DryHeatBlog Fort Courage; what is this place?
It’s kind of difficult to explain what this place is. It’s for sale but Fort Courage is not a town and neither is Houck. Houck, Arizona is an unincorporated community with only about 1000 people, which probably gives it a ratio of one trading post per one hundred residents. The simplest explanation is that Fort Courage was a well equipped exit off Route 66 in Arizona. There was a Pancake House Restaurant, gas station, trading post/general store and a motel that may have actually been apartments.
The thing that caught my eye from the highway is the Pancake House. Imagine…you’re driving through the desert of Arizona and lo & behold what is that but an abandoned Pankcake House Restaurant. Hit the turn signal and the brakes. Eureka! Will wonders never cease?!
History of Fort Courage
Fort Courage was built in 1967 and was designed to be replica of a location featured on the satyrical sitcom,”F- Troop”, which aired on ABC for two seasons between 1965 and 1967. It remained open for 47 years and survived four changes of ownership, five restaurants and two gas stations.
Eventually, like many stops on Route 66, declines in tourism, changes to the interstate and an increased number of modern “travel stations” got the best of Fort Courage. There was also apparently a fire that may have been the last nail in the coffin.
Motel Courage
The Motel at Fort Courage did not actually have a name of it’s own so we’ll call it “Motel Courage”.
Motel Courage was blue and had a handful of rooms and at least one of them had a kitchenette.
Pancake House Restaurant
The Pancake House at Fort Courage was built in 1967 by the Van de Kamp Holland Dutch Bakery, a beloved Los Angeles bakery chain known for its Dutch Windmill themed buildings. That’s right, most of their other buildings have windmills on the roof but the Pancake House wasn’t that lucky. It did get a tall sign you could see from the highway though. One could also imagine that the extreme wind that blows through this part of the country would rip a windmill right off the top of that building and they might find it in California embedded in the side of a semi.
I was not able to get inside but could see through the window. This would’ve been such a fun place to eat. Through another window, I could see many stacks of dishes, still sitting there – waiting. There was apparently a Taco Bell inside of here too, which seems an obvious pairing. I mean who doesn’t like tacos and pancakes, right?
ARMCO Gas Station
While the ARMCO Gas Station was likely built in the 1970’s along with everything else at Fort Courage, it closed in 2014 – which had to make it one of the last gas stations referring to their offerings as “Unleaded” and “Super Unleaded”. I also read that it was a different brand of gas station when Fort Courage first opened and became an ARMCO after one of the changes of ownership.
I had a short relationship with this car. It’s gone now but it didn’t leave me stranded on this trip and served it’s purpose for a couple years.
These photos were shot on March 9, 2024.
