Abandoned Towns
The graffiti-covered Twin Arrows diner and trading post under a grey sky, with the single remaining arrow leaning at right beyond the old pump islands

Railroad and road town · On Route 66

Twin Arrows

A trading post, diner and gas station that sold Route 66 travelers on two giant arrows. It closed in 1998, and one arrow fell in 2022. The Hopi Tribe owns the buildings; the land is State Trust land.

35°09′40″N 111°16′46″W · ≈5,890 ft

Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

State Trust land · permit needed

The trading post stands on Arizona State Trust land, listed in federal land records (PAD-US) as restricted access. Arizona State Parks says you need a recreation permit from the Arizona State Land Department to be on State Trust land, including for sightseeing and photography. The buildings and the arrow belong to the Hopi Tribe, and we found no statement from the tribe about visitors. Legends of America reports Jersey barriers around the lot. Without a permit, look from the public road. Don't enter the buildings: April 2026 photos show a partly collapsed roof, broken timber and debris.

Overview

Two arrows to stop the traffic

The surviving arrow, a utility pole with its head and fletching built around it, April 6, 2026
The surviving arrow, a utility pole with its head and fletching built around it, April 6, 2026 · Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Twin Arrows sits on the high grassland east of Flagstaff, where Interstate 40 crosses Padre Canyon. It was never a town. It was a single roadside business on Route 66: a trading post, a gift shop, a diner and a gas station, opened around 1949 as the Canyon Padre Trading Post. Sales were slow until the owners renamed it Twin Arrows and planted two giant arrows, each made of a utility pole with a head and fletching built around it, point first in the ground beside the building. Drivers could see them a long way off, and the business took off.

The interstate took the traffic in the 1970s. The trading post changed hands several times, reopened for the last time in 1995 and closed for good in 1998. The Hopi Tribe took over the buildings and the arrows soon after, while the land stayed with the Arizona State Land Department. The tribe hoped to reopen the diner and curio shop as a Native market. In 2009 volunteers rebuilt the arrows' heads and fletching during a Route 66 festival in Flagstaff, but nothing more was done. A Navajo casino opened across the interstate in 2013.

One arrow fell in February 2022. Photos taken on April 6, 2026 show the other still standing beside its partner's empty base, the old pump islands, and every building gutted, with no doors or windows left and graffiti on every wall. The site is State Trust land, so you need a state recreation permit to walk onto it.

Timeline

From Canyon Padre to Twin Arrows

The diner and trading post boarded up behind Jersey barriers; the photographer's title dates it to 2005
The diner and trading post boarded up behind Jersey barriers; the photographer's title dates it to 2005 · Photo: inkknife_2000 (7.5 million views +), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
  1. US 66 is laid along the National Old Trails Road across northern Arizona.
  2. The Canyon Padre Trading Post opens beside the highway, named for the canyon just to the west. Legends of America says only that it was built after 1946.
  3. The business becomes the Twin Arrows Trading Post, and two arrows about 20 feet tall go up beside the main buildings. Legends of America credits the Troxell family and gives 1955.
  4. Interstate 40 takes the traffic, and the business passes through several owners.
  5. The trading post reopens one last time in 1995 and closes for good in 1998, by Legends of America and Route 66 News. Wikipedia gives 1995 as the closing year.
  6. The Hopi Tribe takes ownership of the buildings and the arrows. The land stays with the Arizona State Land Department.
  7. Route 66 News reports that the state and the Hopi have agreed to revive the property, with help from the National Park Service's Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program.
  8. About 60 volunteers clear trash and give both arrows new heads and fletching during the International Route 66 Festival in Flagstaff.
  9. The Navajo Nation's Twin Arrows casino opens north of the interstate. The trading post stays closed.
  10. One arrow falls, probably in high winds. Route 66 News reports it on February 28.
  11. Photos show one arrow standing, the base of the other, and the buildings open to the weather and covered in graffiti.
  12. A video posted July 7 shows the same: one arrow, the rotted stump of the other in its concrete footing, and gutted, collapsing buildings.

The landmark

The arrows, restored and then lost

Both arrows standing beside the gas pumps, dated 2005 by the photographer
Both arrows standing beside the gas pumps, dated 2005 by the photographer · Photo: inkknife_2000 (7.5 million views +), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Both arrows still up, May 2021, with their heads in the ground
Both arrows still up, May 2021, with their heads in the ground · Photo: MylesN123, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The arrows made the business. Route 66 News, citing Russell Olsen's Route 66 Lost and Found, puts them at about 20 feet tall and dates them to the 1950s, when the Canyon Padre Trading Post became Twin Arrows. Wikipedia gives 25 feet. Each one is a utility pole with a wooden head and fletching built up around it, painted red and yellow, planted head down as if shot into the ground.

By 2008 the fletching was falling off one of them. In 2009 about 60 volunteers gave both arrows new heads and fletching as part of the International Route 66 Festival in Flagstaff, the Arizona Daily Sun reported that October, and the Hopi Tribe talked of reopening the buildings for a monthly Native market. That didn't happen. In February 2022 one arrow came down, probably in high winds, and Route 66 News judged the chances of repair poor. Wikipedia says it lay beside its partner as of 2023. By April 2026 it was gone: a photographer found only its foot plate and footing behind the arrow that still stands, and a video posted in July 2026 shows the rotted stump of its pole set in concrete. The same video shows the surviving arrow's wood still sound, its paint covered in stickers and graffiti.

