Work crews last week removed the sign of the now-defunct Desert Sands Motel in Albuquerque, bringing a sad end to a property used in a scene of the Oscar-winning film “No Country for Old Men.”
The New Mexico Route 66 Association posted several photos Thursday on its Facebook page of the sign being taken down, including the one below.
Association president Melissa Lea Beasley wrote in a text Saturday: “A local collector purchased it, and it will resurface again. That’s all I am (allowed) to disclose at this time.”
The motel was demolished in December 2016 after three fires — one of them arson — led to the Route 66 property being deemed by the city as uninhabitable for overnight guests and long-term rentals.
An arson fire in May 2016 damaged two-thirds of the motel. A woman was charged with setting the blaze. Two other fires occurred after the motel closed.
In “No Country for Old Men,” Llewelyn Moss takes a suitcase of money from the a drug deal gone bad. He ends up in the Desert Sands, portrayed as being in El Paso, Texas. “No Country for Old Men” won Best Picture and three other Oscars during the 2008 Academy Awards.
According to online accounts, the Desert Sands was built in 1957, during the golden age of Route 66. But the motel declined into a ramshackle place — another victim of an oversupply of old motels along Central Avenue (aka Route 66).
(Image of the Desert Sands Motel sign in 2013 by Thomas Hawk via Flickr)