Onyx Mountain Caverns, a tourist attraction for years near Route 66 in Pulaski County, Mo., closed about a month ago and has been sold to the U.S. Forest Service.

“I lost my husband (Harry) about a year ago … I didn’t want to monkey with it anymore,” said former co-owner Agnes Thiltgen, who’s in her 80s.

Elrand Denson, district ranger for the Forest Service, said new gates have been installed at the cave to keep out intruders (”There’d been a number of break-ins there”) but allows bats to come and go. Denson told me the cave won’t be commercially operated anymore, but instead will serve as a place for endangered and threatened species, such as the Indiana bat and the gray bat, to live.

Denson said the Forest Service is entertaining commercial or residential offers for a building on the Onyx grounds, which is said is “in pretty good shape.”

Here are some thumbnail photos of the inside of the cave. Some history of the caverns can be read here.

(Thanks to Tonya Pike for the tip.) 

The Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat has a small item about the Companion Mississippi Mile on July 29, in which entrants run across the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge that once carried Route 66 and connects Madison, Ill., to St. Louis.

If you think running a mile across an old bridge is a piece of cake, you’ll probably be in for a rude awakening. The bridge has a deceptively steep incline towards its center, and the crosswinds can be nasty. Let’s put it this way — I don’t think any world records will be broken at this event.

Here’s the news release from Trailnet, which operates the bridge. Here’s the entry form from the St. Louis Track Club. You can register up to race day.

According to an Associated Press book review, the answer is yes.

The book is Lonely Planet’s “Code Green: Experiences of a Lifetime” ($19.95), which lists 82 trips that have a lesser impact on the environment.

For Americans who may be interested in exploring their own country in an environmentally responsible way, the book outlines several trips that are an interesting take on destinations most of us are already familiar with. If a Maine vacation sounds appealing, consider sailing the coast with the crew of an old-time windjammer. Or take the classic Route 66 road trip, making sure to patronize all the mom-and-pop motels, attractions and diners along the way.

Click here to flip through parts of the book.

This sort of environmental stance has been long advocated by Route 66 artist and unrepentant hippie Bob Waldmire. At the very least, the lower speeds at which you drive on Route 66 certainly consumes less carbons.

According to the Highland (Calif.) Community News, if you’re going to register your car for the Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino, you’d better do it soon.

The Alibi, which is an alternative newspaper in Albuquerque, reports that there is a “Route 66 Through Albuquerque: A Postcard History” exhibit at the Special Collections Library at 423 Central Ave. NE through Aug. 26.

Alibi staffer Steven Robert Allen writes:

The highlight is a display of vintage Albuquerque postcards mounted beside captions explaining their historical significance. There’s a 1938 postcard for the El Vado, the still extant West Central roadside motel recently threatened with demolition. There’s a whole slew of cards for Central Avenue businesses that no longer exist. My favorite card comes from the Pig Stand Café, an eatery formerly located across from UNM at 2106 Central SE. Judging from the image on the card, my guess is that this is the old Lobo Laundry building, on the same block as Newsland. I think it’s now a pita joint or something. When I first moved to Albuquerque, I used to do my laundry there all the time. Coincidentally, there used to be a big tiled mosaic of Route 66 on the east wall, right above the dryers. I used to shift my gaze back and forth between my spinning underwear and the map of the route that had (sort of) carried me from Chicago to this weird little city in the desert. Good times.

I started missing the Luna Cafe in the Route 66 settlement of Mitchell, Ill., as soon as I read this first paragraph from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story:

Any time you walk into a bar with Bob Seger playing on the jukebox, you have a pretty good idea of the ambience. Luna Cafe doesn’t disappoint, and its down-home atmosphere is the polar opposite of see-and-be-scene happy hours throughout the region. This crowd is made up of steelworkers from the nearby mills, enjoying cold frosty beverages after their shift, and an infusion of neighborhood regulars. Occasionally, Europeans wander into the bar, searching for a piece of history.

I once lived about 30 miles from the Luna, and it was great to stop there to take in the local, blue-collar flavor. It’s one of the few regrets I have about moving to Oklahoma — the Sooner State doesn’t have Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, nor a Luna Cafe to drink Stag beer and listen to both Hanks on the jukebox.

The Luna Cafe is one of kind. If you’re in the metro-east area of St. Louis, don’t bypass it or you’ll regret it.