The concept of Route 66 began with the development of a Federal highway system in the 1920’s when the number of vehicles in the United States reached 1 Million. A diagonal highway was proposed to run from Chicago to Los Angeles. Originally labelled Route 60 or 62, it was officially designated as Route 66 in 1926. Over the next decade, it became the Route of choice for the “Okies”, the migrants who fled the dust bowl of the midwest and headed to California. John Steinbeck, who wrote “The Grapes of Wrath” called it the “road of flight.”
