Chino Valley's Christmas Parade Gets Its Kicks on Route 66, by Way of Highway 89

"December to Remember: Get Your Christmas Kicks on Route 66." That's the theme the Town of Chino Valley printed on this year's Christmas Light Parade application. The Town asks every entrant to explain in fifty words or less how their float fits it.

Route 66 never passed through Chino Valley. Its alignment ran east to west across northern Arizona, through Ash Fork. Chino Valley sits on the road that connected Prescott to it: the old Prescott–Ash Fork highway, now a 50-mile stretch of State Route 89. When the parade lights come down 1 West on Friday, Dec. 4, the town will be celebrating the road it actually sits on. That was the road travelers took between central Arizona and the Mother Road.

The road that carried Prescott to Route 66

A federal history of the Hell Canyon Bridge, written for the Historic American Engineering Record, traces this corridor back to Lt. Amiel Whipple's 1853 survey along the 35th Parallel. That survey line later became the route of Beale's Wagon Road, the Santa Fe railroad, U.S. Route 66 and Interstate 40. Several roads and rail lines tied Prescott to that corridor. The report calls the 50-mile alignment of SR 89 through Chino Valley and Hell Canyon "the most direct route."

The highway took shape in stages:

1. 1914: The Prescott Auto Club maintained the Prescott Outer Loop, a 44-mile circuit between Prescott and Chino Valley used for road races.
2. 1919: Yavapai County surveyed a Prescott–Ash Fork Highway. The Board of Supervisors then handed it to the state engineer in hopes of winning federal aid.
3. Around 1923: The graded and drained highway was finished, along with its first bridge across Hell Canyon.
4. 1925: The longer Phoenix-to-Ash Fork highway was designated US 280.
5. 1927: The designation changed to US 89.
6. 1930s to 1951: The highway department kept up a 20-foot oiled-gravel road. The northern section got a bituminous surface in 1948, and work on the southern section was finished in 1951.

"For a time it was the only north-south road connecting US 66 across northern Arizona and US 60 through the central part of the state." A driver on Route 66 who wanted to reach Prescott or Phoenix turned south at Ash Fork, and that road ran through Chino Valley.

What lined the road between Prescott and Ash Fork

The HAER report says the country between Prescott and Ash Fork held only a few large ranches and a lime kiln until the highway opened. After that, businesses and small settlements followed it north.

• Midway Grocery, Paulden. The Pownall family opened it by 1925 with a café, a service station and tourist cabins, on the site of the future Paulden. The Sharlot Hall Museum's history of Route 89 from Chino Valley to Ash Fork describes it as a popular stop halfway between Prescott and Ash Fork.
• Del Rio Springs. Just north of Chino Valley, this historic roadside marker site was the first location of Arizona's territorial government and of Fort Whipple. Arizona Highways also identifies it as a stage stop on the Prescott–Ash Fork line.
• Jerome Junction. About a mile east of Route 89 on Perkinsville Road, this railroad settlement had a depot, post office, school, store, saloon and hotel.
• Puntenney, Drake and Cedar Glade. These sat on either side of Hell Canyon. Puntenney held George and Eli Puntenney's lime kiln, Drake was a railroad siding, and the small community of Cedar Glade grew up just north of the canyon.

The canyon crossing has been rebuilt more than once. A steel bridge replaced the original span in 1954, and the Arizona Department of Transportation opened a new SR 89 bridge over Hell Canyon in 2016 to replace that one.

A Route 66 year on the Town calendar

Chino Valley isn't celebrating the centennial alone. The Town published an America 250 and Route 66 brochure under the banner "America's Mother Road Turns 100." It lists Route 66 events statewide: a centennial celebration in Peach Springs, Ash Fork's Heritage on Route 66 Day, Kingman's Route 66 Fest, and a Route 66 UltraRun from Seligman through Kingman to Topock on Nov. 13–16.

Chino Valley has two entries on that list. The first was Territorial Days on Sept. 4–7, themed "Get your Kicks on Route 66." The second is the December to Remember parade on 12/4/2026, the last date on the list. In its announcement of the Territorial Days theme, Signals AZ reported that the theme celebrated Route 66's 100th anniversary, America's 250th, "and Chino Valley's history." The September program included a historical presentation and a showing of Cars on Friday, Sept. 4, a themed parade on Saturday and a car show on Sunday, Sept. 6.

The December parade is the town's last Route 66 event this year, and the only one held after dark.

What Dec. 4 looks like along 1 West

According to the Prescott Daily Courier's Oct. 27 roundup, the evening runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4. The light parade comes down 1 West starting at dusk. Free pictures with Santa follow right after the parade, with holiday activities in the park and food trucks. The Town lists Memory Park as the event's home and Chino Valley Community Services as the organizer.

The rules in the parade packet shape what you'll see from the curb:

• Every entry must be lit with Christmas lights, and Christmas music is encouraged.
• Nobody may throw candy, toys or giveaways from a moving float or vehicle. Treats can only be handed out in ways that keep spectators from stepping toward the route.
• No individual entry may include a live Santa, because Santa rides on the Town float.
• Horses are not permitted, because of insurance liability.
• The parade goes on regardless of weather.

So you'll see one Santa, on the Town's float. Candy comes to you by hand rather than flying off the trailers, and the floats will all be lit. The weather rule matters on an early-December evening in Chino Valley, for entrants and for spectators.

Entering costs toys, and the deadline comes before Thanksgiving

Territorial Days charged a $30 parade entry fee this year. The December parade charges no fee. Each business, nonprofit, club, family or individual that enters donates 5 to 10 new, unwrapped children's toys instead, and those toys are "gifted back to the community's youth."

Applications are due Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2026. That is the day before Thanksgiving, and the Town calendar shows administrative offices closed Nov. 26 and 27. If you have questions about the form, ask before the holiday. Confirmed entries get their staging information and parade number by email before the event. The contact is [email protected] or 928-636-9780.

The announcer's page asks each entry to describe how it supports the Route 66 theme. Highway 89 gives entrants plenty to work with: a lit-up Midway Grocery café counter, a string of tourist cabins, a model of the first Hell Canyon bridge, or a Model T heading for the junction at Ash Fork.

The rest of December, close to home

After the parade, the town's December calendar stays small and local.

The library's Singing Santa runs twice, on a Tuesday and a Friday morning, both in the Library Community Room. The Wreaths Across America ceremony that the Chino Valley High School Student Council supports takes place in Prescott, at Prescott National Cemetery on AZ-89. You get there on the same highway the parade theme is about, heading south.

At Luxury Prescott, we pay close attention to the stretch of country between Prescott and Ash Fork, including the ranches, acreage and in-town homes along the old Highway 89 corridor. If the parade has you wondering what your own place on that road is worth today, ask us for a free home valuation and we'll put together a careful, local answer.