Route 66

The panel's arithmetic is off by ninety miles. The 1937 realignment cut New Mexico's share of Route 66 from 506 miles to 399, by the National Park Service's count, a saving of 107, not 197. The cutoff that did it began as a grudge: Governor Arthur Hannett, beaten for reelection in 1926 and blaming his enemies in the capital, used his last weeks in office to force through a road from Santa Rosa straight to Albuquerque. Paved and adopted in 1937, it left this narrow stretch, the old loop's way to Santa Fe, to local traffic.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Route 66 You are traveling an early alignment of U.S. 66, perhaps the most well-known road to follow this historic transportation corridor. A Spanish mission trail to Pecos Pueblo, the Santa Fe Trail and the National Old Trails Road all predate the Mother Road in using this narrow passage through rocky terrain. Until the 1930s, Route 66 was aligned through downtown Santa Fe, exited the city to the southwest, traversed La Bajada and passed through the famed "Big Cut" before descending into Albuquerque. In 1937, Santa Fe was bypassed and Route 66 straightened, creating a direct east-west alignment that eliminated 197 miles of travel.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Palace of the Governors — 9.3 mi
  The long adobe on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza, called the oldest public building in continuous use in the country, though its own founding date is in dispute.
• Pecos National Historical Park — 11 mi
  The red walls of a 1717 mission church inside the foundations of a far larger one, beside the kiva Pecos people dug in front of the old church during the revolt of 1680.
• Bandelier National Monument — 27 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.
• Fuller Lodge — 32 mi
  The upright-log dining hall of a boys' ranch school, which fed and housed the Manhattan Project after the Army bought the school in 1942.

More markers nearby

• Hispano New Mexicans in the US Civil War — 3.0 mi
• Cañoncito at Apache Canyon — 3.0 mi
• Seton Village — 3.6 mi
• Southern Rockies / Galisteo Basin — 6.4 mi