MOTHER ROAD
Route 66 history
Historic Route 66 near Amboy, California, 2012. Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0
Chicago to Santa Monica, and the desert alignment the interstate replaced.
HistoryCentennialU.S. Route 66 was designated on November 11, 1926, with the first federal numbered highways. It ran from Chicago to Santa Monica. A House report on the centennial commission describes an original length of 2,448 miles across eight states. The National Park Service, telling the longer social history, rounds the road to about 2,400 miles from Lake Michigan to the Pacific.
Through the Mojave, the National Old Trails Road became U.S. 66 in 1926. Interstate 40 later bypassed that desert alignment. Mrs. Orcutt's driveway is one household-scale version of that change: the new freeway crossed the track she used to reach the old highway.
Interstate 40 in Fenner Valley, east of Essex Road. Stan Shebs · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Park Service dates the official decommissioning to 1985, after I-40 bypassed the last section at Williams, Arizona, in October 1984. The legislative history of the centennial commission, and a New York Times report on June 29, 1985, put the AASHTO vote that removed the route on June 27, 1985. Pieces of the road had already lost the U.S. 66 shield earlier, including an AASHTO action in 1979.
Travelers and townspeople brought it back as Historic Route 66. In Seligman, Arizona, barber Angel Delgadillo helped found a state association in 1987. Congress later created the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program and, in Public Law 116-256 (signed December 23, 2020), the U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission. The 100th anniversary of the 1926 designation is November 11, 2026.
The 2026 centennial · Stamp the famous stops · Drive the Mojave stretch · Trivia
Sources
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Mrs. Orcutt's Driveway
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More desert history from C. V. Wooster: The King of Quacks (Zzyzx) · When the Birds Go Silent (the Mojave War)
Substack
The parchment, postmarks, stamps, gilt corners, and desert sketches come from C. V. Wooster's presentation for the book. Photographs are credited where they appear. The award seals and the signed manual page are from the author's materials.
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How Route 66 crossed the Mojave
Route 66 came into California from Arizona at the Colorado River near Needles. From there it crossed the Mojave Desert through towns such as Essex, Amboy, Ludlow, Newberry and Daggett on the way to Barstow, and then climbed over Cajon Pass toward San Bernardino and Los Angeles. Much of this desert route followed the older National Old Trails Road. Services were spread far apart and the heat could be dangerous, so the small towns along the way, with their gas stations, cafes and motels, meant a great deal to the people driving through.
Why people called it the Mother Road
The name comes from John Steinbeck, who used it in The Grapes of Wrath (1939). He wrote of Route 66 as the road of flight for families leaving the Dust Bowl for California in the 1930s. After the Second World War, the road came to stand for a different kind of travel, the kind built around family vacations and car culture. Bobby Troup's song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946, helped lock it into popular memory.
What replaced it
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 paid for the Interstate Highway System. In the Mojave, Interstate 40 took over from Route 66 between Barstow and Needles, and Interstate 15 carried the traffic from Barstow toward Los Angeles. Because interstates were limited-access highways, drivers could get on and off only at interchanges. Towns that had made their living from passing traffic were bypassed, and a lot of businesses shut their doors. Parts of the old desert alignment, including the stretch through Amboy, are still there as the National Trails Highway.
That change is the setting for Mrs. Orcutt's Driveway. When the I-40 survey cut across Bonnie Orcutt's dirt driveway east of Newberry, the highway itself was only part of the problem. The bigger question was whether she would be able to reach the old road at all.
Visiting the Mojave stretch
Driving in the desert takes some preparation. Bring extra water, check road conditions with Caltrans before setting out, and keep in mind that services can be many miles apart. Sections of the old road have been closed at times because of flood and bridge damage. Please respect the private property along the route, and that includes the Orcutt place, which is not a tourist stop. For planning, the road trip notes and the desert weather notes on this site are good places to start.
More sources
- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (Viking, 1939), chapter 12
- Federal Highway Administration, Interstate System history
- National Park Service, Route 66 travel itinerary
- Caltrans QuickMap road conditions