Top of the POPS June 30, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Music.add a comment
A rock band, Dr. Pants, decided to film a video for its song “Sarsaparilla Girl” at POPS on Route 66 in Arcadia, Okla.
What’s even cooler is that the video was shot entirely with iPhone 4s, using the device’s high-definition video capability.
The video was shot on Tuesday, and here it is. According to KTUL-TV in Tulsa:
“After only 48 hours from concept to final product we filmed this entire music video with the iPhone 4′s 720p HD video just to see if it can be done!” Roberts said.
To steady the camera for the video, Roberts built a homemade universal case/plate with items purchased from a local hardware store. Other equipment included a jib, tripod, and indislider.
As good as it looks, I suspect some videographers might be getting nervous.
The lost Bob Waldmire interview June 30, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, People.1 comment so far
Route 66 enthusiast Ron Hart interviewed Mother Road hippie and artist Bob Waldmire for about 30 minutes during the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla., in 2007.
Hart said he’d misplaced the video until recently, and decided to post it online this week. It’s a fairly typical (if unpredictable) conversation with Bob that’s sometimes delightful, sometimes eerie. Less than three years later, Waldmire would be dead of cancer.
I’m really glad this is out here. When Waldmire was diagnosed with his terminal illness last year, I lamented that there were so few videos of him. It was nobody’s fault, really. Waldmire led a gypsy existence, and no one knew when or where he would show up. So, barring the rare someone who carried a video camera at all times, roadies seldom ever got the chance of getting Waldmire down on tape.
Now, this clip gives us the chance to relive him when he was healthy, happy and utterly unique.
Accounting the past to plan for the future June 29, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Highways, History.add a comment
This story Monday by the Press-Enterprise explains as well as any the importance behind an ongoing comprehensive study of Route 66 in California. An excerpt:
The report can then be used to help property owners apply for state and federal historic grants or listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Rather than each site applying and summarizing the historic importance of Route 66, the study can be used as a boilerplate synopsis of the road, and landowners can then focus solely on their site’s relevance.
Anyone can participate in the program, or not cooperate, officials said. And contrary to what some believe, listing on the national historic register doesn’t force the owner to do anything. To receive federal grants or loans, however, the owner has to agree to preserve the property, Murphey said.
And though I’ve been to Amboy numerous times, I didn’t even know about this:
Out in the desert, finding the real Route 66 can be a challenge. Because the road was formed by linking local roads from county to county and state to state, the alignments in the desert changed over time, said Hatheway, the county cultural resource specialist. Where the motel and gas station in Amboy sit is the second incarnation. To find the original, travelers must mosey about 200 yards south, to a gravel road behind a church that passes an old graveyard.
“Can you imagine driving more than 2,000 miles on that?” Hatheway asked. “Bouncing up and down in an old car in 1937. That’s how so many people got here.”
Notes from the road June 28, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Books, Businesses, People, Road trips, Sports.add a comment
I received word Monday that Betty Courtney, 79, one member of the team that helped form the much-praised 4 Women on the Route in Galena, Kan., died Sunday.
She, along with Melba Rigg, Judy Courtney and Renee Charles, helped lead the charge to take an abandoned gas station on Route 66 in Galena and transform it into 4 Women on the Route — a cafe, souvenir store and tourism center. 4 Women on the Route was named New Business of the Year in 2008 at the Will Rogers Awards Evening.
Betty Courtney was the mother of Larry Courtney, also a prime mover and shaker in the Galena area.
Initial word of Betty’s death came from Melba’s daughter, Shelby, on her Facebook account.
According to the Joplin Globe, services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Granby First Baptist Church in Granby, Mo. Burial will be in Grand Memorial Cemetery. Visitation will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Clark Funeral Home in Granby.
— Arcadia Publishing, which has released a number of regional Route 66 history books, will publish “Route 66 in Springfield” in September (that’s Springfield in Illinois, by the way).
— Sears is looking for teams of people to explore America, including Route 66. Apply now.
— Willem Bor, the artist from the Netherlands who makes miniatures of Mother Road landmarks, went to the Lebanon Route 66 Museum in Lebanon, Mo., to deliver a model of the Nelson Tavern. The Lebanon Daily Record has the story.
