Table of Contents
Historical Road Signs to Mark Route 66 in California
Historic Route 66 Dedication
Nuggets From Needles by Maggie McShan
COUNTY HISTORICAL ROAD SIGNS
CALTRANS HISTORICAL ROAD SIGNS
FREEWAY DIRECTIONAL SIGNS
HISTORICAL SIGNS in the Mojave! San Bernardino’s County Board of
Supervisors has instructed their Traffic Engineer: To erect signs on California’s
Route 66 all the way to Needles.
DIRECTIONAL SIGNS on I-40 and I-15! Responding to our proposal, Caltrans will erect
directional signs approaching specific I-40 and I-15 freeway off ramps to guide travelers
to the Mother Road. Perry R. Lowden, Jr., Deputy Chief, Division of Traffic Operations,
Caltrans Sacramento said, "No problem". The next development, now in the hands
of Frank Lehr, District Traffic Engineer, Caltrans’ San Bernardino District 8, is
awaiting funding instructions from Sacramento.
HISTORICAL SIGNS, via Caltrans as mandated by the Legislature will be unveiled for
the first time before the public. The design is official brown and cream shield signs and
will be made available to cities who will want to purchase them. The supplier is not yet
determined. Within their jurisdiction, Caltrans will handle the cities’ request to
put up signs and the cities should make their requests to Caltrans’ sign coordinator.
The signs are to be provided by local or individual funding.
HISTORIC ROUTE 66 DEDICATION
Unveiling of Caltrans’ Official Historic Route 66 Sign
"Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof
concurring, That portion of Route 66 extending from the California border to Santa Monica
be officially designated as ‘State Historic Highway Route 66’ …"
Authored by Jerry Reaves, Assemblyman, 66th District, (honest!) State of California,
those words are a part of ACR 6 which became legislation making Route 66 California’s
first historic highway.
Rialto being Jerry Eaves’ home town, the celebration dedicating Route 66 was held
as close as you could get to the road, on the landscaped parkway of a parking lot of a
local bank, Thursday, Nov. 14, 1991.
Welcoming guests, Arthur W. Morgan, Rialto’s Director of Economic Development,
then introduced Robert Sasseman, Caltrans’ Deputy District Director, who like all of
us, fondly remembered driving Route 66 in its heyday. Vivian Davies, Secretary of CHR66A,
in thanking Jerry for his legislation said, "it needed to be done, and Jerry did
it." She explained we were proud to work with Caltrans in the official design of the
new historic road sign as our artist and historian, Darin Kuna, rendered the final design.
The CHR66A then presented Jerry Eaves with a framed Bob Waldmire map of Route 66,
signed by the artist, as an expression of our appreciation for his part in making Route 66
California’s first historic highway.
The public could see the new historic road sign for the first time when Caltrans’
Robert Sasseman, Rialto’s Mayor, John Longville, and Vivian Davies unveiled the
rendering, a large 24"x36" plastic prototype made for the occasion.
The sign has the historic brown background. The shield in the center is light cream and
the word CALIFORNIA and the 66s are brown. Above and below the cream shield, the larger
words HISTORIC and ROUTE are cream on the brown background.
The new sign will be available to cities when it is manufactured, which is in the
works, as we go to press. Inquiries should be directed to Caltrans, Sign Coordinator, San
Bernardino County, or Tom Kildlay, Sign Coordinator, Traffic, Caltrans, Los Angeles
County, or CHR66A.
NUGGETS from NEEDLES by Maggie McShan
Vociferous disagreement among some residents over exactly which streets carried Route
66 through Needles has caused the city itself to slow down in its efforts to be on the
bandwagon in promotion of the historic highway benefits, and that’s too bad!
Actually, this was caused more from a proposal to change street names than from a
concern for historical authenticity. Or anyhow, that is what I think, but who am I? Just a
"late-comer" not having arrived until 1936, and not even "old family"
here, or native Needles born. But I have a feeling about it, even though history
wasn’t exactly number one priority when I was young. Next meal and paying the bills
were more immediate concerns. However, it is my impression from memory, observation and
research that the old road, which was Old Trails, then 66 went along Front Street at
first, past El Garces, and the earlier Harvey House that burned, thence on past early
businesses such as Monaghan & Murphy Store (later Claypools), Irataba Hotel, post
office, saloons and various others to a point where it joined what was then called Second
Street and now called Broadway.
