Route 66 - Part 1
Day 8 - St. Louis, MO to St. Clair, MO
St. LouisDay 8 - St. Louis, MO to St. Clair, MO
9/30/2012
55 Actua; Miles / 2323 Actual Evelation
Stuff that should have been in yesterday's blog post.....and would have been if I hadn't hit delete instead of post!
Route 66 in Missouri
Old Route 66 travels diagonally through the state, following the course of the Osage Trail, the Kickapoo Trace, and later the Federal Wire Road. Perhaps more than any other state through which Route 66 passes, Missouri is a region of great contrasts. Something of the spirit of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Harold Bell Wright’s The Shepherd of the Hills is still present here, along with the torment of civil and border wars. Yet there is also a lingering sense of willing endurance as once embodied in Pony Express riders and the redoubtable Charles Lindberg.
Federal Wire Road
The Old Wire Road is a historic road in Missouri and Arkansas. Several local roads are still known by this name. It followed an old Native American route, the Great Osage Trail across the Ozarks and became a road along telegraph lines from St. Louis, M to Fort Smith, Arkansas.This route was also used by the Butterfield Overland Mail. It was known as the "Wire Road" while the telegraph line was up, but when the line was later removed, it simply became known as the "Old Wire Road". In St. Louis, where the road begins at Jefferson Barraks, it is called Telegraph Road. From St. Louis to Springfield, MO, where it became designated Route 14 (which, in turn, later became US Route 66 and still later I-44.
At Springfield, it turned southwest and passed through what is now Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. From the Battlefield it meandered southwest through Christian and Stone Counties in Missouri towards the Arkansas state line. It passed near Pea Ridge, AK to Fayetteville, AK, on its way to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
It was used as part of the Trail of Tears and during the Civil War, when Confederate soldiers often cut the telegraph line.
Old Route 66 travels diagonally through the state, following the course of the Osage Trail, the Kickapoo Trace, and later the Federal Wire Road. Perhaps more than any other state through which Route 66 passes, Missouri is a region of great contrasts. Something of the spirit of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Harold Bell Wright’s The Shepherd of the Hills is still present here, along with the torment of civil and border wars. Yet there is also a lingering sense of willing endurance as once embodied in Pony Express riders and the redoubtable Charles Lindberg.
Federal Wire Road
At Springfield, it turned southwest and passed through what is now Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. From the Battlefield it meandered southwest through Christian and Stone Counties in Missouri towards the Arkansas state line. It passed near Pea Ridge, AK to Fayetteville, AK, on its way to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
It was used as part of the Trail of Tears and during the Civil War, when Confederate soldiers often cut the telegraph line.
Chain of Rocks
Bridge - [314-741-1211] Originally a toll bridge constructed in 1929, this
bridge later carried Route 66 traffic over the Mississippi River at St. Louis,
functioning as a bypass route that avoided downtown congestion. Its Route 66
phase lasted from the late 1930s until 1967, after which it was closed to
traffic, its fate remaining uncertain for decades. In the 1990s it was finally
saved from demolition and converted into a pedestrian recreation trail. The
bridge is distinctive for its 22-degree bend in the middle, which allows the
bridge to offer stronger resistance to the river currents, while also
facilitating river navigation. The Chain of Rocks Bridge was repaved for its
part in John Carpenter’s film Escape from New York. It was in fact
the bridge over which the patch-eyed Kurt Russell made good his escape and upon
which Adrienne Barbeau breathed her bosomy last.
Coral Court Motel - This motel was constructed in the early
1940s on Watson Road in Greater St. Louis, MO, and had several distinguishing
features. It was designed in the Streamline-Moderne style--well after that
style's peak in the 1930a; construction was of buff-colored ceramic brick with
glass-block accents and curved corners; each of the more than 70 units included
an attached garage; the motel was built as a "village" of discrete
units rather than as one structure; and, it was named for marine fauna in spite
of its Mid-America location. Despite preservationists' efforts to the contrary,
the Coral Court was demolishes in 1995. However, part of one of the motel's
units was retained for display at the Museum of Transportation, not far from
where the Coral Court stood for 50-plus years. The site of the motel is now
occupied by a housing subdivision named Oak Knoll Manor.
Ted Drewes Frozen
Custard - 6726 Chippewa www.teddrewes.com Since 1930, the Drewes family has been
offering their frozen custard confections to St. Louisans at just a handful of
locations. The Route 66 location, on Chippewa, opened in 1941. The specialty of
the house is the "concrete," served so thick that it can be turned
upside down with nary a drip or spill.
