Route 66 To Be Dedicated As
Scenic Byway
Ceremony
May 5 in Springfield
SPRINGFIELD -- Classic
cars, Route 66 memorabilia and a keynote speech by author and
U.S. Route 66 historian Susan Kelly Kirkpatrick will highlight
the dedication of Historic Route 66 as a Missouri Scenic Byway
at 11 a.m. Friday, May 5, in Springfield.
The Route 66 Association
of Missouri, in partnership with the Missouri Department of Transportation,
will celebrate with a ribbon cutting in Springfield. In the mid-1920s,
as part of a nationwide grassroots movement for better roads,
community leaders based in Springfield were among those who worked
to have the planned highway run southwest between St. Louis and
Joplin, through Springfield, and receive the "66" route
designation.
The May 5 event will be
on an old strip of Route 66 pavement near the current southeast
corner of Glenstone Avenue and Kearney Street.
The intersection is a few
blocks south of Interstate 44, whose construction in the 1950s
and 1960s replaced Route 66, also known as The Mother Road and
the Main Street of America.
The ceremony will include
the unveiling of a new blue and white "Historic Route 66
Byway" sign. The signs will be placed to guide travelers
from all over the world to the many short segments of old Route
66 that remain as part of other state or local roads. The existing
brown signs will be replaced.
Those who attend May 5
will be asked to sign a guest book and share their Route 66 memories
to help commemorate the celebration. The Route 66 Association
will add these reminiscences to its collection of photos and memorabilia,
some of which will be on display at the dedication.
Kirkpatrick, editor of
"Ozarks Magazine" and a former newspaper reporter, is
author of "Route 66, The Highway & Its People."
Her book traces the birth and development of Route 66, built between
Chicago, Ill., and Santa Monica, Calif. She describes the interaction
between the 2,500-mile long highway and the business promoters,
farmers, shopkeepers, motel owners, truckers, bandits, adventurers
and regular families who traveled or made a living along the road.
Missouri maintained 300 miles of Route 66 between the Mississippi
River at St. Louis and the Oklahoma state line near Joplin.
In her remarks May 5, Kirkpatrick
plans to highlight the relationship people had -- and many still
have -- with Route 66 and its mystique.
"Everybody has a Route
66 story," said Kirkpatrick, whether traveling the "the
most famous road in the world" seeking work during the Great
Depression, visiting a loved one in the military during World
War II or vacationing in the 1950s.
Also scheduled to speak
May 5 is Tommy Pike of Springfield, President of the Route 66
Association of Missouri. Pike and his wife, Glenda, Editor of
the Route 66 Association's "Show-Me Route 66" magazine,
were among those who advocated for the state Scenic Byway designation
for Route 66. The Route 66 group and MoDOT are pursuing national
Scenic Byway designation.
The strip of old Route
66 where the May 5 event will take place was a northbound-to-eastbound
turn lane in the 1950s, Tommy Pike said. The intersection was
a four-way stop. Glenstone Avenue carried north-south U.S. 65
through Springfield. Glenstone Avenue also carried Business U.S.
66 between Kearney Street and St. Louis (then Business U.S. 66
joined Business U.S. 60 and went west along St. Louis and College
streets through downtown to Scenic Avenue before splitting up).
Kearney Street carried U.S. 66 through traffic across the north
edge of the city. Earlier in the highway's history, U.S. 66 followed
what is now Route YY and Division Street east of Glenstone Avenue.
The Missouri Highways and
Transportation Commission voted Nov. 9, 2005, to designate Historic
Route 66 as a Byway at the request of the Route 66 Association
of Missouri and after many public meetings in communities along
I-44. The last stretch of the old Route 66 nationwide was decommissioned
in 1985.
Under the Byways program,
MoDOT works with local communities and groups to identify existing
roadways that offer one or more intrinsic qualities that provide
a basis for Byway designation: archaeological, cultural, historic,
natural, recreational or scenic. This reimbursement program provides
funding for improvements along Byways -- 80 percent paid with
federal money and 20 percent local match.
In the case of Route 66,
the outdoor advertising that helped the highway develop as an
economic lifeline remains an integral part of the Route 66 heritage.
Commercial enticements, for products like Burma Shave and destinations
like Meramec Caverns, appeared not only on billboards and, eventually,
electrified signs but also on slanted barn roofs and weathered
fence posts.
The other roadways designated
as state Byways in Missouri are: Little Dixie Highway of the Great
River Road, northeast Missouri; Cliff Drive and Spirit of Kansas
City, both in Kansas City; Crowley's Ridge, Dunklin County, and
Stars and Stripes, Stoddard County, both in southeast Missouri;
Old Trails Road and Santa Fe Trail, Lafayette County in central
Missouri; and Ozark Mountain Highroad, Branson area, southwest
Missouri.
Editor's note: For downloadable interviews and
visuals related to this story please visit MoDOT's Internet newsroom
---
www.modot.org/newsroom.
