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KS 66285
913-708-5119
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LEGENDARY
ROUTE 66
Route 66 Timeline
66
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Texas |
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| Early
1920 |
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| 1925 |
- Avery spends most of the year
working with an appointed committee to stitch together hundreds of
existing roads into the new system.
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November 11, 1926 |
-
Route 66
was officially commissioned
for the
Chicago-to-Los
Angeles on November
11, 1926 to include 2,448 miles of road. With that designation came
its acknowledgment as one of the nation's principal east-west
arteries. By the end of the year only
800 miles of
Route 66
were paved.
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| 1927 |
- The National Highway System was
formed. People from eight states established a
Route 66
Highway Association to expedite the building of the highway.
The theme name, "Main Street of America,": was adopted.
Phillips 66 gasoline appropriates the magic numbers and logo as new
gas stations sprout up along the highway.
-
Route 66
was never an ordinary road. On February 4, 1927, the U.S. 66 Highway
Association was formed in
Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and the road's lifetime name -- “The Main
Street of America” -- was born.
-
Route 66
signs are posted in
Illinois.
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| March
4, 1928 |
- The “First Annual International
-Trans-Continental Foot Race”, or the "Bunion Derby" as it came to
be known, starts in
Los
Angeles. The race covered the entire length of
Route 66
to Chicago,
and then went on to Madison Square Garden in New York. The
race, and the first prize of $25,000, is won by Andy Payne, a 20
year-old from
Claremore,
Oklahoma - a
Route 66
town and the stomping ground of Will Rogers. He covers 3,422.3 miles
in 84 days, with an actual running time of 573 hours, 4 minutes and
34 seconds.
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1929 |
- By this time
Illinois
boasted approximately 7,500 miles of paved roads, including all of
its portion of U.S. Highway 66. A Texaco road report published
that same year noted the route fully concreted in
Kansas,
66% paved in
Missouri,
and 25% improved in
Oklahoma. In contrast, the 1,200 mile western stretch
(with the exception of
California's metropolitan areas) never saw a cement mixer. Until
the height of the Great Depression,
Texas,
New
Mexico,
Arizona, and the desert communities of southeast
California collectively totaled only 64.1 miles of surfaced
highway along
Route 66.
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January 5, 1931 |
-
Missouri
was the third state to completely pave its portion of
Route 66,
following
Illinois and
Kansas.
The last mile of original
Route 66
is paved in Phelps County just east of the Pulaski County line near
Arlington. The work crew tosses coins into the wet cement to
celebrate the completion.
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|
1933 |
- Until 1933 the responsibility to
improve existing highways fell almost exclusively to the individual
states. The more assertive and financially prepared states met the
challenge. Initial improvements cost state agencies an estimated
$22,000 per mile.
- The U.S. Government puts thousands
of unemployed male youths from virtually every state to work as
laborers on road gangs to pave the final stretches of
Route 66.
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|
1934 - 1936 |
- Dust bowl storms in the midwest
drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, primarily
fleeing down
Route 66
to the west. An estimated 210,000 people migrated to
California in search of land and fortune.
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|
June 17, 1935 |
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| 1937 |
- The "route" that
Route 66
followed changed over the years, particularly in
New
Mexico, where its original winding 506 miles were shortened to
399 miles. On September 26, 1937, it was rerouted directly
west from Santa Rosa to
Albuquerque,
New
Mexico, bypassing
Santa Fe.
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| 1938 |
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| 1939 |
- John Steinbeck publishes
The Grapes of Wrath,
dubbing
Route 66
"The
Mother Road, the road of
flight."
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| 1940 |
- Steinbeck's classic
novel, The Grapes of Wrath
is made into a film which
served to immortalize
Route 66
in the American consciousness.
|
| 1941 |
- The United States enters World War
II.
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| 1942 |
- As a result of the war, automobile
production ceased, gasoline rationing began, and tires became
scarce-- all of which affected
Route 66.
Massive creation of war industry jobs, mostly in
California, brought another wave of migrating people across
Route 66.
The highway was important for military traffic, transporting troops,
supplies, and equipment. The road was not adequate for the
traffic it carried, and the difficulty of maintaining the road grew
throughout the war.
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| 1945 |
- World War II ends and Americans
begin traveling for leisure which was primarily an unknown past time
previously.
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| 1946 |
- Jack D. Rittenhouse self
publishes A Guide Book to Highway 66 selling it door-to-door
at truck stops, motor courts, and cafes along the route. It lists
every community from
Chicago to
Los
Angeles that existed on the highway along with attractions,
lodgings and services.
- Robert (Bobby)
William Troup, Jr., of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, former pianist with
the Tommy Dorsey band and ex-Marine captain, penned a lyrical road
map of the now famous cross-country road in which the words, "Get
your kicks on
Route 66"
became a catch phrase for countless motorists who moved back and
forth between
Chicago
and the Pacific Coast. The popular recording was released in 1946 by
Nat King Cole one week after Troup's arrival in
Los
Angeles.
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1950's |
- The "Family Vacation" begins as a
new American phenomena.
Route 66
became a destination unto itself. With its caverns and caves, scenic
mountains, beautiful canyons and sparkling deserts being heavily
promoted by the U.S. 66 Highway Association,
Route 66
became the ultimate road trip. This spawned trading posts, alligator
farms, full-service gas stations, grills with fried chicken, “blue
plate specials” and home-made pie, “mom and pop” motor courts,
Native American festivals and every other type of tourist trap.
|
| 1953 |
-
Oklahoma was the
first state to deal the route its first official deathblow. In
1953, the Turner Turnpike (I-44) between
Tulsa and
Oklahoma City
opened, bypassing 100 miles of the legendary
Mother Road. Other
states followed suit while the federal government's new four-lane,
straight-as-an-arrow interstate system gobbled up section after
section.
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| 1957 |
- President Eisenhower instituted the
National Interstate Highway System (motivated by the German Autobahn
system he had observed during the war.) Originally, the
Interstate System was to be completed by 1972, but was not realized
until 1982.
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October 7, 1960 |
-
Route 66
TV series starring Martin Milner and George Maharis.
Though show aired 116 episodes ending on September 18, 1964.
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December, 1962 |
-
Missouri
petitioned American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials, on behalf of all the
Route 66
states, to have the interstates renumbered as I-66 from
Chicago
to Los
Angeles. Needless to say, the request was refused.
|
| 1970 |
- By 1970, nearly all
segments of original
Route 66
were bypassed by a modern four-lane highway.
|
| 1977 |
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October 13, 1984 |
- The outdated, poorly
maintained vestiges of U.S. Highway 66 completely succumbed to the
interstate system in October 1984 when the final section of the
original road was bypassed by Interstate 40 at Williams,
Arizona.
The route was "replaced" by
Interstates 55, 44, 40, 15 and 10.
|
| 1985 |
-
Route 66
was officially decommissioned and the familiar highway markers came
down.
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February, 1987 |
- The Historic
Route 66
Association of
Arizona was formed by a small group of people from the
Arizona
Route 66
communities, led by Angel Delgadillo of Seligman, and Jerry Richard
and David Wesson, both of Kingman.
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| 1995 |
- New Historic
Route 66
signs have been put up, documenting the different historic
alignments in
Illinois.
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| 1999 |
- In response to the recognized need
to preserve the rich resources of the historic highway, Congress
passed an act to create the
Route 66
Corridor Preservation Program. Administered by the National Park
Service, the program collaborates with private property owners;
non-profit organizations; and local, state, federal, and tribal
governments to identify, prioritize, and address
Route 66
preservation needs.
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Got questions or information
about Route 66? Join the
66 Forum!!
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