Route 66: America's Main Street - Will Roger's Highway - The Mother Road. Whatever you may call it, the historic American byway is a pop-culture reference today, but at one time was the main highway of the country. The route was originally constructed in 1926, beginning in Chicago and winding it's way some 2,448 miles through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, before ending in Los Angeles. In it's 30 year history the route was most formidable in being the major byway for those individuals who were forced to move westward during the Dust Bowl of the 1930's, and for hundreds of families making family vacations to the "Wild-West" and the Grand Canyon. And while people still take drives along what remains of old 66, the primary means of traveling cross-country these days are the interstates, which - effectively - killed the original U.S. Highway system, and the small towns which dotted the rural American heartland.
Indeed, the town in which we now live - Waynesville, MO - still shows vestiges of what it probably looked like in it's prime (pre-1960); old gas stations with slanted roofs and cafes with neon signs that have been left abandoned for the better part of a half century. Even though it is a quaint little village, there are some "ghost-town" effects which are tangible on the city's fringe.
But my post today isn't to bemoan the downfall of America's rural communities when Route 66 was ousted by the Interstate Highway System. It's to remember that sometimes it is better to take the road less traveled by. That history and beauty are sometimes just a 15 minute diversion off the beaten path.
As yesterday was Wednesday - my "exploring day" - I decided that I would pick one of the historical Route 66 markers from the list of "Things to Do in Pulaski County" as my starting point for some photos of old Missouri. So I hopped into the car with my Nikon at my side and ventured out to Devil's Elbow, a hamlet of a town, which used to be a major stopping point for wayfarers on their cross-country trek along the Mother Road.
Named for a bend in the Big Piney River where 19th century lumberjacks would notoriously have log-jams - saying that the Devil himself must have thrown a boulder at the bend, just to cause them grief - the town hasn't changed much since it's birth in the 1870's. Aside from a small market - which doubles as a Post Office, an old, run-down house which used to be the town's inn, and a watering hole for weary travelers, only a smattering of houses remain in the little village. Still, the houses are quaint and the lawns well-tended in this community that seems to move as lazily as the river on which it was settled. It almost reminded me of Walton's Mountain.
Just a quarter-mile from the village, up Teardrop Road (the name of Route 66 as it winds along the Big Piney), is the river's elbow. Right before the bend stands a beautiful, wooden railroad trestle bridge, which is no longer in use, but has been preserved and made a national historic landmark. Built in 1941, the bridge has no specific name, but did have a specific use - to bring building supplies to a new, small army base located in the Mark Twain National Forest, to be called Fort Leonard Wood.
My drive along Route 66 yesterday gave me time to reflect on our American history. It made me recall books I once read and shows I once watched; novels and programs which hearkened back to the mid-20th century easy way of life. Some would call those times idyllic, and in a way that's kind of how I felt as I drove off Route 66 and back onto I-44; leaving the past - literally - behind me. Times change, things evolve, and everything keeps moving forward, but it's good to remember the past and visit her every now and then. She reminds us of who we are, and how far we've come.
References:
The Road Wanderer
Visit Missouri
Wiki - 66
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