Historic Route 66 - Waldmire Memorial - Pontiac, Illinois, USA. - National Scenic Byways on Waymarking.com

The Route 66 Mural - Bob Waldmire Memorial is located on the 1898 Rathburn Building, at the intersection of W. Madison & N. Main Street.

Story Behind the Mural
"This mural features a map of the entire length of Route 66. The mural is 66 feet in length and was designed by Bob from his sickbed just a short time before he passed away in 2009. It was painted in Bob's memory by members of the Waldmire family and about 500 of Bob's friends from along the entire Mother Road. If you stand close to the mural, you will notice hundreds of hand prints. Each person who worked on Bob's mural, and who felt they had been touched by Bob's art, left a hand print. Completed in May 2011." Text Source: (visit link)

"Robert "Bob" Waldmire (April 19, 1945–December 16, 2009) was an American artist and cartographer who is well known for his artwork of U.S. Route 66, including whimsical maps of the Mother Road and its human and natural ecology. Being the son of Ed Waldmire Jr., he is often associated with the Cozy Dog Drive In restaurant in Springfield, Illinois (on U.S. Route 66), the elder Waldmire (along with his friend Don Strand) created the Cozy Dog.

Bob drawing a campus map for Bradley University at the AEPi fraternity house
His career as a professional artist began during his student days at Southern Illinois University. He returned home to draft a "bird's-eye-view" poster of his hometown; merchants paid to include their businesses in the posters, which he could then sell in the merchant's place of business at a profit. He extended the idea to 34 cities, then turned his attentions to the promotion of historic U.S. Route 66.

Waldmire was a well-known snowbird, spending his winter months in Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains in a self-sufficient home of his own design. During the summer, he travelled the country, but based himself in his native Central Illinois, living in a converted Chevrolet school bus near Springfield.

Waldmire's van in Route 66 Hall of Fame
In 1992, Bob Waldmire re-opened the Hackberry General Store in the ghost town of Hackberry, Arizona as a Route 66 tourism information post and souvenir shop.[3] The 1934 store, originally the Northside Grocery[4] and Conoco station, had been closed and vacant since 1978[5] after Interstate 40 in Arizona bypassed the town (on 66) and left it stranded fifteen miles away from the very different route taken by I-40.

In 2004, Bob Waldmire earned the National Historic Route 66 Federation's John Steinbeck Award for his contributions to the preservation of Route 66. Text Source: (visit link)

Address of Icon:
intersection of W. Madison and N. Main Street
Pontiac, IL USA

Program: America's Byways Website: [Web Link] Official Name: Historic Route 66

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