Ghost Towns of Route 66 (14 page)
Read Ghost Towns of Route 66 Online
Authors: Jim Hinckley
The Longhorn and the Ehresmans' story encapsulates life along Route 66 in the preinterstate era. For people like Homer and Margaret, Route 66 was more than a highway; it was an asphalt opportunity with possibilities only limited by the imagination and the amount of expended effort.
Glenrio's Texas Longhorn, promoted as the first and last motel in Texas, is now little more than a forlorn relic from better times.
Joe Sonderman collection
DON'T MISS
There are some marvelous gems found along this section of Route 66. In Vega, you can see the refurbished Magnolia Station, built in 1924 by Colonel J. T. Owen, and Dot's Mini Museum.
In Adrian, the geographical midpoint of Route 66, there is the Midpoint Café, a classic roadside café suspended in time that specializes in fresh pies.
Imagine the parade of travelers headed east and west who stopped at Glenrio's State Line Bar on the New Mexico side of the border to cool the radiator and top off the tank.
Joe Sonderman collection
NEW MEXICO
The blending of weathered wood and faded steel in San Jose encapsulates the timeless and diverse nature of New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment.
Dillia survived the realignment of Route 66 in 1937 and the subsequent bypass just as it weathered and survived the century before the designation of that highway.
T
HE GHOST TOWNS OF
R
OUTE 66
in New Mexico are unique among those found along this historic highway. They are also some of the oldest.
In some, the ghostly remnants of Route 66, even those dating to the 1920s, seem oddly out of place and modern when seen against the backdrop of churches that date to the 1820s or stores that met the needs of travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Amazingly, a few of these ghosts in the Land of Enchantment were prosperous, modern communities long before the thirteen colonies became the United States of America.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
T
HE
R
OUTE 66 OF THE 1950S
parallels Interstate 40 on its westward course across the high plains and into the landscape dominated by buttes, mesas, and tortured stone edifices farther west. The first miles of Route 66 of the Okies, of the Bunion Derby, and of Jack Rittenhouse are now a gravel track across the rolling plains, through rolling hills, and over vintage bridges of wood.
Five miles west of Glenrio are the scattered ruins that mark the site of Endee, founded as a supply center for area ranches, including the sprawling ND Ranch that began operation in 1882. In 1946, Jack Rittenhouse notes that the town consisted of 110 people, a gas station, a garage, a grocery store, a school, and a “scant” handful of cabins.
Today, the tumbledown remnants nestled on a windswept knoll framed by vast Western landscapes offer a wide array of unique photographic opportunities. A touch of comedic relief is found in a building with “Modern Rest Rooms” emblazoned on the side.
Rittenhouse found Bard, a few miles to the west, had even less to offer the traveler: “Population 26; gas and garage. This âTown' consists of a single building, but it includes a post office.” Scattered ruins north of exit 361 on Interstate 40 are all that remain.
San Jon (pronounced
San Hone
) was founded in 1902 as a ranching and farming supply center fifteen miles west of Glenrio on the Tucumcari & Memphis Railroad. It was once the largest town on the eastern plains of New Mexico. Rittenhouse came across gas stations, garages, the San Jon Implement Company, two auto courts, several cafés, a hotel, and a variety of stores. “Main Street” (Route 66) was an endless stream of traffic every hour of the day, every day of the week.
The neon no longer lights the night at the Circle M Motel, Smith's Café, or the Western Motel. The Old Route 66 Truck and Auto Parts garage no longer serves as an oasis for the traveler who has an over-heating car. Today, San Jon clings to life by a thread, its population hovering somewhere around the two hundred mark, and a multiservice truck stop near exit 356 serves as one of the last vestiges of a once vital business district.
Photo postcards like this one of a station in Endee are sought-after Route 66 artifacts because they were never produced in large quantities.
Joe Sonderman collection
Adding a comedic tone to the ghostly atmosphere is a building signed “Modern Rest Rooms,” one of the best-preserved structures in Endee.
At the end of the pavement at the west end of Glenrio, continue across the concrete bridge and follow the graded gravel road eighteen miles to San Jon. If the road is muddy, use of exit 356 or 361 is suggested.