— The racers in the American Solar Challenge have been making their way across the country on Route 66. Jane Reed for the Cuba Route 66 Mural City blog snapped a few photos of them in Cuba, Mo.
What’s next for the Blue Whale? June 28, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions.1 comment so far
A story about the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla., by KTUL-TV in Tulsa contained the usual angles about the Route 66 icon’s colorful history.
But it sounds like Jennifer Edwards, the Catoosa Arts & Tourism Council chief, has some new and fresh things in mind for the blue behemoth:
Edwards says with a little elbow grease and extra money the blue whale can increase tourist traffic in Catoosa. Her community has used this impromptu icon but not to it’s full potential like other towns, she says.
“They completely live off of their little icons in their communities and we here in Catoosa haven’t quite taken advantage of that yet.”
The board is hoping to make “Blue Whale” souvenirs, make it wheelchair accessible and revive the festival “Blue Whale Days” in honor of the grinning attraction. [...]The tourism board would also like to upgrade this information shelter which has definitely seen it’s better days.
In the comments section of the story, Edwards says:
The visitor survey is already bringing us a wealth of information (June 2 – June 24, 289 visitors from 13 countries and 28 US states) and we’re excited to take a fresh approach based upon the data we’re receiving. One question in particular asks, ‘What would you like to see at The Blue Whale in the future?’ We offer some ‘circle’ items such as: restaurant, souvenirs, shopping, lodging and leave same. We hope this will help determine what would entice travelers to stay more than a few minutes for a photo op.
The Blue Whale has a Twitter account here.
It appears the Blue Whale is getting better and better. It was barely 10 years ago when the whale was decaying markedly, and visitors were discouraged from venturing on the property with a mess of “No Trespassing” signs.
At the drive-in June 28, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Road trips, Theaters, Vehicles.add a comment
Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch makes an enjoyable trip up Route 66 to the Skyview Drive-In in Litchfield, Ill., to see the the Steve McQueen classic film, “Bullitt.”
Apparently Williams owns a 1966 Plymouth Fury. Good for him.
Book review: “Things to Look Out for on Route 66 in St. Louis” June 28, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Highways, History.3 comments
It became apparent while reading Kip Welborn’s self-published book that it’s not just a guidebook about Route 66 in St. Louis. It’s also a love letter to his city.
It’s that enthusiasm about the Mother Road and his town that lifts “Things to Look Out for on Route 66 in St. Louis” (60 pages, spiral-bound soft cover, $10) above the dull prose of many history books or sloppiness of many self-published volumes. That proceeds from the book’s sales go to the Friends of the Mother Road nonprofit preservation group is a bonus.
And Welborn’s town needs such a guidebook. St. Louis boasts no fewer than six Route 66 alignments, making it one of the most confusing cities in which to trace that historic Road. Fortunately, Welborn’s book generously supplies turn-by-turn directions, plenty of hand-drawn and annotated maps, and black-and-white photographs of landmarks.
Not only does Welborn trace notable buildings, motels, businesses and restaurants, he points out vanished ones, too — including the site of Sportsman’s Park, the longtime home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and the art-deco masterpiece Coral Court Motel.
In the back of the book, Welborn provides appendixes of Route 66 alignments year-by year, lodging options on or near Route 66, and restaurants.
In fascinating but succinct detail, Welborn traces St. Louis’ history and its role as a critical hub in river, rail, air and highway transportation. The city not only hosts Route 66, but U.S. 61 (Blues Highway), U.S. 67 (Ozark Highway), U.S. 50 (Loneliest Highway) and U.S. 40 (National Road).
But unlike those other roads, U.S. 66 was decertified as a federal highway in 1985. According to a St. Louis Globe-Democrat story from that time that Welborn reprints, those U.S. 66 signs were swiped by souvenir hunters even then. (Some things never change.)
Welborn really knows his stuff. I lived in “The Lou” metro area for nearly eight years, and knew plenty about before then from many years of listening to KMOX radio. But Welborn’s book informed me of a few things which I was unaware (such Yacovelli’s restaurant, Schneithorst’s pub, and the real purpose of the century-old water towers). And if he isn’t sure about something, he knows where to find out.
