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In the pre-Interstate, pre-fast food era, a company called Travel Mats came up with a great gimmick: using the place mats at restaurants on the U.S. Highway system to advertise places to eat, sleep and visit along the route. The family sitting down for lunch at the Liberty Restaurant in Pontiac, Illinois ("Ultra modern, air conditioned. On the square since 1919") would learn that 151 miles ahead on Route 66, Staunton's Hi-Service Station and Cafe ("We specialize in chicken dinners") was waiting to serve them and their car. Travel Mats were printed for every two-digit U.S. Route. The complete set was sold separately, in a smaller format, spiral bound volume. One of these, from about 1959, wound up on eBay, where I snapped it up. The maps on the following pages, which cover the full length of Route 66, come from that volume. Warning: to make the print legible on a computer screen I've had to scan these as very large .JPGs. Each measures about 1300 x 1800 pixels, and the three combined total about 2 MB. If you're using a dial-up connection, you might want to keep a magazine handy while downloading the images. Route 66 Travel Mat #1: Chicago to Springfield, MO Route 66 Travel Mat #2: Springfield, MO to Shamrock, TX Route 66 Travel Mat #3: Shamrock, TX to Los Angeles |