'Once It's Gone, It's Gone': Community Members Look To Preserve Route 66's Historic Ribbon Road

Along the Mother Road, several attractions bring in people from all around the world, but one portion in Green Country stands out.

"It's hard to put into words what the Ribbon Road means," said Beth Hilburn. 

Hi-Way cafe owner Beth Hilburn said the single 9-foot-wide lane of highway is the original pavement of historic Route 66.

"Once it's gone, it's gone, and we can't get that back. The road was built, they started building it in 1919 so it's well over 100 years old, and I just feel like it's just very important to try to save as much of it as we can," Hilburn said. 

With months of back and forth between community members and local lawmakers, the preservation of the historic piece of the highway was up in the air. On July 15th, Miami city council voted to save Ribbon Road.

In a proposal from a county commissioner, one mile of Ribbon Road would remain original, while the other two miles would be paved over, but some travelers said that's not enough.

"Save it. I'd hate to see it torn up. Save it, got to save it, save as much as you can," said Sandra Parkinson and Doug Meier. 

The two drove to Ribbon Road from Canada.

"It's special, but each piece is special in its own way, how it came to be, why it came to be," Parkinson said. 

While some people saw cracks in the roadbed, others saw journeys of travelers that came before them.

"This chunk here would be number two of my lists on the hits, the brick roads got to be number one. Sorry, but this is truly amazing, truly amazing," Meier said. 

As they leave, Sandra and Doug would continue their way down Route 66, with more stops to add to the history of the road.