[GH85Carrera]

Route 66 climbs into the Black Mountains west of Kingman, Arizona where N.R. Dunton ran a pipe to a spring two miles away and established Cool Springs in 1926. In 1936, James and Mary Walker took over and “rocked” the main building. Mary wed Floyd Slidell in 1939 after James left. The business thrived until the new highway opened in 1952.
After Mary left, Floyd ran the dying business with his niece and her husband. Cool Springs became a poultry operation called the Chicken Ranch. It was abandoned in 1964 and then burned down. Cool Springs was partly rebuilt in 1991 to be blown up for the film Universal Soldier. Ed Leuchtner bought it in 2002 and resurrected the landmark.