Kan-O-Tex Service Station (Galena) | |
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Former names | Little's Service Station |
Alternative names | 4 Women on the Route Cars on the Route [1] |
General information | |
Type | Historic filling station |
Location | Old US Route 66 |
Address | 119 North Main Street |
Town or city | Galena, Kansas |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 37°4′49.4″N94°38′20″W / 37.080389°N 94.63889°W Coordinates: 37°4′49.4″N94°38′20″W / 37.080389°N 94.63889°W |
Completed | 1934 |
Renovated | 2007 |
Owner | Melba Rigg, Renée Charles, Judy Courtney, Betty Courtney (d. 2010) (as 4 Women on the Route) [2] |
Other information | |
Seating type | roadside café |
Seating capacity | 12 |
Parking | on-site |
The Kan-O-Tex Service Station in Galena, Kansas, is a souvenir shop and tourist attraction in the former Little's Service Station building, a Kan-O-Tex filling station that originally served U.S. Route 66 motorists in 1934.
US Route 66 was designated in 1926; by 1929 Kansas and Illinois were the first to completely pave their respective segments of this highway. [3]
Little's Service Station installed its fuel pumps on the former site of the Banks Hotel [4] (demolished 1933) at 119 North Main Street in Galena; [5] an automobile repair shop was added later. Before Interstate 44 opened in the area in 1961, bypassing Kansas entirely, US Route 66 in Kansas was a vibrant part of the "Mother Road" which led from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. [6]
In 1979, US 66 in Galena was taken off its former Main Street alignment (which came in from Missouri as Front Street, turned south on Main Street, then followed the current K-66 route to Riverton) and routed directly onto 7th Street, bypassing the station. US 66 would become Kansas State Route 66 in 1985, but the station sat vacant, closed and largely abandoned until its 2007 restoration.
The Kan-O-Tex Service Station bears the branding of the former Kanotex Refining Company (1909-1953), a now-defunct regional fuel brand named for Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The Kan-O-Tex logo was a Kansas sunflower behind a five-point star. [7]
The station is home to a 1951 International boom truck on which Pixar's animated character Tow Mater was based; Joe Ranft, a Pixar animator, discovered it during a research trip for the movie Cars . [8] In April 2011, a Disney/Pixar crew returned [9] to interview the station's owners for a DVD release of Cars 2. [10] [11] As the "Mater" name is a Disney trademark, the original truck has been named "Tater." [12]
The station was restored in 2007 and renamed 4 Women on the Route. [5] [13] Following an ownership change and the death of one of the founders of 4 Women on the Route, it was renamed again, becoming Cars on the Route, to emphasize its connection with Cars. [14] Located seven blocks north of the current (7th Street) Kansas Route 66, the station retains the original aesthetic design of the fuel pumps and exterior façade but places a diner-style lunch counter in what once would have been the service bay of the station's repair garage. It operates seasonally, closing for the winter and reopening in the spring. [15]
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System. US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both the hit song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" and the Route 66 television series, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964. In John Steinbeck's classic American novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), the road "Highway 66" symbolized escape and loss.
Peach Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,090 at the 2010 census. Peach Springs serves as the administrative headquarters of the Hualapai people, and is located on the Hualapai Reservation.
Galena is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,085.
Cars is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman, Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, and Jorgen Klubien and a story by Lasseter, Ranft, and Klubien, and was the final film independently produced by Pixar after its purchase by Disney in January 2006. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic talking cars and other vehicles, the film stars the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, Guido Quaroni, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger and Richard Petty, while race car drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mario Andretti, Michael Schumacher and car enthusiast Jay Leno voice themselves.
Riverton is an unincorporated community in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. It is located at the junction of K-66 and U.S. Route 69 Alternate and U.S. Route 400, near the Spring River. It is one of only three towns in Kansas along former U.S. Route 66. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 929.
U.S. Route 66 in the state of Texas extended across the Texas Panhandle from its designation in 1926 to its decommissioning in 1985.
U.S. Route 66, the historic east–west US highway between Chicago, Illinois and Santa Monica, California, passed through one brief segment in the southeastern corner of Kansas. It entered the state south of Baxter Springs and continued north until it crossed the Brush Creek, from where it turned east and left the state in Galena. After the decertification of the highway in 1985, this road segment was numbered as US-69 (alternate) from Quapaw, Oklahoma north to Riverton, Kansas and as K-66 from Riverton east to Route 66 in Missouri.
