46 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.