August 4th, 2021 … Summer of Fun continues! Day 8 Route 66 Caravan – Cuba, MO

Today we caravanned to Cuba, MO. It was mostly highway travel, so not much to see. We did see Six Flags of the Ozarks and it made us think of our friends, Mary & Frank, who are working at the Six Flags in Corfu New York for the summer!

There was a bad accident with two semi-trucks on the highway, a few miles before our exit. Patti and I looked for alternate routes. We found two … we selected one, but I have to admit, we selected the wrong one … We started on a frontage road and then we saw a sign that says pavement ends … ugh! We had 7 rigs with us, so we slowed down and took our time. It was a basically one lane gravel road with lots of homes! We ran into a road grader, who pulled over for us. Near the end of the road, there was a pick-up truck pulling a trailer, he backed up for us and we all got back on the paved road! It was a 2 mile one of a kind adventure!

After we arrived at Meramac Valley Campground & RV Park, our first job was to try and get level. That was a task, we never accomplished. Then we rallied the masses and carpooled into the town of Cuba Missouri, population 3,356. Our first stop was the oldest continuously operated motel on Route 66. Now over 85 years old, the architecture and charm of this stone tourist court still beckons travelers to stop and rest while on "the Route." The Ozark stone buildings with the original wood doors, windows, and floors from the 1930's have been updated for modern comfort.

It's the historic The Wagon Wheel Cabins, Cafe and Service Station! It was built in the chaotic times of 1935 when the nation was barely out of the depression and the dust bowl had destroyed millions of acres. The Martins where the first owners of the Wagon Wheel Cabins, purchasing the land in 1934. They hired Leo Friesenhan to do the building. Records show they worked on all the buildings at the same time and the local farmers carried the stone to him. Leo's combination of stone, design, and nearly indestructible mortar recipe has endured for over 75 years, giving the Wagon Wheel its spot on the National Registry of Historic Places.

After World War II in 1946 the property was split: the cabins sold to a partnership and the cafe and station to another couple, with the station being leased to The Standard Oil Co. This only lasted one year when John & Winifred Mathis purchased the cabins and William & the notorious "Sadie Mae Pratt" took over the cafe. In 1941 Robert had 14 cabins, 12 car shelters, and 2 locked garages. Due to the increasing length of autos, tourism trade, and military traffic the garages in the buildings were converted into units. Most important, John designed the famous Wagon Wheel Neon Sign at his kitchen table changing the name to Wagon Wheel Motel instead of cabins. He added the block building containing 4 units, the laundry and storage and also built a good reputation along Rte 66.

In 1963 Pauline and Hallie Roberts purchased the motel and immediately opened "Ye Old Coffee Shoppe" which closed in 1980 when Hallie died. Pauline later married Harold Armstrong and continued to run the motel for a total of 40 years when she passed away in 2003. Harold followed in 2008. Connie Echols purchased the motel from Harolds' son in Sept 2009. Updates and restoration have been non-stop on some of the most unique buildings left on Rte 66 today. The Cafe houses Connie's Shoppe and also serves as the motel office where the same check-in cards and desk are still used today. This unique Neon was added in 2013 with the wheel structure designed and built by Charlie Yowell in 1980. What a piece of history.

We drive thru town and caught glimpses of the murals, but we will be back to see them, we are onto BIGGER things! Fanning is a very small village on Route 66. It is an great example of "Americana" in its Route 66 Kitschy attraction sort of way. The Fanning Outpost is home to The World's (second) Largest Rocking Chair at its Outpost and General Store.

The 2nd largest? Well, until 2015, it was the largest! But in Casey Illinois, they had to build a bigger one, a towering 56.5 feet tall. The Fanning Rocker is over 42 feet tall. It held the World's Largest Rocking Chair record 2008-2015. Despite its demotion to number two, it's still really big. Unique fact, they had to detach the welds at the bottom to prove to Guinness Book of World Records that it did indeed rock.

After out photo ops, we headed back into Cuba for our mural fix. There are 12 outdoor murals depicting scenes from local and national history, including visits from Harry S. Truman, Amelia Earhart and Bette Davis. Every mural has a story ... Are you ready for the Readers Digest versions of each?

