The end and the beginning

I found this item in the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph in the How Time Flies section:

25 years ago

Oct. 8, 1984: Route 66 is now officially gone. A six mile stretch of Interstate 40 replaced the last of the “Mother Road” near Wilcox, Arizona. I-55 replaced Route 66 in Illinois. Along the Chicago-Los Angeles route, three other Interstate highways also follow its route.

And with its “death,” so began Route 66’s rebirth. (The story is in error, though. It was Williams, Ariz., that was the last town bypassed by I-40.)

Route 66 had been in its death throes since the 1960s, when construction of the interstate highway system began in earnest. It’s my recollection from a video that the city of Williams flew in “Route 66” songwriter Bobby Troup to perform the song as I-40 was opened in 1984. Troup said he was mystified by a celebration for what he called “a passing of an era.” But I suppose Williams, which fought hard to keep I-40 from bypassing the town, thought it was appropriate to give the Mother Road a big sendoff.

The rebirth effort came a few years after Williams’ goodbye party. Route 66 associations were formed in Arizona, Illinois and Missouri during the late 1980s. Interest in the Mother Road began to soar after the publication of Michael Wallis’ best-selling “Route 66: The Mother Road” in 1992. Towns started putting up signs and throwing festivals to pay tribute to the old road. All the while, longtime business owners along old Route 66 hung in there and welcomed a steadily growing number of tourists.

A few years ago, there was a misguided attempt by a few individuals to recertify U.S. 66. (Such a bid wouldn’t have made it past first base because many parts of the old road do not meet AASHTO certification for a U.S. highway; bringing it up to code would have destroyed much of its character.) And talking to veteran roadies over the years, they agree it’s highly doubtful that Route 66 would have this huge mystique if it hadn’t been decertified in the first place. Instead, the route of U.S. 66 probably would have been overlaid with Interstate 40, I-44 or I-55 on maps, and the old alignments would have been forgotten.

So what’s next for the old road? The efforts to continue to sign the route as a National Scenic Byway continue, although that will be  fitful as long as a few states remain holdouts. Eventually, I suspect the National Park Service will eventually designate a contiguous old path of Route 66 as a national parkway, much like the Natchez Trace or the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Whatever happens, Route 66 isn’t going away anytime soon. Businesses and beloved characters of the road may grow old and die, but Route 66’s intrigue remains ever-enduring.