Two Guns, A Ghost Town In Northern Arizona Editorial Photo

A ghost town near the Canyon Diablo gorge in Coconino County, Arizona, between Winslow and Flagstaff, on old Route 66. Canyon Diablo was the site of a mass murder of Apaches by their Navajo enemies in 1878. A group of Apaches raiders were discovered hiding in a cave by the Navajos, who lit sagebrush fires at the cave`s exit and shot any Apaches trying to escape. Fire asphyxiated or gunshot killed 42 Apaches. The murder site is referred to as the `death cave` and the area is still regarded as bad country by local Navajos. Established as a settlement and known as Canyon Diablo in the 1880’s as the railroad progressed through northern Arizona. The site was variously a lawless and wild Western town, trading post, tavern, hideout for Billy the Kid, post office, gas stations, tourist attraction featuring a zoo, and a KOA campground. In 1925 an entrepreneur named Harry Miller renamed the place Two Guns in homage to silent movie star William S. Hart, known as Two Guns Bill for the cowboy roles he played on screen. In the 1970’s, completion of Interstate 40 superseded Route 66 as a major artery and led to the abandonment of Two Guns. In 1988 the Canyon Diablo Bridge, built 1938, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The ruins of many former structures remain, including the trading post, campground, old cottages, zoo, and burned-out Shell service station. Graffiti marks the old bridge, several buildings, and the derelict Shell gas station.