BackRoads: Route 66 The Mother Road

A Glimpse of America

It was just a trickle … at first …

As the first automobiles and motorcycles gained favor with Americans, driving could be a real challenge. Roads, as we know them today, were non-existent. The dirt roads, even the plank roads that were adequate for horses, carriages and pedestrians just were not able to support automobile traffic.

The number of cars increased rapidly in the first quarter of the 1900’s. States, counties and the federal government grappled with the challenge of creating roads to support the ever-increasing automobile traffic. And something new, Americans were developing a desire to travel. Suddenly the automobile made it possible to see the more of the world via road trips!

In the early 1920’s, as first talks of a national highway system began, a visionary in Oklahoma, Cyrus Avery, began to promote the idea of a national highway from Chicago to Los Angeles. Avery formed the U.S. Highway 66 Association to promote complete paving of the highway from end to end.

The “Bunion Derby” was the first attempt at publicity for the highway. A footrace from Los Angeles to New York City, of which the path from Los Angeles to Chicago would be on Route 66, was promoted for the U.S. Highway 66 Association formed by Avery. The Association arranged for ddignitaries to meet the runners (and the public) at stops along the way, including Will Rogers. The rest is history.

A bit of trivia – the Bunion Run was won by Andy Payne

Route 66, over 2,400 miles in length runs through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The western end of Route 66 terminated at the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California.

In 1938 Route 66 became the first fully paved highway in the national highway system. With better and more reliable cars, Americans began to take vacations “all the way to California”. And it wasn’t just tourists, commercially the Route was a huge success as truckers, sales people and other discovered how easy it was to travel between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Route 66, also known as the Mother Road and the Main Street of America, became the connection to a new life for many people during the depression and the Dust Bowl years and ultimately it became a part of the heart and soul of America.

This Highway is a part of some of the world’s bets known literature including The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck in which he wrote “…and they come in 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads, 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.”

As Route 66 traffic increased so did a lot of “mom and pop” businesses along the way. Motels, drive-ins, service station (back when the word “service” meant you actually received some) restaurants, museums, roadside attractions, souvenir shops and trading posts. Many of these places reflected the art deco...

We hope that you enjoyed reading this excerpt from "Route 66 The Mother Road". If you would like to read the entire article and more, you can order a back issue of Mar / Apr 2006 where this article was originally published.

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