Wildwood group secures site for history museum December 7, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Museums.add a comment
Newsmagazine Network, which serves the west suburbs of St. Louis, reports that the Wildwood (Mo.) Historical Society has bought a five-acre tract known as “The Hencken Place” and seeks to establish a historical museum and theater there.
The land is located directly off Hwy. 100, just 1/8 mile west of Stovall’s Grove Saloon. Nearly 7,000 square feet of storage and display space is available in three outbuildings and barns. [...]
In general, the property lies within physical space previously known as ‘Dutch Hollow’ as the earliest name of the community. The area is rich in West County history. In the 1820s, Samuel Harris was noted as having the first post office west of St. Louis. Harris had applied to the U.S. government to have the post office named Fox Creek. He also owned a 40-acre tract to the east of the current site that was just purchased.
Harris had a tavern and grist mill, according to the 1883 history of St. Louis County. These landmarks were located at what currently is Stovall’s Grove Saloon.
What the article left out is that the property sits right next to a 1926-32 alignment of Route 66, called Manchester Road.
(Hat tip: Kent Sanderson)
Wagon Wheel Motel’s restaurant reopens as gift shop December 7, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Motels, Preservation.2 comments
That didn’t take long. Just a few months after the Wagon Wheel Motel building in Cuba, Mo., changed owners, the motel’s long-closed restaurant building has been renovated and converted into a gift shop.
According to the Viva Cuba blog:
The opening followed months of restoration, where windows and doors were put back to their original spot and other historic details were preserved.
The Shoppe, which features gifts, home decor, and Rt. 66 memorabilia, was closely inspected by Cuba residents and travelers over the weekend. On Sunday, The Shoppe was a stop on Viva Cuba’s Yuletide Tour.
Scenes of the building’s history and restoration played on a TV screen as shoppers enjoyed the vintage building and its wares. Many visitors shared memories of the old building. Echols hopes to develop a special line of Wagon Wheel themed souvenirs that stay true to the Wagon Wheel heritage.
According to the blog, the motel itself will be renovated this winter, yet remain open for guests.
A whole lot of wrong in a small package December 7, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Motels, Towns.1 comment so far
This unnamed opinion writer for the Nanaimo News Bulletin in British Columbia, Canada, packaged a whole lot of half-baked assumptions into one sentence of this travelogue through the American Southwest:
Winslow probably takes first prize for the most run-down town on old Route 66 and the corner the Eagles sang about in 1973 is its whole tourist industry.
Anyone who’s traveled the length of Route 66 will find at least 10 towns that are infinitely more run-down than Winslow, Ariz. There are the ghost towns of Glenrio, Amboy, Twin Arrows, Two Guns, Cuervo, Endee and Texola. The there are the towns which have been decimated by being abandoned or damaged by heavy industry — East St. Louis, Venice, Madison, Galena, McCook, Times Beach. That doesn’t even count the numerous towns that have simply disappeared.
Secondly, anyone who’s spent much time in Winslow knows that La Posada Hotel is no slouch in the tourism department. To proclaim that Standin’ in a Corner Park is the town’s only tourism is simply wrong.
That’s it. Rant over.
Totem Pole face-lift December 7, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, Preservation.add a comment
I didn’t know this, but someone has been refurbishing the giant totem pole at Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park near Foyil, Okla., for the past year. Virginia Klugloff has been doing the work.
Her work this year — which was the result of a grant from the local branch of the preservation group Questers — has included improvements on the main structure as well as on the grounds of the park.
Krugloff said the top half of the totem pole still could use some more work.
Totem Pole Park is not on Route 66, but is inextricably linked to the road because it’s been a longtime side trip for Mother Road travelers. For example, the park’s manager says more than one-fifth of its visitors in July and August were from foreign countries.
Thesis becomes a virtual road trip December 6, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Road trips, Web sites.add a comment
A screen shot of the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, Ill., from Pete Infelise's "Illinois Route 66" Web site.
Pete Infelise, an alum of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, decided to make the Mother Road as a part of his thesis.
The result was “Illinois Route 66,” an interactive site that takes virtual travelers from the beginning of the road in Chicago and goes to the edge of St. Louis.
To recreate this almost-vanished world, Infelise immersed himself in Route 66 lore and traveled the Illinois portion of the highway, taking his own photos and absorbing small town life and historical remnants along the road. His visual portrayal of the route is atmospherically portrayed via the technique of matte painting, most often used in the movie world. [...]
“I really do feel very lucky, though, to have had the opportunity to work on a project that incorporates so many things I love: photography and Photoshop, After Effects and motion design, and finally interactive design,” he says. “Of course, another big part was the road trips — 11 total — and the people and places I had the opportunity to meet and experience along the way.”
To see how Infelise completed the project over a two-year period, go here.
