Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 20, west-central Oklahoma

Dear Readers, after several interruptions for other photographic projects, it is time to continue east on our Mother Road trek. After all those interesting sites in Texas, we finally reach Oklahoma. Many people think of Oklahoma when they hear the term "Route 66," probably because of old movies and the architecture of the many classic motor courts, drive-in restaurants, and gas stations that once served travelers.

Canute

One of the first Route 66 towns in western Oklahoma is Canute, named after "Cnut the Great," King of Denmark, Norway, and England (1016 - 1035). I am not sure how a small town on the prairie came to be named after a Viking, but anthropologists do have evidence that Vikings reached North America, so it is a appropriately noble name. Did they drive on Route 66? Regardless, Route 66 was routed through town in 1926, bringing some degree of prosperity as travelers patronized restaurants and motor courts.

Waiting patiently for the photographer to finish in Canute.

El Reno

Southern Manor, 319 S. Grand Ave, El Reno, OK.

Gallagher's Pub, W. Wade Street, El Reno, OK.

El Reno looked pretty rough to me. It is a historic town at the junction of Route 66 and the old Chisolm Trail. The Southern Manor on Grand Avenue was near the Rock Island Depot and was once a businessman's hotel. As of 2017, it was being used as a residence for elderly. They were in the process of moving out pending renovations. My Route 66 Adventure Handbook claims that El Reno is widely considered the home of the onion burger. OK.....

The Hotel El Reno Hotel is supposed to be the oldest surviving commercial building in the city. It was built in 1892 at 300 South Choctaw, then the city's business district. It operated as a hotel until 1975, when it closed and deteriorated. In 1984, the Canadian County Historic Society moved the building to its present location near the Rock Island Depot. Notice how much this modest frame building looks like the Gallagher's Pub in the photograph above.

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is the state capital and is a major metropolitan area. I did not take any pictures in town for several reasons. First, the car thermometer was showing 38° C, or 100° F, and I was lethargic and uninspired. Second, I did not see much Route 66 architecture or memorabilia, although there must be some scattered along the original route. The state capitol has producing oil wells on the capital grounds. The first automatic parking meters were invented and installed here in 1935. The city has an Arts District and a Bricktown, so someday I need to return and explore properly.

Most photographs are from a Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera, with most raw files opened in Adobe Photoshop Elements and converted to black and white with DxO FilmPack 5. Photographs 2 and 3 in Canute are from Kodak BW400CN film shot with an Olympus Trip 35 compact camera, with polarizer filter to darken the sky.

Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 19, McClean, Texas

McClean is another now-quiet Route 66 Texas town that is trying to reinvent itself or at least attract more Route 66 voyagers. It looks like so many other small towns in the heartland: a main strip, sturdy square-front shops, of which some are occupied but many empty, an occasional hair/fingernails emporium, and an occasional government entity in one of the storefronts. This could be in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, or Oklahoma.

The outskirts of town have some interesting farm sheds, but probably not of interest to the typical Route 66 traveler.

Ah ha, an artist has been at work on a 66 mural.

We saw another classic 1920s peaked-roof Phillips 66 station. This one was restored by the Texas Route 66 Association, according to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook ("Turbocharged Fourth Edition").

Here is a mid-century gas station, possibly clad with enameled steel panels, although not in the best condition.

This little house was across the street from the Phillips 66 restored station. The housing stock in McClean was mixed, but mostly rather rough. We only stayed a short while and proceeded on our way on the Mother Road.

Digital images are from a Fujifilm X-E1 camera.

Update: I found a black and white film photograph of the Phillips 66 station from my Olympus Trip 35 camera on Kodak BW400CN film. A polarizer enhanced the clouds. Comments welcome on whether you prefer the color or monochrome versions.

Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 14, Tucumcari, New Mexico

Ranch House Cafe, Tucumcari, NM. Kodak BW400CN film, Yashica Electro 35CC camera, polarizer filter.

Tucumcari is a Route 66 explorer's delight. It is chock full of closed or venerable motels, stores, and other 1950s detritus. According to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook (by Drew Knowles), Tucumcari is known by people around the globe for its quintessential Route 66 cultural artifacts. As usual, I should have spent more time here with real film; the example above shows the potential.

Driving in from the west, one of the first places you encounter is the old Paradise Motel and Cafe. Well, it is not much of a paradise today. The main motel building looks like it is 1960s architecture; the Sinclair gas station possibly a bit older?

 You can stay at the Buckaroo Motel. The office looks relatively modern, but the Buckaroo sign has a 1960s or 1970s appearance.

