To celebrate the centennial of Route 66 in 2026, the very first episode of the year features the life of the Father of Route 66- Cyrus Stevens Avery.
Join Route 66 Podcast host Anthony Arno as he talks with Susan Croce Kelly, author of Father of Route 66: Cy Avery. More than establishing Route 66, Avery was a proponent of the Good Roads Movement and advocated for paved roads at the introduction of the automobile in America.
Highlights from the show include:
- Teaming up with Quinta Scott in 1990 to write Route 66: The Highway and Its People
- Searching for Route 66
- Avery's childhood
- Avery travels west in a covered wagon at age 13
- Awareness of road conditions as a young pioneer
- Populariity of bicycles in establishing paved roads
- Avery pulls America out of the mud
- What did Avery get right?
- Replacing named roads with numbered roads
- Road construction and technology
- Need for proper signage with road travel
- Rapid growth of automobiles with Model T introduction
- Railroad perspective regarding paved roads
- Avery reluctantly accepts the number "66" for his road
- Secretary of Agriculture in charge of road construction
- What did Route 66 get right that the other highways of the day missed out on?
- US Highway 66 Association established to promote the road
- Proposing a 3400 mile coast to coast footrace along Route 66
- The Bunion Derby puts Route 66 on the world map
- The Great Depression years
- Running for governor of Oklahoma
- Providing clean drinking water to Tulsa
- Avery's biggest achievement (not Route 66)
- Modernizing the Tulsa airport
- Reflection
- Importance of trip west for Avery in a covered wagon
- Replacing Route 66 with the Interstate Highway
- 1969 Highway Beautification Act removes local billboards
- Route 66 as a tourist attraction today
- Centennial Plaza in Tulsa honors Avery
- Newspaper Women of the Ozarks book
