Visiting the Bypassed Town of Salome, Arizona
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
- The history of Arizona is filled with colorful characters, and on Highway 60, about 100 miles west of Phoenix, is the town of Salome (or Salome Where She Danced), which was founded by one of those colorful characters.
Dick Wick Hall founded Salome in 1904, naming it after the wife of a business partner, who reportedly danced in the hot sand to avoid burning her feet. Through Hall's writing, Salome would receive national attention, with millions of people across the country reading tall tales about the town, such as the seven year old frog that couldn't swim.
After Hall passed away, the town would get a second life, as the main road through town would become U.S. Route 60/70, and thousands of motorists traveling between Los Angeles and Phoenix would pass through every day. With California requiring a waiting period to get married, Salome would become a popular wedding destination for Californians (also thanks in part to its illegal gambling).
But in 1972, Interstate 10 bypassed the area, and the traffic disappeared almost over night. Now the town that in the 1920s was the most famous small town in the United States, is all but forgotten, seeing very few people stop by. But for those who do stop, there is quite a bit of history to explore.
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This wasn't planned, but Salome is actually having their Dick Wick Hall Day this Saturday October 19. There is a parade at 11 am on Highway 60, then a bunch of other events after.
Excellent as always. I do have one question though. Are you sure that her name was pronounced the way you say it? The biblical Salome I always heard pronounced sa-LOW-may. But everyone gets to pronounce their name however they want to.
Salome and dancing is, of course, a reference to the New Testamant story of King Herod promising Salome anything she desired if she would dance for him. After she danced, her mother, who hated John The Baptist for condeming her relationship with the king, told her to demand the head of John The Baptist on a platter, which he reluctantly carried out.
@@davidhull1481 He used the correct pronunciation ( as used in the local vernacular ) for the town name. Interestingly, according to Bible Speak ( online ), the proper pronunciation for the biblical name is sa-LOW-mee.
@@elkhunter8664 I’ve heard that too, but the one I mentioned is the one I hear most often.
@@davidhull1481 I'm sure the town's name is pronounced how it's said in the video. I'm not sure why it's pronounced that way though.
Nothing like having lunch, and taking another awesome Sidetrack Adventure. Thanks Steve. 👍👍
I save his videos for lunch too! Just finished.
Count me in the "lunch time watchers" club. Always wholesome and informative content.
@USARMYVET Well said sir may I have another Video from Steve. Next week👍
STEVE IS LIKE A JULES VERNE HE IS SO FULL OF GOOD INFORMATION AND HE HAS A REALLY GOOD VOICE!
Thank you.
Dick Wick Hall's stories, especially the frog, remind me of Mark Twain.
Jules Verne? 🤔
I overnighted in Salome about 20 years ago. HWY10 was closed where the road started to rise. My newly purchased Alfa(which was already old) couldn't handle to stopped traffic in the 112* heat. Found Salome and spent the night. Thanks Steve for reminding me about this town.
In 1985 I worked on a groundwater investigation of McMullen Valley, when Phoenix was aiming to buy the land for its water resources. Spent several weeks out there, including during fall festival Dick Wick Hall Days.
Another great video, Steve!
I've traveled Hwy 60 and gone through Salome numerous times traveling from the L.A. area to Prescott. I never realized anything about the town, or any of the other small spots along 60. This has been quite interesting, Steve. Thanks for doing this episode!!
Watching this all the way from Sweden every wednesday night, thank you Steve for giving me a tour of parts of your country. I'ts a dream of mine to come visit and explore similar places some time. Hands down my favorite creator on this platform.
Once again you've made a place that most of us would drive quickly through very interesting. Thanks for another great tour!
Wow.....I live in Salome!..the real story on the rock building is not too historical, it was built in the early 1980s for a Chevy car commercial , the commercial was only shown in Italy all the cowboys in the commercial were local people.
Wow, very interesting. Its funny how many places claim that its a stage station. That's some pretty sturdy construction for a commercial.
