Happy Birthday, Route 66

Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls

 You're 100 years old this year and I have many happy memories of traveling along you. Here's a recap of some of my favorites.

There's a small free museum in a county library in Lebanon, Missouri that tells Route 66's story. It took me back to the earliest days of Route 66.

The first exhibit is Philcheck Service Station. The station sports Fire Chief and Skelly gas pumps. A uniformed attendant is coming out to service the Ford Roadster sitting at the pumps. I still foindly remember the days when an attendant came out and said "Fill 'er up?" then wiped your windshield, checked your oil and the pressure in your tires .

Of course, as the route became more traveled, tourist courts and diners sprang up along Route 66.  The exhibit of a typical tourist cabin from the 1940s is nostalgic. I love the chenille bedspread. Once you saw them all over now they are antiques and more expensive than when new. Mark explained how much of their exhibits are dependent on donations. The Knotty Pine paneling came from the Best Western Wyota Inn, the desk is from Nelson's Dream Village.

Communication with the desk was easy then. An operator was usually on duty at a switchboard to handle you calls. This one came from the Munger Moss Motel which is still in business. In the background is a portion of a Route 66 salt and pepper collection. That harkens back to the day when restaurants still put salt and pepper shakers on the table and you didn't have to beg for one. Chef's and cooks didn't get insulted by that. They knew people weren't robots all liking the same amount of seasonings the chef put. Everyone had individual tastes those days.

Diners have remained to this day and are reminiscent of the time when travelers fell in love with the open road. There were no chains and fast food joints. Nicely tiled floor and a counter with vinyl covered stools and plenty of Formica and chrome greeted you. Your friendly waitress was usually wearing a pastel cotton dress with a white apron. The food was always plentiful and freshly cooked. Naturally there was a jukebox where you could listen to Elvis, Frank or Hank while you waited for your meal. Or perhaps you spent the time whacking a pinball machine on its sides trying to make that little ball go where you wanted.

One exhibit displays a Goodroads Map as signage wasn't as good those days and there was no Google to tell you every step of your trip.

There is so much more in this little museum and Mark Spangler former curator  told us, "It was a different world. The frugality and inventiveness of our family businesses, I'm finding a lot of recycling. You find Victorian furnishing. They used what they had. They didn't spend a half a million dollars on buying a franchise to a cookie cutter brand. It was totally unique but they cared about service and while you were there you were taken care of. The concept of uniqueness is almost gone."

Chicago 

Although most people associate Route 66 with the wide open spaces out west, Route 66 started in Chicago in 1926  and ran through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Originally, the start was at the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue, but the marker for the start is now at East Adams and South Michigan Avenue intersection, as Jackson is now an east-bound one-way street. (Blame Chicago traffic!)  Our guide, Mike McMains, drove us along a tour of Chicago's Route 66.

Mike stopped the trolley or let us get out at important stops on Route 66 when traffic and parking allowed. One place on Route 66 that impressed me is Chess Productions, where Muddy Waters, Etta James, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, one of my favorites, and many other musicians recorded. It's now a museum.

Another important stop just off the historic route is the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Apartments. The story behind the apartments is that this was once an area of poor Black residents. Housing markets, like many other things, were badly skewed against Black people in Chicago. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Chicago in the winter of 1966 to raise awareness about housing restrictions on Chicago's black residents. He rented an apartment at this location.  

During the riots after King's death, much of that apartment complex was destroyed. Later, civil rights groups proposed a housing complex as a memorial to Dr. King's civil rights legacy to provide badly needed affordable housing to North Lawndale. By April 2011, it was still one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods.  

Nearby, the Firehouse Community Arts Center, is a hub for youth from across the city, dedicated to preventing violence through arts and community engagement. The historic firehouse has several murals decorating the building and helping tell its story.

The Firehouse Center is not the only place to find murals on Chicago's Route 66. I love the one commemorating Route 66's coming 100-year anniversary in 2026 by local artist Ben Marasco. It features several local businesses along the route: Art Institute of Chicago, Lou Mitchell's, The Berghoff Restaurant, and Lulu's Hot Dogs where it is painted at 1000 S. Leavitt St.

Missouri

Red Oak II

Followering Route 66 through Missouri is a step back in time.  The U.S. is full of deserted ghost towns, places abandoned when jobs ran out and residents moved to larger cities in search of work.  But sometimes ghost towns can be reincarnated. Such is the case in Red Oak II near Carthage, Missouri, one of my favorite stops along Route 66.

