History museum gets a stretch of Route 66

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Flatbed trucks brought a 48-foot stretch of Route 66 to the National Museum of American History on Wednesday _ 55 tons of American road lore. <br><br>The dozen slabs of steel-reinforced

Wednesday, December 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Flatbed trucks brought a 48-foot stretch of Route 66 to the National Museum of American History on Wednesday _ 55 tons of American road lore.

The dozen slabs of steel-reinforced concrete are part of a major exhibit called ``America On The Move.'' It will open in the fall of 2003 _ a survey of how Americans have gotten around since the 1870s.

``People will be able to walk on 66,'' said William I. Withuhn, the museum's curator of transportation.

Until a few weeks ago, the hunk of road was part of a spur between Interstate 40 and U.S. 281 between El Reno and Clinton, Okla., west of Oklahoma City. The double yellow stripe is still visible on the slabs. It's hilly country _ no passing, a museum official explained.

``This slab has borne the wheels of commerce for over 65 years and is still functional,'' said Neal McCaleb, the Oklahoma transportation secretary.

What the museum calls ``America's Main Street'' is already commemorated in two panels of its long-term exhibit of cars and wagons.

They include the sheet music from Bobby Troup's popular song:

``If you ever plan to motor west

``Travel my way,

``Take the highway,

``That's the best.

``Get your kicks

``On Route 66.''

Dozens of small towns along the 2,400 miles between Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif., got a kick out of the ``Okies'' and other Midwesterners struck by drought and depression in the 1930s. The migrants' ramshackle cars and high-piled pickups sputtered along main streets, part of U.S. 66, on their way to California

The panels at the museum also quote from ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' John Steinbeck's novel of the period: ''66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from the dust of shrinking lands.''