Tucumcari’s newest repainting effort … and more October 24, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Events, Gas stations, Motels, Preservation, Railroad, Signs.add a comment
This past weekend, volunteers in Tucumcari, N.M., started their latest repainting effort on an abandoned gas station in town.
The station, shown above, will be the seventh gas station in Tucumcari that’s been repainted in a nostalgic color scheme on the Route 66 corridor. This station will be repainted to resemble a Magnolia station; area artist Doug Quarles will finish the trim and mural work on the station this week.
Richard Talley at the Motel Safari in Tucumcari also passed along these news items from Tucumcari:
— Timeless Treasures Antiques is being renamed Tucumcari Trading Post on Route 66. Owner Gary Cardwell is giving the former motel more of a Route 66 theme. He’s also going to renovate the old Coronado Court sign, including the neon tubing.
— This is a refurbished “Welcome to Tucumcari” metal sign was discovered recently behind some brush. It eventually will be landscaped and lighted at night. It is on New Mexico Highway 104 on the north side of town.
— The main neon sign at the Blue Swallow Motel is being repainted by new owners Kevin and Nancy Mueller back to its original color scheme of dark and light blue. A photo of the ongoing project can be seen here (Facebook link).
— The Tucumcari Train Depot will play host to the Union Pacific No. 844 steam engine when it rolls into town on Nov. 4. “We will have a New Mexico Centennial event on the 4th there, and you can purchase train ride tickets coming in from Dalhart, Texas, on the 4th and going to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, on the 5th!” Talley said.
(Photos courtesy of Richard Talley)
The man behind the bottles October 24, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, People.1 comment so far
Here’s a new video about Elmer Long, proprietor of the Bottle Tree Ranch on Route 66 in Oro Grande, Calif.
Elmer’s Facebook page is here.
The poop on Bill Freiday October 23, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, People.1 comment so far
Jim Hinckley pointed me to this recent obituary in the Kingman (Ariz.) Daily Miner of Burnell “Bill” Freiday, who died on Oct. 12 at age 95.
The obit convincingly shows that Freiday lived a colorful life, with vocations that included these:
[P]ig farmer, squab farmer, wood cutter, movie theater operator, tractor parts inspector, tractor test driver, shrimp boat deckhand, asbestos insulator, circus motorcycle performer, electrician and lineman, Florida National Guard, Army Air Corps, auto mechanic, airplane mechanic, commercial pilot, heavy equipment operator, service station owner and operator, first civilian Kingman airport manager (at its current location), manager of various small manufacturing plants, welder, and founder of Freiday Construction.
Freiday’s construction firm helped develop Interstate 40 and Route 66 in Arizona, Hinckley says. So his involvement with the Mother Road is a substantial one.
But the job Freiday probably will be best-known for is guano mining.
Yes, he helped gather bat poop. This rare video showed Freiday’s operation:
It must’ve been interesting to see the reaction at cocktail parties when Freiday answered the inevitable question: “So what do you do for a living?”
Still, riding that tramway over the Grand Canyon to inspect the cables and working inside its cliffs must have been the thrill (or terror) or a lifetime.
This unusual vocation got Freiday in Life magazine and on the “You Asked For It” and “To Tell the Truth” television programs.
Lights on at the Luna Cafe October 22, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Preservation, Restaurants, Route 66 Associations, Signs.3 comments
A vintage neon sign — plus architectural neon — of the historic Luna Cafe on Route 66 in Mitchell, Ill., were relighted Saturday night during a ceremony attended by about 200 people.
Jim Thole of the Route 66 Association of Missouri’s Neon Preservation Committee reported that the neon was turned on at 6:44 p.m. Saturday, with the temperature at a mild (and delightfully coincidental) 66 degrees. Thole said in a news release:
The seven-color neon sign, with an arrow in clear chaser bulbs also, had been dark for almost 20 years, until a cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program assisted owner Larry Wofford with the restoration of this internationally known sign.
But that’s not all! The crowd of onlookers was treated to a second relighting surprise as well. The famous “Man-in-the-Moon” and the Luna sign on the front of the building facade were also restored and relit, as well as the facade outline striping — creating a totally spectacular neon scene across the whole front of the property — a sparkling new piece of “eye candy” to behold. (This part was done without any program assistance.)
Here are close-up photos of the Luna Cafe’s main neon sign and its neon-festooned facade:
The ruby-red neon cherries on the main sign are the originals, Thole said. Many decades ago, the cherries reputedly were turned on when prostitutes on the restaurant’s second floor were “working.”
The Luna Cafe now holds a more sedate existence as a blue-collar bar.
Music and food were offered at the ceremony, along with this commemorative T-shirt:
The neon restoration project was led by a partnership with the Neon Heritage Preservation Committee of the Route 66 Association of Missouri, Route 66 Association of Illinois, and Friends of the Mother Road. Pictured below are officers from all three groups, with owner Larry Wofford in the middle:
UPDATE: Someone on another online forum has asked about buying the commemorative T-shirts. They are being sold only at Luna Cafe only in three colors: black, grey, and yellow.
UPDATE 10/27/2011: The Riverfront Times filed a story about the relighting and the Luna itself.
(Photos courtesy of Jim Thole)
Roller rink reopens in Sapulpa October 22, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Preservation, Signs.2 comments
When we last checked with the closed Starlite Skate Rink on old Route 66 near Sapulpa, Okla., about 18 months ago, it was being converted into a church.
Now the Sapulpa Daily Herald says the roller-skating facility is going back to its old ways. It’s been rechristened as the Route 66 Roller Dome, and its grand opening– or reopening — was Oct. 15.
