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Gateway structure on the road to completion
Arch-like marker will be dedicated on July Fourth

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br>
Pictured is city employee Sheldon Johnson and Williams City Manager Dennis Wells next to one of the historic railroad cantilevers that will be used as part of the Gateway structure to be located on Grand Canyon Boulevard near the McDonalds and Taco Bell/KFC.

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br> Pictured is city employee Sheldon Johnson and Williams City Manager Dennis Wells next to one of the historic railroad cantilevers that will be used as part of the Gateway structure to be located on Grand Canyon Boulevard near the McDonalds and Taco Bell/KFC.

WILLIAMS - The Gateway feature, located on Grand Canyon Boulevard near the McDonalds and Taco Bell/KFC restaurants, has gone from an idea to a reality. The arch will be in place and dedicated over the Fourth of July weekend in Williams, according to Williams officials. City employees will begin to place the structure on Grand Canyon Boulevard in June. Williams City Manager Dennis Wells said the dedication of the Gateway structure will be part of the city's July 4 celebration.

He said the arch has gone through a number of changes since the idea first began to create a historical marker for the community.

"What basically happened was we kept talking about it and throwing ideas around and it evolved," Wells said. "It's not really an arch, it's a Gateway feature. Not only does it commemorate our history, it helps promote our tourism as well, because it's going to be located right down amongst the fast food restaurants. We all know that a lot of people pull off I-40 to grab a burger, fill their tank with gas and get right back on the freeway. One of the ideas behind this Gateway feature was to pique their curiousity and get them to come into town."

Besides the large, historic railroad cantilevers that will be used in the construction of the Gateway, a middle section will also be fabricated by city employees. A grant made possible through Al Richmond and the Arizona State Railroad Museum also helped defray a lot of the costs involved in creating the Gateway. Arizona Public Service is donating a crane to help set the Gateway in place once construction is complete.

"It looks like we're going to be able to construct this completely with the $10,000 grant," Wells said. "A lot of folks have really come together and helped us do this. I think it will be pretty striking."

Wells recently touched on the history of the city when he updated members of the Williams Rotary Club on the status of the Gateway arch.

"Williams has a lot of its history still preserved intact," Wells said. "It's very different than many communities that have undergone quick growth."

He said the railroad was a very important part of the history of Williams.

"Today we have three railroads here. We have the BNSF main line, which cuts through part of our city limits. We have coming through the city, two railroad lines, the BNSF Phoenix line and of course the Grand Canyon Railroad."

He said the idea for the Gateway Arch germinated among members of the community last November. After reading a book about the history of Ogden, Utah, Wells said he saw a picture of a historic arch in that community.

"A lot of communities have some kind of a gateway feature in their town," he said. "We started talking about it and a couple of things came up. We had this Gateway to Grand Canyon trademark for many years, very valuable to the city of Williams, probably more so in the future even than it is today."

The arch, he said, commemorates the Gateway trademark, the city and its railroad history. Al Richmond, founder of the proposed Arizona State Railroad Museum in Williams, donated two large cantilevers for the project.

"That's when this thing started taking off," Wells explained. "We actually started putting this project together and it actually started to come together. We're about halfway through."


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