Joel Baker, founder of the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois, will be the keynote speaker during the Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference at the historic Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Illinois.
The conference’s theme, naturally, will be “Giants of Route 66.” It will run from Oct. 31 through Nov. 3.
Baker is the nation’s leading authority of and advocate for the identification, preservation and restoration of the giant fiberglass statues, known as Muffler Men, produced in the 1960s by International Fiberglass Company in Venice, California. The Muffler Men nickname came from their common advertising use at automotive shops.
The American Giants Museum, which pays tribute to Muffler Men and their history, opened about a year ago along old Route 66 in downtown Atlanta.
Baker’s speech will be the morning of Nov. 1 at the theater in downtown Edwardsville.
The slate of speakers also includes:
- Casey Claypool, executive director of Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway;
- Cory Jobe, president & CEO of Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau;
- Susan Croce Kelly, author of “Cyrus Avery: Father of Route 66″;
- Judy DeMoisey and Mike Gassman, preservationists who saved the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle;
- Debyjo Ericksen and Ron Romero, staff and founder of the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66;
- Jim Hinckley, Route 66 author, historian, and tour guide;
- Bill Iseminger, career archaeologist at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site;
- Geoff Ladd, co-chairman of Route 66 Monarch Flyway;
- Benjamin Lowder, expert on Buckminster Fuller and the Fuller Domes at Edwardsville and Carbondale;
- Rhys Martin, president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association;
- Mark Pierce, author of “When the Stars Came Out: The Story of the Mississippi River Festival”;
- Cindy Reinhardt, Edwardsville historian, author, and tour guide;
- Joe Sonderman, St. Louis radio personality and Route 66 author and collector;
- Bill Thomas, chairman of the Router 66 Road Ahead Partnership;
- Dave Tucker, Illinois coal mining historian and founder of the Illinois Coal Museum at Gillespie.
Other activities will include a trolley tour of Edwardsville’s Route 66 and the historic cooperative
village of Leclaire on Oct. 31 and an outdoor tour of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in
Collinsville on Nov. 3, weather permitting.
On Nov. 3, Madison County Historical Society’s annual “Dining in History” event will be held at the Crystal Garden in Edwardsville, beginning with a social hour at 12:30 pm, followed by dinner and a Route 66 presentation by Route 66 historians Joe Sonderman and Cheryl Eichar Jett.
Weekend evening entertainment and two special exhibits will be announced later.
The conference is made possible by the City of Edwardsville and Great Rivers & Routes Tourism
Bureau. Additional presenters of past and present conferences include: Bloomington-Normal Area
Convention & Visitors Bureau, Heritage Corridor Destinations, Illinois Coal Museum at Gillespie,
Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66, Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, McLean County Museum
of History, Ryburn Place at Sprague’s Super Service and Visit Springfield Tourism Bureau.
Registration for the conference sessions, the Edwardsville-Leclaire trolley tour and the conference’s Dining in History event is open here.
For updates and other information, go to the conference’s website or its Instagram account.
(Image of Joel Baker and a large friend courtesy of the Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference)