The Powerhouse Visitors Center in Kingman, Ariz., may get a makeover from Thayer Design Inc. from Virginia, reports the Kingman Daily Miner.

Thayer representatives met with the ETDC in May and took note of the perceived problem areas in the center, including the lack of outdoor shade and curb appeal; difficulty in navigating the building; lighting and noise levels; the need for food service due to the loss of the Memory Lane restaurant; and the use of the back portion of the building for public functions. [...]

The two versions of the Powerhouse improvement plan are alike in that they both create an updated building facade, shaded outdoor picnic pavilion areas, upgraded literature and local merchant display racks and cases, and a Crossroads Café. [...]

Both versions of the plan relocate the visitor information desk to the center of the main room on the first floor, thereby allowing visitors quick access upon entering the center. The desk is currently located to the far left of the entrance.

In addition to updates in the overall color scheme - the “modern ’50s” theme - each concept includes a more professional looking entrance to the Route 66 Museum upstairs.

It makes your head swim when you realize how far Route 66 has come. When the revival started in the early 1990s, most museums devoted to it were of a homemade affair. Now design firms are being hired to tweak these facilities.

Although Mohawk Lodge Indian Store in Clinton, Okla., didn’t start business on Route 66, its founding predates the historic road by several decades and even Oklahoma statehood.

Located at 22702 Route 66 North just east of Clinton, Mohawk Lodge has been there since about 1940. But the American Indian craft store’s origin dates to Colony, Okla., in 1892, when it was started by the Dutch Reform Church of New York to create a way for local Indians to sell their wares. In fact, a small house next door to the current business in Clinton is the original meeting house in Colony.

Mohawk Lodge moved to Watonga, Okla., in 1907, then later to Clinton.

The business was purchased by M.B. Moore, a Creek Indian, not long after it moved to Clinton. After that, it was owned by Nellie Stevens, who was part Comanche and part Cherokee, for another 30 years.

Nellie’s daughter, Patricia Henry, shown above with an earlier photo of Colony that shows the original Mohawk Lodge structure, has owned it for the past 14 years.

“We’re a museum and a store,” Henry said. That is obvious with all of the historic photos and intricate Indian apparel on display, including quite a bit of it under glass that isn’t for sale.

Henry says that all of her merchandise is truly Indian-made. “I don’t carry anything from Taiwan or China,” she said. It carries traditional beadwork, hand-woven blankets, tanned hides and pottery.

It’s one of the most impressive Indian crafts stores I’ve seen, and Patricia will be more than happy to tell you stories about the history and people who owned Mohawk Lodge.

(Mohawk Lodge’s phone number is 580-323-2360. It’s west of Exit 69 of Interstate 40.)