The Mother Road
U.S Highway 66, also known as Route 66 or the “Mother Road� holds a special place in American history as one of the original roads in the U.S highway system. Route 66 is a touchstone for modern day transportation that connects Chicago to Los Angeles over a 2,400-mile stretch of road has been evoking a sense of wanderlust since its completion in 1937.
Chicago, Illinois Illinois held the first completely paved section of Route 66. Likewise, it will also be the first state to decommission Route 66 to be replaced by the Interstate highway. Chicago, Illinois, is both the beginning and the end of Route 66. Heading diagonally across the state between St. Louis and Chicago, what remains of Route 66 is a surprisingly rural cruise through endless fields of corn. Despite the urban conglomerations at both ends, for most of its nearly 300-mile trek here, Route 66 and its modern usurper, I-55, pass along flat prairies with nary a smokestack or skyscraper as far as the eye can see.
(Left) Cindy Lyn Motel, Route 66 - Cicero, Illinois originally marketed as the last motel before Chicago. (Above) Soulsby Service Station is a historic service station in Mount Olive, Illinois. The station is located along historic U.S. Route 66 and is the oldest usable service station on the highway in Illinois. It serves as an example of the house and canopy gas station design.
Missouri The Ozark Highlands of southern Missouri, which Route 66 crosses in its 300-odd-mile journey between Illinois and Kansas, are about the only significant hills the road crosses east of Arizona. This plateau region, though not by any means alpine or breathtaking, is visually dynamic in a way the broad flatlands of Illinois and the Great Plains rarely are. Devil's Elbow steel bridge was laid down in 1923 over the Big Piney River. The structure, which can still be crossed by car, appears as a mist-clad ghost early in the morning against the Ozarks isolated forest area. Not surprisingly, it was the scene of several fatal accidents in the heyday of Route 66.
The 66 Drive-In in Carthage was part of that postwar wave and today is one of a very few historically intact drive-in theaters still operating along old Route 66.
Munger Moss Motel
Oklahoma Apart from occasional college football teams, Oklahoma doesn’t often get to crow about being the best in the country, but as far as Route 66 is concerned, the state is definitely number one. Containing more still-driveable miles of the old highway than any other state, this is definitely mecca for old-roads fans. Underneath the promotional hoopla that Route 66 generates everywhere it ever went, all over Oklahoma signs declare that barely a century ago this was Indian Territory, last refuge of Kiowa, Apache, Comanche, and other tribes before the U.S. government took even this land away from them during “land rushes� in the 1890s. A few years later, oil was discovered and the state started on one of a series of boom-and-bust cycles. The Dust Bowl exodus of the 1930s was the greatest downturn, as thousands of Oklahoman families headed west on Route 66.
Metro Dinner Tulsa
ILLINOIS
MISSOURI
CALIFORNIA
OKLAHOMA
ARIZONA NEW MEXICO
TEXAS
Texas Known as the Panhandle because of the way it juts north from the rest of Texas, this part of the route is a nearly 200-mile stretch of pancake-flat plains. Almost devoid of trees or other features, the western half, stretching into New Mexico, is also known as the Llano Estacado or “Staked Plains,” possibly because early travelers marked their route by driving stakes into the earth. The Texas Panhandle was the southern extent of the buffalo-rich grasslands of the Great Plains, populated by roving bands of Kiowa and Comanche Indians as recently as 100 years ago. Now oil and gas production, as well as trucking and Route 66 tourism, have joined ranching as the region’s economic basis.
Pumps at Philips 66
New Mexico The historic U.S. Route 66 ran east–west across the central part of the state of New Mexico, Route 66 in New Mexico was marked over portions of two auto trails the National Old Trails Road from Arizona via Albuquerque and Santa Fe to just shy of Las Vegas, and one of the main routes of the Ozark Trails network from that point into Texas. The legendary Route 66 Scenic Byway enters New Mexico from Texas across a vast, sunlit prairie and crisscrosses I-40 in a ribbon of time, dropping in and out among warp-speed semis and into a two-lane highway that meanders through rocky outcrops, quiet streams and adobe villages.
66 Diner in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Arizona Route 66 in Arizona is as colorful a stretch of the old Mother Road as can be found anywhere. It is a land of volcanoes, meteor craters, petrified forests and cool pine forests. Route 66 was the gateway to the Grand Canyon State and adventure. The history of the Native Americans, early pioneers, railroads, cattle drives, outlaws, and adventurers is forever entwined with the history of Arizona’s Route 66. People seeking fame and fortune traveled the old trails and rails over the route that would someday become Route 66.The tour passes through picture-perfect scenery including the cool pine country of Northern Arizona. Experience a plethora of historic attractions as you venture through small town America. (Top Left) 66 - Gas pumps out of front of the Hackberry General Store in Arizona.
California
The California Historic Route 66 Association would like to welcome you to the Mother Road in the Golden State, and we hope you’ll find our web site useful as you plan your trip on California’s fabled Route 66. Please explore our pages and discover the many fascinating people and places you’ll find once you venture off the Interstates. The stretch of Route 66 that passes through California extends from the Colorado River at Topock (near Needles) to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica. Some 320 miles of Route 66 pass through California’s deserts, mountains, metropolitan areas and beach communities.California’s Route 66 is hard to beat as a travel theme for your next vacation. A pathway to California’s history, cultural diversity, geology, geography and architecture, Route 66 in California reflects a significant part of our National Heritage.
Roys Motel Cafe California