It’s an excellent Web site. Don’t be surprised if you spend an hour or two on it.
Webb City seeks to play of Route 66 heritage December 6, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Preservation, Towns.add a comment
The Route 66 town of Webb City, Mo., has some ideas on how to revitalize its downtown, and Chuck Surface, economic development director, says playing up its Route 66 roots is one of them, reports the Joplin Globe.
One vision, Surface said, is to turn the city’s east entrance at Broadway and Daugherty streets into a Route 66 park and visitor center, where motorists could get information on what Webb City has to offer.
Another vision involves the former gas station one block west of Main and Broadway streets, Surface said. The property would be ideally suited for the office of the city’s downtown manager, a position yet to be created, he said.
Funds for the projects could come from state grants, he said.
The city in October also created a Historic Preservation Commission, which could approve construction or renovation plans in town and keep a historic property’s theme as much as possible.
Route 66 State Park bridge gets a reprieve December 5, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Preservation.1 comment so far
A trustworthy Route 66 source wrote on his Facebook account that a Missouri Department of Transportation official told him off the record that the endangered Route 66 Bridge at Route 66 State Park near Eureka will not be torn down in 2010, as had been widely expected.
MoDOT is hopeful another entity will take over the bridge and shore it up enough so it can be used as a pedestrian bridge. Trailnet’s use of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in north St. Louis is such an example. The state is negotiating with the Department of Tourism, Department of Natural Resources and other groups to see whether something can be done.
However, if nothing happens to the bridge in the next couple of years or so, the MoDOT official says the state will have no choice but to tear it down because of its unsafe condition.
So the Route 66 Bridge gets a temporary reprieve, but the clock is ticking.
Former Club Cafe manager now an artist December 4, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Books, People.1 comment so far
Santiago Chavez, the longtime manager for the beloved but now-closed Club Cafe restaurant on Route 66 in Santa Rosa, N.M., apparently has found a second career as an artist based in Carson City, Nev.
According to the Reno Gazette Journal, Chavez was the subject of an artist’s reception Friday night at Fiesta La Posada in Yerington, Nev., and an exhibit by him, “Peace Please,” is ongoing at the Dini Center Upper Gallery in town.
More about Chavez [excerpt has been lightly edited]:
He helped his brother manage the Club Café restaurant in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and as an artist, found using a palette knife and oil paints straight from the tube to be superior to brushes in capturing the “textures” of the Southwest. The Club Cafe restaurant, an original Route 66 stop since 1935, provided the perfect venue to display his work to travelers from around the world, and Santiago also had rented a little house in Puerto De Luna, 10 miles from home, as a studio. He also had several exhibits in Santa Fe, N.M.; and in April 1979, had his premiere exhibit in Puerto de Luna that was attended by an estimated 3,000 people, including New Mexico Gov. Bruce King’s wife Alice, boyhood friend Rudolfo Anaya and the American ambassador from Spain, Jose Llado.
Much of Chavez’s artwork can be seen here.
Chavez’s brother, Ronald “The Route 66 Storyteller” Chavez, who also helped run Club Cafe, published a book of short stories and poetry last year. It’s apparent that some artistic talent runs through that family. He now lives in Taos, N.M.
Notes from the road December 3, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Businesses, Photographs, Publications, Restaurants.2 comments
The Tulsa World reported that longtime Route 66 business McElroy Tire, at 1545 E. 11th St., will close at year’s end. It had been there since the early 1930s, but company President Kent McElroy said the firm had been squeezed financially by national tire chains and discount stores.
McElroy Tire is notable for its big purple and yellow sign, which once was festooned with neon.
— We’d noticed an ad in the Joplin Globe for a restaurant for sale on Route 66. After a phone call, we determined it was the Chili Willy’s in Baxter Springs, Kan., and it’s for sale for $90,000. If you’re interested, call 620-202-0085.
— I learned through my Twitter account this week that Tomato Graphics has produced “Route 66 Guide: Texas Panhandle Edition.” I’m not sure where the magazine is going to be distributed. However, you can peruse the edition online here. The “Murder on 66″ story is particularly good.
— Noted Route 66 photographer Quinta Scott is holding a Christmas sale for her prints. If you buy two of her black-and-white 8-by-10 prints for $47 each, you get one free. You can order them at AlongRoute66.com. Scott’s photographs were featured in “Route 66: The Highway and Its People” and “Along Route 66.” She is among the first to document the Mother Road in photographs after it was decertified. It’s worth poking around the site; you’ll see some properties that have been gone for a very long time.
Don’t cramp their style December 3, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.1 comment so far
It was only a matter of time before this version of “Route 66″ showed up. This version is by The Cramps, a psychobilly punk band that is now defunct, alas, because of the death of singer Lux Interior earlier this year.