Tuesday Treasures

April 2017 - Moriarty New Mexico

Along Route 66 you are greeted by this sign as you enter Moriarty.

Michael Timothy Moriarty moved to Estancia Valley with his wife and three children from Iowa, escaping from the cold northern winters. He settled there in 1887 as a rancher. The post office opened in 1903 (Mr. Moriarty was its first postmaster). Later that year the railway reached the town when the Santa Fe Central Railroad laid its tracks from Santa Fe to Willard and Vaughn where they met the CRI&G Railroad Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railroad that linked it with El Paso and Chicago.

Four Whiting brothers (Arthur, Earnest, Eddie and Ralph) founded the company in 1926 and saw it grow to over 100 filling stations plus motels and truck stops from California to Texas. Many of them were located along Route 66 where you can still see the remains of those that were abandoned.

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The Moriarty Service Station was the #72 and opened in 1954. By the mid-1980s the company folded and sold off or closed the service stations. And the #72 was bought by an employee, opening the Sal & Inez Service Station, which is still operating.

It sign, which was rusty and needing repair was an original one and was restored in 2014.

Next door is the Sunset Motel, playing around with my shot.

Lariat Motel

El Comedor Restaurant’s new restored "rotosphere.”, two vertically counter-rotating spiked hemispheres, the entire unit rotates horizontally above a pole. Each of the 8-foot long rainbow-colored spikes is individually outlined in neon. The rotosphere is believed to be the only operational one of its kind along the entire length of Route 66 thanks to the Route 66 Neon Restoration Project.

Around town.

The life-size bronze statues depict themes of the early days of Torrance County.

The surveyor is looking east along old Route 66.

The rancher is about 20 feet away holding a lamb against the wind.