Standing on the Corner Park

Winslow grew up as a busy railroad and Route 66 town, but when the interstate bypassed the old highway in the 1970s the traffic and the trade drained away, and the downtown fell quiet. Looking for a way back, local boosters seized on the one thing that still drew a smile from strangers: their town's cameo in a famous song. Over 1997 to 1999 a local foundation raised money, worked out the design, and built a park on a genuine corner of the old highway.

They kept it simple and literal. An artist painted a big mural on the brick wall to look like a shop window reflecting the street, with the girl and her flatbed Ford right there in the glass, and a bronze figure of a young musician was set on the sidewalk so visitors could pose beside him as if they were the traveler in the song. When it opened in 1999 it did exactly what the town hoped, giving road-trippers a reason to slow down, pull off, and spend a little time and money in downtown Winslow.

In October 2004 the park was nearly lost. A fire broke out in the adjacent old J.C. Penney building and the structure collapsed, and for close to three years the corner and its mural were fenced off while the town cleared the rubble and stabilized the wall that held the painting. The mural survived, and when the corner reopened Winslow expanded the site into a proper downtown park on the cleared lot next door.

The story gained a poignant chapter in 2016. When Glenn Frey, the Eagle who co-wrote 'Take It Easy' and helped make the corner famous, died that January, the town added a second bronze statue in his honor. Along the way a real 1960 red flatbed Ford was parked at the curb and a giant Route 66 shield was painted across the pavement, completing the tableau. Fans now come not just for a song lyric but to pay a quiet tribute to the musician behind it.

What makes the corner more than a gimmick is that it sits inside a real, still-breathing Route 66 downtown. Winslow was a genuine highway and railroad town, and the blocks around the park hold old brick storefronts, a famous restored railroad hotel a short walk away, small shops, and cafes. The park anchors the district rather than standing alone in a parking lot, so a stop here comes with a walkable stretch of old-highway America around it.

It also captures something real about the road-trip spirit. 'Take It Easy' is a song about the open highway and not letting the miles get the better of you, and standing on the corner it names, in a small desert town that refused to fade when the interstate passed it by, is a fitting pause on a long drive across Arizona. It is free, it is cheerful, and it reliably makes people grin.

The park is right in downtown Winslow on a corner of the old highway, free and open to the sky, an easy quick stop just off Interstate 40 as you cross northern Arizona. Park on the surrounding streets, take the photo by the bronze musician and the flatbed Ford, read the mural up close, and it can be done in fifteen minutes, or stretched out with a walk around the historic blocks nearby.

It pairs well with the rest of the region. Winslow is a natural base for the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest to the east, and the town's restored railroad hotel and small downtown reward an unhurried stroll. Time it right, catch some Eagles playing over the corner, and it is exactly the kind of unpretentious roadside stop that makes a Route 66 drive worth taking slow.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.