American Road Magazine

In the coming year, Route 66 will celebrate its own centennial. Festivals will fill the streets of this thoroughfare that has carried generations of vacationers from Chicago to L.A. and found immortality in film, literature, and song. Here at American Road, we’re determined to help readers play part in that jubilee: Our lead feature in this issue is “100 Years on Route 66”—an eight-state extravaganza showcasing locations that are observing their own century marks along the storied highway. Get out there and get your kicks.

Angel Delgadillo is the barber from Seligman, Arizona, who is widely credited with sparking the movement to preserve Route 66 forty years ago. In early 2027, he will turn 100 himself. We sit down to chat with him in our American Road Interview to hear his thoughts about cutting hair, heart and home, and reaching milestones big and small. Afterward, we continue with our centenary theme: We drop into Detroit’s famous River Rouge Plant, climb the 164 steps to the top of Oregon’s Astoria Column, book a night with the Revolutionary War ghosts at Connecticut’s Beekman Arms, and explore the Illinois blacksmith shop wherein John Deere bent a broken sawmill blade into his first plow in 1837. We return to the unforgettable Lucy the Elephant in New Jersey, order Alabama barbeque in the city “Big Bob” Gibson first served it in ten decades ago, and blow with the breeze into Palm Springs, where a towering monument to Marilyn Monroe (born in 1926) recalls her iconic pose from The Seven Year Itch. Buckle up!