Time to revisit Route 66

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the opening of Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, we've decided to re-print various blogs concerning this wonderful extension of American ingenuity. It is a road that needs to be traveled to truly understand the term, Americana.

So, let's begin our journey down those 2448 miles of asphalt.

Laureen Beyer is getting ready for a road trip

In his 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck referred to Route 66 as the ‘Mother Road’ of America. It was the strip of asphalt that those fleeing the devastation of the Dust Bowl took from the Midwest to the Promised Land of California.

So what is it about Route 66 that beckons millions of people to drive along its nearly two thousand five-hundred-mile path from the beginning in Chicago to its end in Santa Monica each year?

It was time to find out, and one of the best places to start was Kingman, Arizona.

“Ready for a road trip?” I asked my lovely wife, Laureen.

“When am I not?”

We soon set out for the short seventy-three-mile drive between Kingman and Seligman, Arizona, to see what we could see.

Kingman is definitely a place to stop and experience. There is so much history to cherish in this small town, just one hundred and five miles southeast of Las Vegas.

It’s named after Lewis Kingman, a railroad engineer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. He was quite the engineer, designing over thirteen hundred miles of the Santa Fe Railroad system during his tenure. 

Actor Andy Devine was raised in Kingman, where he learned his love for the West. He appeared in over four hundred films during his lifetime, not including long stints in television western series which aired for decades.

Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart dedicated Arizona’s first commercial airport on Route 66 in Kingman in 1929.

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married there in 1939.

To say the least, Kingman is a historical place.

Laureen Beyer having fun in Kingman, Arizona

Driving along Route 66 is not like driving along an interstate. No, if speed is what someone is after, find another road.

Route 66 is meant to be a drive of knowledge. 

A drive learning about the backbone of America, where people ventured in search of a better life for themselves and their families.

A drive along America’s Mother Road is an opportunity to slow down and enjoy each mile along this iconic highway.

Millions of foreign travelers descend on this roadway each year to learn about the thing known as Americana.

Beatrice, a shop owner outside of Kingman, told us, “It is so exciting to see the tourists from all over the world stopping here. They are amazed at all the things they experience driving Route 66. It thrills me.”

As we drove north-east from Kingman, towns such as Hualapai, Walapai, and Valle Vista were soon in our rear-view mirror.

Roughly twenty-five miles north of Kingman is Antares Point. 

It is one of the showcases for the international artist, Gregg Arnold. This master sculptor has made this tiny bend in Route 66 a place for visitors to stop and enjoy numerous art pieces on display.

The small A-frame building housing the artwork is easy to spot along the road, but if the tourist fails to notice it, there is another object that cannot be missed or forgotten.

Standing in front of the artist’s studio is a fourteen-foot-tall green Tiki head, Arnold created in 2003 out of concrete. It is appropriately entitled: Giganticus Headicus. 

John R Beyer with Giganticus-Headicus

As we meandered about the place, at least twenty other vehicles loaded with tourists stopped, snapping photos of each other with the Tiki Head, before wandering into the studio. 

Giganticus Headicus is a big hit with those driving by Antares Point.

After leaving Antares Point, we soon passed through Peach Springs, Nelson, and Yampai before reaching the town of Seligman.

John R Beyer visiting Seligman, Arizona

Originally a railroad encampment known as Prescott Junction, the town was renamed Seligman, after Jesse Seligman, a railroad financier, in 1886.

It was a thriving locale along Route 66 until Interstate 40 was built on the outskirts of town in 1978. The town seemed to be on the verge of becoming a ghost town when the citizens banded together and demanded that the State of Arizona recognize Route 66 as a historic highway in 1987, and to ensure Seligman was accessible to those driving by on the freeway.

Thus, a few off-ramps were built, allowing travelers to exit the interstate and explore downtown Seligman.

Seligman soon became a major destination for tourists. An eclectic group of shops like the Rusty Bolt, bars like the O.K. Saloon, and restaurants like the Roadkill Café, line Route 66, beckoning the curious to stop and enjoy.

We wandered the town and soon realized why so many visited this little berg in Northwest Arizona.

It is just plain, good old-fashioned fun.

John can be reached at: beyersbyways@gmail.com

Eureka along the Loneliest Road in America

 An article in Life magazine from July, 1986 listed U.S. Route 50 as ‘The Loneliest Road in America’.

Route 50 extends west to east over three thousand miles from West Sacramento, California to Ocean City in the state of Maryland. That is one long piece of highway. I did not have the time to travel it all at the moment, so a decision was made. I’d only travel the roadway across the section that traversed the state of Nevada. That was still over four hundred miles, but at least two thousand six hundred miles shorter than the entire route.

That was doable.

I cajoled my buddy, Paul, to venture out for this newest adventure. 

We drove north on U.S. Route 395 and enjoyed visiting the towns of Olancha, Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop, Bigger Pine, Lee Vining, and Biggest Pine. 

