Campbell's Service, Pacific
May 2026
This is definitely the year to get your kicks on Route 66 in Missouri. Folks around the country—and even the globe—will be celebrating the centennial of the Mother Road, which was “born” on April 30, 1926, in Springfield.
Missouri is fortunate to have many segments of the historic road still intact, plus a number of original attractions scattered along the route from St. Louis to Joplin.
A new attraction that looks and feels vintage is Campbell’s Service, a museum of petroliana (or petroleum memorabilia) on Historic Route 66 in Pacific. The collection showcases artifacts related to service stations from the early days of the 1920s through the height of Route 66 usage in the 1950s and 1960s and beyond.
The museum is the project of Larry West of Kirkwood, who owns West Contracting next door to the museum. West had been collecting automotive items for 30 years, decorating his office with them. He recently bought three acres next to his company with a small unused church building on it. About that time, he acquired an extensive petroliana collection from Duane Campbell of Union.
Realizing that all the items would not fit in his office, he decided to remodel the church building to look like a vintage service station and use it as a museum to hold his newly expanded collection.
“I named the station ‘Campbell’s Service’ to acknowledge the 40-plus years that Duane and his family dedicated to assembling this notable collection,” says West.
The Route 66 Centennial gave West a deadline. The museum opened in 2025 and has already seen lots of traffic.
“I have already had many guests from all over the world,” says West. “A large portion of the visitors from other countries fly to Chicago, rent a car and drive the existing sections of Route 66 to Santa Monica, California. It’s a great way to see the heartland of America.”
You can’t miss the museum, with its tall Phillips 66 sign out front, the fuel tanker truck parked near the building and two vintage gas pumps under the portico. Inside, you’ll see a 1929 Model A Ford and a 1956 Ford 100 pickup, both beautifully restored.
There’s a heavy emphasis on Phillips 66 memorabilia, most of which is from Campbell’s collection. Among the many restored gas pumps, the clockface pump is West’s favorite. You’ll find vintage road signs, advertisements, automotive equipment, toys, maps and much more.
Campbell’s Service is located at 18625 Historic Route 66 in Pacific. The museum is open by chance or by appointment; use the contact form on the website to arrange a visit. There is no admission fee but donations are welcome. For more information, visit Campbell’s Service–Route 66 Museum on Facebook.
Sixkiller Funeral Museum, Thayer
February 2026
People collect all sorts of stuff, but funerary items are not particularly common. Which is why the Sixkiller Funeral Museum in Thayer is almost certain to contain things you have never seen or known about before.
How did Chris and Laila Sixkiller get started in this unusual pursuit?
“My dad was in the funeral industry,” says Laila, who has been collecting funeral-related items for the past 12 years. “When I met my husband, he was driving hearses. Chris is a fan of station wagons and Cadillacs; hearses are the quickest way to get both. We took our interests and combined them.”
The couple was living in Springfield when they found the three-story building in Thayer for sale. “It had ample garage space for our five hearses, and I wanted to use the storefront for the museum.”
The ground floor houses the museum while the couple lives on the second floor. Laila operates an auto upholstery business on the third floor. The building is built into a hillside so each level has road access, and “we can drive into the second- floor garage and the third-floor upholstery shop.”
They moved to Thayer in July 2023 and opened the museum in October of that year during the Thayer Fall Festival. Although much of the building was basically a shell and needed lots of work, the 2,500-square-foot storefront was useable with just a fresh coat of paint.
Of the hundreds of items in the collection, Laila likes to showcase things related to female undertakers. She has four women’s embalmer licenses dating from 1928 to 1950. “These are very unusual for that time frame,” she says. “You had to be born or married into the business.” She also likes the advertising pieces that feature female embalmers.
The most historic—and definitely the heaviest—item is the 1948 Champion embalming table made of porcelain and cast iron. It weighs 950 pounds.
The table is from the Gorman-Scharpf funeral home in Springfield. According to Laila’s research, Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, died at the Medical Center for Federal Prisons in Springfield in 1963 and underwent his post-mortem examination on the table.
Halloween is a natural fit for special events and decorations at the museum, but the upcoming holiday season brings a meet-and-greet with a surprise visitor: Krampus, an 8-foot animatron that moves and makes noises. A special event is being planned; check the Sixkiller Funeral Museum’s Facebook page, for details about that and other events throughout the year.
The Sixkiller Funeral Museum is located at 203 Front Street and is open Friday through Sunday year-round by appointment by calling 417-840-4054. There is no admission fee, but donations are accepted.