The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the University of Oklahoma have been scheduling meetings around the state to get public input on how to promote Route 66, which is applying for national recognition as a Scenic Byway.

Many of these stories run the usual gamut of opinions. But this story by the Edmond Sun contained a few interesting tidbits from an OU survey of thousands of households:

“The survey indicated we need to educate people about the value of Route 66,” said Pam Lewis, University of Oklahoma Outreach contract manager for the state Scenic Byways program. [...]

“We have to begin to think about the next generation traveler,” Lewis said. “How do we get in the technology where people are talking in an electronic mode.”

When asked which activities attract out-of-state travelers, only 1.1 percent of survey respondents mentioned Route 66 and 80.6 percent did not mention it at all. [My emphasis.] When asked if they thought out-of-state travelers would be interested in Route 66, 61.3 of respondents believed they would be very to somewhat interested while 38.7 said not at all interested or they didn’t know.

Lewis said the State Byways Program came up with some ideas to promote Route 66 and encourage economic development, which included forming a Leadership Development Council that would meet six to seven times and releasing a podcast series, “Audio 66,” that captures the history of Oklahoma and Route 66.

“About 75 percent of our downtown visitors are not Edmondites,” O’Neil said. “They’re looking for that Route 66 experience.”

It’s interesting to see how many Oklahomans are unaware of the potential right in their back yards.

Using the recent release of Marshall Trimble’s “Images of America: Ash Fork” by Arcadia Publishing as a jumping-off point, the Prescott (Ariz.) Daily Courier also does a pretty good job of laying out the Route 66 town’s history.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a burg with as much bad luck as Ash Fork:

But within three decades, the series of economic blows hit town.

The railroad company moved its main route north of town in the late 1950s to avoid a steep climb to Williams. [...]

Ironically, even though it was one of the few historic structures to survive numerous fires, the railroad tore down the Escalante (Harvey House, built in 1907) in 1968.

Hume begged then-Gov. Jack Williams, whose father worked at the Escalante, to save it.

“He said, ‘It’s their property and they can do whatever they want,’” Hume recalled. “I just wanted him to at least talk to them.”

Ash Fork lost nearly all that was left of its original Route 66 business district in 1977 to the “Big Fire” and then to another multi-structure blaze in 1987.

The final major blow to Ash Fork’s existing economy came in 1979 when the Interstate 40 bypass south of town was complete.

The Arizona Department of Transportation closed its major Ash Fork maintenance facility that same year.

But Ash Fork is still there, and it’s now known as the Flagstone Capital of the World.

Route 66 is still there, too.

On Friday, architecture students from Drury University provided their ideas on how to revamp the downtown area of Webb City, Mo.

The Joplin Globe reported:

The Drury students have envisioned turning the Main Street and Highway 171 junction into a key welcoming entrance to draw cars into downtown. Further on, the group is toying with the idea of a roundabout and green space/park area near City Hall to provide a transitional section into the downtown shop area. A similar transitional space would buffer the commercial/industrial part of downtown from the residential part of North Main Street.

In between the transitional spaces, the group envisions an “urban village” feel that has the intensity of a city with the intimacy of a village. To accomplish that, they recommend the city widen its sidewalks, connect the different parts of downtown and add landscaping and benches.

In the middle of the “urban village,” the students want to play up the junction of Route 66 and Main Street with a decorative Route 66 medallion inset in the road and a concentration of Route 66-related services. The four- to five-block area around that intersection could become an entertainment destination point for festivals, car shows and theatrical presentations.

Garrott said emphasizing Webb City’s Route 66 heritage could bring in tourists as well as identify some sources of funding to renovate buildings along the historic road.

A lot of interesting ideas. We’ll see what the city does with it when the final plan is finished in May.