Memory Motel Department

Memory Motel made its debut as a regular American Road department in the Volume I, Number 2, issue of the magazine. The first featured classic overnight stop was the Lazy S Arrow Motel of Whitewater, Colorado—a US Highway 50 gem built in the shape of an old western fort that stands along the Centennial State’s stretch of “America’s Loneliest Road.”

Memory Motel has since visited fifty-five motels—from the Bear Paw Court of Chinook, Montana, to the Indianhead Motel of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; the Auld Holland Inn of Oak Harbor, Washington; and the Jolly Roger Motel of Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. Most of the classic sleepers that have been featured over the years remain in business, filling the nights with bright lights—and vacations with the best in mom-and-pop hospitality.

K&S Motel—Limon, Colorado

Craig & Liz Larcom Volume 10 #3 (Autumn 2012)

Give Rich and Donna Metcalf a “ten” for courage. When they first beheld the K&S Motel in 2008, the classic Colorado sleeper had been vacant for the previous to years.[…]

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Ace Motel—Belle Fourche, South Dakota

Foster Braun Volume 10 #1 (Spring 2012)

After World War II, innkeeper Tom Gay decided that a new breed of high-plains drifter—the traveling salesman—deserved a clean, comfortable place to park his dusty boots for the night. So[…]

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Cherry Hill Motel—Polson, Montana

Craig & Liz Larcom Volume 9 #4 (Winter 2011)

Seasoned travelers say that the cherry on top of Polson, Montana, is the Cherry Hill Motel, operated by Glen and Vera Lack since 1989… Cherry Hill Motel arrived in Polson[…]

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Fisherman’s Cabin #5—Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin

Karras Strasburg Volume 9 #3 (Autumn 2011)

Baby-Face Nelson needed a place to stay… Nelson and his cohabitants—debonair bank robber John Dillinger, homicidal clown Homer Van Meter, Canadian cutthroat John Hamilton, and boxer-turned-badman Tommy Carroll—had settled in[…]

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Movie Manor—Monte Vista, Colorado

Allan Burns Volume 9 #2 (Summer 2011)

Owner George Kelloff tells how his parents built the Star Drive-In in 1955. “Back in the fifties drive-ins were the thing, you know,” he remarks. In 1964 George’s dad, tired[…]

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