Signs of Life Along Route 66

For the past 6 years, Kurt and I have spent our winters volunteering for National Parks in and around the Mojave Desert. As we make our way from Minnesota to Southern California we avoid the interstate as much as possible and prefer to travel on smaller highways and rural roads. One of our favorites is the original Route 66.

In 2011, we made our first trip along the historic road and drove from St. Louis to the Grand Canyon. Prior to our journey, we spent several months researching interesting landmarks and vintage signs to photograph. Once on the road, we discovered that many of the signs we had seen in books had deteriorated, fallen down or disappeared altogether.

On our most recent trip we traveled Route 66 from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Needles, California and revisited many of the locations we had been to in 2011. It was no surprise to see that some of our favorite roadside signs and advertisements are continuing to decay but we were alarmed by the amount of landmarks that had been vandalized. It’s sad to think that as I write, historic artifacts are being defaced and are disappearing because of malicious acts.

Although we were primarily drawn to Route 66 for its roadside signs, it’s the people who live and work along the Route that keep us coming back. Husband-and-wife team, Cindy and Tony Jaquez are a great example of a Route 66 mom-and-pop shop. We met them back in 2011 as we pulled over to photograph the iconic “HERE IT IS” sign that is located directly across the street from their Jacket Rabbit Trading Post. The couple’s kindness and hospitality makes us feel like family and we always make sure to stop by to visit with them and purchase some souvenirs. Some of the merchandise for sale dates back from decades ago, allowing for some real treasure finds!

Cindy’s grandfather, Glen Blansett, who also happened to be an Arizona State Senator, was the first in the family to own Jack Rabbit Trading Post. He and his wife Hattie Belle, operated the business until they sold it to their son Phil, and his wife Pat, who raised their children on the premises. Cindy grew up at the Jack Rabbit Trading Post. After marrying Tony, the couple decided to move to a nearby community where they started a family and worked long hours managing gas stations.

The couple kept in touch with Cindy’s parents and would visit them often. One day, Cindy’s father confided in his son-in-law, Tony, that it was time for him and his wife to retire and see the countryside while they still could, so Tony kindly offered to help with the store.

Cindy recalls, “He came home and told me “we’re taking over the Jack Rabbit”. I said “What?!” Cindy eventually warmed up to the idea and in 1994, the couple took over the reins of the Trading Post.

Before Cindy’s grandfather purchased the Jack Rabbit Trading Post, Jim Taylor owned it. Him and another business owner in Winslow, Arizona conceived of a plan to draw people in. They created signs with a girl lying back with a cowboy hat and posted them up and down Route 66. It was the precursor of the Jackrabbit Trading Post mileage signs.

In the 70s and 80s, Cindy’s dad followed in the marketing footsteps and used to create and give away mileage signs. Cindy explained that he made the customers promise that they would get exact mileage to where they were going with it: “He would make one if somebody wanted one. He would say “OK, I will make you one with the strict promise that you get exact mileage from here to where you’re going. So if you go off to the Grand Canyon you stop your mileage, when you get back on 40 you start it up again.”

Unfortunately, in 1967 the Jack Rabbit Trading mileage signs had to come down. Decades later, one of the original signs was found by a traveler walking along Old Route 66 in New Mexico: “He saw a board that was upside down, he flipped it over and lo and behold it was mile marker 318 or something like that.” The original sign is now displayed in a gallery in New Mexico.

Today, Cindy and Tony continue the tradition. Tony paints on-demand mileage signs on a yellow board adorned with the silhouette of a Jack Rabbit. The pair gifted mileage signs to a few businesses along Route 66. “It’s a part of our history, [signs] that went up and down the Route, that’s how people got here.”

Cindy explains that travelers see the mileage signs along Route 66 and come inside the Trading Post to ask for their own. “It’s more of a take on what [the signs] used to be except that we are doing it now as a business, but it’s a-part-of-our-history business.“ The farthest sign from the Trading Post is currently posted 9,800 miles away, in Australia.

At their 70th anniversary celebration last July, the couple gave 10 of those signs away as prizes. Hundreds of people attended the event. Among them was Dean “Crazy Legs” Walker from Riverton, Kansas (he was the inspiration for Tow Mater in the movie Cars).

Now in their 26th year of ownership, Cindy and Tony aren’t too sure if their children will take over the family business when they decide it’s time to retire. Cindy explains, “After being raised here, I know what it’s like to say, “No, I don’t want this”. It’s a tough life here, it’s not easy.”

Old signs along Route 66 are going through a hard time; they are coming down in New Mexico, they are being defaced in states like Arizona, stolen or just unmaintained and decaying. Yet, one of the reasons visitors are attracted to route 66 is because of its roadside signs and advertisements.

Although many of the original buildings have disappeared, signs are, in many places, the only remnant of the original Route 66 era.

Cindy says that vandalism has become their biggest fight and each year seems to be getting worse. “Signs coming down and [places] like Twin Arrows and Two Guns are being defaced with graffiti and being torn down, it’s slowly but surely going away.”

There is only so much that can be done at this point but vandalism can be prevented and deterred by educating the public about the historic significance of Route 66 and by protecting what is left. Social media has helped Route 66 business owners keep in touch with each other and be informed real-time on deliberate acts of destruction along the route.

Although the future of route 66 appears to be uncertain what seems evident is that now is the time to go and experience what little is left of the original route.