Arizona Highways Magazine celebrates Historic Route 66 turning 100

For Tucson residents looking for a historic road trip this year, Route 66 offers a direct connection to Arizona’s transportation history, small towns and iconic landscapes. Nearly 400 miles of the Mother Road crossed the state, and several surviving sections can still be driven. The highway is marking its 100th anniversary in 2026, with celebrations planned across the country and Arizona Highways Magazine honoring the milestone with a special issue filled with photographs, history and reminders of the road’s enduring appeal.

Route 66 was created on Nov. 11, 1926, the same year the federal highway system was established. The road eventually stretched about 2,400 miles, connecting Chicago and Santa Monica through major cities, rural communities and unusual roadside attractions. For Arizona travelers, its path included places such as Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook and the Petrified Forest, giving residents of Southern Arizona a chance to explore a very different part of the state while following one of the country’s best known highways.

The road was far less polished at the beginning than its later reputation suggests. Arizona road engineer Norman Wallace helped build the highway’s nearly 400 mile route through the state and documented the work with his camera. Robert Stieve, editor of Arizona Highways, said Wallace’s photographs are among the valuable historical images featured in the magazine’s November issue. Wallace worked as an engineer, but Stieve described him as an exceptionally talented photographer whose images captured construction, early motorists and the changing character of the road.

Route 66 became especially important during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, when large numbers of families traveled west in search of work and a new start. John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, brought national attention to that migration and helped cement the road’s place in the American imagination. The highway was not completely paved until 1938, and its practical role as a route for workers and families came before its later identity as a leisure destination.

After World War II, Route 66 took on a new role. Americans had more opportunity to travel, and the road became a way to see the country by car. Motels, service stations, restaurants and roadside attractions appeared in the communities along the route, many of them locally owned businesses built to attract passing drivers. The highway also became part of popular culture through the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946, as well as appearances in films and television. Later examples include Easy Rider, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Pixar’s Cars.

The road’s decline began with the interstate expansion signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. As faster, more direct highways took traffic away from the old route, communities along Route 66 lost many passing customers. Interstate 40 eventually replaced much of the road in Northern Arizona, and Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985. Although it no longer functions as one continuous federal highway, surviving sections remain popular, and portions have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Arizona contains several particularly memorable places to visit. The Petrified Forest National Park is the only national park through which Route 66 passed. Arizona Highways highlights an old image of a soda fountain at the park’s lodge, featuring Lily Ice Cream, a brand once popular across the West and Southwest. Near Holbrook, the Wigwam Motel preserves one of the route’s most recognizable lodging concepts, with guest rooms shaped like tipis. Near Flagstaff, a surviving segment close to Parks and Williams appeared on the magazine’s cover in a photograph taken earlier this year, with a classic Corvette positioned against the Arizona landscape.

For Tucsonans planning a longer trip, the route offers attractions well beyond Arizona. Winslow retains its connection to the highway, while other stops across the eight Route 66 states include the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas, where 10 cars are buried nose first in a field. The route also includes the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma, Meramec Caverns in Missouri, the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle in Illinois and Cars on the Route in Galena, Kansas, where a rusted truck is associated with the Tow Mater character. At the western end, travelers can visit the site of the original McDonald’s in San Bernardino, California, now a museum.

Centennial activities are scheduled throughout the year. In Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona is presenting “In the Center of Everything: 100 Years of Shops, Stops and Stays Along Route 66.” Other planned programs include a St. Louis transportation museum exhibition titled “Roads, River, Rooms, and Reels: 100 Years of Route 66,” an Albuquerque program examining people, identity and place, and a photography exhibition and talk in Albuquerque focused on Edward Keating’s work. A virtual First Day of Issue stamp dedication ceremony is also planned, with registration required and recordings to be posted on YouTube.

Additional talks listed for the centennial will cover food traditions, the highway’s first century, the changing relationship between the Hualapai people and Route 66, the road’s atomic age, the history of exhibiting Route 66 and baseball along the route. A documentary called Route 66: The Main Street of America is scheduled for screenings in all eight states. A centennial parade is also planned to travel between Santa Monica and Chicago. For Stieve, the highway’s popularity comes from more than nostalgia. Even where the original road has disappeared, driving its remaining Arizona sections still offers a sense of the scenery and experience that made Route 66 a symbol of American travel.