In 1899, the Winslow Mail Newspaper included a brief blurb stating the Babbitt Brothers of Flagstaff would be building a large warehouse alongside the railroad track in Winslow.  The building was finished in 1914.  Wholesale and retail items were stocked in great quantities.  One of the goods sold by Babbitt’s Department Store was Snowdrift Perfect Shortening.  The local papers constantly ran advertisements and included recipes for the wonder substance.  In 1929, you could buy a 3-pound pail for $0.70.  For many years, the Babbitt Department store sold everything you could need until closing.  The neighboring building burned in 1992 and exposed the original painted advertisement for Snowdrift Perfect Shortening on the exterior wall. 

The building had been vacant for nearly a decade.  It was purchased and converted into the Snowdrift Art Space which opened in 2004.  Long before the building reopened, people reported sightings of a man in a hat and coveralls, carrying a pail, walking out of the old Babbitt’s Department store.  The apparition always vanishes before stepping into the street.  Drivers on Second Street have slammed on their brakes to avoid hitting a man in “old-timey” clothes only to realize, the man was never there.

Babbitt’s suffered a tragedy in the early 1900’s.  One of their staff members ran to get a pail of Snowdrift Perfect Shortening for a customer.  When he reached the shelf, he slipped, slamming into the shelf full of 3 and 5 pound buckets of shortening.  He grabbed the shelf to stop his fall which caused the shelf to collapse forward, dumping hundreds of pails of shortening on the unfortunate worker.  It was determined that a pail had clipped his head, killing him instantly.  He never was able to give the customer the pail of shortening they had asked for.

         




Did you enjoy the Fictional Ghost Tour?