Route 66 State Park: Missouri’s Most Haunted History Stop

Route 66 State Park: Where a Ghost Town Became a Missouri Landmark

Twenty miles southwest of St. Louis, where I-44 traces the old Route 66 corridor through the Meramec River valley, a 424-acre state park occupies ground that carries one of the most extraordinary stories in Missouri history. Route 66 State Park in Eureka sits on the exact footprint of Times Beach — a town of 2,000 people that was evacuated, purchased by the federal government, demolished, and incinerated following one of the largest environmental disasters in American history. The streets are still there. You can walk them. The town is not.

Bridgehead Inn

[INTERNAL LINK: Route 66 Centennial 2026 events page]

Where Is Route 66 State Park?

Address: 97 N. Outer Road, Eureka, MO 63025

Phone: (636) 938-7198

Website: mostateparks.com/park/route-66-state-park

Hours: Park grounds open daily, year-round. Visitor center (Bridgehead Inn) and gift shop open March through November, seven days a week — verify current hours at mostateparks.com before visiting.

Admission: Free. No entry fee for park grounds or museum.

Driving Context: The park is located 1 mile east of Eureka along the historic Route 66 / I-44 corridor. The visitor center is accessible from either direction via I-44 Exit 266. The park grounds themselves are accessible only from eastbound I-44 at Exit 265 — note that the old Route 66 bridge connecting the two sides of the park has been closed due to safety concerns. The park is approximately 20 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis and 30 miles east of Pacific, Missouri.

[AFFILIATE LINK: Booking.com — lodging in Eureka, MO and the St. Louis area near Route 66 State Park]

The History of Route 66 State Park

Times Beach: A Town Built on a Newspaper Promotion

Times Beach was founded in 1925 as a marketing device. Readers of the St. Louis Times could purchase a 20-by-100-foot lot on the wooded banks of the Meramec River for $67.50 plus a six-month newspaper subscription. The paper envisioned a thriving resort community; what materialized was a lower-middle-class town of roughly 2,000 people who could never quite afford to pave their 23 miles of dirt streets. That financial shortcut — unpaved roads — would eventually destroy the town entirely.

Russell Bliss and the Dioxin Disaster

dioxin

Bliss sprayed Times Beach’s roads between 1972 and 1976. The first signs of contamination appeared at horse farms where he had used the same mixture: horses died in numbers, birds fell dead, and children who played in the arena soil became ill. By the time the EPA connected the dots and began testing Times Beach in 1982, a decade had passed. Dioxin levels in Times Beach soil reached as high as 300 parts per billion — orders of magnitude above what the CDC considered safe.

On December 23, 1982, the same day the EPA announced its findings, the Meramec River flooded its banks in the worst flood in the town’s history. Dioxin-laced soil spread across the town. Residents were advised not to return. By February 1983, the federal government had committed $33 million in Superfund money to purchase every property in Times Beach. One elderly couple refused to sell; they were the last holdouts as the town was otherwise bought, evacuated, and demolished around them.

The Cleanup and Rebirth

Between March 1996 and June 1997, an incinerator constructed on the former town site burned approximately 265,000 tons of dioxin-contaminated soil from Times Beach and 27 other eastern Missouri dioxin sites at a total cost estimated between $110 and $200 million. The incinerator was then demolished. In 1999, the EPA turned the land over to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which opened it as Route 66 State Park. The site was removed from the federal Superfund list in 2001. In 2012, the EPA tested the soil and found no significant health risks for visitors or park workers.

The park’s visitor center — the Bridgehead Inn — is the one original structure that survived. Built in 1935 as a Route 66 roadhouse, it operated under four names over the decades: Bridgehead Inn (1935), Steiny’s Inn (1946), Bridgehead Inn again (1972), and the Galley West (1980). It is now a museum honoring both Route 66 and the story of Times Beach.

The Bridgehead Inn and Route 66 Museum

Inside the visitor center, the Route 66 museum traces the architecture, businesses, and communities that lined the highway through Missouri from the 1930s through the 1960s — many of them now demolished and replaced by strip malls. The display includes the original first historic Route 66 highway marker from Springfield, Missouri. A separate exhibit documents the Times Beach disaster and the environmental cleanup — told as one of the nation’s environmental success stories rather than only as a tragedy. The gift shop, open March through November, carries an extensive selection of Route 66 merchandise.

What to Expect When You Visit

Arriving at Route 66 State Park, the first thing you notice is the quiet. The grounds are flat, open, and laced with paved trails that follow the street grid of the vanished town. There are no buildings where the houses stood — just grass, brush, and the occasional deer. The Meramec River is visible from the western edge of the grounds. It is genuinely atmospheric in an understated way: you are walking through a ghost town, and the streets remember it even if the structures do not.

