Route 66 can never truly be experienced as it once was. The road itself survives only in fragments, bypassed and forgotten in many places. Fortunately, vintage postcards offer a glimpse into its heyday. Join us for a journey back to the 1950s as we explore the open highway, bustling downtown streets, neon-lit motels, and roadside attractions that made Route 66 America’s most famous road.
Our opening image shows Highway 66 (Central Ave.), looking East, in downtown Albuquerque, NM.
US 66 in New Mexico.
Park Plaza Courts, St. Louis, MO. Junction US 66, 61, and 67 Bypass, Lindberg Blvd, and Watson Road.
Another beauty spot found along Highway 66, Painted Desert National Monument, northern AZ.
The Holbrook Motel, Dining and Coffee, Holbrook, AZ.
View of U.S. 66 through Shamrock, TX.
Sundown Motel, near airbase on Highway 66, Amarillo, TX.
Arcadia Lodge, Kingman, AZ.
Edgewood, NM, on Highway 66 east of Albuquerque.
Bar-B-Q Inn, Hickory Smoked Barbeque, Route 656 at 9901 Central N.E. Albuquerque, NM.
Clines Corners, at US 285 and US 66, and Interstate 40, NM.
Blackie’s Place, 38 miles east of Albuquerque, NM.
Gateway to Grand Canyon National Park, on U.S. Highway 66 between Flagstaff and Williams, AZ.
The Colonel’s Pancake House, on US 66, and 71, Joplin, MO.
Main Street, Weatherford, OK.
Blackie’s Cafe & Curios even had tailfins on their parapet!
Caption for 13th picture from top should be “Grand *Canyon* National Park.”
Thanks. It’s fixed now.
I had the same thought about Blackie’s Cafe!
This appears to be the former Holbrook Motel, in a pretty sad state as many of those old Route 66 motels are now:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/syKPArVfcgfy5Lsj6
Holbrook is also home to one of the few remaining Wigwam Motels, over on the other side of town.
The Sundown Motel in Amarillo also seems in a pretty sorry state, but it’s still operating under the same name:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zxUpWWBMw4Ty6SHJ9
I wonder if there’s also postcards of hotels and restaurants of Route 99 even if it isn’t famous as Route 66? https://www.usends.com/endpoints/us-90-us-99/99
There’s a retro gas station (non operational) in Shamrock that’s great for your Route 66 photo op.
Ah yes, good old Route 66. Traversed it several times in the back seat of my parents car in the 50s, with pleasant memories ranging from vertical soda machines, all sorts of “Crush” soda flavors, counting different states license plates, waiting for construction and the big boom which meant the dynamite went off so we could no proceed. Curiously I seemed to have purged the boredom, car sickness I was told about later and toasty warm days with no A/C from my memory.
Later in ’71 I escaped the midwest heading back to California after high school on 66, there was lots of I40 and I44 by then, but plenty of old 66 still. It’s gone now in California, but still visible in some small towns in Arizona and New Mexico. Mostly dead or dying small towns, but still plenty of evidence of what was once there. I don’t ever see it happening for me, but it might be fun in an RV or the like to do a trip on the old route. Something where you could just put along, not have to worry about making it to the motel reservation tonight, just sightseeing. Again, it’s not what it used to be, lots of it is in pretty rough shape economically, but still some interesting sights.
Gone in California. Seems to me that there is quite a long drivable stretch from Needles to Ludlow of about 150 miles. I have mapped that one out for me. Even from Barstow to San Bernardino. From that point on it does disappear into city streets to Santa Monica.
A better way to see this country is by taking #3 or #4, the Southwest Chief, on Amtrak. US 66 was built to parallel the former Santa Fe RR all through Arizona and New Mexico. I followed the old highway last week coming from LA to KC and was looking for it and the businesses built on it while riding on the Chief. A lot of the former highway is not marked, but you can tell it’s the old road. The Wig Wam Motel seems to be well maintained, but most of the old businesses are not. Economically, the area is generally depressed.
