Dan Rice, proprietor of the 66 to Cali apparel shack at the Santa Monica Pier, sent a fascinating e-mail today that gives some historical background behind the upcoming dedication of a new “End of the Trail” Route 66 sign at the pier next week.
The gist of it is that Route 66’s original western terminus was at Seventh and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. But, beginning about 1935, that started to change …
At that time, even though the end was downtown, a sign was placed several miles to the west on the bluffs in Santa Monica over the Pacific Ocean (at Santa Monica Blvd. and Ocean Ave. ). The sign was a prop sign placed there for a movie. It simply said, “ Santa Monica 66: End of the Trail.” When the movie was over, the sign was left behind and still standing.
Rice says that he’s been unable to verify in what movie the “End of the Trail” sign appeared. He says old-timers have said it was a John Wayne movie, but Rice remains doubtful of that because of the time frame. Rice is probably right; Wayne’s breakthrough movie didn’t happen until 1939 with “Stagecoach.”
Rice said a lot of people in Los Angeles complained about the Santa Monica sign, to no avail. Santa Monica was growing in wealth, population and influence, and sure enough, Route 66 was extended westward to Lincoln and Olympic boulevards there. Rice said the city lobbied to have Route 66 end at the sign near the Pacific Ocean, but federal rules mandated that the highway end at another highway, this one being Highway 1.
Still, Rice said, the “Santa Monica 66: End of the Trail” sign continued to stand at Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, near the pier and the Pacific Ocean.
Rice says the Lincoln and Olympic intersection eventually was deemed too busy and a safety hazard, so the western terminus of Route 66 was again moved further west to Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue — right where the “End of the Trail” sign stood.
“Life had imitated art,” Rice wrote. But it didn’t end there …
Downtown business people were not happy. They felt that the fix had been in from the beginning. They believed this had been the calculated plan to steal the end away from them all along. Their opposition was expectable.
The Lincoln and Olympic supporters balked too. Putting the end at Santa Monica and Ocean violated the Federal rule of Highway endings and beginnings in one place. The state’s legalistic bureaucrats continued to claim Lincoln and Olympic as the “Official end of Route 66.” Those in favor of moving it to Santa Monica and Ocean argued that another highway simply couldn’t begin there because there was an ocean in front of them and nowhere to put it, but the “official” pundits continued to call the Santa Monica and Ocean ending, “unofficial.”
Official or not, the actual people who were happily traveling the Route didn’t care. They began to travel to Santa Monica Blvd. and Ocean Ave., ending their journey at the more dramatic, and certainly more romantic overlook of the Pacific. To further cement this end, in 1952, when the highway was dedicated to Will Rogers, the city held the dedication ceremony at this new “third” ending of 66…the intersection of Santa Monica and Ocean, and newly “unofficial” end of Route 66. They felt that this dedication would legitimize the end at the new location. The Will Rogers Highway plaque dedicated that day still lies in the grass there today. But on the day of the dedication, the famous movie sign that started it all was now just a few feet away.
Although people did choose to end their Route 66 road trips at the ocean, they instead gravitated more to the Santa Monica Pier just two blocks to the south. So the “unofficial” end of Route 66 changed again — to the romantic and picturesque pier.
In the meantime, the “End of the Trail” sign disappeared. It may have simply fallen apart from age, or it was rumored that William Randolph Hearst took it to his Annenberg Beach House.
One thing that WAS known for sure. You couldn’t call it a complete trip on 66 without going to the pier. That much still holds true today. A series of postcards was created with the “End of the Trail” sign re-created and superimposed over a photo showing where it’d been at one time. Still, the actual sign itself never resurfaced. […]
Today, people still come to the pier (official or not) to mark the end of their Route 66 journeys. No, it was never officially recognized by the legalists who are bound by their rules, but it’s definitely the place where I welcome thousands of visitors from around the world everyday who view it that way. […]
Therefore, I’m proud to announce that on November 11, the 83rd birthday of our beloved Route 66, that rebuilt old sign will be restored to its upright position, this time protected by camera monitoring and located here on the Santa Monica Pier…the place that ironically became the “End of the Trail” because of the sign’s original existence.