The small Route 66 town of Newberry Springs, Calif., will receive a historical marker Sunday from a fraternal organization at The Barn on Route 66 bar, reported the Desert Dispatch newspaper of nearby Barstow.

The members of E. Clampus Vitus, aka The Clampers, are building the monument. The fraternity, which consists of history buffs, has erected more than 100 markers across Southern California.

The Dispatch said:

The Barn is important because of Newberry Springs’ historical role in railroad development in the High Desert, Ellsworth said. The railroads had to pipe water from Newberry Springs to Amboy to fuel steam locomotives because the water was too harsh and brackish at that location, he said.

The Barn deserves recognition because it has been a community fixture since 1952,  Ellsworth said.

Group members, who wear red shirts, are camping on 20 acres of land in Newberry Springs this weekend and eating and drinking at the establishment. They will build the marker today, then hold the ceremony Sunday morning. Newberry Springs’ honorary mayor Mike Lopez will speak and a color guard will perform. Boy and Girl Scout troops are also slated to participate in the ceremony. Afterwards, guests will enjoy a barbecue lunch.

According to an earlier news release, the marker will be built primarily of stone.

The monument ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Sunday. The Barn is located at 44560 National Trails Highway in Newberry Springs.

XCOR Aerospace recently field-tested an experimental motorcycle on Route 66 in the Southwest, according to a news release from the company.

And XCOR wasn’t doing the Mother Road to help develop a new crotch rocket. It was using the road trip to test wear on components for rocket engines.

Dan DeLong, chief engineer for XCOR, explained why the company tested components in a motorcycle instead of in a lab:

“This particular motorcycle, the Triumph Street Triple, develops about the same horsepower and has the same cylinder arrangement as the liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel pumps for the Lynx suborbital spacecraft.  That makes it ideal for a long-life pump test platform.  The bike is much less expensive to operate than the full up rocket pump test stand.  We’re adding hours of run time each ride, not just minutes.” [...]

“We put twenty hours–the equivalent of 400 Lynx flights–on the rocket pump bearings by driving from Roswell to Mojave taking periodic data readings along the way to make sure things were in good condition,” remarked Dan.  “The trip was a great success and the bike performed flawlessly.

And apparently the road test wasn’t all work and no play:

“We saw some amazing country,” remarked XCOR Senior Engineer and principal driver Mike Valant,  “we traveled through New Mexico, passing the Very Large Array, then turned northwards to Route 66, traveling as much of the old highway as possible.  Meteor Crater was a highlight, as well as the towns of Holbrook, Seligman, Kingman, Oatman, all the classic waypoints on the Mother Road.  We drove through sun, snow, rain and everything in-between.  Personally for me, it was one of the greatest adventures I’ve had.  It was challenging, and there was a lot of payoff.  In addition to keeping the bike on the road through all the weather, we had to pay attention to how it was behaving and make sure there was no trouble.”

A video of the motorcycle being put through its paces is below. The Route 66 material begins around the two-minute mark:

Because of its varying terrain and road conditions, I’d always wondered why auto companies didn’t test their vehicles Route 66 before starting production. But apparently a few rocket scientist saw the value of the Mother Road for such a purpose.

(Photo courtesy of XCOR)

A committee for McLean County, Ill., supports applying for a half-million-dollar grant that would establish at visitors center at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington, reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.

The $522,000 project moved to the front of the line when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced in March that it has $15 million available in its 2012 Illinois Public Museum Capital Grant Program. The program is only open for capital projects in public museums on public lands. [...]

Greg Koos, executive director of the McLean County Museum of History, said the proposed center is intended to attract some of the 120 million annual heritage travelers who like to visit historic sites. Those travelers spend about $1,000 a trip, and Koos said the center would be a way to capture some of those dollars.

The proposed Heritage Tourism Center, would be on the ground floor of the museum. The space would be remodeled but none of the changes would permanently change the building, said architect Russel Francois, who also helped on the proposal.

The rotunda on the ground floor would have a welcome desk, the north corridor would focus on Abraham Lincoln, and the south corridor on Route 66. There would be five-minute videos in each corridor providing travelers with information.

“Main Street was Route 66,” Koos said. “Nationally, $132 million a year is spent by those traveling Old 66. The Pontiac Route 66 museum sees 20,000 people a year.”

Koos obviously read the recently released Route 66 Economic Impact Report, which estimated that $132 million is being spent by Route 66 travelers annually.

Proposals are due Monday; grant winners won’t be announced until October.

I’m planning on small but important maintenance work on this website later tonight. So if you see anything hinky or strange late Thursday or Friday, you know the reason in advance.

If all goes well, you shouldn’t see anything different. In fact, this may make the site load faster, and other possible improvements.

If the maintenance doesn’t work, well … please hang in there. I and the other parties involved will try to straighten it out as soon as we can.

Stay tuned.

A group of design students provided concepts for the owner of the historic Sprague Super Service station in Normal, Ill., reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.

It’s an understatement to say the station’s owner was pleased with the designs:

Illinois State University design students brought tears to Terri Ryburn’s eyes Wednesday when they presented concepts for three rooms in the historic Route 66 gas station Ryburn is restoring.

“You all have caught my vision … thank you so much. This has been wonderful,” she said. [...]

