Lester Dill owned the Meramec Caverns, a natural cave system in Missouri that he’d turned into a tourist attraction in the 1930s. He had a problem: not enough people knew the caverns existed. His solution was one of the great marketing campaigns in American roadside history.
Dill hired men to drive Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles and paint advertisements on barns. They offered farmers a small fee — sometimes just a promise of free paint for their barn in exchange for the ad space. The ads read, simply: “Meramec Caverns, Stanton, Missouri.” Sometimes just: “See Meramec Caverns.”
By the 1950s, there were barn advertisements for the Meramec Caverns across six states. Travelers on Route 66 had seen the words Meramec Caverns so many times by the time they reached Missouri that stopping felt almost compulsory. Dill was doing what marketers now call frequency, brand recognition, and geographic targeting. At the time, he was just a man with a paintbrush and a good eye for a barn.
The Meramec Caverns are still there. The cave tours still run. A few of the barn advertisements have survived — faded but legible on the sides of farm buildings that have outlasted everything except the stone and the paint.
Dill also claimed, for decades, that Jesse James had used the caverns as a hideout, which there is no credible evidence for whatsoever. But he put up signs saying so all along the highway, and people believed it, and they came.
The road has always had room for a well-told story, true or not.
We are offering licences for ROUTE 66® Beer in specific territories. An invitation to others to become part of this story. To carry a piece of the road with them and to contribute to the story. We will share a percentage of royalties with Route 66 associations to keep the story alive.
The journey continues. This story is brought to you by ROUTE 66® BEER. Find us at ROUTE66BEER.COM
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