Route August/September 18

ROUTE THE MAGAZINE THAT CELEBRATES ROAD TRAVEL, VINTAGE AMERICANA AND ROUTE 66

August/September 2018

ISSUE 4

Magazine

THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF

BOB WALDMIRE

THE COLORFUL HISTORY OF ADVERTISING ON ROUTE 66 OFF THE BEATEN PATH WITH ELMER LONG

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CONTENTS

10 Route 66 Documentaries

Countless films have been made in tribute to the Main Street of America over the last 3� years. Read some of our staff’s top picks for a cinematic road trip down Route 66.

16 Gone Too Soon:

The Bob Waldmire Story

Explore the life and legacy of Bob Waldmire, a conservationist and much loved and respected artist whose prolific work celebrated Route 66 and made him synonymous with the Will Rogers Highway.

26 The History of Advertising on Route 66

Nothing is more symbolic of Route 66 than huge billboards and glowing neon signs, entertaining drivers along the road and luring them to tourist attractions. Discover the history of advertising on the Mother Road and how it contributed to the old road’s intrinsicly unique persona.

32 Looking Back: Lowell Davis

Best known for his collectible farm animal figurines, his quirky contribution to Missouri of Red Oak II, and his easygoing, fun-loving personality, Lowell Davis discusses art, growing up in rural Missouri, and his adventurous life on the road in this enchanting interview with ROUTE Magazine.

40 The Colors of Route 66

Photographer Efren Lopez of Route 66 Images shares some of his most captivating pictures of iconic neon that can be found on Route 66 in this bright photo essay.

4 ROUTE Magazine

Step back in time at Gary’s Gay Parita, Missouri.

48 Staying True: Ethan Hawke

ROUTE Magazine sits down with Ethan Hawke, a four-time Oscar nominated actor who has starred in over 5� films, penned three novels and directed four films to talk about camping in lesser touched areas, road trips with his father and raising kids in today’s America.

54 Elmer Land

Just outside of Barstow, California, rests one of the coolest, but most unusual attractions on the route, Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch. Nick Gerlich spends some time with the man behind the dream, Elmer Long, and brings us an exclusive journey into the life and world of a man who few really know, but many respect and admire.

62 Where Quirkiness Comes To Dwell

Join Melissa Whitney as she explores the old mining town of Goldfield, Nevada, home of a unique art installation called the International Car Forest - which is just as odd as it sounds.

ON THE COVER The peaceful, but burro busy road leading to Oatman, Arizona.

Photograph by David Schwartz / PicsOnRoute66.

Some people reminisce

About the past.

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iT! Relive it!

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SpringfieldMo.org

(On Old Route 66 in Downtown SpringďŹ eld) Open Mon. - Fri., 8am - 5pm ROUTE Magazine 5

EDITORIAL Summertime is in full swing and we are all enjoying the warmth and sunshine. For those of us living more to the north, last winter clung on for far too long and we are truly relishing the joy of the season. And with the summer comes thousands and thousands of road travelers, each heading in their own direction, each excited about their long-planned, much-needed vacations. So, when meandering across Route 66, or down another quiet highway, or cruising along a busy Interstate, please be cautious and courteous. We want you to get there and back safely.

For those who are lucky enough to call Arizona and California home, the heat is nothing new. As a matter of fact, this time of year brings temperatures that are less than welcome and for others, downright dangerous. In recent months there have been several fatalities in California’s Amboy Crater, with heat stroke and dehydration likely playing a significant role in these sad dramas. ROUTE’s heartfelt condolences go out to the families of those lost. When exploring this summer, make sure to do all of the necessary preparation and follow the safety rules.

They may well save your life.

We are extra excited about this issue of ROUTE. This month we dive deep into the life and impact of Bob Waldmire, one of the most interesting, beloved and influential personalities to have ever called the Mother Road home. Listening to Bob’s family and friends share on his personality, work and passions was fascinating, and slightly experiencing the world through Bob’s eyes has been memorable. In this article you will likely get to know a Route 66 icon like never before. He was truly a special human being whose story will resonate with others for years to come. We couldn’t have told Bob’s story without the essential help of and valuable contribution from Buz Waldmire. Thank you Buz for your openness and support.

Also in the August/September issue, we spend some quiet time with one of the most reserved, private people on the road, Elmer Long, owner and caretaker of the wonderfully unique Bottle Tree Ranch in Oro Grande, California. Not one to toot his own horn, Elmer was kind enough to take us along with him through time and provide us with a glimpse into what drives him to keep growing and diversifying his bottle tree ranch. There are few other stops along the route that stand out to visitors like this one, and Elmer’s story seems to fit perfectly with the attraction.

One of the things that I enjoy most about my job is getting to feature fascinating, colorful people who have done or are still doing, really unusual or fun things, or are themselves quirky and out of the ordinary. And Route 66 is thankfully packed with such people. They are the essence of what Route 66 stands for and a true testament of all that people can accomplish when they walk their own path. But the other part that I adore is working with celebrities and connecting with them on a human level. They may be movie stars, but they really are no different than you or me. In this issue we kick back with iconic actor Ethan Hawke and chat about his childhood camping in the southwest and his sincere amazement with the size and diversity of America. We also learn more about his new film, Blaze, a picture about little-known country singer, Blaze Foley from Austin, Texas. I have wanted to work with Ethan for a long time, so this presented me with a wonderful opportunity.

But imagine how excited I was to learn about his connection to Route 66 and love of one particular Route 66 town.

These stories and so much more fill this special issue of ROUTE. We love bringing you the magazine and appreciate all of your letters, emails, phone calls and passion. YOU are the reason that we do what we do. If you have not subscribed yet, please visit us on www.routemagazine.us, and do so. We want you on the journey with us.

And remember, be safe out there this summer.

Travel well, travel safe, Brennen Matthews Editor 6 ROUTE Magazine

ROUTE PUBLISHER Thin Tread Media EDITOR Brennen Matthews DEPUTY EDITOR Kate Wambui ASSOCIATE EDITOR Melanee Morin LAYOUT AND DESIGN Tom Heffron EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Anna Chapman Lea Loeb Ryan McPherson DIGITAL Matthew Alves CONTRIBUTORS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS Buz Waldmire Cecil Stehelin David Schwartz Efren Lopez Jeff Vespa Jenny Mallon Joel Baker Kevin Mueller Melissa Whitney Nick Gerlich

Editorial submissions should be sent to brennen@routemagazine.us To subscribe visit www.routemagazine.us.

Advertising enquiries should be sent to advertising@routemagazine. us or call ��� ��� ����.

ROUTE is published six times per year by Thin Tread Media. No part of this publication may be copied or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. The views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, editor or staff. ROUTE does not take any responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photography.

ROUTE Magazine 7

ROUTE REPORT While the route is steeped in history, it is also constantly changing, and we’re here to bring you all the latest news: what’s happening, who’s driving the future of the Mother Road, and why it all matters.

Route 66 Neon Sign Park in Tulsa Planned for Late 20�9 The Route 66 Commission in Tulsa announced in June that a small neon-sign park is being planned on the southwest side of Avery Centennial Plaza, also known as the historic ��th Street Bridge, that once carried Route 66.

The plans are to install three re-created neon signs - the Will Rogers Motor Court, Tulsa Auto Court, and Oil Capital Motel - that were lost or destroyed after Route 66 was decommissioned. The commission stated it wanted those three signs to represent east Tulsa, west Tulsa and the Admiral Place sections of Route 66, respectively.

The commission hopes to have the neon-sign park installed by late ����. The project will be funded with Vision ���5 sales-tax funds that were approved by voters in ���3. It is the last remaining Vision ���5 project for Route 66 in Tulsa County.

New Owners Intend to Revive Vega Motel The new co-owner of the Vega Motel in Vega, Texas, who also owns a new AirBnB site along Route 66 in town, aims to restore and eventually reopen the Route 66 motel that has been closed to overnight travelers for more than �� years.

Vega resident Karen Friemel Fangman, along with her brother Barry Friemel of Georgetown, Texas, bought the Vega Motel in May. She said the property had been for sale since last fall, and she and her brother decided to take action because the condition of the motel demanded it.

Friemel Fangman said they have repaired or replaced the fascia and soffits at the Vega Motel, and a new roof, using green shingles as seen in old postcards, will also be installed.

Fangman declined to give a date for the motel’s reopening. However she did say that they would begin renovating the Vega Motel’s east wing first, because it needs it the most. She also said that her goal is to restore the motel, one wing at a time.

Built in ����, the motel originally named Vega Court, remains one of the few motels with enclosed garages next to the rooms.

The Man Behind Many of Tucumcari’s Murals The Route 66 town of Tucumcari, New Mexico, boasts so much public artwork, it has proclaimed itself the “City of Murals” in one of it’s brochures.

What many don’t realize is that one man, Doug Quarles, is responsible for creating about 85 percent of those murals. Of the 33 murals listed in a tourism brochure, he created �8 of them. And nearly all were done during a ��-year period.

More than a dozen of Quarles’ murals are found along the Route 66 corridor in Tucumcari. Quarles will be creating more murals in Tucumcari in the coming weeks.

The Tropics Sign Relighted for the First Time in �5 Years The restored neon sign for the now-defunct The Tropics restaurant in Lincoln, Illinois, was re-lighted on Sunday June ��th, with hundreds of people turning up to witness the event.

The sign, which stands at the parking lot of a McDonald’s at ���� Hickox Drive in Lincoln, the original site of The Tropics restaurant before it was torn down, was restored by Ace Sign Co. of Springfield, Illinois, and includes an interpretive panel that explains the sign’s history.

The restaurant’s founder, Vince Schwenoha, drew inspiration from the California palm trees, when he designed the iconic neon sign in ��5�.

In ���6, The Tropics was inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame.

All news and copy for this page has been sourced, created and written by www.route66news.com.

Revisions to text have been made in some instances by ROUTE Magazine.

8 ROUTE Magazine

ESSENTIALS

Route 66 Inspired Documentaries At �,��8 miles in length and dancing across eight very unique states from Chicago to sunny Santa Monica, Historic Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway and the Mother Road, has been the subject of fascination for travel enthusiasts, historians, photographers and film makers alike for close to a century. Over the past 3� years numerous films have been created, showcasing the unique and wonderous aspects of the Main Street of America. In this issue ROUTE shares some of our picks for must-see documentaries that take viewers down 66 via a fresh perspective.

CI RCLE TH E WAGE N This comedic road trip documentary follows two college buddies on their journey down Route 66 to pick up a baby blue ���� VW bus purchased sight unseen off of eBay. The film documents Dave Torstenson and his copilot Charlie, both novice Volkswagen owners, as they experience the trials and tribulations of life on the road in their newly acquired bus, affectionately named “The Croc.” During their travels along 66, the two discover a bustling underground community of vintage VW diehards who help them keep “The Croc” running, albeit, barely, along the way. Self-described as a love letter to vintage VW, Circle the Wagen is a frustrating film that will keep your attention and you rooting for a successful completion of their journey.

DAUGHTER , FATH ER , MOTH ER ROAD In this picture, aspiring filmmaker, Amber McKenzie, sets out to create a documentary about famous Route 66, chronicling the journey experienced between herself and her father. The film weaves together information about the road along with the personal stories of the two, diving deeply into the father’s apprehensiveness to turning 6� and McKenzie’s struggle with severe depression.

The trip proves to be a therapeutic bonding experience for both of them as they make fond memories together on their journey to the road’s finishline in Santa Monica, CA. 10 ROUTE Magazine

SHOW M E 66: MAI N STR EET TH ROUGH M I SSOUR I

Show Me 66 explores the unique sights, landscapes and history that can be found along the section of Route 66 that runs through the great state of Missouri. Created as part travelogue and part historical narrative by The Missouri History Museum, film makers Andrew Wank and Eric Wilkinson take an in-depth look at any and all things Route 66. Bigger stories like the road’s origin in Springfield and the effects of WWII on the route are intertwined with smaller factoids like the story of the world’s first drive-thru window and neon signage to give the viewer a multidimensional understanding of America’s most famous road. Missouri has 3�3 miles of glorious Mother Road and this film takes viewers through a sample of what is on offer and the direct impact that the state has had on Route 66 and the route on Missouri.

THE CALIFORNIA PROMISE In his newest picture, filmmaker KC Keefer, along with Route 66 enthusiast Nick Gerlich, and special guest author Joe de Kehoe explore the often bypassed towns of the Mojave Desert that can be found along an old section of California’s Historic Route 66. The film tells the stories of towns referenced

by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath like Essex, Ludlow and Bagdad that were heavily affected by the mass migration of people to California during the Great Depression. It is a sober film that addresses heavy information in a very enjoyable, fascinating, easy

to digest manner. For those who love history, Route 66 or simply great story-telling, this is a must-see documentary.

ROUTE 66 R EVI SITED In this collection, three of the Entertainment Group’s bestselling videos on Route 66 explore the many attractions that can be found along the almost �5��-mile highway. Narrated by award-winning author and historian Michael Wallis, the video revisits the colorful tourist spots, quirky towns and quaint motels featured in his popular book, “Route 66: The Mother Road.”

These videos may feel a little dated, but for many of us, they are a welcome step back in time and a chance to witness Route 66 in several incarnations.

Sadly, some of what Route 66 Revisited showcases has now disappeared forever, but this insightful, addictive video collection allows us a rare glimpse at the recent past and potential future.

BONES OF THE OLD ROAD This Route 66 documentary broke new ground in ���8 when highway historians Jim Ross and Jerry McClanahan set out to explore five old segments of the Mother Road.

The two created together the acclaimed Here It Is! The Route 66 Map Series, one of the most popular guides to the road. This film focuses on the forgotten portions of Route 66 in four different states and covers the historical backgrounds of each section, including why these portions were eventually bypassed.

BUI LT FOR SPEED: TH E COR AL COURT MOTE L This award-winning documentary by Bill Boll and Shellee Graham tells the story of one of Route 66’s bygone iconic landmarks - the Coral Court Motel. In its heyday, the motel was a notorious spot known for adultery, robbery and criminals on the run. Most infamously, the Coral Court gained notoriety with the arrest of Carl Austin Hall, who stayed at the motel in ��53 after he and an accomplice kidnapped and murdered the six-year-old son of a multi-millionaire Kansas City auto dealer. Despite

being designated on the National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County in ��8�, the abandoned building was demolished in ���5 to make room for a suburban housing development, leaving only memories of the motel behind. This film dives into the rich history of the Coral Court as told by those who worked there, stayed there, and lived in the area.

