Route
66 Lost & Found: Ruins and Relics Revisited,
by Russell A. Olsen
I have read most of the modern books
about Route 66 and have driven on much of the "Mother Road,"
but there are a number of anecdotes in Russell Olsen's new book
Route 66 Lost and Found: Ruins and Relics Revisited that
I had never heard before. This is a great roadtripping book
and one that we are pleased to recommend. There are 75 locations
along the historic route, starting with the Wishing Well Motel
in La Grange, Illinois, and ending with a shot of D Street in
Victorville, California. Each location compares a historical
photo or reproduction of a vintage postcard with photographs
that the author captured in June and July of 2003. Olsen shares
the personal stories of many of the owners and patrons of these
establishments and provides a historical overview for each section
of the famous highway. The author also includes a map for each
section that helps to orient readers to the route.
The author makes a good case
for the assertion that "Route 66 was born in Oklahoma,
and its father was Cyrus Avery." Even today, there are
still more drivable miles of the original highway in OK than
any other state. He traces the development of the highway
as the route for Dust Bowlers, escaping the ravages of the
depression and drought, headed for a better life in California,
the effect of the transport of materials to support WWII,
and the rapid growth of roadtripping after the end of the
war. In many ways, Route 66 businesses were victims of their
own success. The need for improved highways caused more and
more bypasses to be constructed around previously thriving
cities and towns to serve the needs of highway travelers eager
for speed. Peach Springs, Arizona, has the dubious distinction
of being the town bypassed by the greatest distance—36
miles.
The best part of this book
is the detail Olsen shares with his readers. For example,
he explains that Miami, Oklahoma, is pronounced Mi-am-UH,
not My-am-EE, and reveals that the old Bent Door Café
in Adrian, Texas, was actually constructed from a former air
force control tower. He includes evocative descriptions like
the piece about the Longhorn Ranch, a classic tourist trap
in Moriarty, New Mexico. Olsen also made an impressive effort
to photograph locations from the same vantage point used by
the original photographers. He hiked out into the desert to
reproduce a vintage photograph of Cool Springs Camp, Arizona,
and he captured a fabulous shot of an eminently photogenic
abandoned gas station in Gascozark, Missouri.
The photographs will serve
to enrich any roadtripper's drive on the old highway
once known as "America's Main Street." At the beginning
of the book project, the author had about 400 vintage photographs
that he winnowed down to seventy-five. We can only hope that
there will, one day, be a volume two of this excellent work.
Mark
7/04/04
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