Jim Conkle’s 26-day van trip to lobby for the designation of the Mother Road-Mojave Trails National Monument finishes tonight with a show at the Santa Monica Pier, according to an article in the Victorville Daily Press.
The designation was proposed by a U.S. senator, but the legislation has been stuck in Congress for years.
Conkle and his crew spent much of Wednesday in Route 66’s high desert area of Southern California, including a visit to the Summit Inn restaurant.
According to the newspaper:
The Route 66 Corridor from Barstow to Needles is the largest stretch of Route 66 that has not been developed and Conkle is involved in efforts to save the land.
The team sought signatures on a petition to save the 103-mile stretch of Route 66. The petition was a van that The Wildlands Conservancy allowed to be specially wrapped to allow people to sign the van with permanent markers.
The van had hundreds of signatures from people at local stops and even tourists from all over the world in different languages. […]
In the coming months, Conkle said if the wrap from The Wildlands Conservancy is properly removed from the van it will get mounted on a wall to showcase all the signatures from California to Illinois.
One other alternative to legislation is President Obama simply could designate that area of the Mojave Desert as a national monument. Rumors of such a move have percolated for months.
The Save Route 66 group’s website is here. It also can be followed on Facebook.
(Image of the van at the Western View Steak House in Albuquerque via saveroute66.com)