Many, many Route 66 enthusiasts know about the landmark Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Smithsonian Magazine once called the 1939 establishment “the last, best and friendliest of the old-time motels.”
But the Texas Old Route 66 Association recently went through the files of longtime Texas Route 66er Delbert Trew and found an intriguing old postcard.
Long story short, there apparently was another Blue Swallow Motel — also on Route 66, but about 200 miles east near Shamrock, Texas.
Here’s the postcard posted by the association:
The subsequent threads by researchers provide a lot — but by no means definitive — information:
- The back of the postcard stated the motel was in Shamrock
- The motel was west of town, four or five miles
- Blue Miller (of Never Quite Lost fame) found the earliest reference to it in 1949
- The postcard also mentions a motel by the same name in Childress, Texas
I also found a 1948 reference on Newspapers.com to a Blue Swallow Coffee Shop in Childress.
It makes one wonder whether those Blue Swallow Motels in Texas — and perhaps the one in Tucumcari — were part of a small, long-forgotten, mom-and-pop chain.
Perhaps some other researcher will uncover the answers.
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