Find Your Kicks on Route 66 This Summer

No stretch of American highway grips our imagination like Route 66. When it opened in 1927, “The Mother Road” stretched 2,451 miles from downtown Chicago to the beach at Santa Monica. Replaced by Interstate 40, federal highway officials removed Route 66 from the national highway system on June 27, 1985.

Story by Gerald McLeod, retired TCDRS Communications Manager

Although a mere 178 miles of the route cut across the Panhandle, 90% of the original highway is still in use in Texas. Route 66 survives as frontage roads and main streets maintained by the counties and state.

Glenrio

Once a bustling service area straddling the Texas-New Mexico border, Glenrio became a ghost town when IH-40 rerouted traffic. The remains of tourist courts and gas stations stare blankly at the empty four lanes of highway. A diamond-shaped concrete post marks the state border.

Adrian

Portions of Route 66 follow the frontage road on the north side of IH-40 west of Amarillo. In Adrian a line painted across the road identifies the exact spot where travelers are halfway between Chicago and Santa Monica.

Vega

Constructed in 1914, the red brick Oldham County Courthouse in Vega has seen generations of Route 66 travelers pass by. A restored Magnolia Gas Station sits across the street from the courthouse.

Amarillo

Route 66 once ran through the center of the county seat of Potter County. Today, Amarillo’s Sixth Street Historic District is a 13-block collection of commercial buildings from the highway’s heyday. Restaurants and boutiques fill the old storefronts. Amarillo’s most famous attraction is the tail fins raised to the sky at Cadillac Ranch on IH-40.

McLean

Route 66 brought a new prosperity to a town that was once just a supply center for area ranches. The Route 66/Devil’s Rope Museum combines highway memorabilia with the history of barbed wire. The first Phillips 66 station in Texas, now restored, stands at 218 W. First Street.

Shamrock

From the Oklahoma border to Shamrock, much of the original cement highway remains as the frontage road on the south side of IH-40. In Shamrock, many Art Deco buildings from the 1930s and 1940s are vacant, but survive. The most beautiful is the restored and repurposed 1936 Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Café.

Texas