For almost 100 years, Route 66 has drawn travelers from east to west, whether out of desperation or a sense of adventure, and that mythical “Mother Road” or “Main Street of America” still draws a devoted following. I’d long wanted to take a trip on this storied road, and had amassed a folder full of ideas on tracing the old route from California into northern Arizona. So when a meetup of Roadtrek RV owners was set for Tucson, Arizona, in late February of this year, I began planning how we could get there via Route 66. The photos presented in this article attempt to give a small glimpse of some of the sights we experienced on this part of our road trip.
Historic origins
Long before U. S. Route 66 saw travelers going back and forth, Native Americans created the first roads. Well-worn footpaths served as trade routes for generations, and then later when American settlers started heading west, those footpaths began to widen into wagon roads. In 1857, former Navy Lieutenant Edward F. Beale was contracted to survey and develop a wagon road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Los Angeles, California, following as closely as possible the 35th parallel, a route thought to provide all-season travel. The result of this effort, which involved a crew of 44 men, 12 wagons, and a string of 120 animals—including 25 camels—was the Beale Wagon Road, America’s first road to the western frontier. Though consisting mainly of a rutted, dirt path through often dry and rugged country and fraught with conflicts with local Native Americans, this route became popular with settlers, prospectors, and the military, until it was largely supplanted by railroads in the early 1880s.
The railroads played a vital role in developing the West, but by the early part of the 20th century America was starting to fall in love with the automobile as well. Cars became popular in the U. S. after Henry Ford introduced the Model-T in 1908, and by 1920 there were 8 million vehicles registered across the country—a number that would almost triple to 23 million by the end of the decade.
The desire for good roads became an increasingly popular demand as America’s love of the automobile increased. In almost every part of the country, chapters of the national Good Roads Association started up, and by 1915 the National Old Trails Highway became the first coast-to-coast road. It was 3,096 miles long and stretched from Baltimore, Maryland to San Francisco, California. Portions of this road were later incorporated into the 1926 alignment of the newly designated Route 66, which took travelers from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The Great Depression followed the stock market crash of 1929, and as desperation spread across the country, countless families loaded up their meager possessions and took to the open roads in search of work. Route 66 became the lifeline—the Mother Road—to a better life out West. Overloaded vehicles were seen traveling in both directions, though, as many discouraged refugees made the long trip back home after not finding the prosperity they were hoping for in California.
The Midwestern United States experienced a severe drought during the 1930s. A combination of natural factors and human practices caused a depletion of the topsoil, which led to famine and clouds of blowing dust. This disaster led to even more people hitting the Mother Road, much like the Joad family did in Steinbeck’s 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath. The Mother Road became a lifeline in more ways than one, however, as President D. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program hired unemployed men from every state to labor as road workers. As a result, in 1938 Route 66 was reported as being completely paved for the first time, from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The national mobilization for the war brought the Great Depression to an end, and the paving of Route 66 was very significant to the war effort. Improved roads were needed for rapid mobilization, and from the outset the West was chosen for many military training bases due to its good weather and isolation. It was not uncommon in those days to see mile-long convoys of troops and equipment on Route 66.
After the war, Americans were more restless and mobile than ever. A new prosperity allowed more people to purchase cars, and with gasoline no longer rationed, they could actually use them to drive wherever they wanted. Many people who were stationed in the West during the war now decided to move there permanently. From 1945 to 1960, for example, the population growth along Route 66 ranged from 40% in New Mexico to 74% in Arizona, according to records at the Historic Route 66 Museum in Kingman, Arizona.
Get your kicks
The song “Get your Kicks on Route 66,” written by Bobby Troup, was a big hit for Nat King Cole in 1946. Troup wrote the song while on a cross-country trip with his wife Cynthia in their 1941 Buick.
“If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66.”
The song became an instant classic, and over the years has been covered by numerous artists, including Bing Crosby, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Manhattan Transfer, and my personal favorite, the Texas swing version performed by Asleep at the Wheel. The song perfectly conjures up a post-war optimism as well as a celebration of the freedom and romance of a road trip. It’s seen as a prime force behind the international popularity and nostalgia surrounding the old Mother Road, and to this day, souvenir and curio shops along the route are chock full of items bearing the “get your kicks” phrase.
