For Route 66 to become the most famous highway in history, it had to pass through the "Gateway to the West." St. Louis is the largest city between Chicago and Los Angeles, and "St. Louee" comes first on the list of those that Nat King Cole and many other artists sang out on "(Get Your Kicks) on Route 66." The highway took a maze of different routes, including crossing the greatest of rivers on a bridge with a bend right in the middle. The roadside was lined with flashing neon, classic diners and gas stations where attendants provided speedy service. Also, there were classic amusement parks, drive-in theaters, a man selling frozen custard from a building adorned with wooden icicles, and a motel with a racy but beloved reputation. Joe Sonderman is a St. Louis area radio personality and traffic reporter who has been writing books on Route 66 for 15 years. Since that first work, he has been collecting Route 66 postcards and photographs, some never published before, along with new research on the paths Route 66 took through the area to come up with an entirely new look at Route 66 St. Louis Style .
Route 66 in St. Louis
9780738552163
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In 1926, highway planners laid out a ribbon of roadways connecting the nation. One of the most important wove its way across eight states, from the cities of the heartland to golden California. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck calls it "the Mother Road." Route 66 has become a legend, celebrated in books, movies, works of art, and popular music. The interstates could not kill it. As "the Main Street of America," Route 66 had to pass through "the Gateway to the West," St. Louis. Crossing the Mississippi River, the road took many different paths through the busy city and then united to travel into the rolling hills of the Ozarks. Along the way there were mom-and-pop motels, tourist traps, roadside restaurants, a man selling frozen custard, one living with snakes, and another who claimed to be Jesse James. Their stories are here.
St. Louis
9781467104616
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Founded as a humble trading post along the Mississippi River 250 years ago, St. Louis has since grown into a thriving metropolis. It appears to be a calm city, but like the mighty Mississippi, it has powerful undercurrents. Known as the "Gateway to the West," St. Louis was a port city and home to many manufacturing businesses making everything from shoes to ships. St. Louis, though, is perhaps best known for its breweries and distilleries. St. Louis: Out and About in the Gateway City captures the energy of people bustling along the street, dining out and going to movies, hopping a trolley, swimming, picnicking, clip-clopping along in horse and carriage, ice skating, or driving an automobile. It also touches upon issues of the day that had to be overcome-suffrage, the Great Depression, and civil rights, to name a few-and shows the resilient spirit of the people of St. Louis.
St. Louis
9780738561479
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For seven months in 1904, St. Louis was the greatest city on earth. Millions flocked to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to behold the inventions of the early 20th century. Many saw electric lights, automobiles, aircraft, and moving pictures for the first time. At a time when few traveled more than a couple miles from home, visitors encountered the people and cultures of faraway lands. It was an educational experience, a "university of mankind." The Pike offered amusement rides, wild animal displays, and fanciful trips through the Hereafter and Creation exhibits. Fairgoers visited the Alps, the North Pole, Russia, and Paris and witnessed famous battles. Everyone wanted to ride the great Observation Wheel. There were hootchy-kootchy dancers and wonderful new foods, such as the ice-cream cone. But it was all temporary, a dream city made to last only a few months. With the exception of today's St. Louis Art Museum, the grand palaces are gone. St. Louis: The 1904 World's Fair tells the story of the greatest Victorian-era world's fair since the lights of the fair faded over a century ago, while also examining the fair's legacies and legends.
Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks
9780738560304
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Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks picks up the journey west where its companion book, Route 66 in St. Louis, leaves off. As Bobby Troup's song says, Route 66 travels "more than 2,000 miles all the way." But one would be hard-pressed to "Show Me" a more scenic and historic segment than the Missouri Ozarks. The highway is lined with buildings covered with distinctive Ozark rock. It winds through a region of deep forests, sparkling streams, hidden caves, and spectacular bluffs. This book will take the traveler from Crawford County to the Kansas line. Along the way, there are small towns and urban centers, hotels and motels, cafés and souvenir stands. Take the time to explore Missouri's Route 66--it is waiting at the next exit.
Abandoned Ozarks, Southwest Missouri
9781634994873
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Abandoned Ozarks: Southwest Missouri offers a poignant, artistic, and sometimes sorrowful look at abandoned structures that have helped shape the culture and society of the rural Ozarks region and the people who live there. Photographer and author Robert McCormick takes you on a colorful and historical journey into the past with his haunting and evocative photos of the buildings that helped knit together rural communities and families in ways that are often forgotten in today's fast-paced and homogenized world. As rural communities and schools were consolidated in the mid-twentieth century, many historic structures were left abandoned to decay, even as others were repurposed for unorthodox uses or preserved for their cultural significance. McCormick has traveled extensively throughout the region over a period of years to find the most historically significant and architecturally interesting examples of schoolhouses, churches, general stores, mills, barns, and farmhouses that showcase the unique identity of Ozarks inhabitants. Join the author on a nostalgic journey into the Ozarks' past.
