As I’ve reported, I’m unable to attend the Route 66 Festival in Flagstaff, Ariz., because of time constraints. However, Swa Frantzen of the seminal Historic66.com site was taking notes at the Route 66 Summit on Thursday and e-mailed them, some of which I’ll pass along here:
— Renee Charles, one of the four women of 4 Women on the Route in Galena, Kan., was just elected president of the Kansas Route 66 Association.
— Response to the mail-in Route 66 survey has been high, with more than 1,000 submitted so far. Rutgers University, which is compiling the data, is reporting an unusually high number of fully filled surveys and additional comments. The surveys, inserted in the current issue of the Route 66 Pulse newspaper, will be collected until late October. Rutgers will release a report on its findings in spring 2010.
— The Santa Monica Pier will soon install an “End of Route 66” sign there. The pier also seen success in selling Route 66-related T-shirts and souvenirs, according to Jim Conkle.
— As reported here, the double arrows at the Twin Arrows site east of Flagstaff have been restored. A preservation work crew was set to work at the site today. The Hopi tribe is working with a historical architect to eventually restore the property. A proposed casino at the Twin Arrows exit shouldn’t be a problem — it’s on the other side of Interstate 40.
— The U.S. Postal Service is considering a Route 66 stamp, possibly for release by fall 2010.
— The grant cycle of the recently renewed Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program will be moved up from January to March. However, its Advisory Council has come to an end, and the program is looking for new ways to receive input from roadies.
— Progress remains slow in getting the Route 66 Alliance certified as a 501(c)3 nonprofit entity. Paperwork on that endeavor has been submitted; now the Alliance is awaiting the Internal Revenue Service’s approval. However, the Alliance learned this week it was accepted in its desire to be affiliated with the Tulsa Community Foundation, with the impending 501(c)3 as a subset of the main group. So the Alliance can now start raising money.
John Murphey of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program also e-mailed that Rick Freeland, one of the movers and shakers of the alliance, “is thinking big, not the ‘small-time thinking of five millions dollars here and there…’ He instead wants to use the Alliance to promote Route 66 as a ‘test-bed’ for alternative fuels: ‘We want to have natural gas stations all the way up and down Route 66; electrical charging stations up and down Route 66.’ “