ROUTE 66 10 YEARS LATER In ����, journalist Tim Steil and photographer Jim Luning set out on a road trip to capture the essence of modern Route 66. Their experience was documented in the book “Route 66,” which quickly became popular among road enthusiasts. In ����, the duo decided to redo the trip in honor of its �� year anniversary and to revisit some of the people and places featured in the book in order to see how much had changed over the decade.

This documentary offers an excellent look at iconic Route 66 scenery, self reflection, interviews along the Mother Road and contrasting views on life in the fast lane and life in the slow lane.

ROUTE 66: A N AM ER ICA N ODYSSEY

Route 66: An American Odyssey dives into the comprehensive history of Route 66, from the conception of the road to today’s experience of the route. It is John Paget’s directorial debut and is narrated by Michael Wallis, best-selling author of “Route 66: The Mother Road,” Bobby Troup, singer/songwriter who wrote Get Your Kicks on Route 66 and Angel Delgadillo, president emeritus of Route 66 Association of Arizona.

This best-selling film provides an overview of classic, popular landmarks along the Mother Road as well as in-depth interviews and rare historical footage contrasted with modern cinematography to really capture the spirit of the road.

Editorial Note: �� Days Under the Sky is a new film that deserves to be noted. Narrated by Robert Patrick, the film follows four dedicated bikers as they make their way cross-country following the Lincoln Highway, at times crossing parts of Route 66. Check it out.

ROUTE Magazine 11

THE YEAR OF 1926

BESSIE COLEMAN IS KILLED

A

t ��-years-old, Bessie Coleman made the move from Oklahoma to Chicago in ���6, where she first developed a desire to fly after hearing stories told by homecoming fighter pilots.

This desire would be met by a pair of difficult limitations or restrictions particular to the American politics and social values of the early Twentieth Century. Since the inception of the modern airplane, few American women—save for the wealthy—were in possession of the license necessary to fly such a craft. American flying schools refused to admit Bessie into their programs due simply to her race and womanhood. Yet, as a woman who believed that “the air is the only place free from prejudices,” these limitations proved unsuccessful in preventing Coleman from becoming the first woman of African-American and the first woman of Native American descent to obtain a flight education and ultimately, the cherished pilot’s license.

Like many painters and poets living outside of France, who sought to educate and enrich their genius within the “City of Lights”, Bessie, though not an artist, chose to earn her education and certification in Paris, where a woman of her ethnicity could do so. Aware of the growing culture of pilotry in France, where numerous women flew planes without restriction, she decided to learn French, and collected her entire financial savings to fund a trip to Paris, where she would attend flight school and earn her license. The only woman of color in her class, it took seven months for her to be thoroughly educated in aviation. In June of ����, she was bestowed with an international pilot’s license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale after completing her education.

Upon Coleman’s return to the States that year, she was greeted warmly as a public celebrity. Air Service News noted her as a “full-fledged aviatrix, the first of her race.”

An ovation made by hundreds of theatergoers—most of 12 ROUTE Magazine

whom were white—greeted her at the premiere of “Shuffle Along,” an all-black musical. In ����, she participated in her first air show in Garden City, Long Island, performing “heart thrilling stunts” for an audience of 3���, according to the Chicago Defender.

She performed audacious tricks for those curious spectators at airshows, earning her more celebrity. One such trick, recorded by Doris L. Rich in Queen Bess finds Bessie, after a frightened parachutist in her plane refused to take a leap, making the jump herself, and brilliantly landing in the middle of the audience. Such fearless audacity, it seems, would prove to be literally her downfall. “I thought it my duty to risk my life to learn aviation,” she once exclaimed.

The air shows and the celebrity achieved by them, would not last for long as she took her final flight, in preparation for an air show the following day, in Jacksonville, Florida.

While in the air, a wrench managed to wiggle its way into the engine’s control gears, causing the plane to flip and crash, the situation made doubly fatal by Bessie’s unfastened seat-belt—she was ripped from her seat by the air dropping to her death from some ���� feet in the air (though the actual height is disputed).

As the Mother Road would become a tender daughter on November �st of ���6, with the Federal Highway Act, the death of Bessie Coleman seven months earlier, together with the Air Commerce Act, demonstrated the importance of safety when controlling, not a car, but an airplane. Yet, the fates of the two domains, air and road, have echoed each other since the arrival of modern aviation and have taught us that when driving or flying, the principle of safety must be maintained in balance with the principle of enjoyment, which is always inclined towards danger. Today, few immediately know the name of Bessie Coleman, but her achievements and courage must go down in history as pioneering and worthy of our respect.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.

As Route 66’s establishment in ���6 would come to pave the way for cars to carry passengers from the Midwest to the Pacific coast via asphalt, the air, without any highways, had been — for over twenty years — a prime and novel location for traveling, fighting, and performing tricks via airplane. Yet, from amongst the growing number of aviators to populate the sky, one pilot stood out from amongst her peers. ���6 would see the tragic accidental death—caused by an unfastened seat-belt—of nationally celebrated pilot, Bessie Coleman.

ROUTE Magazine 13

GONE TOO The Bob Waldmire Story

By Cecil Stehelin and Brennen Matthews

14 ROUTE Magazine

SOON

ROUTE Magazine 15

M

ore than perhaps any other highway in the US, Route 66 has always been a road of opportunity. Whether they were escaping drought or boredom, the Mother Road has always fostered an “anything is possible” mentality amongst its pilgrims. Maybe it is the dramatic and diverse geography that paints the eight states that make up this iconic highway, or perhaps the mystery or opportunity that waits just around the next bend.

Or maybe it is the romance of heading west and chasing the eternal sun. Perhaps it is many things, but one thing that is for certain is that Route 66 has always attracted colorful, quirky personalities in the form of dreamers, poets, adventurers, gangsters, writers, photographers, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and philosophers. Many personalities have stood out over the decades, but perhaps one more than any other has come to quintessentially represent the Mother Road.

An itinerant artist, passionate conservationist and searcher, Bob Waldmire’s vision and life lived created an influence that still reverberates to this day, drawing visitors from far and wide to drive the highway and those closer to home, to reflect on their own time on this Earth. “I called Bob the Johnny Appleseed of the Mother Road. Bob’s seeds were in the form of his work that he deposited so lovingly across whole dimensions of Route 66,” describes respected author Michael Wallis, a fellow disciple of the highway and an intimate friend of Waldmire for many years. “You go into a business and see a Bob Waldmire drawing or a postcard tacked up on a wall, on a telephone post, on a bulletin board … it just became synonymous, his work with the road. He was such a devotee.”

’3� Ed walked the short distance to Strand’s Bakery to pick up his regular supply of bread and buns for the café.

Entering inside he quickly noticed a new girl working at the bakery. However, her perception of him was perhaps a little different than his immediate attraction. She took one look at his haggard, unshaven appearance and immediately thought Ed to be a vagrant looking for a handout. Perhaps gifted with an extra share of charm, he managed to convince young Mary Virginia Turnbull, to join him for a meal at the Goal Post. The couple hit it off smashingly and were married �6 months later.

By ����, Ed decided to sell his shares in the café and enroll in the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

He would enjoy his studies there until ���� when he graduated, after which he enrolled in a month-long machinist course. On April ��, ���5, the exact same day that his second son Bob was born, Ed received his draft orders. He was being called up to help in the war effort.

He was assigned to numerous locations across the United States, before finally landing in Amarillo, Texas, where he was posted in the finance department.

While in Amarillo, Ed experimented with his first corn dog creation, marketing his tasty product at the P.X. base, in the Mess Hall and to G.I.s at USO shows. After the war, the “Cozy Dog” grew from a booth at the State Fair to a bustling drive-in along Old Route 66. The small restaurant was to impact the Waldmire family’s life more than they could have ever imaged, but back then, life was pretty simple for Bob and his siblings. “When we grew

Early Years Edwin Sutton Waldmire Jr. (Ed) - Bob Waldmire’s father - was born in May ���6, in Petersburg, Illinois, a quiet, small traditional American town. His parents, Edwin Searle Waldmire and Flora Merle Sutton had been high school sweethearts and married a year before Ed’s birth. A few years later the couple would have a second child, Bill, and in ���5, a third son, Bob, entered the world. The little family was happy and growing.

Edwin (senior) worked in insurance and real estate and had investments in several properties in Mississippi and Florida. The ����s were good to the Waldmire clan. But with the close of the decade and the crash of the stock market, the family, like so many others across the nation, was financially devastated and lost everything they had accumulated. But that was not the end of their story.

Jump ahead to ��3� and Ed found himself enrolled as a junior in Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. At that time, his father managed close to ���� acres of college land and was entrepreneurial enough to make an agreement with the school’s treasurer for Ed to work as a janitor-maintenance man in exchange for tuition. The role only lasted for two months until Ed accepted a new job at Howard’s Coffee Corner in downtown Galesburg. Four months later, young Ed was running the venue and focusing on the future.

By the end of ’38, Ed and two of his friends decided to go into business together and took up rental of a small building on the college campus, a location that they turned into a successful café called the Goal Post. One day in early 16 ROUTE Magazine

The Waldmire family.

Waldmire’s art skills continued to flower in high school, where a parallel impulse began to metastasize. During a ��6� family vacation down Route 66 to California, Waldmire discovered a love for the desert. “We took a family vacation to California. It was mom, dad, four boys and grandma in a station wagon, pulling a trailer with our suitcases. It took us probably six to eight weeks, and a lot of that time was through the desert. And so, upon his graduation from high school in ��63, Bob and a friend [Jimmy Dodds] took off and went out to the southwest and spent a month or two. When he came back he had some scorpions and some snakes and tarantulas and stuff that he had collected. He built cages in the back room of the Cozy Dog Drive-in, and he displayed them there so that customers could come in and have lunch, and they could go in the back, and they could look at these cases, and they could see these live reptiles.”

The trip described by Buz impacted The first Cozy Dog in 1946 – Ed Waldmire as a young man giving Virginia Waldmire deeply: “I have come to a cozy dog. appreciate (the) sense of the beauty of the harsh extremes,” Waldmire would express later in one of his dispatches, “the endless subtle up we didn’t know anything about Route 66, it was just variations of light, shadow, and color… the rainbows a two-way street in front of our house,” remembers Buz and the incredibly starry night sky. The silence and the Waldmire, Bob’s younger brother. When the kids weren’t coyote serenades …” Waldmire took to the creatures of helping their dad at the drive-in, they were out at Cardinal the desert, developing a deep affection for snakes, in Hill, the family farm, where they caught crawdads, frogs, particular, catching rattlers in a make-shift cage to sketch, and snakes in the Sangamon River. Bob Waldmire’s before returning them carefully to the exact spot he’d intense love of nature began here, in a green belt off found them. the old road. “Bob’s early drawings [were] of horses and After spending a couple of years at Springfield Junior insects and other animals that he would find.”

College in ��68, Waldmire joined Southern Illinois But, like most kids, childhood was a time of fun and University, majoring in Illustration. This period of exploration for the Waldmire clan. “We had bicycles and we had the run of the town. We grew up in the 5�s and it was like, you know, mom had five boys, and she was busy with the house and she was helping daddy with the Cozy Dog and daddy was gone most of the time. At that time we had three different restaurants that he was running, so we just ran around the neighborhood with our friends. We would go to the drugstore and read comic books and buy a vanilla or cherry phosphate. [Bob] was pretty much the informal leader of almost everything we did growing up.” As long as the boys were back by 5PM for dinner, it was an easy life.

An Artist is Born In between exploring and helping in his mother’s candle and gift shop, Waldmire would often be found drawing.

Buz Waldmire remembers having contests with Bob to see how many numbers they could fit on to a single piece of paper, trying to cram ��� to 5�� numbers with extremely tiny lettering. “Of course, he always won. He always liked writing small, and he always liked being very detailed.

Some people can’t talk unless they talk with their hands.

Bob had difficulty talking if he didn’t have a pen or pencil to draw [with] while he was talking.”

The Waldmire family with African exchange students.

ROUTE Magazine 17

the young artist’s life would turn out to be one of his own. The first map he made was of his hometown philosophical development, filled with ideas and iconic Springfield, Illinois, in ����; he sold spots on the map happenings that could only occur during this unique to local businesses that were happy both to be featured period. As with most universities across America at on the map and to sell them to their clientele, allowing a the time, the Southern Illinois University campus was young entrepreneurial Waldmire to get a taste of making steeped in the counter-cultural atmosphere of the late some money.

6�s. “[Bob] grew up in a culture of political activism,” remembers Bill Crook, a fellow artist and long-time On the Road friend of Waldmire. “He learned it at a young age.”

Inspired by this early success, Waldmire began to conjure Ed Waldmire had been politically active with the World up the first of many business schemes or “projects” that Federalist Group, organizing rallies for Eisenhower and would animate him over the course of his life. As Waldmire promoting the creation of global laws, and this freeshared with Bob Venners for the Desert Exposure: thinking spirit seemed to have been passed on to his son.

“I suddenly realized I could do my drawing for money and Bob Waldmire was a lifelong member of Greenpeace, and never have to work again.” Not only would this indulge his learned to voice his political views as the editor for the artistic passions, but the venture also meant that he could school newspaper. Waldmire was certainly a product of work from anywhere. In fact, it ensured that he could these times and context, both artistic and social. His love keep moving, searching for new clients and a life that he of nature pushed him into a commitment to veganism and envisioned. Waldmire spent the ��s and early 8�s traveling a hatred of killing in general. He would champion both from college town to college town in his ��6� Volkswagen causes for the rest of his life.

