National Park Service launches Route 66 site September 24, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Businesses, Gas stations, Highways, History, Maps, Motels, Museums, Preservation, Restaurants, Theaters, Web sites.2 comments
Screen shot of the National Park Service's new Route 66 site.
The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program is already under the auspices of the National Park Service. But the NPS recently launched a Route 66 “Discover Our Shared Heritage” travel itinerary site that should prove useful to novice travelers and be informative to researchers.
Funded in part by American Express and the World Monuments Fund, the site contains essays about Route 66′s history, an interactive map to historical sites, and links to other Route 66 sites (including Route 66 News).
The choice material is the state-by-state listings of prime historical sites along the Mother Road. The list isn’t by any means all-inclusive, but contains the best-of-the-best.
It’s in the descriptions and background of the properties where the site really shines. For instance, the entry for the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Mo., contains a description from a 1939 AAA travel directory of the motel charging “$2.50 to $3 a day for two persons” and it being “one of the finest lodges in the state.” And the listing of historic Route 66 segments in Oklahoma is valuable because it contains directions to these secluded areas.
Go ahead and surf on over. And make sure you have an hour or two to spare.
(Hat tip: Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blog)
More “Route 66″ DVDs coming next month September 24, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Television.add a comment
The second DVD volume of the third season of the original “Route 66″ television series will be in stores on Oct. 20, according to the publicist for producers Roxbury and Infinity.
It’s a four-disc set of 15 episodes. The suggested retail price is $29.95, although Amazon.com is already pre-selling it at a discount.
These episodes are particularly notable because that’s when co-star George Maharis left the show, reportedly because of problems with hepatitis, and was replaced by Glenn Corbett. You can read about Maharis’ explanation for his departure here.
Guest stars in these upcoming episodes will include James Whitmore, Harvey Korman, Robert Duvall, Dick York, Gene Hackman, Rip Torn, Alan Alda and Tom Bosley.
Car crash destroys historic Kingman building September 24, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, History.2 comments
The historic Kingman Cab Co. building that stood on Route 66 in Kingman, Ariz., was razed Tuesday after a car crash heavily damaged the structure, reported the Kingman Daily Miner.
More details:
Police found a stolen car with heavy front-end damage off of Hualapai Mountain Road they believe may be connected to the hit-and-run. The building served as a cab dispatch station during the 1940s and was owned by Arthur F. Black until he sold it to former Mayor Joe Torrez in 1967, according to the Mohave County Museum of History and Arts.
Kingman roadie and author Jim Hinckley of the Route 66 Chronicles sent this photo of what the building looked like, pre-crash:
This is reminiscent of a vehicular accident that essentially destroyed the Carthage Route 66 Antique Mall on Route 66 in Carthage, Mo., a few years ago. The building in Carthage once was a Harel Griffith Pontiac dealership. The crash fatally compromised the building’s structural integrity, and it had to be torn down.
UPDATE 9/25/09: The Daily Miner has more about the crash that ultimately destroyed the building. As I surmised, the impact indeed compromised the integity of the building, and it had to be torn down.
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
More about its history:
It was first owned by Black-Gray’s father, Arthur F. Black. Black, who was born in Dodge City, Kan., is often referred to as the “Father of U.S. Route 93.”
He also helped in creating Route 66 from Old Trails Highway. The Kingman Cab Co. was the first cab company in Kingman. Black was called a pioneer operator in the passenger bus line business and started a stage line between Kingman and Las Vegas in 1920.[...]
Black sold the company to Florence M. Blum in 1955. She operated the business from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week from a phone line in her home on Lead Street. Her daughter, Elaine Grissom, said she remembers gassing up the cabs from a pump in their backyard. [...]
“She was really committed to good service,” Grissom said. “The drivers wore uniforms and the cabs were clean.”
Grissom said that the cabs often delivered groceries and alcohol to homebound residents. Because FCC regulations prohibit the use of the word alcohol over the radio, the dispatchers just called it “the usual,” she said.
Blum operated the company for 14 years before selling the building to former Mayor Joe Torrez in 1967. Local business owner Scott Dunton had been taking care of the building for the last decade. He spent around $4,000 restoring the building, including having a neon clock refurbished and the mural painted on the front, which featured Torrez sitting at a desk.
Dunton said the building had just been repainted about three weeks ago.
Kingman police say they have an individual in mind as a suspect, and are building a case against him.
UPDATE: Eamonn Killeen stayed at the Hotel Brunswick down the street the night it happened. His party thought they heard something in the middle of the night. At first light, this is what they saw of the remains of the building:
It’s now easy to see how the structure was so compromised by the impact.
