Route 66, America's 'Mother Road', revs back to life

LOS ANGELES - For decades, Route 66 captured the imagination of travelers the world over, offering a glimpse of a bygone era of US history, when people hit the road in search of adventure and a better life.

The two-lane highway established in 1926 and coined the "Mother Road" by John Steinbeck seemed to encompass the essence of the United States, threading through eight states from Chicago to Santa Monica.

But after it was decommissioned in the 1980s in favor of larger and faster thoroughfares, Route 66 appeared headed for the dustbin of history as the mom-and-pop stores, kitschy motels, diners and gas stations that lined the road gradually shut down.

"Entire towns folded up, and what had been a 2,400-mile (4,000-kilometer) carnival became - to a large extent - a 2,400-mile ghost town," explains David Knudson, founder and executive director of the nonprofit National Historic Route 66 Federation.

In recent years, however, the iconic road that has been immortalized in countless books, movies, music (Get Your Kicks on Route 66) and a TV series has been experiencing a nostalgia-driven revival that is attracting tourists from around the globe.

Ultimate road trip

"Foreigners come to travel the road because it gives them a chance to experience America before we became generic," says Michael Wallis, a historian and author of Route 66: The Mother Road.

"It's still the road of adventure because nothing on Route 66 is predictable," he adds.

"I often say, 'You know what you are going to get at McDonald's ... but if you are on an old two-lane such as Route 66, you could go into a cafe, a greasy spoon, a pie place, a diner and you don't know what you're going to get.'"

Wallis says the fastest-growing groups of tourists on Route 66 are Chinese and Brazilians, as well as Europeans drawn by the idea of the open space and the "roadtrip of a lifetime".

"I have clients in their 20s and 70s who are fascinated by this road, and everyone is looking for convertible Mustangs and Harley Davidsons to experience it," says Zsolt Nagy, who twice a year organizes Route 66 road trips that cost up to $8,000 per person.

"Business is booming. The roads are better. The signs are better. It's coming back to life," says Zsolt, who is from Hungary and who fell in love with the open road about 10 years ago when he traveled it.

"I think the legend is growing like crazy."

Bob Russell, the mayor of Pontiac, a settlement about two hours southwest of Chicago, says his small community of about 12,000 people is a prime example of the resurgent interest in the road.

"It has been an amazing transformation," he says of the town that boasts four museums and 27 large murals, and is considered one of the jewels of Route 66.

"There is a special aura for Route 66 to the overseas people because it represents freedom, the open road, your scarf around your neck and your hair blowing in the wind."

'Sundown towns'

Driving today along stretches of the fabled highway - 85 percent of which can still be traveled - one can see renovated motels with blazing neon signs, newly opened museums, quirky sights and souvenir shops galore.

There are also half-abandoned communities and crumbling ghost towns that echo Steinbeck's epic 1930s novel of the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath - the story of a family that embarks on a journey along Route 66, fleeing the Oklahoma dustbowl for California.

And while the road for many may evoke images of a more innocent America, as encapsulated in Norman Rockwell's paintings, Route 66 had a more sinister side for black travelers.

Half of the 89 counties that lined the highway were known as "sundown towns" where African-Americans were banned after dark.

The author Candacy Taylor was researching a travel guide on Route 66 when she stumbled on The Negro Motorist Green Book, which listed safe places along the road - and notably revealed that the Ku Klux Klan ran Fantastic Caverns, a popular tourist attraction in Springfield, Missouri, and held cross burnings inside.

"All of the American narratives around what it means to hit the open road and the freedom and the symbolism that comes along with that was a dramatically different story for black people," says Taylor, who encourages people to "look beyond the bobby socks, the Chevys and the chrome" to experience the real Route 66.

"It's an American icon, just like Marilyn Monroe or Elvis," she says.

"But Route 66 is not perfect and shiny. There are a lot of cracks in that metaphor, in that illusion of what America is."

Agece France-Presse