Route 66 turns 100 in 2026 and Missouri’s stretch is the one worth driving

It’s America’s most storied road

Missouri’s section of Route 66 runs 317 miles from St. Louis all the way to Joplin, climbing through Ozark hills and dipping into river valleys along the way.

The road follows a path older than any car that ever drove it, tracing ground that Osage people walked long before telegraph wires went up along the same corridor.

This year, the Mother Road turns 100, and towns across Missouri are marking the milestone. Before the parties wind down, this is a good time to drive it.

Springfield sent the telegram that named the highway

On April 30, 1926, two men sat down in Springfield’s Colonial Hotel and sent a telegram to Washington, D.C. John T. Woodruff, a local businessman, and Cyrus Avery, an Oklahoma highway official, proposed calling the new Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway “66.”

Their first choice, the number 60, had already been taken by Kentucky.

Federal officials approved it on Nov. 11, 1926, and a 2,448-mile road from Chicago to Los Angeles became the Main Street of America. That telegram left Springfield.

A 22-degree bend breaks the Chain of Rocks Bridge

The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge at the northern edge of St. Louis has a kink in the middle that stops you the first time you see it.

When workers built it in 1929, the bedrock beneath the river couldn’t support a straight crossing, and a bend in the line also kept the structure clear of nearby water intake towers.

The fix cost $3 million and left the bridge with a 22-degree jog. Route 66 traffic rolled across it from 1936 until 1968.

Now it’s a pedestrian and bike path, over a mile long, with nothing between you and the Mississippi but old steel and open air.

The Gateway Arch tops out at 630 feet

St. Louis put the arch up as a monument to the westward expansion that the city helped launch, and the scale still catches people off guard. At 630 feet, it’s the tallest man-made monument in the country.

You can ride a tram car to the top, where the view stretches 30 miles on a clear day. Below the arch, a free museum covers more than 200 years of American history.

The park sits on the Mississippi riverbank, the same waterway Route 66 crosses just a few miles north.

Ted Drewes has flipped custard upside down since 1941

The location on Chippewa Street opened in 1941 right on Route 66 and has been running ever since, now in its 97th season.

The item that made the place famous is called a concrete, a frozen custard so thick the staff hands it to you upside down without a drop falling.

A teenage customer in 1959 kept pushing for the thickest shake the shop could make, and that’s what came out of it. Ted Drewes Sr. founded the business in 1929, and it’s now in its fourth generation.

They’ve turned down every franchise offer.

Cuba covers its walls with Route 66 history

The Missouri legislature made it official: Cuba is the Route 66 Mural City.

More than a dozen large outdoor murals spread through the downtown along the Route 66 corridor, painted between 2001 and 2007 as part of the Viva Cuba project.

You can walk from one to the next and cover scenes ranging from Harry S. Truman to Amelia Earhart, who made an emergency landing in Cuba in 1928.

While you’re there, stop by the Wagon Wheel Motel, which has been taking in travelers continuously since 1938, longer than any other motel on the route.

Meramec Caverns formed 400 million years ago

The cave system near Stanton runs 4.6 miles through limestone that started forming before the first dinosaur walked the earth. Lester Dill opened it to the public in 1935, and he had a gift for promotion.

He painted barn roofs across the Midwest to advertise the caverns, and he’s credited with inventing the bumper sticker as another way to spread the word.

The guided tour runs about an hour and 20 minutes and ends with a light show projected on a limestone curtain. Inside, the temperature holds at 60 degrees year-round, so bring a layer.

Route 66 State Park sits where a town used to be

The park in Eureka occupies ground that was once the town of Times Beach, abandoned after soil contamination shut the whole place down.

About 30 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis, the park runs along the Meramec River with trails, picnic areas, and a visitor center that holds Route 66 displays and memorabilia.

It’s a strange piece of history layered on top of another: a park built on a ghost town, sitting on one of the most traveled roads in American history.

Springfield wears the Birthplace of Route 66 title

The Route 66 Association of Missouri gave Springfield the Birthplace title in 1992, and the city has leaned into it.

A historic marker on the east side of Park Central Square stands where the Colonial Hotel once held that 1926 telegram conversation.

The Route 66 Springfield Visitor Center hands out maps and driving directions, and if you bring your Route 66 Passport, you walk out with a free gift.

Down the street, the Gillioz Theatre, a restored 1926 movie palace, opened the same year the highway got its name.

The centennial brought a parade, stamps and new public art

Springfield is holding the National Route 66 Centennial Kickoff from April 30 to May 3, 2026, with a parade, a classic car show, a dedication ceremony at the new Birthplace Plaza, and a concert at Great Southern Bank Arena.

The U.S. Postal Service is releasing a Route 66 Centennial stamp, one from each of the eight states the highway crosses.

A new sculpture called “Ghost of the Colonial Hotel,” created by Spanish artist Juan Garaizabal, has gone up at Birthplace Plaza to mark the spot where the whole story started.

The 66 Drive-In near Carthage still runs double features

The theater opened on Sept. 22, 1949, and it never really stopped.

From April through October, it shows double features on weekend nights on a 66-foot-high screen that’s been standing since day one.

The original neon sign and ticket booth are still there too, on a nine-acre lot that looks much the way it did when Truman was president. The National Register of Historic Places added it in 2003.

Nearby, the Boots Court Motel from 1939 is one of the last Streamline Modern motels still standing on the route. Carthage also has a hand-operated elevator in its 1894 courthouse, and it still works.

Joplin closes out Missouri’s stretch of the Mother Road

After Joplin, the highway dips into Kansas for just 13 miles, the shortest state segment on the entire route, before crossing into Oklahoma.

One of Missouri’s first concrete-paved roads connected Carthage to Joplin back in 1920, six years before the highway even had a number.

Today the city marks its place on the route with murals and markers along the downtown streets.

If you’re driving the whole Missouri stretch, Joplin makes a natural overnight stop, a good place to rest before the road pulls you west again.

Explore Route 66 State Park in Eureka, Missouri

You can pick up the Route 66 story at 97 N. Outer Road in Eureka, about 30 miles southwest of St. Louis just off Interstate 44.

The park is free to enter, and the visitor center has Route 66 displays and memorabilia worth more than a quick look.

Trails and picnic areas run along the Meramec River, and the park is holding a Route 66 Centennial Celebration on Nov. 7, 2026. Check the official website for current hours and event details before you head out.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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