David “Windy City Road Warrior” Clark will give a presentation about infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone and his links to Route 66 as part of The Mill Museum’s 90th-anniversary celebration Saturday.
Clark will give his “Al Capone and the Route 66 Connection” presentation from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday as part of the re-dedication of The David G. Clark Library at the museum in Lincoln, Illinois, along with a question-and-answer session. Clark also will sign copies of his books after the event. The suggested donation for the event is $6.60.
Clark long has been a diligent researcher of Route 66 in Chicago. Quite a few Route 66 sites in Illinois have claimed Capone stopped there; it will be interesting to see whether Clark concurs with those claims or dismiss them as apocryphal.
The Mill Museum also recently acquired a collection of rare documents from the now-gone Pig Hip Restaurant in Broadwell, Illinois, a recently uncovered sketch of The Mill by late Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire, and materials from Lincoln native and astronaut Scott Altman.
Clark, Geoff Ladd of The Mill Museum and Sherry Meyer of InSites To Go, a tour agency, will lead a caravaned tour of Route 66 in Lincoln from 4 to 5 p.m., including lesser-known sites along the Mother Road. The suggested donation for the tour is $6.60.
The finale is at 5:15 p.m. with dinner at the historic Sorrento’s Pizzeria in downtown Lincoln. The restaurant, which is celebrating its 50th year, is offering an Al Capone’s Smokin’ Cannoli Special of a medium two-topping pizza, 4 Capone’s Cigars (pretzel stix), and two cannoli for $26 that includes a donation for The Mill.
The Mill, which featured a Dutch-inspired design and a turning windmill, opened as a restaurant on U.S. 66 in 1929. The Mill is a member of the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame. It closed in 1994, declined and was slated for demolition until Ladd stepped in and helped reopen it in 2017 after years of fundraising and volunteer labor.
The Mill Museum needs donations to cover basic expenses such as insurance and utilities. The facility is owned and operated by the nonprofit Route 66 Heritage Foundation of Logan County. All donations are tax-deductible.
The Mill sits at 738 S. Washington (old Route 66) in Lincoln, Illinois. For more information, call 217-671-3790 or visit The Mill on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheMillMuseumRoute66.
(Images of David Clark and The Mill Museum T-shirt courtesy of Geoff Ladd.)