Route 66 and the Great American Road Trip – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the Route 66 and the Great American Road Trip quiz, each with a short explanation. Cruise from Chicago to Santa Monica and test your road trip knowledge. Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Route 66 ran from Chicago west to which California beach city?
Answer: Santa Monica
Route 66 ran about 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, across eight states. Its original 1926 western terminus was in downtown Los Angeles at 7th and Broadway; it was extended to Santa Monica in the mid-1930s, with the official end at Lincoln and Olympic Boulevards.
2. Which author called Route 66 'the Mother Road' in The Grapes of Wrath?
Answer: John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck gave Route 66 the nickname 'the Mother Road' in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, which follows the Joad family fleeing the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma for California during the Great Depression.
3. Cadillac Ranch, with its half-buried cars, sits outside which Texas city?
Answer: Amarillo
Cadillac Ranch stands in a field west of Amarillo, Texas, along Interstate 40, which replaced Route 66 there. The ten nose-down Cadillacs (model years 1949-1963) were installed in 1974 by the art collective Ant Farm with backing from local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3.
4. Whose trio had the first hit recording of 'Route 66' in 1946?
Answer: Nat King Cole
The King Cole Trio, led by Nat King Cole, first recorded Bobby Troup's '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66' in March 1946 at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles; Capitol released it that April and it reached number three on Billboard's Race Records chart.
5. Who signed the 1956 act creating the Interstates that replaced Route 66?
Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act on June 29, 1956, authorizing 41,000 miles of interstates. The new freeways bypassed Route 66, which was finally decertified as a U.S. highway in 1985.
6. How many U.S. states did Route 66 cross between Chicago and Santa Monica?
Answer: Eight
Route 66 crossed eight states on its way from Chicago to Santa Monica: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Established on November 11, 1926, it originally ran about 2,448 miles, with Kansas contributing only roughly 13 miles.
7. In The Grapes of Wrath, which family flees the Dust Bowl west along Route 66?
Answer: The Joads
John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family, Oklahoma tenant farmers driven off their land by drought and dust, as they travel west on Route 66 to California. Steinbeck's book is the source of the highway's nickname, the Mother Road.
8. The song 'Route 66' says after Flagstaff, Arizona, 'don't forget' which spot?
Answer: Winona
Bobby Troup's 1946 song, first recorded by the King Cole Trio, pairs 'Flagstaff, Arizona' with a reminder about Winona, a tiny settlement just east of Flagstaff chosen largely because it rhymed. It is the only town listed out of west-to-east order.
9. Route 66 ran along Central Avenue through which largest New Mexico city?
Answer: Albuquerque
After the 1937 realignment, Route 66 ran east-west through Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city, along Central Avenue, an 18-mile urban stretch lined with neon motels and diners. Its crossing with the older 4th Street alignment is the only place the highway crossed itself.
10. At the famous Wigwam Motels on Route 66, guests slept in rooms shaped like what?
Answer: Concrete teepees
The Wigwam Motels rented rooms built as concrete-and-steel teepees; Wigwam Village #6 in Holbrook, Arizona, opened in 1950 with 15 units and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Another survivor stands in San Bernardino, California.
11. Which state had the shortest Route 66 stretch, only about 13 miles?
Answer: Kansas
Kansas held the shortest segment of Route 66, about 13.2 miles across Cherokee County in the state's southeastern corner, passing only Galena, Riverton and Baxter Springs. Nebraska, Arkansas and Colorado were never on the highway, which crossed eight states.
12. Dust Bowl migrants heading west in the 1930s were often nicknamed what?
Answer: Okies
Migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl for California in the 1930s were widely called 'Okies', a label often used as an insult regardless of whether they actually came from Oklahoma. The term was popularized by John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.
13. Who wrote the 1946 song '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66'?
Answer: Bobby Troup
Bobby Troup composed '(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66' in 1946 while driving from Chicago to Los Angeles after leaving the Marines; his wife Cynthia suggested the title phrase. The King Cole Trio recorded it in March 1946 and Capitol released it that April.
14. Which Arizona town was the last Route 66 town bypassed by Interstate 40, in 1984?
Answer: Williams
Williams, Arizona was the final Route 66 town bypassed, when the last gap of Interstate 40 opened around it on October 13, 1984; US 66 was decommissioned the following year. The town had fought the bypass in court and won a settlement providing three interchanges.
15. Route 66 crossed the Mississippi River into which Missouri city?
Answer: St. Louis
Route 66 crossed the Mississippi River from Illinois into St. Louis, Missouri, first over the McKinley Bridge and later over the Chain of Rocks Bridge, famous for its 22-degree bend, which opened in 1929 and now carries only walkers and cyclists.