Fatherless migratory family camped behind gas station. The mother is trying to support three boys by picking pears. Just arrived from Minnesota, she used to work in a restaurant there. Oldest boy, age ten, helped carry ladder from tree to tree Photograph made at end of day (temperature 106 degrees) when she returned from orchard. Yakima Valley, Washington

The gas station is a dying art, one that helped shape the course of American travel over the course of the XXth century. Some old gas stations have ended up on the National Register of Historic Places, but most of those solely act as landmarks and aren’t operational. Many been repurposed as restaurants or museums or even still offer their original services so visitors have an opportunity to interact with former roadside staples.