The Kansas Historic Route 66 Association has launched an online fundraising campaign to restore the Spring River Inn neon sign that once stood near the long-defunct restaurant in Riverton, Kansas.
The campaign was launched Thursday on GoFundMe.com, with a goal of $10,000. The sign is estimated to be about 60 years old.
More about the sign and what the association wants to accomplish:
Spring River Inn was once operated as the Joplin Country Club beginning in 1905. Accounts hold that it at first catered to wealthy patrons from Galena. The clubhouse and 60 acres were sold in 1932 and used for many years as the base for a boating club, Reopening in 1952, the restaurant and inn catered to main travelers of the Mother Road. The restaurant was known for its thirty-five-foot buffet table loaded with home-cooked food, cinnamon pull-apart rolls and squaw bread. In the mid-1990s the Inn and restaurant closed and a couple of years later the Inn burned to the ground. The restaurant has never reopened. […]
In 2013 the sign was taken to begin restoration but a conflict of ownership of the sign stalled the restoration. Recently the owner of the sign donated the sign back to the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association so the restoration can begin. funds are needed to restore the neon, replace the box, installation of the sign itself. and the electrical service to the neon.
Here’s a television advertisement for the Spring River Inn in 1993:
Renee Charles, a longtime officer for the association, said she’s looking for old photos of the neon sign lits at night to help get the color of the neon tubing right. You can contact the association with the information here.
Charles said the sign will be placed in the same spot at the entrance of the Spring River Inn or in a nearby area that’s convenient for travelers.
(Image of Spring River Inn sign courtesy of Liberty Images Photography)