I don’t understand why the sign has a penguin on it. This is Arizona, where it’s not cool enough for penguins. Also, this is North America. I could understand a penguin logo on a hotel in Antarctica. But here?
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Ha! Good point. I do love penguins though. : )
This is an interesting puzzle. I believe the Little America hotels were named after the US Antarctic bases of Richard Byrd, the first having been established in 1929, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_America_%28exploration_base%29
That would explain the penguin!
Some history of the hotels is here–click on the “About this Business” tab.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-little-america-hotel-flagstaff
It says the hotel was established in 1937, which supports it being named after Byrd’s base, though I can’t find any definitive information on the Internet.
Shortly after leaving that comment I found some confirmation that the hotels were named after the Little America base:
http://protophoto.com/subject.html?subject_id=653
One of life’s significant mysteries, perhaps, solved!