The heart of "Old Town" was along Front Street which was, too, earlier called
First Street despite arguments by some of my good friends that it wasn’t. That route
put it closest to the Santa Fe, and other main businesses, even though there were a few
commercial places along Second Street. On up through the 1920s there was no big reason for
the main drag to be on what we now call Broadway.
In the early 1930s the business patterns began to change, and the trading area shifted.
Claypool’s present store was built during that era; and the red brick building that
was to serve for decades as headquarters for electricity, gas and telephone was built in
the late ‘20s. Various other stores and businesses followed, motels, gas stations and
restaurants. Nearly all these were built over demolition areas of earlier homes. We glean
much of this information from old photographs. At some point in time, not exactly
pinpointed yet, the highway traffic pattern did shift more to portions of Broadway, and so
was called Route 66, but old Front Street was not totally abandoned for many years. Read
on.
Now, I have it from The Horse’s Mouth that in 1948, year of the Big Snow,
travelers coming from the east did indeed enter Needles on Broadway and travel that street
to the corner of Broadway and G Street, where Russ Weart had his Texaco service station,
(bus station there now), turn right at that point, traverse the short block of G Street to
Front Street, then continuing on past the northwest end of El Garces on the right, the
Santa Fe Recreation Hall, (later City Hall, now gone) on the left, and a little further,
the Santa Fe Superintendent’s building (now gone), on the right. Highway 66 continued
a few more blocks on Front Street, to cross the railroad by driving across the tracks.
At that point, the highway again entered what we know now as Broadway. Talk about
confusion! Route 66 became totally Broadway with construction of the railroad overpass in
the 1960s at the point of the track crossing. Old Front Street ended in a cul de sac, as
it does now.
My informant isn’t really a horse, though many of those did trod old Front Street
when it was the highway. He is a delightful gentleman in his golden years named Steve
Thompson, who was in business here at the time of the Big Snow (I mean for real, not
"Job". The town was snowbound for two days!) and has good reasons for
remembering.
Now why did I take up my treasured space in Roadsigns with this dumb argument?
But along those same lines, I am quite excited over the recent change in ownership of
The Palms Motel, a historic Route 66 cabin court that is located just across Broadway from
the Needles Wagon, and on the other side it is on Front St. That’s right! It is on
both Front and Broadway, so there can be no question that it was a Route 66 facility. The
business is located at the point of the arrowhead where the two streets join. Well,
almost. Actually there was a service station on the very point, but no longer operative.
This is a very old court, and has been in continuous use since its construction, date
of which is being researched. New owners are ERC Investments, which translates to Emily,
Richard and Casey, daughter and sons of Hank and Edna Wilde, our longtime friends. Mama
and Papa Wilde are partners in the venture and are excited about the Route 66 potential
for their new business.
The court consists of 14 units, with eight of them having kitchens. Hank said the
family intends to restore the property in keeping with the historic highway theme, saying,
"I want to preserve the nostalgia, but not the actual reality. Early cabin courts
were just one step above camping out, only a little improvement over sleeping out in the
dirt, eating gritty meals and doing without baths. I can see it must have been luxury to
get out of wind and weather into a cabin with a relatively clean kitchen and have a
bath." At mention of the bath, Hank, who is a colorful conversationalist (great
jawbreaker!), made a face and said, "The old public washrooms are still here, unused
now. They may have seemed heavenly to those travelers regardless of the ‘green
scummies’ but not now. People want comfort, and our reality will be modern baths and
other amenities. Richard is busy today installing the latest in a coin operated
laundry."
Hank’s "green scummies" of yesteryear were probably only green algae,
not in itself harmful though possibly harboring germs. I imagine early operators worked
diligently to keep the places as clean as they could, scrubbing with such as dilute
solutions of sheep dip. I’ll try to talk Hank and Edna into leaving the old
washrooms… for nostalgia. Perhaps Ma and Pa Joad showered there! Or anyway, their
counterparts. I told Hank that if he didn’t want his name to be MUD with the Route 66
travelers, he had better see that some of the old individual cabins are available for
overnighters. Or at the very least, weekly rentals. The kitchenettes will be an added
attraction.
Congrats to the "Wilde Bunch"
