Route 66 and Padre Canyon                  

Presented at the Riordan Mansion Brown Bag Lunch Sessions, July 10, 2001

    There are many fascinating and remote spots along Route 66 in Northern Arizona largely ignored by most modern Route 66 authors. The alignment that currently exists between Winona and Twin Arrows is one such stretch. Covering approximately 10 miles, this piece of Route 66 incorporates the older Flagstaff-Winslow highway which was partly built by the U.S. Forest Service, and the road to the long gone town site of Angell on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline, the deep and serpentine Padre Canyon, and the famous Twin Arrows Truck Stop and Cafe.

Environment
    Bracketing this section of road are the towns of Winona on the West, and the Twin Arrows Truck stop on the East, Interstate 40 to the South and the BNSF rail road mainline to the North. Between these points, elevation of Route 66 rises from around 5,900 at Twin Arrows to 6,300 feet at Winona. Originally called "Walnut", the town site of Winona has been occupied since 1912, although the place name dates to 1896. There was a post office established in 1924, and most importantly perhaps, is the attribution of the nation's first commercial tourist camp established in 1920.⁽¹⁾  Winona gained its greatest notoriety perhaps by being mentioned in Bobby Troup's (Get Your Kicks) on Route 66.

    Twin Arrows to the East embodies a classic roadside truck stop/cafe, and a few residences scattered on the North side of I-40. There seems to be little written about the place. It does not appear in Jack Rittenhouse's authoritative guide book to Route 66 ⁽²⁾ which would imply the truck stop post dates 1946. "Twin Arrows" is also not mentioned in any of the Arizona place name publications, although it is a frequent photo subject for many latter day Route 66 authors. Clearly, the "Twin Arrows" name plays on the more historical "Two Guns" further to the East. Re-opened in the last few years,  the cafe has since closed again. No mention is made of any of the homes across the highway either. The association between the truck stop/cafe and the old alignment of Route 66 is skewed by the fact that traffic had been long diverted from the old Padre Canyon alignment when the cafe came into being. The old alignment still existed however, and the canyon just East of the bridge received years of restaurant and truck stop related debris which still lines the Eastern canyon wall.

    The town site of Angell lies between Winona and Twin Arrows, about two miles north of the road. Named for the first superintendent of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (the predecessor of the Santa Fe). Historically Angell was a point at which engines were added to trains for the climb to Flagstaff, so there is a generous passing track as well as a "wye" where engines could be turned. There was a station house there in the early part of the century, as well as a watering tower. There are no buildings now, just a mix of surface material historically reflecting both domestic and industrial habitation ⁽³⁾. Additionally, there is an underpass West of the site of Angell where hobo graffiti dates back to the Great Depression.

     Back before the creation of the current I-40, or even before Route 66 was first laid out in 1926, there were the local roads. These roads were primarily cross-country affairs, linking towns, improved infrequently, and often made nearly impassible by storms. In this region defined between Winona and Twin Arrows, the road crosses largely flat land, with a few gentle curves and shallow elevation changes. Throughout most of the section, we are in high desert, Juniper ecosystem which ends at Twin Arrows, and begins shifting towards a Pinyon-Juniper mix West of Winona.

    With the establishment of statehood in 1912, Arizona's roads as a whole began a slow and incremental improvement and evolution to becoming the modern highway system we recognize today. This was driven by the new fascination on the part of Americans with both bicycles and automobiles which provided the first real boom in personal transportation. The first federal dollars put forward for road improvements also permitted the cross county and state roads to become less reliant upon terrain, and begin to seek out straighter courses, even permitting the bridging of troublesome canyons and washes.

     In northern Arizona, one of the first locations listed for improvement was the section of the Flagstaff-Winslow highway through Padre Canyon, or Canyon Padre as it often appears in the early Reports of the State Engineer. Padre and Diablo canyons were two of the few natural features that broke the relatively flat profile of the high desert, and caused real headaches for those attempting to travel across the southwest, by way of northern Arizona. The measure of just how great a challenge the canyons posed can be demonstrated in that the Arizona Good Roads Association Illustrated Road Maps and Tour Book (1913) showed that the route from Winslow to Flagstaff went north to the town of Leupp to avoid the canyons of Padre and Diablo altogether ⁽⁴⁾.

(1996. Looking North, the Padre Canyon Bridge lies in the center of this photograph, I-40 runs through the bottom right-hand corner.  The original Route 66 and Flagstaff-Winslow highway alignment loops northeast then southeast out of frame to the right, and southwest from the bridge southwest toward I-40 at bottom center. The current road jogs north away from I-40 for a tenth of a mile or so, and returns to the old alignment west of the photo. Twin Arrows is just out of the photograph on the right. The bright scar running from the top left to bottom right of the photo is a natural gas pipeline excavation.) Photo by the author.

