One of the landmark big arrows at the abandoned trading post at Twin Arrows, Arizona, recently has fallen — probably a victim of high winds last week.
The Jack Rabbit Trading Post in nearby Joseph City, Arizona, posted a photo Friday on Facebook of the large twin arrows down to a single one. They speculated high winds earlier in the week claimed that long-neglected part.
On the same day, traveler Ed Newman posted about two dozen photos from the site, including several of the downed arrow.
Several other photos posted on Facebook of the Twin Arrows site earlier in the month showed both arrows standing.
The arrows were restored in 2009 in a cooperative effort between the Hopi tribe and Route 66 aficionados. Future plans to do some work on the long-closed trading post never came to fruition.
The trading post closed in 1998 and has been going steadily downhill since, with ownership of the closed business and land in a deadlocked quagmire between the Hopis and the state of Arizona. Without some sort of intervention, the prospects for repairing and restoring the arrows again don’t look promising.
According to Russell Olsen’s “Route 66 Lost and Found” book (Amazon link), the Twin Arrows complex started as the Canyon Padre Trading Post about 1949.
It became Twin Arrows Trading Post during the 1950s, and the 20-foot-high arrows were erected near the main buildings.
(Image of the iconic arrows at Twin Arrows, Arizona, in 2019 by the Arizona Department of Transportation via Flickr)
Hopefully the ownership situation gets resolved at some point with the arrows being such a well known place along Route 66. Graffiti has pretty much ruined the photo-op of the trading post (as well as other Route 66 locations) but the arrows were still cool.
It gives me somewhat mixed feelings to see new neon lights installed and on the other hand places still detoriate. I hope people like Roamin’ Rich get more support not to bring new things, but to save what is already there.
Fred from The Netherlands
That’s not too surprising. The place is more or less destroyed. It was in pretty good shape in 2010, but then it entered a steepening death spiral, with window boarding being broken out, the interior being vandalized, and the exterior being tagged from top to bottom. When I drove through there three weeks ago, both arrows were still up, but I more or less said goodbye to the place. It’s gone.
We stopped to check it out a few weeks ago only 1 arrow is standing
The exterior is full of graffiti
Was awesome to see, I feel this national Treasure will be lost in another few years
Would love to see all the old treasures of Route 66 refurbished
Glad I was able to see it