The scenic route

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Up next on the WORLD History Book: Route 66 turns 100.

The iconic highway started as a way to move goods from Chicago to Southern California. Along the way, it connected rural midwestern towns, bringing people to previously unknown places and connecting them to big cities.

REICHARD: The introduction of bigger highways threatened to undo that economic boom, but a few businesses found ways to preserve the road’s glory.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: If you get on U.S. Route 66 in Chicago and drive for about 550 miles, you end up in Springfield, Missouri.

In the 1920s, Springfield was a town of only about 40,000 and was already a rail transportation hub. But when the government established Route 66 in 1926, the town got some new additions—thanks to a businessman named M.E. Gillioz.

GEOFF STEELE: So Gillioz wanted to be on Route 66 so he bought this property.

Geoffe Steele is the Executive Director of the Gillioz Center for Art and Entertainment. Gillioz saw something in the route coming through Springfield: opportunity.

STEELE: A car in 1926 wasn't really built for long distance, and it wasn't built to deal with the heat. They would travel in the cool of the morning, and then they would stop at midday

And sometimes watch a show at the Gillioz theatre.

STEELE: This was the beauty of Route 66. Route 66 was 20th-century western expansion. This was the answer to the American independent spirit that didn't want to be tethered to a railroad schedule or the constraints of a wagon train.

Travelers with a car could go where they wanted and stay as long as they wanted. And that brought new people to small towns across the Midwest and West.

STEELE: Route 66 is central to our existence.

The National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration officially created Route 66 as part of a larger project to systemize American roadways and connect major trade hubs. But an Oklahoma road commissioner named Cyrus Avery is known as the “father” of the route.

Avery argued that the Midwest needed to be connected to the West. So he pushed for a diagonal road that stitched together existing roads to create a 2,500-mile highway with consistent signage and markings—a rarity at the time. After much discussion, officials named the new highway Route 66.

JOHN SELLARS: It was so much to so many different people.

John Sellars is the director of the History Museum on the Square in Springfield.

SELLARS: It was a way to escape during the time of the Dust Bowl and escape to a hopefully a brighter future. It was a way to interact with people across the entire state and across the entire western half of this wonderful country.

But it wasn’t all glory. Many towns along the highway were “sundown cities.” Or places where black people were not safe. In the 30s, a black man created The Green Book, which listed places along Route 66 and other places that were safe for black people to stay and eat.

SELLARS: It was important that they be able to travel like anyone else.

At the time, every town was different—with unique hotels, food, and shopping.

SELLARS: You could really experience what the communities were like.

Now, the road is a staple of American culture…

GRAPES OF WRATH TRAILER, PA JOAD: Ain’t you going with us?

appearing in movies like The Grapes of Wrath.

JIM CASY: I’d like to. There’s something going on out there in the West and I’d like to know what it is, if you feel you’ve got the room.

And Cars.

DISNEY, SALLY: 40 years ago, that interstate down there didn’t exist.

LIGHTNING: Really?

SALLY: Well the road didn’t cut through the land like that interstate. It moved through the land, you know. It rose, it fell, it curved.

And just like in Cars, some of those towns are making a comeback.

SELLARS: We have so many tourists that come through here from foreign countries. It's amazing how that, how that it has become romanticized, even in foreign lands. They bring their cars over here and drive them down the highway.

Debbie Meija has seen the same turnaround in her town, Seligman, Arizona—one of the towns that inspired Cars.

DEBBIE MEIJA: You're still living in the past when you're traveling on Route 66 and I think that's the draw to everything.

Meija is a part-owner of hotels, restaurants, and other tourist attractions centered on Route 66. She says the creation of our modern highway system in the 50s put a strain on towns like hers—creating a bypass for travelers and trade. But she says the iconic nature of the highway has brought some of that business back.

MEIJA: Our little town, Seligman, going from a railroad and, and ranching town and becoming a little, little place for, you know, people to come and enjoy, you know, what was before, you know, is it's pretty neat. I'm pretty proud of our town.

She drove Route 66 a few years ago and thinks it represents the quintessential American experience—traveling freely and experiencing unique places and people along the way.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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