96 Fun Facts About Route 66

U.S. Route 66 ran west from Chicago to which terminus on the Pacific coast?

Santa Monica: the road first ended in downtown Los Angeles and was extended west to the ocean in the mid-1930s.

Which state did Route 66 cross for only about 13 miles?

Kansas: the road clipped its southeast corner through Galena, where an old boom truck beside a service station inspired Tow Mater in Cars.

Which Yankees slugger grew up in Commerce, Oklahoma, on Route 66?

Mantle, the 'Commerce Comet': his father, a lead and zinc miner, named him after catcher Mickey Cochrane and trained him from boyhood to switch-hit.

Before a 1937 realignment, Route 66 looped north through which New Mexico city?

Santa Fe: until 1937 Route 66 swung north from Santa Rosa through the capital before reaching Albuquerque, and a straight westward cutoff then made the drive far shorter.

Which Tulsa businessman is known as the 'Father of Route 66'?

Cyrus Avery, a Tulsa businessman on the 1925 Joint Board on Interstate Highways, steered the Chicago-Los Angeles road through Oklahoma and earned the title 'Father of Route 66'.

Which state's governor fought for the US 60 number, so the Chicago-Los Angeles road became Route 66 instead?

Kentucky: its governor wanted US 60 to cross his state, so Oklahoma engineer John Page found the unused number 66 and officials wired 'We prefer sixty six.'

Which novelist gave Route 66 the nickname 'the Mother Road'?

John Steinbeck: in The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads take Route 66 west to California after drought and bank foreclosures drive them off their Oklahoma farm.

The U.S. Highway 66 Association promoted the road under which nickname?

The U.S. Highway 66 Association, formed in 1927, sold the road as 'The Main Street of America'; in 1952 it also dedicated the route as the Will Rogers Highway.

Which milestone did Route 66 reach in 1938?

Route 66 was fully paved end to end by 1938; much of it had been gravel or dirt, and New Deal relief crews finished the surface.

The 1928 'Bunion Derby' footrace followed Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago before finishing where?

New York City. The race left Los Angeles' Ascot Speedway on 4 March 1928 and ended 84 days later at Madison Square Garden; promoter C. C. Pyle staged a return run in 1929.

Kingman, Arizona's Route 66 main street is named for which actor raised there?

Andy Devine. The gravel-voiced character actor, stagecoach driver Buck in Stagecoach (1939), grew up in Kingman, which renamed its Route 66 thoroughfare Andy Devine Avenue in his honour.

Which jazz pianist, later Dr. Joe Early on TV's Emergency!, wrote '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66'?

Bobby Troup: his tune became a hit for Nat King Cole's trio and a standard later covered by Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones.

Which town does the song 'Route 66' name out of geographic order?

Winona: the song names it right after Flagstaff, yet the community lies east of Flagstaff, so westbound drivers actually reach it first.

In the CBS series Route 66 (1960-64), Martin Milner and George Maharis roamed America in what car?

A Chevrolet Corvette: under a product-placement deal, Chevrolet supplied that model year's Corvette for each season of the show.

Route 66 crossed which desert between Needles and Barstow, California?

The Mojave Desert: Eagles guitarist Don Felder said the band's night drives into Los Angeles on the old road through the desert fed the lyrics of 'Hotel California'.

Pixar's Cars (2006) is set in Radiator Springs, a Route 66 town whose trade dried up when what happened?

An interstate bypassed it: in Cars, Radiator Springs fades once Interstate 40 draws traffic off Route 66, until Lightning McQueen makes it his racing headquarters.

Which Route 66 town's barber Angel Delgadillo founded the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in 1987?

Seligman: the association Angel Delgadillo led got Arizona to sign the old road 'Historic Route 66', and the tourists who followed revived the town.

Which Cars character was inspired by Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire's Volkswagen Microbus?

Fillmore: Pixar proposed naming the hippie bus Waldmire, but the artist, an ethical vegetarian, refused to see his name on McDonald's Happy Meal toys.

The Art Deco U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas, appears in Cars as which character's business?

Ramone's body shop: the station's café got its U-Drop Inn name from a local schoolboy who won a contest to name the new building.

Wigwam Motels with tipi-shaped rooms stand on Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona, and which California city?

San Bernardino: its sister village in Holbrook paid inventor Frank Redford for his plans by sending him every dime fed into the rooms' coin-operated radios.

Hugh Davis built the concrete Blue Whale of Catoosa, Oklahoma, as a gift for whom?

His wife: Davis built the whale for Zelta for their 1972 anniversary, and its pond became a favorite swimming hole for Route 66 travelers.

Lester B. Dill, who opened Meramec Caverns to tourists in 1935, is credited with inventing what?

The bumper sticker: Dill pioneered bumper signs to advertise the caverns, alongside Meramec Caverns ads painted on barns across many states.

According to local legend, which outlaw used Meramec Caverns as a hideout in the 1870s?

Jesse James. Dill promoted the caverns as the James gang's 1870s hideout, a claim historians find little evidence for, but it drew tourists for decades.

The Gemini Giant, an astronaut 'Muffler Man' statue, stands in which Illinois Route 66 town?

Wilmington: after a 2024 sale of the closed Launching Pad diner fell through, police said its owner trashed the site, and the giant was auctioned off.

What structural quirk made the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Route 66's Mississippi crossing, famous?

A sharp midway bend: engineers angled the 1929 bridge mid-river so its piers could avoid water intakes or bedrock too weak to bear them.

How big is the steak Amarillo's Big Texan Steak Ranch gives free to anyone who finishes it in an hour?

72 ounces: founder R. J. Lee is said to have made the meal free after a cowboy ate that much steak, plus the sides, within an hour.

Oatman, Arizona, a Route 66 stop, is best known for what wandering its streets?

Wild burros: holdovers from the area's prospecting days, they wander the old mining town's main street, where tourists feed them.

Which Arizona Route 66 town built a 'Standin' on the Corner' park after the Eagles' 'Take It Easy'?

Winslow: a local foundation built the park to bring tourists back downtown, capitalizing on the town's mention in the song.

The Blue Swallow Motel, with its "100% Refrigerated Air" neon, is a Route 66 landmark in which New Mexico town?

Tucumcari: carpenter W. A. Huggins placed garages between the rooms, so motorists could park their cars right beside where they slept.

The El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, opened on Route 66 mainly to house whom?

Film stars: the Griffith brothers promoted it as a base for Hollywood crews on location, drawn by the striking Western landscapes around Gallup.

Roy's Motel and Cafe, with its towering neon sign, stands in which Route 66 desert town?

Amboy: Roy's began as a gas station, then added a cafe to feed drivers waiting on repairs and a motel to house them overnight.

The 1987 film Bagdad Cafe earned an Oscar nomination for which song?

'Calling You': Bob Telson wrote it for the film, which director Percy Adlon conceived after a family road trip along Route 66 through the desert.

Which Illinois Route 66 diner claims to have invented the corn dog on a stick?

Cozy Dog Drive In. Ed Waldmire Jr. began selling his batter-dipped hot dog on a stick in 1946 and opened the Springfield stand in 1949 on the city's Route 66 strip.

Which federal designation did Illinois' stretch of Route 66 receive in 2005?

Scenic Byway: to win the 2005 designation, a nonprofit first had to draw up a corridor management plan for the old road.

Which national park, bisected by Interstate 40, protects a stretch of old Route 66 roadbed?

Petrified Forest: some visitors who pocket its fossil wood later mail it back with guilty letters, and rangers pile the returns up because they can't be put back.

In Cars, who voices Doc Hudson, the town judge revealed as a legendary racing Hudson Hornet?

Paul Newman: making the 1969 racing film Winning gave him the racing bug, and he went on to race professionally for decades.

Which president signed the National Route 66 Preservation Act?

Bill Clinton signed the National Route 66 Preservation Act on 10 August 1999; it created the National Park Service's Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, which funds restoration of historic features along the road.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard sits on a Route 66 alignment in which Missouri city?

St. Louis. Ted Drewes opened its Chippewa Street stand, on a Route 66 alignment through the city's south side, in 1941 and became famous for 'concretes', custard so thick it is served upside down.

A 1932 Saturday Evening Post campaign urged drivers to take Route 66 to which Los Angeles event?

The Summer Olympics. The U.S. Highway 66 Association's 1932 ads sold the road as the way to the Los Angeles Games, which opened that July; the association had promoted the route since 1927.

Edward Beale's 1857 wagon road, parts of which later became Route 66, tested which pack animals?

Camels: tests showed they could outcarry mules, but they frightened horses and mules, and the government eventually sold them at auction.

Which pre-Columbian mound city, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, did Route 66 pass in Illinois?

Cahokia Mounds: its people abandoned the city long before Europeans arrived, and archaeologists still debate why they left.

