Twin Arrows, Arizona

What is Twin Arrows?

What remains is a cluster of boarded-up buildings beside the old highway: the trading post, a small diner and a gas station, all faded and covered in graffiti. The arrows are the attraction. They were made of wood, reportedly old telephone poles, painted with tips and feathers and set at an angle as if they had just landed. The land belongs to the state of Arizona, and the buildings and arrows belong to the Hopi Tribe.

The Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort, on the other side of the freeway at the same exit, is a different place. The Navajo Nation opened it in 2013 and shares the name.

History of Twin Arrows

The business is missing from Jack Rittenhouse's 1946 guidebook to Highway 66. It opened after the war as the Padre Canyon Trading Post, named for a canyon nearby. In the 1950s new owners raised the two arrows to catch drivers' eyes and changed the name to Twin Arrows. Once Interstate 40 took the through traffic, trade dried up. The place changed hands several times and closed for good in the 1990s; accounts give 1995 or 1998.

In 2009 the Hopi Tribe and Route 66 volunteers repainted and rebuilt the arrows, and the tribe spoke of reopening the shop and diner. That did not happen. By the spring of 2022 one arrow was down, and travelers since then report a single arrow left.

Visiting Twin Arrows: tips

Take I-40 Exit 219; the casino is on the north side of the freeway, and the ruins sit on the other side beside the old road. Pull well off the pavement, view and photograph from outside, and stay out of the buildings. Allow 15 minutes. Fuel is about 0.7 miles away. The Winona Site is about 7 miles off, and heading east you reach the Canyon Diablo ghost town, about 9 miles, and the Canyon Diablo Bridge, about 11 miles away.