Colorado River
5/14/2025
Needles, California
I have purchased the requisite cheesy tourist hat above.
Needles, California is on the Colorado River, and was served by Steamboats. The photo below is from the Museum, showing the railroad bridge under construction.
The El Garces was a Harvey House. These combination train station hotels and restaurants enabled train travelers to travel in comfort.
El Garces Harvey House Hotel & Depot in Needles, California
El Garces, Needles, California by Kathy Alexander.
Early in the 1900s, when trains were the principal means of personal transportation, depots gave travelers the first impression of their local destinations and provided security and comfort for the railroad’s clientele. Design and materials were important to both surrounding communities and railroad companies.
After the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Depot at Needles, California, burned in 1906, the railroad spared no expense on its new facility. Built to suggest a Greek temple and opened in 1908 to great admiration, El Garces was a freight and passenger depot with hotel and restaurant amenities. The depot was named “El Garces” in honor of Father Francisco Garces, a missionary who visited the area in 1776 and was the first known European to cross the Mojave Desert.
Designed by architect Francis S. Wilson, the luxurious depot featured large Mexican Fan Palms native to the site, surrounded by a two-story building with a distinctive symmetrical façade. Tuscan columns were placed in pairs that supported open-air walkways. The interior ceilings were decorative, and intricate egg-and-dart detailing edged the woodwork. Wilson’s use of the Classical Revival style, particularly popular on the East Coast and for civic and residential buildings, was unusual for a Western depot and lent an aura of sophistication to the small town.
One reason for the success of El Garces was its beauty. Another was its management by the Fred Harvey Company. Known as “the civilizer of the West,” Fred Harvey managed an extensive line of cafes and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Motorists also availed themselves of Harvey establishments, including El Garces, after constructing and marking the National Old Trails Highway during the 1910s. This highway often ran parallel to the railroad, providing a continuous automobile route between St. Louis, Missouri, and Los Angeles, California. Later, Route 66 would follow much of this same path.
Whether traveling on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad or along the National Old Trails Highway or, later, Route 66, patrons appreciated the quality of service that Harvey establishments provided. A Harvey-run restaurant or hotel often had the nicest dining facilities and friendliest service in town.
The National Old Trails Road
The idea of a transcontinental highway had been around since the 1890's. General Roy Stone, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Road Inquiry (first ancestor of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)), suggested combining existing roads into a network and recommended that ". . . the most effective lines that could be adopted for this purpose would be an Atlantic and a Pacific Coast line, joined by a continental highway from Washington to San Francisco."
The transcontinental route should link highways along the East and West Coasts. The League of American Wheelmen Bulletin and Good Roads magazine (November 19, 1987), quoted General Stone as referring to the idea as "The Great Road of America." He knew his idea was too bold to be adopted at the time, but he explained: The whole scheme would carry with it something that would inspire the entire Nation.
It not any new scheme; it is not any new idea. It was the idea of Jefferson and Madison and Gallatin and many other great men who helped to start the national Road which led through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, and reached as far as the Mississippi River.
Click to read the full article: https://highways.dot.gov/media/31921
Route 66 History - From Wikapedia
Before a nationwide network of numbered highways was adopted by the states, auto trails were marked by private organizations. The route that became US 66 was covered by three highways:
- The Lone Star Route passed through St. Louis on its way from Chicago to Cameron, Louisiana (although US 66 would take a shorter route through Bloomington rather than Peoria).
- The transcontinental National Old Trails Road led via St. Louis to Los Angeles, but was not followed until New Mexico. Instead, US 66 used one of the main routes of the Ozark Trails system,[10] which ended at the National Old Trails Road just south of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Again, a shorter route was taken, here following the Postal Highway between Oklahoma City and Amarillo.
- The National Old Trails Road became the rest of the route to Los Angeles.[11]
Legislation for public highways first appeared in 1916, with revisions in 1921, but the government did not execute a national highway construction plan until Congress enacted an even more comprehensive version of the act in 1925. The original inspiration for a road between Chicago and Los Angeles was planned by entrepreneurs Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri, who lobbied the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) for the creation of a route following the 1925 plans.[12]
From the outset, public road planners intended US 66 to connect the main streets of rural and urban communities along its course for the most practical of reasons: Most small towns had no prior access to a major national thoroughfare.
