Route 66 in Needles California | El Garces Harvey House, Grapes of Wrath & Gateway to California

California Begins Here: Crossing the Colorado River on Route 66

When the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath crossed the Colorado River and saw California for the first time, the moment was one of the most powerful passages in American literature — the poor, dispossessed Oklahoma family arriving at the border of the promised state with all their desperate hope intact. The river they crossed was the Colorado. The road they were on was U.S. Route 66. And the first California city they reached — the first gas station, the first diner, the first chance to fill the radiator and ask for directions — was Needles, California: the gateway to the Golden State on the Mother Road, and the starting point of California’s 314-mile Route 66 corridor from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica.

Needles sits at the eastern edge of San Bernardino County, pressed against the California-Arizona border, founded in 1883 when the transcontinental railroad pushed through the Mojave Desert. Named for “The Needles” — the sharp, needle-like rock pinnacles that rise to the southeast across the river in Arizona — it was a railroad city long before Route 66 existed, and a Harvey House city before that. Today, with a population of approximately 4,931 (2020 Census), it remains one of the most historically layered and genuinely distinctive towns on the entire Route 66 corridor: a place where the railroad’s golden age, the highway’s mid-century glory, the Dust Bowl’s human tragedy, the Colorado River’s outdoor recreation culture, and the pop-culture legacy of a beloved cartoonist all converge in a compact desert city that most travelers encounter only briefly but that rewards deliberate attention.

Most remarkably, Needles offers 12 continuous miles of historic Route 66 between the two most outlying I-40 off-ramps — more continuous Mother Road mileage than almost any city of its size on the entire route. Broadway Street and Front Street together trace the alignment from the Colorado River crossing westward through the downtown core, past the El Garces Harvey House (the “Crown Jewel” of the Fred Harvey chain), past the ruins of Carty’s Camp (which appeared in the 1940 film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath), and out into the Mojave Desert toward the long empty miles to Goffs, Amboy, and Barstow.

Where Does Route 66 Run Through Needles?

Route 66 in Needles runs along Broadway Street (the newer Route 66 alignment) and Front Street (the older, original alignment) — two parallel streets that together trace approximately 12 miles of the Mother Road through and around the city. Broadway is the main commercial street of Needles; Front Street runs closer to the Santa Fe Railroad tracks and is home to the El Garces Harvey House and the Needles Regional Museum.

From Interstate 40 eastbound (arriving from the California side): Take Exit 148 for Five Mile Road, which becomes East Broadway Street (Route 66). Follow Broadway Street west through the commercial district. Where Broadway curves left at Quivera Street and becomes West Broadway, the alignment continues westward toward the western I-40 approaches. To follow the older Front Street alignment (which passes the El Garces and the museum): at the “Old Trails Inn” where Broadway forks, turn onto Front Street. Drive west past the El Garces Harvey House (at 950 Front Street) and the Needles Regional Museum (at 929 Front Street), continue around Santa Fe Park, and follow back to Broadway.

From Interstate 40 westbound (arriving from Arizona): Cross the Colorado River on the I-40 bridge and take Exit 148 to enter Needles on Five Mile Road/East Broadway. Historic Route 66 “shields” are stenciled on the asphalt throughout the alignment to orient travelers.

Needles’ History: From Railroad Town to Route 66 Gateway

Named for the Needles: Founding and the Railroad, 1883

The mountains that gave Needles its name were identified first. In 1854, during a military survey for the forthcoming transcontinental railroad, the sharp pinnacles rising along the Arizona side of the Colorado River were recorded as “The Needles” — a name that referred to their needle-like profile against the desert sky. The city that grew beneath them took the name when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway arrived in 1883, pushing its mainline across the Colorado River from Topock, Arizona, into California. Needles was the first California stop on the transcontinental railroad’s southern route, and its position made it immediately significant: every passenger and every freight car heading west from Chicago to Los Angeles passed through Needles.

