Mother Road Mileposts: Drive Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica

Miles 0 – 301

Illinois

The road begins a block from Lake Michigan, runs out through Chicago’s suburbs, then straight across flat corn and soybean country to the Mississippi.

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Illinois · 11 stops

Notable

The “Begin Route 66” sign

Chicago, IL

The road officially starts on Adams Street just west of Michigan Avenue, across from the Art Institute.

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Places to eat

Lou Mitchell’s

Chicago, IL

Breakfast diner open since 1923. People waiting in line get free doughnut holes, and some get a box of Milk Duds.

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Places to eat

Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket

Willowbrook, IL

Fried chicken served since 1946 in a former gas station lunch counter, and run by the Rhea family since 1963.

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Oddities

Gemini Giant

Wilmington, IL

A 28-foot fiberglass astronaut holding a rocket, put up in 1965 outside the Launching Pad drive-in.

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Places of interest

Route 66 Hall of Fame and murals

Pontiac, IL

A free Route 66 museum and more than twenty murals painted on downtown buildings.

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Places to eat

Funk’s Grove maple sirup

Shirley, IL

The Funk family has made and sold maple syrup here since the 1890s, and still spells it “sirup.”

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Oddities

Paul Bunyon and his hot dog

Atlanta, IL

A 19-foot giant holding an oversized hot dog, moved here from a Cicero restaurant in 2003.

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Places of interest

Lincoln Home

Springfield, IL

The only house Abraham Lincoln ever owned, a few blocks off the old route. His tomb is nearby in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

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Places to eat

Cozy Dog Drive In

Springfield, IL

Ed Waldmire started selling his cornmeal-battered hot dog on a stick here in 1946. The family still runs it.

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Places to eat

Ariston Cafe

Litchfield, IL

Opened in 1924 and in this building since 1935, one of the oldest restaurants on the whole route.

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Places of interest

Chain of Rocks Bridge

Madison, IL

A mile-long 1929 bridge over the Mississippi with a 22-degree bend in the middle. Now open only to walkers and bikes.

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Illinois

The road begins a block from Lake Michigan, runs out through Chicago’s suburbs, then straight across flat corn and soybean country to the Mississippi.

Mile 0: The “Begin Route 66” sign, Chicago, IL. The road officially starts on Adams Street just west of Michigan Avenue, across from the Art Institute.
Mile 1: Lou Mitchell’s, Chicago, IL. Breakfast diner open since 1923. People waiting in line get free doughnut holes, and some get a box of Milk Duds.
Mile 20: Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket, Willowbrook, IL. Fried chicken served since 1946 in a former gas station lunch counter, and run by the Rhea family since 1963.
Mile 56: Gemini Giant, Wilmington, IL. A 28-foot fiberglass astronaut holding a rocket, put up in 1965 outside the Launching Pad drive-in.
Mile 95: Route 66 Hall of Fame and murals, Pontiac, IL. A free Route 66 museum and more than twenty murals painted on downtown buildings.
Mile 140: Funk’s Grove maple sirup, Shirley, IL. The Funk family has made and sold maple syrup here since the 1890s, and still spells it “sirup.”
Mile 155: Paul Bunyon and his hot dog, Atlanta, IL. A 19-foot giant holding an oversized hot dog, moved here from a Cicero restaurant in 2003.
Mile 198: Lincoln Home, Springfield, IL. The only house Abraham Lincoln ever owned, a few blocks off the old route. His tomb is nearby in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Mile 200: Cozy Dog Drive In, Springfield, IL. Ed Waldmire started selling his cornmeal-battered hot dog on a stick here in 1946. The family still runs it.
Mile 245: Ariston Cafe, Litchfield, IL. Opened in 1924 and in this building since 1935, one of the oldest restaurants on the whole route.
Mile 296: Chain of Rocks Bridge, Madison, IL. A mile-long 1929 bridge over the Mississippi with a 22-degree bend in the middle. Now open only to walkers and bikes.

Missouri

Past the Gateway Arch, Route 66 climbs into the Ozarks, winding over river bluffs and through small towns that still paint their history on the walls.

