Route 66
Celebrating America's famed Highway

By Ray Chatelin

Beginning at Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant in downtown Chicago and ending at a Pacific beach in Santa Monica, Calif., hundreds of small towns that owe their existence to Route 66, and dozens of large cities along the route, are honoring the highway that helped define a nation when it needed defining the most.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of America’s most famous road. And celebrations are taking place across eight states for pavement that doesn’t even officially exist anymore.

Don’t bother looking for Route 66 on any road map, because it was decommissioned years ago and exists now only in the minds and hearts of those who seek its now-fragmented course across mid-America.

Yet, if you believe that a vacation begins when you leave the driveway, or you’re a sucker for neon lights, home-cooked meals, and friendly folk, then heading West along the old highway is the way you should go. Just be willing to sample overly-hot chili, slurp root beer floats out of frosty mugs, or tackle a greasy burger platter that requires at least a dozen napkins.

And, if you still have them, you’ll feel comfortable in bobby-socks and fruit boots and listening to tapes of Hit Parade tunes from the ‘50s. For the highway is more than just a long strip of pavement that leads to the coast - it’s a nostalgic journey back into an America of yesteryear.

The pavement is still out there, if you know where to look. And so are the dreams it represented, the characters and roadside establishment that gave it life, and the memories and images of the great migrations from East to West across eight states and three time zones.

“In the past we have offered motorcoach tours of the entire route from Chicago to Santa Monica,” said Mark Hoffmann, CTP, owner of Sports Leisure Vacations in Sacramento, Calif. “We’d fly people into Chicago for the 15-day tour, going from East to West just as the early migrants did as they traveled on their way westward to find a better life.”

“And we focused on the color and character of small towns, villages and the culture along the route (ld) the amazing people who ran businesses,” said Scott Farrell, Sport Leisure Vacation’s senior tour director.

While the tours were discontinued a couple of years ago, the company is resurrecting them within the next two years, said Hoffmann. And with the rebirth of those tours, Americans and offshore visitors alike will be able to taste, see and experience the highlights of a remarkable period in American history – a five-decade period that, in many ways, defined the country of today.

A Brief History
Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, and through the decades this remarkable stretch of pavement has been celebrated in song and literature, in architecture and lights. Route 66 became an escape route for Dust Bowl pilgrims, a thoroughfare for troop convoys bound for war and the most popular highway in the country for droves of tourists. The original 2,448-mile-long road was not fully paved end-to-end until 1937.

The original Route 66 has been replaced by the interstate highways I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-10, but still a surprisingly high amount of old road and remnants of America in the 40’s, 50’s and ‘60’s is waiting to be found by adventurous travelers.

One of the most spectacular segments of the old highway is across northern Arizona, through the Painted Desert with its ever-changing color schemes and into Flagstaff where Route 66 festivities were part of the city’s Heritage Day celebrations this past summer.

“There has been an enormous impact on our local economy because of [international] interest in Route 66,” said Ana Pederson of the Flagstaff Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We recently had a German filmmaker here and he was absolutely fascinated by Route 66 and what it meant historically to America.”

That history, and the people who made it, have made Route 66 a worldwide phenomenon. Paul Taylor, publisher of (it)Route 66(it) magazine, says that about 80 percent of the items in the magazine’s online store are sold to Europeans.

“Route 66 is part of America,” said Taylor, who started his magazine in 1983 after growing up near the highway by Springfield, Ill. “The old Route 66 television series helped in gaining a following because of reruns in Europe. Now, the old road is a favorite of the motorcycling traveler who wants to see Americana firsthand.”

David Knudson, executive director of the National Historic Route 66 Federation who lives in Jujunga, Calif., not far from the Route 66 terminus, agrees.

“About 40 percent of the hits we get on the national Web site are from other countries,” said Knudson. “What’s happening everywhere is that small towns along the route are restoring their heritage. And people are coming from all over the world to experience our culture and heritage.”

The Mom and Pop businesses that eventually blossomed into America’s modern tourism industry were born on this road, known as “Main Street.” Route 66 gave birth to the roadside motel that had restaurants, souvenir shops and swimming pools, conveniences unknown until then. Among the more famous still associated with Route 66 is the El Vado and Zia Motor Lodge in Albuquerque, N.M. And in Tucumcari, New Mexico, the restored Blue Swallow is about as classic a ‘50s motel as you can get, right down to the pink stucco walls, neon swallow and the sign boasting “100% refrigerated air”. Even the modern gas service station was developed along Route 66. Among the most outstanding examples of the evolution of gas stations are Soulsby’s Shell station in Mount Olive, Ill.; Bob Audettes’ gas station complex in Barton, N.M.; and the Tower Fina Station in Shamrock, Texas.

