Route 66 State Park Visitor Center

97 N. Outer Road 
Eureka, MO 63025
Admission and parking are free

https://mostateparks.com/park/route-66-state-park  

Opened in 1999

This visitor center is in a Missouri state-owned park in St. Louis County and is dedicated to the history of the park area and of Route 66. 

The building was constructed in 1935 as a restaurant and was originally the Bridge Head Inn and later in 1945 was Steiny's Inn. In 1972 it went back to being the Bridge Head Inn before becoming the Galley West in 1980.  

Since 1999 the building has been a busy visitor center hosting guests from all over the world.  This map in the lobby shows all the places museum visitors have hailed from in the last 6 months. Amazing! 

Museum displays tell us the history of the land that is now the park. This land was originally the home of a town called Times Beach. It was developed by the St. Louis Times Newspaper in 1925 as a hot-weather resort near the Meramec River.  

 It eventually became a year-round settled community. 

In 1972-73 the history of Times Beach changed because of one bad decision. Oil contaminated with dioxin was sprayed on the streets to control dust. 

In 1982, a month after residents learned of the dioxin contamination, the city was flooded when the river overflowed and residents were not allowed to return. 

In 1992 the state of Missouri received the title to the property. In 1996-1997 an incinerator was brought in to incinerate the contaminated soil. 

Most of the remainder of the museum is dedicated to the history of Route 66.

It was fun to see this recognition of a historical marker on Route 66 that is at an intersection that we all know well.  

We also enjoyed seeing all of the displays honoring Route 66 buildings that we remember with Coral Court at the top of the list.  

 The neon entrance sign. 

  A display case and wall display about Coral Court. 

The neon sign from a popular Route 66 restaurant in Fenton. 

And we all remember the "66" Park In Theatre in Crestwood. 

And the drive-in theatre's heaters and speakers!

A Route 66 historical display must include information on the Missouri caves southwest of here. 

 

And let's not forget out favorite ice cream man! 

A large display case holds souvenirs from the many places that have sat on Route 66 during the past 91 years. 

No surprise that a museum highlighting Route 66 would have space dedicated to those things which had the "66" in them!

Yamaha made a Route 66 bike! 

And more items on display named for Route 66!!  

This painted gourd on display represents the 8 states through which Route 66 passes and the diversity found in the 1920's-1960's on the route. 

And no trip back to memory lane is complete without the Burma-Shave signs!  

 The Visitor Center includes a very large gift shop. 

And as to be expected, most of the items in the shop are dedicated to Route 66!

The State Park has 8 hiking trails and is also a popular place for biking. 

We chose to hike the shortest trail. 

A beautiful view on a blue-sky day near the trail-head. 

The trail goes through the woods. 

On a late summer day the trail was surrounded by wild flowers... 

and butterflies. 

A driving tour through the park took us by the mound where all the incinerated dirt is buried. 

And by two pavilions for picnicking. 

We decided that a beautiful park on a beautiful day deserved a picnic so after a drive through the park in our "tour bus" we ate at a lone table at the trail-head to our hiking trail. 

Committed to eating food from a local restaurant we chose to order carryout sandwiches from Amighetti's, a popular sandwich restaurant on The Hill and in Rock Hill, the location where we picked up our lunch early that morning. 

Their special sandwich on their special bread...

 and on toasted wheat! 

Comments: I learned about this museum on a radio talk show and then later learned that one in our group often goes to this park to ride her bike on the flat trails.  I otherwise did not know that this park existed. The museum draws a lot of visitors from all over the world that are driving Route 66. Again it was amazing to see how many foreign tourists have visited it. 

The museum is relatively small and can be seen in well under an hour.  While there, we saw a  number of other visitors in the center. The gift shop is quite large and is mostly filled with a wide variety of souvenirs.  

One gets the impression that the museum has not been upgraded since it opened in 1999 and it definitely could use some upgrading. That being said, we thoroughly enjoyed going down memory lane as we walked through the exhibits of the history of the area and of Route 66. For those of us who grew up in this area it was re-living our younger days. 

Because the bridge over the Meramec River is closed long-term one needs to go back on the interstate from the Visitors Center to get to the rest of the park with the hiking trails. Once there it is very confusing trying to find specific trails. The website tells you about 4 trails and mentions them by name. The park's maps have 8 trails with no names and no clear indication of trail-heads. We struggled to find Trail W, the shortest trail and the one we chose to hike. It would be so helpful if the state park system updated the maps with clear trail-heads and names and also consistent with the website. 

That being said, we went on a beautiful weather day and we very much enjoyed our little hike in the woods with the wildflowers and the butterflies. There was a lone picnic table at the trail-head where we enjoyed eating our lunch.  

The one familiar with the park gave us a little tour by car.  We did not hike down to the river but understand it is very nice there. There were a number of people hiking and biking on this beautiful Monday afternoon. 

As always the Amighetti sandwiches were great.  There is a reason that they have a great reputation!   https://amighettis.com/