Welcome to the Route 66 Association of Missouri Blog

Welcome to our blog for news of what is going on in our association and all over Route 66. Opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual posters and may not represent the views of the Route 66 Association of Missouri. Please also visit our web site!

2012 NPS Route 66 Cost-Share Grant season is now open!

From Kaisa Barthuli, Program Manager Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program:

“The National Park Service, Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program is now receiving applications for the 2012 Cost-Share Grant season. Applications may be submitted to the program office now through Friday, April 6, 2012.

Additional information and application materials can be found at:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/rt66/grnts/index.htm

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact the program office to
discuss eligibility requirements and project ideas prior to submitting an
application.

Thank you for your support in spreading the word about this grant
opportunity, and helping to preserve the legacy of historic Route 66. We
look forward to seeing more excellent projects get underway this year!”

The Society for Commercial Archeology announces its request for nominations for the 2012 Falling by the Wayside list of the 10 Most Endangered Roadside Places

Guidelines for Nomination

Roadside places eligible for inclusion will be those that fall within the scope of SCA’s stated mission: architectural elements and cultural landscapes related to roadways, highways and road culture, including diners, drive-ins, coffee houses, gas stations, motels, hotels, tourist cabins, motor courts, retail centers, theaters, signage, roadside curiosities and folk environments.

A date range is not pre-established; however a nominated place must clearly express historical and community significance.

It must be demonstrated that the roadside place is threatened or in a trend of deterioration that impacts its future.

We welcome nominations from SCA members and the general public. We request, however, that nominators limit their nominations to no more than three candidates.

To nominate a place to the list, please contact SCA’s Falling by the Wayside committee for a nomination form: sca.endangered@gmail.com. The form must be completed and returned by May 15, 2012.

Kansas Historic Route 66 Byway receives state designation

The Kansas portion of the original Route 66, located in Cherokee County, has been designated as a Kansas Historic Byway. With this addition, Route 66 becomes the eleventh Kansas byway to receive official designation from the Kansas Department of Transportation.

“The designation of Kansas Historic Route 66 will emphasize the important significance of the route in this area for visitors and local residents, encouraging them to drive the route and explore the communities along it,” said Scott Shields, Kansas State Byways Coordinator.

An historic byway must have resources that are historically significant, be numerous, visible and have a setting or character that is complementary to the resources. “We are excited to add Historic Route 66 to the Kansas Byway collection. The route designation provides travelers a chance to view the relationship between the history of the original highway and the landscape and structures that define the area, in a combined effort to promote tourism and economic development, while exploring the natural and cultural importance of the byway communities,” Shields said.

The 13.2 miles of Kansas Historic Route 66 includes paved state, city and county roads, beginning at the Kansas-Missouri state line and following the original Route 66 route through Galena, Riverton and Baxter Springs to the Kansas-Oklahoma state line.

The byway offers opportunities for visitors to enjoy a variety of experiences to “get their own kicks” while driving the original Kansas portion of Route 66, found in the “Ozark Plateau” or Southeast corner of the state. There are museums, collections, murals and ghost writing that tell the local history of life along the route. A traveler can drive over many of the original structures of “The Mother Road,” including the only remaining Marsh Arch Bridge on Route 66, or explore the mining and railroad history of the area. Visitors can have a picture taken with the tow truck that was the inspiration for the character “Mater” from the “Cars” movie or discover Schimerhorn Park and the Southeast Kansas Nature Center south of Galena. They can learn of the importance of hydroelectricity in Riverton or enjoy a stop at the Eisler Brother’s Store, the location of a 1920′s Route 66 gas station. The stories of Baxter Springs include Native American history, early battles of the Civil War, a frontier cattle town and baseball. There are tours offered throughout the year and many dining and lodging facilities available for travelers as well as locations that offer Route 66 memorabilia for sale.

