HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
1912 Route 66 saloon with Arizona's longest-running liquor license and a basement opening to old tunnels
301 W Route 66, Williams, AZ 86046
Research updated August 2026
Age
21+
Cost
Free
No cover charge; pay for drinks. Walk-in bar.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor bar on Route 66; the historic tunnels and basement are not open to the public
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1912 · Route 66 Heritage · Longest Continuous Liquor License in Arizona · Prohibition-Era Tunnel Network · Williams Railroad Town History
The Sultana has operated on the main commercial row of Williams, Arizona, since 1912, and local histories credit it with the longest continuously held liquor license in the state. Williams grew up around the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in the 1880s and became a stop on Route 66 after the highway was commissioned in 1926, which kept a steady flow of travelers moving past the saloon's door for decades.
The building did more than pour drinks. Over the years it housed a billiard parlor, a dance hall, and one of the town's first movie theaters, the uses shifting as Williams changed. Beneath the downtown block runs a system of tunnels that several accounts attribute to Chinese railroad laborers; during Prohibition the passages were used to move and stash liquor, and earlier reporting ties them to opium and other clandestine trade.
When Interstate 40 bypassed Williams in 1984, the town was the last on Route 66 to lose its through traffic, and the Sultana became part of the preserved-Route-66 identity that now draws visitors. The bar remains a working saloon. Its basement and the tunnel mouths below are closed to the public, but the building's long, layered use is well documented in regional press and Route 66 histories.
Sources
The Sultana's reputation rests on its tunnels as much as its bar room. The passages beneath the downtown block, used to move liquor during Prohibition and tied in older accounts to opium and other illicit trade, are the backdrop for most of the building's ghost stories. Visitors are told the activity collects in the lower, closed-off parts of the building rather than the public bar.
The most repeated claim is a physical one: staff describe being pushed by an unseen presence in the dining area, with no one near. Patrons over the years have reported seeing figures cross the saloon and disappear, and the basement and tunnel mouths carry a heavier reputation among the people who work there.
A local television feature on Williams treated the Sultana as one of the town's notably haunted stops, walking through the tunnel history and the staff accounts. The building's age, its layered uses, and the tunnels under it have kept the stories in circulation, though the underground spaces remain closed to the public and the accounts come mainly from the people who run and frequent the bar.
Media Appearances
Stop in at the Sultana, a working bar on Williams' main Route 66 strip since 1912. The room keeps its old back bar and the look of an early-century saloon. Staff and regulars are the keepers of the building's tunnel and haunting lore; the basement and tunnels themselves are not open to visitors.
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