Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga — and Everything from A to Z on Route 66
There is a moment in the long history of Route 66 through Azusa, California that captures the city’s peculiar relationship to American popular culture: December 15, 1965, when comedian Jack Benny was welcomed to the Azusa Civic Center for a parade and ceremony honoring him as an honorary citizen of three cities — Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga — whose names his radio announcer, played by Mel Blanc, had used as a running gag for twenty-five years. Benny himself explained the joke’s origin: he and his writers “were looking for the names of three suburban cities that would rhyme for a railroad scene,” and the three California town names delivered the absurdist comic rhythm they needed. The gag made Azusa nationally famous. The headline in the Los Angeles Times when Benny died in 1974 read: “Last Call for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga.”
But Azusa’s relationship to Route 66 is far more than a comedy punchline. The “Canyon City” — named for its position at the entrance to the San Gabriel Canyon — is a city of approximately 50,000 people that Route 66 has run through since 1926, carrying travelers beneath the dramatic backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains. It has a National Register of Historic Places Civic Center (1928) that is the city’s only National Historic Landmark. It was home to the last remaining drive-in theater on Route 66 west of Oklahoma — the Foothill Drive-In, which operated from 1961 until 2001 and whose extraordinary neon sign survives today. It has two historic Route 66 motel survivors on Foothill Boulevard. And it is the gateway to the Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument — providing Route 66 travelers with some of the most spectacular mountain scenery accessible from any point on California’s corridor.
Azusa also has a distinction unusual in the Route 66 story: the highway follows two different alignments through the city — the original 1926–1933 alignment along Foothill Boulevard and the later 1933–1964 realignment along Alosta Avenue (including the section along Azusa Pacific University’s campus). Understanding both alignments is essential to understanding Route 66 in Azusa, and the Route 66 Centennial 2026 provides the perfect occasion to explore them both.
Where Does Route 66 Run Through Azusa?
Route 66’s passage through Azusa follows two alignments that reflect the highway’s evolution in the San Gabriel Valley:
The 1926–1933 Alignment (Foothill Boulevard/Alosta Avenue meeting): The original Route 66 entered Azusa from Glendora to the east along Foothill Boulevard, passing through the city center. At the western edge of Azusa, both alignments meet where Alosta Avenue (from Glendora’s Route 66 street) and Foothill Boulevard converge before crossing the San Gabriel River into Irwindale. The highway is “only 10 blocks long” through the central city, as the route66.com documentation notes.
The 1933–1964 Realignment (Alosta Avenue / Foothill through APU): The main Route 66 alignment passes through Azusa on Foothill Boulevard to the west of Citrus Avenue (the Glendora–Azusa border), then transitions to the Alosta Avenue routing as it passes in front of Azusa Pacific University. The surviving neon sign of the Foothill Drive-In Theater is at the intersection where these alignments meet, at Alosta Avenue and Foothill Boulevard.
From Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway): Exit at Azusa Avenue (SR 39) or Alosta Avenue and head north to Foothill Boulevard. From State Route 39 (Azusa Avenue): Follow SR 39 south from the Angeles National Forest to Foothill Boulevard in the heart of Azusa. Azusa is also directly accessible by the Metro A Line (Gold Line) with stops at Azusa Downtown Station (adjacent to the historic Civic Center and Foothill Boulevard) and APU/Citrus College Station at the eastern border — making Azusa one of the most transit-accessible Route 66 communities in the San Gabriel Valley.
Azusa’s History: From Skunk Place to Canyon City
Asuksa-nga: The Tongva Name and Father Crespí’s Journal, 1769
The name “Azusa” has roots reaching back thousands of years before Route 66 — before Henry Dalton’s rancho, before the Santa Fe Railroad, before the citrus groves. The Tongva people — the indigenous people of the San Gabriel Valley, known to the Spanish missionaries as the Gabrielino or Gabrieleño — established settlements throughout the valley, and one near the San Gabriel River carried the name Asuksa-nga: in Tongva, “asuksa” means “skunk” and “-nga” denotes place — “the skunk place.” The first recorded reference to this name was made by Father Juan Crespí, diarist and engineer with the Portolá Expedition of 1769, then traveling northward from San Diego in search of Monterey Bay. Crespí recorded the Tongva place name near the San Gabriel River, and the evolution from “Asuksa-nga” through “El Susa” to “Azusa” tracks the phonetic transformation of a Tongva word through Spanish and English usage over the following century.
