YOU GO THROUGH SAINT LOOEY and Joplin, Missouri—according to “Route 66” songwriter Bobby Troup—following this famous shield. | THE TEXAS SPUR
GRAND FALLS just outside of Joplin is the largest continuously running waterfall in the state—at 12 feet tall.
THOMAS HART BENSON completed a mural commission for Joplin’s Centennial in 1973, and the city’s Convention & Visitor Bureau keeps a wealth of reference information on hand.
“JOPLIN UPLIFT” features famous Black figures from the city’s history.
RISING 630 FEET over the St. Louis skyline and overlooking the Mississippi River a few miles south of its confluence with the Missouri, the Gateway Arch serves as symbol of the city—and exploration of the American West.
CARDINAL NUMBERS flock to Busch Stadium for a Wednesday night baseball game (the hometown Cards lost to the Kansas City Royals, 6–4).
WEIR OPEN In 1932, Paul T. Carr built the old Phillips 66 station in Cuba, Missouri, which also sold used cars; later it became the Wallis Oil Company, and in the 20th century it was restored as a café.
ROUTE 66 IN 3-D Yes, the convertible (only half of one, actually) is part of the art installation on Joplin’s Pearl Bros. building.
COCA-COLA wasn’t as prevalent in the midwestern part of the U.S., where we found that often Pepsi products dominated in restaurants and soda fountains—at least in 2024.
E D I T O R I A L | spur@thetexasspur.com
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BARBARA BRANNON
South of Edwardsville, Illinois, in search of the turnoff for Chain of Rocks Road, we wound up instead swept along in the current of St. Louis–bound trucks on I-270. We had to settle for an out-thewindow view of the famous iron bridge that since 1927 has spanned the Mississippi with a quirky thirty-degree bend in the mi…
