The Birthplace of Route 66 Park in Springfield, Mo.-- Part 2: It was a Woodruff-Avery Thing

The park celebrates the iconic Route 66, which was born just a few blocks away at the Colonial Hotel in Springfield, Missouri, when local businessman John T. Woodruff along with Cyurus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma proposed in 1926 the idea of a highway connecting Chicago and Los Angeles.

They had hoped for the name to be U.S. 60 (the major east-west U.S. highways were numbered with most important ones ending with a 0).  But, when they couldn't get it, settled on 66 as even having a better ring to it.  (Good choice.)

At a 1927 meeting in Tulsa, Woodruff was elected  the first president of the Route 66 Association.

And, the rest, as they say, was history.

That's How We Got Good Ol' Route 66.  --Road66