US Route 66 Beginnings

US Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway, Main Street of America, and the Mother Road, was one of the original highways within the US Highway System.

US Route 66 was established on November 11 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Santa Monica, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles. It was popularized by both the hit song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" and the Route 66 television show in the 1960's.

US Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. People doing business along The Mother Road became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

US Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, and it was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27 1985, after it had been replaced in its entirety by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name Historic Route 66, which is returning to some maps. Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into the state road network as State Route 66.

The numerical designation "66" was assigned to the Chicago-Los Angeles route on April 30 1926 in Springfield, Missouri. A placard in Park Central Square was dedicated to the city by the Route 66 Association of Missouri.

Initiated by Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma when the first talks about a national highway system began, US Route 66 was first signed into law in 1927 as one of the original US Highways, although it was not completely paved until 1938. Avery was adamant that the highway have a round number and had proposed the number "60".  A controversy erupted as the number "60" was proposed for other highways.  Avery and highway engineer John Page settled on "66," which was unassigned, because he thought the double-digit number would be easy to remember.