Red's Giant Hamburg, billed as the world's first drive-thru, sat on Route 66 in which city?

Springfield, Missouri. Sheldon 'Red' Chaney opened Red's Giant Hamburg on the city's Route 66 strip in 1947 with a drive-up window; the sign read 'Hamburg' because 'Hamburger' would not fit.

Which Arizona Route 66 town is the depot for the Grand Canyon Railway?

Williams: the railway's trains helped turn the Grand Canyon's South Rim into a destination resort for tourists.

Which Texas Panhandle town is noted as the midpoint of Route 66?

Adrian, where the Midpoint Café's sign reads 1,139 miles to both Chicago and Los Angeles; Texas had about 178 miles of the road between Texola and Glenrio.

Route 66's original 1926 eastern terminus was at Jackson Boulevard and which Chicago street?

Michigan Avenue. From 1926 Route 66 began at Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue; the road left the city along Ogden Avenue, originally via Joliet and later Plainfield, and the terminus was eventually pushed east to Lake Shore Drive.

Depeche Mode's 1987 cover of 'Route 66' was the B-side of which single?

'Behind the Wheel': for the US release, the band's cover was fused with the A-side into a megamix single.

Route 66 carried thousands of 1930s migrant families west to California as they fled which environmental disaster?

The Dust Bowl drove so many Oklahoma families onto the highway that the migrants as a group were nicknamed 'Okies'. Many found conditions in California little better than those they had left.

Which president's tomb and preserved home are Route 66 stops in the Illinois state capital?

Abraham Lincoln bought the house in 1844, the only home he ever owned, and left the city by train for his inauguration in 1861.

Route 66 followed the boulevard used by the Rose Parade through which California city east of Los Angeles?

Pasadena's main boulevard carried the highway until 1964, and every New Year the Tournament of Roses still parades east along it.

Route 66 left Arizona for California near Topock by crossing which river on the Old Trails arch bridge?

The Colorado was crossed on the arch, built in 1915–1916, until 1947, when a former railroad bridge took over. The old span survives because it was converted to carry a pipeline.

Visitors to Cadillac Ranch, the Route 66 art installation near Amarillo, are encouraged to bring what to the cars?

Spray paint is welcome because the artists encouraged the public to mark the cars, which lost their original colors long ago and are now wildly decorated with graffiti.

Pops, a Route 66 stop in Arcadia, Oklahoma, is marked by a 66-foot neon sign shaped like what?

A soda bottle suits the place: opened in 2007, the restaurant lines its glass walls with more than 700 kinds of soda pop, arranged by color.

Route 66 wound through which forested highland region of southern Missouri on its way toward Oklahoma?

The Ozarks stretch followed a path far older than cars: an Osage trail along which settlers later laid a telegraph line.

Which president signed the 1956 highway act that created the interstates, the network that replaced Route 66?

Dwight D. Eisenhower had been won over to fast highways by Germany's autobahns during World War II, and the system he signed into law made Route 66 redundant within three decades.

Route 66 was dedicated as a memorial highway to which Oklahoma-born humorist, killed in a 1935 plane crash?

Will Rogers gave the road its other name, the Will Rogers Highway, and a plaque at its Pacific end still dedicates it to him. The pilot beside him that day was the record-setting aviator Wiley Post.

Marshfield, Missouri, on Route 66, displays a replica of which space telescope named for an astronomer born there?

Hubble honors Edwin Hubble, born in Marshfield in 1889, and the replica stands outside the county courthouse. The stretch of Interstate 44 through town carries his name too.

Which singer and pianist, leading his trio, made the first recording of the song 'Route 66' in 1946?

Nat King Cole liked the tune enough to record it three times: in 1946 with his trio, then again for albums in 1956 and 1961.

Which British band put a cover of 'Route 66' on its self-titled debut album in 1964?

The Rolling Stones learned the song from Chuck Berry's 1961 version rather than the jazz original, and it became one of the most popular numbers on their early tours.

Which Arizona mountain city on Route 66 is home to the observatory where Pluto was discovered in 1930?

Flagstaff's businessmen lobbied to bring Route 66 through town, and the highway shifted the local economy from lumber to tourism. Pluto was found at Lowell Observatory, on a hill above downtown.

The hotel in Oatman, Arizona, shows off a 'honeymoon suite' for which Hollywood couple, wed in Kingman in 1939?

