Kerouac Gas Station in Longmont, CO Photo Gallery by Paul Verizzo at pbase.com

Kerouac Gas Station in Longmont, CO

"By the time he left me off in Longmont, Colorado, I was feeling normal again and had even started telling him about the state of my own travels. He wished me luck.

It was beautiful in Longmont. Under a tremendous old tree was a bed of green lawn-grass belonging to a gas station. I asked the attendant if I could sleep there, and he said sure; so I stretched out a wool shirt, laid my face flat on it, with an elbow out, and with one eye cocked at the snowy Rockies in the hot sun for just a moment. I fell asleep for two delicious hours, the only discomfort being an occasional Colorado ant. And here I am in Colorado! I kept thinking gleefully. Damn! damn! damn! I'm making it! And after a refreshing sleep filled with cobwebby dreams of my past life in the East I got up, washed in the station men's room, and strode off, fit and slick as a fiddle, and got me a rich thick milkshake at the roadhouse to put some freeze in my hot, tormented stomach.

Incidentally, a very beautiful Colorado gal shook me that cream; she was all smiles, too; I was grateful, it made up for last night. I said to myself, Wow! What'll Denver be like!

(Jack catches a fast ride down 287 to Denver.)

He let me off at Larimer Street. I stumbled along with the most wicked grin of joy in the world, among the old bums and beat cowboys of Larimer Street."

Jack Kerouac, On The Road, Ch. 5
Recounting events that probably took place in 1947. He had just hitched down from Cheyenne on 287, it may be reasonably presumed. Longmont was a tiny farm town then, mostly ending on the north side where 9th Avenue is, and a few blocks south of Main Street, about a half mile. The gas stations would have been few, and maybe only the old Johnson's Corner just south of town would have sported grass, as it still sort of does today. It would also enable the view of the Rockies, the trees in town prohibit that line of sight. Where and what was the roadhouse?

There are a few items on the net from the Boulder Weekly and Camera on the gas station. I got these pictures not long before it was to be razed, then it was saved by people who cared. I understand that it is located only a mile or two south of its origin on 287. I should get up there and add some photos.

http://www.boulderweekly.com/archive/053002/newsspin.html (About 1/2 way down.)
http://www.thedailycamera.com/news/talbott/2002/0314ltalb.html

I had, and then lost, a great B&W image of this station when it was relatively new. As a historical quirk, I worked at a different Johnson's Corner near Longmont, Colorado in 1973 during the "gas crisis." http://www.johnsonscorner.com/ Old Joe Johnson was still overseeing the operation. Little did I know.....

A brief Associated Press item about the move: http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307&L=poetics&D=1&O=A&P=1019

If you haven't already done so, please visit my other Beat photo sites:
Denver Beat Tour: https://pbase.com/pzo/beat_tour
Neal Cassady Sr. Gravesite: https://pbase.com/pzo/ncgravesite
Kerouac's Last House in St. Pete, FL: https://pbase.com/pzo/jacks_house

NEW! Check out my Beat Tour using Google Earth or Google maps: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/696545/an/0/page/0#696545

From North.jpg	From South.jpg	Rear.jpg	Inside looking South.jpg
Inside looking North.jpg	Inside out to 287.jpg	The Door that Jack walked through.jpg	Johnson also had a truck stop on 285, now I-25.

comment |

Don Ross		19-Nov-2019 23:48
all photos i have seen are from the johnsons corner on south main. i always went to the one on north main. it was the opposite of the south. joe Johnson lived in a house just south of the station. really nice man.

Guest		15-Mar-2014 07:21
Paul Verizzo, re-read my comment.

JTM		14-Dec-2012 18:15
I think that the truck stop would have been on US 85, rather than 285.

Paul Verizzo		19-Oct-2012 19:02
Not sure how I have the "wrong" Johnson's corner, AG. All this has to do with the southern one. Did Jack stop at the one north of town? No particular record to indicate, or hint at, one or the other. But since the northern one is long gone (at least since 1973 when I moved to Longmont), perhaps we can just live out the legend with this one?

AG		10-Oct-2012 19:19
I liked your story, but you have the wrong Johnson's Corner. I grew up in Longmont and was going to the old high school on Main Street when On the Road came out. There were two Johnson's Corners in Longmont -- one on the south end of town and one on the north end of town. The Johnson's Corner on the northend of town had a soda fountain where you could get malts in those days and there was grass and trees nearby. The Johnson's Corner on the south end of town was surrounded by asphalt and gravel and lacked the soda fountain that the Johnson's Corner on the north end had. I knew the south Johnson's Corner wellThe south Johonson's Corner manager lived in an apartment over the station. I know, because as a very young boy, I was infatuated with one of his daughters. The north Johnson's Corner stayed open very late: You could buy beer there up to two o'clock in the morning or have a cup coffee. It was interesting who you might see there late at night...doctors who were still making house calls, police officers, newspaper reporters. Sometimes, one could feel that it was part of a Hopper painting such as "Nighthawks". I've also drunk malts at the north Johnson's Corner. And like Jack Kerouac, "a very beautiful Colorado gal shook me that cream". I haven't been to Longmont for many years, but I have followed the glamorization of the south Johnson's Corner. I have been amazed at how a station sitting in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it has attracted so much attention.

EC		11-May-2012 04:13
this station is now on stilts! the site has super-yuppie condos there now and the station is moved about 50yds from where it was -- surrounded by a chain link. what's going on? at least they didn't demolish it -- but that beautiful deco, they should have incorporated it with the new development somehow :(

Guest		29-Dec-2009 18:22
i would read and hope to see also

Guest		29-Dec-2009 18:22
i would read and hope to see also

Jerome		02-Jul-2003 11:13
The gas station is "On the Road" ;) http://www1.dailycamera.com/bdc/longmont_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2426_2077835,00.html

Karen		04-May-2003 13:32
I like your photography. Do you write also? I think I read one of yours in one of your postings about the war. I'll have to go back and check!

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