Route 66 was established 100 years ago last week.
While the historic 2,448 mile highway stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, its origins lay in Springfield, Missouri. In 1926, Cyrus Avery — or the “father of Route 66” —- sent a telegram from the Colonial Hotel in Springfield to Washington, D.C., asking to designate the Chicago-Santa Monica road as Route 66.
Katie Seale of the Missouri State Historical Society said the route helped keep the city’s economy booming…