Riverton is another town on Route 66. It was originally set aside for the Cherokee tribe, but mining and farmland led white settlers to steal the land here. These days, it has a hydroelectric plant, a number of blue-collar neighborhoods, lots of brick ranch-style homes, fewer junk-filled yards, and some really nice neighborhoods with well-maintained homes.
Some notable spots are the Empire Dam Falls and the Rainbow Curve Bridge, which is the only remaining Marsh Arch Bridge on Route 66.
Galena is on Historic Route 66, and it was used as a research location for the Pixar movie Cars. If you stop at the Kan-O-Tex service station, you'll see the boom truck that inspired the character of Mater.
The town also has a mining museum which, we regrettably found, closes at 3:30. It does have some outside exhibits that we got to see, including an anti-aircraft gun manned by a 5-year-old girl. We enjoyed the downtown area, and we wish time and weather would have allowed us to visit Schermerhorn Park, where a cave and river show the landscape and wildlife of the Ozarks of Kansas.
The town has a few churches, a cemetery, and a shopping district where a sign in front of a store called Liberty Hall boasted, "We buy gold, silver, and guns."
We were charmed by the Dalmatian-painted fire hydrants throughout the town.
