Notes from the road July 15, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Books, Events, Gas stations, Ghosts and Mysteries, Highways, History, People, Restaurants, Towns, Web sites.add a comment
The tombstone of May D. Knotts.
A few weeks ago, while geocaching near Route 66 in Riverton, Kan., we found out about the strange story of May D. Knotts.
According to a geocaching site, May D. Knotts was said to have been hanged from an old oak tree in 1904 after it was discovered that she was a witch. Knotts, who was 13 or 14 years old, is buried in Quaker Valley Cemetery on the northwest edge of Riverton, less than a mile from Route 66.
It’s a fascinating story about Knotts. However, it’s not true.
I contacted the Cherokee County Genealogical-Historical Society in Columbus, Kan. A spokeswoman there, after finding a death notice in the Galena (Kan.) Republic newspaper from 1904, assured me that Knotts didn’t die from hanging, but from pneumonia. The article said the ailing Knotts had lingered for days before succumbing.
So the story that May D. Knotts was a witch turned out to be nothing more than an urban legend.
I’d suspected the hanged-witch story was a tall tale. It’s doubtful the locals would have been that superstitious about a young teen during the 20th century. Also, it was difficult to fathom a court ordering the death penalty to a girl for a dubious charge such as witchcraft, barring some sort of lynching.
I asked the spokeswoman about the origins of such an unlikely story. She surmised that the poem on the tombstone — which was common at that time — sparked the overactive imaginations of locals years later.
The poem reads:
Remember friends as you pass by
as you are now so once was I.
As I am now so you will be
prepare for death and follow me.
It’s certainly cryptic enough to inspire ghost stories around a campfire.
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FREEBIE: Lonely Planet’s Facebook page is giving away free itineraries, including Route 66, in advance of its upcoming “USA’s Best Trips: 99 Themed Itineraries Across America” book. The book won’t be out until September, but you can download a Route 66 itinerary here (warning: 2.9 MG Acrobat file).
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NEW EATERY: Roadies have been praising a new restaurant in Shamrock, Texas, called Big Vern’s Steakhouse. It’s only about a block east of the famous U-Drop Inn landmark.
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CRUISIN’: The New Mexico Route 66 Motor Tour is slated for July 23-25. It starts in Tucumcari, and finishes in Gallup. The registration form is here. At least 150 cars are expected.
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INSOURCING: CNN-Money reports that instead of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries, corporations are looking to smaller towns in America such as Joplin, Mo. Big businesses are attracted by smaller towns’ lower cost of living and their greater need for jobs. I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to figure that out.
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SECOND HELPING: The Vermillion Players of Pontiac, Ill., are planning an abridged and encore performance of the musical “Route 66,” which was produced last summer, at 8 p.m. Sunday at the pavilion in Chautauqua Park, reports the Pontiac Daily Leader.
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ROAD CONSTRUCTION: A long-awaited widening of Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., begins this week, reports the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. It includes widening the road to six lanes and replacing an 81-year-old overpass. The project includes an art deco arch with a Route 66 logo east of Grove Avenue, with an identical one on the east side of town. Construction is expected to be finished in December 2011.
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NEARLY DONE: KSN-KODE-TV in Joplin reports that the Webb City Information Center along Route 66 in downtown Webb City, Mo., is nearly finished. The city is renovating an abandoned gas station. The center should be open by August.
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MYSTERY OBJECT: Finally, caretaker Blaine Davis at the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla., found this metal object planted in the ground near its Roadside Attraction sign. It doesn’t appear to be mass-produced, and roadies surmise that it’s some sort of geocaching marker. Does anyone have a better idea what it might be or its origins?
