Twisters is a family owned and operated business in Williams, Arizona—the Gateway to the Grand Canyon. The décor is right out of the 50’s malt shop era down to the black and white tiled floors, red and white booths, and the chrome trimmed tables and chairs. The diner features great Coca Cola drink flavors such as Vanilla, Cherry, Chocolate and more. Twisters offers ice cream treats such as old fashion ice cream sodas, banana splits, sundaes, and Route 66 Beer floats! Patrons will enjoy lunch or dinner in a café that features all of the 1950’s favorites such as charbroiled burgers, hot dogs, fries, and onion rings. They were voted as one of the top 25 restaurants in Arizona by Arizona Highway Magazine in 2009.
The location of Twisters was once a bustling Texaco Gas Station and motorist garage. Travelers along Route 66 stopped in to fill up at the full service station. When Williams and Route 66 was bypassed by Interstate 40 in the 1980’s, the era of full service gas stations began a rapid decline as well. Eventually the building was deemed to be a perfect location for an old fashion 50’s diner for today’s vacationists to Williams and the Grand Canyon.
Soon after the owners of Twisters completed their renovations of the 50’s diner in 2008 they installed a surveillance alarm system throughout the café that could be monitored from home if necessary. Nothing ever activated the motion sensor cameras until October 2008. An alert alarmed triggered about 3:01 AM in the morning and what Jason Moore observed simply astounded him.
What began as a white cloudy mist took on a shadowy human form walking in a hallway near the rear area of the diner. The audio recording was played over and over as the owners tried to come up with an explanation. The phenomena only occurred on that one occasion. It has never triggered inside the dinner again.
There have been a few other cases of paranormal activity noted in Twisters as well. Items have falling off of shelves for no reason. One of the owners was balancing the books in the early morning hours when she distinctly heard a man inside the building say, “Hello.” Of course it startled the auditor and she did a thorough search of the building. To her relief nobody was found. Was this the spirit greeting her?
Paranormal teams in Arizona have come to Williams to conduct investigations at Twisters—setting up night vision cameras trying to reenact the phenomena captured on tape before. Some people speculate the ‘ghost’ could be the former owner of the Texaco Station back in the 50’s. Clial T. Godwin, or ‘Shorty’ as he was known, who is said to had committed suicide within the walls of the gas station.
Research by the MVD Ghostchasers show he did commit suicide about 18 miles west of the town of Seligman just off Route 66. The distraught middle-aged gentleman ran a hose into the car from the exhaust pipe to end his life. Could this perhaps be the reason the apparition in Twisters takes on the form of a misty vapor?
Stop at Twisters the next time you are visiting haunted Williams, Arizona, enjoy good food, good music, and perhaps some full service attention from its very own ghostly attendant.
Twisters
417 East Route 66
Williams, Arizona 86046
(928) 635-0266
jason@route66place.com
Arizona Haunted Places Examiner: Debe Branning nazanaza@aol.com
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