The California Historic Route 66 Association’s account of the name is both simpler and more fun: the familiar backronym “Azusa stands for everything from A to Z in the U.S.A.” has been promoted by the Chamber of Commerce for decades, connecting the city’s identity directly to Route 66’s own identity as America’s Main Street — the highway from one coast to the other that encompassed, in the popular imagination, “everything.” Both explanations have merit; only one is historically accurate, but both are genuinely Azusan.
Rancho Azusa de Dalton: Henry Dalton and the First European Settlement
The land that became Azusa entered the documented historical record in 1841, when the Alta California Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted a 4,431-acre tract to Luis Arenas — known as “Rancho El Susa.” Arenas grew crops and raised livestock for just a few years before selling the rancho in 1844 to Henry Dalton (1803–1884) — a wealthy English merchant from the Pueblo of Los Angeles — for $7,000. Dalton renamed it Rancho Azusa de Dalton and developed it into one of the most productive private estates in the region.
Henry Dalton’s Azusa Rancho was remarkable in scope. He planted a vineyard extending northward from Dalton Hill (near present-day 6th Street and Cerritos Avenue) to the Sierra Madre Mountains. He built a winery, a distillery, a vinegar house, a meat smokehouse, and a flour mill — importing the millstones from France in 1854 and erecting his mill on a ranch ditch delivering water to the south portion of his property. During the great floods of 1861 and 1862, when flour mills along the various canyons from San Bernardino were washed out, people brought their grain to the Azusa Rancho de Dalton for grinding. Dalton is also recorded as the person who first imported honeybees to the United States — an agricultural innovation with enormous consequences for California’s citrus industry that would shape the entire San Gabriel Valley Route 66 corridor.
The Dalton family connection has a remarkable cultural footnote: Henry Dalton was the great-great-grandfather of Linda Ronstadt — one of the most celebrated American popular musicians of the 20th century, whose Mexican-American heritage on her father’s side intersected with Dalton’s establishment of the Azusa rancho on her mother’s side.
Gold in the San Gabriel Canyon: El Doradoville, 1854
In 1854, gold was discovered in the San Gabriel Canyon — the dramatic gorge that cuts northward from Azusa into the San Gabriel Mountains and gives the city its nickname “The Canyon City.” The discovery sparked a rush, and approximately 2,000 miners filed claims along the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. A boom town named El Doradoville was built at the fork of the San Gabriel to serve the miners. The town was short-lived — the floods of 1861–62 razed it — but the gold rush established the San Gabriel Canyon as a landscape of dramatic human and natural history that has characterized Azusa’s northern border ever since.
The Santa Fe Railroad and the Town’s Founding: 1887
The modern city of Azusa was founded in 1887 as the Santa Fe Railroad’s Atlantic & Pacific subsidiary built through the San Gabriel Valley. Jonathan S. Slauson — described by the official Azusa history as an early promoter — organized the Azusa Land and Water Company and developed the townsite of Azusa in 1887, coinciding with the railroad construction that connected the San Gabriel Valley to the national rail network. Azusa was incorporated as a general law city on December 29, 1898, making it the fifth-oldest city in the San Gabriel Valley. The short-lived boom town of Gladstone was established in 1887 nearby and merged into Azusa in 1905.
Route 66 Arrives: 1926, and the Great Palm Avenue Opening
By the time Route 66 was commissioned on November 11, 1926, Azusa was an established citrus community with its downtown centered on Foothill Boulevard (then called Center Street, becoming Foothill Boulevard by the 1939 WPA Guide). The National Old Trails Highway — the proto-Route 66 — had already been aligned through Azusa along Foothill Boulevard from 1915 onward. The Route 66 Centennial Monument account captures a specific moment of civic celebration connected to the highway: the 1909 opening of the Palm Drive parallel roads — when Azusa staged an event at which even President William Howard Taft was on hand — establishing the palm-lined boulevard character that still defines the approach to Azusa’s downtown on Route 66.
