Ghost Towns of Route 66 (12 page)
Read Ghost Towns of Route 66 Online
Authors: Jim Hinckley
In Glenrio, only prairie critters find respite from the summer sun or the winter wind at an old motel that was once a restful haven for the road-weary.
With the patience that carved the Grand Canyon over eons, nature reclaims Glenrio, where the clock stopped with the bypass of Route 66.
I
N THE
P
ANHANDLE,
the ghost towns of Route 66 are few, but the ghostly remnants of those towns that have faded to mere shadows are many.
Most towns in the Lone Star State along the old double six share the common foundational element of agriculture, but each followed a different path in its rise. For some, it was oil; for others, it was the railroad. In others, it was cattle and water-melons. In one, it was all of the above plus women's undergarments.
Ultimately, each weathered the hard times of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, World War II, and dying oil fields with a flow of traffic that ebbed and flowed as a tide on Route 66. In spite of their diversity, the decline of each also has a common denominator: the replacement of Route 66 with a four-lane superhighway that allowed motorists to zip past rather than wander through.
TO AMARILLO
F
ROM THE GHOSTLY STREETS
of Texola near the Oklahoma border to the modern metropolis on the high plains that is Amarillo, Route 66 travelers are seldom out of sight of the modern era manifested in the four lanes of Interstate 40. Perhaps this element is what gives the ghost towns and the empty places along this section of Route 66 such a surreal feeling.
With a population hovering just under two thousand souls, Shamrock stretches the idea of
ghost town
a bit. However, when viewed in the context of the boomtown of nearly four thousand residents in 1930 that spawned the businesses and service stations that are now stark, skeletal ruins under a prairie sky, the term becomes an appropriate descriptor.
The town derives its name from the post office application submitted by Irish immigrant George Nickel in 1890. Interestingly, the post office never opened, since Nickel's home/post office burned that same year.
Therefore, the official beginning for the town is pegged to the year 1902, with the arrival of the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railway and the selling of town lots that summer. When Frank Exum submitted an application for a post office, he wanted to name the town for himself, but the railroad designated the stop Shamrock in deference to the original post office application.
By 1911, Shamrock was an incorporated community with a promising future, two banks, the
Wheeler County Texan
newspaper, numerous businesses, and the Cotton Oil Mill. Amazingly, the prosperous little town depended on hauled water until completion of a water line from the J. M. Porter Ranch in 1923.
This lovingly restored Magnolia station in Shamrock seems to have been lifted from the pages of history and transported into the modern era.
Jim Hinckley
With the discovery of oil in the area in 1926 and the designation of Route 66 in the same year, Shamrock became a modern, bustling community. Jack Rittenhouse notes that, in 1946, the town hosted a hotel, numerous auto courts, garages, and a wide array of cafés.
AAA accommodations directories from the 1940s list three recommended motels and auto courts: the Sun 'n Sand Motel, the Village Motel, and Cross Roads Court. Surprisingly, these directories do not list recommended service facilities.
The decline of the oil industry and the completion of Interstate 40, which allowed travelers to bypass Shamrock, have resulted in a slow downward spiral. The population decreased from 3,113 in 1960 to 1,828 in 2006. Still, this little town takes great pride in its association with legendary Route 66, as evidenced by the restoration of the iconic U-Drop Inn, an art deco masterpiece built in 1936, and the restored Magnolia gas station downtown.
Lela, six miles west of Shamrock, was never much more than a wide spot in the road. Its peak population was 135 in 1980, although the town had shown great promise in 1902 as a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railway.
Shamrock's U-Drop Inn, built in 1936, has become a Route 66 icon, as evidenced by its inclusion in the imaginary town Radiator Springs in the animated film
Cars
.
Joe Sonderman collection
From Texola, continue west on old U.S. 66, a later four-lane alignment that becomes the south Interstate 40 frontage road. At exit 146 on Interstate 40, cross the interstate and turn left on the north frontage road. Inquire in McLean about earlier alignments south of Interstate 40. To continue with the later portions of Route 66, follow Highway 273 south from McLean one mile, then turn right on County Road BB and continue to the junction with Highway 291. From Alanreed to Amarillo, Route 66 serves as the frontage road for Interstate 40.
Shamrock supplanted Lela as a trade center, and were it not for Route 66, the tiny town might have vanished from the map entirely. In 1946, Rittenhouse notes it was a “small settlement consisting of five gas stations, a café, and a post office.”
McLean, fifteen miles west of Lela and the last Route 66 town bypassed in Texas, is another town that stretches the definition of the term
ghost town
, with a population numbered at 782 in 2006, almost half of the peak reached in 1950. Yet classic elements that fit the
ghost town
definition abound, including nearly empty main streets shadowed by a long-shuttered theater, a hotel, and stores.
DON'T MISS
The U-Drop Inn in Shamrock is a definite “must see.” If your schedule allows, plan your visit so that you can experience it both during the day and at night, when its restored neon sign bathes it in soft, colorful light.
The Devil's Rope/Old Route 66 Museum in McLean, housed in a former factory for women's undergarments, is just one of the many surprises to be found in this faded little town. In addition to the world's largest collection of barbed wire (much more fascinating than most people would think), the museum houses an incredible cornucopia of memorabilia that chronicles early ranching as well as the rise of Route 66 in the Panhandle.
In Groom, the attraction is the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. This is also enhanced with viewing at night.
The town's story begins with Alfred Rowe, master of RO Ranch's two hundred thousand acres and a multifaceted entrepreneur with a diverse background that included a Peruvian birth and an English education. Rowe believed in learning to run a business from the ground up, which meant that his introduction to Texas ranching came as a lowly cowboy employed by Charles Goodnight.
He was also a master at sensing opportunity, and that was what he saw in a well, a switchyard, and a section house built in 1901 by the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Texas Railroad Company (later the Rock Island Railroad). Rowe had the foresight to donate adjoining properties for a cattle-loading facility.
On December 3, 1902, a plat for the town of McLeanânamed for William Pinkney McLean, a hero of the war for Texas independence and the state's first railroad commissionerâwas recorded in the Gray County Courthouse. Within two years, the town was a thriving hub of commerce with three general stores, livery stables, a bank, and even a newspaper.
During the early 1920s, the discovery of oil in the area and burgeoning Route 66 traffic kicked growth into high gear. By 1940, there were six churches, a population of more than 1,500, and more than fifty businesses. McLean was also an economically diverse community with petroleum, agriculture, and Route 66âoriented businesses, as well as a factory (now the Devil's Rope/Old Route 66 Museum) that produced ladies' undergarments.
How many years has it been since the road-weary trucker stopped for coffee, pie, and a friendly smile at the café in Alanreed?
During World War II, the economy received an additional boost from a military facility constructed north of town. The history of this facility, utilized as a POW camp for German mariners, is preserved at the Devil's Rope/Old Route 66 Museum.
Several factors sent McLean into the slow-motion downward spiral experienced by so many Route 66 communities: drought, the emergence of Pampa as the county's industrial center, the collapse of the oil industry, and, of course, the bypass of Route 66. Today, the resurgent interest in Route 66 has stemmed the decline and has served as a catalyst for the resurrection of McLean's remaining roadside relics, including the recently refurbished Phillips 66 station that dates to 1930 and the Cactus Inn Motel.