Route 66 Trivia
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This Route 66 trivia quiz has 46 free questions with answers and drives the whole road: from the 1926 numbering fight that gave it its double digits and the Tulsa oilman who fathered it, through the Dust Bowl migrants of The Grapes of Wrath, the 1928 Bunion Derby footrace, the Corvette on 1960s TV and Bobby Troup's song, to the interstates that killed it in 1985 and the barbers, artists and neon-motel owners who brought it back as a National Scenic Byway. Along the way it stops at the roadside attractions every road-tripper photographs: the Gemini Giant, the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Meramec Caverns, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Cadillac Ranch, the Big Texan's 72-ounce steak, the U-Drop Inn, the Blue Swallow, El Rancho, Wigwam Motels, the burros of Oatman and Roy's in Amboy. Pixar fans get their due too, since Radiator Springs, Mater, Fillmore, Ramone's shop and the Cozy Cone all have real Route 66 originals. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01U.S. Route 66 ran west from Chicago to which terminus on the Pacific coast?
Santa Monica
Santa Monica: the road first ended in downtown Los Angeles and was extended west to the ocean in the mid-1930s.
Q 02Which state did Route 66 cross for only about 13 miles?
Kansas
Kansas: the road clipped its southeast corner through Galena, where an old boom truck beside a service station inspired Tow Mater in Cars.
Q 03Which Yankees slugger grew up in Commerce, Oklahoma, on Route 66?
Mantle
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.
Q 04Before a 1937 realignment, Route 66 looped north through which New Mexico city?
Santa Fe
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.
Q 05Which Tulsa businessman is known as the 'Father of Route 66'?
Cyrus Avery
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'.
Q 06Which state's governor fought for the US 60 number, so the Chicago-Los Angeles road became Route 66 instead?
Kentucky
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.'
Q 07Which novelist gave Route 66 the nickname 'the Mother Road'?
John Steinbeck
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.
Q 08The U.S. Highway 66 Association promoted the road under which nickname?
The Main Street of America
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.
Q 09Which milestone did Route 66 reach in 1938?
Fully paved end to end
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.
Q 10The 1928 'Bunion Derby' footrace followed Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago before finishing where?
New York City
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.
Q 11Kingman, Arizona's Route 66 main street is named for which actor raised there?
Andy Devine
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.
Q 12Which jazz pianist, later Dr. Joe Early on TV's Emergency!, wrote '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66'?
Bobby Troup
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.
Q 13Which town does the song 'Route 66' name out of geographic order?
Winona
Winona: the song names it right after Flagstaff, yet the community lies east of Flagstaff, so westbound drivers actually reach it first.
Q 21Hugh Davis built the concrete Blue Whale of Catoosa, Oklahoma, as a gift for whom?
His wife
His wife: Davis built the whale for Zelta for their 1972 anniversary, and its pond became a favorite swimming hole for Route 66 travelers.
Q 22Lester B. Dill, who opened Meramec Caverns to tourists in 1935, is credited with inventing what?
The bumper sticker
The bumper sticker: Dill pioneered bumper signs to advertise the caverns, alongside Meramec Caverns ads painted on barns across many states.
Q 23According to local legend, which outlaw used Meramec Caverns as a hideout in the 1870s?
Jesse James
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.
Q 14In the CBS series Route 66 (1960-64), Martin Milner and George Maharis roamed America in what car?
A Chevrolet Corvette
A Chevrolet Corvette: under a product-placement deal, Chevrolet supplied that model year's Corvette for each season of the show.
Q 15Route 66 crossed which desert between Needles and Barstow, California?
Mojave
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'.
Q 16Pixar's Cars (2006) is set in Radiator Springs, a Route 66 town whose trade dried up when what happened?
An interstate bypassed it
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.
Q 17Which Route 66 town's barber Angel Delgadillo founded the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in 1987?
Seligman
Seligman: the association Angel Delgadillo led got Arizona to sign the old road 'Historic Route 66', and the tourists who followed revived the town.
Q 18Which Cars character was inspired by Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire's Volkswagen Microbus?
Fillmore
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.
Q 19The Art Deco U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas, appears in Cars as which character's business?
Ramone's body shop
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.
Q 20Wigwam Motels with tipi-shaped rooms stand on Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona, and which California city?
San Bernardino
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.
Q 24The Gemini Giant, an astronaut 'Muffler Man' statue, stands in which Illinois Route 66 town?
Wilmington
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.
Q 25What structural quirk made the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Route 66's Mississippi crossing, famous?
A sharp midway bend
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.
Q 26How big is the steak Amarillo's Big Texan Steak Ranch gives free to anyone who finishes it in an hour?
72 ounces
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.
Q 27Oatman, Arizona, a Route 66 stop, is best known for what wandering its streets?
Wild burros
Wild burros: holdovers from the area's prospecting days, they wander the old mining town's main street, where tourists feed them.
Q 28Which Arizona Route 66 town built a 'Standin' on the Corner' park after the Eagles' 'Take It Easy'?
Winslow
Winslow: a local foundation built the park to bring tourists back downtown, capitalizing on the town's mention in the song.
Q 29The Blue Swallow Motel, with its "100% Refrigerated Air" neon, is a Route 66 landmark in which New Mexico town?
Tucumcari
Tucumcari: carpenter W. A. Huggins placed garages between the rooms, so motorists could park their cars right beside where they slept.
Q 30The El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, opened on Route 66 mainly to house whom?
Film stars
Film stars: the Griffith brothers promoted it as a base for Hollywood crews on location, drawn by the striking Western landscapes around Gallup.