Route 66 Centennial Commission clears Senate
Duckworth, Durbin set course to celebrate America’s ‘Mother Road’
Pontiac is home to the Route 66 Hall of Fame & Museum. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
The highway’s wide open and inviting traffic on the way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66, America’s “Mother Road.”
U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin announced Tuesday they’d passed a bipartisan bill through the Senate to create a Route 66 Centennial Commission. It would be charged with coordinating and organizing events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the iconic route in 2026. Route 66 is also known as the “Main Street of America” as what’s believed to be the first fully paved roadway in the U.S. highway system.
Made famous by Bobby Troup in his 1946 song — later covered by Nat “King” Cole, Chuck Berry, and the Rolling Stones, to name just a few — Route 66 began in Chicago and wound its way through six other states on its way to the Santa Monica Pier on the California coast. Oklahoma was one of those states, and its U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican, co-sponsored the bill.
“Route 66 has played a tremendous role in Illinois’s history, helping to promote travel and commerce from Chicago to East St. Louis and so many communities in between,” Duckworth said in a statement. “The Senate took an important step today, and I look forward to this bill coming one step closer to becoming law and protecting this landmark highway while supporting local economies by designating it as a national historic trail.”
Route 66 is still celebrated as an indelible piece of Americana in small towns across the western half of the nation like Towanda. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
Although Route 66 became obsolete with the creation of the Interstate Highway System under President Eisenhower in the ‘50s and was formally decertified, it remains an indelible piece of Americana, still celebrated as it crosses Illinois and other states. The Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor Festival typically commemorates the stretch from Joliet to Towanda in the spring, and Bob Waldmire, son of the owners of the Cozy Dog Drive-In, a Springfield stop on the route renowned as an original home of the corn dog, did much to champion and romanticize the road both in Illinois and out west in Arizona. He designed a mural depicting the entire route of the highway, painted outside the Route 66 Hall of Fame & Museum in Pontiac, shortly before his death in 2009. (Waldmire was a “hippie artist” whose Volkswagen bus, on display in the Hall of Fame, later provided the inspiration for the character of Fillmore in the “Cars” movies.)
“Route 66 is iconic in Oklahoma,” Inhofe added. “Reaching more than 400 miles through Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and countless other towns in between, our state is home to the longest drivable stretch of Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway. I am proud to see our bipartisan legislation pass the Senate and I look forward to its passage in the House soon. Together, we can continue efforts to establish a commission that will help us best celebrate 2026 as the centennial anniversary of America’s first all-weather highway.”
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis led House passage of a resolution calling for the creation of a Route 66 Centennial Commission last year, but the pieces of legislation have to be reconciled, or the House can simply pass the new Senate version.
“Route 66 has been keeping this country — from Illinois to California — connected for nearly 100 years,” Durbin said. “In celebration of the countless family road trips, the interstate commerce, and transportation feats that Route 66 has made possible, we must preserve the highway for the centuries still to come. I’m proud to join my Senate colleagues to pass the Route 66 Centennial Commission Act today to take the first step in designating the highway as a national historic trail.”