NAVAJO FREIGHT LINES Mack B Model 1:64th Scale DCP First Gear Fallen Flag Athearn HO Freightliner

NAVAJO FREIGHT LINES Mack B Model Semi 1:64th Scale First Gear Fallen Flag Athearn HO Freightliner
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What happened to Navajo Freight Lines? To find out let’s back up the truck to 1934 with the completion of Route 66. As you know, Route 66 provided a paved road linking Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California.

Navajo Freight lines history is tied to the history of Route 66. With the beginning of this cross country artery the Red Arrow Transportation Company was created and incorporated in Wichita, Kansas in November of 1934. Red Arrow trucks began hauling freight over the new pavement. This was the beginning of what was later to become a transcontinental truck line.

To promote advertising of the new freight routes, Red Arrow was renamed the Kansas City-Los Angeles Flyer Transport Company.

In January of 1938, the Interstate Commerce Commission granted authorized operating routes to the new KC-LA Flyer. Headquarters for the Flyer was moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1940. The ICC struck again shortly after the move by revoking all previous routes except the one from Albuquerque to Los Angeles. The ICC did allow the Flyer to service all points along this single route.

Enter a man named Mitchell (Mitch) B. Howe, a 36 -year-old executive of National Car Loading Corporation. Mitchell saw the potential of building motor carrier routes to service areas distant from the railroads. He used a different approach in gaining ICC approval for expansion and growth.

Mitch Howe resigned from National Car Loading and bought the struggling Flyer and its abbreviated operating route and renamed the company Navajo Freight Lines.

Expansion began quickly. The purchase of the Colorado New Mexico Express with operating routes from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Denver, Colorado was completed in November of 1940. The CO-NM Express was renamed Navajo Express Lines.

Next was the acquisition of Tucumcari Truck Lines with headquarters in Tucumcari, New Mexico. This expanded routes to cover Albuquerque, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas and from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Roswell, New Mexico. The name selected for this new addition was Navajo Truck Lines.

The original company logo was neither blue-eyed nor Navajo. The full-feathered headdress of the Plains Indians as depicted on early equipment was objected to by members of the Navajo Nation because it was not part of their tradition.

In an effort to overcome this objection, a sign painter in Albuquerque was commissioned to make a more appropriate portrait. The painter had only recently arrived from Italy and his mistake of coloring the eyes was understandable. Mitch Howe decided to stick with the mistake.

"We decided to make the Blue-eyed Indian our trademark and added the slogan “Route of the Blue-eyed Indian."

The result of an artist' s mistake became a "moving" Landmark.

On the first day of March 1948, Navajo Freight Lines, Navajo Express Lines, and Navajo Truck Lines were incorporated in New Mexico into a single company titled Navajo Freight Lines.

April of 1978, Arkansas Best Freightways with headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas acquired Navajo Freight Lines.

Navajo Freight Lines story ends here. After 40 years the blue eyed indian was put into the history books of trucking. Trailers were repainted, terminals and most equipment were either repainted or scrapped.

Navajo was relegated to the history books.

That ends the story of the Navajo Freight Lines.

No, not really. A New chapter is being written.

You see a man named Don Digby Sr. of Denver, Colorado purchased the rights to the Navajo name from Arkansas Best Freightways in 1981. That same year Don Digby Sr. started Navajo Express Inc. as the operating unit for Navajo Shippers Company.

I will continue the saga of the blue eyed Indian in another video about Digby’s Navajo Express.

I talk about the First Gear Mack B-61 in this 1:64th scale truck product review video. I also talk about the Athearn White Freightliner COE for Navajo Freight Lines in 1:87th Scale.

Wasn't that an interesting true story! Route 66 has many interesting stories that can be told about trucking along the route. In fact, building Route 66 is an interesting story all by itself for a future video.

Toy Talk is hosted by Logan Skeele Founder of Advantage Diecast, LLC

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