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U.S. Highway 66 Association
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The U.S. Highway 66 Association was organized in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1927. Its purpose was to get U.S. Highway 66 paved from end to end and to promote tourism on the highway. It eventually disbanded in 1976. It is not (officially) connected with the various Route 66 associations which currently exist to preserve the historic highway. The association followed much of the same ideas as many of the old trail associations that promoted the Lincoln Highway, the National Old Trails Highway, and numerous others that had existed prior to the creation of the federal highways, established in 1926.
The association began to advertise the highway in magazines, on billboards, and brochures. The continued push to completely pave the highway and complete an unfinished section (Watson Road in St. Louis, Missouri) paid off, the road was fully paved and completed in 1938, including a cut-off across New Mexico, bypassing a loop through Santa Fe.
In 1955, construction began on the new Interstate Highways. As these new interstates began to replace longer and longer sections of the old highway, the group in 1970 changed its name to the Main Street of America Association and continued to stand as a voice for the older highway. The Association published its last brochure in 1974; the brochure's cover referenced the new interstate highways that would lead to its demise.
In 1976 the association finally disbanded as US 66 was now largely multiplexed with I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15, and I-10. In 1984 the last section through Williams, Arizona was bypassed and in 1985 Route 66 was formally decommissioned.