“Cars” Tourism Revitalizes Kansas Town

The 1951 International boom truck found in Galena, Kansas, inspired Pixar animator Joe Ranft to create Tow Mater in the 2006 movie “Cars.” The truck was used to remove equipment from mine shafts, and it is still operational today.

GALENA, Kan.—City Clerk Renee Charles watched as documentary filmmakers from Spain lugged their equipment across the street and began filming the group of tourists taking photos with the reddish brown, 1951 International boom truck that inspired Pixar’s beloved redneck tow truck, Tow Mater. With iPhones in hand and heavy cameras draped around their necks, visitors milled around, soaking in the scene. Two children squealed with excitement when Charles let them sit in the iconic vehicle.

All day long, domestic and international tourists stopped to take pictures with the famous truck they had seen advertised in nearly all of their Route 66 guidebooks.

“I do believe promoting Mater has helped Galena,” Charles said. “People were coming through before, but now they’re stopping, staying and spending money. We were saddened because our Main Street was dying, and without Main Street, we don’t have a town. But tourism has brought attention to Galena and will keep it focused on Galena.”

For years, Galena, Kansas – which is located in the southeast corner of the state along Route 66 – was like the film’s fictional town, Radiator Springs. Dark windows from empty businesses stared out with glassy eyes on a dilapidated Main Street. But all that changed when the release of “Cars” in 2006 sparked a Route 66 revival and gave Galena an opportunity for rebirth by cashing in on the lucrative tourism market.

Galena was born as a mining town when settlers discovered lead and zinc near the surface in 1876, according to the National Park Service. At the turn of the 20th century, Galena had more than 250 producing mines and a population of 30,000. When Route 66 was established along the town’s Main Street in 1926, travelers who stopped at Galena’s hotels, restaurants and businesses brought even more prosperity.

The mines dried up in the 1970s, and the population dwindled to a tenth of its size. Today, chat piles of lead-contaminated dust, which serve as a grim reminder of Galena’s glorious and devastating past, sit on the ruined land on the city’s outskirts.

The 13 miles of Route 66 that pass through Kansas would be Galena’s salvation, though it would take until the mid-2000s for city officials to realize its significance.

“It was like a light bulb went off,” said Mayor Dale Oglesby. “Nobody before had recognized the fact that this was an international attraction. People were driving through because there was nothing to see.”

Shortly after the release of “Cars,” Charles and her three partners started the business that would eventually become Cars on the Route, a restaurant and souvenir shop in the refurbished Kan-O-Tex service station where the Pixar creative crew discovered the truck that inspired Mater while researching the historic highway for the film.

“We walked up behind a building, and in a grassy, weedy lot, I saw a rusty, beat-the-hell-up old tow truck,” said Route 66 expert Michael Wallis, who led the Pixar animators on a tour of the Mother Road and voiced the Sheriff of Radiator Springs in “Cars.” “Right when I saw it, I thought, ‘My God, what a great looking vehicle.’ Their mouths fell open, and they were just staring at it. I knew right then the vehicle would be in ‘Cars.’ That was a great day.”

“Cars,” which grossed $400 million worldwide and starred the voices of Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy, drew inspiration from not only Galena’s landmarks, but its people.

“If I could clone the people of Galena and spread them up and down the road, that’s what I would do,” Wallis said. “You have many people within the population who love their town and wish to preserve it. Galena has entrepreneurial spirits, and one of the best examples is Cars on the Route.”

Cars on the Route, created by City Clerk Renee Charles and her three business partners, sits on the lot where Pixar animators discovered the truck that inspired Tow Mater.

More than 3,000 visitors from around the world stop at Cars on the Route in the six months it’s open, Charles said. Tourists can stop and take pictures with the truck and then go inside the shop for snacks before continuing on their journey.

“We’re moving to California, and we just wanted to do a route where we could see more of America, see some historical sites and see a different slice of life,” Washington, D.C., tourist Sara Sherrill said. “We’re Pixar fans, and that’s what appealed to us about Galena.”

Inside the shop, black and white photos of the original truck and service station line the walls. Lightening McQueen pajamas and neon-colored Route 66 T-shirts hang on clothing racks while Mater Teeth and other “Cars” trinkets fill the shelves. In a glass case, a blue whale figurine sits as a testament to the famous attraction in Catoosa, Oklahoma.

“I think even if you haven’t seen the movie, anyone who drives by this place should stop and take a picture,” said Luzu, a documentary filmmaker from Spain. Luzu declined to give his last name.

Before they left, Charles directed tourists to other attractions in the town, such as the haunted bordello with the controversial stained glass window portraying a naked woman or the Main Street Deli, which offers a sandwich called the Sinkhole as a tribute to Galena’s mining history.

In 2011, city officials implemented the first phase of a downtown restoration project that has resulted in the construction of two parks, a community mural and the opening of several businesses in restored buildings along Main Street, Oglesby said.

One such business is Eye Scream Labs, a shop that sells ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen. Eye Scream opened on Main Street in October and has experienced a steady stream of business, with nearly 300 people a day visiting on weekends, said co-owner Lawson Endicott. Among those customers are tourists from around the world.

“The city has been more than helpful on everything that we’ve tried to do,” Endicott said. “We wanted to open up on Main Street for the tourism. Galena is being revitalized, and it can only get better. I think the more businesses that have some kind of specialty thing they do can really bring in those tourists.”

City officials are also considering plans for a hotel, RV park and bed and breakfast.

“We’re trying to keep up with the ideas right now, but we’re excited for the prospects,” Oglesby said. “It’s absolutely changed the attitude of not only travelers, but of locals.”

Galena’s story has inspired other small towns looking to become more than just dusty reminders of a bygone era. As Wallis travels along the route speaking to chambers of commerce and state capitals, he uses Galena as a textbook example of how small towns can survive as a tourist destination.

“Galena really is an outstanding example of what can happen for a small town,” Wallis said.

With “Cars 3” production set to take place in the next year and a half, tourism from the film will likely sustain Galena for the foreseeable future. But the hype won’t last forever, and citizens have been busy making plans to ensure Galena’s survival for when “Cars” is just a memory.

“We have to grow, and we have to bring new ideas because I don’t know how many times tourists will want to come through and see the same stuff,” Charles said.