Observations about the impending sale of the Lewis Motel in Vinita, Okla.:

1. The sale was handled in an underhanded manner. The owner didn’t bother to put the motel on the market once he shuttered it for several years. Once O’Reilly made the offer, that was it — no consideration of whether anyone else would want a vintage Route 66 property that’s in good condition — especially one right across the road from Clanton’s Cafe.

2. I find it ironic that O’Reilly Auto Parts, which is based in the Route 66 town of Springfield, Mo., is going to raze the motel. I refuse to believe that O’Reilly would be that ignorant of Route 66 and the importance of preservation.

So here’s what to do:

– Contact O’Reilly Auto Parts and let the company officials know how disappointed you are that the chain, which is based in a Route 66 town, is about to raze a historic Route 66 property. Make it uncomfortable for them. Urge O’Reilly to back out of the deal. You can e-mail chairman of the board David O’Reilly at doreilly@oreillyauto.com , CEO and co-president Greg Henslee at ghenslee@oreillyauto.com, and COO and co-president Tom McFall at tmcfall@oreillyauto.com.

O’Reilly’s Web site also has an e-mail contact form here; use the investor relations or store visits links.

– Contact the Vinita Chamber of Commerce and let them know how unhappy you are that Vinita, a town that touts its Route 66 history, stands by as the historic Lewis Motel is about to be demolished. The chamber can be e-mailed at chamber@vinita.com

– Vinita’s mayor is Joe Johnson; he can be e-mailed through his assistant at sheilla@cityofvinita.com. Urge the city to reject the demolition application for the motel.

– You can e-mail a letter to the editor at the Vinita Daily Journal at vdjnews@cableone.net.

Letters to the editor and contact with the City Council in Carthage, Mo., helped scare off Walgreens when they were eying the historic Boots Motel for demolition a few years ago.

Keep your letters polite, and emphasize the importance of the Lewis Motel as a piece of history and a potential engine of economic growth.

We know that thousands of tourists travel Route 66 each year. We know that they come to see historic properties like the Lewis Motel — not modern auto-parts chains. We know that, contrary to the owner’s assertions, historic properties are economically viable in the hands of the right owners. (The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, N.M., for instance, has been going strong since 1939 and shows no signs of slowing down.) We know that adaptive reuse projects have proven very successful in communities all along the road. And we know that the road is enjoying a huge surge in popularity at the moment, thanks to the recent release of Pixar’s Cars, which has dramatically increased awareness of Route 66.

You might mention some of these facts in your letter. Or you could discuss what the property means to you personally. Your letter does not need to be long or eloquent. It just needs to be clear: Destroying the Lewis Motel is a mistake that O’Reilly and Vinita cannot afford to make, and it is a mistake that can never be taken back. Route 66 can’t afford to lose its historic properties to short-sighted mistakes.

The desk clerk at the Western Capri Motel in Tulsa was a bit unsure last week about the fate of its old, 1950s-era sign.

Today, I called the motel’s manager. I asked him which company removed the sign. After shuffling of papers and time on hold, he gave me a phone number and a name, Harold.

Harold told me he had to use a cutting torch to take down the Western Capri sign in pieces.

“It was such a big sign,” Harold said. “I could have taken it down in one piece, but that would have cost another $2,000 … $2,500.”

He seemed sympathetic about preserving Route 66 artifacts, and took down the number of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association in case he encountered anything else like it. However, Harold wasn’t optimistic about the Western Capri sign — it had been transported to a local junkyard.

I called the “recycling” company near Sapulpa. I asked the gruff but affable fellow who answered the phone whether the pieces of the Western Capri sign were still there.

“It’s probably gone through the shredder,” he replied.

I made personal visit to the junkyard. Two employees there confirmed that the Western Capri is, for all intents and purposes, just bits of scrap metal somewhere inside the massive complex.

I can take a bit of bitter solace in that when I found out about the Western Capri last week, it had already been destroyed.

But this episode again shows it’s not just developers who cause the losses of historic properties and artifacts. It’s also ignorant or indifferent property owners. Education of the public about Route 66 and its value remains a never-ending process.

Sigh.

• David Beam recently started a blog, Route 66 Trip, in which he and Connie are taking the Mother Road into Texas, maybe even further.
• Johnny Mango at Albloggerque has posted another desktop wallpaper to download, this time the pre-1937 alignment of Route 66 in New Mexico.