Christened "The Mother Road" by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, U.S. Highway 66 was the brain-child of businessmen Cyrus Avery of Tulsa and John Woodruff of Springfield. They envisioned a National Road linking Chicago's ports on Lake Michigan with Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.
An essentially diagonal road connecting small rural towns and larger urban areas was a new concept quickly endorsed by truckers who benefited from traveling the flat prairie lands coupled with a more moderate climate than northern highways.
The Highway was a pipeline for more than 200,000 refugees of the Dust Bowl and later served as a vital military viaduct in the months leading up to the outbreak of WWII.
After the War, tens of thousands of veterans chose to stay on in the "BBQ culture" that was the West and Southwest. The Route gave rise to new industries--"Motels", "Filling Stations" and "Cabin Camps".
The TV program "Route 66" sealed its posterity.
Visit the National Historic Route 66 Federation website. The Adopt-A-Hundred Program offers Federation members an opportunity to adopt a 100 mile stretch along the 2,400 miles of Route 66. Use the link below to access the official Route 66 Website.
