The city of Lebanon, Missouri, on Saturday unveiled a new, Route 66-themed mural inside Boswell Park designed for a photo-op for people traveling the road.
It depicts a 1957 Chevrolet cruising into Lebanon on Route 66. A driveway was built right in front of the mural so people can park their own cars in front of it.
KY3 in Springfield, Missouri, reported some details about the mural before its unveiling:
The park sits right along Route 66’s original path through Lebanon from 1926 to 1957. The murals are just part of the city’s plan to make the park a tribute to the Mother Road. […]
The murals are 20 feet wide and made of tile. They were made by developer Paul Whitehill out of Joplin. Whitehill hopes to create 66 Route 66-themed murals along the Mother Road. […]
Lebanon’s second mural will be finished in another six to eight weeks. That one will show a fuel truck crossing over the Gasconade River bridge.
Money is being raised for a third mural that will be a tribute to the Nelson family, who owned and operated Nelson’s Dream Village and the Nelson Tavern along Route 66.
Whitehill of Whitehill Enterprises, you may remember, also helped build Route 66 tile murals in downtown Joplin and another in Galena, Kansas.
Boswell Park is undergoing a long-term transformation into a Route 66-decorated facility. It recently added a replica of a fountain that once stood at Nelson Dream Village in Lebanon along Route 66.
If you wish to give money to the third mural, which needs about another $19,000 for completion, you can write checks to the Lebanon Area Foundation with the memo “Route 66 Mural Project” and mailed to the Lebanon Area Foundation, P.O. Box 1042, Lebanon, MO 65536, or to the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society, P.O. Box 66, Lebanon, MO 65536.
(Image of Ramona Lehman of the Munger Moss Motel in front of the Route 66 mural in Boswell Park in Lebanon, Missouri, via Facebook)
I wish more towns would have a mural like the one in Pontiac where I can have my car be the focus of the picture.