Scott
Joplin House State Historic Site - 2658 Delmar Scott Joplin [1868-1917]
Self-taught American ragtime composer and pianist and his wife kept a modest
flat circa 1902. There is a music room with an operating player piano.
Old Courthouse
dates back to 1839, and was the site of the early trials of the Dred Scott case, which was ultimately
decided by the US Supreme Court in 1857.
The
Donut Drive-In – A renovated neon
sign in the Route 66 tradition
Giant
Farmer and Son at Sappington Farmers
Market in General Grant Center
Bellefontaine Cemetery - William
Clark (Lewis and Clark Expedition) is buried here.
Ulysses S. Grant
Historic Site - 7400 Grant Street – was
the Grant family residence form 1854 to 1858, known as White Haven. At 10501
Gravois is Grant’s Farm, a ranch with free roaming animals, and 1856 log cabin,
breeding Clydesdales, and a fence made from Civil War rifle barrels.
And now on to today's route information....
Kirkwood
Museum of
Transportation - 3015 Barrett Station
Road. This museum in suburban St. Louis has many, many exhibits of interest to
roadies, but the most important one for Route 66 pilgrims is a partial motel
room from the Coral Court Motel, a large 1940s-era motel complex that was
demolished to make room for a housing subdivision. Dating from the late 1800s
to the final day of steam after WWII, the locomotives range from early
pufferbellies to a giant Santa Fe 2-10-4, which once offered Route 66 drivers
the chance to race against a truly fast freight highballing through the West.
There is a custom-built aluminum car made in 1960 and used in the Bobby Darin
movie Too Cool Blues.
Oak Knoll Manor - The housing subdivision that was built on
the site of the Coral Court Motel in suburban St. Louis. The development's entry
on Watson Road features the original gates to the motel.
Frank Lloyd Wright
residence - 120 N. Ballas – One of only five Wright-designed structures in
the state of Missouri. The house is particularly notable in that it is
virtually 100 percent authentic.
Eureka
Route 66 State
Park - [636-938-7198] The park's address is Eureka, but it's actually
situated on what was once the community of Times Beach. Times Beach was started
in the 1920s as a resort and/or bedroom community for St. Louis, it being just
far enough away to be considered rural. Unfortunately, residents learned that
during the 1970, the recycled oil sprayed on their streets for dust control was
highly contaminated with dioxins. The community was evacuated in the 1980s,
later to be cleaned up and converted to the park you see today. The park's main
interpretive center is in a building that formerly served as a roadhouse named
the Bridgehead Inn, dating from 1935. Bridgehead
Inn (Times Beach, MO) Former Route 66 roadhouse west of St. Louis, MO that
now serves as the headquarters and visitors' center for Route 66 State Park.
Black Madonna
Shrine and Grottos - 100 St. Joseph’s Road – Built by a Franciscan brother
by hand, the grottoes are “dedicated to the Black Madonna, Our Lady of Czestochowa,
Queen of Peace and Mercy.”
Allenton
Gray Summit
Shaw
Nature Reserve (formerly the Shaw
Arboretum) [636-451-3512] Since 1925 Gray Summit has been home to 2,500 acres
of natural Ozark landscape and plant collections.
Their 1879 Joseph H. Bascom Manor House contains exhibits entitled
“People on the Land” covering conservation issues.
Remnants of The Gardenway Motel sign
Gardenway
Motel – Classic neon sign
Villa Ridge
Pacific
Red Cedar Inn - Family-run eatery that has been in business since the 1930s, and whose dominant physical feature consists of the hand-cut logs used in its construction.
Sunset Motel –
dating from 1946 with a stunning neon sign relit in 2009 after being dark for
many years.
St. Clair - established in 1849 as a railroad community for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, it was first called Traveler's Repose by one of its initial settlers. In 1855, it was changed to St. Clair. It began to grow as zinc and lead mining developed the area.
.
Lewis Café - 145 S. Main
I had a wonderful lunch here with Bill K and Rich G. /////it was just a short ride from the hotel to the charming downtown area of St. Clair, MO.
I had a wonderful lunch here with Bill K and Rich G. /////it was just a short ride from the hotel to the charming downtown area of St. Clair, MO.
St Clair Historical
Museum - 280 Hibbard Street –
Contains exhibits including Indian artifacts, mining-related items and a
Victorian parlor, doctor’s office, and a general store.
Tomorrow we are off to St. James, MO.