The state designation will result in the placement of Kansas Byway route markers along the byway, the creation of a promotional brochure and inclusion on the Kansas Scenic Byway Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/KSByways. The byway will have a page on the www.ksbyways.org website, a place on the National Scenic Byways website, www.byways.org and the byway will be eligible to apply for National Scenic Byway grants to enhance the route for visitors. With this state designation, Kansas Historic Route 66 will join several other states who’s portion of Route 66 carries the designation of an All American Road, a National Scenic Byway or a state byway including Arizona, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Renee Charles of Galena and Marla Larison of Baxter Springs are Co-Chairs of the Kansas Historic Route 66 Byway Planning Committee. They submitted the byway application and developed the Corridor Management Plan along with numerous others from the area that are also members of the planning committee.

The Kansas Byways program identifies scenic and historic routes in the state and preserves, enhances and promotes the routes through a cooperative grassroots partnership. For additional information, contact Shields at (785) 296-4149, scottsh@ksdot.org or Sue Stringer, Kansas Byways Public Involvement Liaison at (785) 296-8669 or stringer@ksdot.org.

Race to the Rocker, March 31, 2012 in Cuba, MO

Race to the Rocker, March 31, 2012 in Cuba, MO

Need Letters to Stop Avilla, MO Post Office Closure

A request from Tonya Pike:

“Before I even begin this, I apologize for the extreme length of this post. But after you read this, I think you will understand why it is so long. A Route 66 business and community has come forward asking for our help.

As many of you are aware, the United States Postal Service is in financial trouble. They are presently targeting postal facilities all over the USA for closure.

A couple of weeks ago, a meeting was held at Avilla, Missouri to discuss the closing of their post office. For any one who has traveled Route 66, the post office at Avilla is one of the most visible on Route 66 in Missouri. It is in a red brick building, highly visible and roughly a half-block north/east of 66, just west of Bernie’s Bar & Café at Avilla, which fronts out on Route 66, aka Hwy 96, in Avilla. The building itself is was originally a bank, built in 1915. It was leased to the USPS in 1952 and has served as the Avilla Post Office ever since.

The owner of the post office building, Nancy Young, has asked for assistance from the Route 66 roadies and the Route 66 Association of Missouri to stop the closure of the Avilla Post Office. Hence, my father and I journeyed to Avilla to sit in on this particular post office closing meeting. The meeting was held at a church in Avilla and was attended by over half of the Avilla’s population of 125.

The first half of the meeting was presided over by a representative of the USPS, whose name I unfortunately did not get. It was basically a question and answer period. Numerous objections were raised. The main ones included:

1) Home delivery precludes assistance with many post office services,
particularly if you are unable or unwilling to do USPS business online.

2) Due to a lack of other businesses in Avilla, it is very unlikely that a “village post office” can be set up in another business in Avilla, meaning anyone who has to go in to a post office to conduct business will have to travel to Reeds or Carthage, Missouri to do so. Not everyone present at the meeting felt that they could travel to one of those places during the hours the post offices in those locations were open to conduct their postal business. It was also pointed out that only a very small number of the services currently performed at a regular post office can be done at a “village post office” even if one could be set up.

3) If the post office is closed, the people of Avilla will have to sit home all day and wait on their postman in order to complete most postal services from home, such as purchasing money orders or signing & receiving certified mail.

4) Loss of the post office will be a major blow to the economy of Avilla, as there are only 4 businesses left in the town proper itself and that is including the post office.

5) This post office is frequently a stop for foreign visitors traveling Route 66. And note here, this was initially voiced by Avilla residents, not my father or myself, although we did voice remarks supporting this claim. The day of the meeting alone, the Avilla Post Office had customers from Germany and Russia who were Route 66 travelers, mailing postcards back home.

The last reason gave the USPS representative a bit of uncomfort. She honestly did not know how to respond to the statement that closing the Avilla Post Office will deprive foreign visitors of a very special Americana experience.

