History lesson: Through 'metaverse experience,' visitors will get up close with Route 66

A $1.17 million State of Illinois grant to the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau will go towards a "metaverse experience" using augmented reality and virtual reality and giving visitors the sense of what it was like for Black travelers on Route 66 from the mid 1930s to the mid 1960s.

The "hyper realistic, immersive and interactive world" is being developed for Route History, the Springfield-based museum and visitors center at 737 E. Cook St., which in part highlights stories around the Black experience on the historic "Mother Road." Route History is a sub-recipient of the grant announced by Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity last week.

Gina Lathan, one of the owners of Route History located in a former Texaco gas station near the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth street alignments of historic Route 66, said the hope is to roll out the metaverse experience by early fall.

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One of the components is being able to offer the metaverse experience at schools, community events and faith-based functions all over the state, Lathan said.

The setup allows visitors to engage and learn about the Black experience in historic Black communities along the entire Illinois portion of Route 66, from the west side of Chicago to East St. Louis, including Springfield. The centennial of Route 66, the nation's first transcontinental highway, stretched from Chicago to southern California, will be marked in 2026.

The experience, Lathan said, is in part tied to "The Negro Motorist Green-Book," a guide published annually by Victor H. Green, a New York postal carrier from 1936 to 1966 that pointed out places accommodating for Black travelers. Route History has a partnership with Landmarks Illinois to document and survey sites throughout Illinois that were featured in "The Green Book," on which the 2018 Oscar-nominated movie was based.

The experience will allow travelers to confront restaurants which may have allowed Blacks to enter only through certain locations or not at all. It will feature "sundown towns," places where it wasn't safe for Black people to be after dark. Such communities made it known, often by posting signs, that Black people had to leave by sundown or face possible harm and discrimination.

Also highlighted along the route, Lathan said, are entertainment centers and "life-saving businesses," those that responded to "the horror and violence that Black people experienced when they went to the wrong place at the wrong time for essential services and goods."

Lathan said Route History has had conversations and meetings with metaverse experts and developers around the country in shaping and developing the plan.

"We're really making sure we're allowing this metaverse to be a mirror into history which will allow the visitor to have an up-close look at how people lived and had their experiences through travel particularly along Route 66 during those times," Lathan said.

To make the experience as real as possible, Route History is working with local historic partners in each location, community-based organizations that may have done work in historic preservation, for instance, Lathan said, or museums or Black newspapers.

“Sharing our history with tourists is common for the Springfield community," said State Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, "but I am so proud that we will have a special emphasis on Black history when we talk about Route 66. The City of Springfield and partnering communities along Route 66 will be using the latest technology to not just tell these stories but educate a new generation and lift up voices that were previously ignored.”

Scott Dahl, director of the SCVB, said the grant application hit a home run.

"It's exactly what the State was looking for," he said. "They wanted something as we move toward the 100th anniversary (of Route 66) on the technical side. They like the virtual reality. They liked the fact that it's going to tell the story of the African American traveler on Route 66.

"The metaverse is going to really 'wow' visitors. It's that virtual experience that brings back locations that no longer exist."

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Dahl said there will be a Green Book component to the Route 66 Experience at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. The multi-year project, launched by Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway at the State Fair last year, will give visitors a chance to physically walk the route and learn about its communities and attractions via QR codes and story boards.

The Route 66 Experience is at Gate 2 and will be open year-round.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: 'Metaverse experience' to show historic Black experience on Route 66