Text by Tammie

  The giant catsup bottle water tower in Collinsville, Illinois, was dramatic at 170-foot tall, as well as practical. Some 25,000 gallons of water helped run the catsup plant below it; 75,000 gallons of reserved water was for fire protection. It was built in 1949. A company merger in 1959 meant Brooks Catsup left Collinsville and its factory buildings and Brooks Catsup Bottle Water Tower. The tower was idle and decaying until in 1994 a group of residents raised $80,000 to restore the water tower. Today, the public can celebrate the icon during the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle Festival to take place on Saturday June 20, 2026, in Collinsville. More information is here .  

  A steel silhouette of a coal miner and donkey outside the Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum in Godley, Illinois, symbolizes how miners and their animals worked difficult days and nights to carry coal from underground. Godley, Illinois, was a coal mining town on Route 66. The Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum opened in 2011 and tells the story of coal mining in Route 66 communities like Godley. Godley’s population of nearly 500 people in the 1880s dropped to about 50 when the mines closed in the 1890s, according to the Godley Public Water District’s website. “The town consisted of a store, over 18 taverns and about 8 houses of ill repute,” says the Godley Public Water District. The Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum documents some of mining towns’ lifestyles. More information is available here .  

  A giant of a man has become family at O’Brien Tire & Auto Care in Granite City, Illinois. Earl, the 14-foot, fiberglass, muffler man, stands at the business, which is the oldest and longest-running tire and auto repair center along the entire Route 66. It’s at 3924 Nameoki Road. Nameoki Road was Route 66. Earl is named for the patriarch of the Buenger family, the fourth Granite City family to own, since 1970, O’Brien Tire & Auto Care. When the business was owned by Jim O’Brien, he established two themes: excellent customer service and family. More about that here .  

The village of Gardner, Illinois, has several Route 66 attractions – Two-Cell Jail, World War II hero and former streetcar/diner. The attractions are easy to get to: The Two-Cell Jail is at 400 E. Mazon St. A historical marker is next to the jail, celebrating the Rev. Christian Christiansen who helped sabotage Nazi atomic bomb efforts during World War II. The 1932 streetcar-turned-diner is near the Two-Cell Jail. The Two-Cell Jail, historic 1932 streetcar/diner and the Riviera Roadhouse are key sites that were along Route 66 that passed through the center of Gardner. More information is available here .

    A German shepherd guard dog helped the West End Service Station in Edwardsville, Illinois, serve Route 66 travelers for nearly 40 years. The dog’s legacy is part of what makes the West End Service Station one of the few remaining Route 66 landmarks and “one of the last original Route 66 service stations in nearly 60 miles,” a sign outside the station says. West End Service Station is at the corner of St. Louis and West streets in Edwardsville. It was at that corner in 1952 that the business suffered a break-in. But the subsequent adoption of a German shepherd put a stop to that. More on that here .

  Phil Becker lived a few houses from what’s now a historic stop on Old Route 66 in Dwight, Illinois. What was known as “Ambler’s Texaco Gas Station” from 1938 to 1966 became something of a second home to Becker. As a boy, Becker lived six houses “down the street” from the station. He visited the station so much that the owner gave him odd jobs to do when he was 13 or 14. Becker eventually bought the station, which is now known as the “Ambler-Becker Texaco Station.” More about the station’s legacy is available here .