After the USPS representative finished her question and answer period with the citizens of Avilla and left to go to another post office closing meeting, Steven Vanderhoof, president of the retiree’s Missouri Chapter of the National Postmasters of the United States, addressed the group. He quickly explained that this proposed closure of post offices across the USA is essentially a tactic to get citizens riled up so that the USPS can ask Congress to allow them to cut postal service back to 5 days a week. And, along the way, if the USPS can close any post offices in areas where there are not citizens who care about their post office, so much the better. He also pointed out that if the USPS were to close 10,000 of the 36,000 US post offices, it would save the USPS less than 1% of it’s yearly budget!!

Mr. Vanderhoof went on to say, that in all the communities where he’d attended meetings about closing post offices, the meeting at Avilla was the first time he’d heard Route 66 travelers given as a reason that a post office should NOT be closed. He stated that this was a unique qualification that needed to be capitalized on. He also told the group that in communities where the citizenship protested the closing of their post office, for the most part, the post offices were being left open. And this is why I am posting about this to the e-group. The City of Avilla and the Avilla Post Office needs our help.

Would everyone on the Route 66 e-group please help by writing letters? In the past, we’ve had several letter writing campaigns done from our e-group, and we need one now for the post office at Avilla.

The Post Office at Avilla needs all e-groupers to please write five letters by November 13, 2011.

Very important, the first letter needs to be addressed to:

Postmaster
205 Greenfield St.
Avilla, MO 64833

This letter is the most critical and needs to be done as soon as possible, as it will be submitted in a package on November 17 up thru postal service channels by the Avilla Postmaster. If you can’t write all five letters, if you can at least write this one, that would be a huge help. Please state very clearly that you are opposed to the closing of the Avilla Post Office because of it’s negative impact on not only the citizenship and economy of Avilla, but because it denies both domestic and foreign visitors traveling Route 66 a chance to experience America by posting mail from a historic building in sight of a Missouri state scenic by-way, which is Route 66.

If you can write only one letter, please, please, please, make it out to the Postmaster at Avilla. These letters are the only letters that the USPS will consider in making their final decision about closing the Avilla, Missouri Post Office, and they must be submitted by the Avilla Postmaster for the USPS to consider them.

Then, please send four additional letters of protest to the legislators over the Avilla area. These letters should express our displeasure that A) a post office would be removed from both such a small community where it’s economic impact will be great and where there are not facilities for other alternatives, such as a village post office, B) that a business will be removed from Route 66 that may deny travelers an American experience, and C) closing post offices isn`t going to provide the necessary financial assistance that our postal service needs anyway. The addresses for these letters are as follows:

The Honorable Claire McCaskill
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Roy Blunt
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Billy Long
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Jay Nixon
Governor’s Office
201 W. Capitol Ave.
Jefferson City, MO 65101

PLEASE NOTE THESE ADDITIONAL LETTERS NEED TO BE SENT TO THE ADDRESSES GIVEN HERE ABOVE:

While the Missouri U.S. Senators and Representative may have other addresses, we were told in the meeting at Avilla that these letters need to go to their main offices in Washington, D.C., and the Missouri state capital for the governor. So please use the addresses I’m forwarding for McCaskill, Blunt, Long and Nixon. Letters sent to other offices for these people may not get put together otherwise in a timely manner for an accurate tally of the number protests made for a particular post office by the staff members of these officials.

The purpose of sending these additional four letters is to let them know that people are not in favor of closing the post office in hopes that they will vote in the future in such a way that allows most of our post offices to stay open.

If you need help formulating a letter, please contact me and I will email you a .pdf file of the example protest letter I was given at Avilla. But I warn you, it is very generic and does not mention Route 66, so you will still need to modify it a bit.

