Mojave Route 66 Tour set for Oct. 6 2001
VICTORVILLE – Route 66 historian Roger Hatheway is set to lead
a sightseeing
and photo tour of Route 66 through the Mojave Desert on Saturday, Oct.
6.
The tour is organized by the California Route 66
Museum and will include
a series of photo opportunities of both famous and little-known sites
between
Victorville and Ludlow. Hatheway will point out notable sites along
the
highway and provide a running narration and history of the Mother Road.
"The goal is to introduce the history of Route 66
– the development of
the road back from 1912, and to drive on various alignments across
the Mojave
Desert, including dirt alignments and oiled road alignments" said Hatheway.
"We’re going to really give everybody an idea what it was like during
the
heydays of Route 66 and before. We’re going to bring it alive."
The tour will visit Oro Grande, the Mother Road
Museum in Barstow,
historic sites in Daggett, Newberry Springs and Ludlow. The tour will
stop at
the state Agricultural Inspection Station in Yermo where thousands
of Dust
Bowl migrants in the 1930s were screened en route to a better life
in
California. The tour will also visit lava fields and a prehistoric
rock
quarry along Route 66.
"I guarantee that no matter how long someone has
lived in the desert or
traveled Route 66, they’re going to see something new," Hatheway said.
Route 66, which linked Chicago and Santa Monica, followed trails first
used
by American Indians, pioneers and railroads. The 2,400-mile highway
opened
California up to waves of visitors and migrants, including 210,000
"Okies"
immortalized in John Steinbeck’s 1939 classic, "The Grapes of Wrath."
In the
1950s and ‘60s, Route 66 attracted generations of vacationers who traveled
the highway to see the sights of the Southwest and California.
The bus tour will depart at 9 a.m., Saturday, Oct.
6 from the California
Route 66 Museum in Victorville and return around 4 p.m. The deadline
for
reservations is Sept 14. The tour is $45 per person and includes lunch.
To
reserve a seat by credit card, call the museum at (760) 951-0436.
The nonprofit museum is open Thursday through Monday,
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
and is located at 16825 D Street (Route 66) in Old Town Victorville.
Admission is free.