The "A Highway That Will Never Be Forgotten" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading more information about one of our nation's most famous and popular highways, Route 66.  I had posted a story about Route 66  a few years ago, but primarily wrote about the song, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" that was associated with it that was recorded by Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry and The Rolling Stones.  Never wrote much about the origin and evolution of the road.  The often romanticized highway is an example of the transition from a dirt track to a superhighway.  The period from 1926 to 1985 is an historical period for Route 66.  Route 66 linked the isolated and rural West to the densely populated Midwest and Northeast.  John Steinbeck actually gave the highway one of its most famous nicknames, "the mother road."  He did so in his book "The Grapes of Wrath" which was about Dust Bowl migrants of the 1930s.  Actually, thousands of real-life Americans fled drought and poverty in Oklahoma, Texas and neighboring states during the Great Depression by using Route 66.  The "Father of Route 66" was a man named Cyrus Avery who was a Tulsa Oklahoma businessman who helped promote the highway.  As a boy, he and his family journeyed west from Pennsylvania by covered wagon to Missouri on the highway.  Avery was a participant in the "Good Roads Movement" which advocated for improved American roadways.  During the planning of Route 66, Avery was instrumental in getting it to pass through Oklahoma.  Then in 1927 he was involved in founding the U.S. Highway 66 Association to boost tourism on the roadway he dubbed the "Main Street of America."  He was also given credit for getting the entire highway paved by the late 1930s.  Two years prior to the final paving, runners traveled the entire length of Route 66 as part of a coast-to-coast, 3,400-mile marathon from LA to NY.  The race was nicknamed the Bunion Derby by the press.  The event was promoted as a stunt by sports agent C.C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle.  Of the 199 men who entered the race, 55 finished it.  The winner, Andy Payne, a 20-year-old Oklahoma resident took home the $25,000 grand prize.  The TV drama named after the legendary highway was named "Route 66."  

Roadside attractions along Route 66.

It aired from 1960 to 1964 and featured two drifters who wander America in a Corvette.  The drifters were played by Martin Milner and George Maharis.  Problem with the show was that it was filmed on location in more than 20 states and Canada.  Very few of those states had anything to do with Route 66.  Then along came President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 who signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act which established America's 47,800-mile Iinterstate Highway System which led to Route 66 becoming obsolete.  He said we needed an interstate system which would be beneficial for military defense operations as well as for the nations's economic growth.  Wasn't long after that Route 40 replaced a large segment of Route 66 and the roadway was decommissioned in 1985.  I will forever remember the song, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66", since it was written by Bobby Troup from Lancaster, Pennsylvania who was a friend of my dad and who wrote the song which was performed by a variety of other people.  Small world, so it is!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.