The golden age
Although Route 66 had long offered some services and amenities to travelers, they were mostly pretty basic and few and far between until the post-war years. The years 1945-1965 probably represented the “golden age” of Route 66, a time when families on the move supported an economy of restaurants, motels, gas stations, curio shops, odd roadside attractions, natural wonders, and all kinds of mom-and-pop businesses along the route.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Eisenhower envisioned fast, efficient travel throughout the country, an idea inspired by the German Autobahn. The leisurely pace of travel and anticipation of adventure would be replaced by speed and predictability. It would take five separate Interstate highways to replace U. S. Route 66, and as the old highway was bypassed or covered over, no thought was given to its historical significance or preservation. Route 66 wasn’t completely replaced and removed from the U. S. highway system until 1985, and that seemed to sound the death knell for many towns along the former route.
In the words of the Historic Route 66 Museum in Kingman, “The combination of Interstate Highway and air travel spelled the doom for leisurely family vacations on the road. Rest stops were no longer dictated by unique and enticing attractions along the road, but by large signs that said so. Today, food, gas, and lodging are nearly identical from state to state, and the blandness of an unremarkable stretch of highway takes its toll. After all, how many anthems have been written for the spirit and mystery of the Interstate?”
In 1984, Interstate 40 across northern Arizona was opened, thus bypassing or covering historic Route 66 in that state. But within a few years something happened that would change the fate of Route 66 forever. In 1987, the first Route 66 Association was founded by barber Angel Delgadillo from Seligman, Arizona. Delgadillo, who was born April 19, 1927, saw his hometown and his business go into decline after being bypassed by I-40 and decided to do something about it. He dedicated himself to building support from local businesses, counties, and the state, and in 1988, the State of Arizona designated 159 miles of Route 66 as historic. Inspired by Delgadillo’s mission, other towns along the route also began efforts to revive their communities and identities, and the effort spread to other states. For his efforts, Delgadillo is known among Route 66 fans as the “father of the Mother Road” and the “guardian angel of Route 66.” He retired from his barbershop in 2022 at the age of 95, but the shop he and his wife Vilma founded is still there, operating today as Angel and Vilma’s Route 66 museum and gift shop. For its role in bringing Route 66 back from the dead, Seligman, Arizona, is known today as the “birthplace of Route 66.”
Setting off on an adventure
It was a rainy morning in mid-February when my wife Edie and I set out from Alameda on this long awaited journey. Our spirits were high, though, as we traveled south over long stretches of the Interstate known as I-5, through the ranchlands of the Central Valley, across Bakersfield, up and over the Tehachapi pass, and then down into the Mojave Desert and east towards Barstow. We spent a night at an RV park in Tehachapi, but on our second day on the road, we would find ourselves rolling down the Mother Road, as so many have before us. Just east of Barstow we had our first opportunity to get off the Interstate and onto Route 66, and we jumped on it.
Daggett was our first historic Route 66 town, and there would be many more. A trip on this road is not for “making time” or getting there quickly. In fact, an old saying about Route 66 is that it’s not about making good time, it’s about having a good time. Although paved, sections of Route 66 are often narrow, bumpy, dark, winding, and steep. There are strange and interesting sights along the way, most of them beckoning the traveler to slow down, stop, and take a look.
On this trip we made our way along some of the most evocative stretches of old U. S. Route 66 between Daggett, California, and Flagstaff, Arizona, where we’d need to jump off the old highway and head south towards our other destinations of Sedona, Phoenix and Tucson. Before this Route 66 trip was over, though, we were already making plans to see more of it on a future trip—because the urge to travel and explore is never fully satisfied, especially on “the highway that’s the best,” Route 66.
“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
— Jack Kerouac, On The Road
Inspiration and information for this article was provided by the Historic Route 66 Museum in Kingman, Arizona.
Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.
