Artist Kathy Fierro and Main Street Murals now are painting a second Route 66 mural in downtown Barstow, California, that will be finished by the town’s Route 66 Festival in October.
The mural will be at 108 E. Main St. (map here), reported The Desert Dispatch newspaper. The image above is a mock-up image on which the real painting will be based.
Fierro came up with the design, but artist Juliette Tison is helping because she’s better at painting letters, Fierro said.
Main Street Murals is a nonprofit organization in Barstow that aims to create a walking gallery of murals along the city’s Main Street, aka Route 66. A total of 16 murals exist, mostly detailing the history of the region.
The Barstow City Council approved the new mural in April after Main Street Murals president Jane Laraman-Brockhurst presented the proposal.
“The theme is Route 66 dreamers,” Laraman-Brockhurst said. “You have greetings from Main Street murals. It takes the theme of a postcard.”
She also said Main Street Murals proposed a new Route 66 mural because this year is Route 66’s 90th anniversary.
The real anniversary date varies, depending on who you talk to. Some place it as Nov. 11, 1926, when the federal designation of all numbered highways, including U.S. 66, went into effect. Others place it on April 30, 1926, when officials assigned the number 66 on the route from Chicago to Los Angeles.
(Image of Kathy Fierro’s rendering of the eventual Route 66 mural in Barstow, California)