Route 66 provides steady stream of business
But every summer, Apple Valley plays host to a curious group of different visitors: foreign tourists making a pilgrimage along Route 66, the iconic "mother road" linking downtown Chicago to California, more than 2,000 miles all the way. For a small number of those miles, Route 66, or what's left of it, passes through Edwardsville, Collinsville, Mitchell, Madison and Venice, including passing right past the Apply Valley Motel.
Manager Linda Hill has been working there for 15 years and said the location has brought a steady stream of visitors from nearly every corner of the world looking to stay in an authentic Route 66 motel on their travels west."With the Germans, when they come over they ask for the Mustang Ranch and the Chain of Rocks Bridge," Hill said.
The business has turned Chain of Rocks Road and other portions of Route 66 in Madison County into unlikely tourist attractions, by some counts attracting hundreds of tourists every year.
"We get a lot of travelers," said Carol Foreman, executive director of the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce, whose office sees a new group of tourists making the cross-country trip every other week. The chamber, which earlier this month hosted Route 66 festival, helps with maps and suggests sites to visit.
Foreman said the street is a huge benefit for the area.
"They stay, they eat here," she said.
That attention is a surprising reversal for Route 66. Officially designated in 1927, the highway became a major thoroughfare for migrants and vacationers, eventually cementing its place as a pop culture icon through television programs and songs.
But by the 1960s, air travel and the interstate highway system had turned the route obsolete, with many shops and motels along the street struggling to attract patrons.
In 1985, the official Route 66 was decommissioned and some portions, especially those that paralleled Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and New Mexico, were removed entirely.
Many businesses closed, but some held on, especially period diners, motor courts and tourist traps that tapped into the new trend of nostalgic-minded travelers. About 10 years ago, foreign tourists started coming, Hill said, who remembers a visit a few years ago by a German riding his bicycle to L.A. Most, though, are in rented cars, passing through, looking for a sliver of American iconography that's all but vanished.
"They enjoy themselves," said Hill, with a smile.
Lorrie Fleming, founder of the Vancouver-based Canadian Route 66 Association, has made the cross-country trip three times and describes the street in almost mythical terms. She said the idea of wandering across an America of a bygone era is endearing to many foreign tourists, many of whom were regular viewers of "Route 66," the 1960s American television show about a pair travelling along the highway.
"Every kid who watched that show wanted a Corvette and wanted to spend it travelling," Fleming said. "It's Americana."
For gas stations, businesses and tourist traps along the route, that romanticized view of the street translates into a steady stream of visitors - and often income.
"We like to go to mom-and-pop places," said Fleming, whose group has about 100 members. "The allure is it's something different. It makes you feel like you're really in the past. When I'm on Route 66, I want to get the feel of the past."
Back at the Apple Valley, Hill expects to host at least a few tourists travelling Route 66 every week this summer, although it's difficult to tell how many.
Then, around the fall, the motel will likely go back to hosting construction workers, a change almost unthinkable 50 years ago, when Route 66 was chock full of neon lights, big cars and kitschy shops year-round, as far as the eye could see.
"It's changed quite a bit since I've worked here," Hill said. "Sure has."
E-mail: ccoates@yourjournal.com
