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Guide to New Mexico: Route 66 Tour Route 66: Across 1930s New Mexico Source; The WPA Guide to 1930s New Mexico, compiled by the Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of New Mexico (Amarillo, Texas) -- Tucumcari -- Santa Rosa -- Moriarty -- Albuquerque -- Grants -- Gallup -- (Holbrook, Arizona); US 66. Texas Line to Arizona Line, 376.3 m. ROUTE 66 - NEW MEXICO - General Description Bituminous-paved, two-lane road throughout. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway parallels route between Glenrio and Tucumcari; Southern Pacific Railroad between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway between junction with NM 14 and the Arizona Line. Hotels chiefly in cities; tourist camps and gas stations at short intervals. Over US 66, one of the main transcontinental highways, went many of the farmers who fled from the dust bowl and became migratory workers in the fruit valleys of California. It is the route described in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Because US 66 crosses the section of Oklahoma in which Will Rogers was born, some of his admirers met in Albuquerque in 1939 and gave this road his name, though all US highways are officially designated by numbers. The two sections of this route are as different as the opposite ends of a cow. At the eastern end, the land is as flat as a cowboy's purse the morning after pay day and so level that in the old days the pioneers had to drive stakes across it to find their way. It is a continuation of the Texas Panhandle terrain and the western terminus of the Llano Estacado (staked plains). There is a gradual rise to the western section, where the hills and mountains predominate. Agricultural areas are passed at different points, mostly irrigated, although there is some dry farming in the eastern and central sections. Cattle are numerous in the eastern part, but there are more sheep in the western part. Because of migrations from Texas and Oklahoma into the eastern half, the linguistic stock is largely English, and this is especially true in the larger towns; but farther west, and in the remote villages throughout, both customs and language are Spanish. |
New Mexico Route 66 WESTERN Gallup Grants CENTRAL Albuquerque Santa Fe EASTERN Clines Corners Santa Rosa Tucumcari
Places to Stay Along the Way Note - Lodging links open a new window Albuquerque Tucumcari Gallup Grants Santa Rosa Moriarty Santa Fe |