Cruising the eastern side of the Sierra mountain range is always a great road trip. Desert brown turning to forest green is awe-inspiring. It’s as if Mother Nature is showing all the colors available on her palette. 

We grabbed Route 50 just east of Carson City and were on our way along the loneliest road in America.

Within a hundred miles, it dawned on me why this stretch of highway was given the moniker by Life magazine – it was lonely. There is nothing to be seen except flat lands stretching to the far horizons on either side of the road.

Of course, there are the small towns of Fallon, Middlegate, Austin, and such along the way, but in between these locales, there was nothing but mile after mile of nothingness and loneliness.

We drove for hours and never saw another vehicle. When it was time to camp for the evening, I didn’t even have to pull off the side of the highway. No, just pitched a tent in the middle of the road – no semi-truck ran us over during the night.

Around noon, on the second day of our trip, we pulled into the town of Eureka, Nevada. I believed it would only be for a tankful of gasoline, but I was wrong.

This town, first settled in 1864 by a group of prospectors who found rich silver-lead ore in the nearby hills, was more than just a fuel fill-up for us. It turns out there is much more to Eureka than being one of the best-preserved historic mining towns I have come across. 

One section of downtown Eureka, Nevada

The downtown looks like you have been transported into the late 1800’s. Pristine buildings like the Eureka Opera House, the Colonnade Hotel, the Owl Club Saloon Roadhouse, the Eureka County Courthouse, and the majestic Jackson House Hotel, just to name a few.

Jackson House Hotel in Eureka, Nevada

And the best part about Eureka – it’s haunted.

According to Dana Lee Fruend, a town expert, Eureka has more ghosts than can be counted.

Dana Lee Fruend with John R Beyer, Eureka, Nevada

So haunted, in 2017, the Travel Channel sent Zak Bagan and his crew from the series ‘Ghost Adventures’ to investigate. Since then, professional and amateur paranormal investigators have paid Eureka many visits.

We met Fruend in the Jackson House Hotel, built in 1877, and it is supposedly one of the most haunted buildings in the town.

Many people have reported sitting at the bar inside the Jackson House Hotel and seeing the words – ‘I’m watching you’, mysteriously appear on the fogged mirror behind the bar.

“Perhaps it’s just Alexa, or the government,” I stated to Fruend.

“I don’t think so,” she replied.

During the heydays of Eureka, a violent or mysterious death wasn’t an unusual event for the town. For example, a man keeled over one night while drinking at the bar – he was dead before he hit the floor. Another man collapsed outside the hotel’s front door after receiving a fatal gunshot during a heated argument.

Violence in mining towns was not rare, and Eureka experienced its fair share through the years.

“I actually had a strange occurrence myself,” Fruend stated. “One evening, I was doing some paperwork here in the office when suddenly doors started opening and slamming shut. I heard footsteps right outside the office, but when I investigated, there was no one there. There was no one in the entire building. It freaked me out, so I gathered my things and went home to finish the work.”

Another employee saw two children going up the hotel's stairway and then just disappear into thin air.

“There’s a guy we call Ray, who really is active in the kitchen,” she said. “He’s not there, but the utensils move around a lot as though he’s trying to cook something.”

A ghost cooking? Talk about empty calories. 

It also turned out that the Owl Bar, just down the street from the hotel, is haunted. 

Interior of a bar in Eureka, Nevada

There’s an employee there who has been photographed with floating white orbs around her in numerous photos. There’s a cowboy who has been seen, just hanging out at the bar, but isn’t really there. And, a mirror where a woman is seen in it, and then the mirror can only be cleaned using Gin. No other cleaning product works after she is seen.”

That’s a picky ghost. 

“No, Vodka won’t do. You’ll have to use the good Gin to get me out of the mirror,” the ghost was once overheard saying.

“There are other sightings in different parts of town and at different times of the day or year,” Fruend told us. “But this is a beautiful town with wonderful people who live here. I couldn’t think of anywhere to live.”

Eureka receives over 10,000 tourists a year – not bad, since it sits on Route 50. Most come for the beauty of the countryside or the numerous events held in the town. In June, there is the Legends of the West Bike and Car Fest, the great 4th of July celebration, in September, the art, wine, and music festival, and so much more.

Fruend is a fount of knowledge concerning Eureka, so much so, she described an old dilapidated part of town that most tourists don’t know about. It too is supposedly haunted.

We got the directions and, within minutes, were on our way.

Driving approximately a mile and a half over paved and then dirt roads, we found ourselves on a hill high above Eureka. There was a large production plant of some sort to the northeast of us, and then a cluster of really tattered-looking old wooden buildings to the southwest.

Exploring buildings in disrepair must be approached carefully. You don’t want a roof beam falling on your head. I do it because I’m a professional explorer and have a very hard noggin.

Be careful in abandoned buildings at all times

“Check this out,” Paul stated while he was standing in front of one of the buildings. No windows, no doors, but a very creepy cloth painting hanging on the rear wall. He was snapping photos with his phone.

