Today, Rich Dinkela and his wife, Christina, closed on the purchase of the landmark Wagon Wheel Motel along Route 66 in Cuba, Missouri.
Dinkela said they bought the property for $1 million.
He said there would be a “lull” of one to two weeks in the motel’s operation while staff are being trained there and at his Shamrock Court motel in Sullivan, Missouri, which is scheduled to open next month.
Dinkela said he would also undertake “repairs and minor improvements” at the Wagon Wheel, especially in two rooms.
The previous owner, Connie Echols, had initially put the historic, 19-room property on the market in 2022 for $1.75 million, along with its original service station and cafe building, because she wanted to retire.
“For the most part, Connie has done a great job keeping it maintained,” Dinkela said in a phone interview. “Without people like her, places like this wouldn’t exist.”
Dinkela posted a photo on Facebook shortly after the sale closed today.
“Roamin’ Rich,” as he’s often called, is the past president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri. He spent years renovating the soon-to-reopen Shamrock Court.
Dinkela said about six weeks ago, he was lying in bed one night, wondering about the status of the Wagon Wheel Motel.
“I’m kind of a destiny / divinity sort of person,” he acknowledged.
He called Echols, who told him she was about to relist the property with a real estate agent. He asked whether a deal could be made before the relisting. They hashed out an agreement within 10 days, Dinkela said.
In a Facebook post today, Echols said she was saying farewell to the Wagon Wheel.
“(It) will begin the next 100 years in very good hands!” she wrote.
Echols bought the motel in 2009 — one of the oldest motels on all of Route 66.
Robert W. and Margaret Martin bought the land on which the motel would be built in 1934. They hired Leo Friesenhan to construct the cabins from native stone, hauled in by local farmers.
Pauline and Hallie Roberts ran the motel from 1963 to 1980, when Hallie died.
Pauline then married Harold Armstrong, and they ran the Wagon Wheel until she died in 2003. Harold died in 2008.
The Armstrongs, right up to the last day of their tenure, charged less than $20 a night for their rooms.
(Image of the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri, by Stu Rapley via Flickr)
Way to go Rich. Grate to hear.