Artist, Lowell Davis best known for his farm life folk art, grew up in Red Oak. His art career took him far away on the road most traveled. When he returned to his home town, it was no more. In the years he was chasing his dream, Red Oak had become a ghost town.

But artist are creators. If something they love is taken away, they recreate it. That's what Red Oak II is. Lowell Davis began buying the rundown houses, the old gas stations, the country churches of his old home town. He moved it here and restored them to the way he remembered them being in the 1920s through 1950s. His home now wasonce Bell Starr's home.

Along the way, as money ran out, Larry Frickenschmidt and his wife, Lois, stepped in to aid in completing Lowell's dream. Larry explained his love for the Red Oak II project.  "I grew up about two miles from here.  I have an association with Red Oak. When I was a little kid, my mom and dad owned a store at Grays Point and Grays Point was in direct competition with Red Oak." 

Rail Haven Motel

Back when a Model T was the height of fashion for road trippers, it was only natural that new highways sprang up around the country, Route 66 being the most famous then and still a roadtrippers dream. John Steinbeck called it "the Mother Road" in Grapes of Wrath. It offered a way for people living in the small towns and cities on its route to earn a living. They opened tourist attractions, restaurants, and motor courts.  The motor courts were the lifeblood of the new Route 66. Travelers needed a place to stay. A few are still alive and flourishing.

Rail Haven Motel opened in 1938, the same year Route 66 was officially finished, with eight sand-colored cottages.  This was the same year Civilian Conservation Corp youth completed the last of the paving.By 1946, Rail Haven expanded to 28 rooms, the same year Texas hotelier M.K. Guertin formed the blanket group of independent hotels today known as  Best Western.

Rail Haven was popular and several celebrities stayed there. Loretta Young was one "big name" guest but Rail Haven's most famous guest came almost accidentally on May 17, 1956. Elvis Presley played the Shrine Mosque that day and got into an argument with this band after the show. Instead of staying in the same hotel with them after that. He left the upscale Kentwood Arms and walked down St. Louis Street where he saw the Rail Haven. He checked in and stayed in room No. 409, now called the Elvis Suite. Today, furnished with a pink Cadillac-themed bed and Elvis photos.

No lodging can live on past fame. When I visited Rail Haven, I was impressed with the decor. It wasn''t fancy but it fit its theme. What I saw was a motor court of the 1960s but upgraded with modern amenities including WIFI and quiet air conditioning. I had a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a coffeemaker that worked for my tea. The art on the walls showed the era from which Rail Haven evolved. There are suites if you need more room and a business center if you need a workspace.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City sits right in the middle of the Oklahoma stretch of Route 66 and is filled with treasures I discovered  and probably many more I did not have time to visit.

My stay began at the historic 21C Museum Hotel that is now known as The Fordson Hotel. This early 1900s building earned its place on the National Register of Historic Places by being a former Fred Jones Ford Motor Company assembly plant that crafted Model Ts. The hotel is a 5 star one and the art museum which is an integral part of the hotel is unique and fantastic.

Oklahoma History Center is another must see. It takes you through the state''s history from the Native Americans to present day. There''s the steamboat era, commerce, warfare, and even the musical Oklahoma represented here.

Travel farther back in history to prehistoric New Mexico? You can at New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science where you're greeted out front by Alberta and Spike, their resident dinosaurs. No, they are not real but they are impressive sculptures. The museum tells New Mexico's story in varied ways from how the first multi-cellular life began to the space age. One impressive exhibit deals with climate change; how it's happening and its causes and results.

Learn Native American history and culture at The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Here you are stepping into another time and place. You are now on Native American lands. Indians from 19 nearby pueblos perform the traditional dances that tell stories handed down through the ages.  It's a magical blend of dance, costume, chant, and well woven words that tell the story of their beliefs and culture handed down through generations. 

In the museum the exhibits tell of New Mexico's Native Americans from earliest pictograms to notable modern-day tribal members.

Move to modern times at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History where you're greeted by "Pioneers of the Atom" exhibit. The museum traces nuclear history from the first splitting of an atom to today's uses of nuclear power. There's an exhibit showing operations at Las Alamos and a model of "Fat Man," the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

Children will enjoy learning while having fun in the Children's Section. Outside there's an display of bombs and the planes that dropped them.

The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History is as all about the story of Albuquerque as well as displaying painting and sculptures. Naturally, it has traditional art but there's a lot more. From the culture of the Tiwa people who once lived in what is now Albuquerque to the city's contribution to the atomic age, you will find it here.

Old Town takes you back to Albuquerque's distant past with shops, a plaza and more.

There's so much more including a terriffic botanical garden, an aquaerium , and a zoo.