There’s no plaque or notice marking the spot, but the story of Times Beach (pop. 0) deserves mention. Founded in the 1920s as a mountain getaway a dozen miles west of St. Louis along the Meramec River, thanks to Route 66 the town grew into a working-class commuter suburb, with some 2,000 people but no paved streets except for the highway that passed through the center of town. Times Beach remained a quiet hamlet until 1982, when the federal government discovered that the industrial oil sprayed on streets to keep down dust had in fact been contaminated with toxic dioxins. The toxic waste, combined with a flood that buried the town for over a week, made Times Beach uninhabitable.
In 1984 the government paid $33 million to buy Times Beach and tear it down, and 15 years later the cleanup was declared complete. Four hundred acres of what was Times Beach have since been re-opened as the Route 66 State Park (daily; free; 636/938-7198) with hiking trails, river access, and a nice little museum on Times Beach and Route 66, housed in a 1930s roadhouse.
West of St. Louis, the best of many Route 66 survivors is on old Route 66, between I-44 exits 253 and 264, a mile east of the town of Pacific. Open since 1935, the Red Cedar Inn (636/257-9790) serves dinner every evening in a lovely, warm, woodsy dining room.