This Esso station also has a 1960s vibe. According to Wikipedia, Esso (ˈɛsoʊ) was an acronym for Eastern States Standard Oil, one of the many companies spun off from Standard Oil in 1932. In 1972, most ESSO branded stations were replaced with the EXXON name.

Here is another abandoned filling station with not enough information to identify its original brand.

Here is the Magnolia - possibly another Esso Texaco Teague Type C.

If you are hungry, the Ranch House Cafe (see the black and white frame at the beginning of this article) or Rubee's Diner will not be of much culinary use.

But divert from Route 66 and go downtown, and the El Pueblito Cafe is open.

And the La Cita with its Mexican Hat will serve you Mexican meals. The menu looked good but it was the wrong time for lunch.

There is a scattering of Art Deco architecture downtown, although not nearly as spectacular as you see in Albuquerque. The theatre is still operating, according to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook. Good for it!

The Tucumcari Depot is another one of the handsome mission-style Santa Fe depots. It has been restored and contains a railroad museum.

Some of the commercial buildings downtown have decayed and collapsed. It is sad, another American small town that was once bustling and active.

Back to Route 66 at the east side of town, we have two more old-style motels, the Blue Swallow and the Tucumcari Inn. The Blue Swallow was built in the 1940s from surplus WWII cabins. I do not know if they are still present. Tucumcari Inn has seen better days - at $29.95, a long time ago (unless that was the hourly rate).

With a rather nondescript Polly Gas, we come to the end of Tucumcari. Tucumcari is a quintessential Route 66 town, and worth a return when I have more time and with black and white film.

The color frames are from a Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera with various lenses. The first photograph is from Kodak BW400CN film. This is a C-41 type of film, meaning it can be developed in the same chemicals as any color print film. Years ago, almost any drug store or film kiosk in a mall could develop C-41, but now you need to send the film to a professional laboratory.  I often use North Coast Photographic Services in California.

Photographic Bargain: the 135mm ƒ/3.5 Pentax Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens

Background

The 135mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar (or the almost-identical older Super-Takumar) lens for M42 screw-mount cameras from Asahi Optical Company of Japan (more recently known as Pentax) is one of the great bargains for film photographers and some digital photographers.

The 135mm focal length was popular through much of the 20th century. Leica and Zeiss sold 135mm lenses starting in the 1930s. During the single-lens-reflex boom of the 1960s and 1970s, all the Japanese companies made 135 lenses for their respective cameras. Often, that was the second lens a budding photographer bought, until the marketers convinced amateurs that they "needed" the off-brand 80-210mm zoom lenses (i.e., more profit margin for camera stores).

Honeywell Pentax advertisement, Modern Photography, June 1968.

For more information about the wonderful Spotmatic cameras, Casualphotofile wrote an excellent summary in 2017. Mike Johnston wrote about the Spotmatic in Theonlinephotographer in 2017 and explained why the Pentax 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens was one of the finest 50s in the film era. The table below lists the various Spotmatic models.

Asahi Pentax screw-mount Cameras1
Model2	Date	Features
Original	1957	Modern appearance, right side wind lever, instant return mirror. ≈ $199 with 55 mm f/2.2.
S	1957	Contemporary geometric sequence of shutter speeds.  9 lensesavailable.
K	1958	Semi-automatic diaphragm
Asahi S3 (identical to Honeywell H3)	1960	Fully automatic diaphragm.  $199 with 55 f/1.8 lens.
Honeywell H1	1961	≈ $150;  1/500 top speed.  World's first clip-on CdS meter available ($32).
Asahi S3v (Honeywell H3v)	1963 - 1969	Added self-timer and automatic frame counter.
Asahi S1a  (H1a)	1963 - 1969	Added auto frame counter.  14 lenses available.
Spotmatic	1964 - 1971	Through-the-lens CdS meter.  $299 with 50 f/1.4.  Very popular!  Most chrome, some black paint.  Motorized model made in 1970 (uncommon).
SL	1969	Same as Spotmatic but without CdS meter.
Spotmatic 500	1971	Lower cost, 1/500 top speed, supplied with 55 f/2.0.
Spotmatic II	1971	Added accessory shoe;  sold with multi-coated lenses with extra indexing levers.
Spotmatic IIa	1972	Sensor for automatic Honeywell flash.
ES	1972	First Pentax auto exposure camera with electronically-controlled shutter.
Spotmatic F	1974	Finest manual Spotmatic; open-aperture metering, $375 with 55mm f/1.8.
SP 1000	1974	No self-timer
ESII	1974?	Improved reliability over ES. End of the era for screw-mount bodies.
Notes: 1.  Sources:  “A History of Pentax” articles by W. L. Fadner in Shutterbug (1988) 2.  U.S. cameras had the Honeywell name and logo on the prism.  International models were labeled with the Asahi name and logo. Many servicemen brought Asahi models back from Vietnam.

