Americana: Our Town

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Navajo, Ariz. (pop. 24), has much to offer: history (it was Arizona's first territorial capital), location (on Interstate 40 just south of the huge Navajo Indian Reservation and east of the popular Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park) and profit ($100,000 a year from its motel, café, service station and general store). As a result, Navajo has six new owners: Don and Rita Schwinghamer of Phoenix, Don's cousin Frank Schwinghamer and his wife Ann, from Canada, and their close friends Len and Betty Siebert of Bellevue, Wash.

The group decided to bid for Navajo rather suddenly. Rita Schwinghamer saw a newspaper story announcing that the town would be sold at auction the following day by its owners, a family of local ranchers. "We thought it would be a good idea to buy," says Rita. They did not have time to visit Navajo, a 250-mile drive from Phoenix, but did look it up on a map. Their bid of $615,000 was the best submitted by eleven prospective buyers, including a Baltimore nightclub owner who wanted to turn the town into a haven for retired strippers.

The new owners have no immediate plans for the town, but are considering the possibility of incorporation. That would permit them to issue municipal bonds for financing, and to apply for federal revenue sharing.