The signs marking Old ROUTE 66 went up in 1927 a year after the Mother Road first opened. In the first two decades that it was opened Main Street USA saw thousands of families escape the big cities on the east coast that were hit hardest by the depression. They were joined by families who had been farming in the southern plains and were hit hard by the dust bowl. All of these people were hoping to find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow where Route Sixty-Six ended in southern California.
The stretches of endless prairie and desert are broken by the old signs and monuments that were built to attract business from all these families fleeing to the west coast or later just traveling the historic road. Some of these include the half-buried Cadillacs at Cadillac Ranch, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Teepee Curios, Holbrook Motaraunt, The Coleman Theatre, Cline's Corner, the old round barn in Arcadia Oklahoma, and The Wigwam Motel.
If you really love the Will Rogers Highway you can actually purchase a stretch of the old ROUTE 66 that is no longer being used. Many of the old stretches are no longer included on road maps. If you want to follow the road or see where it actually ran you will have to purchase one of the specialty maps that shows in detail all of the original route.