The railroad created Needles’s economic identity. Steam locomotives of the era required enormous quantities of water — and the Colorado River’s water supply was the foundation of the city’s existence as a railroad stop. The AT&SF built a hotel, car sheds, repair shops, and a roundhouse at Needles in the 1880s and 1890s, and by 1890 had constructed the Red Rock Bridge (a cantilever railroad bridge ten miles downstream) to supplement the river crossing infrastructure. Needles was also the largest port north of Yuma, Arizona on the Colorado River, with steamboats navigating the river before the railroads supplanted them. The Needles Regional Museum preserves photographs and artifacts from the steamboat era — a chapter of the city’s history that predates both the railroad and Route 66.

Father Francisco Garcés and the Spanish Name

The El Garces Harvey House, the city’s most celebrated landmark, is named for Father Francisco Garcés — a Spanish Franciscan missionary and explorer who crossed the Mojave Desert in 1771–1774, becoming the first European to do so. Garcés followed the Mojave River and the Colorado River routes that had been used by Native Americans for millennia, and his explorations documented the landscape that Route 66 would later traverse. His name was given to the Harvey House in recognition of his historical precedence as a European traveler through this desert corridor — making the El Garces Harvey House a building that honors the full span of non-Native travel through the Mojave, from the 18th century through the mid-20th.

Route 66 and the Dust Bowl: The First California Welcome

When U.S. Route 66 was commissioned on November 11, 1926, it was aligned along the National Old Trails Highway through Needles, placing the city’s Broadway Street directly on the federal highway. Needles became the first California city that every eastbound and westbound Route 66 traveler passed through — the point where the Arizona desert ended and California began.

This geographic position gave Needles a unique role during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s. For the hundreds of thousands of displaced families from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri who traveled Route 66 west in search of work and survival, Needles was the first California city — the first proof that they had made it across the desert to the promised state. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath captured the emotional weight of that moment with extraordinary precision: the Joad family’s crossing of the Colorado River and their arrival in the California desert is one of the novel’s most affecting scenes. The 1940 John Ford film adaptation made it visual, shooting the Colorado River crossing and Carty’s Camp on Broadway as actual filming locations in Needles.

At the height of the migration, border inspections were conducted by California officials at the Needles crossing — the infamous “Bum Blockade” of 1936, during which Los Angeles police officers were stationed at the Arizona-California border to turn away indigent migrants who could not prove means of support. The blockade was ultimately ruled unconstitutional, but the episode crystallized the tensions surrounding migration along Route 66 that Steinbeck had documented. Needles was at the center of that story, and the city’s history cannot be understood without it.

World War II: General Patton’s Desert Training Center

Needles entered the Second World War’s history in a specific and extraordinary way. In 1942, General George S. Patton established the Desert Training Center in the desert near Needles — the largest military training area in American history, covering more than 18,000 square miles of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts across California, Arizona, and Nevada. The purpose was to train U.S. Army troops in desert warfare tactics in preparation for the North Africa campaign. More than one million troops trained in conditions that Patton deliberately made as harsh as possible — summer heat exceeding 120°F, minimal water, and the genuine physical demands of desert terrain. Route 66 through Needles was a critical corridor for the transport of troops and supplies to and from the training center, adding a military dimension to the highway’s wartime significance.

The El Garces Harvey House: The Crown Jewel of the Fred Harvey Chain

The most architecturally significant and historically important building in Needles — and one of the most impressive Harvey Houses surviving anywhere in the country — is the El Garces Harvey House Hotel and Depot at 950 Front Street. Built in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway after the original wooden depot burned in 1906, the El Garces was designed by architect Francis W. Wilson in the Classical Revival style — a two-story building with Tuscan columns, a symmetrical facade, and 20-foot-wide verandas wrapping all four sides, giving the structure the appearance of a classical temple transported to the Mojave Desert. Fan palms were planted around the building, their green fronds providing shade and visual relief against the stark desert landscape. Harvey Girls who were assigned to work at the El Garces reportedly said it was like “going to Europe.”

