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Route 66: Highway’s allure brings in tourists
BLOOMINGTON — Thousands of people get their kicks on Illinois Route 66 each year, bringing millions of dollars with them. Once the main road between Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif., the historic route now drives a booming Central Illinois tourism industry and gives iconic status to small businesses like Kick’s Bar & Grill in Towanda. “You’d be surprised how many people just stop to take a picture of the sign,” said owner Scott Tuggle. “We’ll get people from Japan, China, all over.” Like Tuggle, most business owners along the route said tourism doesn’t make their business, but it’s certainly a nice bonus. More than 300,000 tourists drive Route 66 through Illinois each year, according to the Illinois Route 66 Heritage Project, based in Springfield. Precise figures on the economic impact are not available. “It has an impact of millions of dollars,” said Patty Ambrose, executive director of the heritage project. “Route 66 is the No. 3 tourism draw in Illinois. Chicago is No. 1, and the (Abe) Lincoln sites are No. 2.” Tourists come for many reasons — the nostalgia, the history, the events and the sites, among others. Giant hot dogs are a draw too, and the Paul Bunyon statue in Atlanta boasts a big one. The city of Atlanta is ready to show it off, hosting its first annual Happy Wiener Festival, which concludes today. route 66 From F1 New landmarks and events like that are popping up all the time. Earlier this month, the Route 66 Association of Illinois unearthed the stairway to an underground pedestrian tunnel across from the St. Paul Catholic Church in Odell. Route 66 once was too busy for churchgoers to cross the street, but the tunnel was cemented and closed after the construction of Interstate 55. The Central Illinois sites seem endless: the Standard Oil Gasoline Station in Odell; the Cayuga Barn, Route 4 Bridge and Route 66 Museum and Hall of Fame in Pontiac; an original piece of Route 66 called Memory Lane in Lexington; the Dixie Truck Stop in McLean; Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup near Shirley; the Bunyon Giant and Murals and More in Atlanta; and a replica of the Postville Courthouse, where Abe Lincoln once practiced law, in Lincoln; among many other attractions in between. There are plenty of reasons for tourists to visit Route 66 and spend their money at restaurants, gas stations, hotels, retailers and other businesses along the way. Illinois has more marked Route 66 attractions than any other state, according to the heritage project. And this is the most popular time of year for tourists, said John Miller, president of the Route 66 Association of Illinois. “Most of them travel in the spring because they want to beat the heat, especially if they’re to travel through the desert” to the road’s end in California, he said. Still, tourism will spread throughout the summer, Miller said. On June 10 and 11, for example, a caravan of nearly 150 cars will drive from Pontiac to Edwardsville as part of the association’s “Mother Road” tour. At one point, the tour attracted as many as 260 cars, Miller said, but travel along Route 66 has waned recently with the increasing cost of gas. But the road is still a destination of adventurous vacationers. John and Kathy Paley of Dayton, Ohio, for example, are traveling the entire length of the historic route, from Chicago to Los Angeles, eight states and 2,448 miles. “We’re just flying by the seat of our pants. We only have reservations to St. Louis. After that, we don’t know what we’re going to do,” said John Paley, as he placed an order to have some Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup shipped home. “I think America and these towns are quickly vanishing. You’re missing your heritage if you don’t take the time to do this.” They didn’t have set plans, but they knew where they were going. The couple loaded their Porsche Turbo convertible with a back seat full of maps, a couple books on Route 66 attractions and two small bags of personals. “This isn’t a vacation. It’s an adventure,” Kathy Paley said, just before her husband revved up the car and sped away toward the next unknown destination. Route 66 seems to attract cars. John Paley enjoyed hugging the Route 66 turns in his foreign sports car, but miles up the road two weeks earlier, Mike Kohler of Elgin cruised his vintage Chevrolet down a small stretch of original Route 66 in Lexington. Kohler joined a train of classic cars as member of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America. Kohler, 15 other cars and more than 30 people planned to drive from their homes in the Chicago suburbs down to Springfield, stopping to eat several times along the way, staying overnight at a hotel in Springfield and visiting as many Route 66 landmarks as they could. “Everyone used to drive this road. We used to take it on road trips when I was kid. We’d stay in a hotel. It was a big deal,” said Kohler, who hopes to relive some of those memories. “It’s the nostalgia of a simpler life that wasn’t so fast paced,” he said. Two weeks later, the Fox Valley Model T Club rolled through the same area, bringing another group of more than 30 tourists. Their trip landed them at Funks Grove Maple Sirup, a popular destination for Route 66 travelers. Owner Glaida Funk has documented every visitor for years in a book she has them sign. There’s too many names to count now, but Funk remains persistent. She typically has anywhere from four to 12 tourists stop by each day. “We’ve had people from all over the world,” she said. Other Central Illinois business owners along Route 66 know what she’s talking about. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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