Happy Sunday from the Mother Road.
Big news just broke about the power plant over in Joseph City, and it could mean a lot for this corner of Arizona. You will want to read what APS is planning and what it means for jobs and Navajo County.
The $100 hunt rolls on with Clue No. 2 dropping in this issue. Have you figured it out yet?
A new gallery just opened on Bucket of Blood Street, and it is worth a look.
The week ahead is packed, from a living dinosaurs show for the kids to a blood drive, a golf tournament, and more. Keep scrolling.
☀️ This Week's Weather
Expect a high of 96 and a low of 65 this week. Summer in Holbrook is doing exactly what summer in Holbrook does.
It looks like a mixed bag out there, some stormy spells and some sunny stretches. If the sun cooperates, the City Pool is open for swim daily from 1 to 5pm, a good place to be when it gets warm.
Around Town This Week
Come line dance with Colleen every Monday and Friday at the Holbrook Elks Lodge. All levels welcome. $10 per class or $40 for a 5-class pack. Questions or to sign up, contact Colleen at 928-241-2601 or Venmo @Colleen-Dawes.
Join us at the Holbrook Public Library for Craft and Sip. This week: Cross Stitched Dino. Pick your favorite dinosaur and stitch it into a tiny hoop. All supplies included. Enjoy a Mango Mimosa mocktail while you craft. All ages welcome. Limited to 50. Adult supervision required for those under 8.
Red White & Blues Golf TournamentEvery Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening through July 24, a group of local kids brings traditional Native American dances to life at the Old Courthouse downtown, and admission is free. The Holbrook Summer Dance Group takes the floor from 6:30 to 8:30pm each of those nights, giving the community a chance to gather and watch something genuinely special. On some nights you will also find Navajo tacos, frybread, and concessions available for purchase, with proceeds going to support the group.
Every Tuesday and Thursday this summer, the Holbrook High School wrestling room opens up for free pickleball instruction and games, running from 6:30 to 8:30pm. All skill levels are welcome, and the sessions are open to anyone ages 13 and up. If you are brand new to the sport, lessons are available and beginners are absolutely encouraged to show up. It is a fine way to learn something new, meet some neighbors, or just get moving.
The Roxy Theater and Vitalant have joined forces to bring a Route 66 Centennial Blood Drive to Holbrook. On Thursday July 9, the bloodmobile will be parked at 153 W Hopi Drive from 10am to 3pm, ready to welcome donors. Everyone who gives blood will go home with a Route 66 Centennial blood donor t-shirt and a free movie ticket courtesy of the Roxy Theater.
Hosted by the Men's Association, the Red White & Blues Golf Tournament makes its way to Hidden Cove Golf Course for the Fourth of July season. The format is a 2 man, 27 hole scramble with a blind draw, and sign up begins at 7:30am with tee off set for 8:30am. Entry is $75 per player, which includes the buy-in.
Red White & Blues Golf TournamentThe Holbrook City Pool is ready to offer some relief when the Arizona summer heat settles in. Open Swim is available every afternoon from 1 to 5pm, and Night Swim runs Monday through Wednesday evenings once the daytime heat breaks. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for kids 6 to 17 and seniors, and $2 for ages 5 and under.
For the Kids
This week at Messy Science Friday: Fossil Impressions. Press dinosaur figures into clay to create your own fossil to take home. Free at the Holbrook Public Library. Mess level is medium. Aprons will be available. Adult supervision required for those under 8. Allergen note: flour. Temporary skin staining possible from food coloring.
Lego LeagueThe Holbrook Public Library is reading Party Rex by Molly Idle this July. Tuesdays at 10:30am and Fridays at 1:30pm through the end of the month. Free and open to all ages. Drop in and enjoy a good story. Every session includes a craft, and there is a scavenger hunt in the library for the bigger kids too.
The Holbrook Public Library is welcoming Wildman Phil and his Living Dinosaurs show as part of the library's summer lineup. Hands-on and fun for the whole family, this one is free to attend and open to all ages.
Build and create at Lego League, held every Tuesday at the Holbrook Public Library. Free for kids of all ages.
Enjoy a free family movie at the Holbrook Public Library. All ages welcome.
And don't forget the free family movie at the Roxy this week, see below.
At The Bijou
The Bijou Teen Center runs free classes all summer for Holbrook kids and teens. No experience needed, nothing to bring. Click any class title to grab your spot.
Set up a booth in the Teen Center parking lot and sell your handmade goods, art, or anything you have made. Free for anyone 18 and under. Setup starts at 4:30pm, and bring your own table and chairs if you can.
Claim a Table →Now Showing at the Roxy
Now Playing: Minions & Monsters
Showing this week Sunday at 3pm, Monday at 7pm, Thursday and Friday at 7pm, and Saturday at 3pm and 7pm.
Free Summer Movie: A Minecraft Movie
Catch it Wednesday, July 8 · 1pm. Free, popcorn money optional.
Don't Miss This
Youth soccer is ramping up in Holbrook this summer. Free skills camp this weekend and fall league registration closes July 18.
Free two-day skills camp for ages 8 to 14. Work on dribbling, passing, and shooting in small groups with one-on-one coaching. All experience levels welcome.
Register Free →Fall season runs August 24 through November 14, first games September 12. Registration is $50. Sign up before July 18 to get your player in.
Register Now →New in Town
Holbrook has a brand new art gallery, and it lives in one of downtown's oldest rooms. The Gandy Dancer Gallery is open at 121 Bucket of Blood Street, in a 1916 building that has spent its century as Holbrook's first telephone exchange, a barbershop, a confectionary, and a long line of bars, remembered best as the Arizona Tavern.
The family behind it spent more than a year restoring the room by hand, and they kept that past in plain sight. The hand painted Arizona Tavern mural and the old A-1 sign still watch over the brick and timber, now surrounded by work from local painters, carvers, silversmiths, potters, and photographers, all shown on consignment.
The stories that come with the room are pure Holbrook. As the story goes, William T. Baldwin opened his bar here in 1970, lost an eye to a man with a hook for a hand, and when the room got too rowdy he would toss a can in the air and shoot it down with a .22. Look up when you visit. That ceiling is original, and so are the bullet holes.
The name is a tribute too. Gandy dancers were the railroad crews who laid and tended track by hand, the same work the family's grandfather started at fifteen, in a town the railroad built. If you make art in or around Holbrook, they would love to show yours.
121 Bucket of Blood St · Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm
121 Bucket of Blood Street
The original Arizona Tavern mural
Inside the galleryTalk of the Town
Word is out on Cholla.
APS just announced they're converting the power plant in Joseph City from coal to natural gas. Construction starts in 2028, power back online by 2029.
We're talking hundreds of construction jobs, several dozen permanent positions, and new tax revenue coming back to Navajo County.
Navajo County Supervisor Jason Whiting said it best: "I could not be more excited by this announcement."
The 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.
Solve the spot, then keep the shaded letters to yourself. 3 more sets coming this month, then the hunt goes live at the end of July.
What do you get when you cross an elephant and a potato?
Mashed potato.
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 a wrap for this week. Make it a good Sunday, Holbrook.
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