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Gary's Gay Parita

Retro roadside
In Paris Springs, Missouri
On Route 66

Gary's Gay Parita is a replica 1930s Sinclair service station at Paris Springs Junction, MO, sitting right on the old Route 66 west of Halltown. The first station here, named for owner Fred Mason's wife Gay, burned in 1955. Decades later Gary Turner rebuilt it as a roadside museum of old pumps, signs and cars, and his family keeps welcoming travelers today. Nothing is sold here; people stop for the stories.

What is Gary's Gay Parita?

A small Sinclair-style filling station with vintage pumps, old signs and classic cars and trucks parked around it. It stands on a quiet stretch of the 1926 road that now serves as a county road, with farmland all around.

History of Gary's Gay Parita

Fred and Gay Mason ran a Sinclair station at this junction in the early years of Route 66, and the name joined Gay's name with the nearby town of Paris Springs. Fire ended the business in 1955. Gary Turner and his wife Lena bought land here, and in the mid-2000s Gary rebuilt the station with his son. After Gary died in 2015, his daughter Barbara Barnes carried on, and in 2025 the station won a Missouri tourism award for hospitality.

Visiting Gary's Gay Parita: tips

Allow more time than you think: visitors often stay to talk. The station does not sell fuel or souvenirs. From here the old road runs on west toward Spencer and Carthage through quiet farm country.