100 years! Despite the attempts to build faster transit around her, Route 66 is alive and well, and enjoying the popularity she enjoyed 75 years ago, back to her relative youth. Today, I’m as fascinated by what I am still overlooking, and learning about out on the Mother Road, popular the world over.

The enduring attraction of Historic Route 66 is a worldwide phenomenon. Since Route 66 was ordained in 1926, the eight states where Route 66 roadways knitted together the first national all weather highway system, it still thrills. Built to connect the industrial centers around Chicago in the Midwest, with the farming abundance of the heartland, and the beauty and wonder of the Pacific coast in the West, America’s Mainstreet has lived and breathed life and vitality into those she served. Since then, people have been getting their kicks on Route 66.

These days, travelers from all over the world come to the United States to drive and explore what has become a collection of highways and byways and realignments throughout eight states from the Lake Michigan shore in Chicago to the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles. Some people are repeat offenders. I’m among them.

Williams, Arizona was the last town to be bypassed by the American interstate highway system. Residents of Williams fought a hard battle to keep I-40 from bypassing their town. Despite their legal efforts, on October 13, 1984, Route 66 was finally bypassed. Since then, Route 66 enthusiasts have made Williams the center of Route 66 preservation efforts. And preserve it they have. Movies have featured her. Celebrities have traveled her. Americans have adopted her and keep breathing life into her. It is an American love story!

Through the devoted effort of local stakeholders across the eight Route 66 roadway states, it is estimated that 80-85% of Route 66 is drivable today. The highway route alignments have changed often over time but, the route in one form or another continues. Through hard and persistent work by the Route 66 corridor stakeholders Congress was encouraged to enact the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 1999 that recognizes the economic and cultural importance of Route 66 and provide funding for preservation. Through the guidance and financial support meted out through the National Park Service, businesses and icons are being restored, and routes being maintained, and there is a renewed vigor in the face of the constant march of time. The enactment of these measures has encouraged local and state investment to continue and grow.

The unique and charming finds that people make along Route 66 are as much the appeal today as was the allure of the bounty of the Pacific coast during desperate dust bowl days. The country’s wanderlust after the conclusion of World War II is not much different than today’s generations seeking the thrill of discovering quirky new things and reconnecting to their curiosity and sense of adventure right here in the United States. Route 66 delivers that sense of adventure! You’d be hard pressed to capture all of that anywhere else.

Route 66 appeals to adventure, romanticism, curiosity and the innate desire to check in with history and reconcile with progress. The pace of life out on the interstates that replaced Route 66 is still no match for the thrill of Taking It Easy ¹ along the Mother Road on what is still America’s Main Street, however she is aligned. It is hard to deny the appeal.

¹ – “Take it Easy” by the Eagles, first released May 1, 1972, written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey. Memorialized on Route 66 in Winslow, AZ.