Jasper County Courthouse Route 66 Museum

AUTOMOBILE TIMELINE 1926 - Rand-McNally publishes the first U.S. road atlas.

1927 - More Americans own cars than telephones.

1931 - The fifty millionth U.S. vehicle is manufactured.

1939 - John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath depicts the farming migrant Jode family traveling on Route 66 to California.

1941 - The year 1941 turned out to be the best automobile production year since 1929, with 3,779,682 cars manufactured.

1943 - A total of only 139 passenger cars were built in the United States, those were intended to be used solely for military and government use. During WWII about 3/4s of all the aircraft engines were made by automobile and truck manufacturers, as were 87% of all the bombs.

1949 - Half of the new cars sold in the United States have radios 1950 - Auto accidents surpass tuberculosis to become the 4th leading killer in the country.

1955 - American families spend more money on auto transportation than on housing or clothing.

1956 - Ford offers seat belts for the first time.

1957 - Over $1 billion in federal funds were spent on urban freeways.

1960 - Twelve million children (38% of the total) living in the United States ride school buses.

1966 - The United States auto insurance losses pass $10 billion dollars.

1969 - The average highway speed in the United States exceeds 60 miles per hour, an all-time high. Most American car buyers are choosing air conditioning as an option.

ROUTE 66 TIMELINE 1925 – The establishment of numbered interstate highways in the United States.

1926 – The birth of US Highway Number 66 (Route 66) occurs in Springfield, Missouri.

1926 – Route 66 is formally established on November 11, 1926 covering 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.

1930 – The construction of the first road shoulder is completed in Missouri.

1931 - The last section of Route 66 is paved in Missouri.

1931 – The first cloverleaf interchange west of the Mississippi opens on a segment of Route 66 in Missouri St. Louis County.

1937 - The entire length of Route 66 is paved nationwide.

1946 – Song writer Bobby Troup releases a huge hit titled “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.” During that same year, Jack Rittenhouse publishes A Guide Book to Highway 66 describing gas stations, diners and places of interest.

1950 - By 1950, some 39.6 million passenger cars traveled American roads – 40% more than in 1941.

1960-64 – Buzz Murdock and Todd Stiles spend 116 television episodes traveling America in their honey-beige Corvette on “Route 66”.

1985 - The fabled US Highway 66 was officially decommissioned and all remaining signage removed.

1990 - The Route 66 Association of Missouri is formed.

1990 - House Bill 1629 designates old U.S. Highway 66 a historic highway in Missouri.

1991 - First Historic Route 66 Sign is installed in Springfield, Missouri 1999 - The United States House of Representatives passes H.R. 66 authorizing up to $10,000,000 for fiscal years 2000-2009, for a program to conserve the cultural heritage of Route 66. The bill is then approved by the Senate and signed by President Clinton.

Jasper County Courthouse Route 66 Museum 302 South Main Carthage, Missouri Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m.

Closed on all State and Federal Holidays

Tel: 417-358-0421 Jaspercounty.org

Route 66 Overview Crossing three time zones and eight states, Route 66 linked communities together from Chicago to the Southern California coast. In Missouri, the fabled highway crossed ten counties spanning over 300 miles. This thoroughfare came through the downtown districts of Carthage, Carterville, Webb City and Joplin, all located in Jasper County, before carrying travelers into Southeast Kansas.

Thanks to the efforts of Cyrus Avery, a leader of the American Association of Highway Development, and John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri, Route 66 became a reality in 1926 in Springfield, Missouri. The famed highway exposed traveling tourists to the Midwest and Southwest United States. Businessmen, desperados and vacationers used the diagonal path to cross the United States. Approximately 2,400 miles of road went through the center of urban and rural communities leading to the poetic epithet “The Main Street of America”.

Some of Route 66’s original path can be traced hundreds of years ago when the native Americans traveled by horse and foot searching for wild game. Prior to the Civil War (1861 -1865) white settlers referred to the trail as the St. Louis to Springfield Road. During the Civil War a telegraph line ran parallel to the trail.

This communication network became known as the Wire Road.

Cover & Insert Photos provided by John Hacker of The Carthage Press

Route 66 was considered to be the ultimate road trip. Motorists encountered the likes of treacherous curves, costly speed traps, trading posts and full service filling stations.

‘Mom and Pop’ motor camps and roadside businesses selling regional flair opened to accommodate the travelers.

The road even seeped into our country’s pop culture in written publications, musical songs and even a prime-time evening television show. Song writer Bobby Troup selected the city of Joplin to be among the communities touted in his classic hit “Get Your Kicks On Route 66”. The song, recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946, became one of the most requested by music fans throughout the country for years to come. Novelist John Steinbeck in his 1936 classic “The Grapes of Wrath” coined the phrase “Mother Road”. An estimated 210,000 people escaped the despair of the Dust Bowl, migrating to California with dreams of beginning a new prosperous life.

By the 1960s most of Route 66 was too narrow to handle modern trucks and automobiles.

Motorists simply opted for faster, newer, fourlane roads that bypassed the multi-stop lighted and gridlocked congested downtowns. The passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 signed by President Eisenhower, signaled the beginning of the end of Route 66.

The comprehensive funding for a national interstate and defense highway system bypassed many of the towns that depended on tourism brought to them by those traveling along “The Main Street of America”. Many of these communities suffered economically from the loss of the direct traffic.

Amazingly, it took five interstates to replace Route 66. In October 1984, the final section of the original road was bypassed by Interstate 40 at Williams, Arizona. In Missouri, Interstate I-44 covers and parallels parts of the original road from St. Louis to Joplin.

For additional Jasper County and Missouri Route 66 information: Carthage Convention & Visitor’s Bureau visit-carthage.com 1-866-357-8687 Joplin Convention & Visitor’s Bureau visitjoplinmo.com 1-800-657-2534 Joplin Museum Complex joplinmuseum.org 417-623-1180 Powers Museum powersmuseum.com 417-237-0456 Webb City Route 66 Information Center Webbcitymo.org 417-673-1154

Jasper County Courthouse Route 66 Museum 302 S.Main Carthage, MO 64836 Phone: 417-358-0421 jaspercounty.org Route 66 Museum funded by Missouri Department of Transportation Publication provided courtesy of Jasper County Courthouse Preservation & Beautification Advisory Committee & produced in participation with the Joplin Museum Complex and the Carthage Convention & Visitor’s Bureau