Roamin’ Rich Dinkela this week launched a campaign to raise matching donation dollars for possible cost-share grants from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to help rehabilitate or stabilize the Painted Desert Trading Post in Arizona and the Gasconade River Bridge in Missouri, plus also offering money or elbow grease to preserve what’s left of John’s Modern Cabins in Missouri.
Dinkela wrote in his HookedonRoute66.com website:
Right now, I’m working hard on 3 worthy Route 66 projects. All of which need your help and support. The first way you can help me is to share this email. Forward it to your friends or copy this link and paste it in your favorite social groups! The second way to help is to read the article below about how your contribution can be matched by these important grants. In other words if you donate $100.00, the grant can match those funds with another $100.00. This is so important! If Route 66 has made an impact on your life, imagine what it will do for roadies, researchers, and tourists in the upcoming decades!
For the long-closed Painted Desert Trading Post in eastern Arizona, the Route 66 Co-op that recently acquired the property wants to use a cost-share grant to stabilize and strengthen the structure. Opened in 1942, the trading post was abandoned by the late 1950s and remains accessible only through gated federal land.
Donations to the Route 66 Co-op may be made through PayPal here.
The Gasconade River Bridge Guardians have set a goal of $10,000 to pay for a professional engineering study for the historic bridge near Hazelgreen, Missouri. The group hopes the study will give a better idea how much it will cost to rehabilitate the bridge and how it can be used in its current state. The state closed the nearly 90-year-old bridge in December 2014 after inspectors found serious deterioration.
Donations to the Guardians may be made through GoFundMe.com here.
As for John’s Modern Cabins near Arlington, Missouri, Dinkela wants to preserve the last log cabin on the site, as the others have collapsed since the property was abandoned in the 1970s. Dinkela wrote:
I met the owners of the property about 6 weeks ago. The meeting was prompted by a frantic phone call to me from a roadie. She stated the cabins were being burned. I immediately jumped in my truck and made the 2 hour trip to the cabins. There I confronted some men that happened to be cleaning up the area. They were the owners of the property. All of the cabins had fallen into such disrepair they were burning the debris to limit the possibility of someone getting injured on the property. One last cabin standing, we discussed the fate of it and the iconic neon sign.
We all agreed the last cabin should be saved and I was given the blessing to proceed with whatever means necessary to preserve the last cabin. This where you hands on type can join in. Many people have approached me about helping out directly with the physical side of preserving Route 66 landmarks. Here’s your chance. Join my group on FaceBook. We are planning a day of work to prop up and save the last structure. We will need tools, materials, lumber, carpentry skills, and endless enthusiasm for Route 66 to see this beauty saved! People wishing to donate to the cause can do so by contributing to my general fund. I will appropriate all funds to the John’s Modern Cabin project. If you want to show everyone your love for John’s Modern Cabins, be sure to order one of my awesome, T-shirts, depicting the scene at this Route 66 location!
John’s Modern Cabins originally opened as Bill and Bess’ Place in 1931. John Dausch bought the property in 1951 and changed the name. It closed after the death of Dausch’s wife in the late 1960s, and it was abandoned after his death in 1971.
(Screen-capture image of Painted Desert Trading Post via video; image of Gasconade River Bridge courtesy of Workin’ Bridges; image of John’s Modern Cabins in 2013 by Jim Grey via Flickr)