Cities like Gallup along famed Route 66 celebrate its history

Cities like Gallup along famed Route 66 celebrate its history

By Reed Black and Tom Maxedon

 

Route 66, also known as “The Mother Road,” has hosted travelers across the American West over the last 100 years for a variety of pursuits. Some, purely for exploration and adventure. Others to make a living, or even to entertain audiences.

The latter was the case for a famous filmmaker.  

“W.D. Griffith, he was a movie producer and director, came here to Gallup, New Mexico to make a western movie,” said Leroy McCray, the official El Rancho Hotel historian, speaking during a recent tour of the iconic landmark, which was constructed in the 1930s following Griffith’s first film.

“He left, came back a second time. After he made his second movie here, he realized that this was a great place to make Western movies. Everything just had that natural western movie backdrop to it. So, him and his brother decided to build the El Rancho Hotel so they could house the movie stars while they were filming around the area here.”  

McCray recounted how average travelers on Route 66 coming to Gallup interacted with celebrities staying at the hotel.

“When the El Rancho Hotel was first built, it was sitting by itself right here. Nothing close by. The downtown was about a mile down the road down here. And anybody driving Route 66 can come off of it and mingle with the movie stars. But they had to park in the downtown area and walk up here. Only the movie stars were allowed to park in the back, so there was no parking for guests.”

Some of those movie stars included John Wayne and Errol Flynn.

“He was on a horse. They were shooting scene[s] around the area and way across on the other side they would have corrals that they would put up the horses. And instead of putting up his horse Errol Flynn rode his horse back over here, came through the front door down the hall and into the bar and ordered a whiskey for himself and beer for his horse,” said McCray.

Aside from stories about the El Rancho, Gallup’s downtown is filled with historic buildings, many of which have played host to shops, bars, and art galleries. In an effort to preserve the history of Route 66, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been giving out grants for a variety of projects.

ART 123 in Gallup is one of the Trust’s award recipients. Gallery executive director Rose Eason said the money is being used to extend its hours of operation for its current exhibition, “66 Artists on Route 66.” She spoke about one of the featured artists.

“Gretchen Adams is a weaver. She's doing abstractions of kind of the geometry and the geography of Route 66 through our community. So artists, yeah, they're very inspired,” she said.

Eason also talked about the souvenir shop that's part of the exhibit, where many of the artists’ works can be purchased.

“The work being shown is incredibly creative, be it a keychain or a tote bag or a painting or a print, and we're really excited about how kind of festive ‘66 Artists on 66’ is as a result of everyone's creativity,” she said.

The Trust also inspired people like Beth Buenger and her husband to travel Route 66. 

“We started in California at Santa Monica, and we're going all the way to Chicago. 2,448 miles,” she said.

Buenger is co-owner of a historic tire shop and automotive business in Granite City, Illinois and is part of a caravan of Route 66 enthusiasts. She and her husband recently stopped in Gallup to witness a 72-ounce steak-eating contest conducted by the Big Texan, a restaurant based in Amarillo, Texas.

Actor, director and producer Ryan Begay, who stars in AMC’s “Dark Winds,” was one of the featured contestants. 

He was asked by one of the restaurant’s representatives during their YouTube live stream of the event what it meant to be participating in Gallup as one of the contest stops during the 100th anniversary of Route 66.

“It’s such a great community. It’s wonderful to see everybody always come out for these events, even for myself. I’ve kind of been away for very long, so it nice really to come back and see everybody come out,” said Begay.

Vendors also were invited to set up shop in the Courthouse Square. One of those vendors, Martin O’Malley from the 9th Street Gallup Flea Market, talked about his artisan shirts.

“There's different symbols here that are recognizable. This represents a lot of the native food that's sold out there and a t-shirt made out of the Bluebird Flour sack, Navajo tea, tamales. That could be stew or blue corn mush. These are multi-colored corn earrings,” O’Malley described.   

All summer and through the fall, celebrations will continue for the centennial of Route 66. 

NOTE: Reed Black is an intern with the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms like KGLP’s across New Mexico.

Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org.