Text by Tammie

  The new Museum of Route 66 that’s located in a former bank in Lincoln, Illinois, is getting ready for its July 11, 2026, grand opening. The museum is in the old State Bank of Lincoln (formerly a Heartland Bank branch) at 508 Broadway St.   A “soft opening” is happening there now in which visitors can preview the Museum of Route 66’s transformation. In the works are:   n   A diner with a loaned jukebox with songs such as “Into the Darkness” and “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills & Nash plus “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win” and “Get Closer” by Linda Ronstadt.   n   A barbershop with a barber pole.   n   WGYK (W Get Your Kicks) radio station, a live station, from which live remotes can occur.   n   A bank vault containing information about gangster Al Capone and his friend John “Coonhound Johnny” Schwenoha, a local bootlegger.   More information is here .

  The Route 66 Sign Museum located in the 60,000-square-foot Ace Sign Company at 2540 S. First St. in Springfield, Illinois, has a “Big Boy.” With nearly 100 historic signs, many rescued and restored, The Route 66 Sign Museum has a “Top’s Big Boy” restaurant franchise “Big Boy” fiberglass statue. That “Big Boy” is next to a tricycle, which is next to a restored 1949 International truck, which has hand painted on it “Ace Sign Co.” in 1940s/1950s’ style. Museum tours are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays for a $5 donation. More is here .    

    Steven Richie talks about eating on Route 66. Greg Laun talks about hitchhiking on Route 66. David Johnson talks about staying safe on Route 66. All three are part of the dozens of people who share their memories of Route 66 via touchscreen TVs in the new “Miles of Memories: Stories of Route 66” exhibit at the Illinois State Museum, 502 S. Spring St., in Springfield, Illinois. The “Miles of Memories” exhibit dovetails with the museum’s online “ Route 66 Oral History Collection .” " Miles of Memories” will be displayed through April 4, 2027. Admission is free, and the museum is open daily. More here .    

    Courtesy Rocio Abrego on Unsplash Route 66, the “Mother Road,” convincingly “speaks for herself” in Crystal Sershen’s new book “Dust & Dreams: Roadmap of the American Soul (A Memoir of the Mother Road, in Her Own Words).” The Mother Road is 100 in 2026, so it’s a perfect time for her to narrate her own experiences. "Dust & Dreams" is “fiction inspired by history.” “I echoed the paths of wagon trails, stagecoach runs, the Native American footprints laid down millennia before them – and my destiny was to connect the vital organs of the country with a new lifeblood that would transform it into one body, one nation, one people,” “Dust & Dreams” says. “I wasn’t to be just a road. I was to be a bridge between past and future, between ruin and rebirth.” More is here .

    Route 66 State Park in Eureka, Missouri, is the product of ruins. Ruins of a beach, a road and a bridge.   n   The town of Times Beach, established in 1926 on the beach along the Meramec, doesn’t exist anymore.   n   Route 66 Meramec River Bridge, completed in 1932, is no longer a vehicular bridge.   n   Route 66, rerouted through Times Beach in 1933, is decommissioned.   More information is available here .  

  An author who has spoken about women workers on Route 66 has put her research into writing.   Author Cheryl Eichar Jett has released her book “Aprons Away: Women’s Work on Route 66.”   In the book, Jett profiles dozens of women:   n   Like Ruby Angel Denton, owner and operator of the Golden Spread Grill in Groom, Texas.   n   Like Ola Soulsby, owner and operator with her brother of Soulsby Service Station in Mount Olive, Illinois.   n   Like Lillian Redman, matriarch of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico.   There’s more here .