Route 66 Research Hub

The three-year "Route 66 Connected" project documents the highway's stories across New Mexico, combining cultural anthropology, photography,...

As Route 66 marks its centennial, UNM is treating the highway as more than nostalgia. The focus is on what becomes visible when it is understood...

Long before Route 66 had a name, this spot drew travelers looking for shade and fresh creek water. Early Spanish explorers called the area Bear Gulch,...

As the Route 66 centennial draws toward its close, a panel will ask how to preserve the memories of those who built, traveled, and lived on the road....

Conceived in 1926 as a public thoroughfare linking the Midwest, Southwest and Southern California, Route 66 also served as a conduit for mass...

• Lay pairs Amarillo icons like the Big Texan cowboy and Muffler Men with roadtrip audio to recover personal tales behind the attractions
• The film...

Albuquerque’s Central Avenue featured at least 100 motels, each with its own neon sign, in the late 1950s, promoted as America’s most brightly lit...

Scott Piotrowski’s guided hike turns Pasadena’s Route 66 segment into a living archive.

• Authorial expertise: The author of Finding the End of the...

The Cozy Drive In in Springfield stands as a rare survivor of mid-century Route 66 food culture, still serving its signature hot dog on a stick from a...

Thomas Eyssell’s “The Automobile in St. Louis: An Illustrated Timeline” documents how dozens of local manufacturers and car culture reshaped roads,...

Webb City's 1915 Jefferson Highway connection shows early transcontinental boosterism and mobility before Route 66.

• Residents celebrated the...

Joliet's development reveals successive waves that later framed its Route 66 identity.

• French explorer Louis Jolliet described abundant game and...

Anniversary travel writing revisits Route 66 via personal memory and landscape wonder—Grand Canyon vistas and Flagstaff stargazing—yet the Museum of Northern Arizona exhibit separates heritage myth from the highway's documented hardships.

Louis B. Eckelkamp rose from dishwasher at The Diamonds to owner of both the landmark restaurant and the nearby Gardenway Motel, built along the Henry...

Transportation networks and resource booms drove Sapulpa’s transformation from village to crossroads city.

• Railroad era: Cattle shipping center...

Route 66 passes through Virden, Illinois, site of a documented 1898 coal strike that predates the highway by decades.

Key verified facts:

• Union...

The Oklahoma Route 66 Centennial Commission has released its full 2026 meeting calendar, creating a clear timeline for tracking institutional...

The Oklahoma Digital Prairie marks Route 66's centennial by pointing researchers to the Oklahoma Historical Society's dedicated Route 66 Resources...

Beyond maple syrup, Funks Grove safeguards a less commercial slice of mid-century roadside heritage through its small-scale landscape and enduring...

The feature-length documentary Route 66: The Main Street of America holds its New Mexico premiere on October 1, 2026, at Albuquerque’s KiMo Theatre,...