Needles CA Articles

Construction of the interestate highway system and subsequent bypass of Route 66 decimated the historic business districts of communities along the highway corridor from Chicago to San Bernardino, California. Author Joe Sonderman in Route 66 In Arizona, noted that in...

But Route 66 is no mere highway. Even though it is no longer an official US highway, it is, perhaps, the most famous highway in the world. It is a destination. There are Route 66 associations that organize festivals and tours, that host receptions for Route 66 authors and personalities, and that publish guide books, in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and other countries. Companies that offer Route 66 tours, with side trips to attractions such as the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, the Grand Canyon, or Sedona, are based in Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Author, humorist, lecturer and tourism development consultant Jim HInckley, developer of the Kingman, Arizona based Jim Hinckley’s America travel network, opens presentations about the importance of tourism with a simple statement. “Transform a community into a destination for tourists and you make it a destination for people looking for a place to raise a family, to open a business, or to retire.” 
Bill Thomas, the executive director of the Lincoln and Logan County Economic Development Partnership in Illinois, Chairman of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, and commissioner on the Route 66 Centennial Commission is more succinct in describing the importance of tourism. “Not all economic development is tourism but all tourism is economic development.”

Points of interest on the tour include Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner that opened in January 1940, the territorial era jail built in 1910 by the Pauly Jail Building Company of Missouri, the WWI monument, one of three dedicated to a Native American, and Sportsman’s Club, a saloon built in 1906 by Henry Lovin, a Mohave County sheriff. The tour also highlights public arts projects, the artists behind them, and sites associated with celebrities and major motion pictures.