KTVI-TV in St. Louis proclaims that a few folks are confused by the new “Historic Route 66 Byway” signs posted along Manchester Road in the St. Louis region.
A merchant claims that Watson Road is the original Route 66. He named his transmission business because of that.
“Watson Road here is the original Route 66,” said Sam Lopretta of Route 66 Transmissions.
MoDOT put up the new signs but said they were paid for by the Route 66 Association in Springfield, Mo. MoDOT declined to explain the signs. To complicate matters, one of the new signs on Manchester at McCausland Road points motorists north to Route 66 even though Watson runs to the south.
Manchester actually was an alignment of Route 66 from the late 1920s until the early 1930s. The Watson Road alignment wasn’t designated until the early 1930s.
To make matters more confusing, there also were “City 66” alignments. There are no fewer than a half-dozen Route 66 alignments in the St. Louis area, as this map illustrates.
A commenter on the story, James from Junction City, Kan., also rightfully points out that Watson and Manchester were chosen as Route 66 at different times.
It doesn’t surprise me, alas, that a TV station didn’t do a bit of research and figure out there was more than one way that Route 66 went through St. Louis during the highway’s history. Hasn’t anyone at KTVI ever heard of Google?
UPDATE: KTVI has been even more pilloried for its lack of research in comments to the story.