Holbrook & Petrified Forest Day Trips

Holbrook and Petrified Forest National Park are the nearest big day trip beyond the White Mountains. Holbrook has a historic courthouse museum with a basement jail and the Wigwam Motel on old Route 66; the park has the Painted Desert Inn, Puerco Pueblo and the petrified logs themselves.

Checked Oct 22, 2026 · Edited by Sam Ridley · Sources · How we check

In Holbrook

Navajo County Historic Courthouse and Museum. Legends of America says the county built the courthouse in 1898, used it until 1976 and listed it on the National Register in 1978. It now holds a visitor center and the Navajo County Historical Museum, with a tour of the basement jail. The Holbrook Historical Society runs the museum; check its site for hours.

Wigwam Motel (Wigwam Village #6). The National Park Service says it was finished in 1950 as the sixth of seven Wigwam Villages, closed to traffic by Interstate 40, reopened by the family in 1988 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It is a working motel: ask about rooms and photos before you wander the grounds.

In Petrified Forest National Park

Painted Desert Inn. The National Park Service says homesteader Herbert David Lore built the original inn, called the Stone Tree House, of petrified wood and local stone (registered 1924). The park bought it in the 1930s, workers rebuilt it in Pueblo Revival style, and it reopened in 1940 for Route 66 travelers. Hopi artist Fred Kabotie painted murals in its dining rooms. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Puerco Pueblo. The National Park Service describes a village of more than 100 rooms around a plaza, built after droughts in the 1200s and nearly empty by 1380, on a short paved loop trail. It is an ancestral Puebloan site: stay on the trail and touch nothing.

Petrified wood. Removing petrified wood is against the law, and the National Park Service says the petrified wood sold in gift shops comes from private land outside the park boundaries.

Local Legend: The Wigwam Motel That Is Not Made of Wigwams

What is actually true: The National Park Service says builder Chester E. Lewis saw architect Frank Redford’s original Wigwam Village in Cave City, Kentucky, in 1938, then bought the plans and the right to the name, and finished the Holbrook village in 1950 as the sixth of seven, hence “#6.” The buildings are modeled on tepees, not wigwams; the NPS says Redford disliked the word “teepee” and used “wigwam” anyway, a historic misnomer. The motel struggled after Interstate 40 bypassed downtown Holbrook, the family reopened it in 1988, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Sources differ on when the bypass hurt, so we give no year. Sources: National Park Service: Wigwam Village Motel #6
The Clio: Wigwam Motel

Local Legend: The Courthouse Hanging Invitation, and The Ghost on The Stairs

What is actually true: The history is documented; the ghost is not. Legends of America says the county built the courthouse in 1898, used it until 1976, and listed it on the National Register in 1978; it now holds a visitor center and the Navajo County Historical Museum, with a tour of the basement jail. George Smiley, convicted of killing a railroad section foreman, was hanged on January 8, 1900, the only execution at the courthouse, and Sheriff Frank Wattron’s printed invitation to the hanging was reprinted by newspapers nationwide, drawing a 30-day stay and a reprimand from the governor (Legends of America; KOLD News confirms the invitation and the reprieve). The haunting rests on one page that calls it local lore, with no firsthand accounts. Check the museum for hours before you go. Sources: Legends of America: History & Haunting of the Navajo County Courthouse
KOLD News: Holbrook gives visitors glimpse into Arizona’s bloody, outlaw past

Local Legend: “Too Tough for Women or Churches”: Holbrook and The Hash Knife

What is actually true: Legends of America says the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad built a station in 1882 and named the town for its first chief engineer, H. R. Holbrook, and that the Hashknife Outfit (the Aztec Land and Cattle Company) began there in 1884 with a rough reputation. Its headline claim, that by 1914 Holbrook was the only U.S. county seat without a church, comes from that one page, so we call it “said to be.” The Sharlot Hall Museum says much of the outfit’s wild reputation is exaggerated. KOLD News says that on September 4, 1887 Apache County Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens killed three outlaws in a five-minute gunfight; both outlets agree on the date. The Holbrook Historical Society confirms the Hashknife brought a large Texas herd and made Holbrook a cow town. Sources: Legends of America: Holbrook, Arizona: Too Tough For Women or Churches
Sharlot Hall Museum: Hash Knife left its brand on Arizona history
KOLD News: Holbrook gives visitors glimpse into Arizona’s bloody, outlaw past
Holbrook Historical Society museum: highlights

