Built for War, Remembered in Neon: The Story of Four-Lane Route 66 in St. Robert
- Jax Welborn
- May 19
- 5 min read
Most people who drive through St. Robert today don't give much thought to the road beneath their tires. They're watching for the next exit, eyeing the gas gauge, maybe catching a glimpse of the neon glow from the median park. But that stretch of historic Route 66 carries a story worth slowing down for — one that begins not with road trippers chasing adventure, but with a nation mobilizing for war.
A Road Built for the Military
The four-lane divided Route 66 through St. Robert wasn't born out of tourism demand or postwar prosperity. It was born out of urgency. By 1940, heavy military traffic had pushed the existing two-lane road to its limits. Fort Leonard Wood had just been established — construction began in December 1940 — and thousands of troops, vehicles, and supplies needed to move efficiently through the Ozarks. Route 66 was the lifeline.
In 1942, the first dual four-lane pavement on Route 66 in all of Missouri opened, running from just east of the Phelps County line to State Highway 28 in Pulaski County. The upgrade straightened the road considerably, and for good reason — it needed to eliminate the torturous old route through Devils Elbow that had made military movement slow and difficult.
The engineering required to make it happen was extraordinary. Workers carved through solid Ozark rock to create what became known as Hooker Cut — at 93 feet deep, the deepest road cut in the entire country at the time. It was such a feat that it became a popular postcard subject, which says something about a different era, when people mailed home pictures of road construction and meant it as a genuine marvel.
The road itself was built in two distinct phases that are still visible today. The original 1926 alignment became the westbound lanes, while the new wartime addition — built further south in 1942 — became the eastbound lanes. That divided median between them? That's history you can see from your windshield.
The Man Behind the Roads
Here's where the story gets wonderfully local. Ask most people who George M. Reed was, and they might point to the roadside park bearing his name. But Reed was far more than a name on a sign.
George Marcellus Hamilton Reed was a true Ozarks original — teacher, surveyor, lawyer, postmaster, newspaper publisher, and Mason. Born in Ohio in 1855, he eventually put down roots in Waynesville and became one of Pulaski County's most respected figures. In 1919 he took charge of highways in Pulaski County under the County Court, and in 1921 was appointed Project Engineer for the Missouri State Highway Department — a role he served in with such distinction that in 1952, the roadside park on old Highway 66 in St. Robert was officially named in his honor.
Reed passed away in 1938, just before the wartime road construction began, so he didn't personally oversee the 1942 upgrade. But his decades of work laying the groundwork for Pulaski County's highway infrastructure helped make that wartime engineering achievement possible. The park named for him stands as a lasting tribute — and as it turns out, it became the home of something remarkable.
Where History Glows After Dark
George M. Reed Roadside Park holds the distinction of being the longest continuously operating roadside park along Missouri Route 66ongest continuously operating roadside park along Missouri Route 66. The original concrete picnic tables are still there, worn smooth by generations of travelers. An M-60 tank from the Desert Storm era stands sentinel, a nod to the military heritage that shaped this stretch of road.
And now, nestled within that historic park, the Route 66 Neon Park has brought a whole new kind of light to the Mother Road.
Funded in part by the City of St. Robert, the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission and a myriad of individuals the Neon Park is an open-air museum unlike anything else on the road. A growing collection of vintage neon signs that once flickered outside motels, diners, and garages from St. Louis to Carthage were rescued from fields, dragged out of dusty storage sheds, and painstakingly restored to their mid-century glory. Each one was then donated to the City of St. Robert and installed along lighted pathways where visitors can walk among them up close.
One sign carries a story that still stops people in their tracks. The Stanley Cour-Tel, a St. Louis motel built in 1950, earned a unique place in history by housing astronauts training for Project Mercury — America's first manned space program. Another, the arrow sign from the Main Gate Shopping Center, was a familiar landmark for Fort Leonard Wood service members and their families for decades before spending more than thirty years in a field. Both are now glowing again in the park, returned to the road that connected them to the world.
The park officially opened on May 9, 2025, and it didn't take long for the community to claim it as their own. Graduation photos, family outings, late-night road tripper stops — the park draws visitors every single evening, and the glow is visible long before you reach the parking lot.
The Commission also funded the Route 66 sculpture sign at the park, — one of eleven sign installations placed in every Missouri county Route 66 passes through — unveiled at a ribbon cutting in spring 2026 — a fresh piece of Centennial history standing alongside the rescued relics of the road's past. The signs light up nightly from dusk until midnight. In winter months, they also come on from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. — a gift to early risers and photographers chasing that blue-hour magic. Free admission. Leashed pets welcome. Bring a camera.
The Road Beneath Your Feet
Route 66 has always been more than asphalt. Every mile carries layers — of commerce and culture, of struggle and celebration, of ordinary people living extraordinary moments along America's most storied highway.
The four-lane road through St. Robert carries the weight of a world at war and the ingenuity of the engineers who answered the call. The park in its median carries the legacy of a man who spent his life building the roads that connected this community. And the neon signs glowing above those original concrete picnic tables carry the spirit of every roadside business that ever beckoned a weary traveler to stop, rest, and stay awhile.
That's the beauty of Route 66. The history isn't behind glass in a museum somewhere. It's right there under your wheels — and lit up after dark.
Jax Welborn is a Route 66 photographer, historian, and author based in Waynesville, Missouri, living and working on Historic Route 66. She serves on the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission and the Missouri Route 66 Association.
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