9 landmarks on Route 66 that are pure Americana

A group of tourists pose in front of the space-age Roy's sign in Amboy, California

With its Googie sign, Roy's in Amboy, California, is perfect for a quick photo shoot

(Image credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

published 19 July 2024

Route 66 is an American icon. Established in 1926 and a pop culture fixture ever since, the Mother Road transformed the way people traveled from the West Coast to the Midwest (and vice versa), with diners, gas stations, motels, souvenir shops and tourist traps popping up along the 2,448 mile highway.

These establishments flourished as motorists traversed the road, and to lure visitors, developers started building themed attractions, the flashier the better. The rise of the interstate highway system changed the way people used Route 66, leading to it being decommissioned in the 1980s, but many of these kitschy landmarks still stand — and remain worth pulling over for.

In landlocked Oklahoma, the Blue Whale of Catoosa has been delighting drivers along Route 66 since 1972. The giant structure, made of metal and cement, was built over a pond by zoologist Hugh S. Davis as an anniversary present for his wife, and in its heyday, visitors could spend a whole day here, swimming around the site. Today, travelers can still explore the inside of the bright blue whale, walking through its mouth and climbing into its head.

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To find the Blue Swallow Motel, look for the neon bird and promise of "100% refrigerated air." Built in 1939, this is a true motor inn, with garages between the rooms for parking your car. It is a comfortable place to spend the night, but if you want to check the motel out without checking in, feel free — the owners welcome travelers who want to explore and snap photos of the historic property and its sign, and if they have time, staffers are happy to stop and chat a little about the Blue Swallow and its early days.

Car culture and art collide at Cadillac Ranch, an interactive installation west of Amarillo. In 1974, a group of artists brought 10 Cadillacs out to a patch of land next to Route 66 and buried them halfway in the ground, nose down and at the same angle as the Pyramids of Giza. Visitors are encouraged to come with cans of spray paint so they can leave their mark, and the vehicles are now a psychedelic vision with layers of pink, purple, blue, yellow and green graffiti.

Take a walk down memory lane at the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame & Museum. It is filled with thousands of memorabilia items related to the Mother Road, from old gas pumps to garage signs. Two highlights are a bus and van that once belonged to Bob Waldmire, a prolific pen and ink artist and cartographer whose work focused on Route 66. On the outside of the brick building, there is an Instagrammable mural featuring a giant Route 66 shield and icons like the Chicago skyline and Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

The murals of Cuba tell the story of this tiny town, population 3,160. Some showcase major moments from a bygone era, like when Amelia Earhart was forced to make an unscheduled landing here in 1928 while en route to Los Angeles, and others feature notable former residents like A.J. Barnett, whose time as mayor was marked by the city having its first lighting system installed. These murals are colorful reminders of life in Cuba, before and after Route 66 came to town.

Amboy went from a mining town to a boom town to a ghost town, where today, there is only one place to stop: the iconic Roy's Motel and Café, built in 1938. Here at this Mojave Desert outpost, travelers stop for a cold drink and snack, to fill up using the mechanical gas pumps and to take lots of pictures. The neon Roy's sign is a classic example of futuristic Googie architecture and is in the background of most photos taken in Amboy. Kyle Okura took over ownership of Roy's after his father died last year, and told the Los Angeles Times he is working on renovating the motel's cottages so they can reopen in time for the 100th anniversary of Route 66 in 2026.

The Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Café might look familiar to fans of the movie "Cars" — this 1936 Art Deco complex was the inspiration for Ramone's House of Body Art. The Tower Conoco Station was the first commercial business to open on Route 66 in Shamrock, and today is a visitor's center, community center and Chamber of Commerce office. The café remains a café, and diners can swing by for coffee, lunch or a piece of homemade pie.

In the 1930s, developer Frank A. Redford started the Wigwam Motel chain to showcase his collection of Indigenous artifacts. Of the seven motels he built, only three survive, including the San Bernardino location. Each refurbished cone-shaped unit comes with air conditioning, and fans of "Cars" will recognize the property as the basis for the Cozy Cone Motel. About 1,372 miles of Route 66 crossed through tribal lands, and the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association has a guidebook and website that aims to "break down American Indian stereotypes which were propagated and used as a major lure for tourists."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.