66, I'm going to throw the party of the century.’”
Down the street, international visitors stepped off a big tour bus to take photos in front of one of Seligman’s antique shops. Alongside them were out-of-state road-trippers, like Mike Scott from Brownsburg, Indiana. He and his wife have been Route 66 fans for 30 years.
“You can be in a town like this with all these people or you can be in the middle of nowhere, on that same highway, going the same place and it's just special, you know just how remote some of the country is,” Scott said. “It’s the best way to see America.”
It wasn’t his first time in Seligman and he said he’s always felt welcomed by the residents of a little town that was almost forgotten, much like how the kind-hearted citizens of Radiator Springs took in a selfish, arrogant racecar and inspired him to be more empathetic.
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