The point of our Route 66 trip was to take in America at ground level – to experience the countryside’s changing terrain as we moved west, to enjoy the small towns that dot the route, and to take in any tourist traps that interested us. But me being me, I also wanted to see some old-road infrastructure. So I favored the oldest alignments in hopes of finding some old pavement. I was not disappointed.

We found only one brick segment, just north of Auburn, IL. But oh, was it glorious – and well tended, too, with every brick in place and no asphalt patches. It lasted for about a mile.

Brick Route 66

A section of the old highway on the edge of Lexington, IL, is open only to pedestrians. It’s known as Memory Lane because it is lined with vintage-style billboards and Burma-Shave signs.

Memory Lane

Route 66’s first alignment in much of southern Illinois was routed along what had been State Route 4 at about the same time it was being paved in concrete, which was in 1926. Notice the lack of expansion joints. Early concrete highways were usually a long ribbon of concrete, which then predictably cracked as the seasons warmed and cooled it. By the end of the 1920s, highway departments pretty much everywhere were placing a central expansion joint and usually regularly spaced lateral expansion joints in their concrete roads to retard cracking.

Concrete Route 66

This stretch of concrete is most famous for the marks a turkey left in it while it was still wet.

Turkey Tracks

About four miles west of Doolittle, MO, we found not only some abandoned Route 66, but some abandoned and obliterated Interstate 44. There isn’t much information about this stretch of I-44 on the Internet so I’m not sure why it was rerouted. But it had the unfortunate effect of cutting off this alignment of the Mother Road.

Imagery ©2013 DigitalGlobe, USDA Farm Service Agency, Map data ©2013 Google.
Imagery ©2013 DigitalGlobe, USDA Farm Service Agency. Map data ©2013 Google.

Here’s the abandoned stretch of Route 66. I-44 used to be on the right. We went here to see John’s Modern Cabins, a kind of motel, which I’ll write about in an upcoming post. The green arrow in the map excerpt above marks the location of this photo.

Abandoned 66

The segment of concrete pavement in this photo passes a restored former Phillips 66 service station in Spencer, Missouri. Notice the center expansion joint and the lack of cracking in this concrete.

Concrete pavement.

One of the most significant stretches of old pavement is the “ribbon road” or “sidewalk highway” south of Miami, Oklahoma. This pavement is all of nine feet wide! That’s narrower than a single modern highway lane. The state of Oklahoma completed this road in 1922, and Route 66 was routed along it when it was “born” in 1927. The 1910s and 1920s were a highly experimental time for those who built highways.

Ribbon Road

Route 66 was realigned here in 1937, which is what saved this historic pavement – the old alignment became just a rural road and was not improved. This road is a concrete pad overlaid with a thin layer of asphalt. It is in very poor condition; the asphalt is missing in many places and is often covered in gravel.

My favorite stretch of old pavement begins just west of El Reno, Oklahoma, and runs for nearly 80 miles west to Elk City. It’s a concrete road, laid in about 1930. The first 40 miles or so west of El Reno are gloriously free of I-40, which parallels (and occasionally interrupts) it the rest of the way to Elk City. Driving these first 40 miles was among my most favorite experiences on the trip. This 80-year-old concrete is mostly in wonderful condition – with crumbling asphalt patches in most low spots, so even though the speed limit is 55, slow down where the road is patched.

Oklahoma Concrete Route 66

Once upon a time, this road was choked with traffic. Route 66 was a very busy highway! Today, not so much.

I’ve geotagged all of these photos, so if you’d like to find these locations yourself, click them to see them on Flickr and use Flickr’s map to pinpoint them.

Do you like old pavement? Then click here and here and here and here.

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Comments

10 responses to “Old Route 66 pavement”

  1. Eric Avatar

    The Illinios brick segment is amazing. But any old concrete is fine by me. It’ll be interesting to see how the abandoned interstate holds up to Mother Nature over the next couple of decades. I remember when they were starting the new alignment and nobody could really figure out why. It wasn’t like that segment wasn’t up to standards. It just seemed sort of unnecessary.

    1. Jim Avatar

      It is amazing. It has to have been restored at some point; I’ve never seen old brick pavement in such good shape. This stuff had to have been laid in the teens or early 20s!

      Only a tiny stretch of the abandoned I-44 remains; the rest has been ripped out. Once some years ago I found some photos on the Net of this abandoned stretch before it was removed but I can’t find them now.

  2. ryoko861 Avatar

    So sad to see such an amazing highway just abandoned. It really hurt businesses. Even then the government was more concerned with other things other than people’s livelihoods. Keeping it historic is it’s only saving grace. Glad they do what they can to keep in some sort of drivable conditions. Love that brick section! That must have been awesome in it’s heyday!

    1. Jim Avatar

      It’s a tough call. Really, roads like Route 66 became inadequate for their task by the 1950s. They were choked with traffic and so very slow. The Interstates really did open up the United States to high-speed travel, which aided commerce. But yes, many small operators were irreversibly harmed. Every time you solve one problem, you create another.

    2. Eric Avatar

      If the interstates didn’t exist, Old 66 would have been repaved and widened like it is in eastern Arizona. There’s just nothing left of it.

  3. Ward Fogelsanger Avatar
    Ward Fogelsanger

    That stretch of bypassed I 44 west of Spencer was probably over the four lane pavement laid down when they widened 66 after WW 2. Just west of there is Devil’s elbow which was bypassed by four lane with a narrow median during WW 2 because of the bottleneck getting to Fort Leonard Wood. This was still in use in the early 80’s when I lived in Fayetteville ,Arkansas and drove to my parents home on E Main St, Casey, Illinois …old National Rd. the WW 2 Devil’s elbow was bypassed in the mid 80’s.

    1. Jim Avatar

      I think you’re right about the 4-lane 66 near Spencer. I got to drive the old alignment through Devil’s Elbow on this trip. I can see how it would have been a bottleneck.

  4. kiwiskan Avatar

    This is brilliant – a wonderful drive into the past. Thanks

    1. Jim Avatar

      :-)

  5. […] of the drive, don’t cheat and take the I-40. A large section of Route 66 in Oklahoma is on the original concrete. The light yellow roads with tiny curbs give a sense of original Route 66. It is slowly being […]

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