Milestones and memories. The first conference was held in 2015 at the historic Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Illinois. Fast forward to 2026, the year of Route 66 centennial.

The 11th annual Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference is scheduled for October 8-11 in Springfield, Illinois. There has been an ebb and flow to attendance. It was impacted by COVID. But through it all founder Cheryl Eichar Jett, Terri Ryburn, Debyjo Ericksen, Geoff Ladd and a dedicated team of volunteers never wavered.

As this is the second year that we will not be attending, a request was made that I record a short message for the conference opening. That was to be accompanied with a brief summary of the events history for the conference program.

There were lots of memories unleasehed with those two simple projects.

In The Beginning

The Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference is well known in the Route 66 community. It has been the only event that was focused on the business of Route 66. Preservation, tourism, networking, and community development were common themes.

Fittingly the conference is rooted in Route 66 history. On April 27, 1931 the U.S. Highway 66 Association held a similar convention in Elk City, Oklahoma. As with the Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference, attendees were not just focused on the business of Route 66.

There was a parade through the heart of Elk City. A free rodeo was held at the fairgrounds and in the Grand Ballroom of the Casa Grande Hotel a gla dance was held.

Milestones and Memories

In 1932 the U.S. Highway 66 Association held its convention in Kingman, Arizona. These conventions were milestones in Route 66 history. In 2014 they were also the template for business owners and community organizers in Kingman. These visionaries envisioned a modern version of those historic conventions.

The result was the International Route 66 Festival, an event sanctioned by the Route 66 Alliance. When planning first commenced no one involved imagined it as a transformative event. And they didn’t see it as a milestone event in Route 66 history.

Initially there was opposition from the city tourism office as well as the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. They expressed concerns about it impacting attendance of the annual Route 66 Fun Run. Then the international Route 66 community rallied and everything changed.

Ripples In A Big Pond

The wide-ranging impact of this festival is attributed to the historic support provided by the international Route 66 community.

The first meeting to discuss development of a European Route 66 Festival took place at this event. Abandoned shortly afterwards, a Route 66 walk of fame was established. A limited partnership between the City of Kingman and Historic Electric Foundation led to the establishment of the world’s first EV museum. And many business owners in Kingman credit this event for sparking hte historic district renaissance.

Donations from throughout the world made it possible for The Road Crew from Nashville to perform. The band composed the song Kings of Kingman and donated it to the city.

The first meeting to discuss the development of a European Route 66 festival was held. A diverse array of authors and artists added to the international nature of the festival.

But, perhaps, the most impactful event at the festival was the Crossroads of The Past & Future Conference.

Crossroads of the past and future

The theme of the festival was Kingman: Crossroads of The Past & Future. Organizers were hoping that the city would build on this slogan for the branding and marketing of Kingman.

That idea never materialized. But the Crossroads of the Past Conference proved to be a milestone filled with memories.

The two day conference was shared live and then archived on the Mohav County YouTube channel. Speakers included the director of the Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation, Dries Bessels of the Dutch Route 66 Association, Shamrock Texas Economic Development Corporation director Larry Clonts, Jim Ross, Kaisa Barthuli, director for the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, Michael Wallis, and other key people involved with various aspects of Route 66 history, preservation, community development, and tourism.

Another chapter

After attending this festival author Cheryl Eichar Jett saw the importance of the conference to the Route 66 community. When it was announced that the festival and conference would not become an annual event in Kingman, she initiated plans to hold a similar conference in Edwardsville, Illinois the following year.

That, my friends, is the origins of the Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference. And the event in Kingman as well as the one in Edwardsville were milestones in Route 66 history, and in the story of Jim Hinckley’s America. They are also memory filled milestones in my personal Route 66 story that began in the summer of 1959.

Beyond The Route 66 Centennial

The Route 66 centennial represents another milestone in the legendary highway’s history. Now, as the Route 66 community looks toward the next 100 years, people are asking if this highway will still be celebrated at its bicentennial.

In my opinion the answer is a resounding yes. If the American story still provides inspiration in one hundred years Route 66 will remain relevant. After all, from our prehistory to our future, every chapter of our amazing American story is woven in this highway.

And it will be celebrated for another one hundred years because of the people possessed of an infectious enthusiasm for the Route 66 experience and the American story. The travelers and business owners, authors and artists, preservationists and historians, and the people who work tirelessly to keep the legacy alive, people like the ones that have kept the Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference going for eleven years.

The only thing that we won’t have for bicentennial celebrations are the people that experienced it before the era of the interstate highway. But they will live on in spirit, and in the stories that will inspire a new generation of business owners, preservationists, and travelers.