The City of Lockport, Illinois, a few days ago erected a Route 66 monument sign that celebrates the city’s dubious heritage with the highway and Route 66’s approaching centennial.
According to the Homer Glen-Lockport Patch, the monument was placed on State Street near the Metra lot.
“To commemorate Lockport’s role in the Route 66 centennial, and because Lockport is part of the Route 66 interpretative corridor to the Joliet Prison, the City has received one of the awesome monuments,” the city said.
The curious thing is Lockport never was on Route 66. It was close — just across the Des Plaines River from Lockport is the Illinois 53 alignment — but no cigar. I’ve double-checked with online Route 66 maps, including the Deep Tracks series.
The monument was paid for with state funds from the Heritage Corridor Convention and Visitors Bureau. It’s one of 12 signs being installed. Romeoville, Illinois, which is another Route 66 town, also recently received one.
Here’s a Facebook post from the city that shows the monument sign:
Lockport’s monument is very similar to the Route 66 selfie station erected last year in Joliet, Illinois, which indisputably is a Route 66 town.
A somewhat similar monument was installed along the route in 2018 in El Reno, Oklahoma.
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Nice to see my old hometown on Route 66 site, even if the road didn’t actually go through it. One alignment, however, was indeed Illinois 53 version, which was just down the country road from where we lived west of and across the river from Lockport. However, we still had a Lockport mailing address out there in the country so perhaps that’s how the town is justifying the new sign. Route 66 did go through the Lockport mailing address area.
Route 66 historian James Powell, in his excellent book about the 1928 Bunion Derby, claims that IL4A / State St. in Lockport may have been a segment of “temporary 66” in the Spring of 1928 (when the runners passed through there) due to construction on the other side of the river.
So Lockport’s claims may have some historical merit after all.
Michael – Thanks for the excellent insight from James Powell on “temporary 66”.
Also, David G. Clark, the Windy City Road Warrior, did extensive research and documented that during construction Route 66 was indeed temporarily routed through both Lemont and Lockport, and in Joliet passed the Collins Street Prison. I had the privilege of riding with Dave while he groundtruthed that detour. Ever since, it is a routing incorporated into our Route 66 tours, so as to trace the development of transportation infrastructure between Chicago and Wilmington. Even today, that “temporary 66” is mainly a two-lane through some very pretty country with forests, hills, and views of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, the Des Plaines River, and the Sanitary & Ship Canal.
Worse, they put up a sign (which I think is a good looking sign) and have no way to drive your car beside or behind it. Many who are interested in Route 66, antique cars, etc. would want their car in the photo and it isn’t possible to do that, legally. There’s a parking lot to the south based on Google street view, but I don’t know if that is open, etc. Another ill-designed monument to stupid.