ROUTE 66

U.S. Route 66 was also known as the Will Rogers Highway and as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road". One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year The famous highway originally ran from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California before ending at Los Angeles encompassing a total of 2,448 miles. Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion.

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed

US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System.