DRIVE ROUTE 66

• 1926

  Farm-To-Market Road

  Route 66 was planned by Congress in 1926, intending to connect the main streets of rural and urban communities. Its diagonal path through rural communities in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas connected the farms in the prairies to Chicago. Truckers found the westward path easier to travel than routes farther north, due to milder weather.

• The 1930s

  The California Migration

  Route 66 carried many of the estimated 210,000 Americans who migrated to California in the 1930s, fleeing the despair of the Dust Bowl.

  Who built Route 66? Thousands of unemployed male youths from nearly every state were put to work as laborers on road gangs to pave the final stretches of the road during the financially lean years of 1933-38. It was a monumental job, and it helped prepare the nation for mobilizing troops for World War II. Route 66 was an efficient route to the West, the ideal place for military training bases.

• Post-War

  Servicemen Move West

  Servicemen returning from WWII frequently chose to relocate from their past home states to the West and South, and Route 66 facilitated their moves. The Route 66 federation says one of those servicemen, Bobby Troup, wrote the song with the catch phrase, “get your kicks on Route 66.” Troup was a musician who had played piano with the Tommy Dorsey band. The recording artist was Nat King Cole.

• The 1960s

  America Travels On Route 66

  In the 1960s, although the Interstate and Defense Highway System were under construction, Route 66 was still a favorite corridor. A new generation of motorists was ready to hit the road and stay in the new motor courts with swimming pools, as customers of the Route 66 restaurants, gas stations, and souvenir shops. Even if Route 66 was not outside your door, it was inside your living room on American TV. Route 66 was a popular weekly television show, starring Martin Milner and George Maharis.

• 1956 Onward

  The Interstates Arrive

  Ironically, says the National Historic Route 66 Federation, the need for rapid mobility and improved highways that made Route 66 so popular also brought about its demise. After 1956, with the Federal Interstate and Defense Highways System, highways would be divided, and they wouldn't take a traveler through the small, medium and large communities of the nation.

• Today

  Recapturing The Route 66 Mood

  Today, Americans try to recapture the aura of freedom earlier generations felt when they traveled Route 66 by restoring the road itself, where possible, and preserving the 1950s and 1960s buildings that characterized the old Route 66. There are also commemorative post cards, tours, even festivals and associations formed in each state Route 66 traversed. Most have their own web sites.

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