The Tom Mix Memorial 17 miles south of Florence, Arizona, is quite likely both the first and the oldest US 89 roadside monument honoring a deceased celebrity. Due to Mix's worldwide popularity, it was inevitable that a memorial would be erected in 1947 near the spot where he died in a one-car crash on October 12, 1940.
"Tom Mix embodied a kind of can-do American optimism that fit the mood of a dynamic new 20th century America. By the end of the 1930’s Mix ‘The King of The Cowboys’ had become a living legend with 291 movies, his own comic book, a radio variety show, and a circus. He rode around in a custom yellow supercharged Cord coupe with his TM brand molded into the tire tread so he could leave his mark all over Hollywood."
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Mix's happy-go-lucky, full-speed-ahead lifestyle may have contributed to his demise. "...As he roared up old US 89 in his yellow Cord roadster, he completely missed the detour signs that warned of construction up ahead. A flash flood had washed out part of the road and a crew was working on repairing the damage. According to the men on the scene, Mix never even slowed down. He hit his brakes at the last second, but it did little good. Traveling at 80 miles per hour, Mix's car flew through the barriers, dove into a wash and flipped. The convertible came to rest on its side."
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Mix’s Cord 812 Phaeton was damaged but not beyond repair. Bob H. White of Scottsdale bought the car in 2010 and since has won awards at top car shows after a full restoration. Mix had customized the vehicle with hand-tooled leather fender guards, an accelerator pedal fitted for his boot heel and a steering-wheel holster for his Smith & Wesson revolver. White, who published
“The Tom Mix Cord: Saga of a Western Film Star’s Classic Motorcar,” has said the super-charged Cord could top 100 miles per hour, and Mix was known to drive fast. “It wasn’t the first car Mix crashed, but it was the last,” White said.
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The Pinal County Historical Society designed and built the Tom Mix Memorial.On Dec. 5, 1947, a crowd of more than 300 gathered at a spot just a couple of hundred yards north of the crash site. The stone monument was dedicated to Mix. Gene Autry and Ed Echols spoke at the ceremony, and tears flowed freely as Autry’s rendition of
“Empty Saddles in the Old Corral” drifted out across the quiet desert. The memorial remains a popular roadside attraction at Milepost 116 on what's now Arizona State Route 79, also known as the
Pinal Pioneer Parkway. The Pinal County Historical Society Museum maintains an informative Tom Mix interpretive display.
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In the movies, Mix’s blaze-faced wonder horse, Tony, would prance his way through bad guys’ bullets, leap huge chasms and gallop to a maiden’s rescue time after time. Then, when Tom and the beautiful rancher’s daughter would lean in for a film-ending kiss, Tony would either nudge Tom toward the girl, or swipe his white hat and spoil the moment. Tony was the first horse to be a real movie star. He was the ultimate hero’s steed when Champion and Trigger were still in ponytails. Two years to the day after Tom Mix’s death, Tony the Wonder Horse died at the remarkable age of 37.
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The ordinarily dry wash in which Tom Mix perished was at some point renamed in his honor. The map graphic below shows the location of the Tom Mix Memorial (red push pin) in relationship to many other well known Arizona communities.
Additional information resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix
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