The recently restored neon sign for the long-closed Ozark Court motel near St. Clair, Missouri, will soon be moved to the Joplin Expo in Joplin, Missouri.
KSHB-TV in Kansas City recently paid a visit to Fossil Forge sign company in nearby Lee’s Summit, Missouri, that was restoring the sign.
Rich Dinkela, past president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri and head of its preservation committee, confirmed to Route 66 News that the sign would be placed at Joplin Expo, near where two prominent Route 66 alignments converge.
The Route 66 Association of Missouri subsequently stated in a Facebook post that the sign would be displayed at Unique Boutiques in Joplin Expo.
Dinkela said a relighting ceremony for the sign would be scheduled before the end of the year. He said a benefactor for the project wanted the sign in Joplin, at least temporarily.
Dinkela said the sign will be on loan in Joplin for an unspecified time — he speculated two years — before moving it to a planned neon park at the historic Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri, that he purchased earlier this year. He said he preferred to have the sign as close to its original location as possible.
The Route 66 Times reports the original Ozark Court motel at 2355 Old Route 66 in St. Clair dated to at least 1948. It also included a gift shop and gas station.
Seigfried Rinehardt of West Gate Neon designed the sign, reportedly in 1952.
By the 1990s, the motel had transitioned to apartments. The sign disappeared about 25 years ago and subsequently was in the hands of two collectors until the Missouri association purchased it.
(Screen-capture image from KSHB-TV video of the restored Ozark Court sign)