Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Small Town Vibe
Small Town

Route 66: Its Retro Vibe is driving small town tourism along its path!

Small Town Vibe

March 2024: This year our spring break trip this year was centered around a weekend in the Phoenix area to enjoy a “nostalgia tour” based on our time at the Arizona State University campus in the mid 90s. We evolved our weekend into a 10-day road trip, starting from Colorado, down through New Mexico, across to Phoenix, then north into southern Utah National Park utopia, finally circling back to Colorado. Our goal was to hit as many of the small towns we could on historic Route 66 westward from Santa Fe to Flagstaff.

Along the way, we became completely fascinated by the past, present and future of the “Mother Road” and the communities along the way – join our adventures to see why!

Route 66 – A Brief History

The story of Route 66 is fascinating! It largely parallels the 20th century history of the United States.

Although we take them for granted today, the extensive system of high-speed interstates is not very old. The Interstate network came into being in 1956 with the signing of the Interstate Highway Act by President Dwight D. Eisenhower who, influenced by his military experiences abroad, identified them as a necessary component of a robust national defense system.

However, in the early 1900s when cars were merely a household transportation tool, roads and road networks were much simpler.

Before the interstate system…

Before the interstate system, we had 50 years with a growing network of paved and unpaved roadways. Before a nationwide network of numbered highways was adopted by the states, auto trails were marked by private organizations as a way to draw tourist dollars. The auto trail route that became US 66 was the combination of three existing roads covering Chicago to southern California.

The concept behind US Route 66…

The original inspiration for a road between Chicago and Los Angeles was planned by entrepreneurs Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri, who lobbied the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) for the creation of the route.

From the outset, public road planners intended US 66 to connect the main streets of rural and urban communities along its course for the most practical of reasons: Most small towns had no prior access to a major national thoroughfare. Here is the timeline:

  • 1916 – first legislation to create a public highway system
  • 1925 – Congress enacted a more comprehensive version of the legislation and public highway construction began in earnest
  • 1926 – the numerical designation 66 was assigned to the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route
    • 1927 – US 66 was first signed into law as one of the original U.S. Highways, although it was not completely paved until 1938. The U.S. Highway 66 Association to promote the complete paving of the highway from end-to-end and to promote travel down the highway. The association went on to serve as a voice for businesses along the highway until it disbanded in 1976.
  • 1928 – A first attempt at publicity was made via an event called the “Bunion Derby“, a footrace from Los Angeles to New York City, of which the path from Los Angeles to Chicago would be on US 66.

During the 1930s Depression era…

  • 1930’s – During the depression, many farming families, mainly from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas, heading west for agricultural jobs in California. US 66 became their main road of travel During the Depression, it gave some relief to communities located on the highway. The route passed through numerous small towns and, with the growing traffic on the highway, helped create the rise of mom-and-pop businesses, such as service stations, restaurants, and motels, all readily accessible to passing motorists.

During and after the WWII years…

  • 1940’s – During World War II, more migration west occurred because of war-related industries in California. Route 66, already popular and fully paved, became one of the main routes and also served for moving military equipment.

An Era of Prosperity and Great Change…

  • 1950’s – Route 66 became the main highway for vacationers heading to and from Los Angeles. The road passed through the Painted Desert and near the Grand Canyon. Meteor Crater in Arizona was another popular stop. This sharp increase in tourism in turn gave rise to a burgeoning trade in all manner of roadside attractions, including teepee–shaped motels, frozen custard stands, Indian curio shops, and reptile farms. It also marked the birth of the fast-food industry. Changes like these to the landscape further cemented Route 66’s reputation as a near-perfect microcosm of the culture of America, now linked by the automobile.

During these decades, many sections of the route also underwent major realignments. However, the rate of realignments of was about the increase dramatically, with the new Interstate act.

In US Route 66 Decline and the Rise of Interstate travel…

  • 1956 – signing of the Interstate Highway Act. This began an era of high-speed interstate development, generally bypassing the small towns that Route 66 was designed to connect.
  • 1960s – By the late 1960s, most of the rural sections of US 66 had been replaced by I-40 across New Mexico. Arizona also saw its final stretch of highway decommissioned with the completion of I-40 just north of Williams, Arizona.
  • 1965 – signing of the Highway Beautification Act, which impacted small town merchants when they lost the ability to attract visitors using signage on the new interstate.
  • 1970s – Interstate network grew and town bypasses continued.
  • 1985 – Route 66 officially ceased to exist when it was removed from the United States Highway System by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

US Route 66 in Revival!

Almost immediately after being decommissioned, Route 66 associations were founded. These are non-profit associations established for preservation, restoration and promotion of the historic US Route 66. They exist in all 8 states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Other preservation mechanisms are being used as well to acknowledge the cultural and economic importance of Route 66.

  • 1984 – Williams Historic Business District was added to the National Register of Historic Places 
  • 1989 – Urban Route 66, Williams were added to the National Register of Historic Places 
  • 1990 – Missouri declared US 66 in that state a State Historic Route
  • 1999 – President Bill Clinton signed a National Route 66 Preservation Bill that provided for $10 million in matching fund grants for preserving and restoring the historic features along the route
  • 1999 – Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program was created, now administered by the National Park Service,
  • 2001 – Springfield, Illinois began its annual “International Route 66 Mother Road Festival” in its downtown district 
  • 2008 – the World Monuments Fund added US 66 to the World Monuments Watch as sites along the route such as gas stations, motels, cafés, trading posts and drive-in movie theaters are threatened by development in urban areas and by abandonment and decay in rural areas.
  • 2018 – the AASHTO designated the first sections of U.S. Bicycle Route 66, part of the United States Bicycle Route System, in Kansas and Missouri. A second section was designated in 2021 between Santa Monica, California, and the Arizona state line near Needles, California. The Oklahoma section was designated in 2022. The rest of the route remains proposed but not yet designated.

With the help of a wide variety of support organizations, business and community leaders, many towns along the historic Route 66 are actively promoting and benefitting from related tourism – we saw many fantastic examples of this on our road trip!

See what cool towns we explore along Route 66!

More to Explore

Although each town was very unique in its own way, we also found similarities in their efforts to lean into the past while using their Route 66 historic roots as a bridge to their present-day places. These small towns along its path continue to leverage its legacy as an economic driver in many ways. My online search shows SO MANY resources available to promote the various community goals of small towns along this path! Below are just a few.

Overall, Route 66 serves as more than just a roadway; it represents a symbol of American cultural heritage and nostalgia. By leveraging its pop culture references, history and allure, towns along the route can generate economic opportunities and foster community pride.

In Literature

The novel The Grapes of Wrath, adapted to film in 1940, depicts the Joad family traveling to California on US 66 after being evicted from their small farm in Oklahoma.

In Song

Bobby Troup wrote “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66“, which was popularized by Nat King Cole with the King Cole Trio, and later covered by artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Glenn Frey to The Manhattan Transfer, John Mayer, and Brian Setzer, as well as the Rolling Stones in their eponymous debut album.

The Route 66 town of Winslow was mentioned in the popular 1972 song “Take It Easy” written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and performed by the Eagles.

On TV

The highway lent its name to the Route 66 TV series in the 1960s.

In the Movies

The 2006 Pixar animated film, Cars, had the working title Route 66, and described the decline of the fictional Radiator Springs, nearly a ghost town once its mother road, US 66, was bypassed by Interstate 40.

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