A museum-cum-showroom on Route 66
Remote museum celebrates an important chapter of the American dream
Route 66. What is it about a narrow, cracked, 2000-odd miles of worn-out tarmac that captures the imagination? A road that comes to dead ends every so often because of collapsed bridges. A road that so many redblooded Americans dream of travelling when they retire. Possibly because this road tells the story of America. Built as a means of moving armed forces right across the country, like America itself it prospered. Whole towns grew alongside it; most died when the new highways bypassed them.
Santa Rosa is one of those towns. Halfway between Albuquerque and Tucumcari, Santa Rosa is a sprawling little place, almost a ghost town, with derelict buildings and freshly restored restaurants scattered along the roadside. Then, out of the blue, is a 16ft-tall pole with a yellow 1931 Ford stuck on top!
This is the Route 66 Auto Museum, where there are over 30 lovingly restored classic cars, along with motorcycles and masses of automobilia. It is owned by James ‘Bozo’ Cordova and his wife Anna. Bozo began by building model cars before moving on to the real thing. He opened his garage, near the museum, in 1980 and began restoring cars. He opened the museum in 2000 and he and his crew have restored more than 150 cars. Those that weren’t brought back to life for customers make up the exhibits in the museum and are for sale.
There are plenty of nice cars in the car park alone and there are generally interesting cars parked all around the town centre, most probably visitors to Bozo’s place.
The $5 admission charge admits you to a typical American-style collection, with the usual gleaming black-and-white chequered tile floor and brilliant lighting to show off the enamel signs, pedal cars, fuel pumps and merchandise. If fins ’n’ chrome is your thing, you’ll be in paradise with this wildly varied collection. The main hall has that charismatic odour of oil, vinyl and rubber, too. What more could you want?
If Bozo or any of his family are present, they love talking to visitors. Why not buy them a cup of coffee and sit awhile in the tradition of the American West?
West of Santa Rosa (115 easy miles) is the terrific old town of Albuquerque, with Route 66 running right through it. The Old Town is like a film set. It has a 1793 adobe church with five-feet-thick walls, and the American International Rattlesnake Museum. There are old cars everywhere and a great Route 66 Diner on the main street.
One of those who care for the Mother Road is Johnny Meier, who has a little roadside museum between Taos and Santa Fe. He and his group have worked hard to restore derelict neon signs on the Route. Something else to look out for are the huge murals on many roadside buildings.
New Mexico is truly, as it proclaims proudly on the state’s vehicle licence plates, ‘The Land of Enchantment’.