Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A Tucumcari business owner was one of 10 recent grant recipients from the Route 66 Extraordinary Women Micro-grants Program facilitated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Flora May Cordova of the Route 66 Welcome Center and Gift Shop will receive a $2,000 grant.
Cordova said the money will be used to restore a longstanding neon arrow atop her business. The arrow went dark after a severe hailstorm in May 2023 damaged it.
In a telephone interview, Cordova indicated recent neon-sign restoration efforts by the Route 66 Association of New Mexico after the hailstorm apparently overlooked her, prompting her to apply for grant through the Extraordinary Women program.
“It’s about damn time I get some help from somebody,” she said.
The Route 66 Welcome Center and Gift Shop is housed in the former Townhouse Motel, where Clint Eastwood and other cast members of the “Rawhide” television drama stayed when it was shot in the region during the late 1950s and early ’60s.
Other grant recipients were from Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, California and New Mexico.
The grant program is one in a series of “birthday gifts” to Route 66 before its centennial in 2026, according to a news release. The Route 66 Extraordinary Women Micro-Grant Program provides funding to businesses and attractions along Route 66 that are majority women-owned or operated.
The program is funding in part by a grant from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The program plans to issue grants twice a year before Route 66’s centennial.