Famous Rt. 66 barn to get facelift

The side of a famous barn along Old Route 66 north of Pontiac will get a facelift this weekend.

Several volunteers will grab their paint brushes to redo the sign Saturday morning on the barn near Cayuga which advertises Meramec Caverns. It was restored in 1998 and again in 2008, according to John Weiss, head of preservation for the Route 66 Association of Illinois.

“We have to preserve these things,” said Weiss.

The project is being conducted to spruce things up along the route for the famous highway’s 100th anniversary coming in 2026.

Volunteers recently cleared overgrown trees from an abandoned pasture nearby.

“You couldn’t see the barn before and now we are back to seeing it again thanks to the local farmers donating their time and machinery,” adds Weiss.

Meramec Caverns is the most visited cave in Missouri with around 150,00 visitors annually. It is the name for a 4.6-mile cavern system in the Ozarks near Stanton, Missouri.