The Azusa Civic Center: The Only National Historic Landmark on Route 66 in Azusa
Directly on Route 66 in the heart of Azusa, the Azusa Civic Center is the city’s most architecturally distinguished landmark and its only property listed on the National Register of Historic Places (listed February 21, 2002). The complex was developed across several decades: the city’s public library was moved to the site in 1904, and in 1928, architect Richard M. Bates, Jr. completed the two main wings — City Hall on one side and the municipal auditorium on the other — connecting all three buildings with a Spanish Colonial Revival arcade arranged in a U shape around a central courtyard. The complex was completed in 1945 with the addition of the fire department headquarters.
The Azusa Herald’s 1928 account captured the building’s civic ambition: “With the new building furnished and occupied, Azusa may now boast of one of the finest civic buildings possessed by any Southern California city of near size.” The complex won architectural awards for its elegance in the 1930s. Today, as the Route 66 Centennial Monument documentation records, city clerk and Azusa Historical Society president Jeffrey Cornejo describes working there: “We don’t feel like we work in a building here, we work in a hacienda. We’re very proud of it.” The Civic Center is directly accessible from the Azusa Downtown Metro A Line station adjacent to the building, making it the rare Route 66 National Register landmark reachable by light rail from downtown Los Angeles.
The World War Memorial and Route 66 Intersection
On the east corner of the Civic Center campus, travelers can find the World War Memorial monument inscribed with “Azusa” — a scaled-down tribute to the original memorial that once stood at the intersection of Route 66 and State Route 39 (Azusa Avenue). The full-sized monument was installed in 1923 and remained a defining feature of downtown until 1946, when rising traffic volumes at the Route 66 / SR 39 intersection required its removal. The Route 66 Centennial Monument installed at Azusa stands across from the Civic Center — a new landmark celebrating the 100-year relationship between the city and the Mother Road.
Jack Benny Day and the “Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga” Legend
The most famous cultural moment in Azusa’s Route 66 history was not a highway event but a comedy broadcast: on The Jack Benny Program — first on radio, then on television — comedian Jack Benny’s train announcer character, voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc, called out regularly: “Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga.” The gag, which Benny explained was chosen because “we were looking for the names of three suburban cities that would rhyme,” ran for approximately 25 years and brought national attention to all three cities — all then small Route 66 and Southern California communities without rail service, which made the absurdist train announcement funnier.
The gag became so embedded in American popular culture that on December 15, 1965, officials from Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga organized a celebration at the Azusa Civic Center declaring “Jack Benny Day.” Benny arrived to a parade with marching bands and drum majorettes, seated on the tailgate of a small red wagon pulled by four Lilliputian horses. He was given gold keys to all three cities on Hawaiian leis, and named an honorary citizen of each — tax exempt for one year. The ceremony cemented Azusa’s identity as the middle term in America’s most famous comic train announcement, and the joke continued: when Jack Benny died in 1974, the Los Angeles Times headline read “Last Call for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga…” Jan and Dean’s 1964 song “Anaheim, Azusa, & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association” further embedded the trio in Route 66-era American pop culture.
The Foothill Drive-In Theater: The Last Route 66 Drive-In West of Oklahoma
At the convergence of Alosta Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in Azusa, one of the most evocative Route 66 landmarks in the San Gabriel Valley survives in partial form: the neon marquee of the former Azusa Foothill Drive-In Theater — the last historic drive-in on Route 66 west of Oklahoma when it closed in 2001. The sign can be seen from both east and westbound travelers on Route 66, its neon tubes facing the highway in both directions — a ghost of Route 66 commercial culture still announcing itself to the Mother Road’s travelers.
The Theater’s History: 1961–2001
The Azusa Foothill Drive-In opened in 1961 at 675 East Foothill Boulevard and could accommodate 1,510 cars — a substantial installation that reflected the peak years of drive-in culture. The theater operated for 40 years, showing its last film on December 28, 2001. When it closed, it held the distinction of being the last remaining drive-in theater on Route 66 west of Oklahoma — a remarkable status that reflected both the drive-in’s longevity and the broader collapse of the drive-in theater industry that had reduced thousands of venues across the country to a few hundred survivors.