Ya, i always wondered about that place,,always asking about it then found out the real story,,, there is a stage coach stop a few miles north of hw 60 just south of where you started the video...
Do you have any links to info on this?
@@jamesandreadventures2284no, but i asked about it for several years, then just by coincidence I was talking to a guy who was about 80 years old and he lived in Salome all his life and he told me, then about a year after that I asked another person who had live here 55 years and she told me the same thing.....
That's actually interesting.
As usual, great historic information and wonderful insight into our country and the State of Arizona. Thanks for what y ou do, I never get bored of your videos. Kudos.
What a colorful guy and town. Thanks for sharing…!
I live here in Salome, Thanks for this !
I'm curious. Do you pronounce it "sa-loam" or "sa-lo-may"?
@@ljosephdumas3113 Sa-Loam for most people.
any hookers left??????????????
Whats it like?
I went to second grade in Wenden in the early 60s.
What a great story, it makes me long for days of old. Dick must've been quite a character. May he rest in peace.
"Dick Wick" sounds like what you change your name from, not to.
Monty Python would have had a field day. 😂
Probably had a different meaning a hundred years ago. I don't know that meaning is but I kinda like the modern interpretation. 😂
Be sure to stay at the Glory Hole Hotel.
atleast it isnt dick trickle, a nascar driver.
This Dick Wick was the great grandfather of Richard Simmons. 😅
i love your adventures and how well you do your homework on the history of the areas you visit, keep up the great work.
Thanks Steve for the upload. Have my breakfast ready and enjoying this episode!
Enjoy your breakfast.
Good morning Steve! Another great history lesson while drinking coffee and getting my day going. I don't know how you can find all these stories and places to go, but you do an excellent job of keeping us entertained and educated. You my friend are one of a kind! Thank you so much for what you bring us.
I continue to enjoy Steve's "sidetrack adventures;" thanks, Steve, for your interesting sites!
Passed through Salome many times and all the other small towns from Parker to Wilhoit where I live........ Here are some very cool little towns, Brenda,Boise,Love,Hope, Wenden, Congress, Agiuila and Yarnell.
My parents moved us to Yarnell for my last two years of high school. I spent a ton of time climbing around the boulders in the area. I especially enjoyed walking to the edge of the mountains to sit on a large boulder and overlook the desert valley below at night.
I too have driven past this place numerous times going to Prescott (Press-kit) from San Diego. I always thought it was named after the Biblical Salome (Sal-O-May), and her dance of the seven veils. But over the years I've learned that locals often have their own way of pronouncing place names. Dick Wick Hall was definitely a character. His brand of folksy humor was all the rage at the time (I have a great-uncle who wrote humor columns and advertising copy for the Wisconsin Cheese Journal in the early 1900s). The towns along that stretch of the 60 are so familiar; Wenden, Hope, etc. There used to be a place near there along the 60 that sold antiques, Mexican pottery, and huge rust finish sculptures of horses, cacti, and even a life-size stage coach with 4 horses. They looked similar to some sculptures you've featured before on this channel. I stopped a few times to take photos, but after 2020 everything is gone and the place is for sale. Really fun to learn more about this little town.
Yeah I can't not pronounce it Sa -Lo-Meh
I grew up in Arizona in the 50s $ 60s and back then it was called Sal o may more often than not
Thank you for another fascinating travelogue & mini-history lesson.
You are welcome.
Good Tour and I really enjoy the History ..Thanks ....
Another great obscure history lesson!
What an amazing history i remember stopping there when i was a child
Thank you Steve for another great history tour. You certainly do a lot of research before posting your video's. I sit here at home in New Zealand and have seen more of America through your great video's than what we see on tv. Thank you
Have been through there more times than I can count. Going from San Diego to Prescott and back . Many interesting small towns along this stretch of road. Go Padres. Next year.
This is FN cool... I live fairy close on the River.. and usually drive 60 to Phoenix and Wickenburg Have passed through there so many times in the last 30 years.. Could never live in the city. No wonder people like your videos..
