GoRoute66

🐬 Cadillac Ranch - Amarillo, Texas

Ten Cadillacs, buried nose-down in an Amarillo wheat field — and the idea behind them has an aquatic connection nobody expects.

In 1974, San Francisco art collective Ant Farm (Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez, and Doug Michels) was commissioned by Amarillo art patron Stanley Marsh 3 to build a public art piece that would puzzle the locals. But the concept didn’t start with cars — it started with dolphins. Michels was fascinated by dolphins at the time, and when the trio scouted the wheat field site, the wind moving through the crop looked like ocean waves. The connection clicked: dolphin fins, Cadillac fins. The final piece spans ten Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963, tracing the evolution of the tailfin — now one of the most photographed stops on Route 66.

📸 Photo credit: Jim Livingston, Nancy Smith, Nick Gerlich, Wyatt McSpadden

🏨 Hotel Monte Vista - Flagstaff, Arizona

Built by the people. Named by a child. Still standing after a century.

The Hotel Monte Vista opened on New Year’s Day, 1927 — just seven weeks after Route 66 itself. Flagstaff residents raised $200,000 in a single month to fund its construction, making it one of the only hotels in American history built entirely with public money.

A naming contest gave it its identity — a 12-year-old girl submitted “Monte Vista,” Spanish for “mountain view,” and it stuck.

Over the decades, the hotel became a favorite of Hollywood. John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, and Spencer Tracy all walked these halls. Several rooms still carry their names today.

The basement speakeasy kept things lively through Prohibition. Underground tunnels run beneath the property. And the ghost stories? Those come standard.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Monte V remains an active hotel at the corner of Aspen and San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff — one of Route 66’s most enduring landmarks.

Excited to be covering this film by John Paget which premieres this fall in various places across Route 66. GoRoute66 will be featuring clips, interviews, events and much more from Route 66: The Main Street of America Go see when this film premieres in a town near you and hopefully we’ll see you there!

Oklahoma Route66. Images from the Official Route 66 Caravan, GoRoute66, Big Texan Steak Ranch trip down Route 66. Great times and great moments shared with wonderful people along the route.