The second Route 66 mural planned for Boswell Park will be unveiled Saturday at the Lebanon Route 66 Festival.

The mural depicts a 1929 Texaco gas truck crossing the Gasconade River bridge in eastern Laclede County. It will join the previously unveiled mural of a 1957 Chevrolet driving Route 66 at the entrance to Lebanon.

A third mural — a tribute to the Nelson family, Lebanon Route 66 pioneers — will be unveiled later this year at a ceremony honoring the donors of the project. The plaque listing the donors will be unveiled at that time.

The Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society is closing in on the $75,000 fundraising goal. The Saturday of the festival will be the last day donors of $100 or more may have their names added to the plaque.

The unveiling of the second mural will be part of a program at 2 p.m. Saturday on a stage by the murals. Representatives of Laclede County government, which donated $25,000 toward the project, will pull the cord.

The two-day Lebanon Route 66 Festival returns after a seven-year absence thanks to a partnership between the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society and the Lebanon Parks and Recreation Department. Previous festivals were held from 2001 to 2009.

The festival will be in two locations, both on Route 66. On Friday afternoon and evening, June 16, attendees will gather outside the 71-year-old Munger Moss Motel, one of only a handful of existing Lebanon businesses that were operating on Route 66 before it was bypassed locally by Interstate 44 in 1957.

On Saturday, activities will move to Boswell Park, which has been redeveloped with a Route 66 theme, including the murals.

Source: The Lebanon Daily Record | June 13, 2017