Local Legend: Why Holbrook has a Bucket of Blood Street

What is actually true: The Navajo County Historical Society says the saloon was first the Cottage and was renamed after a shooting recalled in a later memoir: a card dispute that ended in two shootings, with enough blood on the floor to fill a bucket. Wikipedia lists three competing versions of how it got the name (an 1886 card-game fight among rustlers, that memoir, or a two-death fight at the Cottage Saloon), so the story is told more than one way. The historical society dates the town’s first church to 1912, while Wikipedia, citing a 1952 article, puts it in 1913. The building is not a visitor stop: please do not go inside. Sources: Navajo County Historical Society: Holbrook, the town too rough for women and churches
Wikipedia: Bucket of Blood Street

Local Legend: The Hashknife Pony Express: real mail on horseback

What is actually true: The ride is real. The U.S. Postal Service (2015) says the Navajo County sheriff began using Pony Express riders to carry invitations to the governor for Holbrook’s annual Hashknife Stampede around 1958, that the riders later got a Postal Service contract to carry mail (more than 20,000 pieces on about 200 miles), and that the Holbrook postmaster swears them in. The ride’s own site calls the 2026 ride the 68th annual, led by the Navajo County Hashknife Posse and ending at a ceremony in Scottsdale. The sources do not state a founding year outright, so we say “since the late 1950s.” The Navajo County Historical Society says the Hashknife name came from the Aztec Land and Cattle Company brand, which resembled a hash knife. Check the ride’s site for current dates. Sources: U.S. Postal Service: Pony Express ride (2015)
Hashknife Pony Express
Navajo County Historical Society: Holbrook

Local Legend: The Giant’s Bones at Petrified Forest

What the sources record: This is a traditional account of living peoples, not a rumor, so we tell it as they tell it and do not grade it. The National Park Service article “The Intersecting Crossroads of Paleontology and Archeology” (Santucci, Weeks and Thornburg, Intermountain Park Science, 2021) records that the Navajo saw the petrified logs as the remains of Yietso, a giant monster their ancestors had killed, and called them Yietso-bitsin, “the giant’s bones.” It adds that the Paiute saw the same logs as spent arrow shafts shot by the thunder god Shinauav. In Diné tradition Yeitso is one of the monsters defeated by the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born for Water. Spellings of the name vary. Taking wood from the park is illegal (see the next legend). Sources: National Park Service: The Intersecting Crossroads of Paleontology and Archeology (2021)
National Park Service: Stories in Stone, chapter 5
Wikipedia: Yei Tso

Local Legend: The Curse of The Stolen Petrified Wood

What is actually true: The letters are real; the curse is not documented. Collector’s Weekly reports that the park has more than 1,200 “conscience letters” in its archive, kept since 1934 (inconsistently), many blaming misfortune on wood the writer took, and that where the curse tale started is hard to trace for certain. There is no record that people who take wood suffer more than anyone else. Removing petrified wood from the park is against the law, and the National Park Service says the wood sold in gift shops comes from private land outside the park boundaries. The 2014 book Bad Luck, Hot Rocks collects the letters. Sources: Collector’s Weekly: Letters of the Damned
National Park Service: Petrified Forest, Frequently Asked Questions

What we could not verify

Drive times and distances from Show Low: not checked. Use a map.
Hours, fees and tour times for the park, the Painted Desert Inn, the courthouse museum and the Wigwam Motel: not checked. Call or use the official sites in the sources.
The two ghost and curse stories on this page are folklore; the cards say what the sources record.

Questions people ask

Can I take a piece of petrified wood from the park?

No. It is against the law to remove it, and the wood in gift shops comes from private land outside the park (National Park Service).

Is the Wigwam Motel built of wigwams?

No. The buildings are modeled on tepees; the National Park Service calls the name a historic misnomer.

What is Puerco Pueblo?

An ancestral Puebloan village in the park, built after droughts in the 1200s and nearly empty by 1380, with a short paved loop trail (National Park Service).

Sources

Checked October 23, 2026 by It’s Show Low. Cite this page: It’s Show Low (itsshowlow.com), checked October 23, 2026. Free to quote with a link.