Station Wagon, “I remember mapping towns seeing his work from Tallahassee in a bathroom at to Boulder before a coffee house in moving on to the University of entire states Illinois,” notes like California, Crook. And I can Arizona, and New remember the Mexico. “When he exact year because was on the road, I met this woman he would go in over there and I [a business] with eventually married no shirt on and her. She used to no shoes,” recalls hang out at this Crook. “If they coffee shop in threw him out, the campus area, he decided they named Bubby and weren’t his kind Zadie’s. So, in of people and the restroom they wouldn’t work had one of Bob’s with them.” posters pasted on The Waldmire brothers. L to R: Bill, Jeff (deceased), Bob (deceased), Tom and Buz. In ��85, he the wall, and it used his profits to was fascinating, upgrade to his signature ’�� Volkswagen camper van, which because it had so much minute detail. It was a poster is now on display in the Route 66 Museum in Pontiac, of the University of Illinois with just a ton of graphic Illinois. Again, from his interview with the Desert Exposure: natural history, famous people, it had served as a map “I was at the Portal Cafe, reading the auto trader magazine. and a calendar, and all these things at once, and it had I saw an ad for that ’�� Volkswagen, and I called the guy epic proportions. I got really fascinated, and I didn’t even from the phone in the parking lot. I ended up buying it realize at the time that it was the same guy who I had met sight unseen.” Waldmire’s van became iconic on the Mother [earlier]. I didn’t pay too much attention to the signature Road. It was covered with bumper stickers imploring a at the bottom. Then later, within a couple of years, by ’�5 ‘Better active today than radioactive tomorrow’ and ‘Resist or ’�6 I was doing work around Springfield and Bob had much, obey little.’ In later years, Waldmire painted a map some work in the Springfield newspaper.” This is around on the side of the van so that people could check where they the time that the two reconnected and a friendship grew. were while they passed him. Waldmire lived out his favorite “But Bob was very itinerant you know, he never stayed in maxim, ‘Travel farther, slower.’ one place very long. He’d be in town, you’d run into him, An encounter with Waldmire on the highway was always then the next thing you know he’s driving off to Texas or memorable. Michael Wallis recalls one rendezvous along California or some place, and you wouldn’t see him for the Texas Panhandle while traveling with a small posse of 6 months. And then he’s back!” bikers: “It was early in the morning, [and] I figured Bob University was also where Waldmire first developed his had spent the night there. So, I told these bikers, I said, interest in cartography. After seeing a map of Southern “You’re about to meet an amazing fellow.” So we pulled in, Illinois University and the nearby town of Carbondale, parked the Harleys and I walked over and I gently knocked made by a fellow student, Waldmire decided to make 18 ROUTE Magazine

on the door. Blinds parted, peeking out the window was that great smile. Woke him up and he opened the door, again in the uniform of the day, sandals and shorts. ‘Well, [said Bob] you guys woke me up, there’s nothing better than to be out on 66 and wake up to the purrs of Harleys.’

As Wallis introduced Waldmire to his group, a wasp flew hastily past them. Waldmire’s eyes perked up and he said, “Far Out! It’s a Tarantula Hawk! Let’s follow it!” And with that, Bob Waldmire sprang into action. “Hurrying, scurrying through the brush, following this wasp, and right behind him, dutifully following, were half a dozen bikers with all their gear on, you know, leathers, following behind, until the wasp made a play on some kind of game, on an insect. Bob gathered them around and they all saw the wasp make the kill, and then bring the prey down and do whatever he had to do. When I got to the group, all these bikers were there, all their mouths were open and they were just amazed at what they saw, and how Bob gave them a gift of watching this act of nature play out, and I know it pleased Bob so much to be able to do that.”

For Love of the Highway While working on a poster of Missouri, Waldmire became obsessed by the rich Route 66 history of the state. A small color map he did for National Parks

Magazine in ��8� inspired him to make a detailed map of the entire Mother Road. It took four years of painstaking research to create the ten-page map. Waldmire used Rapidograph pens made in Germany for the map’s finer details: “They’re extremely delicate, but he could handle it,” remembers Crook. “He got down to like a quadruple point, which is like the width of a hair, to do his finest lettering.” It was so detailed that it required a six-page legend to interpret.

As Waldmire gave up his nomadic life to work on the map, he settled for a time back home in Springfield, laboring over his creation at the Cozy Dog, now run by Buz Waldmire. “He liked to work ��/� for a while, and then he’d get tired, and he’d sleep for a couple of days.

He had his own key to the business, so he could come and go as he pleased.” It was around this time that Waldmire met Michael Wallis and began getting involved with the Route 66 Revival community. As writers like Wallis, Jim Ross, and Jerry McClanahan explored the history of the Mother Road through prose, Waldmire studied by charting its anatomy. Obsessively tracking down the capillaries of forgotten alignments and illuminating the bones of steel bridges.

Above all, he felt a great kinship for the creatures that made their home along the route and beyond, his intense distaste for killing seeped into his artwork. In the fine

The inside of Bob Waldmire’s bus.

ROUTE Magazine 19

print of a map he made for Silver City, New Mexico in ��85, Waldmire hid some sly jabs at a hunting outfitter that had sponsored the poster: “The campaign to ‘control’ the coyote is more like a war of extermination.” and “The Steel Jaw-Leg hold Trap [is the] Scourge of the Earth.” These admonitions passed unnoticed for years, before the outfitter took a closer look. The town sponsors were outraged and threatened legal action against Waldmire, but nothing came of it. However, for the budding conservationist, something was born: Bob Waldmire with his mother.

Waldmire revealed to the Desert Exposure: “Pretty soon I realized I was fighting for everything that was endangered, whether it was flora, fauna, or a highway.” And Waldmire was not shy to share his convictions with those who would listen. One time he complained via a number of letters to a local newspaper about a neighbor who was ‘harvesting boulders’ – digging large rocks out of the ground and selling them – and Waldmire was unhappy about this activity. The newspaper published his protests.

Hackberry Days It was in pursuit of all of these goals at once that Waldmire came to own an abandoned gas station and general store in the ghost town of Hackberry, Arizona.

Sitting in the middle of two desert bioregions where sagebrush mixes freely with creosote, in a location that once featured in Easy Rider, Waldmire found his Route 66 paradise. The plan was a definitive Waldmire “project,” dubbed the “International, Bioregional Old Route 66 Visitor Center” and formulated as an idea that was typically imaginative and fiendishly detailed. He would turn the derelict service stop into both a cultural oasis and a wildlife observation camp complete with teepees and a DIY greenhouse. Over the next four years, the Hackberry Store gradually took shape, and Waldmire filled the outpost with a horde of road treasures, turning the outpost into an unmissable waystation along the Mother Road. Travelers from all over the world came to see Waldmire’s collection and hear his stories. And he loved to tell them.

But this growing notoriety had its drawbacks. As the route’s reputation grew, traffic along Waldmire’s stretch of the highway began to double, more and more visitors were passing through Hackberry, and he found himself 20 ROUTE Magazine

missing the freedom and solitude of the open road. Buz Waldmire recalls a time when Waldmire was sleeping all day after a couple of all-nighters and a German family, touring in a motorhome, pulled up to his outpost and knocked excitedly at the door. Waldmire stirred, but was in no mood to entertain: “So, he quickly locked the door and went in the back and played his flute [quietly] until he was sure they were gone. Then he got up and sure enough, they had gone. So, he unlocked the door and went outside, and when he did, he noticed that they had shoved a small pile of money in his little mailbox that he kept by the door. They had left a note that said, ‘We’re sorry that we missed you.

Here’s some money, please keep up the good work and long live the highway.’ He felt really bad that he wasn’t there to greet them. So, he took all that money and he built a little bonfire and he burned it. Because he knew he couldn’t find them to return it, and he didn’t feel right about keeping the money, because he didn’t greet them.” Waldmire’s sense of right and wrong and justice dictated how he lived his life.

It was also around this time that Waldmire began his two-year relationship with Sally Taylor, a fellow wanderer living in an old camping trailer. The pair had met underneath a lonely Joshua tree. “A very nice woman, she was great for Bob,” says Crook, as he reminisces on a trip that the three of them took to the Grand Canyon.

Fancying a swim, Waldmire and Taylor stripped down and went skinny dipping in the Colorado River. It was a time of fun and romance. “But Bob really couldn’t handle a relationship I guess,” continued Crook, and the couple decided to go their own ways.”

Waldmire’s naturally hermetic character strained under the demands of being a host. His wanderlust wouldn’t allow him to settle. All this, combined with the damage being done to the Hackberry landscape by quarrying contractors, lead to a feeling of encroachment coming at

him from all sides. Waldmire sold the Visitor’s Center in ���8; it still operates to this day under new ownership.

Waldmire loved people, but felt a definite need for his personal space and seemed as comfortable in his own company as he did with others. Michael Wallis shared a story that seems to highlight this: “I recall a day in the early ����s when I pulled into Glenrio to pay my respects to the ghost town in the making perched on the Texas-New Mexico border. As I walked around the derelict buildings, I picked up a bit of faint conversation riding the wind. I dipped in and around a few of the old buildings, sort of absorbing the town as I always did, when I began to pick up a little bit of conversation, I wasn’t quite sure what the talk was, but it was punctuated by bursts of laughter. I was curious, because where I was coming from, is where the paved road ends. So, I walked down the road a little ways and through the grass growing up all over the path and everything, and I could see somebody on the ground right in the middle of the road, and it was Bob. He was wearing his ubiquitous shorts and sandals and no shirt. Just a smiling Bob, lying on his back, and he was holding up with his two hands above him, this great tortoise, this desert tortoise. It was a big thing, big as a football. He was holding it up, and they were having a conversation. More one-sided of course, because Bob was doing all the verbalizing, but apparently they were communicating quite well, because every once in a while Bob would just let out a great holler and laugh. They were just having a great time, he loved nature so much, he really became part of nature. He was just wonderful that way, and so, although I hadn’t seen him in a while, I decided right there at that moment, not to go down and talk to Bob. It looked like he was having such a good time with that tortoise, so I simply backed up and walked away. I got in my car and drove off and continued west. But that’s still in my mind, my favorite of the many images I have of Bob Waldmire, seeing Bob and that tortoise.”

In the Shadow of the Chiricahua’s and Cars Waldmire’s brush with notoriety prompted a retreat into obscurity. He kept his dream of a wildlife camp alive, but took it deeper into the desert to a ��-acre plot near Portal, Arizona, off the grid even further and under the shadow of the Chiricahua Mountains. “The Chiricahuas is this beautiful mountain range, but there wasn’t a property for sale, so he bought this property about �� or �� miles away that is in a god-forsaken wind-blown desert valley,” says Crook.

The plans for this “eco-paradise” were no less ambitious than those for Hackberry. He began developing campsites for researchers, trails, rock gardens and generators powered by wind and solar energy. However, between his vending tours, appearances at community events along the route, and building the massive “Land-Yacht,” a ’6� Bluebird school bus converted into a two-story wooden motor home, he never found time to complete his camp.

(Waldmire befriended Ben Willow, a traveling magician, mime and musician who lived in a big old bus, and became impressed with him and his bus home. Waldmire later purchased his own bus in Grants, New Mexico.)

It was also around this time that he first met his son Jimmy Graham, whose mother Waldmire had met during

his first years on the road. Graham had sought Waldmire out, who had not previously known about his son. They spent a lot of time together after that and Waldmire would speak of his son with pride.

During a trip with his family in ���� John Lasseter, co-founder of Pixar, became interested in the Mother Road and the efforts of the Route Revivalists in particular.

With Michael Wallis as their guide, the Pixar team became acquainted with the highway over the course of several trips, developing the iconic and much-loved characters of the animated film Cars, based on the personalities they met along the way. Upon meeting the Pixar team, Waldmire hit it off with them immediately.

The animators loved the look of his ’�� Volkswagen and based the design for Fillmore, voiced by the late George Carlin, off of it. Pixar wanted to name the character “Waldmire” in his honor, but Bob Waldmire hesitated.

“They sought him out and said, “Well, we’re doing the movie now, and it’s coming up, and we’re starting to name characters. And we’d love to name this VW van Waldmire in your honor.” and he said, “Well, let me think about that,” Wallis explained. “And he did, and he talked to several of us, including me. He told me pretty much right from the get-go, ‘You know, as much as I love the idea of this movie, and I love those guys and gals, they were really great, from Pixar, I’m really uncomfortable with this because I know they’re going to make a lot of commercial products and things that are going to be sold at McDonald’s, at the Golden Arches.’ Which of course was forbidden territory to Bob Waldmire, who not only was a strict vegetarian, but just hated the idea, like many of us do, of commercial … not the commercialization I guess, because Route 66 is a commercial road, but with all the cookie cutter businesses, the chain places along the road that cover the whole nation now, that have helped make America generic. So, he ultimately told them, ‘I’m not going to be able to do it.’ And they had a great visit, and they totally understood. I tried to point out to Bob, “Yeah, that’s true about this and that, but here’s the deal Bob, it would be good for the road, because people know who you are. And it would be good for you and your artwork.” But it would also be good to have another familiar figure from the road in the film. And I said, “Besides that, what you need to remember is that Route 66 is, in fact, a commercial road, no different from the Santa Fe Trail. It’s a road of merchants, its barter and trade. It’s the exchange of money.

People selling you a room for the night, an enchilada platter, a look in the snake pit, a book, a piece of art.”

Waldmire wrote a letter to Pixar making them a counter-offer: he would give consent if the company gave him “�-cents for each and every unit bearing the Waldmire name (such as toys, games, posters)” half of which he would give to charity. Pixar declined, but there was no resentment. Waldmire was a man of firm morals.

He reconciled with Fillmore and his own beloved VW in a poster showing both of them meeting on the highway.

Final Years After Cars, the route’s popularity exploded, the film’s resounding success sparking a wave of local and global tourism. For those connected to Route 66, there was a deep air of excitement and a sensation that a positive ROUTE Magazine 21

and productive period for the old road was about to come. However, it was also around this time that Waldmire began to develop health problems. Both his grandfather and father had died of colon cancer, and in ���� Waldmire began to experience symptoms of the affliction. He refused to go to the hospital, as he disliked doctors, and instead decided to fight the disease through diet and a positive attitude. Failing that, Waldmire had no wish to endure invasive life-saving procedures; he wished to pass lucid. The way he saw it, the mutant cells in his body were more natural than whatever the doctors would give him. “He was having trouble with bleeding and just sort of accepted it. It was very interesting, because he didn’t seek medical attention. I think anybody else would rush to the doctor, you know, to figure out what’s going on, but Bob didn’t. It was a very unusual quality that he had that he was sort of very in touch with his own body.

He didn’t want to be in the medical arena. He started getting weaker, and then he got jaundiced. By ���6, he realized that he couldn’t live out in the desert by himself,” says Crook.

A few of Waldmire’s friends, including Bill Crook, arranged “Bob’s Final Art Show” on Nov. �st, ����, to help pay some of his funeral expenses. It was held at the Cozy Dog, the hub of so many of his adventures. After years of traveling and corresponding with his vast social network, in the end, everyone came to him. Fans packed the small drive-in wall to wall to get an autograph, travelers from every corner of the States, and even one traveler from Japan, came to visit one last time as he bequeathed his amassed art collection. Renowned Route 66 artist and author, Jerry McClanahan remembers: 22 ROUTE Magazine

Photographs supplied by Buz and Bill Waldmire.

The Waldmire brothers.

“I had to swallow hard to buy that postcard of his, but [I knew] that was the first and last time I would have a chance to buy one of his original pieces from him.”

“I did see Bob with a few pals just a week before he passed,” noted Wallis.

