Valentine, Arizona on Route 66

Union 76 Gas Station

 Valentine is small, to call it a wide spot in the road is overstating things.  It isn't totally empty,  There are a couple of gas stations that are being maintained and some other buildings, even a fairly new house. In fact, there used to be a lot more here and you can see more remnants if you look harder than I did.  Notable other things are the Chief's Motel sign and the Truxton Canyon Training School.

I saw some photos of this station from 2015 where it was overgrown, but now it is in better condition. Given the Coors Light sign out front, I do believe it is an active store, though it didn't appear to be open either time I went there.  The sign is faded almost white on the top, but otherwise seems in good shape.  Behind it is a sign for the "Shit Howdy Ranch".

Valentine Union 76 Gas Station
The gas pumps are also branded with the "76" logo. They may be original to the station, but some of the older photos I saw of the site didn't have them in place. There are also a few old trucks parked out front. 

Bert's Country Dancing
When I saw this I wasn't sure if this was really an old dance hall, or if someone had gotten the signs somewhere else and put them up. But, it really was a dance hall.  According to Route66Times as late as 1984 it was advertising in the Mojave Daily Miner.

 

Valentine Station
Valentine Station is another former gas station. This one has Chevron gas pumps.  The person maintaining it lives in the station and has a youtube channel.

 

More Valentine
Here's another view of Valentine Station.  Route 66 is on the right.

You may be curious how long it took me to get from Needles, where I started, to here.  The answer is 1 day.  I left Needles in the morning, drove to Amboy, turned around came back, went through Topock, Oatman, Cool Springs, and Kingman.  Then I continued on to Hackberry and Valentine. As you can see from the photos it was getting dark. I probably should have spent a bit more time exploring around Amboy and Chambless then after Kingman headed straight for Flagstaff, saving the Hackberry and Valentine portion of Rt 66 for the trip back.

 Prior stop: Hackberry, Arizona.  You can see all my Route 66 posts here. 

 

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