49 Fun Facts About Route 66

U.S. Route 66 was established on 11 November 1926 and ran from Chicago to which western terminus?

Originally it ended in downtown Los Angeles; the 1936 extension took it to Santa Monica and a junction with US 101.

How long was Route 66 from end to end?

That is 3,940 km; the road crossed eight states and three time zones.

How many states did Route 66 pass through?

Eight: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, from Lake Michigan to the Pacific.

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 Santa Fe before dropping to Albuquerque; the straight westward realignment cut roughly 100 miles off the road.

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 number did promoters originally want for the Chicago-Los Angeles road, before Kentucky objected?

US 60 was the number the promoters wanted, but Kentucky insisted on a route ending in zero for itself, so the Chicago-Los Angeles road took the unassigned 66 in 1926.

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

John Steinbeck called it 'the Mother Road' in The Grapes of Wrath (1939), in which the Joads flee the Oklahoma Dust Bowl along Route 66; the novel won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize.

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.

In which year was Route 66 officially removed from the US Highway System?

Route 66 was decertified on 27 June 1985, after Interstates 55, 44, 40, 15 and 10 had absorbed nearly all of its traffic.

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.

Who wrote the 1946 song '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66'?

Bobby Troup wrote it in 1946 while driving west to Hollywood with his wife Cynthia, who suggested the title; the Nat King Cole Trio's recording that year made it a hit.

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

Winona. Troup's lyric runs 'Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona', yet Winona lies east of Flagstaff, so a westbound driver passes it first; the rhyme put it after.

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

Chevrolet supplied a new Corvette each season; Nelson Riddle's jazzy theme became a hit in its own right.

Cadillac Ranch, near Amarillo, Texas, consists of how many Cadillacs buried nose-first in a field?

Ten Cadillacs, model years 1949 to 1963, were half-buried nose-down by the Ant Farm collective in 1974 with money from Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh 3.

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

The Mojave Desert. West of the Colorado River crossing at Needles, Route 66 ran some 140 miles across the Mojave to Barstow, the stretch drivers dreaded most in summer heat.

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 withers once Interstate 40 pulls drivers off Route 66, a fate the film's crew saw in real towns while touring the road with historian Michael Wallis.

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

Delgadillo met John Lasseter during research for Cars, and Seligman's story of losing its traffic overnight to Interstate 40 fed straight into Radiator Springs.

Which Route 66 character in Cars was inspired by artist Bob Waldmire's orange 1972 Volkswagen Microbus?

Fillmore, the hippie VW bus, was modelled on Waldmire's Microbus; Pixar wanted to name him Waldmire, but the artist, a vegetarian, declined to have his name on Happy Meal toys.

The Art Deco U-Drop Inn, built in 1936 in Shamrock, Texas, appears in Cars as which character's business?

The tower-topped gas station and café is one of the most photographed buildings on the road and was restored with a federal grant.

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

San Bernardino. Frank Redford's chain began in Kentucky in the 1930s; the Holbrook and San Bernardino wigwams are its two Route 66 survivors, and Sally's Cozy Cone Motel in Cars is a tribute.

Hugh Davis built the concrete Blue Whale of Catoosa, Oklahoma, in the early 1970s for whom?

His wife. Davis built the whale as an anniversary gift for Zelta, who collected whale figurines, on the family's swimming pond; it opened in 1972 and became a beloved landmark.

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

The bumper sticker: Dill had staff tie Meramec Caverns signs to visitors' bumpers, then switched to adhesive cards; he also painted the caverns' name on barn roofs across the Midwest.

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, a 30-foot fibreglass 'Muffler Man', stands in which Illinois Route 66 town?

Wilmington. The astronaut-suited Gemini Giant went up outside the Launching Pad Drive-In in the 1960s and was moved to a Wilmington park in 2024.

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

Its 22-degree bend midway, forced by the need to set piers on bedrock while leaving barges a clear channel; the 1929 bridge later became a walking and cycling path and appeared in Escape from New York (1981).

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

72 ounces, a four-and-a-half-pound steak that must be finished within an hour along with a shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad and roll; those who fail pay for the meal.

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

Wild burros. The donkeys descend from pack animals turned loose by gold prospectors when Oatman's mines closed; they roam the main street begging food from tourists.

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

Winslow. The 1999 park's statue and mural illustrate the lyric 'standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona'; the town's other jewel is La Posada, Mary Colter's 1930 Harvey House hotel.

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

Tucumcari. Built in 1939 by carpenter W. A. Huggins, the 12-unit L-shaped court with a garage beside each room was run for decades by Lillian Redman and joined the National Register in 1993.

The El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, opened on Route 66 in 1937 mainly to house whom?

John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Ronald Reagan and Humphrey Bogart all stayed while shooting in the red-rock country nearby.

Roy's Motel and Café, with its 1959 boomerang neon sign, is in which Route 66 desert town?

Amboy. Roy's, begun by Roy Crowl in 1938, thrived until Interstate 40 bypassed the town to the north in the early 1970s; the boomerang-shaped sign went up in 1959.

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

'Calling You', Bob Telson's ballad sung by Jevetta Steele, was nominated for Best Original Song; the film was shot at the Sidewinder Cafe on Route 66 in Newberry Springs, California.

How many miles of Route 66 ran through the Prairie State, from Chicago to the Mississippi?

About 300 miles: Illinois' stretch ran roughly 300 miles from Lake Michigan in Chicago through Joliet, Pontiac, Bloomington and Springfield to the Mississippi opposite St. Louis.

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. The Federal Highway Administration named Illinois' Route 66 a National Scenic Byway in 2005, recognising the 300-mile corridor from Chicago to the Mississippi.

Which Arizona national park preserves a small grassy section of the old Route 66 roadbed?

Petrified Forest, the only national park Route 66 crossed; the old alignment shows as a grassy swath beside the railroad through the Painted Desert, marked by a rusting 1932 Studebaker.

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

Newman, a real-life racer, made it his final major film role; Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen.

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.

Beale's 1857 wagon road, parts of which became Route 66, experimented with which pack animals?

Camels: Beale's 1857 survey used the Army's imported camels and he praised them; the road he built along the 35th parallel for the War Department later fed into Route 66's alignment across Arizona.

Which UNESCO World Heritage Site did Route 66 pass near East St. Louis, Illinois?

Cahokia Mounds, the pre-Columbian city at Collinsville near East St. Louis, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982; its 100-foot Monks Mound stood a few miles from the road's Mississippi crossing.

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 Grand Canyon Railway, revived in 1989, runs about 65 miles north from the Williams depot to the canyon's South Rim, and the town bills itself as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon.

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'. Depeche Mode recorded Bobby Troup's 'Route 66' as the B-side of the single, released in December 1987 from the album Music for the Masses.