“He wasn’t eating very much, he couldn’t keep food down, so he wanted to use his other senses. He asked us to bring him something, so I did. I brought him a freshly baked apple pie, wrapped it, and he smelled it and just sucked it in.

It was like incense to him, and he sat back. Then he said, ‘Now take that pie away, and you all enjoy it. I had plenty.

That was just what I wanted.’ He was there in his PJs, just holding forth, you know, in great peace. Ready for the journey to go on, to go on elsewhere.

It was hard, but we said our good-byes, our adios’ and of course he said, ‘See you down the road,’ and I said, “I’ll be there.”

Waldmire was jaundiced and weak, but his face was bright and welcoming, and as Crook recalls: “He was extremely serene and easy to be around. [He was] in very good humor.” Waldmire had a final word of wisdom for his friends and family, warning them to do as he would have wanted them to: “I’ll be up there watching down on you folks, [so] make sure.”

On December �6th, ���� Bob Waldmire drew his last breath. “He did pass with a smile on his lips,” Buz Waldmire remembers. “He was at peace when he passed.”

But even in death, Waldmire could not resist one final “project.” Portions of his ashes were to be spread around multiple sites along the highway, into the Mississippi River from the Chain of Rocks Bridge, around his eco-paradise in Portal, Arizona, and off of the Santa Monica Pier. The rest were buried with his parents. His fleet of unique cars were given one last ride before being retired to the Route 66 Museum in Pontiac, Illinois, and his Land-yacht remains unchanged to this day, stuffed wall to wall with his treasures. Pontiac is also home to the last piece that Waldmire ever made; a map of the route, finished a couple weeks before his death, and painted on a wall 66 feet long.

Bob Waldmire was a complicated man, fiercely protective of the things and people that he loved and unusually laid back about pretty much everything else.

He was a talented artist and a dedicated traveler, seemingly a searching soul for much of his life. To some a carefree, nomadic hippie, while to others, a modern-day prophet whose art and life philosophy was inspirational and revered. He despised corporate greed, but envisioned a life of financial success for himself. Few got to know Waldmire well, while those who did speak of a dear friend with strong opinions and a gentle disposition.

Bob Waldmire the man, died at 6� years of age, too soon by anyone’s standards. But the legacy of Bob Waldmire the Route 66 artist and icon, continues on, alive and strong.

Picture yourself on the sidewalks of Route 66

lley soline A Bob’s Ga nly O t intmen

By Appo

Destination

Cuba,Missouri on Historic Rte. 66

14 Murals Four Motels Museum Winery Restaurants Antique Mall Largest Rocking Chair

www.visitcubamo.com ROUTE Magazine 23

BIGGER,

The History of Advertising on Route 66

By Melanee Morin

24 ROUTE Magazine

BRIGHTER

ROUTE Magazine 25

One of the things that makes Route 66 so special is its uniqueness: there’s nothing else quite like it in the world, and its magic cannot be replicated. One of the key driving factors that formed the persona of the Mother Road was, as Oklahoma Route 66 Association member Rhys Martin put it, “the advent of station-wagon tourism.” The creation of the route coincided with the new wave of automobile culture. With the development of more affordable cars, beginning with Ford’s Model T in ���8, and the rise of expendable income after WWII, family road trips became the norm, and every business along the route was vying for these potential customers’ attention.

With the plethora of “baby boomer” children, businesses knew the easiest way to bring in consumers was by tempting children’s curiosity: oversized characters, gigantic billboards, and neon lighting up the night. Route 66 effectively became an open-air amusement park designed to enthrall, entice, entertain, but most of all, bring in copious amounts of cash.

T

he U.S. Highway 66 Association was failure, and the U.S. Highway 66 Association looked to established in ���� in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with other avenues to promote the route. Los Angeles had been the aim of getting the entire route paved chosen to host the summer Olympics in ��3�, and the and promoting tourism along the road. They Association saw this prestigious event as an opportunity began by advertising with billboards, in to advertise Route 66 to the world. magazines, and via brochures (the Association published The ��3� Olympics were really the first time that its last brochure in ���� due to the rise of the Interstate).

Route 66, and Los Angeles, were given a standing on However, the Association needed nationwide publicity, so the global map. The U.S. Highway 66 Association saw they decided to host the first Trans-American Footrace in the event as a way to promote a key destination along ���8: a footrace from Los Angeles to New York City that the route, as well as the highway that could bring people followed Route 66 to Chicago, 3��� miles in total. there. The Association placed their first advertisement Dubbed the “Bunion Derby” by newspapers, the in the Saturday Evening Post on July �6, ��3�, inviting race began on March �, ���8, with ��� runners. It was Americans to travel the “Great Diagonal Highway” to organized by sports promoter C.C. Pyle (known as the LA Olympics. Within a week, the Association’s “Cash and Carry” Pyle), who wanted to capitalize on office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was overwhelmed with the public’s interest in the race and the new highway by hundreds of requests for information about Route 66 offering towns along the route the opportunity to host and the Olympics. Despite occurring during the Great the race at endpoints - and cover the costs - along with a Depression, the LA Olympics were a roaring success traveling sideshow that would follow the runners across over ���,��� spectators attended the opening ceremonies the country. However, many towns were not interested at the Memorial Coliseum, at $3 a seat - thanks in large and couldn’t afford to host the race, and Pyle quickly part to America’s Highway. began running out of money. He increased the length of But it wasn’t just the official U.S. Highway 66 the stages to bring the race to an end sooner, and many Association that was developing novel advertising participants dropped out. One newspaper described the methods, family businesses along the route were also race as “a plodding, disorganized event that taxed the getting creative. Just a year after the Olympics, a man health and sanity of the runners and was largely greeted named Lester Dill opened Meramec Caverns in Missouri with indifference by the as a roadside attraction.

American public.”

A mesmerizing network Only 55 runners crossed of limestone caves, the finish line in New York Meramec Caverns was City and into Madison an ideal destination for Square Garden on May families and tourists, but �6, ���8 - 8� days after it they had to know about started. The winner was it first. Reminiscent of Andy Payne, a ��-yeartoday’s hype marketing, old from Oklahoma and a Dill bought dozens of member of the Cherokee barns along Route 66 and nation, with a time of 5�3 painted them in bright hours, � minutes, and colors with the words 3� seconds. Despite the “Meramec Caverns,” revenue issues that plagued with many of these barns the race, Pyle brought it miles away from the back the following year in actual attraction. In fact, ���� - reversing the route Dill began traveling the from New York to Los country, offering to paint The Palmer Hardware in Elkhart, Indiana in the late 1950s or Angeles - but it too was farmers’ barns for free if he early 1960s. a financial and logistical could advertise Meramec 26 ROUTE Magazine

At one time Meramac Caverns had up to 400 barns advertising their must-see attraction.

Caverns on the roof; at one point, there were some ��� of these “barn billboards” in �� states. The practice of rooftop advertising was prohibited when new beautification laws were passed in ��68, and now only a few “Meramec Caverns” barns remain as gems along the route, reminding travelers of one man’s innovation and determination; a man who saw every blank canvas as an opportunity.

The Bigger, the Better Rather than establish a profusion of similar advertisements like Dill, numerous towns and businesses along the route opted to design one oversized monument that drivers could see from afar, that would offer a unique experience to patrons. It is not a coincidence that many of the “world’s largest” items are found along Route 66: you’ll find the world’s largest bottle of ketchup in Collinsville, Illinois, built in ���� by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant; and, the world’s largest concrete totem pole in Foyil, Oklahoma, built by Ed Galloway from ��3� to ���8. The tradition continues today with the (former) world’s largest rocking chair in Fanning, Missouri, originally built by Danny Sanazaro to entice customers to his archery and feed store and erected on April Fool’s Day in ���8. You’ll also find the world’s largest pop bottle, a color-shifting LED bottle 66 feet tall, at POPS Soda Ranch in Arcadia, Oklahoma, which opened in ����.

Although, it’s not just the world’s largest items that draw attention. Just plain big will do as well. There’s the massive Blue Whale in Catoosa, the giant arrows outside the former Twin Arrows Trading Post in Arizona, and the large fibreglass rabbit at the Jack Rabbit Trading Post (along with the legendary “Here it is” billboard).

But there’s one type of giant that truly captured the imaginations of Americans that has been proliferated across the route and the country, perhaps, because they are made in our image.

Muffler Men Over ��-feet-tall and sporting a range of unique costumes and stoic faces, you’ve probably seen some of these gentle giants while on the route, and elsewhere, or felt their siren call to now derelict businesses. Extremely popular as advertising gimmicks in the ��6�s, Muffler Men unfailingly caught the eyes of passing travelers, kids and adults alike, bringing in lots of business for the proprietors. It all began with Bob Prewitt of Lawndale, California, who started making fiberglass animals in the late ��5�s. In ��6�, Prewitt created his first human design, a ��-foot-tall Paul Bunyan figure for the Paul Bunyan Cafe in Flagstaff, Arizona. Based on the famous lumberjack of American folklore, the figure wielded an axe, but when he was bought by a restaurant in ��65, the axe was replaced with a hotdog. Known as the first Muffler Man, Tall Paul now resides in Atlanta, Illinois, and is still holding that delicious frankfurter.

ROUTE Magazine 27

In ��63, the International Fiberglass Company, owned by Steve Dashew, bought Prewitt Fiberglass Animals and acquired all of the molds created by Prewitt. Originally, International Fiberglass made boats, but Dashew decided to promote his largerthan-life figures to businesses hoping to attract more customers.

The effectiveness of this advertising technique resulted in a fiberglass giant craze, and during �� years of production, hundreds were sold in a stunning array of characters: cowboys, astronauts, pirates, female figures in bikinis, giant chickens, dinosaurs and many more. Texaco alone bought 3�� figures. Many were designed for auto-shops, holding car parts such as mufflers, which is A Muffler Man in Dallas, TX. where the Muffler Men moniker originated. However, the craze was to be short-lived; sales slowed and Dashew ceased closed. This type of durable and long-lasting advertising production in ����, selling the company in ���6. But the is lost in today’s expendable and face-paced marketplace, Muffler Men live on and continue to enchant travelers, which makes saving these giants even more important. long after the businesses they were built to promote have At the forefront of this charge is Joel Baker.

Joel Baker rescuing a Texaco Big Friend for restoration.

28 ROUTE Magazine

Founder of American Giants, Baker became enamored with fiberglass figures in ���� when he came across a giant fiberglass brontosaurus. When he started doing some research he discovered the Muffler Men, and he says from that moment on he was hooked. “There was something about the age of these giants and all the history and secrets they had,” Baker notes. “It was a unique niche of Roadside Architecture and I was up for the challenge of discovering all I could about these secretive and silent giants.” American Giants began as a website in ���3, where Baker could share his journeys visiting Muffler Men across the country and sharing their stories. YouTube videos and podcasts followed, and in ���5 Baker opened American Giants Restoration. He now has a team that specializes in restoring fibreglass giants, and he also hosts auctions for those wanting to sell their figures. There are

Former Chicago Bunyan being transported to the restoration shop.

over �8� Muffler Men left in America (Baker has visited �5�), but they rarely go up for sale, and Baker notes that he is often surprised at the final sale price.

The Muffler Men market is experiencing a renewed interest because, as Baker says, “not only do these gentle giants still do exactly what they were built for in the ��6�s, but they are also now a part of the history of Route 66 and Americana.” These figures bring the past into the present, and several generations can enjoy the same experience. “Muffler Men are a special memory to our parents and grandparents. Many of them live in our memories and photo albums and they are a part of roadside history. These giants will live on in pictures from that time, but can also continue to live on physically among us as long as we continue to take care of them.

They make our road trips special and add markers to the map and our memories. American Giants works every year to restore these Giants and bring the long lost giant back to the roadsides to be enjoyed once again by thousands.”

Some notable Muffler Men along Route 66 include Chicken Boy in Los Angeles, a muffler man with a custom chicken head, holding bucket of fried chicken (there are � Muffler Men in LA); a cowboy muffler man in Gallup, New Mexico; the Lauterbach Muffler Man in Springfield, Illinois, holding an American flag; and, the Harley Davidson Muffler Man outside the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, Illinois. But, of course, the most iconic Muffler Man along the route is the Gemini Giant outside of The Launching Pad in Wilmington, Illinois. He is the only space-man version that survives today, named after the ��65 Gemini space program, ready for launch with his space helmet and holding a rocket. Weighing in at �38 pounds and �8-feet- tall, the Gemini Giant is a Route 66 must-see. The Launching Pad was bought by Tully Garrett and Holly Barker last year, and they are dedicated to preserving the giant and restoring the property and eatery to a functioning roadside attraction.

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Photographs courtesy of Joel Baker of American Giants.

A variety of fiberglass giants.

Bright Nights Giant rocking chairs and spacemen are all well and good during the day, but when the sun went down proprietors needed a new strategy to bring customers in, so they used neon to light up the night. Neon lighting was first demonstrated in ���� at the Paris Motor Show, using long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon and other gases, and from there this new and enticing light source took off. The large installations in Times Square popularized neon in America, and by ���� there were nearly �,��� shops producing neon signs. The signs required a lot of custom labor, but they could last for years, even decades, without replacement, making this

Desert Skies Motel, Gallup, New Mexico.

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art form a worthwhile investment for businesses. Their dazzling colors and bright luminosity attracted and amazed customers, even during the day, and neon became known as “liquid fire.”

In Route 66’s heyday, businesses were always competing for customers, and neon signs were a way to distinguish a business from its neighbors. But when others saw the success of those signs, the trend spread, and main streets became neon hallways and electric beacons dotted the horizon. When the route’s popularity waned with the introduction of the Interstate, many businesses closed, their neon signs faded and disintegrated. But there are still many spectacular neon signs along the route that have been preserved and still give modern travelers a taste

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Opening double page spread and Desert Skies Motel images courtesy of David Schwartz/PicsOnRoute66, Blue Swallow sign courtesy of Kevin Mueller.

of the bright nights of past decades.

Some standouts include Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket and their vintage sign, the unofficial “first stop” on Route 66 heading west from Chicago; the 66 Drive-In Theatre’s sign in Carthage, Missouri; and the famous Meadow Gold Sign in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

But the businesses that most favored neon signs were the ones that thrived at night: motels. Eager to draw in tired travelers for the night, motels used neon signs to call customers to a home away from home. Places like The Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri, Boots Court in Carthage, Missouri, and the El Trovatore Motel in Kingman, Arizona, still blaze their neon signs every night, dazzling the retinas and alluring the weary.

The Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, is an icon along Route 66, and its beautiful vintage sign is a big part of that. The sign was originally The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, repairing their sign. installed in ��55 by the Springfield Neon Company. Current owners Ramona and Bob Lehman noticed that guests, Mueller was able to add a neon olive branch held the sign had deteriorated over the years and refurbished in the bird’s beak, an accent Lillian Redman (the owner it in ���� with grants from the Missouri Route 66 who helped design the original sign) had always dreamt Association, and the Route 66 Corridor Act. Neon Times of adding.

Company of St. Charles restored the sign, and after a few The Blue Swallow is an old-fashioned family-run months of hard work the sign was relighted and back to operation offering guests a taste of the past, reflecting the its former glory. Munger Moss was once part of a neon nostalgic nature of its sign. Neon signs are rarely used strip in Lebanon, with Wrink’s Market, the Munger Moss by new businesses today because of the cost and lack of Restaurant, the Forest Manor Motel, and the Starlight neon artists, but Mueller notes that neon offers a unique Bowling Alley. Today, Ramona believes that the Munger experience. “People love the warm glow and soft hum of Moss sign is “the most beautiful sign on this highway,” the neon lights, and there just isn’t anything quite like and many travelers agree. Ramona once commented on sitting out in the courtyard on a warm evening, chatting a documentary that if she had a quarter for every picture with neighbors, and soaking in the glow of the neon.” taken of the sign, she would be a millionaire. A couple People will be able to bask in the neon glow along of years ago a guest checked in and took several pictures Route 66 for a long time to come with many businesses of the sign. The next day, he went in the office and laid and cities revitalizing the neon industry. The City down � quarters. When Ramona asked what they were of Albuquerque has adopted a Central Avenue Neon for he replied, “I saw you on a documentary film and Design Overlay Zone to promote and encourage I’m trying to help you become a millionaire!” Last year, neon signs in the city, providing incentives for the Lehman’s installed LED bulbs in the sign, a total of the refurbishment of existing neon signs and the ��� bulbs, so the Munger Moss Motel will keep burning development of new signs along the route. Tulsa is also bright for many years to come. in the process of setting up new zoning rules that will Another standout along the route is the famous allow larger neon signs with the goal of developing Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and a neon sign district to reflect its Route 66 heritage. their dazzling neon sign, often referred to as the most Johnnie Meier of the New Mexico Route 66 Association photographed motel sign on Route 66. The sign was spearheaded a project to restore �� classic neon signs constructed in the mid-��5�s to replace a smaller sign in the state, resulting in the Emmy-winning PBS and to help the Blue Swallow stand out among a sea of documentary “Route 66, the Neon Road.” neon (there is a replica of the older ��3� neon art-deco Whether it was extraordinary sporting events, largersign at the motel as well). Owner Kevin Mueller notes than-life figurines, or dazzling neon displays, the history that at the time of its construction, the “Blue Swallow of Route 66 advertising is as varied and unique as the Motel” sign was the largest neon sign in Tucumcari: route itself, and played a large role in creating the identity “With its unique shape and blinking blue swallow, it of the Mother Road. These advertisements and oddities was hard to miss along the roadside.” And it’s still just draw us in as much today as they did when they were first as enticing today, advertising “���% Refrigerated Air.” created, and will continue to call to us as long as we hit The sign has been regularly maintained throughout the the open road and continue to answer. years, and recently, thanks to donations from visitors and

LOOKING

By Cecil Stehlin Photographs: David Schwartz

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BACK

ROUTE Magazine 33

W

hile skilled in many disciplines, from painting to sculpture to metal work, artist Lowell Davis is perhaps best known for his farm animal figurines, distributed to thousands of gift shops across North America. His collectors and fans regularly make the trip to visit the “Norman Rockwell of Rural Art” at his home in Red Oak II, just outside of Carthage, Missouri.

Built from the abandoned buildings of his childhood hometown of Red Oak, Missouri, as well as several other old ruins from across Route 66, Red Oak II is a unique oasis of small-town America, hidden just off the Mother Road. Complete with a classic Phillips Gas Station, the old house of notorious outlaw Bella Star, and the general store that Davis grew up in. Like the vintage buildings and scent of yesteryear that hangs around Davis’ work, the artist himself is a respected and well-loved addition to Route 66 and the Americana that the highway signifies to a myriad of travelers globally.

We spoke to Davis about his life and work, his trials and heartbreaks, and what life is like in the living museum of Red Oak II.

I wanted to ask first off about Red Oak, Missouri, the original Red Oak Missouri. What were some of your early memories of the town?

Oh, it was a small town about �3 miles from here. It wasn’t on 66, but it was just off of it about a couple miles. And Lowell Davis at home in Red Oak II, Carthage, Missouri.

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it had an old general store, which I lived in the back of it, and about everyone in town were relatives of mine. All my aunts and uncles lived there as farmers. So, I don’t know, just a great experience living in this little community like that. But it’s like all those little communities that had a general store and everything. And when the cars come along, you know, faster cars … it started, they wouldn’t shop locally, and they’d be going in their cars to Joplin or Springfield. So, all those little towns supporting them just kind of fell by the wayside. And there’s nothing there anymore; I mean nothing. I got quite a few of the buildings out of there before it turned into a ghost town.

I got the old general store that I was raised in out here, and I’ve got my grandfather’s blacksmith shop. After I got all the buildings out of Red Oak, I started on Route 66, because they were all basket cases when I got them, you know? If I hadn’t have saved them when I did, they’d never had made it. I got two gas stations off of 66, and it was only a mile away or two miles away, 66 from Red Oak. We lived on 66 for a while, my dad had a gas station, and he was a mechanic in this little town called Rescue.

So, that’s where we lived. Then, I don’t know, my dad moved to Carthage and bought another gas station, so I lived there till I got out of high school. And then I went into the military. When I got out of the military, I went to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I was an art director for a big ad agency down there for �3 years. And for all those �3 years, all I could think about was getting the hell out of there, getting back to Missouri, and getting a farm back here. So, I made the break, I bought my farm, started

pitching it up and buying all the animals on the farm. I didn’t buy many of them, just enough for my models and my figurines and my sculptures.

We had cows and sheep and goats and pigs and horses workhorses and barley horses, and I played farm.

You know, I had all the equipment, and I just played farm with horses. I happened to have a worker that worked out here who knew about horses and how to work them, so he taught me. And I used them for my sculptures, that’s how my figurine line took off, because no one was doing the farm scene when I was developing this, so I was the first. And I Lowell Davis artwork. was relating to people in my work, relating to people who were raised on a farm in a small town, and so, that led to the success of my figurine line.

What was the Davis household like growing up?

Oh, we lived with the grandparents. You know, back then the grandparents moved in with the family. They’d spend a month with one and move around to the other. We were all very close. It was just a good way of life, a lot of memories.

Is it true that your great great grandfather was the first to plow the fields in Red Oak? He was the first one plant the fields there.

You failed Art class in high school. That seems somewhat ironic considering that you eventually became an artist.

I failed Art, and English in my sophomore year. So, I quit and joined the air force. My art teacher was a coach, a football coach or something, and I told him one time that, “I know more about art with my little finger than you do!”

And that p*s*ed him off. So, I got an F on that one. And then English, I failed English, and now I write books and illustrate, so what can you say?

What was it like in the Air Force?

Great, I was a crew member, it was a four-man crew, back before there were jets you know? It was the old prop chops. So, I flew over Europe and Africa, and it was just a great life. I had a little plane mishap in Africa. There was a war going on down there between the French and the Algerians. We couldn’t fly very far because of the props.

We would go about 6�� miles before we had to refuel. So, when we were going across Africa, we’d go to Casablanca and Libya and Algiers. And coming into Algiers, it was a French base, but it was in Algerian territory, so when we were coming in for a landing, the Algerians would sit out there and shoot at us with their rifles. We had bulletproof

jackets, and so we [would] just sit on them, because if we were going to get it, that’s where we were going to get it. So, we landed in Algiers, and it was all dark, and we looked up, and the Algerians had snuck a bunch of concrete blocks across the runway. So we cut the nose wheel over, but the main gear hit it and [got] caught on the runway. I went through the instrument panel, and I got a medical discharge out of that one.

I think that I was the first casualty by Algerians to Americans during wartime, or maybe not, I don’t know.

You’ve worked in a large variety of mediums, what was your first love?

Painting I guess. I’ve painted for quite awhile. I was a cartoonist for many years; if you look up Sex to Sexty, S-E-X-T-O-S-E-X-T-Y, I did the covers for them for about �5 years. It was a cartoon magazine, pretty risqué; you can check that out. I went under the name Pierre Davis in that; I didn’t go by Lowell. I didn’t go by Lowell until I moved back to Carthage on the farm. Then I cleaned up my act and got religious, so I’m not doing cartoons anymore.

What was it like to return to farm life after so many years in big city Dallas?

Oh I loved it, I loved it. Down there I didn’t enjoy my days, you know? I just wasted them. And now [since] I moved back to the farm I enjoy every minute of it. Going to bed early at night, getting up early in the morning, it’s just a world of difference living in the country vs. big cities.

And this is also when you begin traveling and selling your art on the open road?

Yeah, when I started working for [a company] called Schmid’s, they were distributors and over �,��� gift shops sold my figurines. They would want me to come, after they sold them awhile, they wanted me to come and ROUTE Magazine 35

meet their collectors, and sign figurines. So, I did that for many years. They used to fly me first class, and I’d stay at the big hotels and everything while I was going to these shows. But that even got to me, so I got this old medicine man’s motorhome, from the ����s, or it was a ��3� medicine man’s motorhome. It looked like a caboose going down the road. It had kerosene lights; I dropped it on a brand new chassis, so it ran 8� miles an hour. I’d pass a convoy of trucks with wooden shingles flying off my roof.

Do you have any fun Route 66 memories from your days on the road?

Lots of them. Are you familiar with my signs? I just put a new one up, if you look it’s called ... it’s a long tall pole that is in front of a garage, a shop, a welding shop, and on top is a Route 66 emblem with a bird on it singing, like a cardinal singing, and if you [look] down, I took a windshield out of an old Model A and the grill out of a ’3� Ford. Underneath that, it’s got the headlights over it, and the bumper is smiling. And it says “Route 66: Smiles all the Way.” I’m doing a lot on 66. I’m trying to stay on 66 within all my figurines. I don’t truly accept many commissions for some other towns, because I’m trying to fill up 66.

Have you seen the old road change much over the years?

Oh yeah, it’s terrible, there’s just nothing left, and if I hadn’t got what I got, they’d be gone by now. But there’s still interest in the route, you know, I love it. I still travel when I have a chance, lots of good memories.

My folks used to travel to California when we lived in Missouri at Red Oak. We’d go to California maybe once a year, and we went through Old Route 66. And I saw all the mom and pop businesses out there and that always impressed me. They’d say ... you know, farmers would be sitting on the front porch, watching all the cars go back to California. So Pa would turn to Ma and say: “Why can’t we set up some kind of a little business here and then we could draw all those people in and sell them something?” A garage or a motel or cabins or a restaurant or something. That’s how it was developed mostly, people trying to figure out how to make money off all those cars going back and forth to California.

True yeah, so your father had a gas station on the route for a little while.

And a garage, yeah for a short time.

And business was good?

Oh, I don’t know, probably, but my dad was a rover. We’d pack up and go to California, and then we’d pack up and go to Colorado and live there for a while. Finally, my mom told him: “Burton, I’ve gone everywhere you want to go, and I’ve done everything you wanted to do …”

And I was living on the top of the mountain in Colorado at that time where the clouds would blow you away, so she said “I just can’t do this anymore.” We finally moved back to Carthage, Missouri and my dad bought that gas station.

So, that was the end of our traveling except for going on vacations.

What role does your Christian faith play in your life? And how do you think it affects your work?

Oh, I don’t know, you caught me on that one.

Not my work as much as my life, you know? It helps me so much in my life. I just put my faith in the Lord and don’t worry about it anymore.

I say, “Lord, provide my needs and my family’s needs.” And that’s what he does. So, I’d think this is the last job or something and then two more come up. So I recommend it highly.

You were raised in a Christian family, do you find that your faith deepened as you got older?

Lowell Davis artwork, Red Oak II, Missouri.

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Yeah well, it got away from me for about �� years when I was in the Air Force. I still believed, but I didn’t go to church or anything like that, but I was a Believer. Then I got back into church. We have our own church out here in Red Oak, and so I attend that.

How did you and Rose meet? Is she very involved in your work?

Oh, for sure, she’s Filipino, and what it was, there’s someone down here, another artist down here called Sam butcher. [He has] his Precious Moments figurines. He made millions off his figurine line; they were sold ten times more than my figurines were sold, and he’s a dear friend of mine. And I was going through a divorce, and I was really bummed out for two years, I didn’t do anything. I had a cabin down in Noel, Missouri, a little town in southern Missouri by the river. And I would just sit down there all day and all night in the chair and drink and feel sorry for myself.

And so Sam Butcher, he had a big complex there, his Precious Moments it’s, big, big … but he lives in the Philippines. He’s one of those people that works half of his life trying to become famous and after he’s become famous he spends the rest of his life trying to hide from the monster he created. And he comes back a couple times a year. And he was back; we went out to dinner that night. I didn’t talk to him about my troubles or anything, but he knew something was really going bad in my life.

So the next day, he drives on my barn lot and I walk out there, and he says, “Hey Lowell, I’m going to give you a Christmas present!” And I said, “What’s that?” And he said, “Allexpenses-paid trip to the Philippines for � weeks.” You know, first class.

Lowell and Rose Davis at home in Red Oak II, Missouri.

Nine days later I’m in Manila, and then we went down to a little island so she waits on me hand and foot and spoils me rotten. where he was building another complex at, about ��� miles But I deserve to be spoiled rotten after the last two wives. south of Manila. So, we spent a couple days down there, She does all my paperwork, she keeps me updated on and then we went back to Manila, his hometown. He had Facebook and everything, so she’s a great asset. these big plans; we were going to go to Thailand and all these places. But he wanted to take me out to dinner at So you began using your personal funds to save buildings his favorite restaurant; there was a big Chinese restaurant from Red Oak a while ago, what was the first motivation to there in Manila. And we went there, and being that Sam do this? was such a good customer of theirs, Rose sat down with us, Rose was a manager there in this restaurant. And so, It was the general store, it went vacant, and there was no she sat down with us, and half an hour later I had her one running it any longer, and it was falling apart, so I just eating out of my hand, you know? So, we spent a couple of had to save it. I just packed it up and moved it here, put it days together, and I looked at Sam and said, “Sam, just go back together and furnished it all up like an old general ahead and go on your vacation, I think I’ll just stay here store. But then a divorce took care of all that stuff. And with Rose.” And so he started on her paperwork, getting then that was just my house. her paperwork done, and I came on home. And thirty days later he flew her over here, so I go to Springfield, Missouri, How much would it cost to move a building? and picked her up at the airport, and he turned around and flew back to the Philippines. That’s what happened.