I've stopped in Salome a couple of times on journeys to and from California (from Arizona). There's a wonderful restaurant/bar there which makes an excellent stopping place. It used to be a Greyhound bus stop. There are old photos in the restaurant of the Greyhound stop. I never knew anything of the town's past, so this video was fascinating. Next time I pass through I will have a new appreciation for the town's history.
Thanks for stopping so we don't have to...! ;)
Unfortunately that restaurant connected to the bar has been in and out of business the last few years,,,the people that use to run the restaurant moved about 3 miles west onto the south side of high way 60 ,,good place but not always open in the summer
@@desertwaters_808we appreciate you not stopping
@@ericsimpson1176 I believe you misread my comment - I drive through about 10-20 times a year, but I don't have time to stop. Don's Cactus Bar always looks like an oasis to me but I cannot follow my bliss bc I still have too many hours to go...! I really enjoy the feeling of the area. No disrespect meant to the residents.
I don't know how you do it Steve, you take me into another world altogether.
And for that, I thank you!
Amazing , all the old boom town stories.
"Car travel used to take a lot longer..." Yep, that it did. The sky was far more blue then, and folks were far more pleasant. It all turned into a crazy race track somewhere in the 1990s I reckon. I'm glad I got to see "the time before". Many thanks for sharing your nice video.
I really enjoy seeing Salome which I have seen on Google Earth Maps street view a few times and it really is an amazing interesting place
thank you for showing Salome until next time thank you.👻🎃🇺🇲
I'm 61 and passed through with family in 1970. Great side adventure from Phoenix. Thanks for showing this. I loved seeing the history of the area. I became a history teacher.
You did a great job with this. Nice video great story.
Thanks.
My dad used to live in California in the late 60's to early 70's and he would come and get us kids and we would travel Hwy 60 to California to spend a couple of weeks with him. I lived in Phoenix then. So this and the towns bring back old memories.
That section of 60 has so many crazy locations like the propane company.
Passmore Gas Company.
Sounds like a joke Hank Hill would make! ◕‿◕
Steve thanks, I love your videos and stories done with your pleasant voice and manner. God bless you.
Great timing! Just stumbled across this video after a road trip that took me from Joshua Tree NP East along Hwy 62, which was an amazing and unexpected experience. I was planning to go back to Tucson through Salome, but decided against it because I had promised my young son pizza, so we went by Quartzsite instead, down SR 95. I wondered what I missed by bypassing Salome, and here's your video! I just finished watching your Hwy 62 video as well. Great content!
I just love this area of the country! Albeit a little on the warm side. It's beautiful & reasonably unpopulated. Your soundtrack is impeccable once again! Safe travels!👍🙏
Superb video as usual Steve! Thank you.👍
Thanks Steve.
Have been watching for awhile.
Thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated.
no matter what , america's even ruins also has so much beauty in it .
america is so beautiful place .
On the marker where the gas station use to be, there was a funny write-up under the picture of the gas station. Also, the poem of the frog was funny to read. I think it would have been a real pleasure to meet Dick Wick Hall. I like people with a sense of humor.
Thanks Steve! This one was fun!
If there is a gem in the southwest deserts of our country, Steve will find it. Great video! Thanks!
Gas station before the road!!? CRAZEEEEE!!!🤪
My Goodness, the places you find, very interesting, Dick Wick, Huuuummmmmm. Thank You Sir. THE SARGE
I was going to make a joke about the name but my wife gave me a mean look!
@@SidetrackAdventures😂
The Sarge. Hmmmm😊
It was probably a name no one gave a second thought about back in those days.
I really enjoy these wanders you do into forgotten or rarely visited places. Thanks for sharing.
We always took this bypass to drive from Los Angeles to Phoenix to visit our grandparents. It was way more interesting than the 10! 😃
Salome holds a bit of my family history, as does Dick Wick Hall.
My grandmother spent several years there in the 20’s, and her father, Samuel Camp, a prolific painter of that area, and Mr. Hall were buddies.
The used to be a mercyantile building on Main, which has a painting of Salome laying on her side, that he painted.