AJ Barnett, the first cashier of Peoples Bank, was appropriately picked as a subject for the first mural, which was meant to commemorate the 100th anniversary of People’s Bank in 2001. This mural would be the first in Viva Cuba’s mural project, which would set a goal of 12 murals by 2007, Cuba’s 150th anniversary.

Barnett, the first cashier and president of Peoples Bank for 39 years was also mayor of Cuba for 10 years. The mural shows him cranking the first Model T Ford in Cuba. Although Barnett was a frugal man, he would often take money out of his pocket to loan to people. An indication of his frugality was the navy blue suit that he wore every day until the material was shiny. AJ Barnett owned not only the first Model T in Cuba, but also a Model T distributorship in Cuba. The artist for this mural was Michelle Loughery.

The Gold Star Mural just off Route 66 in Cuba was painted just after 9/11 although it had been planned for months. With its tribute to the young men from the Cuba area who had lost their lives during WWII, it seemed an apt expression of the feeling of patriotism that swept the country at the time. The train in the mural is The Blue Bonnet. During W.W. II the Blue Bonnet, a Frisco train named after the Texas state flower, was a familiar sight with its distinctive blue and white cars. It was this #7 train that whisked away Cuba’s service men as they left their homes to protect America’s way of life and values. These young men sometimes gave their lives to keep the light of freedom burning.

You might wonder why these men who died in the service of their country were called “Gold Star Boys.” With Public Law 534, the 89th Congress directed the design and distribution of a lapel button–known as the Gold Star Lapel button–to identify widows, parents, and next of kin of members of the Armed Forces of the United who lost their lives during hostilities. The pin is depicted on the north end of the mural.

The fourth mural in Cuba involves a scene from 1940. When Sen. Harry S. Truman, a native Missourian, campaigned for reelection in a close 1940 primary in Cuba, two local Democratic workers Frank Askins Sr. and Harvey Taff, were his only listeners on the steps of the adjacent Wallace House. This was on July 26, 1940. On that day he was traveling to Cape Girardeau and Cuba. As people kept hurrying past him and not listening, he learned they were going to the Homecoming Fair. Picking up the Coca-Cola box on which he stood, Truman followed them to the fair. Local legend has it that he had to collect gas money after his speech so that he could drive on to the next speech. The Crawford County Fair, under various names, is a century old tradition, as is 4-H.

Truman went on to win the primary and the election for senator in 1940. He became Vice President in 1944. After President Franklin Roosevelt died while in office, on April 12, 1945 Truman became President of the U.S. He was President as the country finished W.W. II. See his faded old campaign sign?

The fifth mural chronicles a September 4, 1928 story in the Muskogee Times-Democrat. Amelia Earhart was reported to have left Scott Field in Belleville, Illinois in her 1927 Avro Avian plane with a destination of Kansas City or Muskogee in route to Los Angeles. She was later forced down outside of Cuba in an unscheduled stop. No great damage was reported, and she continued her journey. Thus, the destiny of the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and the small town of Cuba, Missouri crossed. After a long career in aviation, in 1928, Earhart reached the national spotlight when she became the first woman passenger, representing the United States, to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane. She continued to set aviation records, including becoming the first woman, and the second person after Charles Lindbergh, to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. In 1937, Amelia Earhart and her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in her attempt to travel around the world by airplane. Amelia Earhart was an aviation pioneer, writer, speaker, and a role model for women. She founded the “Ninety-Nines,” a women’s pilot organization in 1929.

When Jeff Bouse, owner of Hayes Shoe Store on Route 66 in Cuba, Missouri decided to expand his line to Clark’s shoes in 2003, he probably saw this as an innovation for his customers. Little did he know, that an even bigger innovation involving both the past and the future of his business would soon take place. Viva Cuba approached Bouse with an expansive program to place an outdoor mural on the building, which fronts historic Route 66. The mural was to be of a business enterprise from the past called Prosperity Corner, which originally occupied the site of the shoe store in the early 1900s. It was a site where people gathered to talk and do business. In the early 1900s, the building on this corner was known as Prosperity Corner. While we think of prosperity as a favorable attribute to be associated with a business, when we investigate the “rest of the story,” we find a darker side to the tale.

