The History of Route 66

During its existence from 1926 to its formal decommissioning in 1985, US Highway 66, or Route 66, came to occupy a special place in the American imagination. For a half-century and more, it symbolized American individualism, travel, and the freedom of the open road with the transformative rise of America’s automobile culture. Route 66 was an essential connection between the Midwest and the West for American commercial, military, and civilian transportation. It chained together small towns and cities across the nation as America’s “Main Street.” Following the path of older trails and railroads, Route 66 hosted travelers in many different eras: the adventurous motorist in his Ford Model A in the 1920s, the Arkies and Okies desperate for a new start in California in the 1930s, trucks carrying wartime soldiers and supplies in the 1940s, and postwar tourists and travelers from the 1950s onward. By its nature, it brought together diverse cultures of different regions, introducing Americans to the “others” that were their regional neighbors, and exposing travelers to new arts, music, foods, and traditions. It became firmly embedded in pop culture through songs, books, television, and advertisements for its attractions as America’s most famous road. Travel on Highway 66 steadily declined with the development of controlled-access interstate highways in the 1960s and 1970s. The towns and cities it connected and the many businesses and attractions dependent on its traffic and tourism protested the removal of the highway designation by the US Transportation Department in 1985, but their efforts failed. Nonetheless, revivalists who treasured the old road worked to preserve the road sections and attractions that remained, as well as founding a wide variety of organizations and donating to museums and libraries to preserve Route 66 ephemera. In the early 21st century, Route 66 is an international icon of America, traveled by fans from all over the world.

The Railroad Giveth and the Railroad Taketh Away

Continued railroad investment and the development of national highway transportation infrastructure factored heavily into the development of American communities during the twentieth century. Seligman, Arizona, is one of these communities, located on a major railroad route (Santa Fe Railway) and a former U.S. federal highway (U.S. Route 66). The town of Seligman was created by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway as a service stop and switchyard. At its founding, few roads served the community. Seligman later became a community linked to others by an auto-trail, the National Old Trails Road, and then by a paved federal highway. Through much of the postwar period, Seligman was a thriving travel center hosting significant Santa Fe Railway operations and a robust auto-traveler and tourist service industry. In the early 1980s, however, the community experienced a rapid decline. Looking at the period from 1910 to 1985 and examining what caused this dramatic transformation, this article argues that just as the construction of railroad operations birthed Seligman, the dismantling of railroad operations in the town delivered a death blow to its economy while benefiting larger communities like Barstow, California. Although the diversion of highway travelers off of Route 66 and away from town by the I-40 bypass hurt Seligman businesses, it was the loss of railroad workers’ local spending that put its economy in decline. This argument is discussed within the additional context of the social history of the community, the effects of infrastructure disinvestment on communities, and the limits of successor industries (like tourism) to support these communities.

Representações de crianças bascas exiladas na tela grande: de “A outra árvore de Guernica” à “Route 66”

Durante a Guerra Civil Espanhola, o governo regional basco começou a evacuar a população infantil para outros países europeus. A memória desse exílio infantil começou a se recuperar nos anos 60, tanto na Espanha quanto no exterior. Este artigo estabelece uma comparação entre as duas primeiras representações do exílio infantil basco na tela. Por um lado, analisa-se o romance (e mais tarde o filme, de 1969), A outra árvore de Guernica, que reflete o discurso gerado nesse exílio em particular na Espanha de Franco. Por outro lado, é analisado um capítulo de 1963 da série de televisão norte-americana Route 66, cujos protagonistas eram crianças exiladas bascas. Na comparação entre ambas as representações são identificadas as semelhanças e diferenças, bem como os diferentes conteúdos políticos em que se encaixam.