CARTHAGE, Mo. —
Our family has lived on historic Route 66 east of Carthage for almost 34 years. But Route 66 has woven in and out of my life much longer than that, just as it weaved in and out of small towns and cities across eight states on its way to becoming the Main Street of America.
Between my junior and senior years of high school, my parents took me to California on one of the first real vacations we ever had. We traveled Route 66 all the way. I still remember the excitement of my first glimpse of the desert, my first encounter with real mountains and my first taste of delicious carne asada in New Mexico.
In 1953, en route to New Orleans, my husband and I spent the first night of our honeymoon at the Rail Haven Motel on Route 66 in Springfield. (It’s still there, by the way.)
From the time we built our house on Route 66 in 1978, we have watched convoys of vintage cars, motorcycles and fleets of foreign tour groups roll by on their own exciting explorations of the Mother Road. In 2003, LeAnn Cole and I opened the Carthage Route 66 Tea Room in the house we had built for our parents next door. We served lunch to local patrons, and catered dinner parties for civic organizations and tour bus travelers.
We also had foreign visitors stop by. One of my fun memories is the day (the hottest of the year) when two carloads of Italians arrived after our 2 p.m. closing. While we couldn’t offer lunch, we could offer dessert. Through hand signals and head nods, they indicated they wanted to sit on the front porch, as opposed to the air-conditioned tea room. They took many photographs, ate pie and drank hot tea. No iced tea, thank you!
Although it officially was decommissioned as part of the U.S. highway system in 1985, Route 66 continues to beckon today’s travelers. Jasper County Commissioner Jim Honey said that Chris Chappell, geographic information specialist for the county, has charted thousands of visitors to the Route 66 Museum in the Carthage courthouse.
Chappell said the guest book shows entries from 1,028 cities scattered across the United States, and 136 foreign cities. A page about the museum on the county’s website, www.jaspercounty.org, receives numerous hits daily. Click on the Jasper County Courthouse Visitors Map to see the charted cities. The museum opened with help from a Missouri Department of Transportation grant.
To enhance the Route 66 attraction, Vision Carthage recently agreed to erect signs featuring the city’s connection to Route 66 on large slabs of Carthage marble at several entrances to the city.
Janet Stafford, chairwoman, said the signs would be located on the west side of Central Avenue at U.S. Highway 71, at the Fir Road and Highway 71 intersection, and on South Grand Avenue.
“They will have a similar logo to the Carthage chamber’s logo, which has the city’s name with a maple leaf behind it,” she said.
A pavement plaque in the center of the Central and Garrison intersection, marking the Crossroads of America, also is envisioned by the newly incorporated group.
Vision Carthage hopes to pay for the signs through a $23,500 matching grant from the state. Stafford will travel to Jefferson City on Wednesday to find out about applying for the grant, and she hopes to persuade city officials to put up some of the match. She said Vision Carthage also is making an application for Dream City status, which could be a source of other grant funds, and is considering other moneymaking projects.
I was proud to be a member of the Kellogg Lake board that last year erected a stone at the lake with the Route 66 logo, and I applaud Vision Carthage’s effort to continue keeping this historical icon alive in Carthage. It’s pretty exciting living on the Main Street of America.
Address correspondence to Jo Ellis, c/o The Joplin Globe, Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802 or email news@joplinglobe.com.
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