News Archive
ROUTE 66 TODAY
Added September 2, 2008 by P Orth
ROUTE 66 TODAY
By TeriLee “TL” Huff
Historic U.S. Route 66 has long held a lure of adventure and mystery for me. I had wanted to travel, explore and visually document that famous, old US migratory route known as “The mother road” for years. The up-coming LMGA “Route 66” project intensified my interest in scouting the highway. Upon finding the time I finally satisfied my desire to explore Route 66 starting from outside Tulsa, Oklahoma following the highway through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
The people along this legendary highway are as much a treasure as the historic buildings themselves. These people have struggled to keep their businesses alive after being bypassed by the once high traffic volume due to the government removing Route 66 from the primary U.S. highway system in 1985 after the creation of the interstate highways. This path of “progress” can be seen in areas that have not survived and are reflected by vacant lots, bare foundations and buildings that are hanging on to life by the fact that they were built to last. The heat of summers then the extreme cold in winter does not make survival an easy task for the people or the buildings.
Each state has formed its own Route 66 historical group to work together in order to save what they still can of the road’s history so it is not totally lost. My hope after all I have seen is that one day the American people will see that if we do not make efforts to preserve our history we will have very little living record of where we came from The nature of our work affords us location scouts a unique opportunity to contribute to the photo documentation of our country’s history and culture.
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