Joe Sonderman, a researcher of Route 66 in Missouri and other states, found a rare image of the roadside business that later became John’s Modern Cabins near Newburg, Missouri.
The image is above. Sonderman wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday:
This is the oldest photo I have ever seen of the spot that became John’s Modern Cabins back when it was known as the Bill and Bess Place, or maybe just Bill’s as you can see. I found it in an old Pulaski County Historical Society newsletter. Now, I need to get down there and see if they have the original.
I surmise the photo was taken in the 1940s. While doing research for a future story in the summer 2001 edition of Route 66 Magazine, I found courthouse documents that stated the business was called Bill and Bessie’s Place or Bill and Bess’ Place when founded in 1931 along U.S. 66 between Rolla and Arlington, Missouri.
Bess died sometime between the mid-1930s and when the original co-owner, Bill Bayless, sold the property in 1945. The photo shows it was “Bill’s Place,” probably reflecting Bessie’s death.
It changed hands several times until John Dausch bought the property in 1951, renamed it John’s Modern Cabins and added a new neon sign. At least one of the big cabins was razed when U.S. 66 was widened shortly after Dausch acquired the business.
Dausch ran John’s Modern Cabins until his wife’s death in 1965. Dausch then closed the business and continued to live in the complex’s main cabin until his death in 1971. It’s essentially been abandoned ever since. The site has fallen into ruin, though the rusty sign still stands.
The incongruity of the site’s primitive log cabins amid a “John’s Modern Cabins” neon sign has fascinated Route 66 explorers for decades. It even has its own Wikipedia page.
You may recall Sonderman in August found another old photograph of John’s Modern Cabins in the Missouri Department of Transportation archive from 1966.
The previously oldest known image of John’s Modern Cabins was taken by Quinta Scott in 1979, years after the business had closed and Dausch’s death. The photograph eventually was published in Scott’s 2000 book, “Along Route 66.”
The property seemed to be cursed. In 1935, a man killed his estranged wife during a Halloween dance there. He served 13 1/2 years of a 50-year sentence for second-degree murder.
Sonderman in January revealed something else bad that happened at Bill and Bess’ Place in 1938:
A deputy sheriff of Pulaski County was killed in a freak accident near “Bill and Bess Place” west of Rolla (later became John’s Modern Cabins). Walter Tyler’s gun discharged as he was pushing his vehicle in an effort to disengage a stuck starter. The gun apparently fell out of his pocket onto the running board of his car and went off, striking Tyler in the stomach. Tyler left behind a wife and three children.
A preservation group led by “Roamin’ Rich” Dinkela is trying to preserve the lone surviving log cabin and neon sign at John’s Modern Cabins. More about the group may be found on Facebook here.
(Image of Bill’s Place along Route 66 near Newburg, Missouri, via Joe Sonderman on Facebook)
The 7 Up sign reminds me of when I was travelling in Kenya in the early 1960s. I was being driven along a gravel road when in the distance and below the road was a small store with its corrugated iron roof shining in the sun. Painted boldly across the facing side of the roof was 7 UP. Would the 7 Up sign here have been from the 1930s or from when Bess died? How popular was it in the area then compared to Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola?