Rolling prairies and wildflowers in all probability aren’t the primary photographs your thoughts conjures up when pondering of Route 66. Extra doubtless you’re picturing neon indicators, basic automobiles, drive-ins, motor-court motels, and oddities just like the Blue Whale of Catoosa.
It is probably not a standard roadside attraction in that sense, however Shaw Nature Reserve has been a cease on the Mom Highway since its inception almost 100 years in the past.
A Highway Runs to It
Shaw Nature Reserve was born only one yr earlier than Route 66. Bought by the Missouri Botanical Backyard in 1925, the Arboretum at Grey Summit (now Shaw Nature Reserve) served as a refuge for vegetation underneath risk from smog within the metropolis. Route 66 would come into existence in 1926, chopping a path from Chicago to Los Angeles by St. Louis and proper previous the Reserve.
Route 66 had a direct affect on the Arboretum. Uncertainty concerning the precise path of the brand new freeway delayed a number of initiatives, together with the development of a stone lodge that now serves because the Customer Heart.
Highway development prevented vehicles from reaching the newly constructed orchid greenhouses, forcing the Backyard to get artistic with its 1928 Orchid Present. As a substitute of transporting total vegetation, employees introduced solely lower blooms to the Backyard, displaying them behind glass with the stems positioned in tubes of water.
Regardless of these pace bumps, Backyard leaders overwhelmingly noticed Route 66 as a profit for the Nature Reserve and the area. The brand new street didn’t simply join Chicago to Los Angeles, it additionally supplied quick access from the bustling city middle of St. Louis to the quiet countryside and pure environment of the Backyard’s Arboretum.
Roadside Beautification
Virtually instantly after it opened to site visitors, Backyard leaders seemed to place their very own stamp on Route 66 by roadside beautification initiatives. These efforts have been spearheaded by Lars Peter Jensen, the primary director of the Backyard’s new Arboretum.
Jensen was president of the Watson-Antire Regionway Enchancment Affiliation—a gaggle that additionally included space residents and native leaders. The group advocated for roadside beautification, not simply by including vegetation and timber, but additionally regulating companies and billboards alongside the freeway, and selling leisure actions within the area.
The group targeted on 35 miles of Route 66, from the St. Louis metropolis limits to the Arboretum in Grey Summit. With labor supplied by the Bureau of Homeless Males and the State Freeway Division, greater than 10,000 new timber and shrubs have been planted alongside this stretch of street by 1934.
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Planting Bushes: Henry Shaw Gardenway, 1934, Missouri Division of Transportation Assortment, Missouri State Archives. -
Jensen and panorama architect John Noyes designed the planting scheme. The Backyard additionally supplied a plot of land on the Arboretum to function a plant nursery for the State Freeway Division. Bushes and shrubs grown right here have been planted alongside roadsides all through the state.
The Henry Shaw Gardenway
As beautification efforts revved up, so did the requires a particular designation. In 1934, the 35-mile stretch of freeway resulting in the Arboretum was formally named the Henry Shaw Gardenway.
The choice was lauded as a becoming tribute to Backyard founder, Henry Shaw. “The Missouri Botanical Backyard is at one finish of the strip and its stunning arboretum is taking kind on the different finish. With these establishments promising their cooperation within the beautification of the size of it, there could be little question {that a} gardenway the truth is in addition to in title will exist within the not-far distant future,” proclaimed the St. Louis Publish-Dispatch on the time.
In 1935, 5 giant metallic commemorative tablets have been put in alongside the Gardenway—on the St. Louis metropolis restrict, at Buder Park, two close to Pacific, and one on the entrance to the Reserve. In an sudden twist, two of the plaques have been stolen the following day. An extra Gardenway plaque was devoted at Tyson Valley Park in 1950.
The Watson-Antire Regionway Enchancment Affiliation modified its title to the Henry Shaw Gardenway Affiliation, and continued its efforts to beautify and keep Route 66 alongside the Gardenway. The group labored with property house owners to safe a 200-foot roadside easement so plantings could possibly be extra uniform. The Gardenway Affiliation additionally held contests for enterprise beautification, and even fought to ban political indicators.
The Civilian Conservation Corps
Roadside beautification efforts acquired a lift with the arrival of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The depression-era program aimed to supply jobs by public works initiatives. The CCC arrived in 1935, organising camp close to Pacific. Duties included grading and planting the extra easement alongside Route 66. The employees additionally constructed two stone shelters—Jensen Level and the Gardenway Bus Cease.
Jensen Level was constructed on a bluff south of Pacific, overlooking the Meramec River. The shelter was named in honor of Lars Peter Jensen for his management of the Gardenway efforts. The dedication ceremony on Memorial Day in 1939 was dubbed “Backyard Day Alongside the Backyard Method.” It included a “galaxy of lovely floats” as a part of a parade down the Gardenway from the Missouri Botanical Backyard. The property has been not too long ago reopened to the general public as a Pacific metropolis park.
The Civilian Conservation Corps additionally constructed the Gardenway Bus Cease in 1939. It was certainly one of a number of deliberate bus cease shelters, however the one one ever constructed. The small stone shelter sat close to the shoulder of Route 66/Interstate 44 in Allenton till 2002, when it was moved to Shaw Nature Reserve to make approach for freeway enhancements. Right now, guests to the Nature Reserve will discover the bus cease close to the trailhead for the Wetland Path.
The Gardenway Right now
Route 66 light as trendy interstates took maintain. Right now, Interstate 44 follows the same monitor to the unique street by St. Louis. And in 2002, a stretch of I-44 mirroring the footprint of the unique Gardenway was named the Henry Shaw Ozark Hall. The hall highlights the general public pure areas within the Meramec watershed area.
The creation of the hall additionally introduced renewed curiosity to the roadside. Most of the unique plantings have doubtless been misplaced over time. Right now, the Missouri Division of Transportation handles roadside upkeep alongside I-44. In collaboration with the Backyard, MoDOT created prairie rehab areas alongside the hall to revive native grassland habitat. These prairie rehab areas can now be discovered alongside highways all through the state—one even sits on the entrance to I-44 in Grey Summit, only a few toes from Shaw Nature Reserve.
Historic Route 66, now Freeway 100, nonetheless runs proper previous the entrance entrance of the Nature Reserve. For these searching for nostalgia, it’s the proper cease on a Route 66 street journey by St. Louis—a spot to get out and stretch your legs, perhaps take a brief hike to the Gardenway bus cease.
Factors of Curiosity close to Shaw Nature Reserve
The area round Shaw Nature Reserve presents a number of factors of curiosity alongside historic Route 66. Listed here are just a few options so as to add to your itinerary.
Cassidy Moody — Senior Digital Media Specialist