National Trust group to begins Route 66 tour today

A team from the National Trust of Historic Preservation — including five young “Route 66 Roadies” — will start a month-long tour of Route 66 to publicize the historic highway and lobby Congress to name it a National Historic Trail.

The Preserve Route 66 journey began today in Chicago and concludes Aug. 3 in California. The National Trust states the group will be “documenting their experiences, attending meet-ups, and bringing attention to an icon of American history.”

The main web page for the Preserve Route 66 trip is here. The schedule is here. You can sign up for email or text updates from the trip here. The major sponsor is State Farm insurance.

According to an email today from the National Trust, the team consists of five “Roadies,” three National Trust staff members and one professional photographer. The email stated:

We want to show our appreciation for the most enduring highway in America’s public consciousness, and we want you to know just how much this historic route means to the people who have traveled it—and to the people who have lived along it for generations.

We’re also advocating for Route 66 to become a National Historic Trail. The current initiative to keep the route in safe hands — the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program — will sunset in 2019, but a National Historic Trail Designation will bring greater public interest and investment to the communities along the historic highway and encourage their economic revitalization. We’ll be highlighting stories from our team of roadies, who are experiencing Route 66 in real time, as well as stories about the route’s layered history, through this weekly email series.

The group consists of:

• Michael Ryan of New York City. He will be part of the first week of the tour. His Instagram account is here.
• Lina Tran of Washington, D.C., will be part of week two. Her Instagram account is here.
• Morgan Vickers of Denver will be part of week three. Her Instagram account is here.
• Matthew Dickey, a Collinsville, Illinois, native based in Boston, will be part of week four. His Instagram account is here.
• Nicole Capo of Washington, D.C., will be part of week five. Her Instagram account is here.
• David Kafer will be the photographer throughout the trip. His Instagram account is here.
• Jason Lloyd Clement of Buffalo, New York, is one of the National Trust staff members during the first week of the trip. His Instagram account is here.
• Grant Stevens, a native of Conrad, Iowa, who lives in Colorado, is a National Trust staff member who will go with the group from week two through week four. His Instagram account is here.
• Diana Tisue is a National Trust staff member who will go with the group from week three through week five. Her Instagram account is here.

More about the group may be found here. The group may be followed via Instagram through the #preserve66 hashtag.

I’ve read a few Route 66 enthusiasts grumbling they weren’t chosen for the trip after the National Trust issued a call for such applicants. However, I think Route 66 benefits when it’s seen through fresh eyes. The group holds the potential to bring many young tourists to the Mother Road.

(Image of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserve Route 66 group at the Whiting Bros. gas station in Moriarty, New Mexico, by David Kafer)