‘Yellow brick road’ marker added to old Route 66 at Kansas-Missouri border

Other than the nearby old State Line Bar, nothing vividly marked the line for Kansas and Missouri on old Route 66 for many years. Until now.

The City of Galena, Kansas, and the Joplin Special Road District on Tuesday completed a project on old Route 66 that unmistakably delineates that border. They placed bricks in a thin line at the border, painted them with reflective yellow paint and affixed Missouri Route 66 and Kansas Route 66 roadway shields on each side.

Renee Charles, a longtime Route 66 booster in Galena, posted these photos on Facebook during the construction work:

More from KSN-TV:

“If you go down 7th Street, the Missouri sign is there and the Kansas sign is there, but there’s no photo op here for people crossing the border on Route 66, so it’s very important for us to have this. Hope it’s a good photo op for travelers coming through Route 66 and it’s a good connection between the City of Joplin and Galena,” said Patrick Tuttle, Joplin Convention & Visitors Bureau

This, so to speak “Yellow Brick Road” runs right in front of Hogs and Hotrods State Line Saloon, which is owned by Lisa Kilby. She gets visitors from all over the world stopping in. She says the visual upgrade will be a big hit for those traveling the Mother Road.

“Customers actually go out there and I’ll take their camera and they will stand like this, you know, and take a picture right in the middle of The Yellow Brick Road so yeah, we get a lot of travelers from Route 66 and they love that,” said Kilby.

And here’s the video from the station’s report:

Here’s another video:

This is part, which is called Old Route 66 Boulevard, of the older and original alignment of Route 66. A newer alignment of Route 66 between Joplin and Galena was built in the late 1970s.

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