History of the Crossing

The birth the Crossing was in 1954 when it was a Root Beer stand.  The original building is occupying the site of the current bar.  It was a 20’ x 20’ concrete block construction and if you look closely you can see the block walls that made up the building.   There was only outside seating with a large Elm tree providing ample shade during those hot summer days.    The Root Beer stand enjoyed great success during those summer days and nights.  The business was closed during the winter and reopened come spring. 

Steve Trent bought the business in 1965 and made it into a bar.  During this time an incident occurred that lead to the naming of the CAMEL CROSSING.  During the winter of 1966-1967 a carcass was found by Mike Priest.  Now Mike and Verlin Bohnert enjoyed playing practical jokes on each other.  Mike had found a carcass and put in the trunk of his car and the next day Mike’s dad saw it and told him to get rid of it.  So Mike being the dutiful son that he is took the animal and placed it at his friend’s house.  Crawling on his belly, thru the snow, Mike propped the “CAMEL” up against the Bohnert’s garage door.  The garage door is directly across the street from the bar.  The next morning there sat the “CAMEL” for all to see.  The fellows at the filling station, cattycorner from Bohnert’s,  decided to put a sign up on the pole out front of the bar reading “CAMEL XING”.  The Journal & Courier heard of this event, slow news day, and took pictures and ran a story about this.  The truth be told I think Steve Trent called the paper and the wire service.  You see Steve Trent was a local radio DJ and was looking for some free publicity.   Well the story does not end there; WLS out of Chicago picked up on the story and came to Americus to investigate.  Larry Lujack did a program called “Animal Stories” and he thought it was quite funny.  Larry ran the story for a couple of days and all of a sudden people started coming from every where to see the “CAMEL”.

Dale and Carol Rhodes bought the bar in 1975 from Mr. Trent but did not like the name Camel Crossing.  They decided to add on to the building and put in a Pizza King.  The business was named “Rhodes Pizza King”.  They had kept the bar and made the addition of a family dining area.  The Rhodes had 26 great years at the restaurant and decided to retire and sell the business to the Beigh’s.

Dave, June and David bought Rhodes Pizza King in May 2003.  On learning the history of the business, decided to use the name The Camel Crossing, Home of Americus Pizza King.  We hope you find good food and lots of fun at our location.