Birthplace and rise of US 66
[edit]
The numerical designation 66 was assigned to the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route on April 30, 1926,[12] in Springfield, Missouri. A placard in Park Central Square was dedicated to the city by the Route 66 Association of Missouri,[13] and traces of the "Mother Road" are still visible in downtown Springfield, along Kearney Street, Glenstone Avenue, College, and St. Louis streets and on Route 266 to Halltown, Missouri.[14]
Championed by Avery when the first talks about a national highway system began, US 66 was first signed into law in 1927 as one of the original U.S. Highways, although it was not completely paved until 1938. Avery was adamant that the highway have a round number and had proposed number 60 to identify it. A controversy erupted over the number 60, largely from delegates from Kentucky who wanted a Virginia Beach–Los Angeles highway to be US 60 and US 62 between Chicago and Springfield, Missouri.[15][self-published source?] Arguments and counterarguments continued throughout February, including a proposal to split the proposed route through Kentucky into Route 60 North (to Chicago) and Route 60 South (to Newport News).[16] The final conclusion was to have US 60 run between Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Springfield, Missouri, and the Chicago–L.A. route be US 62.[17] Avery and highway engineer John Page settled on "66", which was unassigned, despite the fact that in its entirety, US 66 was north of US 60.[18]
The state of Missouri released its 1926 state highway map with the highway labeled as US 60.[19]
After the new federal highway system was officially created, Cyrus Avery called for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to promote the complete paving of the highway from end to end and to promote travel down the highway. In 1927, in Tulsa, the association was officially established with John T. Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri, elected the first president. In 1928, the association made its first attempt at publicity, the "Bunion Derby", a footrace from Los Angeles to New York City, of which the path from Los Angeles to Chicago would be on US 66.[20]
The publicity worked: several dignitaries, including Will Rogers, greeted the runners at certain points on the route. The race ended in Madison Square Garden, where the $25,000 first prize (equal to $457,800 in 2024) was awarded to Andy Hartley Payne, a Cherokee runner from Oklahoma. The U.S. Highway 66 Association also placed its first advertisement in the July 16, 1932, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. The ad invited Americans to take US 66 to the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. A U.S. Highway 66 Association office in Oklahoma received hundreds of requests for information after the ad was published.[21] The association went on to serve as a voice for businesses along the highway until it disbanded in 1976.
Traffic grew on the highway because of the geography through which it passed. Much of the highway was essentially flat and this made the highway a popular truck route. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s saw many farming families, mainly from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas, heading west for agricultural jobs in California. US 66 became the main road of travel for these people, often derogatorily called "Okies" or "Arkies". During the Depression, it gave some relief to communities located on the highway. The route passed through numerous small towns and, with the growing traffic on the highway, helped create the rise of mom-and-pop businesses, such as service stations, restaurants, and motor courts, all readily accessible to passing motorists.[22]
Much of the early highway, like all the other early highways, was gravel or graded dirt. Due to the efforts of the U.S. Highway 66 Association, in 1938 US 66 became the first highway to be completely paved. Several places were dangerous: more than one part of the highway was nicknamed "Bloody 66" and gradually work was done to realign these segments to remove dangerous curves. One section through the Black Mountains outside Oatman, Arizona, was fraught with hairpin turns and was the steepest along the entire route, so much so that some early travellers, too frightened at the prospect of driving such a potentially dangerous road, hired locals to navigate the winding grade. The section remained as US 66 until 1953 and is still open to traffic today as the Oatman Highway. Despite such hazards in some areas, US 66 continued to be a popular route.[22]
Notable buildings include the art deco–styled U-Drop Inn, constructed in 1936 in Shamrock, in Wheeler County east of Amarillo, Texas, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[23][24] A restored Magnolia fuel station is also located in Shamrock as well as Vega, in Oldham County, west of Amarillo.[25]
During World War II, more migration west occurred because of war-related industries in California. US 66, already popular and fully paved, became one of the main routes and also served for moving military equipment. Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri was located near the highway, which was locally upgraded quickly to a divided highway to help with military traffic. When Richard Feynman was working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, he used to travel nearly 100 miles (160 km) to visit his wife, who was dying of tuberculosis, in a sanatorium located on US 66 in Albuquerque.[26]
In the 1950s, US 66 became the main highway for vacationers heading to Los Angeles. The road passed through the Painted Desert and near the Grand Canyon. Meteor Crater in Arizona was another popular stop. This sharp increase in tourism in turn gave rise to a burgeoning trade in all manner of roadside attractions, including teepee-shaped motels, frozen custard stands, Indian curio shops, and reptile farms. Meramec Caverns near St. Louis, began advertising on barns, billing itself as the "Jesse James hideout". The Big Texan advertised a free 72-ounce (2.0 kg) steak dinner to anyone who could consume the entire meal in one hour. It also marked the birth of the fast-food industry: Red's Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri, site of the first drive-through restaurant, and the first McDonald's in San Bernardino, California. Changes like these to the landscape further cemented 66's reputation as a near-perfect microcosm of the culture of America, now linked by the automobile.[22][27]
Info from Wikapedia. For more info click
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66#cite_note-R66-27
National Old Trails Road
National Old Trails Road, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, and became part of the National Auto Trail system in the United States. It was 3,096 miles (4,983 km) long and stretched from Baltimore, Maryland (some old maps indicate New York City was the actual eastern terminus) to California. Much of the route follows the old National Road and the Santa Fe Trail. Following its decommission, the western portion was later integrated into U.S. Route 66.
