The City of Joliet, Ill., found a unique way to kick off its Joliet Kicks on Route 66 tourism campaign. It has placed fiberglass replica gas pumps at various historical landmarks, complete with informational placards, reports the Joliet Herald News.
The story contains a photo of a Texaco gas pump in front of the Rialto Square Theatre.
The downtown gas pump locations include: a Mobil Oil pump outside of the Joliet Area Historical Museum at Cass and Ottawa streets; a Sinclair pump outside of the Will County Court House; and a Standard Oil pump at Chicago and Cass streets.
Other Route 66 features in Joliet include a Joliet Kicks on Route 66 lighted ice cream cone at the Rich and Creamy Ice Cream Stand next to Route 66 Park. The park has a 12-foot tall Joliet Kicks on Route 66 shield and a Shell nostalgia gas pump.
The Joliet Area Historical Museum includes a Route 66 Experience and Visitors Center with videos describing the history of the highway and an interactive guest book for those interested in seeing who else has come through town while traveling the old route.
The projects are part of a $150,000 Attraction Development Grant from the Illinois Bureau of Tourism.
The Joliet Kicks on Route 66 site contains a section about the gas pumps.
The gas-pumps-as-markers idea is unusual, but it’s certain more eye-grabbing than your typical tourism kiosk.
That interactive guest book sounds like a good idea. I sometimes wander through guest books to see who’s been there recently. It’s probably too expensive for most of the attractions along the route, but maybe some could swing it.
A very clever idea. And each pump is a replica of a different brand/era of pump, as well as being marked by the different petroleum brands.
The Joliet Area Historical Museum has done a great job embracing the Mother Road as a vistors’ greeting center, and though there’s not much in the museum proper that has to do with the road it’s still worth the price of admission just to see all the displays about Joliet. For a town that size, it’s an incredible museum with a rich amount of history and the community has put a lot of time and money into developing it. Even the gift shop is stellar; along with period photography of the town, they have one of the most diverse selection of Route 66 books and merchandise I’ve seen.
Hats off to Joliet and it’s embracing of Route 66. This is one town that loves its heritage. Everytime I go through it, there is something new.
Now, if we could just get Dairy Queen to turn their original store in Joliet into a company museum. I’d like to see it look like it did originally.
I’d also like to see Steak & Shake do the same with their original place in Bloomington, Illinois.