Hooked on Nostalgia

By Cheryl Eichar Jett Photographs by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66

HOOKED ON NOSTALGIA

Motorhead: a car, truck, or motorcycle enthusiast, according to Urban Dictionary. But the common meaning – that of a vehicle aficionado – just isn’t strong enough, nor colorful enough, and definitely not fun enough to describe the founder, operator, restaurateur, collector, and ringmaster of the fabulously successful Route 66 Motorheads Bar, Grill, and Museum just south of Springfield, Illinois. And just who is this ringmaster? That would be Ron Metzger, a self-acknowledged “car guy” and “Springfield guy,” who also is part of the Springfield “Living Legends on Route 66” local entrepreneurs tour. “I was born here, and I just hang out here,” he said proudly.

Beginning in the 1990s, Metzger operated his own businesses in Springfield. Operating several car lots as RPM Car company, Metzger deviated from the vehicle theme for a while with his Metzger Flooring Company. Through the years, he also hunted down Springfield business memorabilia, collected cars and signs, and honed his commercial skills, just to be ready, it would seem, for his current role and chapter.

Spanning decades, his incredibly vast memorabilia collection includes gas pumps, cars, and signs from the Central Illinois area. Metzger’s vintage collectibles reflect many of Springfield’s past restaurants, gas stations, motels, and car dealerships, while treasured photos of Springfield auto racing legends and a 100-year-old race car commemorate his hometown’s iconic but often little-known motor racing scene. (The “Springfield Mile” at the Illinois State Fairgrounds is one of the oldest and fastest tracks in the US.)

The Camaro That Started It All

If you’ve been to Motorheads, you just might have noticed a vintage Camaro hanging over your head. That sleek silver vehicle, now beautifully restored and “chromed out,” long ago lit the fire of Metzger’s lifelong love affair with the automobile.

“I’ve been a car guy since I bought my first car when I was sixteen, and I never quit,” said Metzger. “I’ve had hundreds of old cars. I bought that car in 1973 and drove it all over the country. A 1969 Camaro. That’s the one that’s hanging up in the ceiling now. I think I’ve had that for 48 years.”

Son of car enthusiasts George and Dorthea Metzger, who enjoyed cruising in their own Camaro with the top down, Metzger filled up several warehouses with his treasures as the decades passed. His passion for hanging on to local history grew along with his collections as he watched local landmarks like the Orpheum Theatre downtown, Shea’s Gas Station on the Peoria Road/Ninth Street alignment of Route 66, and the Bel-Aire Motel on South Sixth Street (notable for its neon, sputnik, and concrete seal fountain) all close down. (Shea’s building still stands, with some prospects to reopen, while sadly, the Orpheum and the Bel-Aire are long gone).

“Cars and gas pumps and old signs go hand in hand, and any old signs that have to do with Springfield, I really have tried to find, just because they’re Springfield signs. Problem is, they’re all going away, so [I’m] trying to find them. [But] I don’t care who owns them, if I own them, or whoever owns them, [if] they’re back in Springfield, where the public can see them.”

Metzger’s favorite sign, which happens to be the one that he’s had the longest, is the porcelain sign from the Abe Lincoln Motel that once stood alongside the original Cozy Dog location on the south side of town. “Every time I’ve moved warehouses or anything, I’ve taken that sign,” he said. “I’ve moved that sign 50 times! It’s so dang big.”

With warehouses full of collectibles, at one point Metzger sold some of his collection (but later bought most of it back) before he began to think of a new plan to house them somewhere where the public could enjoy them.

“He [had] all of the original items that he’d been storing for some 40 years, in three or four different warehouses. His wife asked him, ‘What are you doing with all this stuff?’ And Ron said, ‘Well, I think I have an idea.’ And that’s when he looked at the old Stuckey’s building,” said Scott Dahl, President of Visit Springfield. “It was in disarray. I know they put in a ton of work just to get the doors open.”

Motorheads Opens

That old Stuckey’s building, occupied by a pizzeria and a boat dealership since Stuckey’s closed sometime in the 1980s, was the perfect building in a great location for Metzger’s new venture. Repurposing historic buildings along Route 66 has been a hallmark of its evolution for darn near a century now. And if you’re going to repurpose a building to fill it with Americana memorabilia, why not choose one that once housed a company that represented the very spirit of American roadside business? And so, Motorheads Bar, Grill, and Museum began its life in a former Stuckey’s store.