However, there’s the rest of the story behind the mural, which brought puzzlement to the existing prosperity of the corner in 1910 when its proprietor went missing on a business trip. One day in 1910, Tieman went to the bank and cashed a check for $10. He left Cuba to deliver canned goods to the Joplin area. However, he never returned and after advertising for his whereabouts and various investigations, foul play was suspected, and he was assumed dead by friends and family.

Then Mr. Tieman’s wife received an unexpected copy of the Shreveport Times in the mail. She recognized the address as the handwriting of her missing husband. Found in Shreveport, he said that he had intended to be thought dead because of his business worries. He said health problems and business worries caused him to leave Cuba, and he would not return. Therefore, the Cuba banker Smith had papers drawn up and notarized that would close up Tieman’s business. Smith stated that Tieman was worth about $12,000 with his mercantile business and a canning factory.

As Viva Cuba’s eighth mural took life on the old Roberts-Judson Sheetmetal & Millworks Dept. building, a labor of love began for visiting artist Julie Nixon Krovicka, a talented artist who graduated from Cuba High School. Local artists Shelly Smith Steiger and Julie Balogh Brand, who also partnered in painting the Amelia Earhart mural, recreated the original signage on the 1900s building. Then they painted an interior scene of the building as it looked when long time employee Francis Nixon practiced his craftsmanship and woodworking on the various tasks that came his way for 54 years. Appropriately, Nixon is pictured in this interior scene, with his trademark red bandana. The Roberts-Judson Sheetmetal and Millworks building is an often-overlooked building. It was built in 1948 on land that was purchased from the Methodist Church. It was a department of the Roberts-Judson Lumber Company and housed the yard’s division that crafted custom doors, windows, and moldings. In the mural, the front of the building is recreated to its original look and pictures an interior scene depicting hands-on craftsmanship of the workers who worked there. The recreated signage across the top of the building refers to Roberts-Judson Lumber Company. This building, tucked into a side street, provided quality products and employment to a roster of Cuba workers.

The tenth mural actually became a series of murals that told the story of the battle between the troops of Confederate General Sterling Price and Union General Thomas Ewing in September 1864. When Price’s troops came into Missouri from Arkansas, his original goal was to capture St. Louis or Jefferson City. However, he was distracted by the armory and ammunition at Fort Davidson in Pilot Knob, Missouri.

The resulting battle of Pilot Knob and Ewing’s retreat from the fort are illustrated in two panels. With elections coming up, the Confederates also wanted to destroy Union property, gain Confederate soldiers, and capture a major city. It was hoped that this would weaken the Union candidates in the elections. With these goals in mind, General Sterling Price was sent with 12,000 troops, known as the Army of Missouri, to accomplish these goals. Instead of going directly to St. Louis, which was weakly defended, Price detoured to Pilot Knob, tempted by the arms and equipment, both of which he needed for his ill-equipped troops. He wouldn’t have minded capturing General Thomas Ewing, Jr., General Sherman’s brother-in-law. He had been sent to help defend Fort Davidson’s arms from falling into enemy hands. Price’s troops foraged for food and fought local militia all over the Arcadia Valley, which consists of Pilot Knob, Ironton, and Arcadia.

Another panel shows the Union troops fleeing across the Huzzah River while dodging rebel bullets on the way to Leasburg. Price realized that Ewing had escaped and destroyed the fort. The chase was on that was to last 66 miles in 39 hours. Ewing hoped to reach a railroad where he could escape with his troops to St. Louis or Rolla. However, he was constantly forced to fight off rebel advances on his rear positions. One such battle occurred at the Huzzah River. A union soldier wrote of wading the river and being able to open is mouth for a drink while hearing the bullets hit the water like rain.

A panel also represents the destruction of the depot and tracks in Cuba, thus preventing Ewing’s escape by train from Leasburg. When Ewing reached Leasburg, then called Harrison Station, he loaded his troops aboard a supply train. However, he was to find out that Confederate troops had destroyed tracks at Cuba, burned the depot, and looted stores. A similar story had was told at Bourbon, so Ewing and his men had to disembark from the train at Leasburg and prepare to defend themselves from the approaching Confederate troops. Barns were burned to provide light so that the Confederates couldn’t attack across the fields at night.