Some years later, I was at the only open restaurant there, looking for some of my ggfs paintings, and got to talk to a lady who knew my grandmother as they were chums.
She also informed me, that my ggf had painted a picture of the Main Street, with the Mercantile store in it. So Samuel painted a picture of his own artwork on that building! I had seen images of the building some time in the 80’s, but did not make the connection. My grandmother had lots of stories about Salome, where she danced!
What incredible history that I hope is never lost!
One of my high school friends grew up in Salome. For whatever reason, her parents decided to have her go to high school in Wickenburg, which was a bit of a drive every day. They had a really awesome back yard with so much cool desert vegetation and it felt like a hidden oasis. Nice memories of spending a little time in that odd little town.
Thanks Steve. I went to school in Aguila 61-62 3rd grade. Salome was on the way to California in those days. Aguila played sports with Salome with a rivalry! Time flys. It was a long drive to Phx as I remember.
love your show Steve .. nice to see bright sunshine up here in north washington state 😎
Another great video, well thought out and interesting. Thank you.
thank you for this awesome story! i love the areas your stories are about. thank you!
I loved this adventure. I always wait for your videos on Wednesday, keep them coming!
Steve! This was a fun one!
Always the most interesting videos on the internet thank you for the information and entertainment.
I really enjoyed this video. This is history with great story telling! Great work! ❤
I don't know how you do it Steve, but you made this burg interesting. Incidentally, I've always heard SAL-o-may. But no doubt the townspeople call it Salome.
My college roommates; sister eloped to Yuma, Az. when she was 14. Became a grandmother at 30.
The apple didn't fall far from the tree
drove in here for 30 years and missed all this...good to see
Thanks for another great video. I have interest in the town as the scout troop I was in ate at a restaurant there in the early 1970s, on the way home from camping in the snow in Prescottt. I understand that the restaurant burnt down a few years later.
It was filled with taxidermy and had photos from a movie named "Salome, Where She Danced," starring Yvette Mimieux. I saw the movie on an LA station years later. Mimieux did a dance of 1000 veils for the grizzled miners of the town. They were so taken by the dance that they renamed the town after Mimieux's character's performance.
It wasn't until a few years after that, that I learned the true origin of the name.
Replying to my own comment as my phone won't let me edit. The actress in the movie is Yvonne Decarlo, not Mimieux.
Steve, your videos are so great!!! 😃
Thank you, always interesting videos.
Pass through Salome many times, to and from Bouse. Interesting facts I never knew. I will stop sometime and check it out. Thanks Steve
Thank you Steve 😊
Thank you Professor Steve!
Sure would like to get back to Arizona. I've been away too long. Sidetrack offers the next best thing.
An excellent adventure as always, thanks for the history lesson on Salome
Excellent research. Fascinating Thanks Steve.
This one had me laughing all the way through! What a character that guy was.
Wednesday is my favourite day of the week. I really look forward to your videos.!
Ive read some Dick Wick stuff, it's highly entertaining, even today. Thanks for another great episode!
A strange coincidence - @15:22 you show Dick Wick's Memorial. My mom was born the same day he died.
Great video. I always pass by the Salome exit on the 10 when going between Phoenix and Los Angeles. That little "stagecoach" building has been posted a few times on some groups I'm part of, but there is no solid information on what it was. It definitely looks like it was an old gas station or market. I'm definitely going to take some time to travel out there one weekend. It should be a solid day trip for me.
Great show Steve. The Laughing Gas Station may have been a parody of the slang name for nitrous oxide, a common anesthesia at the time.
There's a Laurel and Hardy short called "Laughing Gas."
Back before I10 was built I drove just passed Quartzsite onto 60 and up to Wickenburg then southward to Phoenix, just over 12 hours to drive from whittier,ca to Phoenix. Now it's a 5.5-6 hour drive with I 10 cut off.
That's a huge difference.
Me too. I sort of lived in both Phoenix and Orange County before I-10 was built...a very long trip. Arizona was the last state to put in their part of I-10, I think it was in the early 70s when they finally did it. Did you know a guy names Steve Carle from Whittier?
