Kansas Route 66 - Baxter Springs

     Baxter Springs was a cow town until the early 1870's, when complaints by local ranchers led the Kansas legislature to ban Texas cattle from entering eastern Kansas. The cattle drives were replaced with lead and zinc mining in the early 1900's, with the town serving mostly as a host to mining company offices. With the prohibition of most mining within the city limits, Baxter Springs also attracted mine owners and operators to establish their homes there. This lack of local mining prevented the chat piles, lead contamination and scarred landscapes that other towns in the area suffered, and still endure today. Route 66 ran right down Main Street starting in 1926, adding to the towns prosperity, but not a real big deal compared to the mines.

     The last hurrah for the mining industry in the area was World War II, with the boom in demand you would expect, but post war, the industry declined as extraction lead to lower grade ores that sold for lower prices, and was less in demand. Route 66 was bypassed in the 1960's, and Main Street took another hit. But Baxter Springs has recovered since then, with the city diversifying into other businesses, industry and agriculture. Several companies have their headquarters and manufacturing plants in town, providing ample opportunity for the 4000+ residents. These include ATEC Steel, Blaylock Turbochargers, and King Louie America, the "number one supplier of Union Made in the USA apparel."

     66 legend has it that the Cafe on the Route, at one time the Crowell Bank, was robbed in 1876 by none other than Jesse James. I believe this story because it seems that only important and famous people are associated with Route 66, and because it is more fun to believe it than not when strolling through town. The bottom picture is of Bill Murphy's restaurant which also was a bank at one time, and yes, it too was the scene of a robbery. Log Book: 617 miles motored on old 66.

Kansas Route 66 - Rainbow Marsh Bridge

Two miles west of Riverton is an old Route 66 crossing of Brush Creek, the Rainbow Marsh Bridge. (Two other Marsh Arch bridges of this type were built on Route 66 in Kansas, but those others are long gone.) It was built in 1923 and served an early 66 alignment, and the only restoration I've heard about is a new paint job to cover up a mess of accumulated graffiti. A replacement bridge was built nearby to handle modern day traffic, but I believe you can still drive over this bridge if you pull over to it and carefully negotiate your giant SUV across it. Just watch out for 66 sightseers and photographers on the narrow span. Log Book: 612 miles motored on old 66.

Kansas Route 66 - Eisler Brothers Store

     You should make a point to visit the Eisler Brothers Old Riverton store during your short tour of Kansas 66, even if it's just for some chips and a bottle of Route 66 Root Beer. There's a nice old-fashioned feel to the place, the kind of Mom and Pop business you used to ride your bike to back in your home town. (Usually following your mother's orders to pick up a bottle of milk.) There was a mix of people in the store on the day of my visit, with me and a couple of 66'ers from Spain browsing the old road memorabilia, several busy landscapers stopping in for some quick refreshments, and a local woman ordering over the deli counter. (John Wayne and James Dean were also in the store, near life size.) This mix of customers has been necessary since the early 1960's, when Kansas 66 was bypassed by Interstate 44. And the state was bypassed indeed, as I-44 connects Missouri to Oklahoma without any detour at all into Kansas. 
      The store was first opened in 1925 by Leo Williams and his wife Lora, who ran a general store inside and had gas pumps outside to draw in the early Route 66 traffic. Joe and Isabell Eisler of Allen, Texas, purchased and renamed the store in 1973, and operated the business for many years as a local convenience store and 66 attraction. (They even kept the original tin roof that I didn't know about. Never looked up even once.) The Eislers passed on in the late 2000's, and I found a nephew of the former Texans, Scott Nelson, behind the counter during my 2008 visit. In 2011, Mr. Nelson, who is also president of the Kansas Route 66 association, purchased the business from the Eisler's estate. We wish him every success with his small business, and with his overseeing of the famous 13.2 miles of Kansas 66. Log Book: 610 miles motored on old 66.

Route 66 - Just over the border into Kansas.

One of the many pleasures of traveling Route 66 is the frequent ability to just pull over to the side of the road when the mood strikes, whether to explore America away from the interstate, or to meet someone new.

Missouri Route 66 - Joplin

A bucolic, small town entry to ease us out of Missouri, with our best wishes to the people of Joplin. This out of the way small business is Dale's Ole 66 Barber Shop, captured on a summer day during my 2006 trip. I understand that old Dale retired in 2003, and there is a For Rent sign in the image here, so I don't really know who occupies the building today. But on a hot day in June in the old days, there likely was a row of kids inside the shop, waiting for their summertime haircuts. Log Book: 599 miles motored on old 66.

Missouri Route 66 - Carthage

     The southwestern Missouri town of Carthage has prospered ever since the coming of the railroad in 1872. Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the town boasted a furniture factory and a foundry, grain mills, liveries and a plow works. (What, exactly, is a plow works?)  In addition, it was surrounded by lead mines and limestone quarries. The turn of the century populace was wealthy enough to build fancy Victorian-style homes in the city, some grand enough, in fact, that the Carthage South District that shows them off is a tourist attraction today. Highways 66 and 71 passed through the city, but any business generated there was probably an afterthought, and Carthage as a whole was not affected all that much with the coming of the interstate in the 1960's. The 14,000 or so citizens of modern day Carthage can work for the Leggett & Platt Corporation, which employs close to 2,000 people, or the turkey folks at Butterball, with nearly 600 workers. Schreiber Foods, headquartered in Green Bay, opened a cheese plant in Carthage in 1950 that still keeps 650 Missourian cheeseheads busy.
     66'ers should plan to spend some time in Carthage. The iconic Boots Motel is still there, after a sharp left turn onto Garrison Street. The motel was named for Arthur and Ilda Boots, the original owners, with a wonderful, though aging, neon sign and a main building constructed in 1939 with a streamline moderne architectural style. The palatial Jasper County Courthouse in downtown Carthage was constructed in 1894, with material from the local marble works. I imagine it was quite an impressive structure to the Route 66 Traveler of the 1930's. The classic outdoor 66 Drive-In movie theater was built in 1949, when drive-ins were big. It was closed down for many years as the age of television took hold, but re-opened in the late 1990's. I remember a mess of drive-ins in New Jersey when I was a kid, but at the 66's prices, there is no need to pile your friends in the trunk of the car. Log Book: 591 miles motored on old 66.

Missouri Route 66 - Avilla

     For Ghost Town lovers, I give you Avilla, Missouri, complete with abandoned buildings and reported sightings of a headless, Civil War era Confederate ghost. The last census reported 125 flesh and blood beings, but I never saw any of them.

      Avilla had a good 19th century, as a farm town in a rich agricultural area. The town's fortunes in the 20th century, however, have come and gone with the highway. The coming of Route 66 in the late 1920's brought a paved road through town, and it supported roadside businesses - a cafe, gas stations, auto repair and a barbershop. The old road also served the local farming community. There was a lumber yard and farm implement stores, as reported by Jack Rittenhouse in 1946, that "indicate its importance as an agricultural trading and supply center". The town began to decline after World War II, first with the loss of many of its young people, who understandably sought their fortunes outside such a small town. The coming of the interstate in the 1960's finished the town off, eliminating the roadside businesses and farm traffic.

     Bernie's Bar, top, seemed to be open for business in 2006, my first run through town. (Bernie's used to be Flo's Tavern, a fact I point out because I like to maintain historical accuracy in my tavern reporting.) On a return visit in 2008 Bernie's was all boarded up, and the entire block, in fact, seemed about to topple over at any time. Log Book: 579 miles motored on old 66.