The last panel depicts the dramatic rescue of Ewing’s troops at Leasburg. The next day, the dust from the approaching Confederate horses was seen, and the troops prepared for battle. However, when the riders came closer, they realized that they were Union troops from Rolla, who had come to rescue them. There was much celebrating of civilians and soldiers alike. A flag that was made by a Mrs. Lea was waved and the group danced and sang, “Rally Round the Flag Boys.” The soldiers were escorted to St. James where they boarded the train to Rolla.

While the battles in Missouri depicted in these panels may seem small ones, they did help delay the action of Sherman in the South since troops had to be sent West to help with battle there. And Missouri battles did keep Price from accomplishing his mission and affecting the upcoming elections in favor of the rebel cause. The Civil War series was a joint project between Viva Cuba, and 15 year-old Chip Lange, a young Civil War buff and re-enactor, as part of his Eagle Scout project. Chip Lange was involved in fundraising, which was matched by Viva Cuba ; researching; and preparing for the mural. To honor Chip’s role in the mural, artist Don Gray painted his face in the Leasburg panel. He is wearing a hat with a red band.

Viva Cuba’s 11th mural painted by the artist Ray Harvey on the Cuba Free Press highlights Bette Davis, one of the first ladies of American movies. It portrays a local story involving elements of drama and a touch of humor. On November 2, 1948 the path of Bette Davis, her husband William Sherry, and local photographer Wilbur Vaughn were about to intersect at the Southern Hotel in a story that has become local legend. The event was originally recorded in the Cuba News and Review on November 4, 1948. The Southern Hotel, now an apartment building, still sits between Route 66 and the railroad tracks. It is just across the street from the Cuba Free Press building. In 1948, it was a thriving business that provided travelers a room and a good meal. It was for one of these meals that Bette Davis and her husband stopped their 1948 Packard station wagon. Movie star Bette Davis was eventually nominated for eight Academy Awards and won the award twice. The star, with her distinctive looks, was one of the most well-known faces in the world. Her appearance in Cuba on a rainy evening created quite a stir.

This three-paneled mural is painted on the garage bays of a cottage-style, 1932 Phillips 66 station. The building has been restored by the Bill Wallis family, with the assistance of a Route 66 preservation grant, and input from the Phillips 66 organization. The station is important to the family because it was the site of their first Mobil station and the first office of Wallis Oil Co. in 1968. The year 2018 marks their 40th anniversary. Paul T. Carr build the station in 1932 as a Phillips 66 station. For years, Mr. Carr also ran a Pontiac dealership there. The small station served the Cuba community and a multitude of Route 66 travelers for years. The first panel features a vintage Highway patrol car and trooper assisting a motorist. It honors the Missouri Highway Patrol’s 75th Anniversary, in 2006. Bill Wallis was a member of the Masters Association, which assists survivors of troopers who die in the line of duty. The center panel features Mr. Wallis and his beloved 1966 Stingray Corvette at the station as it looked during the 1970s. The third panel is a station scene based on an old photograph. It shows Mr. Wallis involved in a station promotion that attracted the children of Cuba. He was never happier than when he was in a group of kids.

In 2018, the McGinnis family celebrated 50 years in the barrel making business. They started in Cuba, Missouri with a small stave mill. Today, they sell barrels worldwide from logs purchased within a 100-mile radius of Cuba. Leroy McGinnis founded McGinnis Wood Products in Cuba, Missouri in 1968, selling white oak staves. Today, he has grown the company into a manufacturer of the finest crafted white oak bourbon barrels in the world. McGinnis Wood Products began building bourbon barrels in 1987 after purchasing barrel-making machinery from Sweeney Cooperage in Vancouver, British Columbia and now has four buildings ranging in size of 8,000 square feet to 22,000 square feet, 8 dry kilns and 150 employees. McGinnis Wood Products is known worldwide for its quality white oak bourbon barrels. The barrels are prized both domestically and internationally for the unique flavors they give the spirits and whiskies aged in them.

Here are a few we did not find any info on, but they are equally as beautiful as the ones with a history!