Nearly 100 years ago, Route 66, the first cross-country road, was built in America. The idea was to have a way to move people and goods a long way. And the result, was a road we all know very well today.
Amy Webb, who leads the Preserve Route 66 Initiative for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is planning the upcoming centennial of the Mother Road in 2026. And preparations are already underway to get it ready for its closeup.
Webb joined The Show to talk about how we’re losing pieces of that history all the time today.
Full conversation
AMY WEBB: So in 1926, they commissioned Route 66, which unlike today's interstates was actually composed of a lot of existing roads and then some pieces that might have been paved and put together. A few bridges that were purpose built for this, but really kind of strung together as a way to make it easier for folks to get all the way from Chicago out to LA.
Back in the, between the ‘70s and the ‘80s, the Route 66 was piece by piece being replaced by the interstate. And of course, when that happened, a lot of the businesses that had been on Route 66, that kind of business, that traffic moved up to the interstate. And so you had communities that had seen thousands of cars come through on a daily basis that suddenly it was like a ghost town.
You know, it's commemorated even in movies. The Disney Pixar feature “Cars” has a whole whole section where they talk about just how the road used to wind through the landscape. And, you know, today, these communities don't have that.
[CLIP FROM “CARS”]
You know, I think Arizona actually was a real early leader in recognizing the historic value and the nostalgia associated with Route 66. But an effort that, that started to create organizations dedicated to historic Route 66 to help bring economic development back to these communities and to create historic designations for Route 66 as well.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Yeah. So lots of efforts to preserve it, which we'll talk about more in a moment. I want to talk a little bit about the ways in which this has become such an icon. And like why you think that is. Like you mentioned, you know, the Disney movie “Cars” like we know so well, but this goes back way further in history than that just in terms of the, the iconography, the Americana aspect of Route 66.
WEBB: Oh, absolutely. It is. I don't know if any other resource that has been immortalized in literature, in songs, in movies. I mean, everything from John Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath” that talks about the Western migration. And then of course, you know, songs, lots of songs. So it's, it's something that just about every American has heard of Route 66 and has some idea of what they think it is. It has its own mystique.
GILGER: Yeah, it does seem to kind of cut through and across boundaries across our culture. So we've got the centennial here coming up. You mentioned 1926. Right now, e're coming up on 2026 and this will be a big deal, but it sounds like your organization, many others are working really hard to sort of prepare for that a year or so out. Talk a little bit about what you're working on and, and, and the ways in which you're hoping to kind of get this ready.
WEBB: Absolutely. So we are particularly interested in helping preserve significant sites along Route 66. And knowing that this is, you know, 2,400 miles for the whole route, we know we can't do everything. We are focusing especially on sites that are associated with people of color, for example, Indigenous people, … Black Americans, but also places associated with women, immigrants, LGBTQIA, veterans and also economically distressed communities.
GILGER: So give us some examples. You've got grants coming in to sort of preserve things that you might not always think about like a gas station or, you know, like a stop on the side of the road that used to be something kind of special, but nothing incredibly remarkable that now have fallen apart and you're trying to bring back to life.
WEBB: Exactly. So I think a great example of that is the Osterman gas station, which is a 1929 filling station in Peach Springs, Arizona, that is owned by the Hualapai tribe. And this is a gas station that had been vacant for a number of years. And then there was a, a windstorm in 2021 that tore the roof off. It was a, a very intense microburst and the tribe was trying to figure out what to do with it and it stayed open to the elements.
And so we ended up convening a coalition of different organizations within the state. We all got together to talk about how we could help this site and ended up listing this site on the National Trust's 11 most endangered places list in 2023.
I will say that about a month before that listing was announced, another windstorm actually knocked a second, another wall down. So it was missing a wall and a roof. So honestly, it really would not have made it through another winter. And I'm happy to say that the finishing touches on the roof are going to be completed in the next month or two.
GILGER: Wow. So why is a building like that, that, you know, was a gas station to begin with, like why is that important? We even aired a conversation kind of about that gas station on The Show here about the question of sort of what deserves to be saved and, and what doesn't. Like, when are the costs worth it. Why is this worth it to you?
WEBB: Right. And you know, gas stations are kind of an interesting thing, but what is more iconic than you know, the place if you're taking a road trip, those gas stations where you stop? So it's really something that I think speaks to just the, the auto travel nature of Route 66.
GILGER: Are there ones that have slipped through the cracks that you wish you could bring back?
WEBB: Oh, there are, I think unfortunately, there's been, you know, all too much that has been lost. One that is not completely lost but that is really in pretty dire condition in Arizona is the Twin Arrows site.
GILGER: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
WEBB: And they've lost one of those arrows, which has come down. That's a site that had one of the only original Valentine diners still in its original location, and it's still there but it's had fires. It's had vandalism, it's had graffiti. We did a report on that of, a conditions assessment report for that site 20 years ago. And it, it could have been brought back. And I was there maybe a year or two ago and it was just heartbreaking to see the condition.
GILGER: So by doing this, kind of taking a building here and there and preserving what you can, restoring what you can, what are your goals for, you know, what you hope will be celebrated in 2026?
WEBB: We really want to find a way for Route 66 to enter its second century and to think about a really bright, vibrant future. And we know that that means not only making sure that pieces of the original Route 66, those historic elements are still there and that you can still find those when you travel Route 66. But Route 66 is really much more than just old buildings.
It is about those mom and pop businesses that are located along the route, whether they are businesses that have been there since Route 66 was officially commissioned, but it can also include businesses that are, have been started more recently that are really embracing that Route 66 vibe.
