For years, the Russell’s Travel Center near Endee, New Mexico, featured a free car museum featuring several classic vehicles, gas station petroliana and other memorabilia.
In recent weeks, the cars were removed from the museum — save for about a dozen toy or children’s pedal cars — despite the faux marquee at its entrance still stating “Russell’s Filling Station and Free Car Museum.”
A clerk at the museum on Wednesday said the rest of the museum’s contents would be removed by the end of the year. The employee did not know what would happen to that space.
The removal of the cars initially was reported by the EZ Guide to Route 66 page on Facebook.
The apparent and imminent closure of the museum follows the 2023 sale of Russell’s Travel Center to TravelCenters of America.
Russell’s founders Emory and Barbara Russell decided to sell because both were in their 80s. They also sold another Russell’s truck stop in Springer, New Mexico, that year.
At the time of the sale, TA agreed with Russell’s to keep the family name on the business for three years.
In recent months, the “Russell’s Travel Center” sign above the main entrance to the truck stop had been removed and replaced with a “TA” logo.
It was also reported at the time that the Russells had entered into a multiyear lease with TA to keep the museum going.
Admission to the museum has always been free, but a donation box was set up near the entrance. Over $520,000 of those donations were distributed to food banks in Amarillo and Tucumcari over about 15 years.
A sit-down diner and a Subway restaurant continue to operate inside the TA, but the shelves of merchandise have been noticably reduced.
Here is a report about Russell’s Travel Center shortly after it opened.
Russell’s opened in 2010 over the ruins of the long-closed Longhorn II restaurant along Interstate 40 and a 1952-1980 alignment of Route 66. It quickly became a popular stop.
The Longhorn II, owned by Homer Ehresman, opened shortly after nearby Glenrio was bypassed by I-40. Ehresman had owned the Texas Longhorn Motel, cafe and service station in Glenrio for many years.
(Recent image of the museum inside the former Russell’s Travel Center near Endee, New Mexico)
How sad. Corporations tend to make things worse, in my experience.