The last surviving cabin at the long-closed Camp Joy tourist camp in Lebanon, Missouri, will be donated to the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society so it can be repaired and restored.
The donation by Lee Sing, owner of Sing Rental, initially was announced Saturday during the Route 66 Association of Missouri meeting in Lebanon. Camp Joy is believed to be Lebanon’s first tourist camp.
According to the website of the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 group:
Sing had just learned of the cabin’s role in Route 66 history when he was approached by Bruce Owen, a Route 66 Society board member, about its future. Sing agreed on the spot to give it to the Route 66 Society.
The cabin is 16 feet square, although Sing said it appears to have been 12 feet by 16 feet originally, with a 4-foot addition for a bathroom. Sing said he believes the cabin to be one of the original units at Camp Joy.
The cabin will not have to be moved from the site for several months, which gives the Route 66 Society time to find a permanent home for it.
Nebraska natives Charles and Lida Spears and their son and his wife, Emis and Lois Spears, founded Camp Joy as a campground in 1927 along a fledgling U.S. 66. The family eventually built cabins on the 4-acre site and added a Sinclair gas station. Among its most famous overnight guests were outlaws Bonnie & Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd and singer Tex Ritter.
Camp Joy changed its name to the Joy Motel. It closed in 1981. The cabins became long-term rentals, and all but one was demolished by 2010. Sing purchased the property and planned to demolish the remaining cabin until hearing of its historical significance.
More history about Camp Joy may be read here. The late Joy Spears Fishel, one of the family members who helped run Camp Joy, offered this story:
One time that was somewhat exciting was when a car came screeching into the driveway in a cloud of dust and a man got out and started banging on the office door. Daddy met him and asked what the problem was. The man said he had stayed there the night before and had left his billfold containing about $2,500.00 in the pillow case on the bed and hoped it had been found intact. Daddy took him out onto the court, met with one of the employees who said that he had found it and it was in the linen room until he could turn it over to Daddy. The man took the billfold, counted the contents, finding nothing missing, reached into his pocket and handed our employee 50 cents as a reward. The employee held it, looked at the man and his billfold containing $2,500.00, handed the 50 cents back to the man and said, “Mister, I think you must need this more than I do.”
(Image of the last remaining Camp Joy cabin by the Missouri Historical Society via Flickr; old image of the Spears family and Camp Joy via 66Postcards.com)
I don’t think this is mentioned in the EZ66 Guide For Travelers. I may have visited if it had been.
Glad to hear they are going to save that last little cabin!