M42 thread mount

M42 refers to the thread-mount of 42×1 mm used to attach the lens to the camera body. This was a common size in the 1960s and 1970s. European, Russian, and Japanese companies made hundreds of M42 lenses in various focal lengths. Many people consider Asahi Optical Company's lenses to be among the best optically and mechanically in that era. It is common to buy an old Takumar lens that will still operate perfectly, while a drastically more expensive Leica lens of similar age will likely have haze or film on the inner elements and need professional cleaning and re-lubrication. The Takumar lenses have a following among serious photographers today because they can be mounted on most mirrorless digital cameras. The M42 mount lost popularity in the 1970s because it was slow to exchange lenses, and companies like Nikon and Canon used faster bayonet mounts on their cameras.

The 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar or SMC Takumar is another under-appreciated gem.  I tested my bargain 35 around town and at the Tomato Place.

Production

Asahi (or Pentax - the names are confusing) made a M42 135mm lens as early as 1957. It was modified over the following years with improved coatings and different cosmetics, but the optical formula remained approximately the same. The multi-coated version I have was, according to one source, in production from 1971 to 1977. It is a relatively simple design of 4 elements in 4 groups.

Advertisement from Cambridge Camera Exchange, Popular Photography, January 1981, p. 164.

Advertisement from Cambridge Camera Exchange, Popular Photography, December 1985, p. 105.

Production of Takumar M42 lenses ended in 1976 or 1977, when Pentax switched to its K bayonet mount. But some of the M42 lenses, including the 135, were available brand new as late as the mid-1980s. In the 1981 advertisement above, the 135mm lens is only $79.95, a bargain even in those days. Today, you can buy them on eBay in the range of $20 to $50.

Coating

My lens has the label "Super-Multi-Coated" on the front ring. This refers to multi-coating on the lens elements to reduce flare. Asahi introduced multi-coating in 1971 and advertised widely to emphasize how it was a unique technology. That is not entirely correct because other companies were already using multi-coating on specific elements in their optics. Asahi did not invent multi-coating, having bought patents from Optical Coatings Laboratories Inc. (OCLI), California. Regardless, Asahi's advertising was effective, and soon customers demanded multi-coating for all their lenses, whether they needed it or not. It tended to be most effective on complex wide angle lenses with many elements. On a simple long lens like the 135, multi-coating would have minimal benefit. Regardless, the best way to reduce flare is to always use a hood, and the 135 Takumar was supplied with a long deep hood.

Despite the obvious benefits of a hood, most point-and-shoot cameras of the 1980s and 1990s did not have any way to attach a hood for two reasons: 1. Users had been told that multi-coating negated the need for a hood (wrong); 2. Casual users would not use them even if supplied (lazy or uncaring).

Examples

Humphreys Street, Itta Bena, Mississippi

Itta Bena, Mississippi (tripod-mounted)

I owned a Leica 135mm ƒ/4.0 Tele-Elmar lens for 20 years but used it for maybe 20 pictures. We just never bonded. This Pentax 135 has been in a cabinet for who knows how long, also unused. But increasingly I am appreciating its ability to compress space, especially for urban scenes and railroad tracks. I am an old geezer now; my viewpoint and photo interests have changed. The two frames above are from Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta on a hazy, glarey day.

Crenshaw, Mississippi

Crenshaw, Mississippi

Crenshaw is a small Delta town on Hwy 3 a short distance northeast of Clarksdale. Most of the commercial block is abandoned, and some of the shops have lost their roofs. Many small Delta towns look like this.

Webb Mississippi (Kodak BW400CN film)

Main Street, Webb, Mississippi

Webb is off Hwy US 49E southeast of Clarksdale and along the Little Tallahatchee River. It is another semi-abandoned town with most of the late-19th and early 20th century commercial buildings empty. These two photographs are on Kodak BW400CN film.

Farm fields, Rte 32 near Webb, Mississippi

Finally, I want to do some more experiments with trees. So many farm fields have these lone, proud trees rising from the flat soil, apparently immune to lightning and other hazards. So maybe I will start taking "pretty" pictures. Beware.