Route 66, the Mother Road, became an American icon of the open road after its creation in 1926 as one of the first numbered U.S. highways, running 2,500 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. It carried Dust Bowl migrants in the 1930s and families seeking adventure in the Southwest and California in the 1950s and '60s, while diners, cafes, service stations, roadside attractions, and Midwestern towns served travelers along the way. In Illinois, the route began in downtown Chicago, passed through suburbs and prairie farmland, and ended at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi River, which carried traffic from 1936 to 1955 and is now open for walking and biking. Though U.S. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985 because it could not compete with freeways, nostalgia has kept it alive, and the Litchfield region preserves many longtime Route 66 destinations, including cafes, motels, a shrine, a drive-in theater, service stations, a cycle shop, a cemetery and labor monument, a roadhouse, and antique and memorabilia sites. In Litchfield, neon signs once drew travelers to service stations, hotels, and restaurants, farmers hauled cattle to the East St. Louis Stockyards, and residents gathered in cafes, creating a sense of community that continues today.
