Route 66 is deeply tied to American history. It brought Dust Bowl refugees to California, moved troops across the country during World War 2 and ushered in the family road trip. But eventually freeways dominated the landscape and that made things tough for Mother Road businesses. So the National Park Service stepped in with a grant program to help Route 66 communities survive. That program is set to expire soon and business owners are worried. KNAU’s Justin Regan has more.
Joe and Aggie’s Café in Holbrook, Arizona has been feeding hungry Mother Road travelers since the 1940’s. Co-owner Kimberly Gallegos remembers how the traffic used to bustle through town when she was a kid.
“We were packed all the time. You’d go out here on the street and it was like trying to cross a freeway. There was standing room they would stand outside for 20-30 minutes to get a table. You’d come in here and scrub tables from all the soot from the diesels coming around the corner there and hitting their brakes,” says Gallegos.
But when the interstate came through, the road was practically abandoned overnight. In 1999, the National Park Service offered help in the form of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. It provides matching grants to businesses with historic ties to the route, like Joe and Aggie’s.
“It helped us replace our roof we were having some problems with. So we were able to take that cost and put other improvements into the restaurant that helped us at that point because we were still in a struggling stage,” says Gallegos.
Route 66 is a living economy. A study by NPS and Rutgers University found businesses along the road take in about $40 million in tourism revenue each year.
“These grants are vital to our community where we don’t have the funding in house to do it. But we’ve got so many projects that need to be done to revitalize downtown Holbrook,” says Kathleen Smith, a representative of the City.
She says Holbrook is still recovering from the population and businesses lost when the freeway bypassed them. Her chief concern is that the program is set to expire in 2019 and it could end crucial funding opportunities.
“But without saving these historical buildings there’s no need to show off any historical culture that we have. Because people won’t stop,” says Smith.
Sean Evans is an archivist at Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library. He preserves historical material relating to the road.
“The corridor preservation office being funded out of the National Park Service I think came to the table with that authority and that credibility to say ‘hey, this is a real thing. We should be looking into preserving it’,” says Evans.
There’s bi-partisan legislation in Congress to make Route 66 a National Historic Trail. NPS officials say that designation could increase resources and funding for Mother Road businesses. Evans agrees.
“And in an interesting way that would then put Route 66 on par with things like the Santa Fe Trail, the Mormon Trail. Things we accept in American history as being truly historic and significant to travel and geography of the United States,” says Evans.
Karina Lewis-Pack and her family are part of that history. Her Grandfather built Holbrook’s Wigwam Motel, a place where travelers sleep in rooms shaped like tepees. She says the program has helped her keep the motel’s classic look, something important to customers.
“People realize that in order to really know or familiarize yourself with a people or a place or a culture is to go and palpate it and touch it and drive through it and see and experience it. You can’t just google it,” says Lewis-Pack
While business is nowhere near pre-interstate levels, Lewis-Pack says tourism is growing in Holbrook. So no matter the fate of the NPS program, she believes interest in the Mother Road will live on.
