As the 100th anniversary of Route 66 approaches in 2026, join Pulitzer Prize winners Jonathan Bullington and E. Jason Wambsgans as they spotlight the stops and people who live along America’s highway.
Route 66 was created to connect us, a fused chain of existing roadways many unpaved that stretched 2,448 miles across eight states and three time zones, starting steps from Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago and ending near the Pacific Ocean and Santa Monica’s famed fishing pier.
Visitors pose for pictures at the Santa Monica Pier, where Route 66 ends, on June 1, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Visitors look out onto the Pacific Ocean at the end of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Clifton's, opened in the early 1930's, near the corner of Seventh Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, the original terminus of Route 66, from 1926 to 1939, Monday, June 2, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A tribute to Robert Waldmire, a well known Route 66 character from Springfield, Illinois, at the Santa Monica Pier Bait and Tackle Shop located at the tip of the Santa Monica Pier, on June 1, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Bagdad Cemetery with 17 graves in the California ghost town on Route 66 in the Mojave Desert, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Sign for the Henning Motel next door to the Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs, California on Route 66, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Kenneth Large, manager of Roy's Motel and Café, which is currently being restored in the ghost town of Amboy, California, on Route 66, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Roy's Motel and Café is a motel, cafe, and gas station, currently being restored in the ghost town of Amboy, California, on Route 66, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Route 66 winds and climbs through the Black Mountains near Oatman, Arizona, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Outlaw Willie, also known as Rod Hall, 80, stages a gun fight on Route 66 in Oatman, Arizona, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Wild burros wander on Route 66 near Oatman, Arizona, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. The burros are believed to be descended from ones that served as pack animals from gold miners. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Ray Rose eases into an afternoon of busking on the porch of the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona, on Route 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Memorials at Sitgreaves Pass, just east of Oatman, Arizona at elevation 3,586 feet on Route 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The sky darkens during a rainstorm on Route 66 near Seligman, Arizona, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Angel Delgadillo, 98, know as the “guardian angel of Route 66,” visits his shop, Angel and Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop in Seligman, Arizona, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Route 66 enthusiasts visit Angel and Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop in Seligman, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A regular waits for his car club friends to turn up at the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona, onRoute 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Austrian tourist Mike Antosch takes shelter from the rain under the porch at the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Hackberry, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A postcard drawn by Springfield native and Route 66 icon Bob Waldmire at the Hackberry General Store, which he owned for a time, on Route 66 in Hackberry, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Austrian tourists Mike Antosch and his wife Galina Schultes kiss as they take shelter from the rain under the porch at the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Arizona, June 6, 2025. The couple are traveling across the American west on a rented motorcycle. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Horses graze near the Aubrey Cliffs on Old Route 66 on the outskirts of Seligman, Arizona on June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Friends from a local car club along with tourists passing through town mingle outside the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Arizona on June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Seligman, Arizona, Route 66 institution Delgadillo’s Snow Cap, built by Angel Delgadillo’s brother Juan, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Jerry “JW” Greening of Kingman, Arizona shows off his silver belt buckle that belonged to his great grandfather who came to the area in 1889 as a section foreman on the construction of the Santa Fe railroad, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Jerry “JW” Greening of Kingman, Arizona takes a break while visiting with friends at the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A freight train passes through downtown Flagstaff, Arizona on Route 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Street activity off of Route 66 in the International District of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 10, 2025. This area, locally known as War Zone, has homeless encampments that occupy an entire city block and it is not uncommon to see people openly injecting drugs while sitting on a curb. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Central Avenue, aka Route 66, in Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 10, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A cowboy herds cattle at a feedlot in Wildorado, Texas off of Route 66, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Visitors at the 51-year-old Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, along Route 66, where they are encouraged to spray paint the cars, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Route 66 tourists visit the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, on June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Visitors interact with the ten Cadillacs buried nose-deep on June 13, 2025, at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, along Route 66. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Moviegoers line up for refreshments before the show at the Tascosa Drive In in Amarillo, Texas, June 12, 2025, along Route 66. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Flaco Lozano pulls his 1962 Cadillac onto Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Buildings in the town of Jericho, Texas, where Blair and Blanca Schaffer purchased 80 acres of the Route 66 ghost town in 2020 in an effort to save it. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Lengths of barbed wire for sale to “start your own collection,” at the Devils Rope Barbwire Museum in McLean, Texas off of Route 66, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The 2nd Amendment Cowboy along Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas, June 12, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Ruts in the notorious “Jericho Gap,” an unpaved early stretch of Route 66 that runs through the now ghost town of Jericho where early motorists often got stuck, on Friday, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
