The Complete Route 66 Lost and Found [Hardcover]

Author Russell Olsen has thoroughly researched the specific sites featured and provides a synopsis of each. The combination of text and photos make this book more than a pretty coffee-table book, Route 66 aficionados will want to add this descriptive tome to their collections --Rudisio news :Author Russell Olson has unearthed old photos and postcards of various buildings, landmarks and towns which he carefully researches and then rediscovers and takes pictures of them as they are today --Auto Aficianado:I don't know what it is about the Mother Road that appeals so romantically to the motorcycle rider, perhaps it was Bobby Troup's legendary song or maybey it was because of it's sheer length it gave birth to a million stories and as many adventures along the way. Whatever it is, 15,000 British riders and Drivers hit it every year and this magnificent book covers it all. The Complete Lost and Found is a combination of two previous volumes compiled by Russell T Olsen. Fantastic archive images compare alongside the same scene today, some sad and neglectd, some derelict and abandoned, others refurnished and rejuvenated. the book gives compelling history, form commercial hubs now long deserted, reinvigorated truck stops, crumbeling honky-tonk bars, fillling stations, and haunting landscapes plus stories and tales from the years. It's a fantastic look back at a time when hugh capacity side valve V-8 guzzelers ruled the roads, hamburgers and apple pie were staple fare, and if you were white the world was yours for the taking. I wish I coud have been there. The book is 320 pages long, few of which do not contain an image, yet it is compact at eight inches square. -- --Classic Bike Guide, October 2008:...full of historic photographs, a wealth of historic detail and specially comissioned maps. Before the arrival of the interstates, this cult road was America's main artery, with over 150 busteling commercial hubs to serve travellers. --Motoring & Leisure, November 2008:Fantastic archive images compare alongside the same scene today … the book gives a compelling history, from commercial hubs now long deserted, reinvigorated truck stops, crumbling honky-tonk bars, filling stations and haunting landscapes plus stories and tales from the years. --Classic Bike Guide;...full of historic photographs, a wealth of historic detail and specially comissioned maps. Before the arrival of the interstates, this cult road was America's main artery, with over 150 busteling commercial hubs to serve travellers. --Motoring & Leisure, November 2008<br /><br />...br /><br />...full of historic photographs, a wealth of historic detail and specially comissioned maps. Before the arrival of the interstates, this cult road was America's main artery, with over 150 busteling commercial hubs to serve travellers. --Motoring & Leisure, November 2008

It s quite a mouthful of a title and it s a big chunky book. You could not present just a pamphlet on such an iconic and romantic road. The Complete Route 66, Lost and Found is an in-depth look at the history of Route 66 but equally important, the impact that rerouting of the road had on communities and, more specifically, small businesses. Route 66 started life as not a road at all but rather a collection of trails that, over time, became a surfaced highway. That was an evolution of decades, but improvement became more pressing in the 1930 s with the increase in traffic. Those years saw the misery and heartbreak of the Dust Bowl. Drought and high winds drove mid-west farmers out of their homes and on the road to, perhaps, a better life in California. It was these events that were the back-drop to John Steinbeck s 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath. It was he who immortalised the highway as The Mother Road . The Complete Route 66, Lost and Found is about architecture as much as the road itself. The author, Russell A. Olsen, has captured the essence of life along this amazing road, from the early days of motor transport to these modern times when a drive along any part of the original Route 66 is conducted more for nostalgia than convenience. Russell has painstakingly contrasted old photographs of cafes, motels and gas stations with pictures taken recently. Some buildings show only slight change, some are hardly recognisable and there are many which no longer exist at all. There are prize-winning examples of Art Deco architecture and equally charming 1940 s Americana. Time has evidently taken its toll on some buildings but others remain snapshots of another era, frozen in time. A marvellous Art Deco building still exists in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was originally the Jones Motor Company and built in 1939, it has those unmistakable lines of many between-the-wars structures, with clean design which is said to mimic that of the celebrated Atlantic-crossing ocean liners. This gas station and auto shop has become a restaurant and brew pub so the history of pumping still continues! The Complete Route 66, Lost and Found will be praised for its attention to detail. Russell Olsen has an easy-flowing style of writing that transports you back in time, and the photographs are quite amazing. This will find its way onto bookshelves of all those with a passion for Route 66 memorabilia, or American architecture in general. --Mostly Food Journal. April 2009

the ultimate road book to the ultimate road. Route 66 has been capturing the imagination of travellers, dreamers and rebels for years. From it's heyday to faded glory, the road still stirs the imagination. This book combines two previous volumes about the road into one -- --Old Bike Mart, December, 2008<

Two best-selling books on The Mother Road come together in one volume, offering unbeatable value for anyone interested in this cult road, immortalised in film by "Easy Rider", and in print by "The Grapes of Wrath". This book features 66 filling stations, plus main streets, motor courts, cafes, campgrounds, honky-tonks, truck stops, barbecue joints, and mare as they appeared in their heyday, and as they are now - amazing pictures of landscapes, reinvigorated toenships, a wealth of historical detail on the building, planning, travelling Route 66, what it means to the world, and how it came to gain its reputation as possibly the most famous - and certainly the most written about - road in the world.