Inside of Motorheads.

“This was actually built in 1970 when 66 was still here and [Interstate] 55 was opening. So, the Stuckey family was building at interstate ramps,” said Metzger. “He [Billy Stuckey] was a pretty sharp guy, he thought about the real estate as well.”

Motorheads opened its doors to the public on Memorial Day weekend in May 2018. In what could only be called an overnight success, Metzger found his parking lot full and his building packed beginning with that first weekend. Opening with the bar plus snack food, the full kitchen opened later in the summer, offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a bartender on duty all day.

Metzger took the car theme to extremes, and his supporters loved him for it. Beer is tapped out of automobile trunks mounted on the wall. The menu has an “owner’s manual” theme and offers classic bar and grill food with a new spin. Burgers and sandwiches are named after cars, such as the Firebird (buffalo chicken) and the Thunderbird (bourbon burger). Then there’s Super Birds (chicken wings) and Lug Nuts (Wisconsin cheese curds) and Ball Bearings (cordon blue bites). An average of 60 to 70 employees each week keep the food cooking and the drinks flowing. “It’s not an easy place to operate,” Metzger quipped.

In an ironic homecoming of sorts, an original Stuckey’s sign found its way out of a chicken coop to come “home” to roost in Motorheads’ beer garden in the summer of 2019. The highway sign had touted Stuckey’s original Springfieldarea store in nearby New Berlin, located about 20 miles away on old Route 54. John and Diane Craig, the new owners of a New Berlin farm home, had discovered the sign in a chicken

coop, where the farm’s original owner had tucked it away after the New Berlin Stuckey’s closed.

“I got the oldest Stuckey’s sign in existence, a billboard, it’s 10 foot by 30 foot, and the reason I know that is, it’s on the Stuckey’s corporation website,” said Metzger.

Motorhead’s location didn’t hurt anything, either, as it’s easy-on and easy-off from Interstate 55 at the Toronto exit to access the hot spot. And now, Metzger’s giant sign, iconic Stuckey’s roofline, and minor traffic jam getting into the parking lot are all indicative that you’ve found the right place.

“All roads lead south as you’re traveling towards Motorheads, and when you get there, there’s this top-fuel dragster on the roof. That tells you that this place is different. That tells you that you’re probably somewhere that you haven’t been before,” said Dahl.

World’s Largest Route 66 Emblem

In 2018, as Metzger was opening Motorheads, he dreamt of a gigantic Route 66 shield being mounted on the original Stuckey’s 60-foot-tall sign poles. As he sketched out a design for the sign one night inside the venue, Dennis Bringuet, third generation of Springfield’s four-generation Ace Sign Company, was watching.

“I’d known Ron, we were in high school together, so I’ve known [him] for a long time. He’s been collecting signs for a long time and we [Ace Sign Company] have as well, so we trade things back and forth. I took Ron’s drawing, his conceptual ideas, and shared those with our team,” explained Bringuet.

Two years later, Ace Sign Company made Metzger’s design a 32-foot-by-32-foot reality, and an eagerly awaited event took place on August 14, 2020. The Ace Sign Company crew hoisted the huge sign onto the historic Stuckey’s poles as the “sign sequins” – small pieces of shiny metal – shimmered in the sunshine. Reporters and photographers showed up to document the installation, while a little later in the day, roadies, fans, and the curious, packed the big parking lot just off I-55 for the official dedication. “The biggest Route 66 emblem in the world,” as Metzger calls it, is said to eclipse the former world record of the giant shield in front of the Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. A few weeks previous to the installation, Metzger readied those poles by painting them himself, six stories in the air, from a lift borrowed from Steve Sheppard of Sheppard Auto Sales and Salvage. “Ron’s put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into that place,” said Bringuet. Then, on the historic day of lifting the sign, Ace Sign Company crews first had to weld specially-made brackets onto the poles to hold the giant sign. The top and bottom halves of the sign had to be assembled before the exciting sight of it being lifted up onto the poles could please the assembled crowd. Springfield, Illinois, has become known in the last several years as a place that preserves historic signs, which started with the City purchasing the iconic Sonrise Donuts sign in 2018, followed by cooperation among the City, Ace Sign Company, and Ron Metzger, when it came to saving and preserving iconic local business signs. But then, Springfield’s business history is full of inexplicable ties, odd coincidences, and the satisfaction of bringing a story “full circle.”

