Route 66 Auto Museum
Posted by: 
TravisGood
N 34° 56.800 W 104° 39.283
13S E 531527 N 3867183
A wonderful little car museum run by a passionate auto fan in Santa Rosa, NM.
Waymark Code: WM1AWJ
Location: New Mexico, United States
Date Posted: 03/18/2007
Views: 89
The beautiful yellow car up high in the air is certainly what caught my eye! On a lark I pulled in to check it out. I'm not a big car fan but as evidenced by my passion for Route 66, I do like 20th century American culture and classic cars of Detroit certainly can qualify as Americana. I was NOT disappointed!
The Route 66 Auto Museum was started by Bozo Cordova who owns an auto body shop near by. He told me it was started much the same way I decided to visit, on a lark. His passion for cars led him to his profession and his profession restoring cars led him to collecting. He and a buddy found the space and over time have filled it up with over 30 cars. There is turn over as he sells some and buys others so the collection changes and it's all in his pursuit of enjoying cars. I admire that.
Visiting is fun for more than just seeing his cars. It's also a pleasure to hear him tell his stories. When Bozo bought the car mounted out front it was little more than a rusted shell which he brought back to life. To get the car mounted they needed to build a small dirt hill next to the pole just to get elevation. Other stories involve projects you can see on display such as converting one car's tail end in to a sofa and crafting all new external woodwork for the Woody. This man loves his cars and hearing him talk about it is entertaining.
On the museum floor itself were lots of cars that I recognized and in excellent condition. I snapped lots of pictures which Bozo encourages. There are people a generation older than me who I knew would enjoy seeing them. Two cars my father had owned and one car my wife's mother had owned. There was a Chrysler Bel Air, an AMC Pacer, a Thunderbird Convertable, etc. Even though I'm not an auto buff it was easy to get caught up in these cars.
If you're ever in the neighborhood then stop by, it's easily worth the $5 entrance fee.