The Big Texan Steak Ranch waitress Deana Lucero introduces the next contender to attempt the 72-ounce steak challenge along Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, June 13, 2025, along Route 66. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Adrian, Texas, the town known as the midpoint of Route 66, June 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Karen Holmes joins a crowd of about 40 people for a “No Kings Day” protest along Route 66 in Elk City, Oklahoma, June 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Tourists pose along Route 66 in downtown El Reno, Oklahoma, June 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Payton Brickey delivers fried onion burgers at Johnnie’s Hamburgers & Coneys in El Reno, Oklahoma, June 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Darla and Clint Reuter have a late lunch at Sid’s Diner in El Reno, Oklahoma, June 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Fried onion burgers on the griddle at Sid’s Diner in El Reno, Oklahoma, June 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Route 66 in downtown El Reno, Oklahoma, June 14, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Machelle Smith, operations manager and "jack-of-all trades" of the Galena Sentinel-Times newspaper stands after sending the paper off before deadline at their office on Route 66 near the Missouri border in Galena, Kansas, June 17, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The June 12 edition of the Galena Sentinel-Times in a newspaper box on Route 66 near the Missouri border in Galena, Kansas. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A fire truck travels down Route 66 in downtown Galena, Kansas, June 17, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Downtown Carthage, Missouri, along Route 66 on June 18, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Totem Pole Trading Post on Route 66 in Rolla, Missouri, June 19, 2025. It closed last year after being in business since 1933. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Spoken word artist Rychuss Wun performs at a Juneteenth celebration at the Griot Museum of Black History, near an alignment of Route 66 between the Old North St. Louis and JeffVanderLou neighborhoods of St. Louis, June 19, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
The Smith family of St. Peters, Missouri, finish their sundaes at Crown Candy Kitchen, a block off of a 1940s Route 66 alignment through the Old North St. Louis neighborhood, June 19, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Lea Davis and her partner lost their home in the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis when it was condemned due to storm damage from a May 16 tornado. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The base where a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood in the Fountain Park neighborhood of North St. Louis on June 19, 2025. It was damaged in the May 16 tornado that struck St. Louis and was reportedly the only one in the state. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
An exposed closet with clothes inside on June 19, 2025, in the Fountain Park neighborhood of North St. Louis from the May 16 tornado. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Travelers and locals line up at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, June 19, 2025, in St. Louis. It opened on Route 66 in St. Louis in 1941. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge on June 19, 2025. It opened to traffic in 1929 and was rerouted in 1936 to carry Route 66 over the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Madison, Illinois until the late 1960s. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
The Route History Museum in Springfield, which documents the Black experience on Route 66, housed in a former Texaco gas station from 1946, June 20, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Stacy Grundy, left, and Gina Lathan, founders of the Route History Museum in Springfield, which documents the Black experience on Route 66, June 20, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Mary and Thomas Ford of Maryland, with 4-year-old Brighid, visit Cozy Dog, the iconic Route 66 restaurant in Springfield, Illinois, June 20, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
The Illinois State Fairgrounds Route 66 Experience in Springfield on June 20, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Eric Wagner, with the state tourism office, photographs Ding Peng, from China, with giant “muffler man” fiberglass statues collected at the American Giants museum in Atlanta, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A fiberglass Paul Bunyon hotdog statue along Route 66 in Atlanta, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Robert Ryan paints new Route 66 murals near the refurbished Gemini Giant in South Island Park in Wilmington, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)A giant “muffler man” fiberglass statue along Route 66 at the American Giants museum in Atlanta, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Tourists visit Giant the American Giants museum along Route 66 in Atlanta, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Giant advertising fiberglass statues collected at the American Giants museum along Route 66 in Atlanta, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The refurbished Gemini Giant statue at its new Route 66 location in South Island Park in Wilmington, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The Volkswagen microbus belonging to late Route 66 icon Bob Waldmire, at the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame & Museum in Pontiac, Illinois, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
A milelong stretch of Route 66 near Hodgkins, Illinois, that was shut down in 1998 after it became unsafe due to a nearby limestone quarry. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Route 66 continues down Ogden Avenue through Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Fernando Lopez and his mariachi group wait to perform on Michigan Avenue near the Chicago end of Route 66, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Chiara Voceri, left, and Eleonora Tomassetti, both originally from Rome, start their Route 66 journey with a pancake breakfast at Chicago's Lou Mitchell’s on June 22, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)Pedestrians wait to cross Michigan Avenue near the Chicago end of Route 66 at Jackson Boulevard, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)The eastbound end of Route 66 at East Jackson Boulevard and South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, June 21, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
