Route 66 as
Representation of the American Frontier
Way back in 1893, the eminent historian Frederick
Jackson Turner opined that the Frontier was no longer a reality in
America (1), and pondered the likely
changes in the American persona with its passing. While Turner may have
been correct in assessing the frontier in relation to the dwindling
access to real wilderness on the American
landscape, his declaration was most likely premature. Turner identified
the Frontier as a definable place. One where the norms of established
society did not always apply. The Frontier was not a place devoid
of population or even modern amenities, rather in the human experience
it was a pre civilized place that was in a state of evolution from
wilderness and structured and controlled society (2).
The loss of the Frontier according to Turner was the loss of the
elements that created the American spirit, "For a moment, at the
frontier, the bonds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant"
(3). An American trait I would argue
is not only not lost, but highly valued in American culture and
character.
For Turner (and other historians) it was the
existence of a frontier that formed and shaped the American character,
so that even though Americans largely owed their heritage to European
roots, that when "civilization" was created in America, that it would
be different and distinct from that of Europe in the general sense.
Throughout the 1900s American historians and popular writers alike
attempted to document and give substance to the elements a frontier
added to the American character. In turn each attempted to define that
which was the frontier, and in the end we wound up generically with the
West. In popular culture we see this with the rise of the Western
(either in literature or film) which ultimately boils down to 3-4
decades at the end of the 1800s. Turner in using the definition
of the frontier as supplied by the 1890 Census was able to declare with
an air of authority that the frontier era had passed, and thus could
discuss
the effects of the frontier on America, and what potentially lay ahead
in
the absence of one. Without entering into a historical debate (that
still
simmers on in some history camps), I would argue that while the
existence of a frontier might be debatable today, that in fact Route 66
ran through the very heart of what Americans nationally thought of as
the American frontier, and to some extent, continues to do so today.
In mixing Route 66 and the concept of Turner's
"frontier", we might create something that describes either a boundary
between the civilized and uncivilized, or something which created a
physical link between that which was civilized and established, and
that which was not. A road to nowhere as it were. As such these
concepts are probably not going to work given what we know about the
West, and about Route 66.
What I think we can say in relation to Route 66 and
the concept of frontier that would be accurate incorporates the
following ideas:
First, that while Route 66 in no way partitioned the
country (between the civilized and the not), it did change local
geography by affecting development along its route. We see this
phenomenon especially in the southwest. In towns along Route 66 we can
see a clear preference
for development along the alignment Route 66 followed creating towns
with
a strong East-West orientation. While evident in towns like Williams,
Flagstaff,
and Winslow, we can see extreme examples like Gallup, NM. where the
highway
created a nearly ten mile long main street. Route 66 did divide towns.
The
volume of traffic often made main streets places to avoid, and did set
in
place a barrier that did create a north and south side to many towns
along
the route. This division was often reinforced by the alignment of the
Santa
Fe Railroad. Railroads certainly affected early city and town growth as
well-
although their effect was to centralize growth around the passenger
station
and freight depot. The modern interstate highway affects civic growth
too,
but in a distinctly different fashion than Route 66. Because most
freeways
bypass cities and towns, the relationship between them is unique. Often
you
will see city limits expand to embrace the exits from the freeway. The
city
then grows not in a linear fashion (like Route 66 helped to create),
but
more in leap frog fashion to create pods of civilization around the off
ramps,
with open space to the city center proper. Likewise, Route 66 in its
evolution
changed cities and towns along its alignments. Incorporating towns into
the
route often caused growth and development, and bypassing them caused
the
loss and decrease in population and activity (4).
Second, Route 66 was not a road to wilderness,
rather it did act as a conduit connecting very different parts of the
country that otherwise might not have had any relationship. Connecting
the midwest city of Chicago, and the emerging western metropolis of
Los Angeles, Route 66 forged a relationship linking what was the
old American frontier to
the modern American frontier. This connection created a mixture of old
and
new, old europe and new southwest Hispanic, and urban and rural
industrial and service economies. Along the way travelers were exposed
to different culture, languages, food, terrain and environments. The
implication is
that while Route 66 certainly passed through a wide array of spaces
(urban,
rural, and undeveloped) little could be described as embracing a
frontier
existence, yet depending upon the origin of the traveler, unique
and perhaps strange none the less. Route 66 became a personal frontier
to
those who traveled its length. In this regard, Route 66 carried forward
that
"selling" of culture-primarily Native American, that the Santa Fe
Railroad had begun through the establishment of Harvey facilities along
its route. In doing so, the railroad created a safe and controlled
environment for travelers to experience such interaction. Route 66 and
the various trading posts, cafes, venders, zoos, and other
roadside attractions were less controlled and users had less control
over their exposures, and there were there no certainties about whether
what they were being exposed to was in any way factual or real. In this
regard, these roadside sites were a sort of "frontier". Thomas Arthur
Repp in Route 66: the Romance of the
West says (in essence) that the world of the roadside attraction
was small, and that it fell to a few families to
define for the world passing by on Route 66 what the West was (5). To a great extent, that is what draws
the world back to
Route 66 today- the encounter with the unaltered landscape, and the
time when
there was a regional or local feel to the road.
