Lebanon, Missouri: The Munger Moss Story

Lebanon was established in eighteen forty-nine as a Laclede County seat, positioned almost exactly halfway between Chicago and Santa Monica on what would become Route Sixty-Six. That geography made it a natural overnight stop. The Munger Moss Motel has an unusual origin: Nelle Munger and Emmett Moss first opened a barbecue sandwich shop in Devils Elbow in nineteen thirty-six, then Pete and Jessie Hudson bought the business and moved it to Lebanon in nineteen forty-five, adding tourist cabins the following year.

Bob and Ramona Lehman ran the motel from nineteen seventy-one until their deaths and became legendary advocates for the Mother Road. The neon sign was restored in twenty ten, and the City of Lebanon took over conservation of the property in twenty twenty-five. The motel still takes guests, a rare working survivor of the classic Route Sixty-Six era.