Lastly, if there is anyone out there on the e-group who lives outside the USA who has ever stopped at the post office in Avilla and mailed anything: It would be especially impressive if you would please write a letter to the Avilla postmaster. I firmly believe, from the meeting I attended, the USPS officials expect the citizens of the USA to be outraged about the post office closings. But I don’t think they expect it to have any meaning to anyone outside the USA. Please help me and the people of Avilla show them they are wrong!

Remember everyone, these letters need to be mailed as soon as possible as the Avilla postmaster needs them by November 13, 2011. This gives us a month to get them written and mailed.

Again, I apologize for the length of this post. But I hope that everyone will help out by writing a few letters. We have a month to get protest letters mailed. I am confident that we can provide support to the Avilla, Missouri citizens and help strengthen their fight to keep their post office open.

Thank you,

Tonya Pike
Springfield, Missouri”

If you are interested in other letter-writing campaigns or actions you can take for historic preservation on Route 66, please see this link.

Luna Cafe Neon Sign Re-lighting Party on October 22nd

The Route 66 Associations of Illinois & Missouri, and the Friends of the Mother Road, are proud to announce that the official re-lighting date has been set for Saturday,   October 22, 2011, at approximately 6:30 PM, depending on the timing of dusk that evening. Larry Wofford, owner of the Luna Café, is anxiously awaiting this exciting day when his historic Route 66 beacon will again shine like it did during the hey-day of the Mother Road.

He is delighted to welcome all Route 66 roadies to join in the fun and celebrate this exciting event with him. This would not only be a great celebration of the sign but a great way to join fellow road friends …… and make new ones — and it will also constitute a big thank you to Larry for his contribution to the preservation of the Mother Road with the rebirth of this classic sign.

Refreshments will be served, and it is anticipated that a representative from the Illinois State Historic Preservation Agency will be there for this special event, as well local media and community leaders.

Don’t miss the party at the Luna Cafe in Mitchell, Illinois on October 22nd!

Book Signing at the Wagon Wheel Motel on October 7, 2011

Book Signing at the Wagon Wheel Motel on October 7, 2011

Jim Hinckley, award winning author of Route 66 Backroads, Backroads of Arizona, The Big Book of Car Culture, Ghost Towns of the Southwest, Greetings from Route 66, and Ghost Towns of Route 66 takes to the road

Jim Hinkley

For more than twenty years Jim Hinckley, award winning author and photographer has served as America’s travel guide to the wonders only found on the back roads and lost highways through his books, feature articles, a daily blog, and in interviews with Jay Leno, on AM Arizona, and on other nationally televised television and radio programs. Now Jim turns his talents toward the most ambitious project to date – a Route 66 encyclopedia and atlas that will chronicle the 85 year history of America’s most famous highway and the people who wrote that history.

To ensure this is the definitive work about America’s most famous highway, Jim is again taking to the road to capture images of its faded glory. Along the way he will extol its virtues through speaking engagements and at book signings.

Ghost Towns of Route 66

With Ghost Towns of Route 66 the reader rides along on an odyssey of discovery to places where the neon hasn’t cast a glow in more than a half century and only the wind stirs the dust on Route 66. Filled with the colorful prose expected of Jim, and stunning photography by Kerrick James and Jim Hinckley, Ghost Towns of Route 66 the book is a delight for armchair travelers and adventurers alike.

In Backroads of Route 66 iconic Route 66 was portrayed as a portal to a wide array of adventures, historic sites, and scenic wonders only found with short detours from the world’s most famous highway. Photographs by Kerrick James, Shellee Graham, Jim Ross, and Rick and Nora Bowers, as well as historic photos from the author’s collection, enliven the concise, informative text with colorful vibrancy.

A previous book in the back roads series, Backroads of Arizona, introduced readers to singularly unique and often missed Arizona attractions such as Crown King, the Senator Highway, and Hualapai Mountain Park.

The Big Book of Car Culture is an award winning, fun filled, illustrated encyclopedic work on all things automotive from the evolution of crash test dummies and tow trucks to the development of the Ford Mustang and the history of road striping that was the subject of a recent interview with Jay Leno.

