The Arizona Daily Sun today posted an article about the Mike’s Pike street in Flagstaff, Ariz. — a neighborhood which can boast itself of carrying an original alignment of the Mother Road.
The Sun reports:
It goes largely unnoticed by the thousands of motorists traveling along Milton Road, yet its history is hardly without lore.
Mike’s Pike was the original Route 66, the first main street of Flagstaff and still remains an untouched stretch of the “Mother Road.” Roughly 77 years ago, Mike’s Pike was named in honor of M.J. Riordan and T.A. Riordan, brothers who helped establish Flagstaff.
Boxy metal, wooden and concrete buildings dot Mike’s Pike. They are only separated by the occasional iconic Flagstaff bungalow.
It’s mainly an industrial street now. But city officials think the neighborhood will revitalize itself once it repairs sidewalks, installs street lights, and finishes the Rio de Flag drainage project.
The pre-1934 alignment of Mike’s Pike of Route 66 is shown on this map here. Few Route 66 travelers see this approximate half-mile portion, mainly because they stick to the prominently marked Route 66 alignments of Santa Fe Avenue and Milton Road near downtown, which were Route 66 from 1934 to 1968.
And the triangular building at Mike’s Pike and Phoenix Avenue mentioned in the story can be seen at Google Street View here.