Places That Were

Showing posts with label route 66. Show all posts

Sunshine Trading Post Ruins near Canyon Diablo

In a barren expanse of desert outside the remote Navajo town of Leupp stands the ruins of a large unmarked structure. Despite its advanced state of decay, the old building is still quite beautiful.

Abandoned Sunrise Trading Post Ruins in Leupp Arizona near Canyon Diabo

After exploring Ella's Trading Post and the neighboring abandoned campground and cattle ranch, I got back out on the road. Barely eleven a.m. and already I'd explored four interesting sites, it was going to be an outstanding day. I had one more site to check out before heading south to Phoenix, where I wouldn't have to worry about freezing my ass off at night.

I stopped in Winslow for gas and a quick bite to eat. I happened by a massive abandoned Senor D's travel center. I would've loved to see the inside, but it was tightly boarded up.

Senor D's abandoned travel center station in Winslow, Arizona

Next to the abandoned gas station stood an old Denny's, also abandoned.

I grabbed lunch at a pizza joint called Captain Tony's. I'm not sure why a captain would open a pizzeria, but the food was pretty tasty.

After lunch I followed AZ-99 through rolling hills to the Navajo town of Leupp (pronounced LOOP). With a population just shy of a thousand people, Leupp is quite small, but has an interesting history. It was once home to a boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. During World War II, the school was transformed into the Leupp Isolation Center, a special internment camp for Japanese Americans who were transferred from other camps after being labeled as "troublemakers".

I pulled up to the rectangular piece of land, which was totally empty except for fading dirt roads and the stone ruins of what I assumed to be the Leupp Isolation Center. It turns out I was wrong and it was actually the site of the Sunrise Trading Post.

Sunrise was built in 1920 by H.W. "Nebby" Smith, an employee of the Babbitt Brothers, who owned a trading post at the nearby settlement of Tolchaco. Smith is said to have dismantled the stone walls of the Tolchaco building, carried the stones south, and used them to build Sunrise Trading Post, all without the Babbitts' knowledge.

The story sounds pretty far-fetched, but I wasn't able to find any other information about the place. It is unclear when or why Sunrise Trading Post eventually closed.

The main building was in rough shape and looked like it had already had a run-in with a wrecking ball. A large chunk of wall was reduced to a pile of bricks and most of the roof was gone. Still I found the place beautiful.

Pacman would not be a fan of this graffiti.

The porch out front was really nice. I would love to sit out there on a warm summer day and enjoy the view.

I liked the place so much, I took a rare selfie there. The "Nerd" graffiti in the background seemed appropriate.

Aside from the main structure, there were some walls left over from what was probably a barn or shed.

And a little cylindrical building.

I walked along a dirt road to see if I could find remnants of any other buildings. It led to an old bridge that crosses Canyon Diablo where it splits from the Little Colorado River. The canyon, which was dry at the time of my visit, meanders through miles of desert hills, eventually reaching the ruins of the notoriously lawless frontier town of Canyon Diablo. Sadly, I didn't explore the ghost town because I didn't learn of its existence until after I had left the area.

On the left is the defunct metal bridge across the canyon. The bridge on the right is part of the highway that crosses Little Colorado River.

Diablo Canyon bridge is no longer can no longer be crossed by vehicles.

I wandered around for a while, finding a few overgrown foundations, the only remnants of structures that disappeared long ago.

On the way back to the freeway, I stopped at a lonely shop in the middle of nowhere.

I would have loved to order a piece of pie, but the shop was closed.

Near the freeway is a neat little ranch with a locked gate. The sign reads "No Trespassing. Navajo Nation Property."

I didn't try to get a closer look. The sign and what appeared to be a guard tower were enough to deter me.

I returned to Flagstaff and stopped at McDonald's to use the free internet. After several minutes of failing to connect, I tried using my phone as a hotspot, but that too failed. I overheard the manager saying that a major fiber optic cable had been cut, which meant there was no internet or phone service in Northern Arizona. The only carrier not affected was Verizon. The manager gave me directions south to Phoenix, and I was soon on my way.

There were several really interesting sites I wanted to stop at on the way to Phoenix. Without cell service, finding them would be tricky, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.