Oh probably about $�5� back then, its thousands now.

We got married, and happily ever after.

But back then it was not too expensive, I could afford See, I’m 8�, and she’s only … she’s �5 years younger it. None of them came over $�,��� to move, but now its than I am, so I’m very lucky. I can’t get around anymore, ROUTE Magazine 37

$�,��� or $3,��� just to move the smallest building.

I did it at the right time, that’s for sure; I could not afford to build Red Oak today, no way. And I sold it off to other people, all of it except I kept my house. And I let them pay taxes and promote it and all that, I just sit and enjoy.

I didn’t build Red Oak for money. I don’t charge anybody to come here, donations are welcome, but I don’t charge anybody. I just like to see people enjoying themselves, and kids coming out and playing and enjoying church and people. That’s my payment. I sit on the front porch and watch them and spend my day that way. I’m glad I sold it because I could never keep up with it now. I can’t even keep up with the upkeep of my own house, much less all those buildings. And one of the owners, they bought the restaurant about �5 years ago …

I had a restaurant here, but never advertised it because it was so packed all the time that I didn’t need to advertise it. But the new owners, they locked it all up and shut it The quiet town of Red Oak II, Missouri.

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down, most of the buildings here, shut them down, lock them up.

So how would somebody go about purchasing a house in Red Oak II? They’re kind of hard to get, I get requests for them all the time, people asking if I’ve got any for sale. I sold them off, but like, there’s a couple who live in California that bought a house here and can’t make it back very often, so we put it up for sale. One house is for sale now, everybody who visits says, “Oh, I’d sure like to live here.” It’s a little, peaceful village. This is the perfect place to live. Of course, you have neighbors, because I sold off to the neighbors, and sometimes the neighbors give you problems. But other than that, everybody loves it, everyone comes out here with the children. We have music every Saturday night at the church, everybody brings a potluck.

I don’t know if there are enough old buildings left, you know, anywhere. There’s none left here, around this town, I’ve got them all. So, I don’t know how anybody would start unless … and I don’t know why anybody would start because there’s no money involved in it.

Not many people will do something for the love of it when there’s no money involved.

You’ve been creating a lot of new sculptures around Carthage and along Route 66 recently. What inspired this creative burst?

I was a painter and sculptor all my life. I had probably done a couple of signs, you know, metal signs and junk signs, that kind of thing. And then I got arthritis in my wrist, and I couldn’t paint or sculpt anymore, so I had to

say, “What am I going to do?” I got so down and depressed about of it, so I said, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll reinvent myself.” And that’s what I did; I reinvented myself. That’s where making the signs … most of them are antiques, you know, I add things to them to make them come alive. And it just took off, I’m twenty behind right now or more. I probably did forty signs here in the area, and some of the surrounding towns, but mostly outside of town on 66, or close to it.

One of your signs was actually deemed a little too risqué for the community, so you just put it up temporarily.

It was on 66 just before you come into Carthage. I took an old wood cook stove, a heating stove, one of those potbelly ones. I put it out on poles and did this sexy, heavy-set sexy woman … well, actually, you can see it on Facebook, she was trussed up in the stove, and her breasts are sticking out, and her ass was sticking out underneath the rope.

Some people were saying: “This is going to cause a lot of wrecks!” because it was out there on a curve. So, I took it down and moved it to Carthage, it’s in Carthage Square, there’s a lot of businesses around Carthage Square, and I put it in the window of an art gallery there. And I replaced the woman with a snowman. I could have probably kept it and did something with it, but it was just a publicity stunt, you know? Get people talking about my signs.

Do you have a favorite section of Route 66?

I’m not much for Illinois and on up ... up to Chicago. I’m more from here on west, that’s my favorite part I guess.

You know, Oklahoma, Texas ...

What makes Route 66 in Missouri special?

I guess everyone’s just heard about it all their life. I don’t know what makes it special.

What are you working on right now?

Signs, I’m so far behind on them. My health is not good enough that I can do it a lot. I have somebody to weld for me, and all that. I have three beautiful daughters and growing up I told them, “I don’t care who you marry, so long as one of you marries a welder.” So, my youngest daughter answered my prayers. He’s 6’�, we gave our farm to our daughter and him, and we moved over to Red Oak. So it’s really handy, they’re right next door, so, I work with him building things, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.

Lowell and Rose Davis live in Red Oak II, Missouri at 10725 County Loop 122, Carthage, MO 64836. Stop by if you’re passing through and say a big hello. You can usually find Davis on his porch, watching the world go by.

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Photographs supplied by David Schwartz/PicsOnRoute66.

Do you think that the idea of Red Oak could be replicated elsewhere?

The Colors Many different things stand out to visitors on the Mother Road – the scenery, the history, the cuisine, the people – but for pretty much everyone, the neon is something that leaves a lasting impression.

And Route 66 has a lot of it. Join Efren Lopez of Route 66 Images as he shares some of his vivid experiences with us, capturing the mesmerizing neon on America’s most iconic highway.

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of Route 66

The Stage Coach 66 Motel in Seligman, Arizona is a very cool, interesting and artful neon sign at night. Shooting after a rainstorm the colors become even more saturated and attention grabbing.

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RIGHT: Roadside spectrums of neon colors are displayed by the world famous midcentury modern Motel Safari in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

I have traveled Route 66 at least ten times and always find new opportunities to create picturesque shots of neon signs.

The attraction neon generates with it’s bold bright colors and graphic elements inspires me.

BELOW: The arresting mix of light, color, and shape of the Blue Swallow Motel sign illuminate one of the most iconic landmarks on Route 66. What makes neon so interesting to me is how it creates sound and movement while lit up, which is why neon signs are often referred to as the “living flame.”

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ABOVE: A roadside attraction on Route 66, the Museum Club and it’s neon sign is a famous landmark in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Often I stop by to get a drink and listen to music as I photograph the Mother Road.

RIGHT: The teepee neon sign at the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, California, is one of my favorite nostalgic sites to photograph along California’s Historic Route 66. The beautiful sunsets in the southwest, coupled with the vibrant neon signs make for great images.

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ABOVE: A glimpse into the past, the Route 66 Motel sits in the heart of the Mother Road in Barstow, California. The colorful eye-catching sign provides the ambience that travelers want to photograph on Route 66.

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ABOVE: Capturing color and light in a creative and interesting way has been one of my goals when photographing neon signs on Route 66. The eye-catching colors of artfully designed signs create an amazing display that stands out in the quiet of the evening. Probably the best stretch of neon signs on the Mother Road is downtown Gallup, New Mexico.

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ABOVE: Have you photographed a Wigwam sign lately? With its flashing neon and classic cars parked in front, the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, conjures up the good ole’ days of Route 66. The secrets to capturing great images of neon for me are using the three LLL’s, Location, Lighting and a Love for my craft.

RIGHT: Gallup, New Mexico’s Historic Route 66 has an abundance of some of best neon signs in the state. The colorful glow of Richardson’s Trading Co., whose landmark sign flaunts a chief in a feathered headdress radiates and provides a slice of Americana.

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RIGHT: Located on top of a hill in Kingman Arizona, the dazzle of the classic Route 66 Motel neon sign is the reason I decided to stay the night in this motel and capture the beautiful colors in the early morning light.

BOTTOM: Twilight skies provide a sapphire-blue feel for a vibrant backdrop to make neon sign colors pop, and create more interesting images. By using tungsten white balance on my camera, the sky becomes extra saturated. To capture these colorful night-lights, I used a low ISO ��� to avoid noise, a tripod and a ��-��mm lens with a sensor-based image stabilization to allow slower shutter speeds.

ROUTE Magazine 47

“N

ow, who is next? Mr. Anderson, you are sitting there in agony. Come on Todd, step up, let’s put you out of your misery.”

Todd Anderson, the sensitive prep-schooler, played by Ethan Hawke, goes on to let the teacher know that he didn’t write a poem.

“Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing.

Isn’t that right, Todd? Isn’t that your worst fear? Well, I think you’re wrong. I think you have something inside of you that is worth a great deal.”

Mr. John Keating, played by Robin Williams, scrolls on the chalkboard: “I sound my barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world.” He calls on Todd Anderson to stand in front of the class and demonstrate a barbaric Yawp. What follows is a vulnerable, moving and powerful scene as Todd Anderson, with his eyes closed, struggles at first, with hesitation and stammers, but goes on to fervently recite an impromptu poem inspired by a picture of Walt Whitman that is on the classroom wall.

When Todd opens his eyes again, the class is dead silent. Stunned by what they have just witnessed. An authentic moment that is reflective of overcoming one’s challenges and adversities. The class then begins to clap and bursts into cheer.

Mr. Keating turns to Todd and whispers to him: “Don’t you forget this.”

This scene, from Dead Poets Society, the ��8� comingof-age film that has often been cited as one of the most inspirational films of all times, introduced �8-year-old Ethan Hawke to the world. From teaching us the words ‘Carpe Diem’ and “O Captain, My Captain” to its messages on staying true to yourself and standing up for others, Dead Poets Society came to define a generation. Although Hawke had two other movies under his belt by then - he got his start in the film Explorers alongside the late River Phoenix - he is quoted as saying that Dead Poets Society was the first time he felt he had ever acted. And it seems that Hawke, just like Todd Anderson, never forgot that feeling.

Since that barbaric Yawp scene, Hawke went on to become a bonafide movie star, fronting iconic films such as the ���� romance drama Reality Bites, alongside Winona Ryder, the Oscar-winning crime thriller Training Day, Boyhood, a film that took ��-years to make, and the Before romance trilogies: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight.

Today, Hawke has amassed a body of work that spans decades; four-time Oscar-nominated, over 5� films under his belt, a writer, director and actor who has not only entertained us, but has evocatively pulled us into each role and each story. More than many other actors of his generation, Hawke has remained keenly aware of the pitfalls of fame as well as its pleasures, and it’s this gracious and conscious quality, matched by his mastery of his craft and on-screen charisma that continues to resonate with audiences. Undeniably a star, Hawke somehow gives off an air of simply being one of us; normal, down-to-earth, hard-working folk who are dedicated to family and friends. Listening to Hawke speak there is an edginess in his voice, at times an aggressiveness in his tone that may be born from a natural curiosity of life and an intelligence that allows him to construct his own theories and understanding.

At ��, the Austin native and dedicated father of four, continues to bring us great stories by way of the 48 ROUTE Magazine

documentary film, The King (���8), the biopic Blaze (���8) and First Reformed (���8), often staying true to indie art over money makers, and pursuing the callings of his heart.

Hawke sat down with ROUTE recently and talked about his love of camping, road trips with his father and friends, America today and more.

As a young boy, your dad took you camping in New Mexico and Arizona. What are some of your memories from those road trips?

[Those were] some of the happiest times of my life. You know, my dad lived in Fort Worth, Texas, and he had this old Chevy Barracuda, a ����s Chevy Barracuda. We would load it up with a tent and, you know, my Star Wars figures and stuff, and go drive around.

We followed Geronimo’s trail for a while and we went to Kit Carson’s grave… we even got up to the Rockies and camped out in Rocky Mountain National Park. [They were] some of the happiest, simplest times of my life.

How old were you when you starting making those trips?

Six to ten. That’s a fun age to travel with young people.

It’s so much fun, because you’re a kid, and you don’t need much. You can take care of yourself.

What did you enjoy most about those trips?

The exciting thing about those road trips for me was the wildness of… When you’re young, you see adults, they’re always going to work, there is this ritual to life. But then there’d be these moments in the summer where you’d break out of the ritual, and my father wasn’t going to work… It just felt so wild, we didn’t know where we were going to go the next day, there was such a freedom to it, that was so exciting to me… and seeing lands that you hadn’t seen before.

Staying True ETHAN HAWKE

By Brennen Matthews Photographs by Jeff Vespa ROUTE Magazine 49

[When traveling] you really get a sense of why America is such a hard and difficult place to govern, because you know, we talk about all this divide, political divide in the country, but it’s a big country. It’s huge, with a lot of different attitudes and a lot of different needs that make a lot of sense depending on where you’re at. I think that it was a wonderful thing for me as a young person just to get to feel that expanse.

I remember driving through Four Corners, [New Mexico], and just the great emptiness of it; driving through Monument Valley in Arizona. We would watch some John Ford Western while driving through Monument Valley, then next you’re driving up through Ohio… our family were tenant farmers from Ohio and moved to Texas, my father’s generation, but most of the Hawkes are all from Ohio.

Your dad also took you to visit Indian reservations.

Mainly Apache, right?

Those are the ones that I remember. The story of Geronimo made a big impact on me. It’s an amazing story. There’s something fascinating about such a hard life, and that he lived to be an old man. You know, he saw the whole world; I think he was almost 3� before he met his first white person, and then he lived long enough to ride in Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. And you know, of course he was basically a prisoner of war at the time, but he saw the whole world change, the whole world as he knew it. There’s something very Shakespearean about his story. He had this vision as a young person that he could never be killed by a man. Of course, he thought that this was a great blessing. He had apparently no fear of death. But there is something so tragic that he outlived everything that he loved.

Have you continued that tradition with your own kids?

Have you taken them on any road trips?

Yeah you know, I did. I wrote a graphic novel called Indeh [Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars]. When I was doing research, that’s when my obsession with Geronimo took full shape, and when my kids were about the right age we flew into Phoenix and drove to Santa Fe, and we went to one of the most beautiful places in the country that doesn’t get talked about - I found it just as staggering as the Grand Canyon - Cochise Stronghold, there at the bottom of the New Mexican/Arizona border; an unbelievable, unbelievable location, which is really... It’s no wonder that you couldn’t catch the Apache when they would disappear into there.

My oldest daughter just started a job on Stranger Things, so I just drove her down to Atlanta. We have a lot of fun throughout my life driving around… I don’t know why it is that we all like it so much, but it is enjoyable.

Do you have any other places in particular that really stand out to you?

You know, I love El Paso. El Paso is wild, you know! There is a rawness and a wildness to that part of the country that still exists. It’s exciting to be near… You know, I’ve shot a bunch of Westerns now, so I’ve gotten to go down to Del Rio and all those border towns. They are so interesting. But Santa Fe to me stands out, one of the most, I don’t know 50 ROUTE Magazine

why, but there is an energy and a feeling to that place.