The Crown Jewel: Harvey House Dining at Its Finest

The Fred Harvey Company operated the El Garces from its 1908 opening, and the building quickly earned its reputation as the “Crown Jewel” (or “Queen Jewel,” as various sources describe it) of the entire Harvey House chain. The lunchroom was extraordinary by the standards of desert railroad dining: two horseshoe-shaped counters that together could seat 140 people, served on real linen tablecloths with silver flatware, distinctive Fred Harvey china, and fresh flowers — the same standard of service that the Harvey Company maintained at all its facilities, but which was particularly striking at a stop in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

The El Garces was not merely a dining facility. It was a full hotel — travelers arriving by train could check into guest rooms in the upper story and stay overnight before continuing their journey. A dormitory housed the Harvey Girls — the young women who staffed the dining facilities under the Harvey Company’s strict professional code — making the El Garces a self-contained community as well as a travel facility. In the 1920s and 1930s, as Route 66 brought automobile travelers to Needles in addition to railroad passengers, the El Garces served both audiences: the train passengers arriving at the adjacent depot and the motorists who pulled off the highway to eat in one of the finest dining establishments between Albuquerque and Los Angeles.

Closure, Abandonment, and Rescue: 1949–2002

The El Garces closed as a Harvey House in 1949 — the same year that declining railroad passenger traffic was forcing the Fred Harvey Company to close facilities across its network. The building subsequently served as Santa Fe Railroad offices until 1988, when it was abandoned. The following decade brought genuine danger of demolition: without active use or maintenance, the building deteriorated in the Mojave climate, and its future was far from assured.

The rescue came from local residents who recognized the building’s irreplaceable significance. In 1993, a group of Needles citizens began petitioning to save the El Garces. The Friends of El Garces organized formally by 1999 and secured the building’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 — a formal recognition of its architectural and historical significance that provided crucial protection and access to preservation funding. A $10 million restoration followed, funded through federal transportation and preservation programs, and the building was rededicated as the El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility in 2014 — serving Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, Needles Area Transit, and the local community.

Visiting the El Garces Today

Today the El Garces functions as Needles’s Amtrak station (the Southwest Chief stops here on the Chicago–Los Angeles route that closely parallels old Route 66) and as a community transportation hub. The building’s exterior — the Tuscan columns, the verandas, the fan palms, the classical symmetry — is fully restored and freely visible to visitors. Outside the building, visitors can see a World War I memorial cannon and marker, a decorative Route 66 bench, and an old cantilever train signal — reportedly the last one between Albuquerque and Los Angeles, relocated here in honor of the Needles railroad workers.

The El Garces interior is not a public museum but guided tours are available through the Needles Regional Museum across the street. Tours are offered every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. (unless a special event is scheduled inside the building) and may also be available by request when visiting the museum. The tour admission fee is a modest $5 per person, and the tours provide access to the interior spaces where Harvey Girls once worked and railroad passengers once dined — an experience that is difficult to find anywhere else along California’s Route 66 corridor.

The Needles Regional Museum: Front Street’s Historic Record

Directly across Front Street from the El Garces Harvey House at 929 Front Street, the Needles Regional Museum is the city’s primary repository of historical artifacts, photographs, and documents covering the full span of Needles history. The museum occupies a building that was originally a J.C. Penney’s store built in 1948 — itself historically significant as a Route 66-era commercial building — and its volunteer staff are among the most knowledgeable Route 66 and Needles history resources available in the eastern California desert.

The museum’s collection encompasses vintage photographs and old road signs, Santa Fe Railroad and Harvey House artifacts (including pieces from the El Garces), Route 66 memorabilia from the highway’s full history, Mojave beadwork and pottery, Native American history, and artifacts related to the steamboats that once cruised the Colorado River — a transportation mode that preceded both the railroad and Route 66 in the history of the Needles region. The museum also runs an adjacent thrift store, a unique way to support the institution’s preservation mission.

A colorful exterior mural on the museum building brings Needles’ layers of history together in a single visual composition: a Santa Fe train, a Route 66 shield, the American flag, an Old Trails Bridge representation, a hot rod, a desert tortoise, and — most beloved of all — the mustachioed, hat-wearing desert dog Spike. A Route 66 Monument with informational plaques stands near the museum entrance, providing historical orientation for travelers on the California corridor.

