Narratives of the Mother Road: Geographic Themes Along Route 66

Abstract

One of the most culturally significant roads in the world, U.S. Highway 66 (commonly referred to as Route 66) has connected Chicago and Los Angeles since 1926. In order to explore what heritage themes Route 66 sites convey to tourists, we assessed the information presented to visitors at nearly four‐dozen museums and interpretive sites astride the road using the qualitative software Nvivo 10. Five themes dominate interpretation. Route 66 thematically flows east to west with Chicago as the beginning and Los Angeles as the end of the road. Mobility and personal freedom of movement via the automobile are encapsulated in the history of the road. In addition, Route 66 highlights nostalgia for the 1950s with classic American automobiles, music of the era, and neon lights representing this golden age of the highway. Economic decline, and often the economic continuity of communities, is frequently found in interpretive materials. Finally, Route 66 museums are repositories of community memory as oral histories preserve the narratives of individuals and families who owned businesses on and lived near the road for multiple decades. We conclude with several observations about interpretative themes that are overlooked as well as regional differences in the geography of memory along Route 66.

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