Route 66 is just one of the highways that features in “On The Road,” the Jack Kerouac book that introduced so many people to white-line wanderlust.
More than anything written about the iconic highway, it’s a quote from that book that personifies the almost mystical allure of America’s most famous road: “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me.”
That’s exactly what Route 66 has meant to millions of travelers who have cruised all or part of the highway since its birth 100 years ago — freedom to make a fresh start, reinvent yourself, and leave your troubles in the rearview mirror.
“Route 66 came along when the idea of a road trip was just getting started,” says Sean FitzGibbons, executive director of the History Museum on the Square in Springfield, Missouri. “It encapsulated so much of 20th-century Americana and over time it just kind of gained this mythical resonance within the zeitgeist of the world.”
The highway’s roots stretch back to the early 1920s and it’s an early example of government-private sector cooperation.
When the federal government decided to number the main cross-country highways — an attempt to make it easier for motorists to navigate what was then a willy-nilly naming system — they created a route from Chicago to Los Angeles that became U.S. Highway No. 66.
Hoping to stimulate tourism along the new route, a pair of enterprising businessmen in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Springfield, Missouri, created maps, brochures, billboards and advertising campaigns to promote the road. Their goal was boosting tourism in their own cities, but they inadvertently made driving the entire route a bucket-list adventure.
Their efforts coincided with the advent of motoring vacations in the United States and iconic roadside services like diners, motor lodges, service stations and curio shops.
Route 66 took on a whole different meaning during the Dust Bowl environmental disaster of the 1930s, when tens of thousands of disenfranchised farmers and their families used the road as their pathway to the promised land of California.
The highway was soon immortalized in the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, who called Route 66 the “Mother Road,” and in the Woody Guthrie song “Talking Dust Bowl Blues.”
The biggest boost to its legendary status came in 1946 when Bobby Troup recorded “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66,” a song that epitomized the spirit to break free and live a little after so many years of the Great Depression and World War II.
All these years later, the Mother Road continues to symbolize the wind-in-your-hair freedom of a cross-country road trip. Here are six essential stops on Route 66:
St. Louis, Missouri
Route 66 starts its westward run at the intersection of Adams Street and Michigan Avenue among the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago. Several signs mark the spot, but it’s a rather modest debut for such a famous road, which cuts across the Windy City’s sprawling suburbs onto the rolling prairie of central Illinois.
Springfield, Missouri
The first president of the National U.S. 66 Highway Association, Springfield businessman John T. Woodruff, was a longtime advocate for better roads and one of the original movers and shakers behind the creation of the Mother Road.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Often called the “Father of Route 66,” Tulsa businessman Cyrus Avery was another true believer in the future of motor travel and often partnered with Woodruff to make the route a reality and encourage people to drive it.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
The Texas Panhandle stretch of Route 66 features photo ops like the Cadillac Ranch art installation near Amarillo and the Conoco Tower Station & U-Drop Inn Café in Shamrock (opened in 1936).
Winslow, Arizona
“Standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona” is one of the most iconic lines of ’70s rock-n-roll. That corner is Kinsley Avenue and Old Highway 66, an intersection that didn’t have any particular significance until Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey wrote a catchy tune that became an Eagles signature song.
Amboy, California
Set along a rare original section of Route 66 in the Mojave, Roy’s Motel & Café attracts Mother Road aficionados to the remote desert town of Amboy (official motto: “The Ghost Town That Ain’t Dead Yet”).