Welborn also devotes separate stories to the Stanley Cour-Tel and Lin Air Motel, the historic Calvary and Bellfontaine cemeteries, Falstaff Brewery, KSHE rock ‘n’ roll radio station, and Route 66 enthusiast Jane Dippel. It’s these segments where Welborn’s knowledge and enthusiasm hit their stride. He writes about the now-gone Chouteau Bridge and Vandeventer Viaduct:
During the dismantling process, I visited the old Bridge and Viaduct on numerous occasions. It gave me the opportunity to see how strong it was constructed. It appears that the original pavement was framed in metal. Underneath the pavement was concrete supported by large Belgian blocks. These were set atop wood rafters, where were set atop more concrete. The supports for the Viaduct were rebar enforced concrete.
There is now a nice, sterile new bridge taking Chouteau Ave. across the railroad tracks. There was no replacement constructed for the Vandeventer Viaduct. The bridge gets you from hither to yon, and you won’t find the concerns and defects you found crossing the old Bridge, but, as in any case where the “old” is replaced by the “new”, you sense a loss of something old, something different, something special.
Highly recommended.
(A copy of “Things to Look Out for on Route 66 in St. Louis” can be mailed to you, postage paid, by sending a check of $12.25 to Friends of the Mother Road, 3947 Russell, St. Louis, MO 63110.)
Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum holds soft opening June 27, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motorcycles, Museums.1 comment so far
The Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum on old Route 66 in Warwick, Okla. (west of Chandler) held what amounted to a “soft opening” on Sunday afternoon. The museum opens officially on Monday.
Seaba Station was built by John and Alice Seaba as a DX gas station in 1924, two years before Route 66 was certified. Sonny and Sue Preston renovated much of the property during the 1990s and operated it as an antique shop for several years. They sold it to Jerry Ries and Gerald Tims in 2007, and the duo restored the front of the building to its original look. Tims owns Performance Cycle in Bethany, Okla.
One of the things that you first notice about the motorcycle museum is its well-crafted pine ceilings. These were built and installed by Ries himself.
I counted more than 60 motorcycles of all types on display. Not just bikes can be seen here, but plenty of memorabilia. That includes racing uniforms, magazines, posters, parts, tools, toys, signs and an Evel Kneivel pinball machine from 1975.
Ries said one of the rarest motorcycles in the museum is this 1913 Pope Board Tracker, with a replica section of wooden track it would have raced on during that era. Ries said the tracks were built at a 45-degree angle, sometimes 60, where Pope racers would go up to 100 mph “with no brakes.”
Less than an hour after it opened, Seaba Station was doing a brisk business in T-shirt and cap sales. It also offers Route 66 souvenirs, and will add more items to the gift shop soon.
Ries said he’d put in 12- to 15-hour days in the last few weeks getting museum ready. He and Tims plan to add antique gas pumps to the front of the building. Long-term plans include a restaurant in one of the side rooms.
Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum will be open seven days a week. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, then 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Admission is free, but donations are accepted.
Interesting data from the Clinton museum June 27, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Highways, Museums, Road trips.2 comments
The Daily Oklahoman today posted an article about a report from the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. The museum and curator Pat Smith provided fascinating data I’d never seen before:
- The museum greeted 33,000 visitors last year, a record.
- 35 percent of those visitors came from other countries, and nearly half of those from Europe.
- Visitors have come from every continent except Antarctica.
- Smith says visitors associate the American experience with Route 66 for five reasons: nostalgia, “Grapes of Wrath,” pop-culture icons, ultra-friendly people, and the highway being an open road that symbolizes small towns and freedom.
The report’s data didn’t surprise me much, but it’s good to see my suspicions confirmed.
Two observations: Although attendance is good at the museum, it averages to 100 people a day. It obviously can increase.
Second, Route 66 needs to figure out how to increase the proportion of Americans traveling the road. Strangely enough, the United States’ own citizens appear to have much less of an appreciation of Route 66 than foreigners.
And it’s not an easy sell. Route 66 zigs and zags from four-lane roads to primitive gravel paths. It goes from vibrant cities to ghost towns, from prospering businesses to deserted ruins. Old Route 66 can prove to be a jolting experience, but rewards the patient and open-minded. Take Chris and Beth Fenwick’s blog, who are still traveling the road now:
We can totally see why so many people are drawn to this road and want to return again and again. Its kind of werid and magical but you get on that old concrete and you settle back into yourseat and you just feel comfortable. Really laid back and comfortable.