The Bridgehead Inn visitor center rewards the stop. The museum is small but curated with care, and the Times Beach exhibit in particular is worth reading in full — the story of how a newspaper promotion, 23 miles of unpaved roads, and one waste hauler’s cost-cutting decision erased an entire town is one of the stranger chapters in American environmental history. The gift shop is well-stocked for Route 66 souvenir hunters.

Honest caveat: the old Route 66 bridge connecting the visitor center to the main park grounds has been closed to both vehicles and pedestrians due to structural safety concerns, and there is no current timeline for its repair or replacement. The two sides of the park must be accessed via separate I-44 exits. This is inconvenient but manageable if you plan for it in advance.

Best Time to Visit and Photography Tips

Spring and fall offer the most atmospheric conditions — mist off the Meramec River in the morning, vivid foliage in October, and manageable crowds year-round (this park is never packed). Summer is pleasant for trail use; winter is open and peaceful, though the visitor center is closed.

• The Bridgehead Inn exterior is best photographed in the late afternoon, when warm light catches the original 1935 roadhouse facade and the Route 66 signage. Position yourself across the parking lot and use a moderate zoom to compress the building against the tree line.
• The old Route 66 bridge, though closed to crossing, is visible from the riverbank and makes a compelling foreground element when shooting the Meramec River. The reflection in still morning water is particularly effective.
• The street grid of the former town creates unusual geometric lines through the grass — a wide-angle shot looking down one of the old residential streets toward the river captures the ghost town quality better than any single landmark shot.

Tips for Visiting Route 66 State Park

• The visitor center and gift shop are only open March through November — if you’re traveling in winter, the grounds and trails are accessible but the museum will be closed.
• Access the visitor center (Bridgehead Inn) via I-44 Exit 266; access the main park trails via I-44 Exit 265 eastbound only. Don’t assume the bridge connects them — it does not.
• The trails are paved, level, and ADA-accessible — ideal for cyclists, families with strollers, and visitors with mobility considerations.
• Bring binoculars if you’re a birder: more than 175 species have been documented on the grounds, and the Meramec River corridor is productive in spring migration.
• Dogs are welcome on-leash throughout the park grounds.
• [INTERNAL LINK: Meramec Caverns page]
• The gift shop is genuinely well-curated for Route 66 merchandise — better than most roadside souvenir shops. Worth the browse.

2026 Route 66 Centennial Connection

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Route 66 State Park free to visit?

Yes. The park grounds, trails, and the Route 66 museum inside the Bridgehead Inn are all free to enter. The gift shop sells Route 66 merchandise. There are no parking fees.

Is it safe to visit — wasn’t this a toxic waste site?

Yes, it is safe. The EPA conducted a comprehensive cleanup of the former Times Beach site between 1996 and 1997, incinerating approximately 265,000 tons of contaminated soil. The site was removed from the federal Superfund list in 2001. The EPA tested the soil again in 2012 and found no significant health risks for visitors or park workers. The park is fully open to the public with no restrictions.

Can you walk through where the town of Times Beach used to be?

Yes. The park trails follow the original street grid of Times Beach, and you can walk through what were once residential neighborhoods. There are no structures remaining — the town was completely demolished and incinerated as part of the cleanup — but the streets and their layout remain visible, giving the grounds a genuine ghost-town atmosphere.

Is the old Route 66 bridge open?

No. The historic Route 66 bridge across the Meramec River that runs through the park is closed to both vehicles and pedestrians due to structural safety concerns. The visitor center and the main park grounds must be accessed via separate I-44 exits (266 and 265 respectively). There is no current timeline for bridge restoration.

What is the Bridgehead Inn, and is it worth visiting?

The Bridgehead Inn is a 1935 Route 66 roadhouse that served travelers for nearly 50 years under four different names. It now serves as the park’s visitor center and houses the Route 66 museum — including the original first historic Route 66 highway marker from Springfield. It is free to enter and worth the stop for any serious Route 66 traveler. The gift shop is particularly well-stocked.

Final Thoughts on Route 66 State Park

Route 66 State Park is not a polished attraction — it is something more interesting than that. It is a place where the story of Route 66, the story of American environmental disaster, and the story of what happens when a community is erased and the land reclaimed all occupy the same 424 acres. The Meramec River runs quietly past the old street grid. The Bridgehead Inn holds 90 years of road-trip history in its walls. And the ghost of Times Beach is present in every flat, open stretch of grass where houses once stood.

[INTERNAL LINK: Route 66 in Missouri page]

Nearby Route 66 Highlights

• Springfield, MO
• Meramec Caverns
• Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
• Gateway arch
• Stanton, Missouri / Jesse James Wax Museum — 28 miles southwest — a classic Route 66 roadside attraction adjacent to Meramec Caverns, worth a stop for the pure nostalgia of it.