If an author is honest they can never take full credit for a book. There are always a multitude of people who contribute something to the finished work.
From the very inception of my latest project, a Route 66 encyclopedia and atlas, I knew it would be impossible to write it without assistance. Even if I were crazy enough to tackle it in Lone Ranger fashion accuracy would be an impossibility.
To that end I have enlisted the assistance of a few Tonto’s who have been reading over my shoulder. Then there is a small army of people that I have turned to for direction.
So even though we are still more than six months from deadline, and the word count has only reached 90,000 of a projected 120,000 to 150,000, I really needed to pause and say thank you to everyone who has taken time from their busy schedule to work with me to ensure the first eighty five years of Route 66 history is chronicled with accuracy, and to gently point out the error of my ways.
With that said, thank you Joe Sondermanhttp://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=1968adventurer&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0738580295&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr, gifted author and archivist of fascinating post cards and photographs, Ron Warnick of Route 66 News, the proprietor for your one stop website for keeping abreast of what is happening along Route 66, and Scott Piotrowski
Then of course there are the helpful folks at the various Route 66 association such as Carolyn Hasenfratz in Missouri, at the museums, and in the state archives. As a word of warning to each and everyone of you, this project still has a long ways to go so you haven’t heard the last of me.
The Route 66 encyclopedia is not so much a definitive reference work about an historic highway and the culture it spawned as it is about a community and how it developed and evolved. With this long preamble as a foundation, I would like to provide a couple of updates and appeal to the Route 66 community for assistance in my ongoing quest for answers.
In what year was Route 66 first referenced as the Main Street of America? I have newspaper clippings from early in 1927 that use this phrase in quotes from the US 66 Association.
In 1955, surveys were completed and a proposal for realignment of Route 66 was submitted to the Missouri Highway Commission. The plan called for moving Route 66 to the north side of Springfield, and running US 66 and US 166 together west of town through Mt. Vernon. This is roughly the course of I44 today. Were there other planned realignments that were simply merged into the interstate highway plan?
Joe Sonderman supplied a post card of the State Line Bar in Glenrio, Texas for the new book, Ghost Towns of Route 66http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=1968adventurer&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0760338434&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr. If you look closely at the card it shows an adjoining post office signed Glenrio, New Mexico. Any ideas?
Now, a few unrelated items. Regular followers of this blog will notice a few dramatic changes but there are also some subtle ones. Do you feel this is an improvement?
In addition to links in the upper right column for subscribing to Route 66 Chronicles via email and the Kindle reader, there is now poll. The monthly poll will now be a regular feature.
The opinion bar has been moved to the bottom of the post in an effort to make it easier for you to have input. The comments are now at the top.
One item still on the to do list is the removal of links to the companion site, Route 66 Info Center. In light of the exciting new on line magazine being unveiled by John Spring, the wonderful Route 66 Chamber of Commerce website designed and maintained by Ron Hart, the return, we hope, of the Route 66 Alliance, and the excellent work of Mr. Knudsen at the National Historic Route 66 Federation, your one stop shop for the best Route 66 guide books available, it seemed redundant and as a result the plug was pulled.
Last but not least, next weekend is the annual Route 66 Fun Run Weekend, a three day block party and celebration of America’s love affair with that legendary highway and the road trip. This year the event will take on an international flair as tour operator Dale Butel of Australia has coordinated his spring Route 66 tour to include the Fun Run.
For the first time ever, the scheduled dates for the Laughlin River Run, a massive celebration of the motorcycle, and the Fun Run collided. This could be quite interesting. If nothing else it should provide a pretty good glimpse of what traffic was like on Route 66 before it was by passed by the interstate.
Will you be joining in on the fun? A full update with photos will be posted here the following week. Other upcoming items of note at Route 66 Chronicles include the final chapter in the Kingman Army Airfield saga, a contest to win a signed copy of Ghost Towns of Route 66 with accompanying 8x 10 print, and reviews of some new titles.
