Planes, trains, Route 66 and St. Louis were the topics of conversation with author and historian Joe Sonderman on the August 6, 2023 episode of Coffee With Jim. The program definitely provided me with added incentive to explore St. Louis during the Jim Hinckley's...
The Angel of Route 66. That is a fitting moniker for the small town barber that transformed his home town, sparked a renaissance movement that transformed communities from Chicago to Santa Monica, and that has done it all with a smile, with passion, and with an honest...
In 2026 the Route 66 centennial will spark the largest block party in American history. In preperation of this mega event the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield is about to unveil the Route 66 Experience that was developed in partnership with Ace Sign Company....
The forlorn looking White Rock Court is counted among the rarest of Route 66 motels. It is a prewar auto court. And it was the only motel in Kingman to be listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book. In 1915 when Edsel Ford and his college buddies followed the National...
With two simple tweets author and librarian Chelsea Banning summed up the life of anyone crazy enough to try and make a living as a writer. “I have my first author signing at a local bookstore today!” Then later that evening she lamented to fans. "Only 2 people came...
Pontaic, Illinois harnessed Waldmire’s popularity in the Route 66 and folk art community as an integral component in the development of tourism that literally transformed the town into a destination. Kingman, Arizona has an an orignal Bob Waldmire mural, and a display of his orignal work, at TNT Engineering, orignally a Ford dealership built along Route 66 in the 1960s.
Waldmire’s work isn’t recognized or promoted in the Kingman’s official tourism marketing. An innovative narrated self guided historic district walking tour developed by Kingman Main Street finally put the mural and other public art displays in the spotlight. But a year after its introudction the walking tour still hasn’t been included in the city’s tourism marketing initiatives.
In 1926 it was simply one of the roads in the newly minted U.S. highway system. But by 1950 it was without a doubt the most famous highway in America. And today that fame has spread throughout the world even though officially Route 66 no longer exists. For me personally, Route 66 was one of the highways that we followed on our journey west from Virginia in the summer of ’59. And in June of 1966, it was the primary highway that we traveled in our epic move from Michigan to Kingman, Arizona. Then, for the next few years, it was a part of annual pilgrimage to visit with family in Michigan, in Tennessee and in Alabama.
