I wrote an article for The Conversation recently on the upcoming 100th anniversary of Route 66. The 1924 Federal Aid Highway Act turned 100 two years ago. It made the first real highway system in the United States possible. The map that detailed where those highways went turns 100 on November 11th of this year (2026). Included as a last minute addition to that map was Route 66. As the now infamous “Mother Road” is about to turn 100, I ask in my article: What are we really celebrating?
Historian of Route 66, the American Southwest, and the role of myth in national, regional, and local community definition, culture, and collective memory and its implications for American society