Nasty wind gusts Sunday afternoon knocked off part of the decorative scrollwork of the main sign of the Rialto Square Theatre, located on Route 66 in Joliet, Ill., reported the Herald-News.

Fortunately, no one was hurt when the sign chunk came crashing down, although an adjacent street was closed. Workers were already busy repairing the sign Monday. Click on the newspaper link above for plenty of photos from the scene.

It appears to be a mix of both, actually.

Richard Etchells recently posted these photos on the Route 66 yahoogroup of what appear to be harvesters planted into the ground at an angle. This is a few miles south of Route 66 near Amarillo, Texas. It appears to be a homage to the “tractor tippin’” scene in the movie “Cars” and a tribute to Cadillac Ranch off Route 66 west of Amarillo.

Etchells tells me its on the north side of the road of FM Road 1151, just east of FM Road 1258 (map is here). He isn’t positive on the location, nor does he know who the landowner is. I didn’t find anything about it on Roadside America, either.

I guess all of that flat ground inspires people in the Panhandle to do eccentric things: You have Cadillac Ranch, Bug Ranch and the Big Cross, all within a 25-mile radius or so.

A recent banquet in Commerce, Okla., to raise money for a statue and other attractions paying tribute to native son and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle cleared about $12,000 in profit, reported the Miami (Okla.) News-Record.

More than 350 people attended the event. I’m certain the appearance of Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins drew a crowd.

The Mickey Mantle Trust Authority also received $75,000 from the Oklahoma Centennial Commission.

The article also provides some details about the Mickey Mantle proposals for Commerce:

The trust voted to earmark the $75,000 for expenses specifically related to a statue of Mantle that is to be placed at the front entrance to five Little League baseball fields on Route 66 in Commerce. […]

The five fields are part of the first phase of a project that architect Tom Ernst recently completed as a final master plan. A museum, gift shop, batting cages and parking areas with a main entrance are also planned in the first portion of the project.

Other phases include a replica of a 1956 Yankee Stadium, kitchen, banquet room, plaza, children’s playground and jogging trail.

The Mantle family has to approve the plans before they proceed. Mantle died of cancer in 1995.

I’ve posted a few dozen versions of “Route 66″ on this Web site.

But this is the first I’ve posted by the composer of “Route 66″ himself, Bobby Troup. Here he is in 1964, showing his jazz chops on piano during a segment of “The Julie London Show.”

The Ambler’s Texaco Station in the Route 66 town of Dwight, Ill., has been restored to its 1940s appearance, reports the Morris (Ill.) Daily Herald.

Part of the restoration was covered by a cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. A plaque from the National Park Service commemorating the restoration will be dedicated at 2 p.m. today.

Here’s a recent photo of Ambler’s Texaco Station.

The Uranium Cafe, a Route 66 landmark in Grants, N.M., with a classic neon sign, closed about a month ago, according to a Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman.

The latest incarnation of the restaurant lasted about a year. It called itself Five Brothers Uranium Cafe. The previous owner for a number of years sold the restaurant after a divorce.

No one I talked to at the chamber or a nearby real estate office associated with the cafe’s recent tenant seemed to know what lies in store for the restaurant now. The building’s owner lives out of state.

The Route 66 town of Kingman, Ariz., made the final cut in Relocate America’s Top 100 Places to Live in 2007.

Here’s the criteria:

Throughout the calendar year, we accept nominations for cities & towns throughout the country to be considered as a “great place to live”. The nominating parties must include their own reasons why they feel their city should make the list. The nominations, along with key data regarding education, employment, economy, crime, parks, recreation and housing are reviewed, rated & judged by our editorial team.

According to the Kingman Daily Miner, the city made the top 100 for the first time.

Other Route 66 towns that made the list were Chicago (which finished in the top 10), Edmond, Okla., and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

However, I have a hard time taking seriously any list that doesn’t include even one town from the gloriously beautiful and culturally rich state of New Mexico.

Matt Land, national sales manager of the Magic Circle Corp. lawn mower manufacturer in Coatesville, Ind., is going to travel 2,000 miles from Indiana to Sacramento, Calif., in one of the company’s Dixie Choppers, according to the Indianapolis Star.

He’ll travel mostly on Route 66. Where interstate travel is unavoidable, he’ll put the lawn mower in a trailer.

… [T]he lawn mower Land will ride to the California capital is environmentally friendly propane-powered.

Maybe he can trim the weeds from some roadway edges while he’s at it.

A four-alarm mulch fire at Route 66 Landscape Supply Center in Pacific, Mo., closed down the Mother Road part of Sunday afternoon, reports KSDK-TV in St. Louis.

More than 100 firefighters from 12 departments battled the blaze, which was difficult to extinguish. Smoke could be seenn from more than 10 miles away. Firefighters expect to be on the scene until at least early Monday morning.

According to KMOV-TV in St. Louis, the fire also closed down railroad service for Amtrak, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern.

No cause of the fire is yet known.

C.H. “Skip” Curtis, a longtime historian and booster of Route 66 in Missouri, died Saturday night at his home in Springfield, Mo., reports Tommy Pike, president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri.

I don’t have any funeral arrangements yet. I’ll pass them along and other details as I get them.

Curtis was a contributing writer to Route 66 Magazine and previously was an editor of Show Me Route 66, the magazine of the Missouri 66 association.

He’s probably best-known for two books about Route 66. One is “Birthplace of Route 66 — Springfield, Mo.,” which argued that the Mother Road was essentially created there. The other is “The Missouri U.S. 66 Tour Book,” which is a terrific resource of history, photos and directions to the Mother Road in the Show-Me State. It was published in 1994, shortly after the renaissance of Route 66 began. I still use that volume for reference purposes.

Curtis lived in St. Louis for decades, owning an advertising and marketing company. A few years ago, he moved back to his hometown of Springfield to live in a historic, renovated fire station. Curtis had a bout with cancer a couple years ago, but the last I’d heard, the treatments went well.

I met Curtis only one time that I can recall. (For some reason, he didn’t go to many of the usual roadie gatherings.) We were touring Route 66 in Missouri when we stopped in St. James at Johnnie’s Bar, a great old tavern that’s been there for many years at Route 66 and Jefferson Street, the main north-south drag through town. In addition to an old Stag beer sign at the entrance, Johnnie’s contains a collection of American Indian arrowheads and other artifacts.

Curtis was there helping the owners move some heavy stuff around. We were there only long enough to exchange brief greetings because he was busy and we were behind schedule on Route 66, as usual. But I do remember praising complimenting him for his Route 66 tour book, which he appreciated.

If any of you want to post memories about Skip Curtis, use the comments section of this post.