Charles M. Schulz, Snoopy’s Brother Spike, and the Peanuts Connection

Few Route 66 cities have a more unexpected pop-culture legacy than Needles, California. The connection is Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) — the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, one of the most widely syndicated comic strips in history and the creative origin of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Woodstock, and the entire cast of beloved characters. Schulz spent part of his childhood in Needles when his family moved there briefly for health reasons, attending second grade in the city around 1928–1930. The desert landscape, the isolation, and the specific quality of Needles made a lasting impression on the young cartoonist.

Decades later, Schulz honored his Needles childhood by giving Snoopy a long-lost brother named Spike — a desert-dwelling beagle who first appeared in Peanuts on August 4, 1974 (though some sources cite 1975 as his first full story appearance). Spike is thin where Snoopy is round, wears a battered hat, and lives alone in the Mojave Desert near Needles, California — spending his days lying on rocks, talking to cacti, and writing letters to his brother. As Schulz himself described his character: “Spike is the loner brother of Snoopy and lives out in the desert near Needles, California. Though most of his life is spent lying on rocks, talking to cacti, and writing letters to Snoopy, he has left the desert on occasion.”

Needles has embraced its Peanuts connection enthusiastically. The city has named Spike Road and Schulz Road after the cartoonist and his character. A statue of Spike is located at the Needles Regional Museum — relocated there from its earlier home inside a local Subway restaurant. The museum’s exterior mural features Spike prominently alongside the Santa Fe Railroad and Route 66 shield. Route 66 murals throughout the city include Spike representations. And the Needles Borax Wagon at Broadway and A Street — a hulking 1940s movie prop that once stood outside the El Rancho Motel — is a neighboring landmark on the Route 66 nostalgic circuit.

Broadway Street: Route 66 Through Downtown Needles

Carty’s Camp and The Grapes of Wrath

At 201 East Broadway Street, the ruins of Carty’s Camp are among the most historically resonant Route 66 landmarks in California. The camp began in 1923 as a combined campground, service station, and roadside stop established by Bill Carty and Dick Mansker — initially as Carty and Mansker’s Camp Ground and Service Station. Carty eventually bought out his partner and ran the expanded facility under his own name: 28 cabins, a service station, and at various points a café and grocery — a full-service Route 66 stop that served travelers from the earliest days of the highway through the mid-century years.

Carty’s Camp’s place in cultural history was secured when John Ford’s 1940 film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath used it as a filming location. In the film, the Joad family arrives at Carty’s Camp — one of their first stops after crossing the Colorado River into California — in a sequence that captures the mix of hope, exhaustion, and wariness that characterized the Dust Bowl migrants’ first encounters with California. The large “Carty’s Camp” sign survives on the building and is one of the most photographed Route 66 relics in Needles. The buildings are derelict and on private property; visitors should observe from the road rather than entering the site.

The 66 Motel

Adjacent to Carty’s Camp, the 66 Motel is a 1960s-era motor inn whose original neon sign, restored in 2012, is one of the most photographed neon artifacts in Needles. The motel no longer operates as a traditional hotel — it has served as single-room occupancy apartments since the 1990s — but the neon sign’s restoration preserves a piece of Needles’s Route 66 visual heritage. The combination of the Carty’s Camp sign and the 66 Motel neon on the same short stretch of Broadway creates one of the most concentrated clusters of Route 66 signage in the California desert corridor.

Old Trails Inn / Palms Motel

Where Broadway forks with Front Street, a 1930s vintage cabin court once known as the Palms Motel has been restored to a bed-and-breakfast operation under the name Old Trails Inn. This is the entry point to the Front Street alignment, and the restored cabin court represents a genuine survival from the Route 66 era of motor court architecture — the small individual cabins arranged around a central driveway that preceded the motel format and defined roadside lodging in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Welcome Wagon

At the intersection of Broadway and A Street, the Needles Borax Wagon — a massive 1940s movie prop that once stood outside the El Rancho Motel — serves as one of Needles’s most distinctive Route 66 photo opportunities. The wagon is a monument to the desert’s borax mining history and to the Hollywood productions that used the Needles area as a filming location, and its scale makes it immediately compelling to passing travelers.

