EDITORIAL: Route 66 needs historic trail designation, then national park status

Jun. 2—Although all previous efforts to designate Route 66 as a National Historic Trail have stalled, we're hopeful this could be the year.

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., recently reintroduced the measure in the U.S. House. This, then, is a bipartisan road trip.

Their measure would designate Route 66 — John Steinbeck's Mother Road, America's Main Street — as part of the National Trails System, overseen by the National Park Service. We've said in the past that such a designation is a no-brainer, given the highway's 2,400 miles of cultural, historic and economic impact. There is simply no good reason to oppose it, and area communities on Route 66, including Carthage; Webb City; Joplin; Galena and Baxter Springs, Kansas; and Miami, Oklahoma, would see benefits, as would other communities from Chicago to Santa Monica, California.

Designation would make federal funding available, and the sooner the better because passage this year means more preservation could be accomplished before the highway's centennial, now just five years away, where there is sure to be a surge of visitors and spending. (According to a 2011 economic impact study by Rutgers University for the National Park Service, tourists who are mostly middle- and upper-income travelers spend an average of $1,500 to $2,000 per travel party.)

But we'll circle back to the same question we have wondered about before: Is National Trails designation enough? We don't think so.

Congress needs to authorize a Route 66 National Park, a linear park to fit historian and author Michael Wallis' characterization of Route 66 as a "linear village."

Each state would tell a different aspect of the story.

In Oklahoma, for example, the focus could be on Route 66 "as the path of a people in flight ... the route of 'refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, from the desert's slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there ... 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.'"

What could the story be in Missouri? In Kansas?

Missouri, perhaps, would tell the story of Route 66 after World War II, the open road, the highway of optimism and adventure, the highway of Bobby Troup: "If you ever plan to motor west, travel my way, take the highway that is best. Get your kicks on Route 66."

"Now you go through Saint Looey, Joplin, Missouri ..."

Route 66 is a big story, a national story, and we think National Park designation might just be the best way to preserve its story for future generations.

We support National Trails designation, but hope it is just the first step on a road that leads to park status.