For instance, Ace Sign Company, who fabricated the giant Route 66 shield in 2019, had been on the Motorheads property back in 1970 to install the 60-foot poles for Stuckey’s opening.

“[My] father installed the poles. I recall my father telling stories about those poles needing some extra welding on them, because they had a little different alloy in them,” said Bringuet.

A New Addition

Metzger’s newest addition to Motorheads in July 2021 was a big one – a 5,000-squarefoot building, bumping the venue’s presence to nearly 15,000 square feet on four acres of land. The new space holds an entertainment stage, Metzger’s rarest neon signs, and a Watchfire Jumbotron. “It’s probably one of the finer attractions in his new area. It’s in there so they can watch ball games and automobile races; that’s the largest television screen in Central Illinois,” Bringuet said. Upstairs, there’s a loft area for private parties.

On the outside stands the 8,000-pound concrete seal fountain saved from the Bel-Aire Motel, the landmark lodging that was razed in 2015, as well as its sign. Half of the Sonrise Donut sign – an iconic sight on the Ninth Street Route 66 alignment for nearly 70 years – is also there.

“We work with Ron and trade things back and forth,” explained Bringuet, whose company also restored the iconic Tropics Restaurant sign not far away in Lincoln, Illinois. “There’s a sign that we just corralled – the Sixth Street Car Wash – which is on Route 66 here in Springfield. We’re going to give him half, he’ll have one side, just like the Arch Motel, just like [the] Sonrise Donuts [sign]. We refurbished it, and helped Ron install one side at his place.”

In the meantime, Motorheads’ 6,000-square-foot beer garden also packs in the customers during car shows and charity events to enjoy the retro Shell Gas Station décor. Metzger’s passion for preserving Springfield Route 66 history led him to purchase so many items at the auction of Bill Shea’s Route 66 Gas Station Museum back in 2015 that he’s been able to recreate the front facade of Shea’s famous attraction at Motorheads.

“I’ve got a lot of stuff that I haven’t put up yet that’s still in the garage. So, within the next month-and-a-half, I’m going to have every sign I own displayed, and then we’re going to do a video inventory, for insurance purposes, and just to know exactly what we’ve got,” Metzger said thoughtfully. “We’ve got everything from a 1915 race car to a 66 sign, some of everything, it just doesn’t quit.”

Metzger admiring his prized possession, Motorheads.

A People’s Place

Visitors to Motorheads are sometimes overwhelmed at the sheer amount of memorabilia packed into the venue. A visit will literally take you on a tour of Springfield’s restaurant history. And it’s truly eye candy for car guys, sign collectors, Route 66 fans, and, back to that niche, Springfield carracing enthusiasts. For many, one visit just isn’t enough to even begin to take in the vast collection, especially if one is attempting to also eat a meal or have a conversation with friends. “I have been there 40 times and I still see something new every time,” said Dahl. “He’s not going to slow down as far as the collecting. I think it’s in his blood. It truly means something to him. This isn’t someone that just ran into some money and decided to buy some Route 66 memorabilia or motorhead items. This is someone that truly has a passion for the motorhead side and the Route 66 side and has showed it over the last 40 years.” As Route 66 and other revered historic highways have evolved during the modern era, businesses have closed, buildings have been razed, and signs have sometimes disappeared. The new attractions that preserve and display beloved and familiar remnants of times gone by undeniably have a leg up in becoming a crowd favorite. And Ron Metzger and his Motorheads Bar, Grill and Museum have done just that – in spades. Wearing many hats on a busy day at Motorheads, Metzger seems to be everywhere, directing everything and greeting everyone. Just like a good ringmaster, he keeps the show going smoothly and makes everything look easy.

History. Heritage. Craft. The Great Outdoors. The Nature of the West.

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million acres of pristine wildland in the Bighorn National Forest, encompassing 1,200 miles of trails, 30 campgrounds, 10 picnic areas, 6 mountain lodges, legendary dude ranches, and hundreds of miles of waterways. The Bighorns offer limitless outdoor recreation opportunities.