    The Padre and Diablo canyons are sharp, stark breaks in the terrain, and in places, quite deep. Beginning with the first Annual Report of the State Engineer, there are entries indicating the first actions to be taken by the state to deal with Padre Canyon had to do with the surveying for a bridge, located about half way down into the canyon to make passage through the canyon easier. For the fiscal year 1912-13, the total spent by the state on Padre canyon came to $218.55, this for Division Engineer J.S. Barlow, and County Engineer E. Ray Lamport to select a site for the bridge ⁽⁵⁾.

     The bridge that was envisioned for Canyon Padre was a 136' single lane Luten (half arch) reinforced concrete bridge. In 1913 the contract was awarded to the Topeka Bridge and Iron Company to construct the bridge for $7,900, with the beginning construction date to be September of that year. The bridge was completed in April of the following year.

(Padre Canyon Bridge. Biennial Report of the State Engineer. 1917 , P. 60.  Note the white wood railing on the left [West] end of the bridge.)

     The bridge on Canyon Padre then became a permanent entity on the Flagstaff-Winslow highway, right up through the highway's transfer of status to part of the cross-county highway Route 66 in 1926. The Flagstaff-Winslow highway (along with the string of highways across northern Arizona from Lupton, near New Mexico to Topock, near California) appears in the 7th Annual Report of the State Engineer for the first time labeled as U.S. 66.
 
 

(Padre Canyon bridge, 1996. This is the current state of the bridge. The railings are largely replaced with steel railroad rails). Photo by the author.

Route 66

    Route 66 was established over existing roads in 1926, incorporating much of the older Flagstaff-Winslow highway. Prior to that, the Flagstaff-Winslow Highway gains mention quite a few time in the State Engineer's reports. Roughly beginning with a description of the route in 1916, through the establishment of Route 66 in 1926, the road underwent several significant development phases. The first deals with the bridging of the Padre and Diablo canyons. The second is the infusion of federal moneys beyond the normal federal highway funding by establishing a Forest Service road from Flagstaff to Angell. Finally, the paving and improvement of the route including paving in Flagstaff city limits, and the improvement of the unpaved portions of the road by dedicating men and equipment to specific maintenance zones.

    The first phase of highway building and maintenance was described this way in the State Engineer's Report:

    "The east and west highway is undoubtedly of first importance.  The construction of the road from Flagstaff to Canyon Padre by the Forest Department and the building of Federal Aid Project no. 74, from Winslow to Canyon Diablo, will leave only 12 miles of highway to be improved between the Padre and Diablo bridges." ⁽⁷⁾

    The implication here is that aside from the bridges, almost nothing was done to improve the roads to this point between the canyons, which represents the point of the highway farthest from both Flagstaff, and Winslow. The injection of funds through the use of Forest Service resources should not be discounted. The federal road standards employed by the Forest Service were considerably better than those employed in "normal" state highway building. This is still visible today along the Winona-Angell alignment. While unpaved, the road is quite wide, and well incorporated into the environment. There are few steep  grades, or sharp turns. The situation is described below:
 

 " FLAGSTAFF-WINSLOW.   Very little permanent work has been done on the Flagstaff-Winslow Highway in Coconino County with the exception of bridges across Canyon Diablo and Canyon Padre. Arrangements have been made whereby the Forest Service will construct the road from Flagstaff to the eastern boundary of the Coconino National Forest, near Angell." ⁽⁸⁾.

    Once the Forest Service road is completed in 1926, the alignment which would become Route 66 is established, and will remain intact and in use through 1937, when the road changed alignment heading West towards Flagstaff at Winona, following more or less the current alignment of I-40 to Walnut Canyon.

Bypassed

    The original Padre Canyon bridge served traffic on Route 66 until 1937, when a much longer span was placed over the canyon at the current location of the I-40 bridges (itself augmented by a twin and replaces since by even more stout structures).

   In the August, 1937 edition of Arizona Highways it was reported that due to the number of serious accidents that had occurred at Padre Canyon, that the state was undertaking a new crossing that would eliminate the old concrete arch bridge and the six dangerous approach curves completely. The description of the then current situation in the article was quite alarming; the suddenness of the approach, the step downgrade entering the canyon, the tight turns entering the bridge then the narrow bridge itself. Driving the road today this scenario is a little harder to visualize. The current road condition warrants speeds of only 5 or 10 m.p.h., as there is nothing to cover the native limestone these days, leaving what more resembles steps than a roadbed in places leading into Padre Canyon (a long standing problem in the history of this particular alignment). The wooden guard rails on the approaches are gone, as are the retaining walls on the grade entering the canyon on the eastern side. The bridge while still majestic, is lacking a good deal of the elaborate concrete railing (a result of the canyon's accident prone hazards?) ⁽⁹⁾.

     The new bridge the state was to replace the 1914 bridge with was to cost a good deal more, a contract for $84,000.00 being awarded to the Phoenix-Tempe Stone Company to build a steel arch bridge of 344 feet, with a 22 foot road deck.

      During October of 1937, the new bridge was complete, and the old alignment bypassed saving motorists about 4/10ths of a mile when traveling between Winslow and Flagstaff ⁽¹⁰⁾.  Since the completion of this bridge, a twin was added to create the current 4 lane I-40 alignment, and more recently, these structures have been replaced with even more sturdy bridges.

