About Plano Missouri
Facts, Trivia and useful information
Elevation: 1,226 ft (374 m). Population n⁄ (2010).
Time zone: Central (CST): UTC minus 6 hours. Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5).
Plano a ghost town on Old Route 66 in western Greene County, in southwestern Missouri. (Map of Plano).
Abandoned General Store -not a mortuary- in Plano, Missouri, Route 66
History of Plano
Learn more about the history of Plano in our Springfield Missouri page.
The county was established in 1833 and named after American Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene.
The community's post office opened in 1895 but closed in 1903. The village never grew beyond a few scattered homes.
The name: Plano
Probably named after Plano, in northern Texas (settled in 1851), which it traded with. The word is Spanish and means "flat" and was suggested because it was thought to mean "plain" as the area where the town was built.
The town offered gasoline to U.S. 66 travellers until it was bypassed by I-44 in the early 1960s, which linked Paris Springs with Springfield to the south, along what used to be US-166. The town became a Ghost Town.
Where to Lodge in Plano, Missouri
Lodging close to Plano: in neighboring Springfield...
> > Book your hotel in neighboring Springfield
More Lodging near Plano along Route 66
Motels and Hotels close to Plano
Hotels, Westwards in Missouri
Heading West... Hotels & Motels in Kansas...
- 77 miles Baxter Springs
Further West... Hotels & Motels on Route 66 in Oklahoma...
Heading East in Missouri, more accommodation
- 23 miles Springfield
- 38 miles Strafford
- 49 miles Marshfield
- 80 miles Lebanon
- 114 miles Waynesville
- 115 miles Saint Robert
- 143 miles Rolla
- 153 miles Saint James
- 167 miles Cuba
- 189 miles Sullivan
- 202 miles Saint Clair
>> Check out the RV campgrounds in nearby Carthage
Weather in Plano
Weather widget for Halltown, the town nearest Plano, to the west
Tornado risk
Plano is located inside the "Tornado Alley" and Greene County has an average of 9 tornado strikes per year.
Tornado Risk: read more about Tornado Risk along Route66.
Getting to Plano
You can reach Plano along historic Route 66 and Interstate I-44 that links it with Tulsa and Oklahoma City in the west and with Springfield and St. Louis in the east. U.S. Route 71 (overlapping I-49) links it with Fort Smith, Arkansas and Kansas City.
Map of Route 66 through Plano Missouri
Display Plano Route 66 Map
Click Map will appear below
Below is the color key for Route 66’s alignment in Plano:
(for the other parts of Missouri, check the color key in the corresponding city's web page)
Pale Blue: The 1926 and later alignments (until 1961) of Route 66 in Plano.
Blue the 1961 alignment that bypassed Plano into I-44
Google Maps. Terms. Nicolas Mollet, CC BY SA 3.0 License
Route 66's alignment in Missouri: the Historic Route 66 through Plano
Route 66 across Missouri
Historic U.S. highway 66, "Route 66" has been designated as an All-American Road and National Scenic Byway in the state of Missouri.
Click on the following link for a Full description of Route 66 across the state of Missouri.
Below is more information on the different Route 66's alignments through Plano (they are shown in the Map above)
Route 66 Sights in Plano
Landmarks and Places to See
A Few old homes along US 66
Plano and its Route 66 attractions
Plano is a Historic Ghost Town, with a Former Tydol Gas Station, the ruins of Plano General Store (said to be a casket factory or a mortuary), and two more historic sites: the Route 66 Modern Cabins and the 1852 Yeakley Chapel.
Historic context, the classic Route 66 in Plano
The 1946 book "A Guide Book to Highway 66" written by Jack DeVere Rittenhouse does not mention Plano. Maybe by then its only service station had folded and only some homes stood near the highway.
Ghost Town of Plano its sights
A Greene County Historic Site
Start your "tour" at the junction of MO-266 and Farm Road 45.
Former Tydol Gas Station
The sandstone building on the southeastern corner of the junction was once a grocery store and Tydol service station. Now it is a private home.
Tydol Logo
View of Former Tydol gas station by Google.
Click for Street View
Tidewater Oil Company began as the Tide Water Oil Co. in New York City in 1887 and was well known for its "Flying-A" and "Tydol" brands which it began selling in the 1920s.
Plano General Store
On the northwestern corner of the junction.
This two story sandstone building overgrown with ivy is said to be the ruins of a casket factory or a mortuary. But, that is a myth: the place was actually a General Store.
The building dates back to 1902 and is the store owned by Alfred Jackson. Pictured at the top of the page.
The Springfield-Greene County Library District, information on Greene County, Missouri tells us that John Samuel Corum Jackson (1845-1916) moved to Missouri from his native Tennessee and had nine children two of which lived in Plano: Quintilla "Quinn" Kelly Jackson Taylor (1877-1926) who married a farmer and Alfred Jackson (1878-1950) who was a merchant at Plano in the early 1900s.
The mortuary was located on the other side of the road in a now gone wooden building.
Tours & Itineraries
Head east, towards Springfield along MO-266 (Old Route 66) to visit an 1850s church and a former US 66 motel: Modern Cabins; it is a short 4.1 mile drive, see this Map with directions.
Yeakley Chapel
A Greene County Historic Site
SW corner of Farm Rd. 65 and MO-266.
To your right. The chapel is a simple wooden structure built in 1852. The cemetery is next to it. See its Street View.
Head east again and, to your left is the former tourist cabin complex:
Modern Cabins
A Greene County Historic Site
9323 MO-266, Springfield
Modern Cabins near Plano, Missouri, Route 66
This was a Cabins complex, which were the first type of motels: individual cabins and a parking area. It was built in 1935 by Margaret and Ben Brewer who named them Graystone Heights Modern Cabins which eventually had eight cabins, a café and a Conoco brand gas station.
The place has been restored and now sports a refurbished "Modern Cabins" neon sign and vintage 1960s-70s Conoco gas pumps. It is the R & S Floral Factory Warehouse (randsfloral.com).
The motel went out of business when I-44 bypassed old Route 66 in this area.
Old Route 66 in Plano, Missouri
From Halltown to Plano
In the early 1900s automobiles became more common, and the miserable trails used by carts were unfit for cars. That led W. H. "Coin" Harvey (1851-1936) to establish the Ozark Trails Association in 1913. The Ozark Trail ran from St. Louis in Missouri across Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico where in Romeroville it met the Old Santa Fe Trail.
When Route 66 was created in 1926 it was aligned along the Ozark Trail through Plano.
The original alignment in Plano from 1926 to 1961 shown in Pale Blue in the Map above.
> > See this segment Springfield to Halltown (east)
> > See the next segment Halltown to Avilla (west)
Sources
Maura Johnson and John F. Bradbury, Route 66 Association of Missouri. 1993, Architectural ⁄ Historical Inventory Survey. Route 66 in Missouri
Jack DeVere Rittenhouse, (1946). A Guide Book to Highway 66.
Banner image: Dead Man's Curve, Laguna New Mexico by Perla Eichenblat.