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restaurants, bars, food trucks, lounges, breweries, distilleries, tap rooms, saloons, and holes in the wall are spread across Sheridan County. That’s 101 different ways to apres adventure in the craft capital of Wyoming. We are also home to more than 40 hotels, motels, RV parks, and B&Bs.

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seasons in which to get thoroughly WYO’d. If you’re a skijoring savant, you’ll want to check out the Winter Rodeo in February 2022. July features the 92nd edition of the beloved WYO Rodeo. Spring and fall are the perfect time to chase cool mountain streams or epic backcountry lines.

Sheridan features a thriving, historic downtown district, with western allure, hospitality and good graces to spare; a vibrant arts scene; bombastic craft culture; a robust festival and events calendar; and living history from one corner of the county to the next.

Up and down the “Main Street of America,” businesses are simply identified as “Route 66”— Route 66 Motel, Route 66 Station, or Route 66 Restaurant. This moniker undeniably affirms its status as a Mother Road business, practically guaranteeing that travelers will show up at its door. But many years of this straightforward naming process can lessen the memory of the operators, except perhaps for its local customers, who remember their area legends.

The Route 66 Restaurant in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, known also as the Shawford Cafe and then Lettie’s, was one of those eateries. The Mid-Century building still stands— empty now—on the east side of town, overlooking the small city and the valley beyond. The cafe nestled near the highway, while behind it stood the Shawford Motel. After a major remodel, it is still operating as an Econo Lodge Inn and Suites.

When local man Albert Elfego “Friggie” Campos and his wife, Ida Jo, opened in the building sometime in the 1960s, he named it for his daughter—Lettie’s. “Friggie,” the nickname by which he was known for most of his life, opened other Santa Rosa restaurants with family members during his thirty-five years in the restaurant business, including the nowclosed Adobe Inn, and La Fiesta Cafe, which transitioned into Joseph’s Bar and Grill in the 1980s and is still operated by the Campos family.

In 1986, the Velasquez family took over operation of Lettie’s as Friggie moved on to other projects, and by 2007, it had been renamed the Route 66 Restaurant. The name change matched the Mid-Century building and cemented the eatery in the hearts of Route 66 enthusiasts. Leaving a lasting impression with its iconic Googie-style signage, the letters of the word “restaurant” were displayed on yellow diamond shapes along the roofline with the words “Route 66” in a separate circular sign. Even Bob Waldmire, the late artist, free spirit, and consummate Route 66 traveler known for his detailed drawings of Route 66 venues, made a print of the cafe.

Friggie contributed to his community as well as feeding it by serving as city councilman and mayor and working to attract a Travel Center of America to sleepy Santa Rosa, adding to his rather legendary status in the close-knit Hispanic community. After Friggie’s death in 2017 at the age of 88, the City issued a resolution honoring three of its mayors, including Friggie.

On July 22, 2015, a sudden storm blew up over Santa Rosa —and owner-operator Patricia Velasquez’ Route 66 eatery. A lightning strike destroyed the restaurant’s electrical box and ignited a kitchen fire. The damage was severe enough to result in a temporary closing during the year’s tourist season, but on the evening of July 30, just eight days after the damaging lightning bolt, Patricia and her staff surprisingly reopened.

However, life in the restaurant business is difficult and on Saturday evening, September 14, 2019, the Route 66 Restaurant served its last meal before closing its doors for good. One of the operators, Mary Velasquez, turned the key in the lock, a paper sign on a window announcing, “Closed For Ever.” The news soon spread that Community 1st Bank in Las Vegas, New Mexico, had foreclosed on the building.

This Santa Rosa restaurant is one of those Mother Road businesses that was easily identified and is still fondly remembered. Even two years after its demise, Route 66ers bemoan its closure. “As for the [Route 66] in Santa Rosa, I ate there many times and was very sad to see it go,” said Melissa Lea Beasley-Lee, President of the New Mexico Route 66 Association. Missed as well is the ambiance within the cafe, with its aromas of authentic local cuisine being served up, not to mention its homey comfort.

“Right now, we have five restaurants [still] serving our community. But back in 1973, there were over 20 restaurants, [and] gas stations, motels, a bunch of bars… and then that interstate came in, the bypass, it just rolled in like you wouldn’t believe it,” said current Santa Rosa Mayor Nelson Kotiar.