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For noble reasons or narcissism? July 14, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in People, Publications, Road trips.6 comments
Scott Shakford, editor of the Desert Dispatch newspaper in Barstow, Calif., wrote an interesting editorial today about folks coming through town on cross-country Route 66 stunts and the newspaper’s coverage of them (or lack thereof):
We do interview some of them, if we think Barstow residents will find their stories interesting. [...] In our efforts, though, to focus on stories directly connected to the Barstow community, our reporters are sometimes too engaged in local coverage to interview these passers-through. Some of them have gotten upset at us for declining to publicize their trip, which makes us question the real reason for the stunt.
Many of these travelers have connected their stunt to some charitable cause or other. [...] There are others though, who are taking this trek to “raise awareness” about some issue or other. These are the ones who give us pause, because they appear to be as much interested in self-promotion as education. They aren’t actually doing anything besides their trip. These are the ones who get the most upset when we don’t report on their visit.
Shakford later tells of someone who was walking Route 66 for cancer awareness. The individual, however, wasn’t raising money for any particular group, nor did he contact anyone at the newspaper before arriving. He stormed out when informed there would be no coverage. Ironically, he was passing through near the time of Barstow”s Relay for Life cancer fundraiser — a prime opportunity to get involved locally. However, that person apparently didn’t know about it.
As the grand poohbah of Route 66 News, I can relate to Shakford’s dilemma. I’m betting at least two dozen people drive, walk, run, cycle or whatever on Route 66 during any given year. It’s a bit wearying to learn of yet another well-meaning but naive person who claims to be “the first” in tackling some sort of Route 66 feat. The Mother Road is more than 80 years old; chances are high the stunt’s been done before.
With more than two decades in the media, I can provide advice for those wanting to tackle a Route 66 feat:
First, make sure your feat is unique. This spring, we had a fellow from France who was walking Route 66 on stilts. That struck me as truly novel. He must not have been concerned in media coverage, which is OK if he did it for fun. But that leads me to my second point …
In a high-tech era, there’s no reason a Route 66 stunt can’t scare up its own publicity. Newspapers and TV stations are dealing with declining audiences and slashed budgets, so you can’t count on them. But with blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the exceptional capabilities of smartphones and laptops, people on Route 66 can truly reach a worldwide audience. And in the chance a newspaper or TV reporter wants to reach you, make sure you have a readily accessible e-mail account or cellphone number.
Print, radio and television ruled the mass-media roost just a few decades ago. Now, many other avenues can reach an audience. If you aren’t getting a newspaper or station’s attention, there’s no sense in whining about it when you’ve got so many other alternatives.
CNG classic car rumbles to Capitol Hill July 14, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Road trips, Vehicles.add a comment
The Alabama duo who drove Route 66 in a compressed natural gas-powered 1966 Pontiac GTO extended the journey to the nation’s capital today, according to the Birmingham (Ala.) News.
U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., got the treat of driving the car briefly to the U.S. Capitol.
The Detroit classic rumbled up Independence Avenue and rolled across the House side of the plaza at the foot of the Capitol steps, which made for a great photo opportunity, but there was also a purpose. [...]
The car emits 80 percent less carbon monoxide than it’s gasoline-powered counterparts, and it’s fuel is all-American, [Mark] McConville said.
“It’s about the cleanest muscle car out there,” he said.
According to the report, the car attracted quite a few gawkers, including a Capitol Police officer who exclaimed, “That is awesome!”
UPDATE: In a news release from Bachus’ office:
“Mark McConville and Keith Barfield left a lasting impression all along Route 66 with their car and their message about alternative fuels. It’s fascinating to see how an old ‘muscle car’ can be converted into a clean-burning, low emissions vehicle. This shows that we can solve our energy challenges using American technology and ingenuity. It brought great publicity to Alabama here at the Capitol and the only other thing we needed driving it around was an eight-track tape of Little GTO,” said Congressman Bachus. [...]
“We wanted to bring awareness about natural gas as a fuel and show there needs to be more refueling infrastructure in our country. Natural gas works as a fuel and the fact that we did it with an old car shows it’s relatively easy to convert,” McConville said.