Gable and Lombard really did marry in Kingman, but the honeymoon is a legend: the couple drove straight back to Los Angeles for a press conference the next morning.

Which Illinois city on Route 66 has the old prison that Jake Blues leaves at the start of The Blues Brothers?

Joliet gave Jake his nickname, 'Joliet Jake'. The prison held inmates from 1858 to 2002, and since 2018 the local historical museum has run tours of it for Route 66 travelers.

Which oil company says it named its gasoline partly after Route 66, where the fuel was road-tested in 1927?

Phillips 66 owes its number to company lore: a car road-testing the fuel was clocked at 66 miles per hour on Route 66 near Tulsa, and the coincidence stuck.

Which California art collective, founded by architects, created Cadillac Ranch beside Route 66 in 1974?

Ant Farm members Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels pitched the idea to Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, and the credits of Pixar's Cars acknowledge the group.

Folk artist Ed Galloway spent years near Foyil, Oklahoma, just off Route 66, building a 90-foot concrete what?

A totem pole it is: finished in 1948 and billed as the world's largest in concrete, it rests on the back of a turtle and carries about 200 bas-relief images.

McLean, Texas, has a Route 66 museum devoted to 'devil's rope', a frontier nickname for which invention?

Barbed wire fills a museum housed in a converted brassiere factory, and it is thought to hold the largest collection of published material on the subject.

Which animal's black silhouette marked the yellow countdown signs for a Route 66 trading post near Joseph City, Arizona?

A jackrabbit led drivers mile by mile to a giant 'HERE IT IS' sign at the store. Pixar copied the sign for Radiator Springs, with a Ford Model T in the rabbit's place.

Route 66 crossed which colorful Arizona badlands, named by Coronado's Spanish expedition in 1540?

The Painted Desert translates the Spaniards' own name, El Desierto Pintado, coined as an exploring party crossed its bands of red and lavender rock.

Which Cars character is based on Dawn Welch of the Rock Café, a Route 66 landmark in Stroud, Oklahoma?

Sally, the Porsche who settles in Radiator Springs and fights to revive it, mirrors Welch, a newcomer who left the travel industry to buy the café in 1993.

Route 66 historian Michael Wallis, who guided Pixar's research trips, voices which Radiator Springs resident in Cars?

Sheriff, a 1949 Mercury police car, speaks with the voice of the man who led eleven Pixar animators down the old road in rented white Cadillacs.

Rumble strips installed on Route 66 near Tijeras, New Mexico, in 2014 played which patriotic song under a car's tires?

America the Beautiful rang out only at 45 mph, a trick to get drivers to slow down. By 2020 the tune was fading and most of the ridges had been covered over.

Which New Mexico city saw Route 66 moved in 1937 from Fourth Street to its east–west Central Avenue?

Albuquerque got the straighter route with New Deal money secured by governor Clyde Tingley, and by 1955 there were 98 motels along Central.

Which Arizona landmark near Route 66, still owned by the Barringer family, was used to train Apollo astronauts?

Meteor Crater was created about 50,000 years ago, and it has stayed in private hands despite an attempt to make it a public landmark. Astronauts still train there.

Which burger chain, a pioneer of curbside service, began in 1934 beside Route 66 in Normal, Illinois?

Steak 'n Shake began when Gus Belt turned the combined gas station and chicken restaurant he owned into a hamburger stand.

Which best-selling country singer grew up in Yukon, Oklahoma, a town traversed by Route 66 near Oklahoma City?

Garth Brooks got his start at home: the family held weekly talent nights in Yukon, and every child had to sing or do a skit.

Which 'King of the Road' singer grew up in Erick, Oklahoma, where Route 66 is named for him?

Roger Miller grew up doing farm work outside Erick, picking cotton and plowing, and the town later renamed its stretch of Route 66 Roger Miller Boulevard.

The giant 'Bunyon' statue on Route 66 in Atlanta, Illinois, holds which oversized food instead of a lumberjack's axe?

A hot dog was the symbol of Bunyon's, a restaurant in Cicero, and the fiberglass giant moved to Atlanta when its owner retired.

Route 66 State Park in Missouri covers the site of Times Beach, a town evacuated in 1983 over which contaminant?

Dioxin arrived in waste oil that a contractor was paid to spread around town over a period of four years. Times Beach was bought out, and it was completely demolished by 1992.

Which arranger, famous for his work with Frank Sinatra, wrote the hit instrumental theme for TV's Route 66?

