Route 66 Lost & Found: Ruins and Relics Revisited

by Russell Olsen

Route 66: Lost and Found conveys the spirit and the times, not quite like any other book. Arizona Daily SunFor several decades, Route 66 was the nation's main east-west thoroughfare, pointing Middle America toward all the promise California seemed to hold at various times, whether permanent refuge from the Dust Bowl or a temporary escape from the drudgery of everyday suburban life in prosperous postwar America. As such, America's Main Street once teemed with activity . . . bustling centers of commerce that evaporated into the vast American landscape like the jet contrails overhead and the heat rising from the Interstate asphalt. This engaging look at the "Mother Road" takes 75 locations along its 2,297 mile route from Chicago to Santa Monica and shows them first during their halcyon heydays through black-and-white photographs and period postcards, then on the facing page as they appear today, from the exact same angle and also through vivid black-and-white photographs.

Genres: History, Travel, Photography, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[Spooky · Rating 5 out of 5]

My girlfriend got me this book for my birthday, and I love it. I'm addicted to the old roads, and the crossing of America. Much of our society grew up around famous roads, and each one took on a life of it's own. Route 66 is the daddy of all of them, and is still littered with the skeletons of it's former life. It's shear desolation nowadays only lends more attraction and mystery to it.

[Ike · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Mother Road" or so Route 66 is called holds an honored place within the traveling history of America. I'm sure that today many want to "get of the interstates" and travel along that famous road due to the song '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66." Or, maybe it's due to the '60's 'Route 66' TV series. At any rate Russell Olsen's 'Route 66 Lost & Found: Ruins and Relics Revisited' gives the reader a bit of the route's history as it winds through the cities and towns along its 2,448 miles from Chicago, IL to Los Angels, CA. It is really a story of 'Boom to Bust' of middle class working family's dreams of earning a living servicing the many travelers on their way to somewhere. Boom because as the road grew in popularity it brought prosperity and growth. Bust because as the interstate system bypassed those towns the travelers along Route 66 went the way of the interstate and unless your particular town had an exit on and off the interstate travelers just kept on going past your cafe, motel or gas station. This volume provides a photographic journey of that 'Boom to Bust' life cycle--at it's heyday and at its low point (in some cases just a vacant lot). At any rate I enjoyed this look at the historic Route 66 (maybe cause I live just a few miles from Springfield, MO considered by many to the birthplace of Route 66)

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

You won’t put this book down until you have it front to back and then back again.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before and after photos of about 200 present or past landmarks along old Route 66. The most interesting aspect of this book is the nearly fanatical dedication of Route 66 enthusiasts. The amount of research for a book like this must be enormous, and all that for a heaping dose of nostalgia.

If there's reason for nostalgia in this case it stems from the creativity and uniqueness of many of the commercial establishments built along the route in the 30s through 50s. They are in strong contrast to the homogenized, efficient, and sterile motels built since then. I suppose that you take the good with the bad: giving up individuality for predictability.

Most of the old motels and gas stations are long gone or rundown and abandoned. And the towns that they inhabited have mostly taken on the extended strip mall look of towns across America.

Hmmm. Now I am starting to sound nostalgic, too. Never fear, no matter how awful you think things are now, there will almost certainly come a day when you look back and think of this as a happy age to be longed for.

[Michael Perseo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am a car nut and if i aint workin on them or driving them then i am reading about them anything that has to do with old and classic cars and trucks or anything automotive related i am intersted in very much.i even got the route 66 road sign tattooed on my right arm as part of my sleeve because i am so fasicinated and intersted about route 66.i seen this book and bought it and when i got home and started reading it i couldnt put it down,i hope to someday get to travel old rt 66 and see these places for myself and actually stand where theses places are and once stood!i think that Russell A. Olsen did a wonderful job gathering all of the pictures from people and the maps and the pictures he took of the places it its hay day and how they are now.i cant wait and hope he comes out with more books on route 66 and his travels. i would reccommend this book to everybody!!