RIDE THE FRONTIER OF YESTERYEAR!

Once, the West was wild. And so was an automobile ride from the eastern edge of New Mexico through the great Mojave Desert. From the time the world discovered Grand Canyon was a wonder, the roadtrip was a craze waiting to be born. As wagon trails and railroad ties gave way to Route 66, a nation learned to tempt the West in newborn motorcars. What they found was drastically different from the West one finds today. Bootleggers prowled the Painted Desert. Petrified Forest fought a war with a formidable mountain-lion queen. A self-proclaimed prophet preached out of the Cave of the Seven Devils (polite folks never asked him about his murder trial). Walt Disney's heir apparent drew cartoons of Meteor Crater, while a retired circus clown penned poems of the Old Frontier. And who was the roadside's most popular personality? Probably a Bluewater, New Mexico, Indian trader crippled by polio: He took Navajo pals gambling in Las Vegas. These stories—and others like them—comprise Route 66: The Romance of the West. And no one could have set them down like Thomas Arthur Repp. No one but Mr. Repp has spent years working with the families who bravely settled the early western roadside—ferretting out their forgotten histories—compiling hundreds of their interviews, homesteading papers, newspaper articles and photographs—and making sure their words gallop over every page. So rev up your 1926 Hupmobile, or better yet, saddle a horse. This trip, you're going where skies are not cloudy all day. Onto the frontier of yesteryear: Route 66: The Romance of the West.

"Fresh and delicious! If you consider yourself a true Road Warrior and haven't read Route 66: The Romance of the West, then may God have mercy on your soul!"

—Michael Wallis, author, Route 66: The Mother Road

"A wonderful trip back on the Mother Road, filled with wit and colored by an exceptional talent. Reading Route 66: The Romance of the West, I can almost hear my father's footsteps as he saunters across the green and yellow tile floor in his custom-made cowboy boots: His chest is held proud, the dishes rattle, the jukebox is playing Love Me Tender by Elvis."

—Sonja Ingram Britton, Route 66 artist, poet and daughter of
Mother Road personality H.O. "Blackie" Ingram

"Thomas Repp delivers the saga of Route 66 in the American West with a wallop. Here are the real tales of the roadside Indian trading posts and the accounts of the earliest souvenir peddlers. Once again, Repp lays open the family albums of those who lived the times. The depth of his work and the thoroughness of his research is remarkable."

—Jim Ross, author, Oklahoma Route 66

"Route 66: The Romance of the West will inspire. It will leave readers understanding the hardships we faced on the Mother Road, as well as the joys of our successes—rising at 4:00 a.m. to prepare for the morning tourists, hauling water to some of our stores. This book is a tribute to our triumphs."

—J.T. Turner, Indian trader, former operator
Tomahawk Trading Post, Fort Courage, Tepee Village

Thomas Arthur Repp has spent eight years traveling Route 66 and working with the families of the early American roadside. He is a veteran writer and photographer whose previous book, Route 66: The Empires of Amusement, has been called "a rare and precious glimpse into an American yesteryear" by the Midwest Book Review. Born near Detroit, he received his M.F.A. from the University of Washington. He is a former resident of Los Angeles, Chicago and Tucson, Arizona. Today, he splits his time between Seattle and Detroit.