Meteor City Trading Post

The trading post is about 2.5 miles east of the Cow Canyon Bridge and about 15 miles west of Winslow

GPS: 35.094196, -110.935275

The business and property were sold to Jack "Lonesome Jack Newsome" Newsum in 1941 and he is responsible for the Meteor City name. Note the difference in the name, he used "Lonesome Jack Newsome" in advertising. The state made the name official in 1942 by installing a "Meteor City, Population 1" sign.

A 1942 photo shows a boxy little building with a couple of what appear to be visible gas pumps out front and Indian Curios painted on the side as well as showing the city name sign. Newsum added the trading post portion to the station and the whole thing which burned down shortly after his death in 1960.

While he was single Lonesome Jack ran ads referring to Meteor City as "Arizona's smallest city", after all it had a population of 1. After he got married he changed that to "The worlds fastest growing city". Seems fair, the population grew by 100% when he got married.

In 1951 Lonseome Jack became the Justice of the Peace for the east Flagstaff district which apparently started at Two Guns. That led him two build a small building for JP office. After Jack died in 1960 his wife, Goldie, took his place as the JP.

After Goldie died in 1967 the ownership and/or management of the trading post changed hands a few more times. The building burned down in August of 1978 when it was owned by Dennis Ortega.

In 1979 a new trading post was built in a geodesic dome which also burned down in late 1990. Another geodesic dome was built which operated until it closed in 2001. In 2002 in was purchased by Emelia and Richard Benton and operated it until it closed again in December 2012. Joann and Mike Brown became the new owners in 2017 and are continuing to restore the property. I'm unsure if the place is open or not, but it's worth a stop as a photo op even if it isn't open at the moment.

On the east side of the Meteor City Trading Post a fence once held the World's Longest Map of Route 66 was originally hand painted by Bob Waldmire. Sometime after 2000 that map was painted over. In 2002 volunteers from Hampton Inn's recreated the map and repainted six teepees as part of their Save-A-Landmark program. The last time we went by the fence and map were gone.

This isn't a large building, only about 500 square feet, but the shape of the dome makes it look larger as it soars into the sky, it sits on about 4 acres of land. There were only two trading post in geodesic domes located on Route 66, the other one is at Lupton, AZ.

For the movie fans out there the building had bit role as a cafe in the 1984 movie Starman starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen.

What remained of a large Dream catcher, once billed as the worlds largest, still stood on the edge of the parking lot, but by 2015 when this photo was taken the trading post had closed and the building had been vandalized. Which is a good reason get out there and see these landmarks while you can.

Photo(s): 2012 and 2015