Nelson Riddle was hired at short notice because CBS preferred a new tune to paying royalties for the famous song, and his theme became one of the first from television to reach Billboard's top 30.

Funks Grove, a Route 66 stop in Illinois, is known for which sweet product, sold by the Funk family since 1891?

Maple syrup, sold there under the old spelling 'sirup', comes from sugar maples that drew Isaac Funk to settle the grove as early as 1824.

Fanning, Missouri, lures Route 66 drivers with a giant roadside version of which piece of furniture?

A rocking chair, ranked the world's second largest, towers outside the Fanning 66 Outpost, four miles southwest of the town of Cuba.

El Reno, Oklahoma, a Route 66 town, holds a yearly festival for its signature burger, fried with which ingredient?

Onions, legend says, were first pressed into the patties at El Reno's Hamburger Inn in the 1920s so the owner could use less meat in his five-cent burgers.

Which Missouri Army post, created in December 1940, lies beside the Route 66 stretch through Waynesville?

Fort Leonard Wood was named for a former Army chief of staff. Interstate 44 is now the area's main east–west route, and the old highway survives beside it under local names such as Teardrop Road.

Which interstate largely replaced Route 66 across Illinois, running from Chicago toward the Mississippi?

I-55 took over the corridor once numbered Illinois Route 4, yet parts of the old road still carry traffic and six stretches of roadbed are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Which travel guide, published from 1936 to 1966, told Black motorists which Route 66 businesses would serve them?

The Green Book was needed on Route 66: in one New Mexico city, only six percent of the more than 100 motels lining the highway admitted Black customers.

At Campbell Pass in western New Mexico, about 7,200 feet up, Route 66 crossed which geographic boundary?

The Continental Divide splits the rain there: water falling west of the pass drains toward the Pacific, while water to the east runs toward the Rio Grande.

Which Southern California mountain pass, created by the San Andreas Fault, carried Route 66 down from the high desert?

Cajon Pass still holds a short, well-preserved fragment of the old highway, now called Cajon Boulevard, running below and parallel to Interstate 15.

Which Chicago diner near Union Station earned a nickname as the first stop for drivers setting out on Route 66?

Lou Mitchell's fed so many travelers starting the journey that a national Route 66 restoration program was launched there in 2002, and the diner joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The historic eastern end of Route 66 is marked by a corner of which Chicago museum, guarded by two bronze lions?

The Art Institute and its Fountain of the Great Lakes were already standing there long before the route was inaugurated at that intersection in November 1926.

Which Missouri city, where Route 66 runs along 7th Street, was a 1933 hideout for Bonnie and Clyde?

Joplin lawmen confronted the gang, who shot their way out but abandoned a camera. Its film gave newspapers the now-legendary photos of Bonnie posing with a pistol and a cigar.

Which Route 66 ghost town sits right on the Texas–New Mexico state line, sidelined by Interstate 40 in 1973?

Glenrio's businesses played the border: its 1930s bar was built on the New Mexico side because the Texas county was dry, and at one point all fuel was sold in Texas, where gasoline taxes were lower.

Which Illinois city, known for its outdoor murals, is home to the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum?

Pontiac also houses the Pontiac Oakland Museum, and one of its murals, a giant Route 66 shield, is a popular photo stop for tourists from many countries.

A surviving stretch of original Route 66 near Auburn, Illinois, is on the National Register for which unusual surface?

Brick went down late: the job was not finished until 1931, by which time Route 66 itself had already been shifted to a newer line farther east.

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Arizona Route 66 attraction was stocked as a fallout shelter for 2,000?

Grand Canyon Caverns, among the largest dry caverns in the United States, lie 210 feet below ground near Peach Springs, and the Cold War supplies are still stored there.

Which Oklahoma toll road, opened in 1953 between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, drew early traffic away from Route 66?

Turner Turnpike was built parallel to the old road, which stayed in use as a free alternate for drivers who would not pay the toll.

Mitla Cafe, a Route 66 restaurant open since 1937, gave which fast-food chain's founder the idea for hard-shell tacos?

Taco Bell founder Glen Bell ran a stand across the street, watched the long lines at Mitla, and learned how its tacos were made before opening taco stands of his own.

Which actor joined TV's Route 66 in 1963 as Linc Case, a Vietnam veteran who travels with Tod Stiles?

Glenn Corbett's character arrived near the end of the third season, after co-star George Maharis had been sidelined by hepatitis, and stayed until the final episode.