Route 66
“66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership… 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.”
-John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
The Road That Built a Dream
There’s a particular kind of magic in an open highway — the promise of movement, reinvention, and possibility stretching endlessly toward the horizon. Before there were interstates and chain restaurants, there was one road that captured America’s restless spirit and gave it a path forward: Route 66.
Known around the world as the “Mother Road,” this iconic stretch of pavement stitched together small towns and big dreams, becoming far more than a transportation project. It became a symbol of freedom, resilience, and discovery — a living story told mile by mile.
The Visionary Start: Cyrus Avery’s Big Idea
The story of Route 66 begins in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a businessman named Cyrus Avery. In the 1920s, as the automobile was transforming American life, Avery believed the nation needed a connected system of highways that would link rural towns with booming cities.
When the federal government proposed a national highway network, Avery lobbied fiercely for a major east-west road that would run through the heartland, connecting Chicago to Los Angeles. He saw it not just as a line on a map, but as an economic lifeline for farmers, small business owners, and travelers alike.
In 1926, his vision became reality when U.S. Highway 66 was officially commissioned. Stretching 2,448 miles through eight states — Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California — it was immediately embraced as a road of opportunity.
One of the earliest marvels along the route was the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri. Built in 1929, it spanned the Mississippi River with a quirky 22-degree bend halfway across, a fitting gateway to a road full of surprises.
Highway of Hope in the Great Depression
When the Great Depression and Dust Bowl struck, Route 66 became far more than a highway — it was a pathway to survival. Families from Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, their farms devastated by drought, loaded their lives into rickety trucks and headed west, chasing rumors of work in California’s fertile valleys.
John Steinbeck immortalized this migration in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, giving Route 66 its enduring nickname: “The Mother Road.”
Along the way, roadside establishments became essential lifelines. In Hydro, Oklahoma, Lucille’s Service Station, built in 1929, gained fame for its owner’s generosity. Lucille Hamons was known for offering food, fuel, and kindness to weary travelers, cementing the station’s place as the “Mother of the Mother Road.”
The Golden Age: America’s Main Street
By the late 1940s and 1950s, America’s love affair with the open road was in full swing. Returning soldiers, a booming middle class, and shiny new cars created a new culture of family road trips. Route 66 transformed into the “Main Street of America,” lined with neon-lit motels, diners, and quirky attractions designed to capture a driver’s attention and imagination.
It was during this golden era that some of Route 66’s most famous oddities emerged:
The Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma, a giant smiling whale built as a whimsical swimming hole.
Meramec Caverns in Missouri, a vast cave system billed on countless painted barns as “Jesse James’ Hideout.”
The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, where families could “sleep in a teepee” beneath glowing neon lights.
These stops weren’t just places to rest — they were experiences, each adding to the mythos of a road that seemed to promise wonder around every bend.
The Decline of the Mother Road
Ironically, the very progress that Route 66 inspired became its undoing. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act, launching the construction of faster, straighter superhighways.
As these new roads bypassed small towns, businesses along Route 66 saw their customer base vanish. Once-bustling communities grew quiet, and legendary stops like Roy’s Motel & Café in Amboy, California, became lonely outposts in the desert.
By 1985, Route 66 was officially decommissioned as a U.S. highway, seemingly destined to fade into memory.
Revival and Rediscovery
But the Mother Road wasn’t ready to disappear. Travelers, preservationists, and historians rallied to save what remained, restoring landmarks and promoting Route 66 as a cultural treasure.
Today, a new generation of road-trippers sets out to experience its blend of nostalgia and Americana. Certain stops have become pilgrimage sites:
Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, where ten Cadillacs stand buried nose-first in the desert, inviting visitors to leave their mark with spray paint.
Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, the only national park crossed by Route 66, complete with remnants of old cars along the historic roadbed.
The El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, once a glamorous retreat for Hollywood western stars like John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn.
