Tourism drops along Apache Trail: Stretch of SR 88 remains closed
TORTILLA FLAT, Ariz. - Welcome to Tortilla Flat, and take a step back in time with a rustic saloon, general store and candy shop – where tourists keep it from becoming a ghost town.
"This is the first work I've done in my life where I can touch history and know the work I'm doing will secure history for another hundred years," said Chris Fields, owner of Tortilla Flat.
Fields owns the entire town but has a burr in his boot – wondering why is the Apache Trail, originally built in by pick and axed in two years, is still closed four years after the wildfire and flood.
"What we’ve lost is Arizona’s first historic road," he said. "People are not on it anymore. People can’t drive and experience this majestic country and enjoy what they’re supposed to enjoy, which is Arizona."
Tourism drops along Apache Trail
Theres a beautiful stretch of road northeast of the Valley called Apache Trail, but a seven-mile stretch of State route 88 has been closed for four years after a wildfire and flooding. The state says its scrambling to find the funds to fix it, but until then, the businesses that dot the landscape are struggling. FOX 10s Brian Webb reports.
Maps show what it takes to get around out here nowadays. A one-hour trip can turn into three hours with the detour – like to Apache Lake, which is south of its big brother, Roosevelt Lake. Marina business dried up so much it put the old owner out of business.
"The business from the marina went down significantly because of COVID and that road closing, so I think the new owner knew it was something we were going to have to fight for," said Melissa Stapley, manager of the Apache Lake Marina.
Tortilla Flat is doing good business for a Thursday, but with Apache Trail broken, and no fix in sight, can this old frontier town make it another hundred years?
There's a beautiful stretch of road northeast of the Valley called Apache Trail, but a seven-mile stretch of State route 88 has been closed for four years after a wildfire and flooding. The state says its scrambling to find the funds to fix it, but u
"It's Arizona's road," Fields said. "It's our road, it's the community's road, and who has the right to take our heritage and our history as a state? I just don't know how that's an option."
The Arizona Department of Transportation sent FOX 10 a statement, saying they have a plan to fix the problem, but the project has ballooned to nearly $34 million.
Now all they need to do is find the money.
Map of Tortilla Flat: