Michael Satterfield
Heading west from Winslow, Arizona on a lonely stretch of Route 66 you’ll find Meteor City Trading Post. The abandoned tourist attraction was first opened as a gas station in 1938 to serve the travelers along the Mother Road, and tourists who were traveling to visit the nearby meteor crater. In 1979 a geodesic dome was built to house the new store, but once the gas station closed, fewer and fewer travelers visited the trading post, in the late 1990s the site was put up for sale, but with no buyers, it eventually was simply abandoned.
Today the site is still home to the ‘World’s Largest Dream Catcher’ and while most of the buildings remain, vandals have done a lot of damage. It is still an interesting site to visit along Route 66 and a great place to stop and take pictures.
If you keep heading west you will run into the road to the Meteor Crater which is about 6 miles South of Interstate 40. The Meteor Crater is the result of a collision approximately 50,000 years ago with the energy of more than 20 million tons of TNT. The site has long been an attraction along Route 66 and today the Meteor Crater Visitor Center offers tours, a museum, and even an RV park for those who wish to spend a night.
This story was first published in 11/04/2015.
