Josh Burton of the Amarillo Globe-News does a bang-up job telling the history of Glenrio, a Route 66 ghost town on the Texas-New Mexico border that recently was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Burton talked to Phil Thomason, who wrote the proposal to put Glenrio on the National Register; Allen Ehresman, whose dad ran the “First/Last Motel in Texas” business there; and Roxie Brownlee, who used to have a diner there. Also, photographer Michael Lemmons snapped a few modern-day images of Glenrio.
The article is highly recommended. Free registration may be required to read it.
Glenrio was reportedly where a number of scenes from “The Grapes of Wrath” were filmed. Also, according to an excellent article in Route 66 Magazine last year, Glenrio also was a big influence on the Pixar crew when it was doing research for the “Cars” movie.
I stop by Glenrio just about every time I’m through that region, just to listen to the wind blow and the dogs bark and imagine how the bustling the now-quiet town once was.