By Sheila Stogsdill

news@joplinglobe.com

VINITA, Okla. - One of the relics of the famed Route 66 highway will be razed and its sign sold on an online auction site, owners of the Lewis Motel said Thursday.

The Vinita motel has never been a designated Route 66 attraction or listed as such in any historical directory. It's just a popular place along the old route where people liked to stop, said Jack Lee, the owner.

However, in the next few months, the motel will experience the fate of many other popular spots along the old highway as its abandoned rooms give way to a new auto-parts store. "I wish I had a dollar for everybody who stopped and had their pictures taken outside the motel in front of the sign," Lee said. "I would be a millionaire."

Lee is in the final stages of selling the motel to the O'Reilly Auto Parts store chain.

"They plan to tear the building down," Lee said. "It's not restorable."

News of the motel's demise does not bother Vinita Mayor Joe Johnson, who believes the automobile-parts store will be a welcome addition to the city.

Lee, who bought the motel at an auction in 2000, used part of the motel for offices. Medical problems forced him to close down the 12-unit building in 2003.

It is believed the motel across the road from Clanton's Caf was built in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

According to the Oklahoma Route 66 Association's Web site, it was the Sooner State that gave birth to one of America's most famed roadways. The Chicago-to-Los Angeles route snakes across the state.

Oklahoma also has the distinction of being the first state to knock a section out of the historical route when the Turner Turnpike opened in 1953 and bypassed 100 miles of the famed roadway. By 1984, the last segment of Route 66 was bypassed with the construction of Interstate 40 in Arizona, according to the association's Web site.

Lee is selling the Lewis Motel's 12-foot neon sign. He has it listed on e-Bay for a minimum bid of $50.

"We are saddened to lose any building on the route," said Mike Hickey, Oklahoma Route 66 Association president. "We are saddened because the economics of situations determines most outcomes."

The motel is a vintage, Route 66 landmark, Hickey said. Unfortunately, some such landmarks prove to be money pits, he said.