Mary Smeal, who reportedly was responsible more than any other person for the restoration a few years ago of the Twin Arrows off Route 66 in Arizona, was found dead Wednesday an apparent murder-suicide.
Coconino County sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of Smeal, 55, and her companion, Jeffery Jones, 57, at Smeal’s residence near Twin Arrows. Both were shot, according to a report in the Arizona Daily Sun, based in nearby Flagstaff.
Deputies went to the home after Smeal’s co-worker said she hadn’t shown up for work and wasn’t answering her door or phone.
Evidence from the scene indicates that Mr. Jones shot Ms. Smeal and then shot himself. No further details are available at this time; the case is still under investigation by the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
Sharlene Fouser sent an email to fellow Arizona Route 66 advocates Friday reporting Smeal’s death. Fouser wrote:
As a Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona member, Mary attended every All-Community Meeting and was a leading force behind all the projects accomplished at Twin Arrows including the clean up and preservation projects. She led the effort to restore the arrows at Twin Arrows and having rescued one of the feathers years before, Mary hand painted each feather to match the original. Many of us donated our time to the project, but I later found out that Mary was the one who paid for all the materials to make it happen.
Mary also led an effort to keep one of the two Valentine Diners in Winslow from being moved out of town which brought to light how endangered our Route 66 treasures are. […]
Mary lived down the road from Twin Arrows at a long forgotten Route 66 Trading Post, Toonerville, Little by little over the years Mary worked to restore the property, and dreamed of one day seeing Toonerville once again on the map.
The Twin Arrows were restored in 2009 after the abandoned landmark had suffered from years of neglect, including much of the paint and one of the feathered ends falling off. The buildings at the long-closed truck stop, however, have continued to decline.
According to Russell Olsen’s “Route 66 Lost and Found,” the Twin Arrows complex began as the Canyon Padre Trading Post about 1949. It became Twin Arrows Trading Post during the 1950s, with the 20-foot-high arrows erected near the main buildings. It closed in the late 1990s.
The doubly tragic part about Toonerville Trading Post was it also became the scene of an unsolved murder in 1971. Co-owner Merritt “Slick” McAlister was found shot fatally behind a counter, with hamburgers still frying on the grill. His wife, Pearl, was shot in the head but survived. The robber or robbers ransacked the cash register and adjacent living quarters.
The sheriff’s office received a grant in 2014 to further investigate the cold case.
According to “The Route 66 Encyclopedia,” Earl Tinnin opened Toonerville Trading Post in 1935. The McAlisters bought it in 1954. It eventually was converted into Smeal’s home.
(Image of the iconic Twin Arrows in Arizona in 2012 by Stu Rapley via Flickr)
Sad ending. Guess I’ll always look at The Twin Arrows in a different light now.