The Mother Road: A Brief History of Route 66

There is no road in America more mythologized than Route 66. It has been called the Main Street of America, the Will Rogers Highway, and — most evocatively — the Mother Road. For a few decades in the middle of the 20th century, it was the most important highway in the country.

The Road

Route 66 was established in 1926, running 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica through eight states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It was designed to connect the rural communities of the American heartland to the cities on either end — a continuous paved route from the Midwest to the Pacific Coast.

The Migration

Route 66 became famous during the Great Depression, when hundreds of thousands of Dust Bowl refugees traveled the road westward in search of work and a better life. John Steinbeck called it the Mother Road in The Grapes of Wrath, and the name stuck — capturing something true about the highway's role as sustainer, connector, and lifeline.

The Golden Age

After World War II, Route 66 entered its golden age. The postwar boom and America's love affair with the automobile turned it into the country's premier leisure highway. Families drove from Chicago to California, stopping at the motor courts, diners, and roadside attractions that defined American road culture. The neon signs, the giant fiberglass statues, the drive-in restaurants — Route 66 was where all of it was invented.

The Decline and the Revival

The Interstate Highway System, authorized in 1956, bypassed the small towns that had depended on Route 66 traffic. Town by town, the highway was decommissioned. Route 66 was officially removed from the U.S. Highway System in 1985.

But it never really died. Travelers still drive the Mother Road from Chicago to Santa Monica, stopping at the surviving diners, motor courts, and roadside landmarks. The mythology proved more durable than the economics.

The Route 66 Highway Retro T-shirt, Sweatshirt, Baseball Tee, Hat, Mug, Patch, and Sticker are for everyone who has felt the pull of the open road. Find them in the Route 66 collection.