Here’s a video from the day:
UPDATE2: The Associated Press on Thursday mentioned McConville and his Route 66 trip in a story Thursday about the Obama administrtion’s push for the use of alternative energy in cars.
Making tracks July 14, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Animals, Attractions, Highways, History.add a comment
Dave Bakke of the Springfield State Journal-Register takes a closer look at the set of turkey tracks that were left on a section of original Route 66 near Nilwood, Ill., between 1926 and 1930.
Those turkey tracks wouldn’t be the attraction they are if not for Bob Donaldson. Bob moved into his house right on Old 66 south of Nilwood in, appropriately enough, 1966. He was an avid bicyclist in those days. He took his children on family bike rides down that original stretch of 66. He pointed out the turkey tracks to his kids and made it a big story.
“He found them way back when our kids were little, and now they’re in their 40s,” says Bob’s wife, Ruth Ann. “He told the story kind of wild because it was just for our kids. At first, he told them the tracks were made in 1826, but they didn’t know the difference.”
“I had a ‘once upon a time’ deal going,” Bob says. Bob told his kids that the turkey was crossing the road and when it came back, that made it a “double crosser.” His kids thought that was just too funny.
Car clubs and tour guides have used the tracks as a quirky point of interest for years. A sign has been erected to show the spot where the bird danced merrily on that wet cement more than 80 years ago.
More about the tracks:
I took Bob to the turkey tracks for a picture and on the way he mentioned that there are 34 separate tracks there. He counted them. [...]
In the 1920s, there were virtually no wild turkeys in Illinois, so the tracks almost certainly had to be made by a domestic turkey that lived on a nearby farm.
Found: the Texola monument July 13, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Gas stations, History, Preservation, Signs.5 comments
A few days ago, Corkey Mayberry of Park Hills, Mo., wondered what happened to a Texas-shaped monument that greeted Route 66 travelers in the border town of Texola, Okla.
Mayberry and his wife had their picture taken at the monument in 1955. On a Route 66 trip a few weeks ago, Mayberry tried to find the monument again in Texola, to no avail.
The folks at the Texas Old Route 66 Association didn’t know what happened to the monument. So, like the art deco monument that also once stood at Texola, its fate looked to stay shrouded in mystery.
However, an e-mail to the Texas Department of Transportation bore fruit. Barbara Seal, the agency’s public information officer, wrote today:
This monument is prominently displayed at the newly restored U-Drop Inn in the City of Shamrock on a portion of Old Route 66. It is located on the west side of the building; in fact, I drove through Shamrock yesterday and saw it there.
Sure enough, you can see the monument in the lower left of this photo, between the antique gas pumps. The original stone base is gone, but the Texas-shaped stone remains intact.
Because the U-Drop Inn is so striking and photogenic, folks tend to overlook the Lone Star stone nearby. Seal offered no explanation of when or why it was moved.
So Mr. Mayberry can still visit the monument on Route 66, albeit 15 miles to the west.
UPDATE: An important update to the story can be found here.
Book about ghosts along Missouri Route 66 will be published July 13, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Ghosts and Mysteries, History.1 comment so far
Janice Tremeear of Springfield, Mo., is writing a book titled “Route 66 Hauntings in Missouri: The Show-Me State Ghosts of the Mother Road,” which concentrates on ghost sightings and other mysteries along or near Route 66, according to a story in the Springfield News-Leader.
Tremeear’s book will list Springfield as the birthplace of Route 66 and will include several of Springfield’s haunted locations, she said, including Pythian Castle and Landers Theatre.
Ghost stories taking place in Landers Theatre include a mother who dropped her baby, Tremeear said.
“People have seen the baby repeating its fall,” she said. “They’ve also heard the baby crying.” [...]
There are also locations in Rolla, Lebanon, Joplin and St. Louis. Sites in St. Louis include Lemp Mansion, Zombie Road, and Union Station, she said.