Rather disturbing image on the interior wall

“That is creepy,” I stated. It was a painting of a woman, tattered and blowing in the breeze, with two dark orbs as eyes.

“My camera won’t take a photo,” Paul stated. He then showed me multiple shots he had taken of the cloth painting, and each one only came out dark blue. He then took a photo of another building, and no issue. Clear and bright.

I’m a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal stuff, but there was something in that small house that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

We walked around a bit, snapped a few more photos, and it was time to go. I felt a bit better as I looked in the rear-view mirror, watching the rundown buildings disappear.

Eureka is more than just a place to look for hauntings. As the tourism director told me, the town’s motto is – ‘Eureka! You’ve found us! History, folklore, and fun, we have it all.’

And, they certainly do.

John can be reached at: beyersbyways@gmail.com

 

The Garces Expedition

This year, 2026, is historically monumental for the United States. A year of celebrations is occurring across the breadth and width of this country, showing the world how awesome this land wrested away from a British Monarch truly is.

It’s been 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling King George III that it was too late to say he was sorry for treating the colonists so badly.

It’s been 100 years since the opening of the iconic Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, enabling car-loving Americans to travel 2,448 miles independently and in relative comfort across eight different states.

And, it’s been 250 years since a hard-walking Franciscan missionary by the name of Fray Francisco Garces became the first European to lay eyes on the rushing waters of the Colorado River near Laughlin, Nevada.

Of course, rather than the glittering lights of casinos, only small native villages occupied by the Mohave people greeted his eyes at that time. It was their home. But seeing that this sandal-wearing, robed man meant them no harm, they were eager to assist the explorer.

Garces was on a mission, pun intended, to find a land route between the missions of Sonora, Mexico, and those in California.

Any person who has traveled through the Mojave Desert understands how desolate and lonely it can be. Of course, along Route 40, Route 66, or Interstate 15, travel is not so bad. There are rest areas, high-priced gas stations, interesting eateries, a few motels, and quirky towns to visit. But, in 1775 and 1776, there was nothing but hard-packed desert floor, limited water sources, venomous snakes, and not a Starbucks to be found.

It was not for the timid.

Not for the timid

Father Garces was not timid, nor was the party he traveled with, as they made their way from Mission San Xavier Del Bac, near present-day Tucson, northward through the desert in October of 1775.

By the end of February the following year, Garces and his group had reached multiple Mohave villages located near present-day Laughlin and Bullhead City. They marveled at the nearly quarter-mile-wide river flowing southward.

It must have been a wonderful sight in the middle of the vastness of the desert.

The natives welcomed him to the land that no outsider had seen before. This was the land they had lived in for nearly 800 years - though some experts claim it could have been for thousands of years.

Garces traveled from one village to another, meeting the very people for whom the desert is now named. He was impressed by how they managed to thrive in such an inhospitable world, living on the fish the river's blue, flowing waters provided, and on what they could harvest from the plants in the area. Pinyon pine nuts, mesquite beans, yucca fruit, chia seeds, and cactus fruit were a daily nutritional diet that the desert yielded.

On March 4, 1776, Father Garces and his group were led across the Mojave Desert toward the Pacific Coast along with four Mohave guides. They eventually reached the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel 20 days later.

Garces returned to the Mohave villages in May of 1776, following ancient routes the natives had used for eons to trade with other tribes to the west.

Unfortunately, near present-day Yuma, Father Garces was killed during a Quechan (Yuma) uprising against Spanish forces on July 19, 1781.

Garces' legacy, besides being a man of the cloth, was one of risking his own safety while exploring the desert wilderness where no European had ventured before. He met many native peoples who found him trustworthy and treated him respectfully, as he did those who crossed his path.

The Mojave Desert is vast, covering nearly 48,000 square miles, depending on the boundaries used, and oftentimes daunting for a traveler even today.

I have had the pleasure of exploring some of it, and what I have discovered is that it is a place full of life and beauty.

Of course, exploring this massive, stark landscape is a little different while tooling around in an air-conditioned four-wheel drive vehicle in lieu of a pair of leather sandals.

It is hard to imagine the fortitude and bravery it took 250 years ago to venture out to literally parts unknown with little more than the horizon to guide them. Today, we have satellite GPS, and we still get lost.

There is a large sign just south of Laughlin, Nevada, along the Needles Highway, which tells a short version of Father Garces' exploration in the area in 1776.

To the east are the sparkling waters of the Colorado River; to the west are the endless hills, sandy washes, and harshness of the Mojave Desert.

I hiked out about one mile west over that rocky, uneven ground, sporting a nice pair of Keen boots, and realized that was about as far as I wanted to venture.

Whether you are considering our Founding Fathers, who began the grand experiment that became the USA, or the ones who stretched asphalt over two thousand miles from east to west, or a sandal-wearing Franciscan, these were determined and unstoppable individuals.

A lot to celebrate this year, from coast to coast.

John can be reached at beyersbyways@gmail.com