Bob's Gasoline Alley

Bob Mullen grew up in the Cuba area and has spent his entire life in Crawford County. His original interest in gas-station memorabilia came through his work in mechanical and industrial trades — Bob was the kind of working-class small-town craftsman who understood and appreciated the engineering and design of vintage fuel pumps and station equipment, and his collecting started with pieces he encountered through his work that would otherwise have been scrapped.

The Route 66 connection developed naturally. Cuba is on the historic Route 66 alignment and the surrounding Crawford County countryside was dotted with abandoned and decommissioned gas stations from the 1950s and 1960s — stations that had served Route 66 travelers during the highway's commercial peak and then been left to deteriorate after I-44 was completed and bypassed the local economy. Bob spent decades salvaging signage, pumps, and equipment from these properties, much of which would otherwise have been lost to scrap-metal collection or weather damage.

By the 1990s the collection had grown beyond hobby scale. Bob built the first substantial display building on his property to house the larger neon signs, and across the 2000s and 2010s he added additional buildings to accommodate the growing collection. The current property includes several thousand individual items across the various buildings — most genuinely museum-quality with documented provenance, original paint and signage, and operational condition for the mechanical equipment.

The neon signage collection is the most visually striking section of Bob's Gasoline Alley. Large operational neon signs from Texaco, Mobil, Sinclair, Phillips 66, Standard Oil, and several smaller regional gas chains are displayed across multiple walls and ceiling-mounted positions. Many of the signs are in working condition and Bob can light them on request during tours; the visual impact of a building full of operational mid-century neon is genuinely impressive and is the photographic highlight of most tour visits.

The fuel pump collection covers the full range of American gas-pump design from the 1920s through the 1970s. Early hand-pumped fuel dispensers from the 1920s and 1930s, the classic visible-cylinder pumps from the 1930s and 1940s (where customers could see the gasoline in a glass cylinder before it was pumped to the car), the streamlined modernist designs of the 1950s, and the standardized electronic-display pumps of the 1960s and 1970s are all represented. Most pumps are restored to operational appearance with original signage, dials, and paint.

Beyond the gas-station core, the collection includes substantial Route 66 highway-marker signage, original roadside-attraction signs from defunct Route 66 businesses, soft-drink signage (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and various regional brands), automotive parts and equipment, and a wide range of rural-Americana that gives the collection its broader character as a museum of mid-century American commercial culture rather than just gas-station memorabilia.

Bob's Gasoline Alley is not a formal museum and does not maintain posted hours. Tours are typically given by appointment — interested visitors should call ahead (the phone number is available through the Cuba Visitor Center and through Route 66 enthusiast networks) to arrange a visit. Bob is generally accommodating to Route 66 travelers and has historically given free tours during the warmer months (April through October) and on a more limited basis during winter.

Tours typically run 60 to 90 minutes depending on visitor interest and the depth of questions. Bob's storytelling is a substantial part of the experience — he can speak knowledgeably about essentially every item in the collection and provides historical context that turns the visit into a Route 66 education rather than just a photo opportunity. Visitors with strong interest in gas-station history or American commercial culture can extend tours to 2 hours or longer.

There is no formal admission fee. Bob accepts donations, and a typical donation of $10-$20 per adult is appropriate to compensate Bob for his time and to support ongoing collection maintenance (the buildings require substantial upkeep and many items need periodic restoration work). The donation is genuinely optional but is universally appreciated and most serious Route 66 travelers leave a substantial donation as recognition of the experience.

Bob's Gasoline Alley occupies an important position in Route 66 preservation history. The original 1920s-1970s Route 66 commercial landscape — the gas stations, the signage, the roadside businesses — has largely been lost to time. Stations were demolished, signs were scrapped, and the visual commercial character of the original highway has been substantially eroded across decades. Private collectors like Bob have preserved a substantial portion of what survived, and Bob's collection is one of the largest and best-documented in the central United States.

The collection also represents a genuine personal commitment that goes well beyond commercial preservation. Bob has spent four decades and substantial personal resources building the collection, has resisted offers to sell pieces or relocate the collection to formal museum settings, and has consistently prioritized keeping the collection in its original Cuba-area context rather than dispersing it to higher-bidding institutions. The collection's location on private rural property a few miles from downtown Cuba is itself part of the experience — Route 66 history preserved in the kind of rural Crawford County setting where the original highway actually ran.

For Route 66 enthusiasts, Bob's is one of the genuine bucket-list stops on the Missouri stretch. The combination of the collection's depth, Bob's expertise as a tour guide, the difficulty of access (which keeps the experience small and personal), and the historical importance of what's been preserved makes the property essential for any serious Mother Road road trip. The standard recommendation among Route 66 enthusiast forums is to call ahead, plan a longer visit than you expect to need, and leave a substantial donation.

Bob's is the natural afternoon stop after a morning of the Cuba Outdoor Murals walking tour and a stop at the Fanning 66 Outpost. The full Cuba day-plan: morning at the murals (60-90 minutes), drive 4 miles west to Fanning for the rocking chair (30-45 minutes), return to Cuba for lunch at Missouri Hick BBQ or Shelly's Route 66 Cafe (60-90 minutes), then a 60-90 minute appointment at Bob's Gasoline Alley before either continuing west toward Rolla or staying overnight at the Wagon Wheel Motel.

For visitors with deeper interest in Route 66 history, Bob's pairs naturally with other regional preservation stops — the Crawford County Historical Museum in Cuba (which provides broader local context), the Meramec Caverns at Sullivan (20 minutes east, with its own Route 66 advertising history through the barn-roof sign program), and the Route 66 State Park at Eureka (40 minutes east toward St. Louis) which preserves a different aspect of the highway's history.

Visitors continuing west from Cuba should note that the next substantial Route 66 stops are in Rolla (30 miles west, 30 minutes) — Stonehenge replica and Totem Pole Trading Post — and then Lebanon (further west, with the Munger Moss Motel and the Route 66 Museum). Springfield is approximately 130 miles west and is typically a 2-hour drive that serves as the natural overnight destination for road-trippers continuing the Mother Road journey toward Joplin and beyond into Kansas and Oklahoma.