Route 66 - Carthage, Missouri

Carthage, Missouri, is, in many ways, as fascinating as its ancient namesake. Birthplace of senators, suffragists and sportspeople, it's also the birthplace of perhaps the most famous female outlaw of the wild west, Belle Starr, who died in 1889. The wonderfully named Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr (known to her family as May) was from a reasonably well-to-do family and even received a private classical education at the higher end of what a girl might expect in the 19th century. Her father, however, had been the black sheep of his own family (who were even more well-to-do). Something of that rebel streak obviously passed down to Belle, who fell in with the notorious James brothers, Frank and Jesse. She had, in fact, known them since childhood, as they grew up together.

Belle's personal style fed the later legend; she was a crack shot and rode dressed in black velvet and a plumed hat, carrying two holstered pistols on her hips. Having buried her first husband, Jim Reed, Belle married Sam Starr, a Cherokee man and famed bootlegger and horse thief.

Belle Starr's legend extends to her death. Two days short of her 41st birthday, she was shot multiple times. It's unsure whether it was a simple ambush, a lover's tiff, or a conspiracy between her third husband (Sam Starr had been killed a few years earlier) and her children. Her daughter, Pearl, became a legend in her own right - a Bordello queen, operating several properties until the end of the First World War.

Modern-day Carthage boasts the Precious Moments Park and Chapel, inspired by the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The mural artworks throughout the Chapel depict Bible stories, both Old and New Testament, and cover nearly 5000 square feet. The Chapel and Park also boasts the world's largest gift shop - a must for lovers of kitsch memorabilia.



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Route 66 - Spencer, Missouri

Congratulations on making it to Spencer, Missouri Richard, an actual real-life ghost town. Although Spencer was never much more than a wide place in the road, it did actually have not just people but a post office in the late 1870s. The local population were nearly all connected with agriculture, and Spencer gained both a church and a general store to cater to them.

However, less than forty years later, the road became unusable, and the town more or less emptied - at least for a while. By the late 1920s, when Route 66 was constructed to pass through the derelict buildings, the town reopened for business, with two shops - one grocery, one dry goods, a barber, a garage, and a Tydol station. The second death of Spencer occurred when Route 66 was bypassed by I-44 and until recently, the whole town was a row of vacant premises left over from the still rather quiet heyday of the 1920s.

In recent years, the site has been purchased by the Ryan family - bought from the Caseys, who first owned the land the 'town' was built on in 1925. The gas station has been restored, and although non-operational, is full of authentic memorabilia of the period it was first constructed, including a vintage police car parked in front. Spencer never required or got its own police station, but it's a nice touch.

Just to prove that vandals really will trash anything, the restored (but closed) barber shop was damaged in 2015, including the theft of its nostalgic red and white pole. They may have caused a few thousand pounds worth of damage, but Spencer will carry on - a lovingly-restored, slightly creepy non-town along historic Route 66.



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Route 66 - Rolla, Missouri

For a relatively small place, Rolla produces a lot of professional sports men and women, and also an impressive crop of politicians. Although incomes are a little below the national average, the surrounding area and amenities help rate the town higher than it might otherwise sit for quality of life.

In terms of its history, it's a relatively short one - the first house within the current Rolla city limits was built in 1844 by one John Webber. The following year, the railway came to town - or at least the reconnaissance mission did - led by James Abert, the first professor of Civil Engineering at the Missouri School of Mines, which later became Missouri S&T. The official town founder, however, was Edmund Ward Bishop, a construction contractor who was tasked with the job of building that branch of the Southwest Railroad.

There are two entertaining stories about the name; both might be true, or at least contain a grain of truth. In the 1860s, Rolla and neighbouring Dillon were in competition to be the county seat. Rolla won, but part of Dillon's consolation prize was to choose the name of the new city, which they did - after a particularly useless hunting dog. The official version is that it is a phonetic corruption of Raleigh in the emerging North Carolina accent, the origin of many of the settlers.

The modern Stonehenge reconstruction in the grounds of Missouri S&T is a must-see; partial, and a scale model it might be, not to mention erected with the use of modern equipment, but it underlines rather than detracts from the fact that the original prehistoric monument was an incredible feat of engineering.



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Route 66 - Stanton, Missouri

At first glance, Stanton might not appear to have much to recommend it to someone taking in the sights and landmarks of historic Route 66, but this small, unincorporated community is up there with every other example of not judging a book by its cover. It has even apparently shrunk since Rittenhouse's 1946 Guidebook to Highway 66 - then it had a garage, a gas station, a café, a shop, and a few cabins. Now, the only business open year round is the gas station, although the famed Jesse James Wax Museum does a good trade in the Summer, when it is open daily, and at the weekends in Spring and Autumn. Like the town, it pretty much closes down in Winter.

Stanton is, however, close to the famous Meramec Caverns, where the James gang holed up to avoid arrest. The caves are natural limestone, formed more than 400 million years ago, and have been used variously for shelter by Indian tribes, to collect saltpetre for the production of gunpowder in the 18th century, and even as a venue for ballroom dances in the 1890s - the same area of the caves can still be rented today for private special events.

The wax museum is devoted to all things Jesse James - including photographs of the outlaw, plus several personal items and vintage firearms. You will also hear the legend of what was possibly the greatest feat of James' criminal career; officially, he was gunned down by Bob Ford, a member of his own gang, in 1882, but legend has him escaping and dying at the grand old age of 101 in Texas in 1951. It would make a fitting end to the tale of the modern-day Robin Hood, but family questioning and recent DNA evidence have sadly debunked this.

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