Wildorado, Texas

If you're interested in the history of 20th century grain storage (and who isn't?),
Wildorado, Texas is an interesting little town.

Wildorado Grain Elevator 1

Wildorado, Texas

Ghost Town Roundup: Glenrio, Texas - New Mexico

Glenrio straddles the Texas/New Mexico border, just south of I-40. It's a must for vintage Route 66 fans. Like all ghost towns, it ain't your property, so stay out of the buildings.

 

Ghost Town Roundup: Cuervo, New Mexico

Cuervo is a great little ghost town, featuring a church, an abandoned school, and many abandoned houses. The church is NOT abandoned.
The town sits about 17 miles east of Santa Rosa, just off I-40 (and old Route 66), in Guadalupe County. Access is easy, but remember that not all the buildings are unoccupied, especially towards the back of town. Like the rest of New Mexico, there may be snakes, and there will definitely be stickers, thorns, and burrs.

Hill on the Highway

Old House 93

Cuervo, NM, not much left of this one.

Tucumcari's Railroad Tunnel

 

There aren't many tunnels on the Southern Plains, but Tucumcari has one, just east of town. It was built to give the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad a way out of town, once Interstate Forty was built over its right of way. You can argue that it's an underpass, but the length of the thing, going under the road at an oblique angle, makes it more like a tunnel than not. Legend has it that the Rock Island went belly-up the day after the tunnel was opened and only one train ever officially used it.

Underpass: Route 66 and I-40

Old House 84

Cuervo, New Mexico

Old Testament Gas Station

Newkirk, New Mexico

This little ruin reminds me of that old Joke:
Q. Did you know there are motorcycles in the Bible?
A. Yes, "The roar of David's Triumph was heard throughout the land."

Magnolia Gas Station: Vega, TX

Abandoned Diner: Bard, NM

Country Churches: Newkirk, NM

Anybody know what this is?

I imagine it was some sort of roadside business, gas or food or whatever, but I don't know exactly. And why the funny shape? Was it to look like an oil well, a windmill, a kiln, what? It's located about 5 miles west of Tucumcari on old Route 66, not far from the old swim park. There is another one, just like it, a few hundred yards away.

UPDATE: According to the good people at the Tucumcari Historical Museum, it's a pump house. I assume it was to pump water to the pool at the nearby park, which was quite large. More on the park soon.

Did Quanah Parker get his kicks on Route 66?

No, of course not, the famed Comanche leader died 15 years before Route 66 was opened. However, Quanah travelled a similar route during his days on the Comancheria. According to this Quanah Parker Trail marker in Vega, Texas, Comanches travelled between Vega and Tucumcari on a fairly regular basis. It wasn't always motels and gas stations.

Abandoned Tourist Court: Newkirk, NM

Bridge: Cuervo, NM

Abandoned 66

Much of Route 66 in New Mexico and Texas serves as a frontage road for Interstate 40 and isn't really abandoned at all, but there are stretches, here and there, that are almost completely deserted. This one is between Tucumcari and San Jon, on the north side of 40.

Route 66, The Road Segments: Glenrio to San Jon

(NPS) ... Extending from the Texas border at Glenrio to two miles east of San Jon, this 14.6 mile segment of Route 66 runs almost two miles south of Interstate 40 through the sites of the early homestead towns that lined the now abandoned Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. This departure from the interstate enhances the feeling of cross-country travel in rural eastern New Mexico, especially with the vistas across the slightly rolling semi-arid rangeland, the barbed wire fencing paralleling the road, and the remains of the railroad grade with its wood trestle bridges. While the segment has little elevation change, several small streams near Endee mark a visible change in the area’s topography. These streams made the area attractive to homesteaders but posed challenges for early road builders who used several stream crossings to pass through the area.
When the road became part of Route 66 in 1930, road builders realigned it to eliminate stream crossings and run parallel to the railroad lying to the south. Engineers raised the grade and added several concrete culverts, often marked by short guardrails consisting of wood posts and connecting steel cables. Notable along this segment are four creosote-treated beam bridges east of Endee built during the 1930 alignment. These structures characterize bridge building over many of the flood plains and shallow riverbeds of the State in the 1920s and early 1930s. The cross sections of the early roadbed and the bridges remain largely unaltered.
When the road was turned over to Quay County, it was given a gravel surface that enhanced its historic feeling and recalled the era of Route 66 that preceded its paving in the 1930s. This segment served as Route 66 until 1952. Link

Post Office: Glenrio, NM