For 90 years it lay forgotten, swallowed by a floodplain forest on the banks of the Sangamon River. While a few locals knew about the existence of an abandoned road inside Carpenter Park, near Springfield, Illinois, few realised it was once part of the original Route 66, the historic highway that opened in 1926, spanning 3940km between Chicago and Los Angeles. The section survived just a decade. In 1936 Route 66 was realigned, and the narrow strip was slowly consumed by trees, and devoured by dirt and decomposing vegetation. Mother Nature had reclaimed the Mother Road.
In March, work began uncovering the old path, and in July it opened to the public as a quarter-mile walking trail, part of a slew of celebrations leading in to next year’s 100-year anniversary of Route 66. Squirrels scurry across the cracked concrete and scamper up trees as I stroll the roadway, now lined with reinstalled retro “Burma Shave” billboards – the once-ubiquitous roadside rhymes that helped fuel the romance of the highway. It’s strange to picture Oldsmobiles and Model Ts once puttering through this park, loaded with families bound for California, the first Americans to feel the freedom of car travel.
Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985, superseded by the interstate system. Much of it has since splintered into disconnected stretches, but the Illinois section remains remarkably intact – more so than any other state – with all but 20km of the former highway driveable today.
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