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Golden Tours makes a stop at the
Mill on Route 66 Museum
[August 21, 2026]
On Wednesday, August 19th, the
Mill on Route 66 Museum welcomed 49 guests who were participating in
a Golden Tours bus trip celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route
66. The tour bus, out of Washington Illinois, had left the Pekin
area at 8 a.m. on their way to the Little Theater in Sullivan. The
only planned stop on the route was the Mill. After a long visit,
they then re-boarded the bus and went to the Sullivan area, where
they stopped for an authentic Amish Mill before attending a Route 66
themed musical at the Little Theater.
On hand to greet the guests were Logan County Tourism Bureau
director Wanda Lee Rohlfs and volunteer Susan Harmon.
While waiting for the bus to arrive Wednesday morning, Rohlfs was
asked if the Mill was seeing an increase in visitors for the Route
66 anniversary year. She said she felt like there probably was an
increase, but it was hard to say how this year compares to last
year, because the LCTB was in transition last summer. She said the
advertised visitor center was downtown, and she had no way of
knowing how many people went there, found it closed and instead of
coming to the Mill as requested, had just moved on. She said she
figured there were some.
On the other hand, she said she felt like the last few weeks in
particular the Mill has been busy. Harmon reported that in the last
two weeks, the Mill has received over 120 visitors. Of those about
75 were domestic tourists. She said that guests had come from
Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana. Rohlfs said what was amazing to her was
the number of international visitors and where they were from. It
was noted that the largest number had come from Canada, Germany and
Italy, with lesser numbers from Argentina, Spain, France, and
Poland.
Harmon offered narratives on the different displays in the building
and offered many details about the Mill. She talked about the huge
restoration project, pointing out photos of the building in its
state of ruin and current photos with its new windows, siding, and
fresh paint. Harmon explained that there were hours of volunteer
work that went into the structure including repairs to the building
overall, work on floors, electrical and much more.
When she moved on the displays that defined the color and character
of the Mill in its heyday, guests were quite entertained by the
wiggling foot handing down from the ceiling. And several got quite
the kick out of hearing about the screaming basket that was
strategically placed in the women’s bathroom when the Huffman family
was running the Mill.
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She told the story of how the
basket had a foghorn sounding devise tucked inside and a bold
sign that said, “do not open.” She said often guests to the
restroom could not resist peeking inside, and when they did the
horn would sound loud enough that everyone in the diner area
heard it and would be waiting, watching, snickering, and
laughing when the guilty party tried to slink out of the
bathroom.
The visitors enjoyed checking out
the quirky items that are on display around the mill, reminiscing
about their favorite handout that had booths and tables similar to
what was on display. The gift shop was also popular and guests
looked through the wide variety of merchandise looking to find the
perfect souvenir to commemorate the trip.
As they boarded the bus to move on toward Sullivan, each guest was
given a light snack from the LCTB that included a windmill shaped
cookie.
LCTB
volunteer Susan Harmon shares stories about the Mill on Route 66
Museum in Lincoln, Illinois video
[Nila Smith]
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