Route 66 Pulaski County Museum

Pulaski County sits roughly in the center of Missouri's Route 66 corridor, with the original 1926 highway alignment running roughly 30 miles east-to-west across the county from the Phelps County line in the east to the Laclede County line in the west. The corridor includes some of the most photogenic and historically substantive Route 66 stretches in Missouri — the Devil's Elbow river bend with its 1923 steel-truss bridge, the original Route 66 alignments through the Ozark hills around Hooker Cut, the Frog Rock formation outside Waynesville, and the surviving 1920s-1940s commercial structures along the old highway through Waynesville and St. Robert.

The county's Route 66 history is closely tied to the establishment of Fort Leonard Wood in 1940. The fort's construction brought tens of thousands of military personnel and civilian construction workers to the region, dramatically expanding demand for Route 66 lodging, dining, and services. Many of the surviving Route 66 commercial structures in Waynesville and St. Robert date from this 1940-1945 wartime construction boom or the immediate postwar period when returning veterans and civilian Route 66 travelers sustained the corridor through the 1950s and early 1960s.

Interstate 44 began bypassing Pulaski County's Route 66 in the 1950s and 1960s, with various sections of the new freeway opening incrementally. By the 1970s most through-traffic had shifted to I-44, and the original Route 66 commercial corridor through Waynesville and St. Robert began the slow decline that affected most of the Mother Road across the country. Several Pulaski County motor courts, filling stations, and diners survived the transition by serving Fort Leonard Wood traffic; others closed and were demolished or repurposed. The museum's photograph archive documents both the corridor's peak years and the subsequent decline in unusual detail.

The museum's exhibits are organized roughly chronologically. The opening section covers the pre-Route 66 era — the Springfield-to-St. Louis stagecoach road, early 20th-century automobile travel before the Mother Road was formally commissioned, and the 1926 establishment of US Highway 66. Vintage photographs of the original Route 66 construction work through Pulaski County (much of it completed in the late 1920s) are some of the museum's most-photographed exhibits.

The middle section covers the highway's peak years — the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Photographs of the original Devil's Elbow community, the various motor courts and filling stations that operated along the corridor through Waynesville and St. Robert, the wartime Fort Leonard Wood construction era, and the postwar civilian Route 66 travel boom dominate this section. Several original Route 66 highway signs and markers — recovered from various locations across Pulaski County — are on permanent display.

The final section covers the highway's decline and preservation eras — the 1950s and 1960s I-44 construction that progressively bypassed Route 66, the 1970s and 1980s decommissioning period, and the contemporary Route 66 preservation movement that has rescued and restored various Pulaski County sites including the Devil's Elbow bridge, Frog Rock, the Old Stagecoach Stop, and various motor courts. Rotating temporary exhibits cover specific topics like individual filling stations, particular motor courts, or specific Route 66 family histories.

The museum holds a substantial archive of materials related to Devil's Elbow, the small Route 66 community 5 miles west of Waynesville that contains one of the most photogenic surviving Route 66 bridge crossings in Missouri. The Devil's Elbow Bridge — a 1923 steel-truss bridge crossing the Big Piney River — predates Route 66 itself and was incorporated into the 1926 highway alignment. Photographs of the bridge across multiple decades, including its original 1923 construction, the Route 66 era, and various preservation efforts, are on display.

Beyond the bridge, the Devil's Elbow archive includes materials on the small Route 66 community that grew up around the river crossing — the Elbow Inn (still operating today as a BBQ joint and Route 66 stop, technically Sandy's BBQ in some signage), the McCoy's Store, various motor courts, and the small handful of houses that comprised the community at its 1940s peak. Devil's Elbow's history is one of the more colorful stretches of Missouri Route 66 — the community had a reputation for boisterous nightlife during the Fort Leonard Wood construction era — and the museum's archive documents this history through photographs, oral history transcripts, and newspaper clippings.

For visitors planning to drive the Devil's Elbow alignment after the museum visit, the volunteer staff can provide turn-by-turn directions to the bridge, the Elbow Inn, and various other Route 66 sites in the immediate area. The 5-mile drive from Waynesville west to Devil's Elbow on the old highway alignment is one of the more scenic short Route 66 detours in Missouri and is strongly recommended for any visitor with an extra hour.

The Route 66 Pulaski County Museum doubles as the practical visitor information center for Pulaski County. The Pulaski County Tourism Bureau operates a small information desk inside the museum and provides free printed materials including the Pulaski County Route 66 driving guide, the official county tourism map, lodging and restaurant brochures, and seasonal event calendars. The bureau also maintains an extensive website at pulaskicountyusa.com with additional itinerary suggestions, lodging listings, and current events.

Volunteer staff at the museum and tourism bureau are generally able to answer questions about specific Route 66 sites across the county, recommend itineraries based on visitor interests and available time, suggest restaurant and lodging options for various budgets, and provide driving directions to less-obvious or harder-to-find Route 66 stops. Travelers planning multi-day visits to the area generally find the bureau's recommendations more useful than generic online itineraries because the volunteers have firsthand knowledge of seasonal access issues, current restaurant hours, and recent changes to specific sites.

For Fort Leonard Wood-affiliated visitors (military personnel attending training, military families visiting service members, retirees returning to a former duty station), the bureau also maintains specialized information on military-friendly lodging discounts, on-post and off-post dining options, and family-friendly attractions for short weekend visits. The bureau's combined Route 66 tourism and military hospitality focus is unusual among Missouri visitor information centers and reflects the dual identity of Pulaski County as both a Route 66 corridor and a substantial military-installation community.

The Route 66 Pulaski County Museum is the natural first stop on any Waynesville Route 66 visit. The standard sequence: arrive at the museum at 10am or 11am, spend 45-60 minutes browsing exhibits and chatting with volunteer staff, collect printed materials and route guidance for the rest of your visit, then walk three blocks south to the courthouse square to visit the Old Stagecoach Stop (Saturdays 1pm-4pm) and the surrounding historic square. After lunch at Hoppers Pub on Historic Route 66, drive five minutes east to Frog Rock for photographs, then end the afternoon with a walk to Roubidoux Spring at the edge of downtown.

For visitors with limited time who can only make one Waynesville stop, the museum is the right choice — the combination of exhibits, volunteer staff knowledge, and printed materials provides a substantive Route 66 experience even on a 30-minute visit. For visitors with more time, combining the museum with the Old Stagecoach Stop, Frog Rock, and Roubidoux Spring fills a satisfying half-day; adding the Devil's Elbow drive (5 miles west) extends to a full day.

For Route 66 corridor travelers, the museum is the natural Pulaski County information stop between Rolla (30 miles east, with the Mule Trading Post and several other Phelps County Route 66 sites) and Lebanon (25 miles west, with the Munger Moss Motel and the Route 66 Museum at the Lebanon-Laclede County Library). The Pulaski County corridor sits at the geographic center of Missouri Route 66 and the museum is the corridor's most concentrated information source.