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A massive, $2 billion “Americana-themed” amusement park is opening in 2026 — and it's thousands of miles from the typical theme park hubs. The American Heartland Theme Park and Resort will include an amusement park comparable in size to Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida or Disneyland in California — but it won’t be in either state. Instead, the park and resort are planned to be built on a 1,000 acre property in the heart of northeast Oklahoma, just off Route 66. The 125-acre theme park was designed by a team including more than 20 former Disney Parks builders and...

On a four-mile rural road eerily nicknamed the Devil's Promenade, just off the old Route 66 in the north-east corner of Oklahoma, a paranormal mystery has puzzled spirit seekers for more than 100 years. The Hornet Spook Light – a mysterious, basketball-sized glowing orb named for the former town of Hornet – has been appearing in the night sky here since 1881. No-one knows what this peculiar, smouldering ball of light signifies, where it comes from or what it's composed of. Even the Army Corps of Engineers have concluded that it's a "mysterious light of unknown origin". It moves, spinning...

The mayor of a US town named Uranus has unveiled a new neon mural wall celebrating its location on Route 66. Located in Missouri, the unincorporated town has a population of 25. The neon light installation measures 6m high and 16m wide. It features icons from towns also located on Route 66 including the Blue Swallow Motel in New Mexico, Cadillac Ranch in Texas and the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma.... Other popular attractions in the town include the Fudge Factory and the General Store, but Mayor Baker said there's more work to be done and the town will...

Route 66 has been forgotten. The once-vital artery connecting Chicago and Los Angeles—and hundreds of towns in between—was America’s Main Street. John Steinbeck famously dubbed it “the Mother Road.” Passing through and bringing life to towns and cities across the heartland, Route 66 captured the imagination, delivering tourists, families, and misbegotten souls from one end of the country to the other. Even its rosy past has a dark undercurrent. Those diners, motels, and other roadside establishments played played host to rampant segregation. For black Americans, the Mother Road was rife with danger.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Two Oklahoma senators announced Tuesday that they have filed a bill to create the President Donald J. Trump Highway on the world-famous Route 66. According to Senate Bill 1089, the renamed section of Route 66 will begin at the intersection of Highland Avenue near Miami and extend north and east through Commerce to the intersection of Industrial Parkway in Ottawa County. “President Trump has done an outstanding job on behalf of our nation and Oklahoma,” said state Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow. “We feel like this is a perfect opportunity to commemorate the great impact his leadership...

An Oklahoma murder mystery has brought tourists to the town of Arcadia for decades. An old gas station has sat along Route 66 for about a century. If you stop by, Sam Gillaspy, who goes by “Mr. Sam,” is happy to share his story about the station's checkered past. Sam says that back in the 1930s, when two brothers owned the station, a salesman stopped by to ask if they wanted to make counterfeit bills. The illegal business took off. "The counterfeiters, they built a little room back there," Mr. Sam explained. "Then they had a table right here and...

Martin Milner, the veteran actor best known for starring in the popular TV dramas Adam-12 and Route 66, has died. He was 83. The Los Angeles Police Department’s communications office confirmed his death in an Instagram post referring to his Adam-12 character that reads, “Pete Malloy, you are end of watch”:

One of the first television theme songs that caught my attention as a kid in Catholic School, was Route 66, written and conducted by Nelson Riddle. Route 66 was on Friday nights on CBS from Oct. 7 1960 to March 20 1964. It was shot on location, and though the show got it's name from that famous highway, very few episodes were shot on that actual highway. The program starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles, and for the first two seasons George Maharis as Buz Murdock. The show centered around the adventures of two young men who traveled across America...

97% Of The Travelers On America's 'Mother Road' Are White Gus Lubin March 29, 2012, 8:06 AM A big report is out on the importance of Route 66, which John Steinbeck dubbed America's "mother road." The study by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, the National Park Service and the American Express Foundation argues for state spending to support this culture and economic institution. But who enjoys the road from Chicago to Santa Monica? The socioeconomic profile of the Route 66 traveler is: 1. Overwhelmingly (97 percent) white in race. 2. Overwhelmingly (97 percent) not Hispanic in ethnicity (recall...