California Landmark Designation and the Fight for the Sign
The theater’s significance was formally recognized when it was designated a California Landmark in 2002 — the same year its final-drive-in-on-Route-66 status was acknowledged. The California Route 66 Preservation Foundation worked to secure the drive-in as a California State Historic landmark, and this effort initially stalled the plans of Azusa Pacific University (which had purchased the theater property) to demolish it for classrooms and dormitories. The landmark status bought time, but not indefinitely: in October 2005, the theater’s screen came down to make way for a university parking lot. However, the historic neon sign was preserved — and APU has used it to display university announcements, giving the Route 66 relic a second life as a campus communications landmark. The Azusa Route 66 Centennial Monument documentation notes that the sign stands “about half a mile east of here” from the downtown monument and “can be found on the north side of Foothill Boulevard at Alosta Avenue.”
For Route 66 travelers, the drive-in marquee represents one of the most concentrated expressions of what the Mother Road meant in the postwar American imagination: the automobile as the center of entertainment and leisure, the drive-in theater as the ultimate expression of car culture’s promise that you could enjoy anything — a movie, a meal, an evening out — without ever leaving your vehicle. The Foothill Drive-In’s neon still glows on the Route 66 alignment, a reminder of that era that Azusa Pacific University has, whatever its initial plans, ultimately chosen to preserve.
Other Route 66 Landmarks Along Foothill Boulevard in Azusa
The Stardust Motel
At 666 East Foothill Boulevard, the Stardust Motel is a surviving Route 66 motor court that once offered travelers what its vintage advertising described as “Large Heated Pool, Conference Room, Free Coffee, Deluxe Accommodations.” The motel retains the decorative concrete screen blocks on the west side of its canopy and on the front office facing Route 66 — architectural details that are characteristic of the late 1950s and 1960s Atomic and Space Age design aesthetic that was one of the most distinctive commercial vernaculars of the highway’s golden era. The 1960s atomic/space-age-designed roof has been replaced by more mundane Spanish tile roofing, and the original neon sign has been replaced by a simpler one — but the Stardust remains identifiable as a Route 66-era establishment for travelers who know what to look for.
The Colonial Motel
A short distance west of the Stardust, at 534 East Foothill Boulevard, the Colonial Motel is another surviving Route 66-era motel with vintage signage that has been documented by Route 66 travelers and historians. The Legends of America San Gabriel Valley guide lists both the Colonial and the Stardust as “vintage motels with signage” worth noting on the Azusa Foothill Boulevard corridor, making them part of the documented Route 66 material culture of the city.
The Palm Drive Parallel Roads and the 1909 Presidential Visit
One of the more historically distinctive features of Azusa’s Foothill Boulevard / Route 66 corridor is the set of palm-lined roads running north just west of the Foothill Drive-In site, at Palm Drive. The Route 66 Centennial Monument account notes that these two parallel roads were opened in 1909 at a ceremony that drew the entire city and even President William Howard Taft — an extraordinary civic event that placed Azusa’s Route 66 predecessor boulevard at the center of a presidential visit. The palm trees planted in 1909 still line the route, providing one of the most photogenic approaches to the Azusa downtown on the Route 66 alignment.
Azusa’s Historic Buildings a Block Off Route 66
As the California Historic Route 66 Association notes, Azusa has “a small collection of old buildings a block off of Route 66” — a compact historic district in the downtown area that reflects the city’s early 20th-century commercial character. These buildings, visible from the Azusa Downtown Metro A Line station, represent the urban environment that Route 66 travelers encountered when they stopped in Azusa during the highway’s commercial peak. The Azusa Historical Society, whose president is also the city clerk, actively works to document and preserve this heritage.
The San Gabriel Canyon: Route 66’s Most Dramatic Mountain Gateway
Route 66’s approach to Azusa from the east is marked by one of the most spectacular natural settings available to any point along California’s 314-mile corridor: the San Gabriel Mountains rising dramatically immediately to the north, with the San Gabriel Canyon cutting steeply into the range directly above the city center. The Route 66 Centennial Monument description captures it: “The canyons of the San Gabriel Mountains rise dramatically just to the north, offering some of the most breathtaking natural scenery in the Greater Los Angeles area. Shaped by the ongoing uplift of the San Andreas Fault, these mountains are rugged, steep, and awe-inspiring — forming part of the Angeles National Forest and the newly expanded San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.”
