Frontier Land Cafe, Museum & More

I-40 Exit 284, Santa Rosa, NM
Phone:

East < GO > West

There's not a lot left of the Frontier Museum, Cafe, Bar, Trading Post and gas station s at I-40 exit 284 east of Santa Rosa. The Museum, Cafe and Bar were built sometime in the mid-50s, this wasn't Route 66 until 1952. For whatever reason the business was for sale by 1960, but did didn't find a buyer and struggled on for several more years before being closed and boarded up.

This was a Standard Oil station judging by the colors on the trim and the sign on the ground nearby. It is a newer building than the rest in the complex, so it must have been a late comer to the site, maybe a replacement for the older station at the trading post, but it is the first building you come to in the complex.

The Standard Oil sign with its fast fading lettering lays on the ground sign lays on the ground a little east of the station.

A little farther back on the property is the home of the home of William and Lucy Wilson who owned and operated the business. The Standard gas station sign is on the right in this photo.

The trading post / gas station building is rapidly crumbling with a good bit of the front wall and the roof missing.

Time, weather and vandals have taken their toll on the museum, cafe and bar building.

The sign posts for the museum, cafe and bar seem to be holding up better than the building, although the cafe sign can is the only thing that actually resembles a sign anymore.

At the east end of the complex you find these foundation ruins and behind them a long row of what appear to be concrete slabs. It's kind of a mystery to me at this point.

Auction ads for the property in the mid-1970s mention a 48 space RV park and I'm wondering if these ruins might be part of that. The 20 or so slabs appear to be about 8 feet wide separated by a grass area about 12 feet wide. About half of the slabs appear to be about 30 feet long and the rest about 20 feet long. The slabs are all lined up along what looks like a sidewalk.

I'm guessing the sidewalk and foundation ruin in the foreground in this photo were for the office, restrooms and managers quarters for the RV park.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

Early 1960s Postcard
Antiques Guns Curios
Frontier Museum
Service Station - Bar - Cafe
Authentic Relics Of The Old West
Indian Jewelry - Rugs
9 Miles East on Highways 66 - 54
W. S. . Wilson
C. F. Wilson
P. O. Box 2xx
Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Note: There's really nothing unusual about the promotional text on this postcard. It's pretty much what most of the similar tourist stops along the road offered. Nothing to make you say you really wanted to visit again. One point to notice is that the card doesn't mention any RV or camping services.
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Photo(s): 2013, 2019