U.S. Route 66 is a former east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Santa Monica, California to Chicago, Illinois. In Missouri, the highway ran from downtown St. Louis at the Mississippi River to the Kansas state line west of Joplin. The highway was originally Route 14 from St. Louis to Joplin and Route 1F from Joplin to Kansas. It underwent two major realignments and several lesser realignments in the cities of St. Louis, Springfield, and Joplin. Current highways covering several miles of the former highway include Route 100, Route 366, Route 266, Route 96, and Route 66. Interstate 44 (I-44) approximates much of US 66 between St. Louis and Springfield.
Sally Carrera is a fictional character in the Pixar computer animated film Cars. Sally is a 2002 Porsche 911 Carerra, and the character is modeled after Dawn Welch, the proprietor of Rock Cafe in Oklahoma. Sally is the town attorney for Radiator Springs, having moved from California, where she was a successful lawyer. She is voiced by Bonnie Hunt.
KSEK, Fox Sports Radio 1340, is an AM radio station licensed to Pittsburg, Kansas. It changed over from an Informational Talk format to Fox Sports Radio on or around August 19, 2013.
The Four State Area or Quad State Area, is the area where the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma almost touch: Arkansas and Kansas have no boundary. The Tulsa, Oklahoma; Joplin, Missouri; and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas metropolitan areas are located within the region. Notable cities and towns in the area are Tulsa and Miami, Oklahoma; Pittsburg, Kansas; Joplin, Springfield, and Monett, Missouri; and Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, Arkansas.
Radiator Springs is a fictional Arizona town and the principal setting of the Disney/Pixar franchise Cars. A composite of multiple real-world locations on the historic U.S. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, it is most prominently featured in the 2006 film, and is home to a majority of the franchise's characters. A section of the Disney California Adventure theme park is based upon the setting.
Sir Tow Mater, most commonly referred to as Tow Mater or simply Mater, is one of the main characters in Cars and its sequels, Cars 2 and Cars 3 as well as Cars Toons. He is voiced by Larry the Cable Guy and inspired by a 1956–57 International Harvester Tow truck and 1955-1957 Chevrolet Task Force. Portrayed as Holley Shiftwell's boyfriend and best friend and Lightning McQueen's best friend and sidekick, he had a breakout role in Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales and in other media related to Cars.
The Boots Motel, a historic U.S. Route 66 motor hotel in Carthage, Missouri, opened in 1939 as the Boots Court at 107 S. Garrison Avenue.
The Kanotex Refining Company, a regional oil refinery and gasoline distributor, began operation in Caney, Kansas in 1909, a successor to the Superior Refining Company. The company's logo was a Kansas sunflower behind a five-point star; the Kan-O-Tex name referred to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas as the states in which the company originally marketed its products.
The Midpoint Café, a restaurant, souvenir and antique shop on US Route 66 in Adrian, Texas, bills itself as geographically the midway point between Los Angeles and Chicago on historic Route 66. Signage in Adrian proudly declares a 1139-mile distance to each original US 66 endpoint; the café's slogan is "when you're here, you're halfway there".
Route 66 Mural Park operates as a public park, specifically as a touchstone for US Route 66 tourists as well as for local preservers of U.S. Route 66 in Missouri. The park includes two large tile murals proposed by Paul Whitehill, produced by Images In Tile USA and designed by artists Chris Auckerman and Jon White. The park also features a bifurcated red sports car that anyone on pilgrimage can slide up beside and have a quickie photograph taken. Close to the intersection of 7th Street and Main, the mural covers the south side of Pearl Brothers, the iconic green hardware store of downtown Joplin. Near that same intersection, US Route 66 once shifted west and headed into Kansas.
KPJO-LD, virtual channel 49, is a low-powered dual MyNetworkTV/Court TV-affiliated television station licensed to Pittsburg, Kansas, United States and also serving Joplin, Missouri. Owned by HC2 Holdings, the station is operated by DTV America Corporation under a local marketing agreement (LMA). KPJO-LD's transmitter is located near the corner of NE Bethlehem Road and NE 80th Street in a rural section of Cherokee County, KS near Galena.
U.S. Bicycle Route 66 (USBR 66) is a United States Bicycle Route that follows the former U.S. Route 66 (US 66) across the United States. The first section of the route, spanning 358 miles (576 km) between Baxter Springs, Kansas, and St. Louis, Missouri, was designated as USBR 66 in 2018. The rest of the route remains proposed but un-designated.