Route 66 was the iconic highway of twentieth-century America, stretching from Chicago and Chicago and the Mississippi River basin to Los Angeles and the Pacific coast, and it connected Americans not only physically but also culturally as an enduring symbol found in classic songs, films, television, and pop art. Arthur Krim explores here the fascinating and complex symbolism behind the famous roadway in this vibrantly illustrated and innovative study.

Route 66 traces the iconography of U.S. Highway 66 first as an idea, then as a fact, and finally as a symbol in American culture. Krim chronicles the history of Route 66 as part of a larger plan to conquer and settle the Native American lands of the Great Plains and Southwest. While the antecedents of Route 66 are to be found in the wagon trails and railroad routes of the nineteenth century, the construction of Route 66 in the twentieth century ushered in the revolutionary era of the modern highway and automobile travel.

Krim looks at how the highway transcended its gravel and concrete physicality to become a metaphor for the American spirit of exploration and democratic freedom. He draws on a wealth of examples to examine how Route 66 evolved through each generation, from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath to Bobby Troup's carefree "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" to the anger and alienation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Combining history and metaphor, literature and images, Krim explores how Route 66 compressed disparate events and cultural ideas into the treasured national memory that the road is now.

 

Arthur Krim is an independent writer, geographer, architectural historian, and founding member of the Society for Commercial Archaeology who has worked with various institutions, including the Cambridge Historical Commission, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, Clark University, and the Boston Architectural Center. Denis Wood is an independent writer and geographer and was previously professor of design at North Carolina State University. His many books include The Power of Maps and Five Billion Years of Global Change: A History of the Land.

List of FiguresPreface and AcknowledgmentsIntroduction:  Highway Icon     Iconography     Physical Setting Part IBefore the Fact: The Route in the Mind CHAPTER ONE: PREFIGURED PATHWAYClovis and Folsom Occupation of the Southern High PlainsChaco and CahokiaSpanish and FrenchSanta Fe Trail CHAPTER TWO: THIRTY-FIFTH PARALLEL ROUTEBenton and FremontCalifornia GoldSimpson and SitgreavesGwin and KernBeale Wagon RoadSouth-West BranchChicago Pullmans CHAPTER THREE: CONSTRUCTING THE ROUTE AS A RAILROADPalmer and GreenwoodSanta Fe RailroadLewis KingmanWilliam HoodGrand CanyonIndian TerritoryRock Island Line Part IIFrom Idea to Fact:  Putting Route 66 on the Ground CHAPTER FOUR:  NATIONAL AUTO TRAILSAutomobilingNew York to ParisSixty-Second MileSunset TrailOcean-to-Ocean HighwayNational Old Trails RoadOzark Trails Association CHAPTER FIVE: ROUTE NUMBER 66Federal RoadsFederal Route NumbersShield SignsFinal NumberingKentucky ObjectionsNumber 66U.S. Highway 66Final NumberingResignationsNumbered Legacy CHAPTER SIX: MAIN STREET HIGHWAYHighway 66 AssociationBunion DerbyPhillips 66Los Angeles Olympics CHAPTER SEVEN: DUST BOWL HIGHWAY 83Black SundayPare LorentzDorothea LangeSallisawOn U.S. 66Postscript Part IIIFrom Fact to Symbol:  The Route 66 of Our Imagination CHAPTER EIGHT:  MOTHER ROADSalinasHarvest GypsiesOklahoma TripThe OklahomansSallisawHighway 66The Grapes of WrathDie Route 66Ikari No Budo CHAPTER NINE: FILMING HIGHWAY 66Daryl ZanuckNunnally JohnsonOtto BrowerJoad Family TrekWoodie Guthrie CHAPTER TEN:  (GET YOUR KICK ON) ROUTE SIXTY-SIX!Jack RittenhouseBobby TroupHoward Johnson'sGet Your KicksNat King ColeCapitol SessionsSong MapChristmas Song CHAPTER ELEVEN:  INTERSTATE HIGHWAYSHighway 66 AssociationPostcard MotelsTurner TurnpikeMagic MotorwaysInterstate HighwaysInterstate NumberingInterstate 66Route 66 is Dead! Long Live Route 66! CHAPTER TWELVE: ROCK AND ROLLOn the RoadThe SearchersRoute 66Chuck BerryThe Rolling StonesRoute 66Them CHAPTER THIRTEEN:  POP ART HIGHWAYTwentysix Gasoline StationsEasy RiderCadillac RanchMicro-Soft CHAPTER FOURTEEN:  MAGICAL ROADChicago SignsWilliams, ArizonaMagical Road CHAPTER FIFTEEN:  HIGHWAY ICON REVISITEDImaginary Lines and Magical NumbersAuto RiverWestern HighwayBrief MomentsPostwar Memory NOTESINDEXABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE EDITOR