Roadside Attraction: Retro Rest Stops
Road trips yield striking images of historical rest stops for photographer Ryann Ford.
W
hile driving from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, in 2007, photographer Ryann Ford took notice of the roadside rest areas that serve as relics from the early days of American highway travel. Before drive-through restaurants and commercial tourism centers began to dominate, these small structures provided a safe place for travelers to pull over and stretch their legs.
photo by: Ryann Ford
ANTHONY, NEW MEXICO A desert willow tree stands next to a painted-brick-and-wood shelter, one of 20 picnic shelters constructed in the mid-1970s at this southern New Mexico visitor center.
photo by: Ryann Ford
MONAHANS SANDHILLS STATE PARK, TEXAS This park in northwestern Texas opened to the public on November 23, 1957, with shade shelters such as the one shown above in the Willow Draw camping area. Featuring a metal roof and legs made of square tubing, they are easily movable, allowing park staff to clean excess sand out of the site.
photo by: Ryann Ford
JUAN SANTA CRUZ PICNIC AREA, TUCSON, ARIZONA With walls made of native stone and wooden beams spanning the roofline, this shelter, built between 1937 and 1940, has provided shaded seating for visitors to Tucson Mountain Park in southern Arizona.
photo by: Ryann Ford
POST, TEXAS Located off Highway 84, approximately 3 miles north of Post, this A-frame shelter was constructed in 1971.
photo by: Ryann Ford
GALVESTON ISLAND STATE PARK, TEXAS Hurricane Ike devastated the park in September 2008, but these mid- 1970s picnic shelters survived. Their shape was designed to mimic the area’s wind-swept sand dunes. The center holes represent the sun and provide picnickers with panoramic views.
photo by: Ryann Ford
NEAR FORT STOCKTON, TEXAS The exact construction date of this rest shelter 20 miles east of Fort Stockton on Interstate 10 is unknown. It was rehabilitated circa 1955 and again in 1977.
For the past six years, Ford has traveled the country documenting both the safety rest areas established as part of the Federal Highway Act of 1956, and the ones built for visitors to state and national parks. Many are abandoned or underused.
“A lot of people never even notice them,” Ford says.“They drive by them every day, or on road trips, and never give them a second thought.” But their designs, however humble, tell the story of a particular time and place.
Ford is turning her photographs, including those featured here, into a book, The Last Stop: Vanishing Relics of the American Roadside, due out from powerHouse Books next spring.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Explore more photos of historic Roadside Shelters around the country.