Turn-over in restaurants and change in ownership and operation is all part of the evolution of the American highway. But that doesn’t mean that fans forget the sights, smells, and tastes of their favorite eateries. Legendary restaurants live on in the memories of travelers and Route 66 enthusiasts alike, while the local icons also lodge in the hearts of their customers and friends.

BOONE’S LICK k

From a humble “salt lick,” combined with the surname of a legendary American frontiersman, came the name of the first major road to the interior of Missouri. “The Boone’s Lick Road was a major path of westward travel that started in St. Charles and followed a high ridge over to Howard County, Missouri,” said Mike Dickey, Historic Site Administrator of Boone’s Lick State Historic Site. “It was a major trail route out to Central Missouri, and from there you picked up the Osage Trace, [which] later became the Santa Fe Trail.” For over a century, that road served as the very path of American history.

French-Canadian explorer Louis Blanchette settled along the west side of the Missouri River in 1769 and founded what would become the City of St. Charles. Thirty years later, frontiersman Daniel Boone, his wife Rebecca, and their grown sons Nathan Boone and Daniel Morgan Boone arrived in the area from Kentucky.

As St. Charles grew, Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone explored westward along the Missouri River. They discovered a significant saltwater spring, which attracted wildlife, about 100 miles west of St. Charles in what would become Howard County. The Boone brothers commercialized the lick by boiling the saltwater, leaving the precious commodity of crystalized salt.

The old trace that the Boone brothers followed soon became known as Boone's Lick Road. “In 1808, Nathan Boone led [Captain] William Clark and the St. Charles Militia overland to Fort Osage, and they blazed a path across northern Missouri,” explained Dickey. “And that trail stayed in use for settlers beginning around 1810.” Small settlements near the salt licks sprang up along the north bank of the Missouri River in what would become the State of Missouri in 1821.

Captain William Becknell of Franklin, a village in the Boone’s Lick area, led the first caravan of pack mules west from Franklin in 1821 on the Santa Fe Trail. The important link from St. Charles to Franklin, in making the previously unthinkable journey west, was the Boone’s Lick Road.

As debate over slavery escalated in the country and the Missouri Compromise of 1821 allowed slavery in the new state of Missouri, the general region of Boone’s Lick Road once again defined an era. Missouri's status triggered a flood of immigration from the southern states, and many sympathizers settled along the general east-west path of the Missouri River in the region known as “Boonslick” or “Little Dixie.”

“There is actually still a street in St. Charles called Boone’s Lick Road,” noted Dickey. Not surprisingly, the road’s eastern terminus is near the Missouri River’s shore. And there, near the riverfront, stands a very special inn, a handsome red brick Federal-style building tucked neatly amid the Historic District.

“For more than 175 years the Carter-Rice building has stood its ground along the Missouri River. And now it is home to the historic Boone’s Lick Trail Inn, representing early America on S. Main Street,” said Dan Krankeola, Director of Discover St. Charles. Constructed in 1843, the Federal-style building once housed a confectionary, a dry goods store, and a saddlery and harness business, all in its earlier years. But by the 1970s, it had deteriorated to endangered status; that’s when Paul and V’Anne Mydler discovered it. “[My parents] bought the building in 1981 off the auction block; it was going to be torn down. [They] had to sit on it for a while because they were trying to get funding and figure out what to do with it, and interest rates were 18-20% at the time,” explained Venetia McEntire, daughter of the Mydlers and second-generation innkeeper along with her husband, Steve Powell. “My mother had traveled consistently in Europe and England, so had stayed in many hostels and inns and came back [wanting] to do a bed and breakfast. It opened in 1987.” As the inn’s restoration neared completion, the St. Charles Historic District National Register boundary was increased to include 1000 South Main Street, home of the inn and former Carter-Rice building.

Although the historic inn, the interpretive exhibits at Boone’s Lick State Historic Site, and several large fragments of early Boone’s Lick Trail in St. Charles, in Columbia, and elsewhere, are significant reminders of the area’s history, much of the original trail has been sadly lost or abandoned. History buffs and intrigued visitors, however, should remember that the Boone’s Lick Road was once a significant early American highway that helped develop a young growing nation. For those on the lookout for a taste of true Americana, the City of St. Charles really is the perfect place to spend some time.