Third, Route 66 did embrace the changing American
landscape, and in fact helped to accelerate that change. A landscape
where mobility was becoming more highly prized than rootedness. One
where motel chains replaced urban hotels, chain restaurants replaced
local cafes and tourism became an industry. Route 66 was not alone in
these changes. Certainly rail travel that began in the previous century
had started to expose Americans to the experience of travel, and the
myriad of the variety America contained. It was, however, the
automobile that truly made Americans mobile and provided the freedom
for Americans to travel at will. It was the Good Roads movement (6) that agitated for the creation for the
first reliable road
infrastructure for use by those traveling on their own schedule by
their own vehicle. Route 66 was a direct outgrowth of that movement
being created in 1926. Route 66 became an obsolete highway, despite
realignments in less that 20 years (7).
In some respect becoming a short but critical event in American
History much as the "West" had been in Turner's time.
Route 66 is an evolutionary entity. Established from
existing roads, Route 66 was literally superimposed over an existing
road network on the map. The realignment periods of the 30's through
the 50's updated the road. These updates involved paving (completed in
1937), widening, flattening and the beginning of the process of
bypassing towns and cities- the evolution of Route 66 to Interstate 40.
These alignments representing different time periods have become time
capsules portraying the period of time during which Route 66 passed
through that space. This means that the more modern alignments from the
late 1940's and 1950's are showcases of the early chain motel era,
while the earlier alignments are often devoid of any sort of corporate
identity instead featuring local buildings and architecture. I-40
represents the ultimate development of the disembodied highway-
each exit begins to look like a catalog of corporate identities:
fast food establishments, hotel/motel chains, and gas and quick mart
stores. Today Route 66 stands as a museum of America in the last
century, with each alignment carving out a decade or two of history,
and preserving it from modern
development.
In the end though, we might be able to see Route 66
in a parallel light to the American Frontier. For many, a trip down
U.S. Route 66 was a sort of passage. Early (and adventuresome)
automobile travelers, those fleeing the dust bowl, soldiers
during W.W.II, and the open
road vacationers of the 1950s and 60s all discovered something about
themselves, and about America. It wasn't the same as the
frontier, and the effect wasn't quite as Turner might have envisioned
it, but like the frontier and the West, Route 66 continues to be a
focal point in history.
Footnotes:
1. To be fair, Turner's essay was the result of the
declaration of the 1890 Census that the end of a tangible
frontier on the American continent was at hand. See: Turner, Frederick
J. "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", Annual
Report of the American
Historical Association for the Year 1893, U.S.. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., 1894, pp. 197-227. There is a good electronic
version of Turner's thesis at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/
.
2. Turner describes in some detail the symbiotic
relationship (as he interpreted it) between the "Frontier", and the
"civilized" East and the effects each had on the other, creating a
unique (from existing European) culture. See particularly pp.208-227.
3. ibid p. 227.
4. For a more detailed discussion on the impact of
Route 66 on northern Arizona cities, see: Evans, R. Sean , "Route 66 in
Arizona 1926-Present", http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rse/4riordan66.htm,
(last accessed on July 10, 2004)
5. See: Repp, Thomas Arthur, Route 66: the Romance
of the West, Mock Turtle Pr., Lynnwood WA., 2002. Repp discusses
the Route 66 roadside environment general pp. 1-7, and this concept is
put forth on p. 7. Repp's book is especially effective in describing
not only the personalities and characteristics of the roadside world,
but the interrelationships one to the next.
6. Weingroff, Richard F. "Good Roads Everywhere:
Charles Henry Davis and the National Highways Association" http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/davis.htm
, (last accessed on July 5, 2004)
7. [Cleeland, Teri] Historic Route 66
in Arizona (National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property
Documentation Form), section E pp. 6-7.
Bibliography:
Evans, R. Sean , "Route 66 in Arizona 1926-Present", http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rse/4riordan66.htm,
(last accessed on July 10, 2004)
Repp, Thomas Arthur, Route 66: the Romance of the West, Mock
Turtle Pr., Lynnwood WA., 2002
Turner, Frederick J. "The Significance of the Frontier in American
History", Annual Report of the American Historical Association for
the Year
1893, U.S.. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1894, pp.
197-227
United States Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Historic US
Route 66 in Arizona / National Register of Historic Places, United
States Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Washington,
D.C. [?], 1994 [?]
Weingroff, Richard F. "Good Roads Everywhere: Charles Henry Davis
and the National Highways Association" http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/davis.htm,
(last accessed on July 5, 2004)
R. Sean Evans
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Last updated on 07/09/04
minor re-edits 09/17/05