The Angeles National Forest Gateway
From Route 66 in Azusa, State Route 39 (Azusa Avenue) runs directly north from Foothill Boulevard into the San Gabriel Canyon and the Angeles National Forest — one of the largest national forests in California and the urban forest that provides recreation for the Greater Los Angeles region. Following SR 39 north, travelers reach:
Azusa River Wilderness Park — approximately 3 miles north, featuring a 1.25-mile trail gently rising alongside the river in steep canyons. The trailhead is located just past the “El Encanto” sign.
San Gabriel Canyon Scenic Drive — a winding road past reservoirs with pull-offs for canyon views and access to numerous trailheads.
East Fork Riverside Picnic Areas — approximately 16 miles north of Azusa (a scenic 30-minute drive one-way), offering riverside picnic spots in the canyon depths. This is where the 1854 El Doradoville gold rush was centered.
The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument — expanded in recent years — encompasses much of the range above Azusa. The Route 66 traveler who makes the detour north on SR 39 from the intersection with Foothill Boulevard is rewarded with mountain scenery that is genuinely extraordinary for a destination accessible in minutes from a Route 66 town.
Azusa Pacific University: From Bible College to Route 66 Campus
Directly on the Route 66 alignment along Alosta Avenue, Azusa Pacific University is one of the largest Christian universities in the United States, tracing its roots to 1899 when it began as a small coeducational Bible school in Whittier dedicated to ministry and missionary work. APU moved to its current Azusa location in 1946 — the same year the highway was at its most commercially active — and established its campus in the heart of the Route 66 corridor. Today, APU’s campus forms a significant part of the Route 66 landscape in Azusa, with the preserved Foothill Drive-In marquee on its western boundary serving as the most prominent Route 66 artifact visible from the Alosta Avenue alignment.
The article in Islands magazine notes that “both colleges sit along Route 66” — APU and Citrus College (whose APU/Citrus College Metro A Line station serves the eastern boundary of Azusa) — making the Route 66 alignment through Azusa one where the highway runs directly through active university campuses, connecting academic life to Mother Road heritage in a way that few other Route 66 communities can claim.
Azusa’s Other Distinctions: Go-Karts and the Canyon City’s Route 66 Legacy
Azusa holds one additional Route 66-era distinction worth noting: according to Wikipedia, the city boasted the world’s first Go Kart factory as of 1958 — the Go Kart Manufacturing Company, which produced the popular miniature racing vehicles that became a mid-century American entertainment phenomenon. The product proved very popular; the company went into bankruptcy in 1963. The go-kart’s development in Azusa in 1958 placed the city at the center of the postwar American leisure culture that Route 66 represented: the automobile, speed, recreation, and the open road compressed into a child-sized vehicle that democratized the thrill of driving. The Route 66 years were go-kart years, and Azusa made the first ones.
Practical Information for Your Azusa Route 66 Visit
Getting to Azusa
From Los Angeles (west via Route 66): Follow the Route 66 alignment east — Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, then Huntington Drive through Arcadia, Monrovia, and Duarte, crossing the San Gabriel River into Irwindale, then Foothill Boulevard into Azusa.
From Glendora / San Dimas (east): Follow Foothill Boulevard or Alosta Avenue west into Azusa.
From Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway): Exit at Azusa Avenue (SR 39) north to Foothill Boulevard, or take the Alosta Avenue exit.
From San Gabriel Canyon / Angeles National Forest: Follow SR 39 south into downtown Azusa, arriving at the intersection with Foothill Boulevard / Route 66.
By Metro A Line (Gold Line): The Azusa Downtown Station adjacent to the Civic Center on Foothill Boulevard provides direct rail service from downtown Los Angeles (Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, and intermediate stops) to the heart of Azusa’s Route 66 district. The APU/Citrus College Station is at the eastern city boundary. This is one of the most accessible Route 66 communities in the San Gabriel Valley by light rail.
Route 66 Self-Guided Tour in Azusa
A focused Azusa Route 66 visit includes: the Foothill Drive-In Theater neon marquee (at Alosta Avenue and Foothill Boulevard), the Stardust Motel (666 E Foothill Blvd), the Colonial Motel (534 E Foothill Blvd), the Azusa Civic Center (213 E Foothill Blvd — National Register of Historic Places), the Route 66 Centennial Monument across from the Civic Center, the Palm Drive parallel roads with their 1909 palms, and the San Gabriel Canyon viewpoint looking north up SR 39. With a stop at Azusa Pacific University’s campus boundary to see the Drive-In marquee up close, this driving tour takes approximately 1–1.5 hours.