On Wednesday, seven groups presented seven designs: three for Ray’s Coffee Shop (named after Ryburn’s father), two for Bill’s Garage Theater (named after Ryburn’s late husband) and two for the office space.

While each of the concepts incorporated art deco style, the designs were totally different. Of the three coffee shop proposals, for instance, one used a teal, black lacquer and silver color theme; another had brown, gray and black hues; and the third, shades of yellow.

Ryburn said she was looking forward to reviewing each in detail this weekend.

Ryburn plans to convert the station into a visitors center, coffee shop, bed-and-breakfast, and an entertainment venue. Sprague’s Super Service, built in 1931, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2008.

Last weekend, the owners of the Red Cedar Inn in Pacific, Mo., held an open house for the closed Route 66 landmark for potential buyers.

Route 66 Realtors, which is listing the property, posted a slideshow from the event. It might take some folks down memory lane:

The restaurant opened in 1934 at 1047 East Osage (aka Route 66), and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It closed 70 years later; the owners cited rising insurance costs.

The City of Pacific in 2007 tried to buy the building to convert it into a Route 66 museum. But negotiations fell through. It served as a used-car lot until recently.

If you want to inspect the Red Cedar yourself, call the Realtor at 636-271-7866.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback will attend the Saturday ceremony in which Route 66 in Kansas will be designated a historic byway, according KODE/KSN-TV.

Brownback will sign the byway proclamation at 1 p.m. at the historic Marsh Arch Bridge, aka Rainbow Bridge, near Riverton, Kan.

Map to the bridge is here. The public is invited.

The National Historic Byways designation applies to all 13 miles of Route 66 in southeastern Kansas, including older alignments. As a result, the route will feature Kansas Scenic Byway signs (example here), be placed on the National Scenic Byways listing, and be included on the Kansas Scenic Byways website.

Kansas joins Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Arizona, and New Mexico as states which have earned National Scenic Byway or All-American Road designations along their stretches of Route 66.

The only holdouts left are Texas and California, and the Golden State probably will join the byways program after the completion of a comprehensive study of Route 66 in California.

An artist won’t add just another mural to downtown Pontiac, Ill., which boasts a plethora of them.

Instead, airbrush master Tang Dongbai will paint a sidewalk mural that appears three-dimensional, reported the Pontiac Daily Leader.

The newspaper explained:

For those not familiar with 3-D sidewalk murals, Arbogast described the murals as art that will look disproportioned unless it is viewed from a specific perspective or angle. The mural will be best viewed when looking south, so if people are standing outside the door of the Walldog museum and looking south toward the Pontiac Oakland Automobile Museum and Resource Center, they will be able to correctly view the optical illusion.

Tang will work on his creation starting Saturday during the Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor Festival.

Good examples of three-dimensional paintings are here. And here’s a video that shows some of Tang’s artwork:

Although Tang will paint throughout the weekend, he doesn’t expect to finish the sidewalk mural until the following week.

San Bernardino County in Southern California is expanding its “County Route 66″ sign program from Goffs to Needles, reported the Needles Desert Star newspaper.

The county began erecting the signs (shown left) last summer, and the program went from Oro Grande to Goffs.

Now the signs will mark historic Route 66 from Goffs to Needles and the Arizona-California state line.

Brad Mitzelfelt of the county’s board of supervisors said the signs make it easier to follow the route, and they help support tourism.

“Route 66 is an international landmark but it can be difficult to identify in many locations,” Mitzelfelt said. “The easier we make it for tourists, especially international tourists who love the American West and especially Route 66, the more opportunities we create for local businesses to enjoy increased traffic and increased revenue.” [...]

The expansion of County Route 66 will run from Goffs Road south on U.S. 95, east on Interstate 40, easterly along Park Road, south on National Trails Highway, south and east on Needles Highway, south on Broadway, south on U.S. 95, southeasterly on National Old Trails Road, east on 5 Mile Road, and southeasterly on Interstate 40 to the California/Arizona State Line.

Up to $10,000 of the money for the signs will come from the county’s discretionary fund.

The historic Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, Calif.. is closed for renovations. Ordinarily, this would be good news for a distinctive structure built in 1924 and probably needs the work.

However, preservationists fret that the work will endanger the hotel’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported:

The work is expected to include a restaurant remodel, roof repairs and electrical and plumbing maintenance, Monrovia city planner Craig Jimenez said.

The city hasn’t received any permit applications yet, Jimenez said, but he doesn’t expect the scope of work to conflict with its historic status. [...]

However, previous owner Kathie Reece-McNeill said she suspects the renovations could end up violating provisions of the Aztec Hotel’s historic structure report, a guideline on historic property use that was funded by her and the California Route 66 Preservation Foundation.

The new owners are a group from China, Reece-McNeill said, and she’s heard rumors they plan to increase room sizes by knocking down some of the interior walls.

“It would be wonderful to think they have the same value for history that we do. They don’t,” she said.

Reece-McNeill and other preservationists with the foundation sent a letter to the City of Monrovia about their concerns.

The only business that will remain open in the hotel during its remodeling is the Aztec Barber Shop. In the meantime, Mayor Mary Ann Lutz expressed optimism that the renovations will bring a positive impact to the community.

The Hotel was designed and built by Los Angeles architect Robert Stacy-Judd. He took his inspiration for the hotel’s unique design from an 1840s book about Mayan ruins. More about the hotel’s history can be read here.