Seligman, Arizona, is widely associated with the birth of the modern Historic Route 66 preservation movement.
The movement gained momentum there in the 1980s, when local barber Angel Delgadillo and other residents worked to preserve the town’s historic connection to the highway. Delgadillo helped establish the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in 1987, giving preservation efforts a formal organization and a powerful public voice.
Seligman had suffered after Interstate 40 bypassed the old highway. Promoting the surviving road as Historic Route 66 helped revive tourism and encouraged other communities to protect motels, diners, signs, and roadside attractions.
The town is sometimes confused with Williams, which was the last town on the original Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40 in Arizona. Seligman’s special distinction concerns preservation activism, not the route’s official creation or final decommissioning.