America's Biggest Road Trip 10 June 2003

	America's Biggest Road Trip!
	Route 66 Caravan Road Log: June 10, 2003


	Devil's Elbow

		Roadside Attraction
		Devil's Elbow, Missouri is one of the prettiest places on Route 66 in Jim's and my opinion. When it came to choosing sites for the Save-A-Landmark Roadside Attraction signs both of us agreed that this was place that certainly deserved one. There's a lot of history in this area of Route 66 in the Ozarks. The community got its start back in 1870 and was named for a particularly bad bend in the Big Piney River. Lumberjacks would float logs down the river and they would seem to always jam at this place. There was a large boulder in the river at this point that some lumberjacks swore was put there by the devil himself just to cause them grief.
				An early alignment of Route 66 takes you down a particularly steep and twisty road to the community of Devil's Elbow then across the Big Piney River. The view from the top of the hill is stupendous!

		An old railroad trestle crosses the Big Piney River near Devil's Elbow. I imagine the fall colors here would delight the most hard-hearted photographer.

				Andy Thiem - Director of Tourism, Tommy Pike - President of the Missouri Route 66 Association, Jim, Dennis Thornsbury, Tony Christmon, Diane Linnenbringer and Bill Debo help dedicate the new sign.

		The new Route 66 Attraction sign at the top of the hill going into Devil's Elbow. Notice the old stone wall; it was built by Otto Roluss back in 1928 - what a classic!

		Harold "Jug" Thompson, who owns the land, gave the Route 66 Caravan permission to use this beautiful scenic turnout/overlook for the Roadside Attraction sign location. Harold, a true supporter of Route 66 in Devil’s Elbow, is also a Route 66 business owner to boot. He owns the great Elbow Inn just down the road! Thanks Harold for all you do to keep the Mother Road alive in Devil’s Elbow.

		An Ozark Gem
		The community of Devil's Elbow is a like a page out of history. Here the decades slip away to another, simpler time, far from the noise and bustle of the Interstate. During the 1930s and 1940s Devil's Elbow was a resort community with cabins, canoes, and the famous Munger Moss Sandwich Shop of course.

		The old Miller's Market and Post Office was built in 1954. Today Philip Sheldon owns it.		Charles McCoy built McCoy’s Store and Camp in 1941 to serve as Devil's Elbow's store. Rooms in the upstairs were rented out to travelers on old Route 66.

				This beautiful old steel truss bridge crosses the Big Piney River at Devil's Elbow and dates back to the early days of Route 66.

		The historic Elbow Inn dates back to the 1930s when it was the Munger Moss Sandwich Shop. Built by Nelle & Emmett Moss, they moved to Lebanon in 1946 to start the Munger-Moss Motel when old Route 66 was realigned through Hooker Cut.

				Hooker Cut as it appears in 2003. This was once the deepest rock cut in America. When Route 66 was realigned in the 1940s through here it bypassed Devil's Elbow.

		Old "linen" postcard from the 1940s showing the newest marvel on Route 66 through the beautiful Ozarks.

		*Previous Log*	Road Log pages read like a book: Follow the Route 66 Caravan down the Mother Road ~ select the Route 66 direction you would like to go.		Cuba to Pacific




	66 Caravan Web Site Written, Photographed & Designed by Guy Randall

© 2003 Design and Updates by GRandall Web Design