Many people have written about it, but it’s a wonderful place to be.

Have you ever stayed at the La Fonda in Santa Fe? Yep, I sure have! I love it there. It is so beautiful. [Santa Fe] just feels good, it’s mysterious, but I have always just felt right there.

Would you ever consider moving to and living in a place like Santa Fe? My wife and I talk about it when the kids grow up, you know? We’ve got a ton of kids in school. I have four kids now, and it kind of keeps us rooted here in New York. But the thing I love most about my job as an actor is that it takes me all… like, I have been to Africa and I’ve shot in Paris, and I’ve been to China and Japan and all over the United States. So, I get to move around and see places, and not just see them like a tourist, often I get to work there, which is a different way of experiencing a place. But you know, if I did ever leave, the place I’d dream of going [to] is New Mexico… starting a little theater company there or joining one.

With all of your road travel, have you ever driven all of Route 66?

I am pretty sure I’ve touched almost every aspect of it at least once. When I was ��, probably the foundation of my artistic thought was that I would turn �� and my two closest friends… we were dreaming of starting a theater company, which we went on to do.

We loaded up a car and we drove from New York to San Francisco and then down to L.A. and then back across again. We took about six weeks. We meandered the country, rode a lot of Route 66. It’s all kind of a blur now: I was �� and all we did is talk about girls and plays and movies.

These were two smart young men and we all knew different things and everybody… it was back in the days of mix tapes and stuff, and we would rotate who was in charge of what we were listening to and we’d listen to audiobooks and we’d teach each other the history of rock n roll. One person would be a Neil Young fan and another person would be a, you know, Bob Dylan fan… another person would be a Willie Nelson, fan or you know… We read Beckett… We had a ball.

The thing about driving around is that it’s a strange freedom where you don’t need to be anywhere, and you can let your thoughts just move.

Do you miss that freedom to just be able to pick up and go?

I really do, yeah. But you know, it’s wildly outweighed by the joy I get from parenting these four children. One of the tricks as I get older is trying to do fun things with them, you know? I mean, we’re going to camp up from New York to Nova Scotia this summer; that will be fun.

But you know, my wife now has a schedule to it all the time, places I need to be all the time, at a certain time. It’s a luxury tax, I call it.

There seems to be a resurgence in film and television that is focused on the Wild West, and specifically, the expansion West. What do you think is pulling people back to that era?

Well, first of all, we are learning more and more about cultural identity, and I think we’re having more and more respect for our history and probably less guilt that allows us to look at it and hear native stories. You know, it’s a great tragedy. In the 5�s, all those stories were so whitewashed, they weren’t really telling the truth about them, and then, as they started to tell the truth about them, nobody wanted to hear it, because it was so painful.

But now, there is so much progress being made, in small steps, with people being able to listen to each other and understand our own national history. It’s unavoidable.

It’s a hard thing for people to think about, but it’s just unavoidable that [in] history, there were great crimes… The art in movies, in stories, is to make sense out of our lives, and look to our future. I think it’s the great value.

In a 2004 interview, you spoke about trying to read at least three hours a day. I don’t know if you remember when that was a goal, but where are you at now? Do you find the space to devote that much time?

It’s so heartbreaking, it’s so heartbreaking to be reminded of that, you know? I mean, I read a lot in my ��s, and now my ��s have been less kind to my reading. The good news is that I’ve been able to do so many projects that I love, you know, projects like Blaze and projects like First Reformed, and over the last few years, you know, Maudie and The Magnificent Seven, and so many jobs doing the kind of work that I really, really enjoy. When I was younger, I was struggling to enjoy my work and I really, honestly, you know, I didn’t graduate college, so I felt a lot of pressure internally that I wasn’t as intelligent as everybody else was, or I wasn’t as well-educated as everybody else, you know? Reading is a great way of, you can give yourself an education if you read these books. It might not be as valuable as having some fancy teacher talk to you about them, but you can read them, and you can read about them. It’s a really great way to learn. So, I was doing that a lot. Right now, I don’t give my children the time that I want to, so my reading has taken a real blow, but it’s something that I really hope to change.

Being a father of four makes life a lot more interesting, but challenging.

Sure! It’s like a nuclear bomb goes off in your day. There are always two places you are supposed to be.

In today’s climate, as an actor, do you feel pressure to publicly take a political position on issues?

Well, it’s an interesting topic, because you know, actors are citizens, and we are just citizens like everybody else. The only difference is that the press is kind of interested in what actors have to say, and most citizens have no voice at all. So, I think it’s kind of wonderful when actors speak out, because I think that people should speak out, and speak freely. I think that our culture is only as good as our willingness to share and communicate, and our country is extremely big.

ROUTE Magazine 51

I’ve always been in a unique position I feel, because my mother is a yellow dog Democrat and my father is a Republican. You know, my whole life I’ve been raised and taught that there are good Americans on both sides of the aisle, and that each has a very important role to play for the development of our country. It’s been really upsetting for me, I would say, some time in the last �� years, the divide… and maybe it really has been fanned, the flames have been fanned by the Internet, I don’t know, but I have just watched the divide get deeper and deeper and get more and more tribal, and less and less ideologically based.

My brother and I have probably voted differently on every election, but if we talk about the issues, we can have a real substantive conversation and agree on a ton. You know, so often we get… I think, we as a community, people get… you either have to be on one team or the other, and I think that’s horrible. When I was a kid I’d get to listen to Tip O’Neill speak at the House and talk about what a great man Ronald Reagan was. You’d hear George H. Bush [sic] talk about what a fine Christian Jimmy Carter was. What a great father and husband he was, and you didn’t hear all of this hatred of the other that you hear now. I remember the Berlin wall, [coming down] and how proud everybody was. That wasn’t a win for the Republican Party, that was a win for America, you know, and for the values on which we stand. I get confused by all the tribalism I see now. I think it’s very often mistaken as politics, but really it’s just people rooting for a sports team.

One of your new projects is the story of legendary singer songwriter Blaze Foley. How did you discover Foley’s music, and how did you learn about his story given that he wasn’t really well-known?

Well, he was barely known at all. Part of what interested me is that for years, you know, studying movies… musical biopics are always about somebody who is famous, and the great majority of musicians that I’ve met are extremely hard-working, but never encounter fame at all. In fact, they’re met with complete indifference most of the time.

I wanted to make a story about that: about living a life from the arts without any of the superficial accolades that can come along with success.

I think, because Dead Poets Society came out when I was younger and created so much opportunity for me, that I’ve always had a residue guilt and admiration for people that have worked as hard as I have, and without the ease and the grease that has accompanied my life.

Were you a fan of Blaze’s music? His style of music is defined as outlaw country? What is the difference between outlaw and regular country music?

It’s probably my favorite kind of music.

Townes Van Zandt is the great hero, the great poet laureate of country music, you know… Outlaw country as a

52 ROUTE Magazine

way to differentiate itself from pop country. You could make a case that Bob Dylan is outlaw country. You know, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, those guys are serious lyricists and serious musicians who work in country music, as opposed to the bubble gum country that you hear, and so outlaw, I think, is just a... and you know, it was defined by people who weren’t trying to sell records, they were trying to tell truth in the same way that all the best music aspires for, you know, they are trying to tell the truth of a rural experience… and Blaze was running in those circles. Blaze and Townes were as famous as… well Blaze is hardly known at all. Townes is known a little bit because he wrote songs that all those famous guys played; Willie, and Blaze and Townes are good friends.

Willie covered Blaze and Merle covered him, John Prine covered him, but he himself was too self-destructive to ever find his own career.

Foley’s music was very much a part of the 1980s scene in Austin Texas. You spent your first ten years in Austin. Do you feel as though the film was able to capture the spirit of the city in the movie?

I don’t know… I think that for all of us, our childhood makes a big impact on our psyche… the cars we first see as kids are the cars we love the most, the music we first hear, you know… My first concert was Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnic ���6. So, that makes a huge impression on us, and I think that you can’t ever shake those early… they’re profound how they shape our psychology. I tried to capture that. I hope we did. I know we tried to capture the ethos and spirit of it. We made the movie in the kind of renegade style of the ��s, just meaning it was made very cheaply and on the fly. It felt incredibly fun and dangerous to be making a movie that doesn’t star anybody you’ve ever heard of. It was important to me, since Blaze was unknown, that you needed to discover the actor, that it needed to be a symbiotic experience where it’s like you’re discovering Blaze.

So, it couldn’t be an actor you have already heard of, that was the fun. I cast musicians. I cast Ben Dicky, this musician from Arkansas that I loved for the last �� years, and he is very much in the same spirit of Blaze, in that he’s kind of been met with indifference from the record business… the business side of selling music has not embraced him, and he’s just such a huge talent. And then I got Charlie Sexton who was one of the great guitarists of my generation to play Townes, and it’s kind of a thrill to have these real musicians, that way we can kind of guarantee the authenticity of the music.

Be sure to check out Blaze, released January 21, 2018 if you haven’t yet, and catch First Reformed released May 18th, 2018 to rave reviews and pegged as one of the year’s best films.

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ELMER 54 ROUTE Magazine

LAND

By Nick Gerlich

ROUTE Magazine 55

“I

n ��6�, my father got an old Willys Jeep.

That was our ticket to going far out into the desert. We started collecting quickly on these camping trips. It was just an accident.

We started bringing stuff home. One day he found a bottle, and that was it.”

Most serious collectors have a genesis story like this.

Hobbies seldom start out of volition. They just happen.

Elmer Long, ��, is no exception. He did not find a hobby; it found him.

On a Dark Desert Highway When I-�5 was built across the upper Mojave Desert between Victorville and Barstow in the ����s, Route 66 was forever relegated to being just a road the locals used. The two are not visible from one another, adding to the forlorn, forgotten character of that old two-lane. It’s a road you have to want to take, because it is most certainly slower, the numerous twists and turns along its narrow extent forcing a more casual pace. Folks traveling on the freeway at �� or better would dismiss such dawdling in a California minute.

It is along this old stretch of 66, near Helendale, that Long started building the Bottle Tree Ranch in ����, shortly after taking over the collection from his father. “I had never stopped collecting when I left home. I was always collecting something, and had a bottle collection of my own. When I got that massive collection of his, I started building.” In the process, he unexpectedly created a must-see California Route 66 attraction.

For all its barrenness, though, the Mojave offers its own unique array of sensorial artifacts. The view is limited only by distant mountain ranges and one’s ability to see. The wind blows with regularity, sometimes whipping up a fury, but at other times disappearing completely, and usually at a time when a refreshing breeze would be welcome.

Trees are so few and far between they are often referred to in the singular as opposed to plural. What does grow

Elmer’s father’s first desert trip in 56 ROUTE Magazine

1962.

tends to be low to the ground, save the spiny Joshua trees that survive only within a narrow elevation range, and a few specimens that have been given the gift of water. You can hear the brittle branches of saltbush and creosote crackling in the breeze, and there is a distinctive desert aroma that intensifies in the heat of summer.

It is against this backdrop that the Bottle Tree Ranch stands, an oddity in an odd place. The ever-present tinkling of glass-on-glass, metal-on-metal, provides soundtrack to one of the most inviting picture shows on Route 66, one that is interactive, never closes, and, unlike other Southern California attractions, is free.

“Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch makes for an easy stop between Barstow and Victorville. His art sculptures make for a fascinating photo op,” said Debra Hodkin, who works at the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow.

“California has much to offer and Elmer’s is definitely a unique Route 66 attraction.” But true to his unassuming nature, at the time, Elmer didn’t realize what his efforts would one day become.

Delvin Harbour, Board member at the Route 66 Museum in Victorville, recalls an earlier nearby roadside attraction, Hulaville, which also had bottle trees. Hulaville closed in ����, which no doubt inspired Elmer. “It’s one man’s personal art, and therapy for him. It’s a neat place for people to stop out in the middle of the desert.”

On his �.38 acres (Elmer rattled this off with surveyorlike precision) are more than ��� handmade steel “trees”, each with dozens of bottles hanging uniformly from short rods that Elmer welded onto the shaft and then cemented into the ground. Each tree looks like the next, a forest of carefully planted poles lined up perfectly as only a methodical, thinking person could do.

“I’m a loner. I still don’t associate with people. My parents were deaf. I was in a vacuum for the first � or 8 years of my life,” Elmer said. With no TV, radio, or telephone in his childhood home, Elmer was left on his own to seek entertainment. He wound up doing a lot with his father, but always in silence. “This was the ��s. What kind of deaf person needed those things back then?” he said rhetorically.

Elmer’s father’s second

desert trip in 1964.

Elmer at 6-years-old, 1953.

No doubt it was that solitude that molded and shaped him for life, as he learned to look within for inspiration. “I’m like a needle on a �5 rpm record, stuck in the same groove.

I’m a thinker. I can’t stop thinking.”

To that end, his collection is organized. Green, blue, brown, and clear bottles of all shapes and sizes—the majority are soda—are the glass leaves adorning these desert “evergreens,” the result of countless dumping trips to the desert, first with his father and later solo, to mine the past and rescue it for posterity.

Elmer at 17-years

-old, 1964.

Walter Benjamin once said, “Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders on the chaos of memories.” To the casual observer, Elmer’s collection has the appearance of a hoarder’s dream come true.

“I divide them into colors, and I alternate on the pipes.

Brown would be opposite green, and clear would be opposite blue, all in a clock position at 3, 6, �, and ��.”

This facet is no doubt lost on most visitors, but to Elmer, it is a reflection of his steadfastness and attention to detail. There is rhyme to his reason, order to his chaos.

The Bottle Tree Ranch is a surreal experience.

ROUTE Magazine 57

Each bottle’s placement is part of a specific schema that is obvious only to Elmer himself.

“In life, everything you think about or see is ordered. It’s the contrast of everything that makes life worth living. I have always been a worker. Always. I like to be on the thin edge. I get a thrill out of accomplishing any little task.”

collection. The camping part of our relationship started in the early ��5�s. He was driving an old turquoise-colored Hudson. Then in ’5� he bought a Chevy Biscayne, followed by the Jeep.” His mother, a stay-at-home housewife, had no interest in these adventures, nor did his sister. Although Elmer cherishes numerous old photos of their expeditions, there are no photos of them together. “That was before selfies,” he joked. “We started collecting all kinds of things Like Father, Like Son that we would find, all the way back to the �88�s. Me, I was That Elmer inherited the collecting gene from his father more interested in shooting my .�� rifle, but eventually I is an understatement. Prior to ����, Elmer served as started saving bottles, too.” understudy and apprentice to his father for a hobby that “When we went on trips, my father always focused on was slowly taking over the elder Long’s home. Upon bottles,” Elmer continued. They loved venturing out into bringing the bottles back to Helendale, Elmer decided that the desert, as many southern Californians are so wont to do. his collection, which no one else seemed to want, needed to But while many go to the desert to play, their efforts became be properly displayed for anyone and everyone to enjoy. centered on the old towns and mining camps left behind.