The Wagon Wheel Restaurant

One of Needles’s most celebrated operating Route 66 restaurants is the Wagon Wheel Restaurant on West Broadway — recognizable by its bright yellow exterior and the giant gorilla on the roof. Open since 1978, the Wagon Wheel is a classic roadside diner serving all-day breakfast and comfort food to Route 66 travelers, truckers, and locals. Its menu was notably designed in part by Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire — the well-traveled illustrator and preservationist whose detailed maps and artwork documented Route 66 across its entire length. The giant gorilla on the roof is an example of the “muffler man” and large-scale roadside figure tradition that defined Route 66 visual culture during the highway’s commercial peak..

The Colorado River Bridges: Where Route 66 Entered California

The Old Trails Bridge: 1916

The Old Trails Bridge (also known as the Topock Bridge or the Needles Bridge) is a historic steel arch bridge that carried Route 66 traffic across the Colorado River from Arizona into California from its completion in early 1916 until its decommissioning. Built as part of the National Old Trails Highway improvement program, the bridge was the principal Colorado River crossing for automobiles traveling between Arizona and California for decades — the exact span over which the Dust Bowl migrants drove their loaded trucks into California and over which all Route 66 travelers made their California entry.

The Old Trails Bridge was subsequently decommissioned as a road bridge when the Red Rock Bridge — the former railroad cantilever bridge converted to automobile use in 1947 — took over Route 66 traffic. The Red Rock Bridge itself was eventually replaced by the current Interstate 40 bridge in 1966 and demolished in 1978. The Old Trails Bridge currently serves as a natural gas pipeline crossing — the roadbed has been removed and the structure converted to carry a pipeline, but the bridge’s steel arch form remains visible at the river crossing and can be seen from the elevated vantage point near I-40 Exit 153.

The opening credits of Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969) show both the Old Trails Bridge and the Red Rock Bridge visible off to the right as Peter Fonda rides a motorcycle through the area — a cinematic footnote that places the Needles Colorado River crossing in the history of American road film as well as American road travel.

The Colorado River Vantage Point

For travelers who want to see the historic bridge site from the best available vantage point, a pull-off near I-40 Exit 153 (Park Moabi Road, heading north) provides elevated views of the Colorado River corridor, the remaining Old Trails Bridge structure, and the point where Route 66 entered California for nearly half a century. This is also the site of the Route 66 Welcome Sign at the western tip of where the former Red Rock Bridge once stood — the official starting point of Route 66 in California, where the highway’s California chapter begins before entering Needles.

Beyond Route 66: Needles as an Outdoor Recreation Base

Needles’s position at the confluence of the Colorado River, the Mojave Desert, and the eastern edge of the Mojave National Preserve makes it a legitimate outdoor recreation destination beyond its Route 66 significance. Travelers who allow more than a single night in Needles will find:

Havasu National Wildlife Refuge: Directly accessible from Needles, the refuge provides habitat for 318 species of birds and encompasses the spectacular Topock Gorge — a section of the Colorado River where the canyon walls rise dramatically above the water and desert bighorn sheep can sometimes be spotted on the cliffs. The refuge headquarters at 317 Mesquite Avenue in Needles is the best starting point for maps and information.

The Topock Maze (Mystic Maze): A high vantage point near the Colorado River — accessible from Exit 153 and Park Moabi Road — overlooks an ancient geoglyph site known as the Topock Maze, created by the Native American peoples who lived along this river corridor for thousands of years. The site is one of the largest and most significant Native American geoglyph complexes in California.

Colorado River Recreation: Pirate Cove Resort at Moabi Regional Park provides cabins, marina access, boating, swimming, and fishing on the Colorado River. The river is warm enough for water recreation from spring through fall, and the contrast between the desert landscape and the river’s green, flowing presence is dramatic.

Mojave National Preserve: Needles is the eastern gateway to the 1.6-million-acre Mojave National Preserve — accessible via the National Trails Highway west of Needles. The preserve protects volcanic cinder cones, Joshua tree forests, Kelso Dunes, and one of the most intact desert ecosystems in California.

Practical Information for Your Needles Route 66 Visit

Getting to Needles

From the East (Arizona): Cross the Colorado River on I-40 westbound. Take Exit 148 (Five Mile Road) for the Route 66 alignment into Needles on Broadway Street.

