A reporter from the Noblesville (Ind.) Daily Times stopped on Route 66 in northeastern Oklahoma to visit Laurel Kane of Afton Station in Afton, the nearby Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park in Foyil, and the Blue Whale of Catoosa. Many media stories about the Mother Road become hugely expansive, to the point of being unwieldy. … Continue reading A spotlight on a small section of 66
Category: Art
Update on Tulsa Route 66 projects
A Route 66er in Tulsa forwarded me a status report, dated Dec. 31, from Tulsa city employee Dennis Whitaker about the county's Route 66 projects. Most of the projects are being funded by a Vision 2025 sales tax. As you will see, several of the Route 66 projects are slated to be finished by summer. … Continue reading Update on Tulsa Route 66 projects
Interactive art
A traveler stopped by the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas. What's always been cool about this strange piece of artwork is it's not in a stuffy museum with armed guards making sure you don't touch it. Here, snow and rain falls on it. You can touch it, spray-paint it and even let your little dogs … Continue reading Interactive art
Should Indian Harvest Trading Post charge a fee?
In the last few days, there's been much discussion in the Route 66 yahoogroup about Indian Harvest Trading Post, located along Route 66 near Union, Mo. Indian Harvest is an arts-and-crafts business inside a tepee-shaped building near Exit 242 of Interstate 44. It's been there for 11 years, and is a member of the Route … Continue reading Should Indian Harvest Trading Post charge a fee?
Art inspired by Route 66 motels
Artist Victoria Taylor-Gore shows pastels from her "Route 66 series" in a slide show on YouTube. These works are inspired by motels from the 1940s to 1960s. Music is by jazz legend John Coltrane.
Mural City
KETC-TV in St. Louis produced a good segment about the Route 66 town of Cuba, Mo., and its dozen murals. The remarkable thing is the murals aren't simply decorative. They represent real events and real people. Listen to the man get emotional as he tells about the Cuba men who went off to war, and … Continue reading Mural City
Bottletree ranch
This video shows the scale of the Bottletree Ranch that's on Route 66 just outside of Helendale, Calif. The property is owned by Elmer "Bottletree Man" Long, and he has a blog.
Dedication ceremony for McKinley Bridge is Nov. 17
An dedication ceremony for the rehabilitated McKinley Bridge is set for 10:30 a.m. Nov. 17 on the Illinois side of the bridge, announced Kyle Anderson, assistant to the chief of operations of the Illinois Department of Transportation, on Tuesday. After that, the bridge will be open to vehicular traffic for about four hours. The bridge … Continue reading Dedication ceremony for McKinley Bridge is Nov. 17
Rest area
During a recent trip to New Mexico on Route 66, we stopped to check out an old cemetery near the settlement of Montoya. A few graves predated the commissioning of Route 66, and burials occurred there as recently as 2005. There are traditional engraved tombstones, including a fair number of markers for local soldiers of … Continue reading Rest area
Living in Tijeras Time
While driving on old Route 66 to Albuquerque during the weekend, we stumbled onto the Tijeras Open-Air Arts Market in the mountain town of Tijeras, N.M. It's on the grounds the Imagine Gallery and Coffee House. There, we saw a mix of paintings, pottery, sculpture and photographs. There also were locally grown apples and barbed-wire … Continue reading Living in Tijeras Time