On the Route 66 yahoogroup, there was a report that Cool Springs Camp, on the old Oatman Road / Route 66 alignment between Oatman and Kingman, Ariz., has been closed down for good.
However, I just got off the phone with Cool Springs Camp owner Ned Leuchtner in Chicago, and he insists this is a mere seasonal shutdown — which has occurred before — because of slow business and typical summer heat. Leuchtner says Cool Springs will reopen about Sept. 15.
“My manager says that traffic has slowed to a trickle and it’s 115 degrees,” Leuchtner said, “and asked whether we could give our four employees a breather for a few weeks. So we did.”
Leuchtner grumbled about recent bureaucratic hassles from Mohave County over a construction of a replica cabin next to Cool Springs Camp, which will be used only for parking. But he says he’s committed to keeping Cool Springs Camp around.
“I’ve spent thousands of dollars, and I’m not walking away,” he said. “This is a long-term deal. We’ll be here for a generation.”
Leuchtner’s restoration of Cool Springs Camp in 2004 received a Cyrus Avery Award for preservation. Cool Springs Camp was built in the 1920s and was severely damaged by fire in the 1960s. The remains of the long-closed business were literally blown up in 1991 during a movie shoot in for “Universal Soldier.”
Leuchtner acquired the property and meticulously re-created Cool Springs Camp from vintage photographs. It is now a souvenir shop and museum.
glad to hear it, as for the county, may be the resedents will smarten up an put in all indepents for a change.