Route 66 is a big deal. It took a trip to Europe about 15 years ago for me to realize that, which is surprising given that I grew up in a community along the famous road. Sometimes you need distance to see what others see.
Through conversations back then, I learned many Europeans and others from across the globe think of this as our Eiffel Tower – the thing you just have to see. That 2,400-mile journey from Chicago to Los Angeles is filled with unique cultural stops, which make many visitors pause in the Ozarks.
One of them is Spencer’s Station, a stretch of joined buildings in rural Lawrence County that once comprised a town. The former feed store, service station cafe and barbershop attracts a lot of visitors traveling the route. They’re often greeted by Ed Klein, a Route 66 supporter who owns Spencer’s Station. He’s what you could call an ambassador for the famed route.
"My focus now is not only preservation, but also making sure people who travel it locally or domestically or internationally can actually enjoy it and get the most out of it," Klein said, "because one thing you will always hear from people is that it's the people that make the Route 66 what it is."
Years of work went into creating these moments. More than a century ago, the United States was stuck in the mud – sometimes literally, as there were few good roads connecting one place to the next. As cars became more common, greater work was done to create highways that connected states. And it all led to the birth of Route 66. Back in 1926, a telegram was sent from downtown Springfield's Colonial Hotel, during a Rotary Convention, requesting the famous name.
"We had 20 million cars and maybe 1,000 miles of paved highways in 1925. This was a really big deal, and the public was just frantic to get better roads," said Susan Croce Kelly, who along with photographer Quinta Scott, created one of the first modern books about Route 66.
As a child, Kelly first heard about the route from her mom, who grew up in the rural Ozarks. She talked of the telephone operators who called ahead as unusual people or sights headed down Route 66.
"And my mom talked about seeing stilt walkers going across the country," Kelly said. "And circuses — that was the era when circuses were crisscrossing the country. But she also told my sister and me about seeing Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford motoring east across the country. Well, they were the biggest movie stars anywhere. And so this was a really big deal."
It went through various phases after its start in the 1920s.
"Then in the 30s, and that was the Depression, and it was the road of, was the Mother Road west," Kelly said. "And then in the 40s, it was the road of war because there were so many military bases along the highway, and they brought German prisoners of war near there for the camps. And then in the 50s, of course, the people who'd been in the war came back, and companies were offering paid vacations for the first time. So those G.I.s would load up their families and drive down Route 66 to California."
A lot has happened since then. The road was decertified in 1985 and then saw a wave of revival as nostalgia grew for the road. Today, Route 66 is still unfolding through landmarks across the Ozarks and beyond. One of them is Spencer, a town that died in the 1960s when the highway was rerouted. It’s been visited by thousands of travelers since Stephanie and Ed Klein purchased the stretch of buildings in 2022. It wasn’t a newfound love – it came after years of work supporting and traveling the road.
"Out of everything on Route 66, Spencer was always my favorite place," Klein said, "because there's nothing like Spencer. I always say that — that's my tagline. There's nothing like Spencer. "
"There's a lot of places that have motels, gas station, museums, restaurants, little odds and ends, but you don't have your own little town within a two-acre property."
The couple is gradually restoring the buildings. One of the next tasks is to install running water – the first time the building has ever had it. That will allow them to do even more for visitors, and eventually open the cafe.
They’re creating a new chapter linking this famous road’s past, present and future. Because while historical, the road isn’t just about history. It’s about creating memories today. And that’s not something only for people from faraway.
"Half of the people that stop out to see us are all within a 35-mile radius of this place because they find out we're open now," Klein said. "And a lot of folks have taken pictures outside. You know, they've taken their engagement, their senior photos. Kids — they show us pictures of their kids when they're babies all the way to their teenage years out in front of the pumps. And so now they find we're open, and they want to come and check it out and see our progress."
