U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).
Interstate 44 (I-44) is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, Texas, at a concurrency with U.S. Route 277 (US 277), US 281, and US 287; its eastern terminus is at I-70 in St. Louis, Missouri. I-44 is one of five Interstates built to bypass US 66; this highway covers the section between Oklahoma City and St. Louis. Virtually the entire length of I-44 east of Springfield, Missouri, was once US 66, which was upgraded from two to four lanes from 1949 to 1955. The section of I-44 west of Springfield was built farther south than US 66 in order to connect Missouri's section with the already completed Will Rogers Turnpike, which Oklahoma wished to carry their part of I-44.
Cherokee County is a U.S. county located in Southeast Kansas. Its county seat is Columbus, and its most populous city is Baxter Springs. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 19,362. The county was named for the Cherokee tribe.
Baxter Springs is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States, and located along Spring River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,888.
Galena is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,761.
Grove is a city in Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,623 at the 2010 census, an increase of 27.6 percent over the figure of 5,131 recorded in 2000. Grove is surrounded by Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees, a professional bass fishing tournament lake and recreational hotspot during the travel season of Memorial Day to Labor Day.
U.S. Route 166 (US 166) is a 164-mile (264 km) east–west United States highway. This route and US 266 are the only two remaining spurs of historic U.S. Route 66, since US 666 was renumbered to US 491 in 2003.
K-66 is a 5.527-mile-long (8.895 km) east–west state highway in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Kansas. Its western terminus is at U.S. Route 69 Alternate and US-400 in Riverton. Its eastern terminus is at the Missouri state line near Galena. This road is noteworthy in the fact that it used to be part of the famed US-66. After 1961, the nearby Interstate 44 (I-44) offered a more direct route between Missouri and Oklahoma. In 1985, US-66 was decommissioned nationally. Kansas replaced the US-66 designation with K-66 on the portion of historic highway not numbered as US-69 Alt.
The Cherokee Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road in eastern Oklahoma. Opened in 1991, the route is a four-lane freeway carrying US-412 from east of Kansas, Oklahoma to east of Chouteau, and has a total length of 32.8 miles (52.8 km) and a speed limit of 80 mph (130 km/h). An alternate route, US-412 Alternate, provides a free but not controlled-access route through the towns bypassed by the Turnpike with only a 55 mph (89 km/h) speed limit.
The Spring River is a 129-mile-long (208 km) waterway located in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma.
K-26 is a 3.601-mile-long (5.795 km) state highway located entirely within Cherokee County, Kansas. It runs from an intersection with U.S. Route 166 (US-166) and US-400 northwest of the Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma tripoint north to K-66 in Galena. The highway is maintained by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT).
U.S. Route 66, the historic east–west US highway between Chicago, Illinois and Santa Monica, California, passed through one brief segment in the southeastern corner of Kansas. It entered the state south of Baxter Springs and continued north until it crossed Brush Creek, from where it turned east and left the state in Galena. After the decertification of the highway in 1985, this road segment was numbered as US-69 (alternate) from Quapaw, Oklahoma north to Riverton, Kansas and as K-66 from Riverton east to Route 66 in Missouri.
U.S. Route 66 is a former east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Santa Monica, California to Chicago, Illinois. In Missouri, the highway ran from downtown St. Louis at the Mississippi River to the Kansas state line west of Joplin. The highway was originally Route 14 from St. Louis to Joplin and Route 1F from Joplin to Kansas. It underwent two major realignments and several lesser realignments in the cities of St. Louis, Springfield, and Joplin. Current highways covering several miles of the former highway include Route 100, Route 366, Route 266, Route 96, and Route 66. Interstate 44 (I-44) approximates much of US 66 between St. Louis and Springfield.
State Highway 10 is a state highway in northeastern Oklahoma. It makes a 233.1 miles (375.1 km) crescent through the northeast corner of the state, running from SH-99 in Osage County to Interstate 40 (I-40) near Gore. It has two lettered spur routes.
The Rainbow Bridge is an old bridge over Brush Creek approximately two miles west of Riverton, Kansas on former U.S. Route 66 (US-66), now a county road. The bridge is a single-span concrete Marsh arch bridge and is the sole surviving bridge of this type on the entire length of the former highway. Two other Marsh arch bridges were also located on US-66 in Kansas, both over the Spring River. It was built in 1923.
The Joplin, Missouri-Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of Jasper, Newton, and Cherokee counties in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas anchored by the city of Joplin. The estimated 2023 population of the Joplin, MO-KS (MSA) is 204,787. As of March 2023, The U.S. Census Bureau MSA delineation report added Cherokee County, Kansas to the Joplin, MO MSA making it the Joplin, MO-KS MSA.
Shoal Creek is an 81.5-mile-long (131.2 km) stream tributary of the Spring River in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas. It begins in Barry County, Missouri southwest of Exeter and flows west through Newton county in Missouri before emptying into the Spring River near Riverton in Cherokee County, Kansas.
The Kan-O-Tex Service Station in Galena, Kansas, United States is a Kan-O-Tex filling station that originally served U.S. Route 66 motorists in 1934. Currently, it is a souvenir shop, snack bar, and tourist attraction.
Lowell is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 244.
U.S. Bicycle Route 66 (USBR 66) is a United States Bicycle Route that follows the former U.S. Route 66 (US 66) across the United States. The first section of the route, spanning 358 miles (576 km) between Baxter Springs, Kansas, and St. Louis, Missouri, was designated as USBR 66 in 2018. A second section was designated in 2021 between Santa Monica, California, and the Arizona state line near Needles, California. The Oklahoma section was designated in 2022. The rest of the route remains proposed but not yet designated.