      Other alignment changed occurred in the Fall of 1937 that shaved another 2 miles of travel between Winslow and Flagstaff by changing Route 66's alignment on its eastern approach to Flagstaff.  This change moved Route 66 to a more modern alignment by Walnut Canyon, and off of the modern Townsend-Winona road.

     The old bridge served for only 23 years, no doubt because it was a compromise span requiring that the highway climb down into the canyon before crossing over to the other side and climbing out.  Costing over $9,000, the bridge was not cheap, but was not long enough, or wide enough for the rigors a highway with the volume of Route 66 would need.  Since that time it has languished at the bottom of Padre Canyon visited and used only by locals, and those who seek out the flavor of the early alignments of 66. It is important to realize that as Route 66 became the way for travelers to make their way across the southwest, that this little bridge saw all of the traffic, including the bulk of the depression era traffic out of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas as it made its way towards California. The Padre Canyon bridge is also an important site as it predates standard highway architecture that one finds on modern interstate highways, and as such reflects a style and art that seems long gone. As a footnote, this site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September of 1988.

What This All Means...

    The Winona-Twin Arrows section then is a virtual time capsule of Route 66 covering a remarkably tight period of time, that of 1924 through 1937. It represents a time period wherein roads were generally unpaved, tourism was becoming an identifiable industry, highway architecture still reflected the architect's artistry. In some fashion, those portions of the road since lost to the re-alignment and the arrival of I-40 serve to demonstrate even more clearly the conditions of road building in harsh and remote areas. In a greater scope, this small piece of road was witness to the exodus caused by the "Great Depression", and growth of a more mobile society.

Getting There...

    The best approach to the bridge in Padre Canyon is to take the Access road just North of I-40 at the Winona exit (211) . Follow the road along the old Forest Service alignment 8 miles to the canyon's rim to the bridge. If you take the side trip to Angell (left at approximately mile 6, and two miles to the railroad crossing), your total mileage is 20 miles.  This makes a delightful seasonal mountain bike ride, although late-May through September could be very warm, and the main road develops "wash boards". Be sure to take lots of water. For vehicular travel, high clearance is desirable, as a few stretches are quite rough. At the end of the trail, there is private property. Do not cross it without permission, or instead return the way you came.

1.)  Trimble, Marshall; Roadside History of Arizona., Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, MT., 1986, p. 250.  Similar information on the name and date sequence for Winona can also be found in: Barnes, Will C.; Arizona Placenames., University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.,  1988,  p. 491.

2.) Rittenhouse, Jack D.; A Guide Book to Highway 66. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM., 1989.  Winslow-Winona section. This edition is the reprint of the 1946 first edition.

3.) Granger, Byrd H., Arizona's Names (X Marks the Place)., Falconer Publishing Co., Tucson, AZ., 1983. p.17. Granger's book is based largely on the Barnes' Placenames book. The information on Angell is similar in each work, although the Granger book places Angell across the tracks from Winona which is clearly in error.

4.) Arizona Good Roads Association, Arizona Good Roads Association Illustrated Road Maps and Tour Book, Arizona Highways Magazine, Phoenix, Az., 1987, pp. 107-8.

5.) Report of the State Engineer of the State of Arizona July 1, 1909 to June 30, 1914.  Arizona State Press, Phoenix, AZ.,  1914, p. 83.

6.) ibid. p. 106

7.)  Fifth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State of Arizona for the period July 1, 1920, to June 30, 1922. Arizona State Press, Phoenix, AZ., 1922. p.10.

8.) ibid  p. 11.

9.) Callahan, C. M., "Building Safety", Arizona Highways., V.13 (8), August, 1937, p.4-5.

10.) Wallace, Norman G., "Two Good Jobs Accomplished", Arizona Highways., V.14 (1), January, 1938, p.6-7.

Arizona Good Roads Association, Arizona Good Roads Association Illustrated Road Maps and Tour Book, Arizona Highways Magazine, Phoenix, Az., 1987

Barnes, Will C.; Arizona Placenames., University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.,  1988

Callahan, C. M., "Building Safety", Arizona Highways.,V.13 (8), August, 1937, p.4-5.

Granger, Byrd H., Arizona's Names (X Marks the Place)., Falconer Publishing Co., Tucson, AZ., 1983.

Green, Perry S., "Historic Bridge Home Page", http://www.ce.ufl.edu/~historic/, July 10, 2001

Rittenhouse, Jack D.; A Guide Book to Highway 66. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM., 1989.

Schaffer, G. B., "Road Projects Under Construction in Arizona", Arizona Highways., V.13 (1), January, 1937, p.27-8.

State Engineer, (1st-6th) Biennial Report of the State Engineer., State of Arizona, Phoenix, Az.,1909-1926.

Trimble, Marshall; Roadside History of Arizona., Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, MT., 1986,

United States Geological Survey, Angell Quadrangle, Arizona--Coconino Co., United States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C., 1968.

Wallace, Norman G., "Two Good Jobs Accomplished", Arizona Highways., V.14 (1), January, 1938, p.6-7.