What path would the Route 66 National Historic Trail take?

Someone on a Route 66 thread on Facebook — I don’t remember where — recently wondered what alignments would be covered in the proposed Route 66 National Historic Trail being considered by Congress.

The bill, H.B. 801, states the trail “includes all the alignments of U.S. Highway 66 in existence between 1926 and 1985, extending along a route of approximately 2,400 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, as generally depicted on the map entitled ‘Route 66 National Historic Trail, Proposed Route’, numbered P26/141,279, and dated December 2017.”

I wondered what this map listed in the bill looked like. An aide for U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinois, who sponsors the legislation, emailed the map from the National Park Service. You can view the map here (PDF file).

Although not as granular as I’d like, the map indicates several Route 66 alignments the bill would cover:

• The 1940-1956 alignment that run through Plainfield, Illinois.
• The 1926-1930 alignment from Springfield to Staunton in Illinois.
• Several alignments in the St. Louis region.
• The Geary alignment in western Oklahoma.
• The Santa Fe Loop from west of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, to Los Lunas, New Mexico.
• The Oatman and Yucca alignments in western Arizona.

The map doesn’t answer all questions of whether the National Park Service would sign all obscure alignments, especially those on private property. (That seems doubtful.) But at first blush, the map shows the agency is being remarkably comprehensive.

If the legislation becomes law, the federal government will be busy churning out hundreds of directional signs. Route 66’s acknowledged length stands at about 2,450 miles. But  with the added alignments, that will take the total to nearly 3,000.

(Image of the brick-road Route 66 near Auburn, Illinois, by Jim Grey via Flickr)