Mark Hamilton, the creator of the Backroads66 website, stated in a recent post he is planning to revive the “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide” in November or December after updates on the publication ceased about seven years ago.
Hamilton stated his guide would contain listings of only independently owned properties on or just off Route 66. (Previous editions of the guide included a number of chain motels.)
He said it also would include historical places of interest, photo opportunities, RV park listings and a few of his photos from Route 66.
He said he has contacted the Route 66 associations of each state to make sure he’s not overlooked anything.
Hamilton told me in an email he is not affiliated with the National Historic Route 66 Federation, which originally published the guide. He said updates on his progress would be posted periodically on his website.
The “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide” was updated every two years or so by federation volunteers who adopted 100-mile stretches of the highway and gathered the data.
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. The guide began as a thin, pamphlet-sized publication that grew exponentially.
Federation Chairman David Knudson in 2018 announced the decision to stop updates on the guide during a brief post on the now-defunct Route 66 yahoogroup.
Back in the late 1990s and much of the 2000s, many motels and restaurants found the guidebook to be a financial lifeline, especially during the early days of Route 66’s renaissance.
Knudson said sales of the guide dropped “noticeably” in recent years. Knudson said the growing popularity of internet travel sites such as TripAdvisor.com, plus a lack of Adopt-A-Hundred volunteers, hampered the publication.
“We had adopters, but not enough to do it effectively,” Knudson said at the time.
The federation continues to publish Jerry McClanahan’s “Route 66: EZ66 Guide for Travelers” book (Amazon link), who has been busy in recent months working on an update. The book has offered maps and detailed turn-by-turn directions to follow Route 66 eastbound and westbound since 2005.
The federation published “Route 66: Guided 66 Tour Book” (Amazon link) that’s designed to be used in conjunction with the “EZ66 Guide,” but that one hasn’t been updated in about five years.
(Cover image of the 2015 and last edition of the “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide”)
Hi Ron- Just so you know, we have nothing to do with this guide. BTW, we are updating the “Guided 66 Tour” book.