8 Historic Stops Along Route 66 You Can Still Visit

Route 66 wasn’t just a way for Americans to head west for a better life. It was also used by career criminals, including Bonnie and Clyde, to evade authorities. There are numerous locations with ties to lawbreakers dotted along Route 66, especially between St. Louis and Chicago, where Al Capone would regularly bootleg booze.

Bizzarri says that the most notorious location that Capone frequented was Luna Cafe, located in Granite City, Illinois, just outside of St. Louis. Luna Cafe actually precedes Route 66 by two years, opening in 1924, and is still in business today. “It has a very cool martini sign with a cherry in it,” Bizzarri explains. “Rumor has it that there was a secret gambling operation in the cafe’s basement. But also upstairs they had more risqué entertainment, and if the cherry was lit up, that meant ladies of the night were available upstairs.”

Opened after World War II, Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri, was a staple on Route 66 for nearly 40 years before closing in 1984. The restaurant is sometimes credited with becoming the first drive-thru in America in 1948, though fellow Route 66 business Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop in Springfield, Illinois, also claims this honor.

What made Red’s Giant Hamburg stand out was its giant cross-shaped sign. Original owner Sheldon “Red” Chaney intended to call his restaurant Red’s Giant Hamburger, but the too-tall sign he purchased threatened to hit overhead power lines. Chaney’s solution was to get rid of the “er” and change his burger joint’s name.

The restaurant and its iconic sign are long gone, but a replica of the Red’s Giant Hamburg sign was installed at the Birthplace of Route 66 Roadside Park in 2014.

Arguably no other stop along Route 66 has made as big a cultural impact as the Kan-O-Tex Service Station. Opened in 1934, the gas station operated for decades in Galena, Kansas. Yet, dwindling traffic, partially due to the construction of Interstate 44 that bypassed Kansas’ Route 66 stretch in 1961, resulted in its closure.

In the early 2000s, a creative team from Pixar traveled down Route 66, looking for inspiration as they worked on the animated movie Cars. When the group stopped outside Kan-O-Tex, they spotted a rusty International boom truck that became the inspiration for Mater, the tow truck character. The movie was a huge success, spawning two sequels, short films, a limited TV series and the spin-off franchise Planes.

“Many Cars characters were based on things you find along Route 66,” Bizzarri says. “Cars really brought Route 66 to an entirely new generation.” So much so that, in 2007, the Kan-O-Tex Service Station and International boom truck were restored. The former auto shop is now a souvenir store and restaurant called Cars on the Route.

In the early 1970s, zoologist Hugh Davis wanted to build something that would make swimming in a nearby pond more enjoyable for his grandchildren. Davis and his friend Harold Thomas spent two years constructing a giant blue whale, equipped with a slide and stairs, that measures 20 feet high and 80 feet long.

“It’s one of the cutest landmarks on Route 66,” Bizzarri declares. “It’s all hand-built. [They] welded the metal frame and mixed the cement one bucket at a time.”

Unsurprisingly, the giant blue whale stood out to people driving through Catoosa, Oklahoma. When it finally opened in July 1972, visitors made the giant blue whale a pit stop where they could swim, fish and have a picnic. Although swimming is no longer allowed, the Blue Whale of Catoosa is still one of the most well-known stops on Route 66. “It symbolizes American ingenuity,” Bizzarri says. “Route 66 is full of things like that.”

Even vegetarians will find the allure of The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery in Amarillo, Texas, hard to ignore. The cowboy on its towering sign looks like Woody from Toy Story, there’s a giant fake cow outside and plenty of Wild West decor, and it’s home to a long-standing competitive eating challenge. People who are brave and hungry enough to enter have one hour to eat a 72-ounce steak as well as a shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad and a roll. Complete the task, and that giant meal is free.

Even if you aren’t up to the competition, Bizzarri says “it’s a great place to people-watch because it’s so big, and you get a full view of people taking part in the steak challenge.” Travelers have been stopping by since The Big Texan opened in March 1960.

As Route 66 ventures into the Southwest, temperatures can increase to an uncomfortable extent. The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, is the perfect spot for travelers to have a dip and cool down. Just be warned: The 62-degree water in the spring-fed swimming hole feels “incredibly freezing,” according to Bizzarri, who says she hyperventilated after jumping in.

That doesn’t make the Blue Hole any less spectacular, as it appears like a mirage in the middle of the dry and dusty desert. In centuries past, Indigenous people and early settlers used it as a source of water, while locals still tell tales of the hidden caves down in the roughly 200-foot abyss (the cave system still hasn’t been fully mapped). After the 1976 deaths of two scuba divers in training, the caves were sealed. Still, the Santa Rosa Blue Hole remains a beloved spot for scuba divers across the region.

Formed around 50,000 years ago, the Meteor Crater (also called the Barringer Crater) near Winslow, Arizona, is regarded as one of the most recognizable and best-preserved meteorite impact sites in the world. Even just standing on its rim was enough for Bizzarri to feel the weight of history. “It’s almost eerie—especially once you learn that it was once this grassland inhabited by mammoths and giant sloths around 50,000 years ago when it was hit by the meteor,” she says.

From 1961 to 1974, astronauts trained at the impact site before the Apollo 11 and 12 missions. Today, there are guided tours of the rim, a discovery center and space museum as well as one of the Apollo 11 training capsules.

A trip on the “Main Street of America” wouldn’t be complete without visiting a McDonald’s. The original McDonald’s site in San Bernardino, California, where founders Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant on May 15, 1940, is now an unofficial museum that celebrates the history of America’s most famous culinary output.

Full of rare and kooky memorabilia, it’s the perfect place to see how McDonald’s revolutionized fast food. Visitors who whet their appetites while strolling through the museum—which was created by Albert Okura, founder of the chicken restaurant Juan Pollo, after he purchased the lot in 1998—can then satisfy their hunger at the McDonald’s located just a mile away.