DESTINATIONS THE US | MISSOURI


fast act ast fact British Airways’ new St


Louis link from Heathrow, operating four times a


week this summer, starts on April 19, with return fares from £529


CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Meramec Caverns; Gateway Arch, St Louis;


Laumeier Sculpture Park PREVIOUS PAGE: Chain of Rocks Bridge, St Louis PICTURES: Missouri Division of Tourism/Aaron Fuhrman, Mark Hermes; Laura French


A NEW LIFE


Our journey begins at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St Louis. First opened in 1929, this now- pedestrianised crossing is a feat of engineering, famed for its unusual 22-degree bend midway over the Mississippi River. Its chocolate-brown steel beams have been a landmark for Route 66 travellers since the 1930s, when many fled west in the wake of the Great Depression and the huge dust storms that ravaged farms across the region, known as the Dust Bowl. This westward migration helped to cement the Mother Road’s reputation in popular culture as the pathway to prosperity. “This is where travellers would cross in search of a new life in California,” says Cat Neville, vice-president of communications at Explore St Louis. “For many, it was a symbol of hope.” We glean more insights into the history of the


route as we cross the state: how it flourished with the boom in car ownership, bolstered by a post-war freedom; how it marked the birth of widespread domestic travel, while also enabling bank-robbing gangsters like Bonnie and Clyde to make their rapid escapes; how it gradually fell into decline with the launch of the Interstate Highway System in 1956; and how it was eventually revived as a nostalgic route for travellers from across the world.


34 19 MARCH 2026


33I think of Route 66 as one big, 2,500-mile national park – it’s the people that really keep it alive


ECLECTIC ATTRACTIONS On a tour of the National Museum of Transportation in St Louis, we see the types of cars that would have journeyed along the ‘Main Street of America’ in its golden era – from a 1927 Ford Model T to an orange Chrysler worth £1.5 million. But it’s the quirky roadside attractions, 1930s motels, small rural towns and historic drive-in diners that really have me enchanted. Just outside St Louis, there’s the Laumeier Sculpture Park, a sprawling plot of landscaped greenery dotted with art installations. From here, we continue to the Meramec Caverns, a labyrinth of underground caves first opened as a Route 66 attraction in 1933. Glittering stalagmites rise up like tiny castles between its inky pools while water droplets trickle gently down the walls, making it an atmospheric setting for several films and even TV classic Lassie.


Next come the Ozark Mountains, passing small towns such as Cuba and Waynesville, where artist Jax Welborn leads us along a street lined with old-fashioned shops. “I think of Route 66 as one big, 2,500-mile national park,” she says. “It’s the people that really keep it alive, and everybody here supports each other.” In nearby St Robert, we visit the new Route 66


Neon Park, where a collection of original road signs rescued from various locations glow in flashes of neon blue and red against an indigo sky.


BIRTHPLACE OF THE ROUTE It’s not just the small towns that give Missouri’s stretch of the Mother Road its charm, though. The next stop on our journey is Springfield, the third-largest city in the state, marked out by its central square, where the Wild West’s first shootout took place. This is also the official birthplace of Route 66, as the spot where the highway got its name in 1926. We learn this and other interesting facts on a visit to History Museum on the Square, which traces the rise and fall of the Mother Road up to its eventual closure in 1986. It’s also the home of the Gillioz Theatre,


a masterpiece of Spanish colonial revival ² travelweekly.co.uk


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