Once you figure out how to sell that experience to Americans, you’ll elevate Route 66 from being a cottage industry.
The end … and the beginning June 27, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Highways, History.3 comments
Today, 25 years ago, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials officially decertified U.S. 66 as a federal highway. In essence, U.S. 66 ceased to exist.
Although few would have thought so at the time, decertification became a good thing for the Mother Road in the long run. It’s a counterintuitive thought, but I’ll explain.
Much of Route 66 already had been supplanted by the interstates well before 1985. Had U.S. 66 continued to exist to the present day, it would have been piggybacked onto I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-5, and the old alignments would have been mostly forgotten. This occurred with many other major U.S. highways as well.
Instead, the decertification of U.S. 66 gave the old highway a huge amount of mystique. Sure, Route 66 garnered plenty of publicity over the years with Bobby Troup’s oft-covered song, the celebrated novel and Oscar-winning film “The Grapes of Wrath,” and the acclaimed 1960s television drama.
But when its decertification was reported by TV stations, radio and newspapers across the globe, it made countless people think: “I wonder what’s left of Route 66?” And so thousands upon thousands of road trips were born.
Many trace the renaissance of Route 66 to the 1992 publication of Michael Wallis’ best-selling book, “Route 66: The Mother Road.” And it’s true that volume sparked a huge amount of new interest in the highway, and continues to this day.
But the seeds of Route 66′s revival had been planted years before. Arizona, Missouri and Illinois formed their own Route 66 associations during the late 1980s, and other states followed. People such as Jerry McClanahan and Jeff Meyer were exploring the old road during the 1980s. Susan Croce Kelly, Tom Teague and Tom Snyder’s books predated Wallis’. So something clearly was percolating.
As it continued to gain in myth and stature, the old road also received a boost from a new medium during the 1990s — the Internet. Swa Frantzen’s site was Route 66′s first to take root in cyberspace, and the members of the Route 66 e-group (now on Yahoo!) played a key role in a number of efforts, including lobbying Congress to pass the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. And the Mother Road continues to thrive on blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
And we haven’t even factored in the impact of Disney/Pixar’s 2006 movie, “Cars.”
With AASHTO’s act a quarter-century ago, many thought the memory of U.S. 66 would fade and be forgotten. In fact, the opposite has occurred. I remember what Route 66 historian Jim Ross said in a documentary:
“I keep waiting for this whole craze to hit a plateau, level off and reach a point where people are sick of hearing the phrase ‘Route 66.’ But it’s not happening. I now believe it’s not going to happen. I believe people today look at Route 66 or regard Route 66 as they would a national park or national monument. It’s become so ingrained in our lexicon. People (say) ‘Someday I want to go to Yellowstone’ or ‘Someday I want to do Disney World.” It’s like that with Route 66 now. I think it’s here to stay.”
While reading Kip Welborn’s new book “Things to Look Out for on Route 66 in St. Louis” (review is forthcoming), I noted that St. Louis also plays host to U.S. 61 (Blues Highway), U.S. 67 (Ozark Highway), U.S. 50 (Loneliest Road) and U.S. 40 (National Road). Yet none of these major and historic highways has the cachet of the decertified Route 66. Indeed, proponents of the Lincoln Highway, National Road and other historic roads look on Route 66 with a bit of envy.
Occasionally, someone suggests that Route 66 be recertified. But that idea invariably is shot down by the Route 66 associations and the program managers with the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. It’s mostly for practical reasons, namely because many historic buildings and structures would be endangered by the road having to meet modern standards. But, unofficially, a loss of that mystique also has to be considered a reason.
To be sure, Route 66 continues to face challenges. Historic buildings and bridges fall under continual threats of redevelopment, natural hazards, neglect and sheer old age. But it’s encouraging to see new Route 66 businesses, such as POPS in Arcadia, Okla., and Gay Parita near Halltown, Mo., provide new traditions and quirkiness to the old road. And it’s young business owners such as Dawn Welch at the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Okla., and Dan Rice of 66 to Cali on the Santa Monica Pier that provide me optimism that Route 66 will continue to enthrall travelers for years to come.
It’s an old road … but it’s always finding new kicks.
UPDATE: Chris Epting at AOL News filed a story that echoes a lot of what I said.