01
Devil's Rope Museum and Texas Route 66 exhibits
Stop 3 of 13 · Gray County
McLean on Texas Route 66
A compact Route 66 history stop with a National Register commercial district, the Devil's Rope/Route 66 museum complex and one of the best-known restored service stations on the Texas segment.
Route order
#3
County
Gray County
Stop type
town
Why it belongs
The Route 66 story here
McLean grew as a highway service town and remains one of the clearest places to read Route 66's commercial history at street level. The National Park Service and Texas Historical Commission both recognize the McLean Commercial Historic District as a significant Route 66 resource.
A complete Texas Route 66 road trip works because the famous landmarks are connected by places like this one. The route was a transportation system before it became a nostalgia trail: service stations, cafes, motels, bridges, commercial blocks, grain elevators and roadside advertising all developed around motorists moving across the Panhandle. Reading the communities in sequence gives the road more meaning than jumping directly from one photo stop to another.
On the ground
What to look for in McLean
02
Restored Phillips 66 service station and vintage roadside architecture
03
McLean Commercial Historic District
04
Historic storefronts, signs and service-station remnants along the old road
Plan the stop
Before you pull off the highway
- Allow at least an hour if the museum is open; more if you want to walk the historic district.
- Museum hours can be seasonal, so verify before making it the day's fixed-time stop.
- McLean is a natural food, fuel or rest break before the quieter Alanreed and Jericho-area stretches.
Source desk
Verify the historic record and current access
TexasDefined uses preservation and transportation authorities for the historic corridor. Hours, business operations, construction, private-property access and road conditions can change after publication, so use these sources and current local information before departure.
Previous stop
← Lela
A small highway community west of Shamrock that helps preserve the rural rhythm of Route 66 between the better-known Panhandle towns.
Next stop
Alanreed →
A small but evocative Route 66 community where surviving service-station architecture makes the old highway's roadside economy easy to see.