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End of the Road

By AAN Staff
september 30, 2003  11:05 am
End of the Road
After World War I, there were only 3,000 miles of paved roads in the United States. Then came Route 66 -- dubbed the "Mother Road" by the dustbowl Okies heading to California in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath -- which linked Chicago to Los Angeles and ran through eight states. In Illinois Times' annual Route 66 issue, Paul Ingle looks at the Dixie Truckers Home, which opened 75 years ago in McLean, Illinois, just north of the state capital, Springfield. The Dixie's story mirrors the history of the Mother Road and the golden age of the small-time entrepreneur. But on July 31, the Dixie passed into corporate hands, and the pioneering ideas of the oldest truck stop on Route 66 will be absorbed into a franchising plan that will stamp the name cookie-cutter fashion on a variety of businesses on the laser-straight Interstate 55, and the true Dixie will then take its place in history alongside the fabled Route 66.
View full article at Illinois Times