Greetings from Route 66, a compilation for which Jim wrote the chapter introductions, is a time capsule and post card chronicling almost 85 years of memories on America’s most famous highway.

In Ghost Towns of the Southwest, Jim took readers along for a ride to some of the most fascinating and colorful ghost towns in the southwest from Native American metropolises and Spanish colonial outposts to legendary Tombstone and historic Hillsboro.

For more information see:

ghost_towns_1.pdf

ghost_towns_2.pdf

Wagon Wheel Motel kicks off 75th Anniversary celebration

With rooms rented to Route 66ers for the1930’s price of $3.50 a night and 30’s food prices, the Historic Landmark Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri is celebrating its 75^th Anniversary on August 20-21 in style. As the oldest motel on Route 66, the Wagon Wheel Café building, gas station, and motel earned its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

Connie Echols, who bought the old motel in 2009, finished a “hands-on” restoration this spring by redoing all the rooms, adding two decks, and a bike shelter/pavilion. Each room has an authentic feel of a Route 66 motel but with updates of WiFi and flat screen TVs. Rooms are of various sizes and amenities with details on the Wagon Wheel website (www.wagonwheel66cuba.com).

Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri

Now Echols is ready to celebrate the history of the Wagon Wheel with an Open House and Celebration with a 1930s Bonnie and Clyde theme. Car Clubs have been invited to bring cars of the era to the two-day event that begins with lunch on Saturday, August 20. Vintage dress is encouraged if you would like to get with the spirit of the event.

During the two-day Open House Celebration there will be room tours, games, food, music, book signings by Route 66 enthusiast Joe Sonderman and Wagon Wheel historian Riva Echols, and an explanation of the Route 66 GPS program by its creator River Pilot. Employees of the Wagon Wheel and  families associated with the Wagon Wheel are invited to meet and reminisce on Sunday afternoon. There may be a few other surprises in store for attendees.

“It’s been a long journey getting the Wagon Wheel Motel and Connie’s Shoppe to this point,” stated Echols. Now it’s time to share the results with friends, family, and the Route 66 community. I’m anxious to show off all the progress that we have made and to have a good time.”

Saturday: 1-3 pm Room Tours

Saturday: 2-6 pm Wine tasting

Saturday: All day Croquet / Horseshoes

Saturday evening: Chipping contest

Saturday:  8pm Band

River Pilot, the creator of the Route 66 GPS program is available all weekend to explain his GPS system

Sunday: 11:00 am Joe Sonderman, Route 66 author book signing

Sunday: 1-3 pm Room Tours

Sunday: 1:00 pm Riva Echols: The Wagon Wheel Motel on Route 66 History book signing

Riva will also host a social gathering for employees, families connected to the Wagon Wheel history, and anyone else who might be interested in Wagon Wheel history

Sunday: 2-4 pm Wine tasting

Sunday: 2:00 pm Croquet Tournament

Visit the Wagon Wheel Motel’s 75^th anniversary celebration on Saturday or Sunday. Bring your cameras to record another historic event at this Historic Landmark on Route 66.

Route 66 Sightings

Route 66 Sightings

Ghost Town Press announces the release of Route 66 Sightings, a collection of images from the portfolios of roadside
photographers Jerry McClanahan, Jim Ross, and Shellee Graham. This beautiful coffee table book defines the Route 66
experience, telling the story of the road through six galleries of stunning photographs, each with its own tale to tell.
Spanning thirty years, Sightings is a culmination of their individual and collective efforts as writers, photographers, and
advocates of the legendary highway.

McClanahan and Ross are both accomplished highway historians and are widely published as photographers and writers.
Graham, whose Route 66 photo exhibition toured the US for over a decade, has been photographing the Mother Road
since 1990. All three are multiple award winners.

Route 66 Sightings is available through the publisher, at on-line bookstores, and at gift shops along Route 66.