Imagine using a 4- mule wagon team. .it was a MONTH to make the traverse from Banning, CA to Wickenburg.
A very cool, chill adventure. Strange adjectives for such a hot place, but you know what I mean. ;)
Thanks Steve. Cheers.
There's one thing I've learned from your fantastic adventures Steve. There was absolutely no shortage whatsoever of eccentric characters out west during that period when the pioneers had blazed the trails to California and the wild west was losing its reputation for wildness. I'm wondering if that was something those in between times civilization builders needed as part of their personality. As always, a fascinating trip along relatively recent memory lane.
😮 I'm surprised you didn't mention Don's Historic Cactus Bar. A newer business but it's the site of Sheffler's Cafe. I remember stopping there in the 60s when going from PHX to LA. That's before I-10. Typical road-side cafe food but extremely good 🍔. I haven't been in the building in 50 years but it reeked of atmosphere back then. Soon as we hit the road I was thinking about those cheeseburgers. Fond memories. 😊
It's mentioned and shown in the video!
@@SidetrackAdventures
Oh. Must be when I made that quick trip to the bathroom. 😂 My mistake. 👍 Love your vids!
Stopped at the service station in 73. The attendant told us he was out of gas. Said he was still waiting for the truck. That was our introduction to the oil crisis.
Not sure but the service station looked like the one in your news article. Thanks for the video.
Another interesting tale in the can! Thanks.
Thanks.
I enjoy your channel very much😊 thank you
When I was a child, we often stopped to eat at Sheffler’s restaurant on our trips from Needles (and later Lake Havasu) to Phoenix and Tucson. The dining room walls were lined with stuffed animal heads. Mostly deer and other local game animals, but there was a walrus with big white tusks. All very fascinating to me and my brothers. The bar had stuffed waterfowl mounted on its walls. My mom always told us many stories about Salome, especially the frog with the canteen on his back. There was a painted concrete statue of the frog in front of the local bank near the restaurant.
Whiting Motels use to be everywhere in, NM, AZ, & CA. I remember them from 1958 to about 1990. There is an old abandon Whiting model on north side of I-40 about half way between Albuquerque and AZ/NM border I stayed they a few times. Motel in your video look like an old Whiting motel they all looked the same. I like your videos.
Steve, your awesome, thank you.
I drove from San Diego through Salome many times on my way to and from my brother's place in Prescott. Take the 71 to Congress then 89 up Yarnell Grade through Peeples Valley and on to Prescott. It's a great drive. May I recommend an exploration of Skull Valley?
Thanks for sharing.
Great town story 👌 I love it 😀
Thank you Steve!
That was a funny and interesting video. Love Wednesdays and look forward to your videos
We always enjoy your videos.
Another great adventure Steve.
Really enjoyed this.
Hello Steve - I watch and enjoy all your videos but have never commented before. I live near Salome in Wickenburg. You could find some good content in Wickenburg -- it has so much history including the Vulture Mine, the largest gold mine in AZ, Henry Wickenburg's grave site, and much more. Wickenburg is also the Team Roping Capitol of the world and the ropers are just now coming back for fall and winter events which might also be some great content for your channel (action content which is free to the public as well). Again, love your videos, I am 70 now and do not travel as much as I used to but I can relive many of the places I have visited around the southwest through your videos. One more tidbit you may have overlooked during your research on Salome. In 1945 there was a movie made titled Salome where she danced and it starred Yvonne DeCarlo the actress that played the wife on TVs the Munsters.
i remember salome... great little town... i would stop there with my dad on our way to our deer hunting place in the kofa mountains... edit i forgot... camp bouse is about 10 miles north of salome, that was where the original area 51 was at just before and during ww2...
Nice tour , thank you
Your videos and voice always bring my spirits up when I'm having a bad day. Thank you Steve.🙏♥️. 🇺🇸📷🇺🇸📷🇺🇸📷🇺🇸.👍💪🖐️👏🤟.
Another great and informative video 👍