Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean reopens for the first time in a year

The Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean, Texas, is back open to the public after being closed for a solid year because of COVID-19.

That museum’s reopening is another signal that the U.S. is slowly emerging from the pandemic. Vaccinations have reduced caseloads and hospitalizations in many states.

KAMR-TV in nearby Amarillo reported:

“We had just officially opened in March and I think we only went two weeks whenever they started shutting everything down because of COVID. We were actually closed for an entire year,” said Leigh Anne Isbell, Devil’s Rope Museum Curator.
The museum, which contains a barbed wire section of course and a Route 66 section had never closed down in its 30-year history, which Isbell said made the decision to close difficult but necessary.
“We love being open but when it came down to the health of the employees and the visitors, that was our biggest concern. Our employees, they’re all older so they all fit into that bracket of people that were going to get hit with it. So we just decided to shut down and see what happens,” said Isbell.

The museum is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Other Route 66 places are throwing open their doors, too:

• The iconic Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant in downtown Chicago reopened for the first time since October because of the pandemic.
• The Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, California, is reopening today.
• The Litchfield Museum and Route 66 Welcome Center in Litchfield, Illinois, returned to normal hours.

(Image of the Devil’s Rope Museum in McLean, Texas, by Barbara Brannon via Flickr)