Hillbilly whirygig sign, Rolla, Missouri
N 37° 58.679 W 091° 43.290
15S E 612284 N 4204143
This whirlygig hillbilly was once owned by the Hillbilly Store, which was originally located in Devil's Elbow, Missouri.
Waymark Code: WMBXPC
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 07/02/2011
Views: 19
According to an online article I discovered, The whirligig Hillbilly sign that beckons to visits from the parking lot of The Mule Trading Post in Rolla, was once located in front of the Hillbilly Store that closed at this location in 2000, when the sign was laid on the ground and sat neglected for several years.
Carl and Zelma Smith, an energetic couple that moved to Missouri from Nebraska, purchased the property in Rolla and reopened it as the Mule Trading Post. They became interested in local history, learned of the popularity of Route 66, and joined the Route 66 Association, a group dedicated to preserving the history of historic old Route 66 Highway. The Smith’s learned of the hillbilly sign, tracked it down and restored it in 2007.
In their research, they learned that their sign was not the original Hillbilly that many remember from their youth; the original Hillbilly Store was located in Devil’s Elbow, Missouri, and had a smaller hillbilly whirygig. When that store relocated to the Rolla location, the owners had caused the larger hillbilly sign to be created (it is nearly 2 stories tall), and this is the sign the Smith’s have in front of their store. A photo of the smaller, original sign can be seen in Quinta Scott’s book “Along Route 66”.
See this link to a photo of the old sign: (
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And here is another link that provides this information: (
visit link)
The hillbilly sign at the Mule Trading Post in Rolla was built in 1981 for the Hillbilly Store when it relocated from Devil's Elbow to be closer to I-44. The sign built for the Rolla store is much larger than the original one in Willow Springs/Devil's Elbow, which was about twenty feet tall. When the Hillbilly Store closed in 2000, the sign was abandoned, and in 2007, it was saved by the Mule Trading Post, restored, including the mechanical arms, which are operational.