The Texas Old Route 66 Association announced last week the Bug Ranch installation in Conway, Texas, will be moved near the Big Texan RV Ranch in Amarillo.
The association stated in a Facebook post:
So happy our Association worked with Mrs Crutchfield the Conway location owner and Bobby Lee of the Big Texan, Who stepped in to help save the bugs. Not only are they being saved but Bobby is so passionate about Route 66, a great new Roadside attraction to be built in stages is coming with it.
The Bug Ranch’s new home will be at 1415 Sunrise Drive (map here).
A new nonprofit, the Bug Ranch Association, will oversee Bug Ranch, also known as Slug Bug Ranch, into the foreseeable future.
The association acknowledged the new site near the Big Texan RV Ranch won’t be on Route 66, but “this new attraction will hopefully guide people to 66, even ones who aren’t necessarily traveling 66 and come across the bugs.”
The future of Bug Ranch was in limbo for months because of a dispute between Crutchfield and tenant Steve Clegg.
Bug Ranch, inspired by the internationally famous Cadillac Ranch 35 miles to the west in Amarillo, is a site where five vintage Volkswagen Beetles are planted nose-down into the Texas soil just off Route 66.
Tommy Crutchfield created Slug Bug Ranch in 2002. He died in 2009.
Big Texan RV Ranch sits about a mile west of the landmark Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant in Amarillo. In addition to RV spaces, it offers cabins, vintage Airstream trailers and Conestoga wagons for overnight stays.
(Image of Bug Ranch in Conway, Texas, by Martha T via Flickr)