Route 66 Hi-Way Cafe With Motorcycle 12x8 Tin Sign. Established on November 11, 1926, one of the original & most famous highways in America, Route 66 originally started in Chicago, Illinois and ran through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, before ending in Santa Monica, California covering 2448 miles. In the 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck the highway he dubbed the "Mother Road" symbolizes escape, loss,  hope,  and new beginnings for people who migrated west especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Additional nicknames for the highway include the Will Rogers Highway and the Main Street of America. Own this great piece of American Transportation History Today!