The Fading Glory of America's Highway Rest Stops

A new photography book, The Last Stop: Vanishing Rest Stops of the American Roadside ($45, powerHouse Books), captures the functionality and design of aging U.S. highway rest areas, with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

Over nearly 15 road-trips since 2009—several taken with her mother in tow—the California-based photographer Ryann Ford traveled the American West, Midwest, and parts of the South in search of the unique character that defines these highway fixtures. At one since-disappeared location in Flower Mound, Texas, a picnic table is covered by a roof in the shape of longhorns. A curved aluminum shelter offers shade amidst the arctic-like glow of White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. In Blackwell, Oklahoma, a bench surrounded by a minimalist arrangement of wooden poles suggests a teepee.