Soak Up Some History on Route 66, America's Most Iconic Highway

If you ever plan to motor west,

Travel my way; take the highway that is best.

Get your kicks on Route Sixty-six.

---Nat King Cole

Main Street of America. Mother Road. The Will Rogers Highway. Many names, but only one historic highway – welcome to Route 66, USA.

This famous two-laner originally slices through the centre of the USA from Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and finally, Los Angeles, California, a distance of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). Route 66 was commissioned on 11 November, 1926 and remained a vital arterial road until the Interstate Highway System overtook it; on 27 June, 1985, it ceased to exist officially in the country’s highway system. By then, the road had acquired a personality, one that’s still alive and kicking!

Route 66 has been celebrated in pop culture from this 1946 anthem by the Nat King Cole Trio to a 1960s TV serial. Countless souvenir shops on the highway hawk a mind-bending variety of Route 66 memorabilia. Best of all, people still dream of making this road trip. What’s the magic behind it?

There’s the romance of literally driving through contemporary American history. Before its official naming, the route was traversed by one of the oldest trans-American highways, the National Old Trails Highway. John Steinbeck called it the Mother Road in his classic, The Grapes of Wrath; small Oklahoma towns featured in the novel still treasure the bittersweet associations with this highway, traversed by thousands of rural families migrating to California to escape drought in the 1930s. Before and after World War II, it was known as Main Street of America as it wound past obscure Midwest and Southwestern towns, lined with classic American landmarks like motels, diners, gas stations and tacky attractions. Even later, Route 66 witnessed a huge exodus of people from the industrial East to the newly emergent economy of the West Coast.

California’s golden beaches, the cruel Mojave Desert, the sheer scale and size of the Grand Canyon and the eerie Petrified Forest are just a few reasons why travelers everywhere see Route 66 as among the world’s most romantic roadtrips. There’s so much more – the 50,000-year-old Meteor Crater, stunning vistas like the Painted Desert and western New Mexico’s sandstone mesas

En route, romance fades a little at the blatant commercialization of the road’s historic legacy. Cafes, diners, motels, gift shops – every pit stop and town on the way shamelessly hypes up its association with the legendary highway. Most places though, have at least one authentic landmark. Depending on their perspective, travelers wince and drive on or stop to crack a grin at some truly marvelous specimens of kitsch!

Gallup in New Mexico is filled with historic memories of the old Santa Fe railroad. The El Rancho is a beautifully restored old hotel with rooms named after Hollywood greats who stayed here – John Wayne, Marx Brothers and Ronald Reagan.

Adrian, a tiny hamlet in Texas proudly advertises its sole claim to importance as Route 66’s halfway point. Few can resist stopping off for a steak at Midpoint Café. Near Amarillo is Cadillac Ranch, a quirky tribute to the America’s passion for the road. Meramec Caverns, a stretch of limestone caves is Missouri’s best known attraction on Route 66 – the hoopla around the guided tour comes for free!

There are few better ways to soak up America’s modern history and its stunning diversity of landscapes and people. Anyhow you look at it, Route 66 is one of the world’s unforgettable road trips.