Route 66 produced more neon signage per mile than any other road in America. This was not an accident. Neon signs were expensive, brash, and highly visible from a moving car at night — the exact qualities needed to catch the attention of a driver passing at sixty miles per hour in the dark. The motels and diners and gas stations that invested in neon were saying something about themselves: we are still here, we are open, we want you to stop.
The craft of neon sign fabrication was a genuine trade, practiced by skilled artisans who could bend glass tubing to any shape and fill it with the exact mix of gases that produced a specific color. Red used neon. Blue used argon and mercury. Green was achieved by coating clear neon glass with a green tint or by mixing gases carefully.
When the interstates bypassed Route 66 towns and the businesses closed, many neon signs were simply left. Some fell apart. Some were stolen. Some survived through the specific combination of benign neglect and dry desert air that has preserved more fragile things in the American Southwest.
In recent decades, preservation efforts have saved dozens of Route 66 neon signs. Albuquerque has an active restoration program for the old Route 66 alignment through the city. Tucumcari and Winslow and Barstow have restored signs that were dark for decades.
A lit neon sign at night on Route 66 is one of the more specific visual pleasures available to a traveler in the American Southwest. It says: someone made this by hand, and someone cared enough to keep it going. In the context of the road, that’s not a small thing.
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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