By Mike Matejka

This weekend the “Crusin’ with Lincoln Route 66 Visitors’ Center” opens in downtown Bloomington, on the lower level of the McLean County Museum of History, the historic Old Courthouse.

How many times have local residents have friends or family come to town and we scratch our head – where can we go?  Do we have to drive to Springfield or Chicago to show off our home area?

Thanks to this new visitors’ center, we’ll have a place to start to show off McLean County.  Whether its hiking through Funk’s Grove or going upstairs to visit the Museum of History and its award-winning displays, we can tap the full knowledge of what central Illinois has to offer.

This Center will be more than a place to orient our friends.  It’s also going to be an economic opportunity for our community, particularly with its twin themes of Route 66 and Abraham Lincoln.  We don’t do enough to attract visitors based on our historic connections.

Route 66 attracts tourists from around the globe.  Europeans and Asians sign up in Chicago to take Route 66 tours, often driving the whole way from Chicago to Los Angeles along that fabled highway.  As they near Central Illinois, two places have established themselves as destinations – Pontiac and Atlanta.  Those two communities have done the advertising and outreach to put themselves on the Route 66 map.  But if you are driving Route 66, don’t you want to visit the place where Steak n’ Shake was born?   The new visitors’ center will not only tell the Route 66 story, it will feature some exclusive Steak n’ Shake items for sale.

Springfield certainly takes center stage as Abraham Lincoln’s home, but much of his legal and political education, along with his fast friendships and greatest supporters, were here in McLean County.  Again, we have a wonderful story to tell and many places near downtown where visitors can better understand the fabled President.

Attracting visitors is more than local pride.  Bringing in Route 66 caravans, Lincoln students and tourists means hotel stays, restaurant visits and local shopping trips.  This translates into economic opportunity for McLean County.   So come downtown Saturday and check out the new visitors’ center and promote it as the “first stop” for your friends and family who come to McLean County.

Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Bloomington with his wife and daughter and their two dogs. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.

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