Vox Media, an offshoot of the popular American news and opinion website, a few days ago published a YouTube video with a provocative question: Why does Route 66 matter?
The 17-minute video was uploaded Friday, and it had racked up 672,000 views and more than 1,100 comments by Sunday night. At one point, it was No. 19 in YouTube’s ranking of trending videos.
That’s a lot of potentially new Route 66 tourists.
The main Vox website described the video:
In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox’s Phil Edwards explores the history of the road and the textures of its present, from the road itself to the roadside attractions along the way to the people who enjoy its diversions and those who help maintain them. It reveals a road that’s changed a lot over the decades but remains vital in unexpected ways.
(Disclosure: I appear briefly in the video, talking about how a long-ago post on Route 66 News about the defunct Oklahoma Joe’s dive bar in Albuquerque unexpectedly became a go-to place for locals and UNM students to exchange their memories of the place.)
It’s a well-done video. I especially liked the segment about the woman who found ancestors in Williams, Arizona.
(Screenshot image from Vox video of old Route 66 near Glenrio, New Mexico)
Great video, good history for such a short vid and tight editing!
There are a lot of great Route 66 videos out there and this is one of them. Thanks for sharing.
This is a wonderfully done video that deserves the widest possible distribution and viewing. It’s a great introduction to the old road.