Many people don’t realize historic Route 66 goes through Kansas. That’s likely because it only covers about 11 miles, from Galena to Baxter Springs. But with the goal of eventually driving the entire route, Sweetums and I recently drove the Kansas portion.
The route enters Kansas at Galena, a town of about 3,000 souls. It appears Kansas has been trying to play up its route portion to encourage tourism and we saw murals and a preserved gas station, the Kan-o-Tex Service Station. It was built I 1934. Because we were on a COVID-safe, social-distancing trip, we mainly only viewed spots from outside but in this case, most everything was closed anyway.
It was a cute little station with a tow truck decorated like Tow-mater from the “Cars” movie. Then we spotted a cute little roadside stand down the side road and stopped to take photos there. There were some “Wizard of Oz” paintings and an oversized figure of a miner because Galena was once a major producer of galena ore.
Galena was also home to the Galena Murder Bordello, which I’ll tell you about later in the week. Promise.
Then we drove on, passing lastly through Baxter Springs, Kan., a town of about 4,000 people, and into Commerce, Okla. Check out our photos.
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