Famous scenic route offers amazing sights through Illinois.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
By The State Journal-Register staff
Perhaps it is the yearning for yesteryear that endears so many to Route 66.
Who wouldn’t want to jump into a classic car and explore the United States, stopping at shiny new service stations to pump gas into your vehicle, or sip a cold drink from the soda shops that dot the roadway? Such sepia-toned wishes of driving the Mother Road in its heyday could prompt many of us to start packing for a trip.
Ford had been mass-producing vehicles for a little more than a decade when Route 66 was commissioned on Nov. 11, 1926. It was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System, its 2,448 miles starting in Chicago before arriving on the West Coast in Los Angeles (and later the Santa Monica Pier).
By 1985, Route 66 had been removed from the federal highway system, as the entire road had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System.
But it’s still possible to get an idea of what the roadway looked like: Just stop in Lexington to take a trip down “Memory Lane,” a 1-mile stretch of the original 1926 alignment of Route 66 pavement. It was turned into an interpretive trail and is open year-round to pedestrians and bicycles. There, people can delight in the restored vintage billboards and signage.
Despite it not being part of the Interstate Highway System, every year thousands still travel Route 66 to explore the communities that make up America’s Main Street.
Just a small area of Route 66 in Illinois can net some fun experiences. Take Macoupin County: Stop in Girard for a handmade soda at Doc’s Soda Fountain, which opened in 1929 as part of Deck’s Drug Store.
Take in the 22-foot-high granite monument in Mount Olive of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, known for her work as an organizer for the United Mine Workers. And, if you’re willing to go off the beaten path, you can find the 34 separate bird tracks an errant turkey left on the wet highway cement in the 1920s (find them south of Nilwood on Donaldson Road).
Any road trip should include visits to the many giant characters that call various Route 66 communities home. The Gemini Giant still towers over Wilmington. He holds a rocket and wears a space helmet — unlike his counterpart, the Lauterbach Man in Springfield, which holds an American flag and wears a stocking cap. Both are 28-foot “Muffler Man” creations from International Fiberglass, which were made as a promotional tool for auto shops.
*
Editor’s note: The weekly Illinois Bicentennial series is brought to you by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors and Illinois Press Association. More than 20 newspapers are creating stories about the state’s history, places and key moments in advance of the Bicentennial on Dec. 3, 2018. Stories published up to this date can be found at 200illinois.com.