If John Steinbeck were alive today and had yet to pen "The Grapes of Wrath," it's not too hard to imagine the novelist telling the story of a family making its departure from California. Released 70 years ago today, Steinbeck's novel of the Great Depression told of the hardships endured by the Joads, an Oklahoma family that braved Route 66 in an ultimately fruitless search for prosperity in the Central Valley. Steinbeck's novel isn't the only story of those who have moved to California. Students learn of the Spanish missions and the Gold Rush. The nostalgia of Route 66 is...

When Manoj Patel's family bought the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, Calif., four years ago, the iconic Route 66 property was rundown. Its stucco teepees, built in the 1930s by Kentucky motor-inn visionary Frank Redford, had been frequented by drug addicts and prostitutes because the Wigwam's previous owners tried to reel in customers with a cheesy sign urging them to DO IT IN A TEE PEE. The Patels, who left India for the U.S. in 1980, worked hard to restore the motel to its former glory and added some modern amenities, including free wi-fi access. Says the owners' son Manoj, 27:...

MIAMI, Okla. - The Riviera Courts motel is crumbling away and nobody seems to care. Once a stop along Route 66, the 2,400-mile neon carnival that connected hundreds of communities from Chicago to Los Angeles, this late-1930s Mission Revival is just a weather-worn building on the side of a country road in far northeast Oklahoma. Next door, soybean farmers Richard and Rosemary Woolard watch the place deteriorate from their front porch. "Been a lot of changes in this old county," 77-year-old Richard Woolard says plainly. The Riviera Courts is among hundreds of mom-and-pop motels that met their demise along the...

Herbert B. Leonard, who created and produced the 1950s western TV series "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," and the gritty police drama "Naked City," has died. He was 84. Leonard, who also produced the memorable series "Route 66," died of cancer Saturday at his home in the Hollywood Hills, said his daughter Gina Leonard. Born in New York City, Leonard launched his career as a producer in the 1950s, developing adventure TV shows for Screen Gems, Columbia Picture's television subsidiary. "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" featured a heroic German shepherd and his boy companion, Rusty. Set in a...

What a Flag Day it was! Some would ask, 'Lyman, aren't you and others over-reacting, about the display of just one more flag?' That's the question I had to ask--and answer. The answer: an emphatic No! Apathy, shrugging the shoulders, passivity, lethargy, failure to take a stand about symbolism, intangibles and principles...is a slippery slope. We're living in a world where there is constant pressure to be 'politically correct' so as not to offend with genuine appropriate American patriotism, here in these United States. We had about 30 patriots show up during work hours, with people driving from as far...

Ramiro Dela Fuente attended a recent forum on the proposed Interstate 69 highway, because like a lot of other people, he’s anxious about which route it might take. "Interstates bring commerce. Restaurants, hotels, stores start building up around them. That would be good for Harlingen," the 58-year-old Harlingen resident said. "We’ve been seeing the signs for future routes of I-69 everywhere, and we don’t know where it’s actually going." At this point, nobody really knows. What many agree on is this: The route that is eventually selected will become the gateway to the Rio Grande Valley. Will it be U.S....

Saving the kicks on Route 66 Enthusiast heads up Hampton Inns' preservation caravan By David Flaum flaum@gomemphis.com July 16, 2003 If Jim Conkle was road-weary after 9,000 or so miles on the road since late April, he didn't show it Tuesday. Talking about U.S. 66, his route for much of his travels, gets his adrenaline pumping. "We wanted to make Americans realize that within hours of where they live was a historical icon," said Conkle, the 62-year-old leader of the Route 66 Caravan that is being financed by Hampton Inns as part of its four-year-old Save-a-Landmark program. Conkle drove in...

Tue Apr 29, 5:16 PM ET Actor Martin Milner, of television's 'Adam-12' and 'Route 66' fame, waves flags to signal the start of the Hampton Inn-Route 66 Caravan, flanked by classic cars along Ocean Avenue, April 29, 2003 in Santa Monica, California. The caravan will post more than 60 roadside attraction signs along America's most famous highway -Route 66 - at vintage sites, some featured on the Route 66 series. REUTERS/Bob Riha