Tremeear expects the book to be out by October by History Press. That’s good timing … right before Halloween.
Tremeear also is a member of the Route 66 Paranormal Alliance, so she’ll be gleaning a lot of research material from one of her hobbies.
Route 66 nearly 60 years ago July 12, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Movies, Road trips.8 comments
Route 66 enthusiast and author Joe Sonderman said he recently acquired a DVD from an Albuquerque man of home-movie footage during a Route 66 trip in 1953 from Chicago to Los Angeles.
As Sonderman said on his Facebook account about the footage: “The Youtube quality doesn’t do it justice and it could stand some editing. But it is still freakin sweet.”
I agree.
I saw glimpses of the Abraham Lincoln home in Springfield; Will Rogers Memorial; the Oklahoma towns of Yukon and El Reno; the steep descent to the South Canadian River valley in Oklahoma; the Pony Bridge near Bridgeport, Okla.; Boulder Dam in Nevada; the lights of the Las Vegas Strip; and Cajon Pass near Los Angeles.
If you see other sites that I missed, please add your piece in the comments section.
A glimpse of the past July 12, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Restaurants, Television.add a comment
Here’s a television commercial for the Spring River Inn, off old Route 66 in Riverton, Kan.
The once-popular restaurant closed in 1996 and burned down in 1998. The only evidence of its existence is a now-decrepit neon sign near the former entrance.
An article to avoid July 12, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Road trips, Web sites.7 comments
Generally, I appreciate all of the Route 66-related articles that Helium.com has posted in recent weeks.
However, there is one exception: the “Places to avoid while traveling on Route 66″ by Eva Perry, which is loaded with inaccuracies or ill-conceived warnings.
I’ll summarize the problems that Perry sees on the Mother Road:
- A vaguely mentioned spot in Chicago near a quarry pit and Interstate 55 where the road “is not in great shape.”
- The Devil’s Elbow Bridge in Devil’s Elbow, Mo.
- Oatman, Ariz., because of its “wild mules.”
- Daggett, Calif., because of a section of Route 66 that “ends abruptly.”
- The Mojave Desert in California because the “road is not well-maintained.”
- “Glen Rio” (sic) in Texas, because it’s a ghost town.
- The “dirt road” Route 66 between Glenrio and San Jon, N.M.
- East St. Louis, Ill., because of its high crime rate.
I’ll tackle these in the order they’re listed:
- I’m not sure where this quarry is near I-55 in Chicago. An old section of Route 66 does lie in the suburb of McCook, Ill., that was damaged by alleged undermining by Vulcan Materials. But that’s been permanently closed to motorists for a decade. There’s no need to advise people to avoid it.
- The Devils Elbow Bridge indeed has deteriorated where its load restrictions prevent tour buses and large RVs from crossing it. However, the bridge remains open to those in passenger cars and motorcycles — the vast majority of Route 66 travelers.
- Those aren’t “wild mules” roaming the streets of Oatman. They’re semi-wild burros — descendants of the animals used in the town’s gold mines nearly a century ago. The burros can be pushy while begging for carrots (which Oatman businesses supply for a few bucks). But the burros generally stay docile and are hardly hazardous. About the worst thing that would likely happen is accidentally stepping in their, ahem, “road apples.”
- I’m not sure what section of road Perry is referring to in Daggett (again, she is very vague), except for maybe near a nearby military base. This dead end isn’t mentioned in the Route 66 turn-by-turn directions at Historic66.com. Even if this supposed dead end is unmarked (which I doubt), the small inconvenience of a turnaround is hardly a reason to bypass a town entirely.
- The road surface of Route 66 through the Mojave varies greatly in quality, but nowhere is it close to being worth avoiding. Even the most isolated stretches of the Mother Road remain nominally maintained because the road serves as a key link to Twentynine Palms, Amboy Crater, a Marines base, and other destinations.