National Old Trails Road Association
[edit]The National Old Trails Road Association was formed in Kansas City in April 1912 to promote improvement of a transcontinental trail from Baltimore to Los Angeles, with branches to New York City and San Francisco. The name of the road signified that it followed several of the Nation's historic trails, including the National Road and the Santa Fe Trail (much of the road, from Colorado east, became U.S. 40 in 1926).
Former Jackson County, Missouri Judge J. M. Lowe served as the Association’s president from its inception until his death in 1926. Judge Lowe had been a tireless proponent for good roads—despite the fact that, as he once told the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, "I do not even own an automobile, and would not know what the dickens to do with it if I had one." Under Judge Lowe, the association had become well respected among the groups aligned in the Good Roads Movement that had agitated since the 1890s for government involvement in improvement of the Nation's roads.
Harry S. Truman as president of the Association
[edit]In 1926, future President Harry S. Truman was named president of the National Old Trails Road Association. As the new president of the association, Truman periodically drove the National Old Trails Road from coast to coast and met with members of the association in each State to discuss improvement of their segments. He enjoyed the travels, but he missed his wife Bess and their young daughter Margaret, as reflected in the many letters he wrote to his wife while on the road. At one point, he told Bess, "This is almost like campaigning for President, except that the people are making promises to me instead of the other way around." Truman's name would remain on the letterhead of the National Old Trails Road Association well into the late 1940s, listed as "president".
Madonna of the Trail monuments
[edit]One of Truman's accomplishments as president of the National Old Trails Road Association was his work with the Daughters of the American Revolution to place Madonna of the Trail statues in the 12 states along the National Old Trails Road. Designed by Arlene Nichols Moss of the DAR, the statues are dedicated to the pioneer mothers of covered-wagon days. Each statue is 18 feet high, consisting of a 10-foot-high pioneer mother mounted on a base. The DAR describes the statue: "The `Madonna of the Trail' is a pioneer clad in homespun, clasping her babe to her breast, with her young son clinging to her skirts. The face of the mother, strong in character, beauty and gentleness, is the face of a mother who realizes her responsibilities and trusts in God."
National Old Trails Road development in the western United States
[edit]Although the western half of the road was signed by the Automobile Club of Southern California in mid-1914, according to their in-house magazine Touring Topics, the routing remained under much discussion until 1917. In particular, the western alignment was debated, with an early proposed routing going through Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego, California, up to San Francisco, California.
Eventually, however, the alignment below was agreed upon, which followed earlier Indian trails, preexisting railroad tracks and, in some cases, new construction.
Throughout its life, the road was upgraded and realigned in order to improve the route. However, by 1926, significant portions in the west remained difficult to drive on, and much remained unpaved. Only 800 miles (1,300 km) were paved in 1927. Most of the road that traversed the California desert was widened and paved (or "oiled") by the late '20s, reportedly by a process pioneered by a local road superintendent, and some of this blacktop still can be found to this day.
In 1926, the section west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, was certified as U.S. Highway 66, (now better known as U.S. Route 66) by the AASHTO, as was a section in the St. Louis, Missouri area (Manchester Road).
After U.S. Route 66 was decommissioned, in eastern California portions of the road were renamed with the old name, and signed accordingly. Most of the modern-day "National Trails Highway" follows latter-day U.S. Route 66, however, and not the alignments that actually were part of the original road (the main exception being the section of road between Barstow and Victorville, which follows almost exactly the routing of the 1925 realignment of the road). The last alignment of National Old Trails Road in California (and the first alignment of U.S. Route 66) followed a distinct course from the modern-day route between Daggett and Essex, California, and now survives only as a series of disconnected jeep trails and abandoned tracks in various stages of decay. The modern-day Route 66 in California is a result of a series of realignments that were undertaken in the early 1930s.
