There’s one vital thing that Route 66 aficionados need to know about Marilyn Andersen Brown’s family memoir, “Route 66 to Mojave” (iUniverse, 278 pages, $20.95).

Very little of the book takes place on Route 66.

Mojave is a town that’s not even on the Mother Road, about 70 miles west of Barstow, Calif. The chapter about the family’s trip on Route 66 from their native Oklahoma to the California desert takes up only four pages. Those looking for historical meat about America’s Main Street will be left wanting.

The first 50 pages — background on the Ed and Lillie Brown family before they moved west — proves to be a sluggish read. “Route 66 to Mojave” also could have used a good editor to tighten the text and eliminate errors.

Despite its shortcomings, I enjoyed “Route 66 to Mojave.” The story of Ed and Lillie Brown, ravaged by the Depression and tuberculosis, springs to life once they settle in Mojave. By then, the book is mostly seen through the eyes of the Ed and Lillie’s son, Charles, and his friends.

We read about Charles and his pals getting into one adventure (and misadventure) after another on their desert playground. They survive being in the middle of a mustang stampede. They carry unexploded bombs away from Air Force practice ranges and stash them under their houses. They explore the yawning, dangerous pits of abandoned mines. They roll naked down the sides of sand dunes. They dodge poisonous sidewinders, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters.

Although this was an era before video games, television and the Internet, the kids seemed to be having a blast coming up with mischief. Their peril was considerable, but so was the fun. That sense of fun and wonder comes across in “Route 66 to Mojave’s” pages.

Last summer, the historic Green Parrot tavern along Route 66 in Galena, Kan., was damaged when a giant sinkhole opened up behind the property. The hole was caused by the collapse of one of the old underground lead mines that dot the city.

Today, an article in the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World & News confirms what was feared from the beginning –  that the tavern, which had operated in a century-old building since 1942, has been condemned. The city will demolish the compromised building within a month, and owner Mickey Morang has no money to pay for the razing. He and his 80-year-old mother’s home and business were rendered worthless by the hole.

Tucked away in the story is this item:

Galena, like the nearby town of Treece in Cherokee County, is undermined. But unlike Treece, the city of Galena is not seeking a federal buyout so residents can be relocated.

Instead, Galena is seeking a grant that will help pay for drilling to determine how much ground exists between the surface and the ceilings of the mines.

“That will allow them to map the voids so they’ll know where the biggest threat is,” said Jan Garton, a representative for U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., who is working with Galena and Treece on abandoned mine issues.

Galena has submitted a pre-application for a $500,000 matching grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration that will pay for the drilling, Garton said. The city would come up with $250,000, and the federal government would come up with the other half.

Officials seem to be tiptoeing around this very real possibility: The town is so vastly undermined that a mass buyout and evacuation may be required.

Perhaps the underground study will determine that Galena isn’t as undermined as feared. But the entire town of nearby Picher, Okla., is going through a buyout and eventual abandonment because of the same problem. The possibility that the same fate awaits Galena cannot be ignored.

My message to Route 66 travelers is this: Take extra time for photographs and local color while driving through Galena. That’s because the town could be gone within the next decade or so, joining the ranks of other departed or near-dead Route 66 towns like Times Beach, Mo.; Ocoya, Ill.; Glenrio, Texas; and Summit, Calif.

Lead mining helped create the town of Galena. And lead mining might be the very thing that kills it.

Two local newspapers provided extensive coverage to the Route 66 Blowout in Sapulpa, Okla., last weekend.

One was the Sapulpa Daily Herald, which has a story and photographs (the page was having problems loading earlier; please be patient).

The other was the Tulsa World, which has a slideshow of photographs and audio from the event.

The current summer issue of The 66 News, published by the Route 66 Association of Illinois, announces its 2007 inductees to the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame.

They are:

• Joy Henderson, former owner of Archie’s Standard Service in Pontiac (1956-63) and the Hilltop Cafe in Cayuga (1963-65). Henderson is now 74. (The Pontiac Leader has a story about Henderson and the other inductees.)
• Brown’s Wrecker Service in Bloomington, which has operated since 1955.
• The Curve Inn tavern of Springfield, which has been operating since 1945.
• Roger and Shirley Soderstrom of Bloomington, who owned Sodie’s Cycle Center, a motorcycle dealership, from 1953-72.

Induction ceremonies will be Saturday at the Route 66 Hotel and Convention Center in Springfield.