Like the farm family displaced in the book, known as the Joads, thousands of Americans fled poverty and drought in Oklahoma, Texas and the neighbouring states during the Great Depression. The Beatniks. Hundreds of motels and shops popped up along the route as the demand for the great American road trip began to take off. This gateway to the Grand Canyon celebrates its Route 66 history with an annual celebration that includes vintage cars, arts and crafts and musical tributes to the Mother Road . In the 1940s, beatniks like Jack Kerouac used Route 66 to hitchhike from New York to California. Books that honor a part of American History and serve as educational tools or travel guides for Route 66: The Mother Road. It was Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road,” that provided Route 66 its nickname—“the mother road.” It wasn’t just popular for print though, with radio and television writers also embracing the larger-than-life narrative of adventure. U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System.US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The author gave Route 66 its most recognized nickname the “Mother Road,” which was conveyed in the epic film and functioned to “immortalize the highway in the American conscious.”

The book gave Route 66 its nickname In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck became the first writer to refer to Route 66 – the two-lane, 2,448-mile-road … The highway also gave its name to a popular television show, "Route 66", broadcast during the early sixties in the United States.

Classic hotels from the mid-century still line Rt 66 as it winds through the center of town. During the story, he refers to Route 66 as the "Mother Road", a nickname it still has today. When Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, the road became even more famous. Score A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. In John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, he coined the popular nickname: “The Mother Road”. When writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Steinbeck devoted a whole chapter for the Route 66, but he dubbed it “The Mother Road” and the nickname has remained for many years. Books like On the Road made Route 66 synonymous with a journey to find one’s self, God, or adventure. Visit The Museum Club, built in 1931, a classic roadhouse famous for their extraordinary taxidermy collection. Some were looking for opportunity.