It appears Webb City, Missouri, will build a Cardinal Route 66 Park on the city’s east side featuring donated mining equipment from nearby Joplin, according to the Joplin Globe.
The park won’t be named after the St. Louis Cardinals, but Cardinal Scale Co. in Webb City and a booster of the proposal.
The Cardinal Route 66 Park plan, also supported by the Joplin Museum Complex, will be presented tonight at the Joplin City Council meeting:
Museum Director Brad Belk will outline the proposal. It would entail providing an ore bucket, a mining drill, a mine hoist and some other machines for display in a new park to be developed by the Webb City Parks Department and Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Co.
According to drawings of the proposed park, the site would be dedicated to the founders of the scale company, the late Marion Perry and William H. Perry Jr. Signs would be erected to recognize Joplin’s contribution of the mining machinery, according to the proposal. The park would be located on the original path of Route 66, and another marker would be erected in recognition of the historic highway.
Plans for the park may be seen here (12-page PDF).
Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Co. was founded in 1950, according to the company’s website.
In the development of the nation’s highways, bridges and other structures, builder demand was at an all-time high for appropriate, new weighing systems. All concrete, stone and asphalt were batched and sold by weight; manufacture of the right weighing equipment called for someone with the right experience, resources and ability to respond. That individual was William H. Perry.
At the time, Perry was employed by the Webb Corporation, a Webb City manufacturer and distributor of heavy-duty industrial scales and mining machinery. He was authorized to start his own company for the production of the new, lighter capacity scales, which would then be marketed through Webb.
The new scale line proved to be so successful that Perry had to resign from Webb in 1956 and devote his full attention to his new and rapidly growing company. And so, Cardinal Scale was born.
The park near Cardinal Scale — right off Route 66 — has been in the works for five years.
The president of Cardinal Scale last year also pledged $25,000 to restore a historic gas station near Route 66 in downtown Webb City.
UPDATE: The Joplin City Council approved the project. Cardinal Route 66 Park should open by spring.
(Blueprint of Cardinal Route 66 Park in Webb City via Cardinal Scale)