Route 66 in the News

New Mexico Offering Commemorative License Plates

2007-08-10 11:51:00

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Richard Delgado is appealing to sentimental New Mexicans who yearn for a bygone era of neon, tourist courts and roadside hamburger stands.

Delgado wants them to buy an official Route 66 license plates. Designed by Bob Audette of Edgewood, the yellow-and-red New Mexico plate features a black-and-white shield-shaped Route 66 sign on the left and the well-known phrase, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" in red along the top.

Delgado, tourism director in Santa Rosa, one of the communities on the historic highway, hopes seeing the licenses will make people more aware of what was once called the Mother Road.

They're meant to do more than that. Sales will help fund projects to restore and preserve landmarks along New Mexico's portion of the old road.

Route 66 began in 1926 but wasn't paved the entire way until 1937. It eventually traversed 2,400 miles across eight states from Chicago to the Los Angeles area. The exact length is difficult to figure because the road's alignment changed in various states over the years.

Its heyday lasted through 1970. But as interstates were built, more and more of the route was decommissioned as a federal highway, and the last stretch disappeared from official maps in the mid-1980s.

Still, Route 66 has a romance and a following that modern interstates haven't attracted. It linked rural and urban areas and saw everything from Dust Bowl migrants heading to California to the development of America's car culture.

The highway spawned a television show in the 1960s and a Bobby Troup song made famous by Nat King Cole that urges people to "Get your kicks on Route 66." A whole industry has arisen selling Route 66 memorabilia; museums are dedicated to the route; diners and cafes are named for it.

So far, sales of New Mexico's Route 66 license plate haven't brought in enough money for the state to take applications for preservation project grants, said Laurie Frantz, coordinator of the state Scenic Byways Program, which will get about two-thirds of the revenue from the plates.

"I'd love to see it used to restore old neon signs, things that show the flavor of old Route 66," she said.

The Motor Vehicle Division ordered 500 of the special plates, which became available in May. As of this week, the MVD had sold 141, said agency spokesman David Harwell.

The plates cost $37 above the cost of registering a vehicle. The MVD gets $12 of that for expenses. The rest goes to the Scenic Byways Program, overseen by the state Tourism Department.

Frantz reserved plate numbers 1 through 66. People can contact her for plates within those numbers, although Nos. 1 and 66 have long since been taken, she said.

Motorists with vintage cars sometimes try to get a Route 66 plate to match the car's model year, she said.

Route 66 plateholders must pay for the special plate each year. That means the Scenic Byways program would get the additional $25 per plate every year, Frantz said.

The bill that created the Route 66 fundraising plate was modeled after a national Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program administered by the National Park Service, said Delgado, a member of the Route 66 Association that lobbied for the plate.

"My idea on this whole thing was to do something similar to that," he said.

Frantz said the state's eventual Route 66 grants, which recipients would have to match, will pay for such things as renovation projects for buildings along the road. The project has not worked out details of the application or how much matching money would be required, she said.

No applications will be taken before next year, she said.

~Associated Press, via KVOA.com