Table of Contents
Purpose of and Need for the Study
Significance and History of Route 66
Alternatives
Affected Environment
Environmental Impact
Appendixes / Bibliography / Preparers
Summary
Public Law 102-400, the Route 66 Study Act of 1990, directed the National Park Service
to conduct a special resource study that would consider management and preservation
options for Route 66. Congress knew that although the road was decommissioned in 1985, it
still occupies a special place in the American consciousness. Route 66, through the
popular culture of songs, films, books, and television, became the symbol of mobile, free,
fast-moving America. From Model Ts to Corvettes, from Thunderbirds to family station
wagons all seemed at home along the road. Even people who never traveled the road
vicariously shared in the magic of Route 66 when they watched the television program or
heard the lyrics of the theme song.
Route 66 also served much less glamorous but more important purposes. It played a part
in the movement of emigrants from the Dust Bowl as well as a route for moving military
convoys during World War II. It is remembered as the path to hope and as the road that
gave America the means to move troops and materials quickly and efficiently. It helped to
link the remote Southwest with the ideas, people, and industry of the East and Midwest.
The road is 2,400 miles long, but all the various alignments taken together total about
5,000 miles of roadway. This study offers a variety of alternatives for the treatment of
Route 66. These alternatives include preservation, which would preserve key resources
under a strong centralized management. The national historic trail concept would
give the route national trail status, which would preserve significant resources and
provide a partnership management scenario. The no further federal action alternative
would allow for current conditions and programs to continue and would allow for actions
not involving the federal government. Management would be unchanged and would include a
mix of federal, state, local, and private entities. The commemorative redesignation
alternative would sign the road consistently from Chicago to Los Angeles along all the
various alignments. Federal involvement would be confined to the original manufacture and
placement of signs: management otherwise would continue as it is today. The heritage
highway alternative would provide for national recognition of the route and its
history and would provide a resource preservation and technical assistance program, not
federal management. There would be a 10-year limit on federal involvement. Each of the
conceptual alternatives is explored in more depth in this document and the expected
consequences of each are enumerated.
Reprinted from:
Special Resource Study Route 66
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service (See Credits)
NPS D-4 July 1995.
