Lebanon's Route 66 Centennial Is Winding Down. What It Left Behind Is Staying.

At 8 p.m. every night, the Munger Moss Motel sign lights up and stays on until midnight. That schedule started on June 1, when Mayor Jared Carr counted down from six, "for 66," and turned the neon back on in front of city officials and a crowd that had gathered as the sun went down, as the Laclede County Record reported.

The City of Lebanon owns that sign now. The council approved an agreement in September 2025 to take it over, while the motel itself belongs to the Dels Corporation. Tourism director Rebecca Rupard said the city refurbished the sign twice, because May hail damaged it slightly after the first round.

That sign is a good model for how Lebanon handled the 100th year of a highway established in 1926. The big festival weekend came and went in June. Most of what the town did this year was meant to stay put, and the November and December calendar winds the centennial down around those permanent pieces without one big final party.

The Party Already Happened in June

The town's free Centennial Festival filled Boswell Park on June 5 and 6, with Asleep at the Wheel playing the Friday night and a parade and cruise-in on Saturday. The State Historical Society of Missouri's traveling exhibit, "Missouri's Main Street: 100 Years of Route 66," ran at the Lebanon-Laclede County Library through June 30 and has since moved on.

So mid-November doesn't bring a second festival. The centennial programs left in Missouri this fall are mostly talks, and several of them are online:

• Tuesday, Nov. 10: The Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society's Centennial Speaker Series has a slot at the library and Route 66 Museum. The Route 66 Centennial speaker series listing still shows the Nov. 10 program as TBD. A free national speaker webinar is also scheduled that day at 1 p.m. Central.
• Wednesday, Nov. 11: The Society for Commercial Archeology hosts "The Afterlife of Route 66" on Zoom with Route 66 expert Jamie Jensen at 7 p.m. Central.
• Thursday, Nov. 12: The State Historical Society of Missouri's online program "Telling the Missouri Route 66 Story — Centennial Conclusion."

These are good for a quiet weeknight at home. For anything in person, the city itself is the better place to look.

What the Centennial Year Built Into Town

This list is what actually changes daily life in Lebanon after the anniversary year ends. Some items are finished, and some are still on the way.

• The Munger Moss sign, city-owned and lit nightly. It's the same sign that appears on a U.S. Postal Service stamp in the Route 66 series.
• Elm Street is now Route 66. City Administrator Troy Schulte told the Route 66 Society that Interstate 44 signs have been updated to show the new name, according to LebanonRoute66.com's report on the Society's fall meeting. The city council also approved buying 24 illuminated street-name signs for six signalized intersections.
• A new roadside-attraction marker is on order. It will mark the site of the Shell station that Harry "Shorty" Jones and later his son Bill Jones Sr. ran on Route 66 at the east edge of Lebanon. "We'll get that up, hopefully, in the next couple of months," Society Vice President Mike Boggs said in the same report.
• A musical highway is under consideration. Schulte said the city is looking at a section of musical road on Route 66 similar to the one Springfield installed on St. Louis Street this year.
• The free county tour guide is almost gone. The Society printed 10,000 copies of the 2026 Laclede County Route 66 Guide and Map. Senior adviser Gary Sosniecki reported that museum visitors had been picking up about 100 a week, and the remaining copies are set aside for the Route 66 Museum at the library and the Society's January annual meeting.

Some older pieces still anchor all this. KY3's spring visit to Boswell Park covered the Route 66-themed playground and 66 Mural Drive, where one mural honors the Nelson family, who donated land, including part of their apple orchards, for the road. KY3 also visited the restored Camp Joy cabin. Camp Joy is believed to be Lebanon's first tourist camp, and the cabin was the last one saved when the others were torn down by 2010. Smokin' Jones BBQ operates in the historic Wrink's Market building, which the Laclede County Record described as "thoughtfully preserved and repurposed."

The Holiday Calendar Uses the Same Theme

The city's November and December events keep the Route 66 theme going. This is the calendar as currently posted:

The Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce chose the Route 66 Centennial as the parade theme. Its parade page says lineup will be at Boswell Park "just as it has in previous years," and that route details and entry registration will be posted there. That means the floats will gather a short walk from 66 Mural Drive and the Camp Joy cabin, the two spots in town most closely tied to the road's early years.

For the Turkey Trot, the City of Lebanon's announcement says to enter Atchley Park at the back entrance off Indian Creek. If you register by Nov. 5, the 5K is $30 and the Gobble Wobble 1-Mile, for ages 3 to 10, is $20, and both come with a free shirt. Both go up $5 after that. Donuts and coffee follow the race.

Bennett Spring Switches to Its Winter Season

Daily trout season at Bennett Spring ended Oct. 31. Missouri State Parks sets the winter catch-and-release season to run from the second Friday in November through the second Monday in February. On this year's calendar, that's Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, through Monday, Feb. 8, 2027. Fishing is allowed Friday through Monday only, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The park's posted rules require each angler to display a daily trout tag bought on the area, and no trout may be kept in the catch-and-release area. For anything else, the park lists 417-532-4418 and 417-532-7612. Since it's open Friday through Monday, you could fish the park the morning of Nov. 21 or head out after the parade wraps up at 2 p.m.

Parade Saturday on Commercial Street

On parade day, Downtown Lebanon's storefronts line up along Commercial Street. Visit Lebanon's historic downtown directory lists:

• Café Jude's, 116 W. Commercial Street. Its own site lists Monday through Saturday hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so it's open before and after the parade.
• Boat Town Brewing, 214 W. Commercial Street
• The Lunch Box Cafe, 106 E. Commercial Street
• B's Sweets, 100 W. Commercial Street
• Massey's Comics, 110 W. Commercial Street
• The Vintage Flower Market, 118 E. Commercial Street, and Galleria Fine Jewelry, 104 E. Commercial Street, for holiday shopping

It's best to check holiday hours with each shop directly, since the directory doesn't post them. The same block hosts Christmas on Commercial on Dec. 11, and the Light-Up Lebanon UTV Parade will bring decorated, lit-up UTVs through downtown.

The Last Centennial Talk Covers Lebanon's Own History

The Dec. 3 talk may be the most local event of the season. Candacy Taylor, author of "Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America," will speak at 6 p.m. at the Cowan Civic Center about lodging in Lebanon that the Green Book listed for Black travelers. Boggs said the State Historical Society of Missouri is helping promote it, and the Route 66 Society's fall meeting report quotes him: "Hopefully, we have a good crowd for that."

The Society is already planning beyond 2026. Jim Lewis, the new chairman of the Laclede County Route 66 Wall of Fame Committee, is organizing the selection of the 2027 honorees from a list of about 40 names. Nominations can still be emailed to [email protected].

We love seeing Lebanon put its centennial into things that will last, from the neon sign to the new street signs. If you have family coming in for the parade or Thanksgiving weekend and want ideas for showing them around, or you're curious how the Route 66 corridor has changed where you live, the team at Rudloff Legacy Group is always happy to talk about this part of the Ozarks. Just reach out and Contact Us.