Next stop: an abandoned dog racing compound. It was phenomenal. I can't wait to tell you all about it next week!

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The Delusional Pianist of Ella's Frontier Trading Post

Ella's Frontier Trading Post has sat abandoned on a disused segment of Historic Route 66 for over 30 years.

Abandoned Ella's Frontier Trading Post in Joseph City Arizona

Only a half hour east of Meteor City, I figured Ella's was worth checking out. It turned out to be much more interesting than I anticipated. As with Two Guns ghost town, the lots on either side of Ella's Frontier Trading Post were home to other interesting abandonments.

I exited the freeway at Joseph City and pulled up to the site, disappointed to find a pickup truck parked out front with its tailgate down. A couple scenarios ran through my head: It could be another explorer checking out the ruins, or it might be a local who'd take one look at my California plates and tell me to get the hell out of there. I realize that might sound a bit paranoid, but I did end up running into trouble several times in Arizona (More on that in future blog entries).

A Native American dude in his late 30s walked up with his two dogs. Much to my relief, he was quite friendly and we ended up talking for a good 15 minutes. He said he moved to the area about 15 years ago, and Ella's Trading post had been vacant since long before then.

He also told me that Joseph City was one of several Mormon settlements in the area. He said Brigham Young had instructed his flock to build settlements all along their journey west, so that they would have friendly places to return to in case they needed to retreat eastward.

Then he told me a story about a Mormon settlement someplace north of where we were. Apparently they were concerned about a hostile Navajo tribe in the area, and tried to convince the Hopi to move between them, so as to provide a buffer. The Hopi were nonplussed by the suggestion and told the Mormons to piss off (their words, not mine) and leave the area. Allegedly one of the Hopi women correctly predicted that the Mormons would end up settling somewhere along the Colorado River.

I don't know if there is any truth to the story. My research turned up some info about Mormons interacting with the Hopi people and mentioned conflicts with the Navajo, but nothing that matched this story. If you have any info, please leave a comment below.

The guy said he had to head to work. He set up a lawn chair behind his pickup, and the dogs jumped up from it onto the bed of the truck. After he left I explored with abandon and took tons of pictures.

The trading post, originally "San Diego's Old Frontier" was founded in 1927 by Frederick "San Diego" Rawson. Born in 1861, Rawson was said to have led a very interesting life. As a child he was allegedly enslaved by Plains Indians for several years before the US Army rescued him. It is said that he went on to dabble in many careers: prospecting, trapping, scouting for the army, training circus animals, philosophy, writing, and running a museum. I remain highly skeptical of these claims, but I bet he was a damn good story teller.

The log-cabin style trading post was built from telephone poles and included a workspace for local Navajo to craft jewelry, blankets, and quilts.

The property eventually passed to Ray Meaney, a Hawaiian band leader and owner of Hopi House, another trading post on Route 66. When Meaney and his wife Ella Blackwell divorced in 1955, each ended up with one of the trading posts.

Meaney later sold Hopi House, but Ella Blackwell held onto the rebranded Ella's Frontier Trading Post until her death in 1984.

Ella, a pianist trained at Juilliard School, was quite eccentric, but a delight to visit. She kept a piano at the store and often played for customers.

It is said that Ella suffered from delusions. She claimed her store was established in 1873 making it the oldest trading post on Route 66. Other times she claimed it first opened in 1940. Later in life she was often seen having conversations with imaginary people and animals.

The building is in pretty rough shape these days.

But you can still get a sense of what some of rooms were once used for.

After a thorough exploration of Ella's, I wandered through the adjacent lot, where sits the abandoned Big Arrow Campground.

There was a fenced off area with shelters for when it rained.

I have no idea what this thing was used for:

A neat row of lamp posts.

The campground was equipped to accommodate RVs.

From the back of this sign, you can see they spelled camp with a "K", just like at the KOA campground at Two Guns.

A few interesting artifacts were lying around:

On the other side of Ella's was an abandoned ranch.

The house was in terrible shape.

It looked like it was pretty nice before it was abandoned. But at the time of my visit, it was thoroughly vandalized and the roof had begun to collapse.