Wigwam Village #7

by Kaylah Stroup

One of my greatest joys in life is crossing off goals. That sounds weird, but stay with me here, I just find such great pleasure in making goals and accomplishing them. It doesn’t matter how silly the goal it is or how insignificant it may seem to someone else, I just love accomplishing things. Some days on my to-do list along with work related things I’ll write “shower”, “make bed”, etc just because I love crossing things off.

Since the second I learned about Wigwam Village a few years back I knew I needed to stay there. I love tacky roadside attractions, and tourist traps. It’s just so kitsch, how could you not love it!? For the longest time I couldn’t find anyone to go with. The only one I knew of at the time was in seven hours away in Kentucky. No one saw the point except me.

Fast forward a few years to June of 2014, Jeff and I are getting ready to head out west on our first big road trip together. While looking up things in the area I realized there was another Wigwam Village in Holbrook, Arizona. We stayed, and it was just awesome as I had made it out to be in my mind. It was in no way luxurious but it was awesome!

When I got home I did a bunch of research on the history of Wigwam Village. Originally built in the 1930s + 40s, there were seven Wigwam Village locations. Now only three remain, each of which has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Holbrook, Arizona, Cave City, Kentucky, and San Bernardino, California. I had to visit the other two!

A few months later, for our six month anniversary Jeff and I took a trip down to Cave City and stayed at that Wigwam Village.  Then in June, while on our most recent road trip, we finally crossed number three off the list, San Bernardino – number seven of the original seven! I say finally but we managed to stay at all three of the remaining Wigwam Villages in a span of just a few days over a year which is pretty darn awesome, right?!

Of the three Wigwam Villages I think this one was the nicest inside. It might have even been bit bigger than the others as well. That’s not to put the others down though, all three were clean, had friendly staff, and made for super cool photo opportunities.

I celebrated crossing off my goal of staying at the three remaining Wigwam Villages by getting a permanent souvenir. While shoving my face with a delicious burger from In-N-Out I searched for tattoo artists in the area. I wasn’t able to find one in San Bernardino on such short notice but found Mikey Sarratt at High Noon Tattoo in Phoenix. He not only responded to my email super quickly, but came in on his day off just to do this little tattoo. I was SO nervous but I seriously could not be happier with the finished result!
xoxo


Special thanks to Jeff for being more than willing to make all my silly little dreams come true. That guy hates staying anywhere but really nice hotels but made the exception because he understood how much it meant to me. You da best! I love you!

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20 comments

Alexandra August 13, 2015 - 1:27 pm

I cannot possibly explain how much I want to stay in a Wigwam Motel (although you obviously understand). I wish all seven were still around, but three is respectable. Can't wait to see these in person!

Kaylah August 13, 2015 - 2:24 pm

Dude, me too! Such a shame they've been demolished. Hope the people who currently own the remaining three continue to keep them going for many many years to come.

My Two Mums August 13, 2015 - 1:46 pm

This place looks amazing!

Kaylah August 13, 2015 - 2:25 pm

Totally is! Definitely stay if you ever have the chance.

thevintageurbanite August 13, 2015 - 2:16 pm

Do you have any photos of the inside? I would love to stay at one of these!
-Ashley, The Vintage Urbanite

Svady August 13, 2015 - 2:57 pm

I was just thinking I wanted to see what the inside looked like!

Svady August 13, 2015 - 2:59 pm

http://elcosmico.com/stay/shelter/tepees
Have you heard of this place? It's 8 hours from where I live. I finally has some respite from school and hope to plan a trip soon!

Kaylah August 17, 2015 - 10:18 am

My goodness! That main photo on the website is gorgeous and enough alone to get me to want to stay there!!

Emerald Dove August 13, 2015 - 3:41 pm

This place looks so cool! I've never seen a place like it. 🙂
theemeralddove21.blogspot.co.uk

Kaylah August 17, 2015 - 10:19 am

It's way cool!

Pinky Brooks August 13, 2015 - 6:59 pm

Kaylah,

There is a Tee-Pee Motel in Wharton, Texas…just in case you are in the neighborhood…:)

Kaylah August 17, 2015 - 10:19 am

Interesting! I had seen photos of those ones but wasn't sure where they were located. I definitely want to get down to Texas sometime soon.

Jennifer Holmquist August 13, 2015 - 7:59 pm

What an awesome concept! I've never heard of them before. Looks like something straight out of a Francesca Lia Block book. (real and magical at the same time) 🙂

Rae - Say It Aint So August 13, 2015 - 8:52 pm

i've stayed in the cave city and san bernadino ones, i need to do the last! i love those places. we live in nashville and go to louisville often and we always pull off in cave city just to see the wigwams. I REALLY want to stay in the dog bark park in, have you seen it?
http://www.dogbarkparkinn.com/
it looks like a beagle! to bad it isn't really near anything else i want to do.
weird hotels forever!

Kaylah August 17, 2015 - 10:20 am

WHAT? Shut up. NO. I've never seen that before but I NEED to go. I have no idea how I didn't know that existed.

Nomad August 13, 2015 - 8:52 pm

Another nosey person who wanted to see inside here – thanks for the link! I've wanted to visit one of these for years. It's definitely on my must visit list for my epic USA road trip I want to take one day so for now I will live vicariously through you. Keep having adventures! 🙂 x

Kaylah August 17, 2015 - 10:21 am

🙂

Kelly Del Valle August 13, 2015 - 10:20 pm

Oh, I love me some tacky roadside tourist traps! Well, kitsch tacky, not tacky tacky. Orlando has a lot of tacky tacky. Your posts always make me want to hit the road IMMEDIATELY, but… three more days until back to school. 🙁 I'll have to live vicariously through you for awhile.

my favorite desert oasis - the wigwam - THE DAINTY SQUID January 16, 2019 - 8:15 am

[…] upon. I’ve never dedicated an entire post to our lodging choices aside from, coincidentally, Wigwam Village – which is of no affiliation. The Wigwam though, this place is something special! We even had […]

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