Thirty years ago, people in Williams were mourning Route 66. The world-famous transcontinental highway officially met its demise as Interstate Highway 40 bypassed this northern Arizona community.
“Our street was just one big, giant truck stop,” Mayor John Moore recalled of the decades during which cars and big rigs alike motored down Williams’ main drag.
That changed with the blink of an eye on Oct. 13, 1984, with the opening of the final stretch of I-40 freeway. Before long, businesses began to close. The town was in a tailspin.
A turnaround began five years later as the Grand Canyon Railway began offering passenger train rides between Williams and the South Rim of the canyon 60 miles away. The revival has been further fueled by the lingering legends of the highway known as the Mother Road.
Tourists flock to town for a glimpse of the two-lane strip of concrete once clogged with cross-country travelers. Local gift shop owners peddle Route 66 kitsch alongside traditional Native American crafts.
Twisters (417 E. Route 66; 928-635-0266), an old-fashioned soda fountain, would have fit right in half a century ago. Guests enjoy root beer floats made with Route 66 brand root beer, bottled along the highway in Lebanon, Mo.
The former Santa Fe railroad depot now houses a visitor center (200 W. Railroad Ave., 800-863-0546) with a small museum devoted to the highway’s heyday. One exhibit points out that the last remaining stoplight along Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles was on the corner just outside the train station.
These days, cars carrying tourists easily outnumber trucks. The trucks venture into town only to make deliveries. Moore considers that a blessing: “The tourists don’t have to compete with 18-wheelers.”