Winona is a small

populated place Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

Coconino County Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from ''Cohonino'', a name applied to the Havasupai p ...

in the northern part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. At one time it was also called Walnut, and Winona's railroad station was renamed Darling in honor of an engineer.

History

Winona was once an incorporated village called Walnut Creek, until the 1950s when it became part of Flagstaff.

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

runs through Winona. It has been a dry creek bed since a dam was built above Walnut Canyon in the 1950s to provide Flagstaff with a reservoir. Before this, the creek ran year round.

Railroad

Winona train station was renamed on 6 December 1959 as "Darling" after William B. Darling, a local railroad engineer. Darling Cinder Pit to the north east of Winona and also named after him. The history of Darling is tied directly to the railroad that crosses through it. The

Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and Southwest via Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff ...

has been a regular visitor and for many years it was served by the Santa Fe Railway. In October 2019 a

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...

derailed there, disrupting both freight traffic,

intermodal freight Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of cargo, freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail transport, rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freigh ...

and

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

traffic on

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

In popular culture

Winona is located along

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

, and the otherwise-obscure town was made famous due to its inclusion in the lyrics to the song " (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66". It lies about thirteen miles (19 km) east of Flagstaff, meaning that it is out of sequence with the rest of the cities named in the song because of its near-miss: "Don't forget Winona." The singer

Wynonna Judd Wynonna Ellen Judd or simply Wynonna ( ; born Christina Claire Ciminella; May 30, 1964) is an American country music singer. She is one of the most widely recognized and awarded female country singers. In all, she has had 19 No. 1 singles, incl ...

adopted her name upon hearing "Winona" in "Route 66."Wynnona Judd - Country Artist
Country Music Performers

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Coconino County, Arizona Unincorporated communities in Arizona