Wigwam Motel of Rialto, CA
Posted by: 
TravisGood
N 34° 06.417 W 117° 21.000
11S E 467718 N 3774069
The Wigwam Motel, famous for its teepee-shaped sleeping rooms.
Waymark Code: WM1A5F
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 03/11/2007
Views: 119
Frank Redford was enamored with the teepee. In 1933, with a restaurant and gas station in the shape of a teepee surrounded by 15 teepee cabins, he established Wigwam Village #1. He eventually was responsible for seven villages being built, of which three still exist. Two of the remaining Wigwam Motels lie along Route 66.
This teepee village is in Rialto, CA and was built in 1949. Originally it had only 12 teepee rooms but as its popularity grew so too did the number of rooms. It now has 20 teepee rooms, a kidney-shaped swimming pool, and an outdoor barbecue.
I was fortunate to visit with the operator who showed me a couple of rooms and updated me on recent developments. Seems the Wigwam Motel has just been renovated. This is easy to see even in my pictures. The place was in great shape. Upon inspection I found the rooms are larger than I expected from outside appearances. They actually have two size rooms with similar amenities, the only difference being the lack of a small sitting area in the smaller size. This is definitely a fine example of 1950s americana!
If these teepee cabins look familiar but you're not sure why then it might be because you've seen the Pixar movie "Cars" recently. As with many things in that movie, parts were adapted from real life along Route 66. In this case, the motel rooms in the movie were orange traffic cones instead of teepees but the motel was largely the same set-up as at the Wigwam Motels. Cool, don't you think!
Next time I will definitely make plans to stay in a Wigwam Motel!