STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS – Dr. T. Lindsay Baker, professor at Tarleton State University and director of the W.K. Gordon Center for the Industrial History of Texas, was recently featured as a keynote speaker on the history of U.S. Highway 66. Baker was also featured in the Texas Folklore Society’s publication on the same topic.
Baker was the banquet speaker during the regional conference of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary society. The gathering of society members from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico took place earlier this yuear on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. Baker’s address was “Eating up Route 66: Roadside Dining in the Texas Panhandle.”
His article on roadside eating along historic Route 66 was published in the most recent volume of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society. The article was entitled "Folklore in Motion: Texas Travel Lore." Founded in 1909, the Texas Folklore Society has published annual volumes since 1916. Baker’s article examines the history of roadside dining on Route 66 across the Texas Panhandle.
Baker is also conducting research for two historical studies of Route 66 for the University of Oklahoma Press. One will be a heritage tourists’ driving guide to the 175-mile section in Texas and the other will be a cookbook and study of roadside dining for the entire 2,500-mile length of the route from Chicago to Los Angeles.
For more information on the Gordon Center, call (254) 968-1886. The museum is located midway between Fort Worth and Abilene and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
