Happy Sunday, Holbrook!
Welcome to the very first issue of The Holbrook Highlights!
We started this to put everything worth knowing around town in one place each week: what's happening, a little local history, a laugh, and your shot at a real $100 bill we're hiding somewhere in Holbrook.
Thanks for being here from day one, and tell a neighbor.
Let's dig in!
☀️ This Week's Weather
A classic high-desert week ahead. Highs around 89F, with cool nights down near 55F. Good porch-sitting weather once the sun goes down.
Mostly sun and a warm desert breeze, the kind that'll try to steal the hat right off your head.
Around Town This Week
The Holbrook Public Library's Craft and Sip night returns, and this round is Dino Canvas Painting paired with a Blue Lagoon mocktail. Come paint a dinosaur canvas and sip something fun.
Come watch the Holbrook Summer Dance Group perform traditional Native American dances, free to watch. This group of local kids performs every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening from 6:30 to 8:30pm at the Old Courthouse downtown, through July 24. Some nights they also sell Navajo tacos, frybread, and concessions to support the group.
Free pickleball instruction and games every Tuesday and Thursday this summer, open to all skill levels ages 13 and up. Whether you want to learn a new sport, make new friends, or just get active, come on out. Beginners are welcome and lessons are available. Sessions run 6:30 to 8:30pm in the Holbrook High School wrestling room.
Fourth of July Bike ParadePetrified Forest National Park is waiving its entrance fee all weekend for Independence Day, July 3 through 5. It's a free chance to drive the park road and see the painted desert overlooks, the petrified wood, and the old Route 66 alignment, just a short drive east of Holbrook. Free entrance applies to US citizens and residents.
Bring your classic car, hot rod, old truck, or vintage motorcycle out to the Route 66 drive through sign at Heward Park for an evening photo session at sunset. This round they are adding ice cream and root beer floats, so if you are coming home for the Fourth, come on out.
Classic Cars at the Route 66 SignPhoto by John Gerald JimenezClassic Cars at the Route 66 SignPhoto by John Gerald JimenezBring the kids and their bikes to Hunt Park for Holbrook's Fourth of July Bike Parade. Decorating and parade line-up start at 8:30am, so come early and deck out your bike in red, white, and blue. The bike parade rolls at 9:00am, followed by family fun and games from 9:00 to 10:00am.
Fourth of July Bike ParadeThe Holbrook Volunteer Fire Department fires up the grills at Station #3 for their Fourth of July BBQ. Plates are $15 for adults and $10 for kids, and you can dine in, take it to go, or have it delivered for a $2 per plate fee. Food starts at noon and runs until they run out, so come early if you want first pick.
Holbrook's free Fourth of July fireworks light up the sky after dark over the Navajo County complex. Folks start grabbing their spots in the afternoon and make a whole evening of it, bringing blankets, lawn games, and grills, with kids setting off smaller fireworks while everyone waits for the big show.
The Holbrook City Pool is the easiest way to beat the Arizona summer heat. Open Swim runs every afternoon from 1 to 5pm, and there is a Night Swim on Monday through Wednesday evenings when the daytime heat finally breaks.
For the Kids
Story Time at the Holbrook Public Library is a free program for little ones and their grown ups, with stories, songs, and a fun activity. Bring the kids and come read along.
Messy Science Friday is coming to the Holbrook Public Library, and it is going to get messy. Kids dig into hands on science experiments that are as fun to make as they are to clean up. Dress for a mess and come play.
And don't forget the free family movie at the Roxy this week, see below.
At the Movies: The Roxy
Now Playing: Toy Story 5
Catch the toys before they go, playing through Tuesday, June 30.
Starting Thursday: Minions & Monsters
Then the minions take over the regular schedule: Thursday through Sunday at 7pm, with 3pm matinees Saturday and Sunday, running into mid-July.
Free Summer Movie: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Beat the heat with a free family movie at the Roxy this Wednesday, July 1. Sonic and friends race back onto the big screen at 1pm with doors at 12:30, and it is completely free, so round up the kids, grab a seat, and make an afternoon of it.
Mark Your Calendar
Worth getting on the calendar early.
The Red White & Blues Golf Tournament returns to Hidden Cove Golf Course on July 11, hosted by the Men's Association.
It is a Fourth of July season tradition out on the City's laid-back nine-hole course, a friendly round with good company and a little patriotic spirit.
Round up a foursome, dust off the clubs, and get your team on the calendar early.
Talk of the Town
Word from the last city council meeting: Circle K has applied for a liquor license for a new store they are looking to put up next to the Dairy Queen. Nothing is official yet, but it is a promising sign that a new Circle K could be coming to town. We will keep you posted.
Holbrook Lore
How a rowdy frontier saloon gave Holbrook its most infamous street name
Holbrook grew up as a railroad town in the 1880s, and it earned every bit of its old nickname, "the town too tough for women and churches." Cowboys, cattle rustlers, and the famous Hashknife Outfit all rode through, and a good gunfight was practically a local pastime.
At the center of it sat a watering hole first known as Terrell's Cottage Saloon. After a pair of brutal fights left men dead on its floorboards, folks dropped the polite name. So much blood was spilled there that people simply called it the Bucket of Blood Saloon, and in time the street took the name too.
1886 was the bloodiest year of all. A feud between the Hashknife cowboys and ranchers who accused them of rustling helped push the town to 26 shooting deaths in a single year, a staggering number for a settlement of only about 250 people. Decades later, travelers on Route 66 pulled over just to gawk at the bullet holes in the walls and the dark stain rumored to still mark the floor.
These days the old saloon belongs to the City of Holbrook, so it is not open to wander through. But you can still see inside. Click the video to step through the doors and walk the Bucket of Blood as it stands today, then picture how rowdy it once was.
Click to step inside the Bucket of BloodThe Hidden Hundred
Each week this month we run a Holbrook clue, a photo, a landmark, a statue, or a piece of local history, with a few letters shaded in the answer. Figure out the answer, write down the shaded letters, and keep collecting.
At the end of July we hide the bill, and your collected letters unscramble to spell exactly where it is. First to find it keeps it, and subscribers always get the clues first.
Four more sets coming this month, then the hunt goes live at the end of July.
We asked the Petrified Forest how its week was going.
It said things were rock solid.
A joke that'll make us groan, a slice of Holbrook history, an event folks should know about, or a great photo you snapped?
Send it our way.
Share It With Us →That's the week, Holbrook. Enjoy your Sunday, and we'll see you out there on the Mother Road.
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