San Gabriel Canyon Recreation
From the intersection of Route 66 (Foothill Boulevard) and SR 39 (Azusa Avenue), follow SR 39 north into the San Gabriel Canyon. The Azusa River Wilderness Park trailhead is approximately 3 miles north. East Fork Road is approximately 16 miles north for riverside picnic areas. Carry water; summer heat in the canyon can be extreme. The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Angeles National Forest require an Adventure Pass for roadside parking at many trailheads ($5 day pass or $30 annual pass; available online and at ranger stations).
Time Required
A focused Route 66 driving tour of Azusa requires 1–1.5 hours. Adding the San Gabriel Canyon scenic drive (recommend 2–3 additional hours for a round trip to East Fork) and the Azusa Downtown walkable district extends the visit to a comfortable half-day. The Metro A Line makes Azusa accessible as a day trip from downtown Los Angeles without a car.
Climate
Azusa has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate — warm and dry summers, mild winters. Average summer temperatures are notably moderated by the canyon geography compared to the flat Inland Empire communities to the east. The San Gabriel Mountains can receive snow in winter, visible from Route 66 on clear days. Spring (March–May) is the most beautiful season, when wildflowers bloom in the canyon and the mountains are still snow-capped. Fall (September–November) is equally pleasant and sees the canyon’s autumn colors.
Nearby Route 66 Highlights in the San Gabriel Valley
Aztec Hotel, Monrovia — About 8 miles west on Route 66, the 1925 National Historic Landmark is the first Mayan Revival architecture building in the United States — one of the most visually extraordinary stops on California’s entire Mother Road. Azusa is one of the closest Route 66 communities to the Aztec Hotel.
Route 66 in Glendora, California — About 5 miles east on Route 66, the city that officially renamed its Route 66 street after the highway is home to the Frank Chance Baseball Hall of Fame Building (1912), Rubel Castle (National Register), and the Golden Spur neon legacy.
Route 66 in La Verne, California — About 12 miles east on Route 66 (Foothill Boulevard through San Dimas), La Verne — the “Heart of the Orange Empire” — is home to Old Town La Verne, the University of La Verne (founded 1891), Heritage Park’s surviving orange groves, and the Carrión Adobe (1868).
Route 66 in Pomona, California — About 15 miles east on Route 66, the “Queen of the Citrus Belt” with its nearby Fairplex/LA County Fair (since 1922), the 1931 Fox Theater (National Register), the NHRA Winternationals, and the Primera Casa Adobe (1837).
Route 66 in Claremont, California — About 15 miles east on Route 66, the “Ivy League of the West” — Wolfe’s Market (1917), the Claremont Colleges consortium, the California Botanic Garden, and the National Register Claremont Depot.
Route 66 in Pasadena, California — About 15 miles west on Route 66 (Colorado Boulevard), Pasadena’s celebrated corridor hosts the Colorado Street Bridge, Norton Simon Museum, and the Gamble House — celebrating simultaneously the Route 66 Centennial and Colorado Boulevard’s 150th anniversary in 2026.
Route 66 in Los Angeles, California — About 20 miles west, the Route 66 alignment through Los Angeles follows Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard to the Pacific Ocean.
Route 66 in California — Complete Guide — The full overview of all 314 miles of California’s Route 66 from Needles through the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Azusa, Pasadena, and Los Angeles to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.
Route 66 Centennial 2026 — The 100th anniversary of Route 66 is November 11, 2026. Azusa — where Mel Blanc’s voice made the city name synonymous with American comedy on Route 66, where the last Route 66 drive-in west of Oklahoma stood for 40 years, and where the San Gabriel Mountains provide the most spectacular backdrop of any Route 66 city in the San Gabriel Valley — is among the most historically layered Centennial stops on the California corridor.
Route 66 — Complete Guide — The definitive guide to all 2,448 miles of the Mother Road, from the Begin sign in Chicago to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.