MS ride takes place on Route 66 this weekend September 23, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in bicycling, Events, Road trips.add a comment
The Oklahoma Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is holding its Bike MS Oklahoma event on Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Tulsa Tulsa to Oklahoma City this weekend.
The ride will take place over two days and 135 miles of the Mother Road. From the chapter’s Web page:
More than 600 riders will cruise along scenic roads riding along the Mother Road. Come enjoy five full meals, generous amenities, stunning landscapes stocked rest stops every 10 to 12 miles at spectacular sites, and spirited festivities that include music, beer, and awards. Join us September 26th and 27th, 2009, as we ride along the country’s most historic road Route 66. By taking on the challenge, you’ll join a powerful movement dedicated to a world free of MS.
The chapter has ways you can help — ride, donate or volunteer.
In the Daily Oklahoman, you can read about one MS patient who’s participating in the ride. Fortunately for her and the other rides, the weather forecast looks favorable for the weekend.
Kingman Powerhouse to mark its centennial September 23, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, History, Museums.add a comment
The Powerhouse in Kingman, Ariz., once called the Desert Power & Water Co., will be celebrating its centennial next month, reported the Kingman Daily Miner.
Here’s a brief history:
One hundred years ago, the Powerhouse (Desert Power & Water Company) first lit up the mines in Goldroad, Oatman and Chloride. By October, most businesses downtown had transmission lines carrying juice through thick copper lines into their establishments, revolutionizing the industry of business.
After sitting idle 58 years, a group led by Toby Orr revitalized the structure. In 1997, the Powerhouse was re-opened as an official state visitor center and the home of the Arizona Historic Route 66 Association. The Route 66 Museum soon followed, making the site a living historic landmark and roadside attraction.
To mark the centennial, the Kingman Downtown Merchants Association will hold a parade and Walk-in-the-Park Fall Festival at the Powerhouse and adjacent Locomotive Park on Oct. 17-18 that will include food and arts vendors, live music, talent show and gold-panning demonstrations by the local prospectors association. The annual Route 66 Rotary Oktoberfest also will be held at the same time, with beer, bratwurst and live entertainment served.
I went to the Route 66 museum in the Powerhouse earlier this summer, and enjoyed it quite a lot. It contained a homespun appeal, but a lot of thought was put into the displays, too. Especially striking is the long excerpt from John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” about driving Route 66 from a Dust Bowl refugee’s point of view.
Route 66 bikeway section gets stimulus funding September 22, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, bicycling.add a comment
A proposed Route 66 bikeway from west Bloomington to Shirley, Ill., will receive $1.44 million in federal economic stimulus funds, reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.
Apparently, the bikeway got money for the project a little quicker than expected:
McLean County Highway Engineer Eric Schmitt said all the work that a variety of groups have done on the project through the years likely is the reason it was one chosen for the money.
More details about the bikeway:
Schmitt said the project likely will go out for bid in March. Construction may start in May or June and finish by the end of summer.
The path will start near Fox Creek Road, travel on the west side of old Route 66 for 1½ miles, then switch to the east side of the road near Shirley, Schmitt said.
Proponents of the Route 66 bikeway hope it will eventually extend from Chenoa to McLean.
So it appears a new section of a bicycle path along Route 66 will be finished by late summer next year. And another way to get tourists on the old road is a good thing.
Mother Road Monument edges closer to reality September 22, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Preservation.add a comment
About a week ago, an article hinted that the proposed Mother Road National Monument in California’s Mojave Desert was looking more likely.
On Tuesday, the Press-Enterprise reports that the monument appeared to be “gaining momentum.”
Part of the reason was because a proposed solar-power plant in the desert had been scrapped and another said it would put most of its plants outside the monument area. Another reason is because the proposed monument area has become smaller, thus giving the solar-power companies less of a reason to encroach on park land.
I think the talk about the “pristine” environment of the Mojave is overblown, particularly since a prominent former U.S. highway and a major rail line slice right through the area. But the fact a compromise will be reached — and that much-needed alternate energy sources will still be developed — is a good thing.
UPDATE: The Investor’s Business Daily has an interesting editorial about this issue. Some choice excerpts:
You can always find someone with a passionate argument about building something large and visible on empty land. Often those arguments prevail, not because they make sense but because those who make them have a law or a powerful politician on their side. This is a bicoastal problem, as the aspiring wind farmers of Nantucket Sound will tell you. [...]
America needs more energy from all feasible sources. Without it, we face a very different, far more limited standard of living in our future. The argument that “they can always build it somewhere else” is running thin, because that “somewhere else” is likely to be someone else’s pet cause.