The Herald reported:
The rink is re-modeled in and out, with colorful logos and day-glo colors. Even the rollerdome’s old wooden plank rink floor has been rejuvenated with a modern flair.
“The most frequent question I get is that everyone asks if the hardwood floor from the 1950s is still here. It is still here, it’s just underneath the skatecourt,” said proprietor J.W. Roberds.
Skate court flooring is a multi-color composite material, a bit more forgiving to skaters losing balance and falling than hardwood. [...]
The renovations are now complete and the new rink sports bright black-light responsive carpet on the walls, colored skatecourt flooring, rotating disco ball, special lighting, and a state of the art sound system.
There is also a concession stand, skate rental booth, disc jockey booth, arcade room, and remodeled bathrooms. Lockers are available for rent and there are about 100 free shoe cubbies also.
Owner J.W. Roberds said renovations took longer than normal because the facility had suffered water damage.
One area resident told Roberds that the rink opened in 1951.
The newspaper’s online report didn’t include photos. So I went to the rink this afternoon and took images and video of my own:
In February 2010, the then-closed skating rink reopened as a home for Sapulpa Life Church. Pastor Bart Kelly said in telephone interview today that Starlite was the church’s home for about a year. The congregation then moved into another location in downtown Sapulpa.
Roberds recently found Starlite by scouring the Internet, when JKJ Realty had it available for lease.
Route 66 Roller Dome also has a Facebook page.
Chandler Baseball Camp named to National Register of Historic Places October 21, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Preservation, Sports.add a comment
Chandler Baseball Camp in Chandler, Okla., renowned for decades for its baseball-only camps run by Bo and Tom Belcher, was listed to the National Register of Historic Places effective Oct. 12, according to an email today from the National Park Service.
The complex, at 2000 W. Park Road in Chandler less than a mile north of Route 66 west of town, held two-week camps amid a setting of bunkhouses, wooded areas, and baseball diamonds from 1958 to 1999. More than 18,000 boys from all 50 states and several countries attended the camps over the years.
Here’s a charming three-part video from the late 1980s by an Oklahoma City TV station about the camp:
Among the alums are Joe Simpson, who had a nine-year career in the major leagues and is a radio and television announcer for the Atlanta Braves; Sam Bradford, winner of the 2008 Heisman Trophy in college football and now a quarterback for the NFL’s St. Louis Rams; and Troy Aikman, a Hall-of-Fame quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.
In fact, Aikman’s signature still exists among the graffiti in one of the cabins, said Butch Schoenhals, CEO of Scientific Baseball LLC, who leases the property and hopes to reopen the camps someday. Schoenhals also possesses the camp report cards of Aikman and Bradford.
The Chandler Baseball Camp foundered with the deaths of Bo and Tom Belcher. It reopened for a few years from about 2004 to 2007, but closed again after an organizer died.
Schoenhals has a lease with an option to buy the 62-acre property. He said during a telephone interview Friday evening that he learned earlier in the day about the National Register designation.
“We put considerable effort into that,” he said. “It enhanced the value of the property. We’ve got a tremendous legacy with the Belcher family. It’s a story that needs to be told, and we’ve got a chance to do something special with it.” He said he received help from the Chandler City Council and other officials with the National Register designation.
Schoenhals said he knew fellow boys from his northwest Oklahoma hometown who attended the camps. “They came back better baseball players after those two weeks,” he said. Schoenhals never was able to attend one of those camps himself.
He said Chandler Baseball Camp was widely regarded as the finest such camp in the country. Not only did it produce better ballplayers, Schoenhals said, but it also produced future doctors, lawyers, and other professional people.
Many photos, including one home movie, from the camps can be found at the Facebook page of Chandler Baseball Camp Alumni.
First Pontiac race car will be displayed at Pontiac museum October 21, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Museums, Preservation, Vehicles.add a comment
The Pontiac-Oakland Museum & Resource Center, open only for a few months in Pontiac, Ill., soon will have the first-ever Pontiac race car on display at the museum.
According to a news release today from Pontiac Tourism:
The car is the earliest known Pontiac race car, successfully competing for the first time in August 1926, Pontiac’s introduction year. This one-of-a-kind Pontiac will be delivered to the museum by the owners, Arnold & Lois Landvoigt, of Savage, Maryland on Monday, October 24, 2011, at 1:30 p.m. Anyone wishing to see and hear the car run should come to the museum at that time. The Landvoigts are leaving the car to be displayed at the museum for nearly a year.
On August 14, 1926, at the Sherrill Hill Climb, Sherrill, New York the Pontiac hill climb racer first saw competition. It finished first in class, the earliest known competition in an organized event by any Pontiac. The Landvoigts have done extensive research documenting the history of the car, followed by a complete and detailed restoration. In 2010, the car received its Grand National Senior Award from the Antique Automobile Association of America. The restoration attempted to conserve the somewhat rough fit and finish as the car was raced, based upon original photographs and “as found” condition. A conscious effort was made not to refinish the machine to a level at which it never existed.
Museum Director Tim Dye said: “This is exactly the caliper of car we strive to have on display here at the museum. It is a unique and rare glimpse into Pontiac’s early history, enhancing the experience visitors have at the museum. I want to thank the Landvoigts for their generosity in giving up the car so it can be on display here.”
Apparently the car still runs. I’m wondering whether the owners will let a briefly get his or her kicks by driving it on Route 66 in town before it goes on display for the next 12 months or so.
(Photos courtesy of Pontiac Tourism)