The Route 66 Centennial: Why 2026 Matters for Arizona

On November 11, 1926, the American Association of State Highway Officers officially designated U.S. Route 66. A two-lane highway from Chicago to Los Angeles, cutting through the heart of the country: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California.

That was 100 years ago. 2026 is the centennial.

And for the stretch of the Mother Road that runs through Arizona, this year matters more than most people realize.

What Route 66 Did for Arizona

Before Route 66, most of rural Arizona was isolated. The highway connected small towns to the national transportation grid, bringing travelers, commerce, and culture to places that had been largely self-contained. Flagstaff, Williams, Winslow, Holbrook: these towns grew up along the road. Their economies, their identities, their architecture were shaped by the traffic flowing through.

When Interstate 40 bypassed Route 66 in the 1970s and '80s, those same towns nearly died. The motels closed. The diners shut down. The neon went dark. Some towns, like Winslow, spent decades in decline before finding new life through preservation and tourism.

Flagstaff survived better than most because it had the university, the observatory, and the ski resort. But Route 66 is still the literal main street of downtown. It's the spine of the city. And the neon signs that light up at dusk aren't museum pieces. They're still doing the job they were built to do: making people slow down and look.

2026 Centennial Events in Arizona

Route 66's centennial year is packed with celebrations across Arizona:

• Route 66 Bike Week (April 20 to 26, 2026): A rolling rally through historic Route 66 towns across the state.
• Seligman Centennial Celebration (April 30, 2026): The community that fought to preserve Route 66 unveils new monument signs and hosts an all-day celebration.
• Mother Road Classic Car Show (August 15, 2026): Downtown Flagstaff, City Hall parking lot. Classic cars on Route 66, right where they belong.
• AAA Route 66 Road Fest: A national celebration with interactive history, classic cars, and family activities at stops along the entire route.
• Route 66 Centennial Stamps: The U.S. Postal Service is producing Route 66 Centennial commemorative stamps to mark the milestone.

Arizona holds the longest continuously drivable stretch of Route 66 in the country at 385 miles, from the New Mexico border through Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff, Williams, and Kingman to the California line.

The Centennial Collection

Weird & Wild West partnered with the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona to create centennial merchandise. Not the generic Route 66 shield on a t-shirt that you can buy in any state along the road. Original, hand-drawn designs that are specifically, unmistakably about Route 66 in Arizona.

The centennial collection includes:

• Through the Desert: a hand-drawn desert highway heading straight into Monument Valley. The kind of scene that makes people understand why the road became an icon.
• Roadtrip: a retro-style map tracing Route 66 from Chicago to LA, with Flagstaff prominently marked. For the people who understand the full scope of what this road connected.
• Where to Next: standing at the intersection of Humphreys and Route 66 in downtown Flagstaff, where two interstates, four directions, and 89A all converge. The crossroads as metaphor. The crossroads as literal GPS coordinates.

Each design features the Route 66 Centennial artwork on the back and a small centennial logo on the front. These are commemorative pieces for a once-in-a-lifetime milestone.

Weird & Wild West is an official partner of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. The centennial collection was developed through that partnership, with support from a Route 66 Cost Share Grant. Every design is original artwork by Brigitte De Marco, created in Arizona, sold steps from Route 66 at The Underground in downtown Flagstaff.

Why Original Art Matters for This

The Route 66 merch market is enormous and almost entirely generic. The same shield logo, the same "Get Your Kicks" slogan, the same vintage car illustration, repeated from Chicago to Santa Monica in every gift shop along the way.

For the centennial, that's not good enough. A 100-year-old highway that shaped the American West deserves better than clip art. It deserves art that's rooted in the specific places the road runs through, made by artists who live in those places, sold by brands that exist on the road itself.

Every state along the Mother Road is celebrating the centennial in its own way. Oklahoma launched official state commission merchandise through Imagine Oklahoma. Mythic Press in Tulsa has a centennial collection. Arizona's centennial merch comes from Weird & Wild West: hand-drawn, artist-made, rooted in the actual places the road runs through.

The Underground at The Temple is located at 2 E Aspen Ave in downtown Flagstaff. That's one block from Route 66. Our centennial merch is literally made steps from the Mother Road.

Walk the Road

Freaky Foot Tours launched the only guided walking tour in the country built entirely around Route 66 history. Eighteen stops across 1.3 miles of downtown Flagstaff, covering six themes: pilgrimage and the 35th Parallel, neon sign wars, the Southside mosaic, democratic travel, unsolved murder, and Indigenous heritage. Everyone else drives Route 66. This tour walks it.

Book the Route 66 Walking Tour

The Year to Get It

Centennials happen once. Route 66's 100th anniversary in 2026 is a moment for everyone who loves the road, the history, the drive, the neon, and the strange American optimism that said "let's pave a highway from Chicago to the Pacific and see what happens."

The centennial collection is available now. These designs are tied to this moment. 2026 is the year.