In early March, Samantha and I drove out to Albuquerque for the annual meeting of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership. I’ve served on their board since I became President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association in 2019 and I chair one of their working groups – the one that brings State Associations and Byways together monthly to talk about needs, developments along the road, and opportunities to work together. This year, the main focus for the Road Ahead’s meeting was strategic planning.
The Road Ahead was officially founded in 2016, but it was the product of a much longer process that started way back in 1990. That’s the year that Congress passed the Route 66 Study Act, which directed the National Park Service to do a deep-dive on Historic Route 66 and come up with a plan to manage the corridor and provide preservation options. Through that work, the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program was established in 1999. In addition to providing grants to the Route 66 community, the Program has offered technical assistance, guidance in creating smaller management plans, historic interpretation resources, training, and more. Kaisa Barthuli has been the face of this program for nearly its entire existence.
Another part of the legislation that formed the National Park Service’s program also called for the eventual creation of a private non-profit organization to carry on this mission as a long-term steward. So, in 2013, more than 100 people met in Anaheim, California and laid the groundwork for what officially became the Road Ahead Partnership three years later. This included representatives from the NPS, the World Monuments Fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Route 66 Associations in addition to individual business owners, roadies, historians, and international guests.
As the road evolves, so must the organizations that support it. The Road Ahead’s primary purpose for this meeting was to evaluate the organization’s mission and goals. Most everyone is focused on the Centennial in 2026, and for good reason…but the road will still be here in 2027 and beyond. Preservation never ends. We didn’t know it until we were all gathered in New Mexico, but Kaisa announced she was leaving the National Park Service. It was very emotional; Kaisa has been the beating heart of the preservation community for decades. As of this writing, the future of the NPS Route 66 Preservation Program is unknown. It had already been extended once and the federal funding landscape is changing daily. So it was more important than ever that the Road Ahead is set up for success as a useful resource and Route 66 advocate.
Aside from Kaisa’s sad news, I’m happy to say that the meeting went very well. We had great discussions about what had been going well, what needed work, and what needs were beyond the Road Ahead’s purview. Decisions were made to expand the Board a bit to include more voices at the table and to better define the outcomes we wanted to see as our work progresses. I also had the opportunity to be a part of the Research Route 66 annual meeting, which consisted of representatives from multiple museums and learning institutions along the Route 66 corridor. And, of course, we all got to spend time with one another. The people are the true value of any Route 66 related project.
The drive to-and-from Albuquerque was also a blast, as you would expect. Below are a few of my favorite photos from the journey that tell a little more of the story.
Rhys' Pieces 