San Jon, New Mexico: A Quiet Stop on the Mother Road

Drive twenty miles east out of Tucumcari on old Route 66 and you’ll land in San Jon, New Mexico, a near-forgotten village.

Drive twenty miles east out of Tucumcari on old Route 66 and you’ll land in San Jon, New Mexico, a near-forgotten village that once served as a busy waypoint on the Mother Road. Founded in 1902, the place grew quickly after the railroad came through in 1904. By mid-century, the town offered the full menu of roadside essentials, filling stations, restaurants, and motels, serving travelers headed between the Texas Panhandle and the high plains of New Mexico.

That momentum stalled in 1981, when Interstate 40 cut a bypass just north of town. The steady flow of travelers dried up, and with them went Smith’s Café, the Circle M Motel, and the Old Route 66 Truck and Auto Parts garage. Today, the town’s neon has gone dark, and the main street is mostly quiet. A handful of businesses sit at the Interstate 40 interchange, with a few scattered along Route 66, including the tongue-in-cheek World’s Largest Flip Flop and Gift Shop, where a massive sandal faces the old highway.

The Western Motel still stands back in town, though it has long since shut its doors. On our visit, a 1963 Plymouth sat parked outside its office, sun-faded but resolute. The car and the empty motel echo the same story: San Jon’s glory days may be behind it, but the bones of its past remain for anyone curious enough to leave the interstate and follow the old road.