Mile 308: Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO. The 630-foot stainless steel arch, finished in 1965. Small tram cars carry visitors to windows at the top.
Mile 314: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis, MO. A custard stand since 1929. The “concretes” are so thick they hand them to you upside down.
Mile 362: Meramec Caverns, Stanton, MO. Big show cave advertised on barn roofs across the country. Legend says Jesse James hid out here.
Mile 395: Cuba murals and a giant rocking chair, Cuba and Fanning, MO. Cuba calls itself Route 66 Mural City. A few miles on, a rocking chair more than 40 feet tall sits outside the Fanning 66 Outpost.
Mile 440: Devil’s Elbow, Devils Elbow, MO. A 1923 steel bridge over a sharp bend in the Big Piney River, with bluffs all around and the old Elbow Inn by the road.
Mile 503: Birthplace of Route 66, Springfield, MO. On April 30, 1926, highway officials sent a telegram from here proposing the number 66 for the new Chicago–Los Angeles road.
Mile 506: Springfield cashew chicken, Springfield, MO. Fried chicken in oyster sauce with cashews, created by David Leong in 1963 and now served all over town. Leong’s Asian Diner carries on the recipe.
Mile 535: Gay Parita Sinclair station, Paris Springs, MO. A recreated 1930s Sinclair gas station with old pumps, trucks, and a welcome for passing travelers.
Mile 575: 66 Drive-In Theatre, Carthage, MO. A 1949 drive-in still showing movies on summer nights, right on the old road.
Mile 605: Bonnie and Clyde hideout, Joplin, MO. The garage apartment where the outlaw couple shot their way out of a police raid in April 1933.

Kansas

Kansas has the shortest stretch of any state, about 13 miles across its southeast corner, packed with old mining towns and a white arch bridge.

Mile 619: Cars on the Route, Galena, KS. A restored 1930s gas station with a rusty boom truck said to have inspired the tow truck in Pixar’s Cars.
Mile 624: Nelson’s Old Riverton Store, Riverton, KS. A general store and deli in business since 1925, with tin ceilings and sandwiches made to order.
Mile 626: Rainbow Bridge, Riverton, KS. A white concrete Marsh arch bridge from 1923 over Brush Creek, the last of three like it on Kansas 66.
Mile 630: Kansas Route 66 Visitor Center, Baxter Springs, KS. A 1930 Phillips 66 station restored as a visitor center, in a town that remembers a bank robbery blamed on Jesse James.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma has more drivable miles of the old road than any other state, from red dirt and oil country to the place the highway was dreamed up.

Mile 640: Coleman Theatre, Miami, OK. A 1929 Spanish Mission style movie palace with its original Mighty Wurlitzer organ. Free tours.
Mile 642: Waylan’s Ku-Ku Burger, Miami, OK. The last survivor of a 1960s burger chain, with a big cuckoo bird on the sign.
Mile 650: The Sidewalk Highway, Miami to Afton, OK. A stretch of 1922 pavement only nine feet wide. When two cars met, each put two wheels in the dirt.
Mile 670: Clanton’s Cafe, Vinita, OK. Run by the same family since 1927 and known for chicken-fried steak.
Mile 700: Totem Pole Park, Foyil, OK. Ed Galloway spent eleven years building a 90-foot concrete totem pole covered in carvings.
Mile 725: Blue Whale of Catoosa, Catoosa, OK. A grinning 80-foot blue whale in a pond, built by Hugh Davis as an anniversary gift for his wife.
Mile 740: Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza, Tulsa, OK. Honors the Tulsa highway official called the Father of Route 66, with a big bronze of his family meeting a horse-drawn wagon.
Mile 790: Rock Café, Stroud, OK. Built in 1939 from local sandstone. Owner Dawn Welch inspired the character Sally in Pixar’s Cars.
Mile 820: Round Barn, Arcadia, OK. A truly round red barn built in 1898, saved and restored by local volunteers.
Mile 822: POPS 66 Soda Ranch, Arcadia, OK. A 66-foot steel soda bottle that lights up at night, outside a store selling hundreds of kinds of soda.
Mile 860: Milk Bottle Grocery, Oklahoma City, OK. A tiny triangle-shaped 1930 store with a giant milk bottle on its roof.
Mile 945: Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Clinton, OK. Decade-by-decade galleries on the road’s history, from dust bowl migrants to 1950s vacationers.

Texas

A straight shot across the Panhandle’s high plains, with grain elevators, big steaks, and a row of Cadillacs planted in a wheat field.

Mile 1,080: U-Drop Inn, Shamrock, TX. A 1936 Art Deco gas station and café, now a visitor center. It helped inspire the look of Radiator Springs in Cars.
Mile 1,100: Devil’s Rope Museum, McLean, TX. Everything you could want to know about barbed wire, plus a good Route 66 room.
Mile 1,125: Leaning water tower, Groom, TX. A water tower deliberately set at a tilt to catch travelers’ attention.
Mile 1,160: Big Texan Steak Ranch, Amarillo, TX. Eat a 72-ounce steak with all the sides in one hour and it’s free. Open since 1960.
Mile 1,170: Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX. Ten old Cadillacs buried nose-first in a field in 1974 by the art group Ant Farm. Visitors bring spray paint.
Mile 1,210: MidPoint Café, Adrian, TX. Sits at the road’s rough halfway point. A sign out front says 1,139 miles to either end. Known for pie.
Mile 1,238: Glenrio, Texas–New Mexico line. A ghost town split by the state line, with empty motels and cafés left behind when the interstate came through.

New Mexico

Mesas, neon motels, and adobe. Before 1937 the road looped north through Santa Fe; later it ran straight through Albuquerque on Central Avenue.

