Route 66 in the News
What's Missing on Route 66?
2007-09-20 08:50:02
CARTHAGE, Mo. - David Waller, owner of the Shelter Insurance Agency near the intersection of Central and Garrison, has seen it -- travelers driving Route 66, especially those going from east to west, coming to the intersection of Central and Garrison and facing confusion.
"I've seen groups of people from Germany, or Italy, or France, mostly European," Waller said. "They've stopped over here at the Fastrip and I've gone over to talk to them and they don't know which way to go. You never know how many smaller groups that didn't stop anywhere who are missing the route entirely. Since we're advertising the city as a vacation destination, it would be neat to have the old route, running through town, marked to try to help the visitors find it."
That's why Waller allowed Rod Harsh, owner of the Route 66 Visitors Center in Carterville, to mount a blue sign with the Route 66 shield and an arrow pointing left on a signpost on his property immediately east of the intersection.
For vacationers traveling from east to west, the old Route 66 comes into Carthage on Missouri Highway 96, which becomes Central Avenue and continues to the intersection with Garrison Avenue. Then the original route turns south for two blocks to Oak Street, then travels west out of Carthage to Brooklyn Heights, then turns north and crosses the Missouri Highway 171 overpass to Old 66 Boulevard and turns west through a picturesque, five-mile wooded area of Jasper County before coming in to Carterville from the north.
Harsh said far too many of the 3,000 or more visitors, who have stopped at his former gas station-turned visitors center in Carterville, say they came to Carterville on the four-lane Missouri 171, completely missing that stretch of the original route.
"There aren't any signs in Carthage telling them where to turn," Harsh said. "There are those old brown signs along the route, but they're not placed to tell people where to make those turns. In Jasper County, this is where most people traveling the route get lost."
Harsh is promoting his efforts to get more signs installed on Route 66 through a Web site: http://www.signtheroute.homestead.com/
He has also received donations from several people to install what he says are temporary signs in several places, including Carthage.
"The whole purpose for this is to be temporary," Harsh said. "I'm not interested in usurping anyone's sign initiative, it's just that beaurocracies move slowly and this little grassroots effort is intended to help."
Harsh said the Missouri Route 66 Association has gotten Missouri lawmakers to designate Route 66 an official scenic byway and he's been told new signs will be installed at some time in the future.
Lori Marble, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Transportation office in Joplin, confirmed the scenic byway designation and said new signs are on the way for the route.
"The association was successful in getting a designation as a scenic byway and they were successful in getting funding to put up new signs," Marble said. "An official in District eight (the Springfield office) is administering the program and is in the process of getting the paperwork filed. It's federal money though and it takes time to get everything checked off."
In the meantime, Marble said there was no law prohibiting Harsh from installing his signs on private property as long as he has permission.
Carthage City Administrator Tom Short said the city has replaced several of the old brown Route 66 signs, which had been stolen in the past, with grants from the Helen S. Boylan Foundation, but more recently it was waiting on the state to install the new scenic byway signs. Short said as long as Harsh's signs are on private property and comply with the city's sign ordinance, he has no problem with Harsh installing his signs.
~John Hacker, Carthage Press
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