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This year, the nation is celebrating the Route 66 Centennial...aka the 100th anniversary of the Mother Road!  

This award-winning documentary was hosted originally by Martin Milner, star of the Route 66 TV series.

Milner is no longer with us, but on the centenary of America’s most famous road, his spirit guides us through its history and sights as well as the influence of the road that passes through Gallup, NM on America's literary and artistic culture.

This 3-part radio series is produced by one of the country's leading experts on Route 66, David K. Dunaway. 

Part 1: "Route 66 Forever"

This part traces the roots of the route, from Indian trails and cattle runs through the birth of the railways which laid out Route  66’s stops and grade. We travel across the tracks to explore how rich  and poor travel side by side, and explore the road’s prehistory and  construction. We reminisce with motel owners from Route 66’s earlier  days on 1930’s travelers and how the freeway, and the closing of Route  66 in 1985, affected small towns. 
 

Writers and filmmakers have long characterized American culture  from our most-famous road—and of course musicians.  We’ll hear from Ry  Cooder, Bobby Troup, and Dave Sanger of Asleep at the Wheel, and hear  excerpts from everyone from the New Lost City Ramblers to Chuck Berry. 

We’ll visit the Route 66 birthplace of one of America’s greatest  African American Poets, Langston Hughes, hear his poetry and learn how a  race riot drove his family from town.  We’ll meet a Laguna Indian woman  born in a boxcar village on Route 66.  We’ll eavesdrop on Orson  Welles’s classic drama, “The Hitchhiker” and hear Wolfman Jack explain  how he saved his Border Blaster radio station XER from attack.