From the West (Barstow/California): I-40 eastbound approximately 100 miles from Barstow. Exit at any of the Needles exits — Exit 141 (River Road/J Street) for downtown access, or Exit 144 (Broadway/US-95) for the central Route 66 alignment.

By Amtrak: The Southwest Chief stops at the El Garces Amtrak station in Needles on the Chicago–Los Angeles route. The station is at 950 Front Street, directly in the heart of the historic Route 66 district.

Climate Warning: The Hottest City on California Route 66

Needles is routinely cited as one of the hottest cities in the United States. Summer temperatures regularly exceed 115°F and on extreme days can reach 120°F or higher. The combination of the Colorado River’s humidity and the desert sun creates a “wet heat” that is more enervating than the dry desert heat further west. Do not visit Needles in summer without fully air-conditioned transportation, minimum 2 gallons of water per person, and a clear plan for staying cool. The optimal visiting seasons are October through April, with November through February offering the most comfortable conditions for walking and outdoor exploration. Spring wildflower season (February–March) and the mild fall months are particularly pleasant.

Gas Prices

Be aware that gas prices in Needles are among the highest in California — typically well above the state average due to the remote location and limited supply competition. Fill up before entering Needles from the east (in Kingman, Arizona, or at the I-40 Arizona stations) if possible. If you need gas in Needles, major chain stations (Chevron on West Broadway) are available but expect premium prices.

Time Required

A thorough Needles Route 66 visit — El Garces Harvey House exterior, Needles Regional Museum (1–2 hours), Carty’s Camp, the 66 Motel neon, the Borax Wagon, the Old Trails Bridge vantage point, and a meal at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant — requires a full half-day to a full day. The Needles Regional Museum’s Saturday El Garces tour (11:00 a.m.) is the essential additional element for serious Route 66 travelers.

Where to Eat

The Wagon Wheel Restaurant on West Broadway is the definitive Route 66 dining stop in Needles — all-day breakfast, comfort food, the giant gorilla on the roof, and a Bob Waldmire-designed menu. The Riverfront Café on Needles Highway offers riverside views with classic sandwiches and pizza.

Where to Stay

Rio Del Sol Inn is a locally operated Needles motel with pool, hot tub, and steam room. Best Western Colorado River Inn offers reliable national-brand accommodation with Route 66 access. For a more atmospheric experience, Old Trails Inn (the restored 1930s Palms Motel cabin court) provides a genuine Route 66-era lodging experience.

Route 66 West of Needles: The California Desert Corridor

Roy’s Motel and Café, Amboy, California — About 80 miles west of Needles on Route 66 (National Trails Highway) via Goffs, the most photographed landmark on California’s Route 66. The 50-foot Googie neon sign, restored in 2019, is the quintessential image of the California desert Mother Road.

Amboy Crater — About 80 miles west, the only volcano on Route 66 — a free National Natural Landmark and one of the most dramatic hikes in the Mojave Desert. Just 1.5 miles south of the Route 66 alignment near Amboy.

Bagdad Café, Newberry Springs — About 110 miles west, the filming location for the 1987 German cult classic film, drawing European pilgrims by the busload. The Sidewinder Café renamed after the movie that made it world-famous.

Barstow Harvey House — Casa del Desierto — About 100 miles west in Barstow, the second great Harvey House on California’s Route 66 corridor — the 1911 Casa del Desierto, a National Historic Landmark housing the Route 66 Mother Road Museum and the Western America Railroad Museum.

Route 66 in Barstow, California — The full guide to Route 66 in Barstow, California’s most historically significant Route 66 city — Main Street, the Harvey House complex, the murals, and Calico Ghost Town.

California Route 66 Museum, Victorville — About 175 miles west of Needles, the free California Route 66 Museum in Victorville’s Old Town preserves the Hulaville Collection and the full story of the High Desert communities the Mother Road shaped.

Route 66 in California — Complete Guide — The complete overview of all 314 miles of California’s Route 66 from the Needles/Colorado River gateway through Barstow, Victorville, San Bernardino, 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. Needles — the first California city on Route 66, the First Gateway — is at the center of the centennial story. Check this page for California centennial events.

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.