Route 66 construction progress

Transforming early roads into Route 66 was no easy feat: They were unpredictably meandering, rocky, and unpaved. Several of the roads used to create the “Mother Road” were little more than trails. In Missouri, 115 miles between Rolla and Springfield overlapped a portion of the Trail of Tears, the route taken during the forced removal of Native peoples from their land in the southeastern United States in the 1830s. Route 66 would also incorporate the Ozark Trail from St. Louis to Tulsa and the Old Wire Road from St. Louis to Springfield.

Object Title and Accession Number

Route 66 construction progress. Unknown photographer, 1933. P0650-00003.

Black and white photograph of a construction site.

A black and white photo from 1933 showing construction work on a road. A large excavator is on the left, with several trucks lined up to the right. Trees and a few buildings are visible in the background. Handwritten text reads "Hwy Relay #66 1933.