Elmer loves to tell the story of how it all began in The story of Mojave towns necessarily includes the Manhattan Beach: “It started out as my father’s and my railroad. When the Atlantic and Pacific laid their track in �88�, towns popped up every few miles between Needles and Barstow, not so much because people wanted to be there, but because the old steam engines needed water.

“The only reason these towns spring up is because the locomotives needed water. Like Ludlow and Amboy, they put in water tanks there. The steam engines could pull in and get water. That’s how these little towns sprung up. They all thought they were going to be something,” Elmer related. Saloons, a general store, a church, a school, and nearby mines kept these small towns going. Gas stations and motels added to the mix when Route 66 and its predecessor National Old Trails Road started bringing cars alongside those railroad tracks.

“But when the diesel locomotive came into being, it all died, they didn’t need water. When the mines ran out, everyone lost their jobs, everybody left.” Many of those old towns died, even in the automobile era. “This is where Dad and I came in. We found these places, the tiny mining camps. That’s where we were able to gather up a lot of this stuff and bring it home.”

The collection grew on each desert expedition, until one day it became apparent that Elmer needed to assume control. “I came up here in ’��, got married in ’��, and raised three sons. They grew up and left, so it was just the wife and me. I went down in ���� and got the whole collection from him. He was 8� and wasn’t going to live much longer.” Elmer had so much fun building bottle trees that he retired in ���� after 3� years at a cement factory. “I walked in one day and handed in my resignation,” he recalled wistfully. He was only 55.

Elmer had stumbled into a deal whereby he obtained hundreds of steel pipes from a friend with a scrapyard. “I started out with ��� pipes. Most of them were ��-footers. I used them up in a couple of years.” Since that time he has obtained materials for expanding his The sound of the wind through the art is both eerie and soothing. forest, when the weather cooperates. “I won’t 58 ROUTE Magazine

Elmer out collecting bottles.

Two World Man A collector is a hobbyist who seeks to gather items of a specified type, while a hoarder is one who obsessively saves seemingly random, useless items, like bags, boxes, and other trash. The former lives in a duplex of worlds, one for the day-to-day, the other for escape into the whimsy and sometimes arbitrariness of hobby, while the latter is imprisoned in a world of their own making. There is a fine line of distinction between the two, because what the hobbyist chooses to collect seems like rubbish to others.

Elmer Long simply chose to collect bottles.

Elmer is certainly a man with one foot each in two different worlds. “Twice happy is a man who has got a hobby, as he has two worlds to live in,” goes the aphorism.

His bottle passion is far more than hoarding, as the uninformed visitor might conclude. It’s not about seeing how many bottles he can amass; no, it is about making art out of these raw materials from the trash heap, and in the process, documenting consumer culture.

His wife of �6 years, Linda, is complicit in this hobby, but not necessarily as co-conspirator. She is a supporter of the highest order, but has been known to sit on the sidelines while Elmer begins one of his dumping expeditions. It takes a special person to live with a hardcore collector, one willing to look the other way while their beloved engages in a flight of fancy with an animate, yet non-human mistress that provides not affection, but rather satisfaction to an intellectual curiosity that defies description. That she is: devoted, caring, and behind his collecting ways. To hear them speak together is to hear them finish each other’s sentences.

The pair met thanks to one of his friends. “A friend of mine introduced me to her. She was just a kid, about ��, straight out of high school. I was living in my Volkswagen van. I didn’t want to pay rent. I had a plan; I needed the money for later. I’d work all day, take a shower at work, find a place to camp for the night, come back to work the next morning.”

“I shook hands, went back to my pool game and the beer that I had. I didn’t pay her much mind. But we kept

bumping into each other. I had to go to town one time to do my laundry, and there she was doing her laundry.”

“You want to get a bite to eat?” he asked her. “Everything’s being washed. She said, ‘Sure’. We went out into the parking lot, I slid the door open to my van, fired up my Coleman stove, made a pot of soup, and that was dinner.”

But Elmer’s mobile existence was more a reflection of his frugality, one that must have impressed Linda, for he won her over and they married in ���� in Garden Grove. It was a lifestyle choice that has lasted to this day, as the couple managed to buy three houses, put three kids through college, and never allow themselves to be saddled with debt.

Elmer and Linda are a study in opposites. She likes people and has friends, while Elmer prefers to toil by himself, likely a result of his childhood. “I found a dump near Trona, CA. It was huge. It might have been a mile long, I don’t know. There were bottles everywhere, thousands of bottles. I had four buckets with us. I backed up to this big pile, and started carting buckets over to the truck, emptying them out evenly.”

Linda was content to pick up a few bottles while Elmer went at it with great gusto. They had a bit of a spat over her lack of enthusiasm, and from that time forward, “She never did get into picking up the bottles. She’d just sit in the truck with the engine running, have the AC on, and read her book.”

And yet she was behind him all the way, each and every bottle.

“One man’s junk is another man’s treasures. That’s for every collector. This is what Elmer chose, and it’s important.

I am his support team,” Linda said. “I don’t hold shackles. I don’t prevent him from doing what he loves, and what he is doing is his passion.”

It also takes a collector to know one, of course; to the untrained or unsympathetic eye, it’s all just a bunch of trash. To Elmer, though, it is treasure that he has made clear will pass into good hands upon his passing, guaranteeing that at least another generation of road warriors will be able to partake. “I’ve already taken the steps to pass this all on. I’ve got three sons. One of them plans on moving here.

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Photos supplied by Elmer Long.

live long enough to do ’em all,” he laughed.

Joining the bottle trees and their resident specimens are hundreds of other artifacts found on those dumping trips or while antiquing, all ephemera of a throw-away society bent on the ritual of consumption and disposal. Typewriters, signs, toys, traffic lights, and anything else that caught Elmer’s eye are roommates in this outdoor museum.

The seed that he planted �8 years ago has sprouted into a veritable forest of iron and glass, a most unusual arbor in a place that is otherwise stark and spare. It is open ��/� every day of the year, and Elmer attests to numerous visits in the dark of the night by curiosity seekers wanting to see what this roadside attraction is all about, and maybe—just maybe—catch a glimpse of the artist himself.

They’ve all agreed they will never sell this place.” One of the sons, each living along the west coast region, plans to move to the Bottle Ranch eventually.

As with most collectors, well-meaning inquisitive visitors want to know his favorites, which bottle is his most valuable, and what the whole collection is worth. “I don’t look at it in terms of value and worth. Those are what you can get for it.” Spoken like a true collector, of course, because you never want to add a blinking neon sign that begs thieves.

To Elmer, the collection’s value is intrinsic.

It isn’t for sale.

Like his father at the turn of the century, Elmer realizes that his collecting days, while still going strong, are beginning to wane.

He is often asked, “How big are you going to make this?” “The better question is, ‘How long are you going to live?’ I just keep going when I have time. I really can’t say.”

The intense desert heat has taken its toll.

“I don’t go out (dumping) like that anymore.

I try to go to antique places.” Not that Elmer is lacking for bottles, poles, and the detritus of a consumer society. He has piles of bottles and you-name-it waiting to one day be placed neatly in the slowly growing matrix. Whether he gets to them all is anyone’s guess.

Elmer’s methodical display sits juxtaposed with the seeming unfinishedness of it all.

He rather likes it that way.

Time in a Bottle A highly principled and humble man who believes in hard work and dedication, Elmer is also highly spiritual. “I have a unique way of thinking. I believe in God. It’s more than a belief, I talk to him while I’m working, and He talks to me. I try to memorize a scripture a week out of Proverbs.”

Elmer watching over his colorful ranch.

His dedication must be found somewhere in one of those Proverbs. At the same time, he brushes off his celebrity status along Route 66. “I have had Nothing is half-baked about Elmer Long or the Bottle people wake me up in the middle of the night, knocking on Tree Ranch. From the scorching days of summer to the my door. I’ve had young women get all giddy when I step chill of winter’s night, from the frequent dust devils to outside. It’s almost like when the Beatles landed in New the smell of desert rain when the clouds finally cut loose, York City,” he laughed. they are there for the enjoying. Every last specimen, from “Elmer has always been an artist in one way or another. his father’s ash tray, to military hardware, glass insulators, His collection is an art. It provides strength to whomever he and toys, each have a story behind them. “Everything is a talks to, in one way or another,” Linda added. “He can take puzzle,” Elmer waxed philosophic, and each puzzle piece at a group of cub scouts and keep them enthralled for over a the Ranch is part of a larger mosaic that is distinctly Elmer. half an hour.”

When the brutal winds barrel through the high desert “I think it’s great what Elmer has done,” said Harbour. and blow sand through those thousands of seemingly “It’s a magical place. Whenever I go out there and the wind random bottles, a distinct whistling can be heard. It’s not is blowing and twirling things, it’s just amazing.” much unlike when kids blow into soda bottles to produce a Today, those trees and the bottles on them, the bric-a-brac deep rush of sound. Elmer, though, has seated a symphony laying on or beneath those poles, are permanent testimony writ large, each chair capable of playing lead. The players to a man who took his collecting lineage seriously. The old may all not be in the same key, but it is a memorable tune Jeep that played a central role in this lifelong passion sits nonetheless orchestrated by Conductor Long in honor of center stage, surrounded by the fruits of those father-son his father. expeditions.

That old ’6� Willys sure was the ticket.

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WHERE COMES TO Words and Photographs by Melissa Whitney

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QUIRKINESS DWELL

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A

t first glance, it may not appear much is left of the once booming gold mining town of Goldfield, Nevada. When my brother Devin and I were planning our visit to Goldfield, one of the main draws for me was the International Car Forest of the Last Church. It was just going to be a quick stop for some photos, but what we never expected was to meet a local man named Jim who made Devin and I realize just how special this place really is. Goldfield may not be the mining town it once was, but this little town is rich in so many other ways.

Its treasures not only lie in the history, the decaying buildings, and the people that still call it home, but also in the quirky and offbeat place known as the International Car Forest.

After spending a few hours scooting around the desert with our new friend Jim in his trusty Razor ATV, we piled in one more time to drive out to the “car forest,” where a strange Stonehenge of vehicles lies sprawled across the dessert. In what

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looks like a Frankensteined version of Route 66’s Cadillac Ranch, it felt like we were in a postapocalyptic movie scene, where some giant creature or perhaps an immense storm had swooped in and haphazardly dropped the cars on their front ends, burying them into the sandy ground. The large busses protruding skyward seemed especially precarious. Other vehicles are stacked on top of each other or perched on hillsides. Devin and I hopped out of Jim’s ATV and ran around from car to car, taking in the wonderfully curious landscape.

Originally the brainchild of Goldfield resident Mark Rippie, he was soon joined by Chad Sorg in bringing Rippie’s vision to life. Rippie’s vision was to set a new world record of having the most upturned vehicles in one place, while Sorg saw the potential for the attraction to be an art piece. Designed as an unconventional rusty canvas for artists, the various automobiles are layered with graffiti, and seem to tell a story that quite possibly only the artist will ever know.

ABOVE: A Frankensteined version of Route 66’s Cadillac Ranch sprawled across a timeless desert landscape.

ABOVE: Teetering precariously on a cliff side, this bus seems to stand as sentinel over the International Car Forest of the Last Church.

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ABOVE: The wise, the aware, and the warrior all seem to stand as some sort of sentinel over the forest of cars.

RIGHT: Mysterious bedlam of rusty junk, beautiful in its chaos.

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PARTING SHOT

Rich

HENRY

What is your greatest fear? Living too long. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Liars. and Cheaters. Which living person do you most admire? Donald Trump. Which talent would you most like to have? Artist. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Rescuing bunnies and educating people on them. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? Maybe a domestic bunny. Where would you most like to live? Staunton, Illinois. What is your most treasured possession? My Christian Faith. Who are your favorite writers? Tom Teague and Carl Johnson.

If not Illinois, which Route 66 state would you choose to live in? Missouri, I love the geography of the Ozark contour. What actor would you want to play you in a biographic film? Clint Eastwood. Who is the funniest person on Route 66? Originally I would have said Juan at the Snow Cap in Seligman.

Now I would have to say his son.

Is there any place you desire to visit on Route 66 that you haven’t yet? The Jack Rabbit Trading Post in Joseph City, Arizona. If your rabbits could talk, what do you think they would say about you? This guy can’t be for real, just look at the place.

If you were a rabbit, what would your name be? Rich. What do you think about when you’re alone in the car? How peaceful it is to have time to think and

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relax. Same when I am cutting grass on a rider or tractor.

Where would you visit tomorrow, anywhere in the world, if you could? Rome, Italy, and see the Coliseum and all the other ancient artifacts. What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently? All the senior moments I have. I used to be able to multi-task and talk at same time. What historical figure would you love to meet? Babe Ruth. What is something that few people know about you? That I was a school teacher, truck driver, insurance agent and license/title/notary agent.

What skill would you like to master? I would like to be able to speak Spanish fluently. What are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years?

Continuing what I do here with Route 66 [over] the last �� years. What gets you fired up? Animal and child abuse.

If you were stranded on a desert island, which three items would you bring with you? Food, water and a bunny. What is the most under rated attraction on Route 66? Route 66 itself. What song best describes your life?

“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”

by The Hillside Singers. Strangest food you’ve ever eaten? Rattlesnack meat.

Characteristic in yourself that you like the most? Compassion for both animals and people. Favorite roadside attraction along Route 66? Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri.

Illustration: Jenny Mallon.

As an enthusiastic ambassador of Route 66, Rich Henry is without a doubt one of the most liked and respected individuals on the old road, today. A long-time resident of Staunton, Illinois, and a passionate promoter of the Mother Road, Rich has been drawing visitors to his gift shop and bunny haven - a must-stop on Route 66 - for many years. Charismatic and with lots of stories to share, Rich answers ROUTE’s rapid fire questions giving us a glimpse into his story, his faith, his family and of course, his bunnies. And be sure to stop by Henry’s Rabbit Ranch while out on the open road!

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SM

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Ranked at the top of historic things to do, Route 66 welcomes visitors, locals and travelers alike. Explore one of the longest stretches of Route 66 in Tulsa!

@Tulsa66Commission 70 ROUTE Magazine