2026 Visit USA Travel Planner Highlights

ROUTE 66

The mother

of all roads

America’s most famous road turns 100 in November 2026 and the eight states it runs through are planning festivals, car parades and a host of other festivities

NEW MEXICO TRUE

Enjoy car museums, attractions, oddities and events on the Mother Road’s 2,500 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica. BIRTHDAY PARTIES Centenary celebrations in 2026 are planned in all eight of the states Route 66 passes through. National Kick-Off events in five cities include a concert in Springfield, Missouri, on April 30 with top artists, to mark the 100th anniversary of a telegram sent from Springfield to the U.S. Highway Commission requesting the new cross-country road be named Route 66. It also stages the annual Birthplace of Route 66 Festival in August. Springfield, Illinois, will hold its 25th annual International Route 66 Mother Road Festival in September. In June, Tulsa, Oklahoma, will host the AAA Route 66 Road Fest, dubbed the “Mother of All Road Fests”. STOP BY A MUSEUM Many museums dot the road’s length. The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, the state’s official Route 66 showcase, displays period vehicles and themed music-filled exhibit rooms, while the National Route 66 Museum in the state’s Elk City celebrates the

people who lived, worked and travelled along the road. New Mexico’s Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa and Tucumcari Route 66 Museum has collections of classic cars and memorabilia. Other facilities include the Arizona Route 66 Museum in Kingman, the Texas Route 66 Museum in McLean, the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac and the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville. CAR-RAZY Roadside Americana doesn’t come much wackier than along the Mother Road. The Cadillac Ranch is an art installation outside Amarillo, Texas, featuring 10 half buried old Cadillacs. Other Route 66 oddities include Oklahoma’s giant Blue Whale in Catoosa, Tulsa’s 76-foot-tall Golden Driller statue – the official state monument – the world’s tallest petrol pump at the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum in

CADILLAC RANCH

The longest urban stretch of Route 66 is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A new visitor centre has a gift shop

Sapulpa, and roadside fibreglass sculptures called “Muffler Men”

at the American Giant Museum in Atlanta, Illinois.

route66centennial.org

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