- Avoiding Glenrio simply because it’s a ghost town was the item that made me shake my head the most. Most roadies would highly recommend seeing Glenrio because it shows what happened to many Route 66 towns when they were bypassed by the interstate. Glenrio once hosted more than a dozen roadside businesses and about 100 residents on a four-lane stretch of Route 66. Now, the eerily quiet Glenrio contains no businesses and maybe a half-dozen hardy souls. Here’s a testimony to the power of Glenrio’s story — John Lasseter cited it as a significant inspiration in the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars.”
- The “dirt” road between Glenrio and San Jon actually is a well-drained gravel surface. Sure, parts of the old road are pitted, and you seldom can drive over 35 mph on it. But its splendid desolation allows you a rare glimpse of how the Mother Road might have been in its earliest days, and provides a chance to see all sorts of wildlife. I rarely miss the chance to travel on this stretch.
- Of all of Perry’s misgivings, the advice to avoid East St. Louis might be the most prudent. East St. Louis indeed remains one of the highest-crime-rate areas on the Mother Road, and its street layout makes it easy to get lost. Even so, I lived near East St. Louis for eight years and traveled in it dozens of times. If you restrict your explorations to the daytime and stay aware of your surroundings, your time in East St. Louis should be uneventful.
Giving advice about Route 66 should be a public service. But, in this case, this Helium article turned into a public disservice.
Joplin museum may be moved into depot July 11, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Museums, Preservation, Railroad.add a comment
The Joplin Museum Complex in Joplin, Mo., may be moved into the historic Union Depot under a downtown development plan outlined by the city manager, according to the Joplin Globe.
According to the newspaper, museum officials are set to discuss the proposal involving the nearly 100-year-old structure on Tuesday. They said they would remain publicly noncommittal until they review the plan.
Current photos of the depot and artist’s conceptions of the reborn depot can be seen here.
The depot closed during the 1970s, and has deteriorated from neglect and vandalism.
The Globe reported:
Though the state is waiting for a formal plan from the city, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says officials are anxious to work with Joplin officials on efforts that would end with a restored depot in city hands.
If so, it would be the first successful revitalization effort after several failed attempts to revive a local landmark. [...]
The depot was the subject of several failed attempts to rehabilitate it for commercial use, including one that generated at least three lawsuits against the developer. At one point, it was sold for $1,400 in back taxes, then was “rescued” by state ownership.
The Joplin Museum Complex, which includes an extensive collection of Route 66 artifacts, had hoped to move into the city’s Memorial Hall. But a one-sixth-cent sales-tax referendum to facilitate the $7 million move was resoundingly rejected by voters in April. According to comments to the Globe’s website and letters to the editor, many residents wanted the museum in the depot instead.
I and others were skeptical whether the long-decrepit depot could be rehabilitated. But local architect Chad Greer recently toured the building and said it was “in remarkably better shape than one (could) imagine.”
“That’s not to say that work won’t be required, but we feel strongly the building can be saved without compromising its appearance.” he said. “When you think about rehabilitating, compared to what it would cost to build a building of this caliber today, it makes such sense to preserve it.”
Contractor David Glenn echoed Greer’s take on the building’s soundness.
“The roof and the stucco are 22 years old, but they are still in a good shape,” he said. “It’s hard to damage a solid-concrete building. It is almost all poured-in-place concrete — even these round balls and platforms are poured concrete. You won’t see anything like that on a building today.
“Every structural element is rebar-reinforced concrete. Structurally, it is very, very sound. As a contractor or developer, I would not hesitate about redoing that building.’’
But based on what I saw with the depot, I’m betting that rehabilitating the structure and moving the museum into it would require considerably more than the $7 million it would have cost to move the museum into Memorial Hall. And there’s no mention on the source of the money.
But if public sentiment for the depot is strong, maybe Joplin residents are willing to spend more on that project.
(Hat tip: Ron Hart)