The ruins of two Route 66 landmarks — the Painted Desert Trading Post in Arizona and John’s Modern Cabins in Missouri — received a bit of a new lease on life when volunteers helped stabilize the long-abandoned structures.
Several members of the Route 66 Co-op, which purchased the Painted Desert Trading Post a few weeks ago, recently went to the site to shore up the ruins.
Volunteers affixed boards to the interior walls to stabilize the structure and keep cattle from roaming inside.
The long-term goal of the Route 66 Co-op is the stabilize the Painted Desert Trading Post indefinitely and create easier access to the site — which is surrounded by private property — for tourists.
Here’s a video Facebook Live video from the site from Roamin’ Rich Dinkela:
More about the trading post and fundraising activities for it may be found at the Route 66 Painted Desert Trading Post page on Facebook.
Dotch Windsor and his first wife, Alberta, opened the Painted Desert Trading Post along Route 66 during the early 1940s. It was a remote outpost with no electricity or telephone service. It closed in the late 1950s after the being bypassed.
About 12 volunteers descended on the ruins of John’s Modern Cabins near Newburg, Missouri, to shore up the lone remaining guest cabin.
The cabin received new interior studs on one side that stabilized the structure. They also sprayed a chemical on the exterior log walls to stave off the destructive effects of insects and sunlight.
Dinkela also trimmed tree branches that had encroached for years on the John’s Modern Cabins neon sign.
One of Dinkela’s live videos Wednesday on Facebook provided a good summation of the day’s activities:
More work days at John’s Modern Cabins will be planned. More about the work day and other activities concerning John’s may be found at the John’s Modern Cabins Must be Saved! group on Facebook.
John’s Modern Cabins originally opened as Bill and Bess’ Place in 1931. John Dausch bought the property in 1951 and changed the name. It closed after the death of Dausch’s wife in the late 1960s, and it was abandoned after his death in 1971.
(Screen-capture image from video by Rich Dinkela at Painted Desert Trading Post in eastern Arizona; screen-capture image from videos by Dinkela and Jax Welborn during the work day at John’s Modern Cabins near Newburg, Missouri)
Please produce more t shirts Im sure they will sell, I wanted 4 but the fund raiser is over
Liz and I drove by John’s Modern Cabins on our way from the Munger-Moss to the Illinois Route 66 Motor Tour on Friday.
Looking a whole lot better. Great job to all the workers. Just clearing off all the vegetation (and I heard poison ivy) makes the place look a lot better.