What's there

A diner, a store and one arrow

The trading post with the old pump islands in front, April 6, 2026
The trading post with the old pump islands in front, April 6, 2026 · Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The diner, painted white and tagged, April 6, 2026
The diner, painted white and tagged, April 6, 2026 · Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

The photos taken on April 6, 2026 show the whole site. The diner and the trading post stand side by side, painted white and covered in graffiti, with their doors and windows gone. The roof over the trading post's front room has partly fallen in. A small outbuilding with a metal tank behind it stands nearby, also gutted. The gas pumps are gone; the red pipes that guarded the pump islands are what's left. Someone has painted "Stolen Land" and the names of the region's tribes in yellow on the pavement. Beyond the islands stands the one arrow, leaning, with the base of the second behind it.

Earlier photos show the slide. One the photographer dates to 2005 has the diner still trimmed in red, its "Breakfast", "Hamburgers" and "Malts" signs readable and its windows boarded behind a line of Jersey barriers. By 2018 the boards were gone and graffiti covered the walls.

The historic maps below show the place before and after the business. The 1886 sheet has only the railroad, Angell siding and Cañon Padre. The 1947 sheet shows US 66 crossing Padre Canyon between Winona and the railroad stops at Angell and Hibbard. The 1968 Angell sheet names the Twin Arrows Trading Post beside the new interchange, and the 1982 sheet marks Twin Arrows on I-40.

  • Twin Arrows Trading Post building
  • Diner
  • Outbuilding and metal tank
  • Pump islands
  • One arrow (one fell in 2022)
  • Base of the fallen arrow
USGS topographic map of the I-40 interchange at Twin Arrows, with Padre Canyon winding across the freeway at left
USGS The National Map, topo. I-40 curves east across Padre Canyon, at left. The interchange ramps sit at right, with a loop of the old road south of the freeway.
Aerial view of I-40 bridging Padre Canyon, with the trading post lot as a pale patch south of the freeway
Aerial imagery, closer in. I-40 bridges Padre Canyon at lower left. The trading post's lot and buildings are the pale patch just south of the freeway near the middle, inside a loop of old road.

Historic maps

Twin Arrows on USGS maps, 1886–1982

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Twin Arrows, 1886
San Francisco Mtns sheet, 1886, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Flagstaff is the nearest city, about half an hour west on I-40. Leave the interstate at exit 219, which Legends of America and the Arizona Daily Sun name as the Twin Arrows exit, and follow the old road a short way to the trading post. From Phoenix, take I-17 north to Flagstaff first.

USGS topographic map of I-40 from Flagstaff east to Twin Arrows, with the route drawn on the interstate

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Flagstaff23.8 miabout 29 min
  1. From downtown Flagstaff, take Santa Fe Avenue (I-40 Business) east, turn right on Ponderosa Parkway and bear left onto Butler Avenue to the I-40 on-ramp.2.3 mi
  2. Take I-40 east.20.7 mi
  3. Take exit 219 and turn right at the end of the ramp.0.4 mi
  4. Turn right onto the old road to the trading post.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The site is State Trust land. Arizona State Parks says a recreation permit from the Arizona State Land Department is needed to be on it, for sightseeing and photography too.
  • Legends of America reports Jersey barriers placed by the state around the property. Don't drive around them.
  • The buildings belong to the Hopi Tribe and are gutted, with a partly collapsed roof (April 2026 photos). Stay out.
  • There are no services at the trading post. Flagstaff, 24 miles west, has fuel and food.
  • At about 5,900 feet, winters are cold and snow is possible.

Photos

Twin Arrows in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Twin Arrows?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Twin Arrows

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Twin Arrows, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates (GNIS), the Canyon Padre name, 25-foot arrows, the 1995 closing, Hopi buildings on state land, the 2013 casino, the arrow down in February 2022.
  2. Legends of America, "Twin Arrows to Winona, Arizona", updated March 2026: exit 219, the Padre Canyon name, built after 1946, the Troxell family in 1955, the Valentine diner, the last reopening in 1995 and closing in 1998, Jersey barriers, the old Route 66 crossing of Padre Canyon.
  3. Route 66 News, "Twin Arrows may be restored", October 8, 2008: Canyon Padre about 1949, the 1950s renaming and 20-foot arrows, the Hopi lease, the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the restoration plans.
  4. Hillary Davis, "Hopi Tribe hopes to reopen restored I-40 rest stop", Arizona Daily Sun, October 3, 2009, as republished by ICT: exit 219, the 1998 closing, the Hopi owning the buildings and arrows for about 10 years, the land held by the State Land Department, the 2009 volunteer restoration, the market plans.
  5. Route 66 News, "One of the landmark arrows at Twin Arrows, Arizona, has fallen", February 28, 2022: the fallen arrow, high winds, the 2009 restoration, the 1998 closing, the land deadlock. A reader comment of March 26, 2023 reports one arrow standing.
  6. Arizona State Parks, "Trails on Arizona State Trust Land", read October 2026: a permit from the Arizona State Land Department is needed to be on State Trust land, including for sightseeing and photography.
  7. USGS Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4), Fee Managers layer, checked October 22, 2026: the townsite on State Trust land managed by the State Land Department, public access restricted.
  8. G. Edward Johnson, photos of Twin Arrows taken April 6, 2026, Wikimedia Commons: one arrow standing and the base of the other, the gutted and graffitied buildings, the partly fallen roof, the pump islands.
  9. Nomadic Fanatic, "Meteor City is BACK! Twin Arrows and Standing on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona", YouTube, posted July 7, 2026: one arrow standing, the rotted stump of the other, the gutted buildings and collapsing roofs. Not embedded: the creator parks on the lot and films inside the buildings.
  10. USGS historical topographic maps: San Francisco Mtns 1:250,000 (1886), Flagstaff 1:250,000 (1947), Angell 1:24,000 (1968), Flagstaff 1:100,000 (1982). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits