Springfield may have erroneously marked Route 66

A researcher says a 1926-30 alignment of Route 66 in Springfield, Ill., is erroneously marked in part of the city, according to a recent article in the Illinois Times.

Carl Johnson, a land surveyor who’s written several articles in the newsletter for the Illinois Route 66 Association, told the newspaper about the alleged error. Here’s the gist:

Johnson believes that U.S. Route 66 originally traveled down part of Sixth Street in Springfield, not along a more western route that is currently credited as part of Illinois’ Historic Route 66 Scenic Byway. The confusion over different routes comes from the fact that Illinois Route 4 and U.S. Route 66 often shared the same path, but not always. […]

The common wisdom is that, from 1926 to 1930, Route 66 traveled into Springfield from the north on what is now known as Peoria Road, then turned west on Taintor Road along the northern border of the State Fairgrounds. The accepted path has Route 66 wrapping around the Fairgrounds’ western border, then traveling south on Fifth Street past Lincoln Park.

It then turns west onto North Grand Avenue for three blocks to Second Street and heads south past the current State Capitol Building until it reaches South Grand Avenue, where it picks up what is now MacArthur Boulevard and heads out of town.

But Johnson says the real Route 66 never turned at Taintor Road by the Fairgrounds. Instead, he claims Route 66 originally traveled south on Peoria Road and Ninth Street, then headed west on Enos Avenue for three blocks before turning south on Sixth Street. Route 66 then traveled west on Capitol Avenue, turning south on Second Street at the State Capitol Building until reaching South Grand Avenue, Johnson claims.

The Illinois Times created this helpful Google Maps layout to illustrate:

View Larger Map

The blue line shows the disputed Taintor Road alignment that marks Route 66 from 1926-30. The red line shows Johnson’s Route 66 alignment from 1926-29. The green line shows Johnson’s alignment in 1930-31, when officials started to realign the path in a more easterly direction from Springfield to Staunton. (UPDATE: I just noticed that the Times’ map has an error with the blue line; it’s turning onto Sangamon, instead of turning onto Taintor.)

As for whether Johnson is right, one of his fellow roadies in Illinois isn’t sure:

John Lucchesi, the Sangamon County representative on the board of the Illinois Route 66 Association, isn’t fully convinced. It’s possible that Johnson is right, he says, but Lucchesi claims to have seen maps in the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library, 326 S. 7th St., that definitively show the path of Route 66 year by year. […]

Asked how it’s possible that maps from the very same era could show different routes, Lucchesi said highway construction was still so new at the time that temporary routes often shifted again and again until a permanent route was finished.

Lucchesi isn’t the only source that doubts Johnson. A 1997 edition of “The New, Historic Route 66 of Illinois” guidebook by John Weiss includes the Taintor Road as part of the alignment. So does a 2003 edition of “The Complete Guidebook to Route 66,” by Bob Moore and Rich Cunningham.

But Stefan Joppich’s online Route 66 Atlas excludes Taintor Road in its Springfield map, noting that Taintor was “never” Route 66 but was a part of the historic Pontiac Trail. Rick Martin’s online Route 66 Map also excludes the Tainter Road alignment.

The best sources I know are Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross, who have researched, separately and together, the varying alignments of Route 66 since at least the mid-1990s. Ross and McClanahn produced the “Here It Is!” map series, and McClanahan produced the “Route 66: EZ Guide” as well.

In an email, Ross said he and McClanahan “discarded the Taintor Road route years ago,” and that Johnson got it right.

The answer isn’t 100 percent definitive. Someday, someone might discover a cache of long-forgotten maps that would disprove those conclusions. But, based on the weight of current evidence and expert opinion, I’d say the older Springfield alignment has been mismarked, and the state needs to correct that.