Route 66 - Birthplace of the Byway

BIRTHPLACE OF THE HISTORIC BYWAY, 301 Historic Route 66: Though Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985, the nostalgia for the Mother Road lives on through pop culture as well as the communities once served by the transcontinental highway. Missouri became the first state to assign historic status to Route 66 when a legislative bill sponsored by Missouri State Representatives Jim Mitchell of Richland and J. Dan Woodall of Springfield won unanimous support in the General Assembly. On July 10, 1990, then-Gov. John Ashcroft signed House Bill 1629 into law in front of the Pulaski County Courthouse, designating Missouri’s 317-mile stretch of Route 66 as a historic roadway and cementing Waynesville’s status as the Birthplace of the Byway.