National Route 66 Museum: A large neon sign sits in front of the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Okla. Historic Route 66 as it is known today passes by the museum complex. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Mid-Century Travel: A display in the Route 66 Museum features a restored 1940 Chevrolet in front of a typical motel, or tourist court as they were called at that time. Also note other signs of mid-century travel such as the Burma-Shave sign and a drive-in movie speaker. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos

Route 66, Will Rogers Highway, The Mother Road. Call it what you want but U.S. Highway 66 is an iconic fixture in the history of our country.

U.S. 66 was opened in 1926 and became the route west from Chicago, Ill., to Los Angeles, Calif. This was an era when automobile travel was becoming popular as the country was expanding to the west coast. The highway was decommissioned in 1985 after the newer Interstate Highway System became the more popular way to travel cross country.

Historic Route 66, as it is known today, still traces the route of the original highway as close as possible. The Interstate Highways covered parts of the original route and some other sections of the old road were dug up or destroyed for other reasons.

Historic Route 66 has enjoyed a new following and popularity not only by US residents but residents of many countries abroad, especially European countries. Many of the buildings and landmarks from the glory days have been restored but many were too decayed to bring back to life. Some of these relics still stand in ruin but many have been torn down or replaced with newer structures.

While all eight of the states which Route 66 travels through have a museum preserving the history of the Mother Road, there is one National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Okla. The National Museum features life and travel along the road through all eight states.

The Route 66 National Museum is part of a museum complex in Elk City that features a Transportation Museum, an Old Town Museum featuring more Elk City and local area history, and a Farm and Ranch Museum.

The Route 66 National Museum leads visitors along a path through the states with displays and historical information about the life and travel of Americans in that era of the United States. The museum features indoor displays and extensive outdoor re-creations of what typical main streets may have looked like during that era.

The National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Okla., is a must for anyone interested in life and travel in the U.S. during the last century. The entire museum complex in Elk City is a stop worth taking when traveling Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma.

Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn were traveling around the country prior to the pandemic and he has been sharing his photographs, which appear in the ‘Posts from the Road’ series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.

Walkway Through Time: The outdoor portion of the National Route 66 Museum features a walkway through and along structures and businesses as they appeared in mid-century travel. Here, a model steel bridge covers the walkway between buildings at the museum. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Main Street: Reconstructed facades of main street businesses in the era of Route 66 is shown in the outdoor museum. The facades feature different types of businesses and a variety of architectural design seen in the mid-1900s. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Gas Station of the Past: The outdoor walkway leads to a reconstruction of a 1930-1940s era gas station. What is most noticeable is the size of the stations. While some were a bit larger, many of the stations of that time were very small structures with one or two pumps out in front. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Gas Station: A display indoors at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Okla. shows how a small town gas station appeared during the glory days of Route 66. The screen door with a logo on the frame, the signage on the building, the motor oil cans, and pump are a few items found at these old stations. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com