It was created to connect us, a 2,448-mile gateway to vast lands that previously existed only in the collective imagination. Each mile promised freedom and escape, opportunity and adventure.
There is perhaps no better-known highway anywhere in the world. In its 100-year history, it has offered safe passage to Dust Bowl refugees, World War II transports and vacationing families. John Steinbeck called it “the mother road, the road of flight.” Nat King Cole crooned about its kicks in a 1946 hit song. Disney and Pixar took inspiration from it for a 2006 blockbuster.
Despite being decommissioned in 1985 in favor of a faster and wider interstate highway system, Route 66 continues to capture our imaginations in the remnants of its past glory that remain today.
As the iconic road celebrates its centennial this year, the baiduhai set out across Route 66 to find the stories it holds, introducing readers to the people and places it was designed to connect: the colorful characters and roadside oddities, the business owners trying to revitalize their pieces of history and the ever-changing vistas that continue to define this famed highway.
Becka Wallace and her daughter Briar, 7 months, Bowen, 3, and Baron, 4, wait for the movie to start at the Tascosa Drive on Route 66 In Amarillo, Texas. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Fabiola Moreno cleans the menus during a lull after the breakfast rush at Cafe 66 on Route 66 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Left: Tourists visit the Wigwam Motel, built in 1949, on Route 66 in San Bernardino, California. Right: A giant cowboy muffler man at John’s Used Cars on Route 66 in Gallup, New Mexico. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Cattle graze along Route 66 near Ash Fork, Arizona. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Adalie Lorenzo, 13, after dancing in the St. Margaret Mary feast day at the Laguna Pueblo off of Route 66. The pueblo has been inhabited since at least the 1300s and established in 1699 following the Pueblo Revolt. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Route 66 just west of Oatman, Arizona. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A freight train carrying Amazon cargo winds down the tracks near Route 66 in Arizona. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A Route 66 map in a restaurant in Carthage, Missouri. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Wild horses on Route 66 near Ganado, Arizona, located within the Navajo Nation. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Alicia Garza, 7, at left, and Sinnonya Cairns, 8, play with a tablet in their yards along Route 66 in Needles, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A mural on a bus shelter in Valentine, Arizona in a remote part of the Hualapai Reservation on Route 66. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A wild burro wanders on Route 66 near Oatman, Arizona. The burros are believed to be descended from ones that served as pack animals from gold miners. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Route 66 in California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Tourists visit Route 66 in Williams, Arizona. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Left: Fire damage to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles near the terminus of Route 66. Right: Businesses on Route 66 in Los Angeles. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Virginia Bills, a waitress for 30 years at Lou Mitchell’s, jokes with customers at the restaurant that can be considered the unofficial start of Route 66 on a Sunday morning. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A home on Route 66 near Shamrock, Texas. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A sign on a restaurant on Route 66 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A couple drives through a car show on Route 66, in San Bernadino, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A cemetery on Route 66 in Jericho, Texas. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Left: Drug users on Route 66 in Albuquerque. Right: The ghost town of Twin Arrows, Arizona on Route 66. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A used car dealership on East 11th Street, Route 66, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)The Laguna-Acoma High School football team, made up of players from the Laguna and Acoma Pueblos on Route 66, line up for the Pledge of Allegiance before their homecoming game. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Sign from the Downtowner Motel off Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)“Drifter” spends some time on Route 66 near Newberry Springs, California, on his way to Texas in his minivan. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Firearms in the J.M. Davis Arms Museum on Route 66 in Claremore, Oklahoma. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A RV stops on Route 66 near Daggett, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Left: Sons of the American Revolution after a parade on Route 66 in El Reno, Oklahoma. Right: Route 66 in downtown Stroud, Oklahoma. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A traveler who goes by the name of “Aura” rests along Route 66 in the Mojave Desert near Newberry Springs, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A portion of the 1.4 mile-long section of restored hand-laid brick road on an original segment of Route 66 near Auburn, Illinois. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A vintage Buick sits at the historic Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. It opened in 1940. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Karen Holmes joins a crowd of about 40 people gathered for a “No Kings Day” protest along Route 66 in Elk City, Oklahoma. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Early morning truck traffic on a portion of Route 66 it shares with I-40 near McLean, Texas. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Roger Paul watches birds overtake a few blocks of Route 66 in Oklahoma City. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Left: Homes on Route 66 on the outskirts of Bloomington, Illinois. Right: Logistics warehouses and data centers rise along Route 66 on the outskirts of San Bernardino, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)A cattle drive in the Stockyards City district of Oklahoma City, near Route 66. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Rain falls in the Mojave Desert on Route 66 near Daggett, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)Lee Bull and Quinn Nicholson stroll down Route 66 in Williams, Arizona. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)The Pacific Ocean seen from the Santa Monica Pier, the symbolic end of Route 66, in Santa Monica, California. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)
