Ghost Towns of Route 66 by Jim Hinckley Read Free Book Online

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 McLean—named for William Pinkney McLean, a hero of the war for Texas independence and the state’s first railroad commissioner—was 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