The story
Two Guns was pure Route 66 theater: a trading post, 'mountain lion zoo,' and faux-ruins attraction built in the 1920s at the Canyon Diablo crossing by the piratical 'Two Guns' Miller, who branded the site's grim history — including the 1878 'death cave' killings of Apache raiders — into roadside spectacle.
Realignments of 66 and then Interstate 40 strangled it; a last gas-station incarnation burned in 1971. The zoo cages, trading post shell, and KOA ruins now make one of the West's most photographed modern ghost sites — graffiti-coated, unfenced, and slowly collapsing.
What remains today
Stone zoo cages labeled 'MOUNTAIN LIONS,' trading post and station ruins, bridge abutments over Canyon Diablo, and the disputed 'death cave.'
Questions from the field
- Is Two Guns legal to explore?
- It sits on private land whose owners have historically tolerated visitors; postings change, structures are unstable, and the site is unmanaged. Look, photograph, don't climb.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Two Guns — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Two Guns's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — USGS GNIS feature 24665
- — Route 66 corridor histories — Two Guns/Canyon Diablo
- — Coconino County records