We had wanted to drive Route 66 from Flagstaff to Winslow when we were in Arizona this past March. On the map, it gave the impression you could, but you couldn’t, as Interstate 40 replaced Route 66. This year is the 100th Anniversary of Route 66, so Winslow was promoting that with a calendar and souvenirs. We went to Eagles Corner and the La Posada Hotel, both in Winslow, and it made for a pleasant day. The do promote Route 66 in Flagstaff as it goes through the town.
A Route 66 tradition that broke up those long open western stretches of highway with a bit of humor..
Great! Even if they’re reproductions, I’ve never seen Burma-Shave signs by the roadside.
As a child in the 1950s I know my family traveled Route 66 a number of times. One trip in 1959 really stands out in my memory as an eight year old. My parents had just divorced and sold our beautiful hillside home in Northern CA. For some reason we ended up somewhere, possibly in the Midwest, where me and my brother said our goodbyes to our Air Force Dad at an airport terminal as he was leaving for Germany. Mom stayed in the car as I guess they had said their goodbyes in court. Mom, me, brother, and cat Smokey headed back to CA and ended up on Route 66 driving our 1955 Olds Starfire convertible. One morning, I must have been in a rush checking out of a motel, washed my face and just wiped off the soap with a towel. In short order my sensitive skin felt like it was burning and I was complaining. Just approaching Needles CA we hit a very heavy rain storm, a truck passed us spraying oil on the windshield. We pulled into a gas station, I washed my face, Mom threw up (stress perhaps). We got back on the road and a flash flood had hit Needles and I remember seeing the truck that had passed us washed off the road. So my issue with soap on my sensitive skin, an oil smear on the windshield, possibly saved us from being washed off the road.
To this day every time I see a movie with some guy shaving and just wipe off soap makes me cringe and I remember that day approaching Needles CA on Route 66. I would like to say our move to San Francisco was without more drama. Mom received everything in the divorce, she rented an apartment in San Francisco, but the day before our furniture and clothing was to be delivered the warehouse where everything was stored burned down. The only thing I remember returning to me was my white Teddy Bear, now a smokey brown.
Route 66 has become an ideal; a fantasy about America’s love affair with the automobile, and with family road trips and vacations. My family traveled through some of the old towns back in the late 1950’s and early ’60’s, but I only remember staying in roadside motels with their swimming pools. I was in Roswell New Mexico back in the mid 1970’s and it didn’t raise a blip on my radar. I just noticed lots of large motels and restaurants that were closed up and surrounded by chain link fences. I was more aware at the time of Roswell’s celebrity surrounding UFOs.
In the late 2000’s My wife and I drove up from Phoenix through Sedona and headed west at Flagstaff. We stopped at the Route 66 museum in Seligman. There were lots of foreign tourists travelling in buses in town. We took 66 into California until we could access I5 back home. My Wife wondered what was the big attraction. I told her that in the past, this road would have been filled with cars and oftentimes bumper to bumper traffic. All kinds of businesses that supported the automotive traveler lined the highway. It must have been quite different from the empty highway that we were traveling on.
I tell people that want to visit and travel the highway not to get their expectations up too much, it’s just a road. You have to stop and check out the businesses and roadside attractions to get the enjoyment of the trip. Lot’s of people want to drive a vintage car along this route, and they postpone their visit until they finally buy an old car, specifically for the trip. I think that would be fun if you are already into old cars, if not just drive whatever you’ve got or end up renting. The trip is always more important than the vehicle.
Rt. 66 ~ the American dream .
IMO it was the older Boomers thirty years ago who really jump started the resurgence of interest .
It’s an interesting old road but as mentioned it’s best to figure out what you want to see and just go there .
My son bought his retirement home in Tupoc, Az. just down the hill from famous Oatman, Az., a dusty, corny place to visit, I try to get there every few years by Motocycle .
-Nate