Mile 1,280: Blue Swallow Motel, Tucumcari, NM. A 1939 motel with a glowing neon sign and a private garage beside each room.
Mile 1,282: “Tucumcari Tonite!”, Tucumcari, NM. Billboards once told drivers they had 2,000 motel rooms waiting. The town still glows with vintage neon after dark.
Mile 1,340: Blue Hole, Santa Rosa, NM. A clear artesian spring about 80 feet deep that stays cool all year. Scuba divers train here in the desert.
Mile 1,420: The Santa Fe loop, Santa Fe, NM. Until 1937 the road swung north through the old capital, past the Plaza and the La Fonda hotel.
Mile 1,500: KiMo Theatre, Albuquerque, NM. A 1927 movie palace in Pueblo Deco style, with lamps shaped like buffalo skulls.
Mile 1,502: Frontier Restaurant, Albuquerque, NM. A huge, busy diner across Central Avenue from the University of New Mexico. Get the sweet roll and green chile.
Mile 1,560: Acoma Sky City, Acoma Pueblo, NM. A pueblo on top of a 367-foot mesa, lived in for over 800 years. A short drive south of the old road; tours run from the visitor center.
Mile 1,640: Continental Divide, near Thoreau, NM. Route 66 crosses the line where rain falls toward the Atlantic on one side and the Pacific on the other.
Mile 1,700: El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, NM. A 1937 hotel built for Hollywood crews filming westerns. Rooms are named for the stars who stayed.

Arizona

Painted Desert, wigwam motels, pine forest around Flagstaff, and the longest unbroken stretch of the old road, ending on a hairpin climb over the Black Mountains.

Mile 1,750: Petrified Forest, Petrified Forest National Park, AZ. The only national park with a stretch of Route 66 inside it. An old Studebaker marks where the road ran.
Mile 1,775: Wigwam Motel, Holbrook, AZ. Sleep in a concrete teepee. Built in 1950, with vintage cars parked out front.
Mile 1,795: Jack Rabbit Trading Post, Joseph City, AZ. Known for decades of billboards counting down the miles, ending with one that says HERE IT IS.
Mile 1,810: La Posada and the Turquoise Room, Winslow, AZ. A 1930 Santa Fe railway hotel designed by Mary Colter. Its restaurant is one of the best on the route.
Mile 1,811: Standin’ on the Corner Park, Winslow, AZ. A street-corner park with a statue and mural celebrating the town’s mention in the Eagles song “Take It Easy.”
Mile 1,835: Meteor Crater, near Winslow, AZ. A crater nearly a mile across, left by a meteorite about 50,000 years ago.
Mile 1,870: Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ. Where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930. Night sky viewing most evenings.
Mile 1,950: Angel Delgadillo’s barbershop, Seligman, AZ. The barber who started the movement to save the old road in 1987. Seligman’s main street is still pure Route 66.
Mile 1,951: Snow Cap Drive-In, Seligman, AZ. Burgers and shakes since 1953, served with practical jokes like the “cheeseburger with cheese.”
Mile 2,010: Hackberry General Store, Hackberry, AZ. An old general store crammed with gas pumps, signs, and roadside memorabilia.
Mile 2,040: Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner, Kingman, AZ. A pink-and-turquoise diner with homemade root beer, across from the Arizona Route 66 Museum.
Mile 2,090: Burros of Oatman, Oatman, AZ. Wild burros, descended from miners’ pack animals, walk the main street of this old gold town.

California

Across the Mojave on empty desert road, over Cajon Pass into the Los Angeles basin, and on to the Pacific at Santa Monica Pier.

Mile 2,200: Roy’s Motel & Café, Amboy, CA. A tiny desert town with a famous 1959 space-age sign, next to a black volcanic cone you can hike.
Mile 2,240: Bagdad Cafe, Newberry Springs, CA. The desert café where the 1987 film was shot. Fans from all over the world sign the walls.
Mile 2,260: Casa del Desierto, Barstow, CA. A 1911 Harvey House by the railroad tracks, now home to the Route 66 Mother Road Museum.
Mile 2,290: Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch, Oro Grande, CA. A forest of metal “trees” hung with thousands of colored bottles that chime in the wind.
Mile 2,300: Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Cafe, Victorville, CA. A small diner open since 1947, famous for the Brian Burger and big breakfasts.
Mile 2,350: Original McDonald’s site, San Bernardino, CA. The McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant here in 1940. An unofficial museum stands on the spot.
Mile 2,355: Wigwam Motel #7, Rialto, CA. The other surviving wigwam motel, with concrete teepees around a pool.
Mile 2,400: Fair Oaks Pharmacy, South Pasadena, CA. A 1915 drugstore soda fountain still serving phosphates, malts, and sundaes.
Mile 2,444: End of the Trail, Santa Monica Pier, CA. A sign on the pier marks the end of the road, with the Pacific Ocean and a Ferris wheel for the finish.