In almost every state along the old Route ‘66, there’s a concerted effort to maintain and restore the America of that time. Neon is being rebuilt, old motels are being renovated and the style of old eating establishments on the route are being incorporated into places like the Route 66 Diner in Albuquerque, N.M.

“America was built on the back of the automobile,” said Hoffmann. “It’s only natural that a lot of this country’s legacy is related to the car. And Route 66 is identified with American history, the movement West. That’s why it’s important to travel East to West, like the old wagon trains. The old highway has remained important because it still has economic impact.”

Oklahoma, the state with more than 400 miles of open road beckoning the adventurous (ld) the longest stretch of intact Highway 66 pavement (ld) realized the importance of celebrating the history of Route 66. In 1989, the Oklahoma state legislature recognized the need for an agency to handle the preservation and promotion of Oklahoma Route 66. However, passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 (ld) a financial umbrella to underwrite the cost of the national interstate and defense highway system (ld) meant the end of the highway. And its outdated, poorly maintained vestiges completely succumbed to the interstate system in October 1984 when the final section of the original road was replaced by Interstate 40 at Williams, Ariz. There were no ceremonies for the road’s “official” passing. No news items on television or radio. Yet, this is a road that had not only traversed Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, linking hundreds of small and large towns along the way. In many cases, Route 66 created those towns, and later, saw their death. Follow the road and you pass along 20th Century American history. John Steinbeck’s novel, “Grapes of Wrath,” helped gain international fame for the highway. His stories of mid-America’s hardships during the years of the dust bowl are now part of American folklore. An estimated 210,000 people migrated to California to escape the despair of that time. During World War II, that highway transported troops across America and after the war, many abandoned the winters of Chicago, New York City and Boston for the barbecue culture of the Southwest and the West via Route 66. Bobby Troup, former pianist with the Tommy Dorsey band and ex-Marine captain, penned a lyrical road map of the route in which the words, “get your kicks on Route 66” became a national theme song for the highway.

The Route Today
With a $10 million grant from Congress, Knudson and associates began setting up state organizations in 1994, which in turn led to Route 66 being publicized worldwide as a 2,400-mile museum of roadside America.

The Ariston Café, a second generation eating establishment in Litchfield, Ill., is another of those roadside “museums.” Now owned and operated by Nick and Demi Adam, it was established in 1924 by Nick’s father, Pete. The essential character of the place has remained the same over the years.

“What better way of seeing the country than driving through its cultural heart,” said Adam. “We just had five people from France leave on their way westward. And a guy was here roller-blading the entire length of Route 66.”

Skip Curtis, author of the Missouri US66 Tour Book, has seen the route resurrect itself into one of America’s biggest tourist draws; a phenomenon that he says has meant more than just jobs.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia involved. But, it is also bringing back the idea of Mom and Pop (ld) an era when the family stayed together and did things,” he said. “The heart of America has found its place again where it belongs.”

Will the highway ever again be commissioned under its old designation? “No, not a chance,” said Taylor. “It has great historical significance, but it has been replaced.” However, Main Street USA is alive and well in central Illinois. “A major part of Route 66 goes through downtown Springfield,” said Wanda Keil, CTP, of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau. “And we have a big demand for tours that include this.”

And it’s no wonder. Route 66 is the classic family vacation highway; the unusual destinations along the way were originally created to compete for the attention of open-eyed vacationers. And with such quaint and unique stops as the Cozy Drive-in (home of the Cozy corn dog) and Shea’s Gas Station Museum (with its ecclectic assortment of Route 66 trinkets), traveling along this stretch of the Mother Road can be a great way to tap into some heavy-duty nostalgia.

“There are greasy spoons and places along the way that feature Route 66 memorabilia, and the people that own the places absolutely love having visitors,” said Keil. “It’s been a really big plus for us.”

Journeying along Route 66 is a microcosm of mid-20th Century America, a time both of hardship and growth, of pain and joy. And of what now seems a time of simplicity, with root beer floats and greasy burgers and a lot of fun.