Route 66 History

Historic US Highway 66 spans the heart of America, symbolizing mobility, freedom, and pursuit of the American Dream. Measuring 2,200 miles, Route 66 stretches from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, passing through eight states. 

The idea of building a highway along this route surfaced in Oklahoma in the 1920s as a way to link Oklahoma to Chicago and Los Angeles. Highway Commissioner Cyrus S. Avery said it was a perfect way to establish a central highway. 

In 1926, the highway earned its official US Highway designation as Route 66.  The course of Route 66 linked hundreds of rural communities to the cities allowing farmers to more easily transport grain and other types of produce for distribution.

Route 66 was then the scene of a mass westward migration during the 1930s, when more than 200,000 people traveled from the Dust Bowl to California. John Steinbeck immortalized the highway, which he called the “Mother Road,” in his classic 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.

The highway was also a lifeline for the long-distance trucking industry, which in the 1930s was competing with the railroad for dominance in the shipping market.

Highly celebrated through literature, film, Television and song, Route 66 is of National significance as a symbol of America's transportation history and the impact of the automobile on our culture and society.

More than any other highway, Route 66 has come to symbolize hope, progress, and the spirit of adventure. In 1985, US Highway 66 was decommissioned as a federal highway, but continues to live on in the Hearts and consciousness of the world as “Route 66.”