What Happened to America's Roadside Motels

For a tired driver, a glowing motel sign once meant the day was over. Roadside motels built a whole business around travelers passing their front doors — until the travelers took another road. This mini-documentary follows Route 66 from auto camps and cabin courts to the neon-lit motels of the postwar road-trip years, then to the interstates that carried traffic around old main streets. We stop in Holbrook, Arizona, at Wigwam Village Motel No. 6 — finished in 1950, bypassed by Interstate 40 in the late 1970s, and reopened by the founder's family in 1988 — and look at why some independent motels survived and became destinations in their own right. Do you remember a roadside motel from a family trip? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 A sign at the end of the day 0:36 Built around the car 2:17 The road trip years 3:56 A welcome not shared equally 4:55 When the road moved 6:18 Wigwam Village No. 6, Holbrook, Arizona 8:01 A different way to compete 9:09 What survived