The completion of Route 66 couldn’t have come at a better time for the thousands who traversed it fleeing the dust bowl for greener pastures. Only 55 runners finished the punishing 3,423 mile race in 573 hours, 4 minutes and 34 seconds.Īndy Payne, a Cherokee Indian farm boy from Foyil, Oklahoma, claimed the prize money of $25,000, paid off his father’s farm mortgage and married his high school sweetheart. Runners (199) paid the fee of $125 and ran through blistering heat, rain showers, snow and sleet storms, hoping to receive a hero’s welcome at the end. It was a coast-to-coast race documented by photos, postcards, programs and other memorabilia items that were sold along the race course. It was a footrace called “Bunion Derby.” Participants started in Los Angeles, traveled Route 66 to Chicago, and then continued on to New York City. The most notable promotion took place from March 4 to May 26, 1928. Avery worried about highway 30 and 40 as competition and embarked on several aggressive promotional activities to establish Route 66 as “the Main Street of America.” Bunion Derby 66 to expand the nation’s economy by connecting the main streets of rural and urban communities. 66 Association, to include all eight states, for the purpose of getting the entire road paved and promoting the virtues of the new highway.įrom the beginning, the planners intended U.S. With the acceptance of “66,” Avery kept the highway and the states it crossed from being marginalized by other highways. On March 11, 1926, Route 66 was commissioned a federal highway. Avery prevailed and “66” was assigned to the highway that “winds from Chicago to L.A.,” in the summer of 1926. A bitter and long running fight developed over the highway’s number, in the 1920s, between federal and state politicians. Avery, a passionate speechmaker with a confident face, was also responsible for the ribbon of concrete, asphalt, crushed rock and dirt being designated Route 66.Ī natural salesman, Avery thought the double sixes were catchy, and that the name would promote business. 66 Highway Association in 1927 and was one of the national highway systems biggest supporters during the Depression. He believed that a well-planned and maintained road system of interstate highways would bring prosperity to Oklahoma and its towns and cities.Īvery was the founder of the National U.S. Avery (1871-1963) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was known as the “Father of Route 66.” His interests varied from oil to farming, real estate development and government. In addition, this shortened route of 2,445 miles crossed over flat prairie land, mountains and deserts with a milder climate than northern highways. The new highway’s unconventional route cut across eight states, making it particularly significant to the truck industry, which by 1930 had come to rival the railroads for shipping. From Oklahoma, the states to the west were directed to the Pacific Coast. Instead, its diagonal course leading southwest from Chicago linked hundreds of remote rural communities in Illinois, Kansas and Missouri to markets in the East.
Contrasted with other highways of its day, Route 66 did not follow a traditional linear course. Of all the roads built, it was Route 66 that was different. With matching dollars, the Lincoln Highway, the Dixie Highway and other main roads combined to form the National Highway system that was built during the Depression and after World War II.
The cost of road construction soon overtaxed state budgets, and the national government had to provide assistance. The automobile, which was at first condemned because it destroyed roads, soon led to a demand for better roads. Bobby Troup wrote a song about it, Nat King Cole sang it, and thousands of people danced to the song - Get You Kicks on Route 66.Ī rapid changing America after World War I sparked demand for a better highway system.
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