Galena, Kansas, is the first or last town on the shortest stretch of Route 66 in any state, just thirteen miles in the south-east corner of Kansas, and the town makes the most of it. The name is Latin for lead ore, and the place was founded in the 1870s when miners struck rich lead and zinc deposits in the Tri-State District, which spread across Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The boom made it a rowdy town of thousands, and the legacy remains in the huge piles of mine waste, known as chat, which still stand on the horizon, and in the contaminated ground that has taken decades to clean up.
Today Galena is a quiet town of fewer than three thousand people, and its best-known attraction is a restored old filling station on the main road, now a cafe and souvenir shop called Cars on the Route. The tow truck parked outside, a rusting old International, was one of the inspirations for Mater in the Pixar film Cars, and the whole place has the cheerful, slightly worn charm of Route 66 at its best. The old route is signposted, and a few other relics, including a small mining museum, are worth a stop.
Between Galena and Baxter Springs the old road crosses the Rainbow Bridge, a concrete arch bridge of a rare type, built in 1923. Baxter Springs has its own history, with a Civil War massacre in 1863 and a bank robbery attributed to Jesse James, and a small heritage centre tells the story.
The riding is a pleasant, easy cruise, with a gentle landscape of rolling prairie and small farms, and the old road is narrow, with patches of ageing concrete. Traffic is light, and the pace is slow. Fuel is available in Galena and Baxter Springs, and both have diners and cafes. Summer is hot and humid, with storms and occasional tornado warnings, so the best months are spring and autumn. Stop at a roadside cafe and talk to the locals, who are proud of their short stretch of the road.