The National Historic Route 66 Federation a few months ago quietly discontinued publication of its “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide” book after almost 20 years.
Federation Chairman David Knudson announced the decision in a brief post on the semi-private Route 66 yahoogroup last week.
The 17th and last edition of the spiral-bound “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide” was published in 2015. It contained more than 200 pages of recommended restaurants and motels along Route 66. About two dozen Adopt-a-Hundred volunteers who scouted locations along 100-mile stretches of the Mother Road compiled the data.
Many motels and restaurants found the guidebook to be a financial lifeline, especially during the early days of Route 66’s renaissance in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Knudson said early editions of the guide were little more than a pamphlet. As its number of pages swelled through the years, the federation updated it every 18 to 24 months.
He said sales of the guide dropped “noticeably” in recent years. Knudson said the growing popularity of internet travel sites such as TripAdvisor.com and a lack of Adopt-A-Hundred volunteers hampered the publication.
“We had adopters, but not enough to do it effectively,” Knudson said by telephone from his office in California.
The last edition of the guide apparently is growing scarce, as used copies Monday were going for almost $120 and new copies fetching more than $1,000 on Amazon.
But Knudson said there’s no danger Jerry McClanahan’s “Route 66: EZ66 Guide for Travelers” book will go out of print.
He said the book continues to sell “hundreds” of copies per month, and McClanahan will continue to update it online and in print. The federation has published the “EZ66 Guide,” which offers maps and detailed turn-by-turn directions to follow Route 66 eastbound and westbound, since 2005.
Last summer, the federation published a new, 90-page “Route 66: Guided 66 Tour Book” designed to be used in conjunction with the “EZ66 Guide.” Knudson, who wrote the new book, said it contains thumbnail recommendations of restaurants and motels, but he acknowledged it was no substitute for the breadth of the “Dining and Lodging Guide.”
(Cover image of the 2015 edition of the “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide”)
That sucks..my ex-girlfriend kept my my copy, and now I can’t replace it…not without spending a small fortune
This is indeed unfortunate. I had wanted to procure the latest edition for my trip this Summer. You know, technology is getting good enough that publishers can print one copy at a time. Can’t something like that be worked out? Of course, you would still have to solicit reviews & stuff. Well, I, for one, am sorry to see it go.