Route 66 turns 100 this year. I visited the ghost towns that once thrived along America's most iconic highway.
· Business Insider
Graham Merwin / Business Insider
- Route 66 is one of the US's most iconic highways, connecting Chicago to Santa Monica, California.
- However, when Interstate I-40 was built, many towns along Route 66 were forgotten.
- For Route 66's 100th birthday, I drove part of it. Its ghost towns stayed with me the most.
November 11 marks the 100th birthday of Route 66, the iconic American highway that runs from Chicago to California.
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I grew up in St. Louis, right along the old route, so, in honor of the anniversary, I set out to drive part of it.
Along the way, I met people who've kept the road's legacy alive and their businesses afloat.
However, for every store that has survived, I was surprised to see even more motels, gas stations, and restaurants boarded up.
They stood as phantoms of a forgotten era. Their neon signs went dark long ago.
These are the ghost towns of Route 66 that stayed with me long after we'd left.
One of Route 66's most famous ghost towns: Glenrio.We were the only people around on this stretch of Route 66 as we wandered through this abandoned motel.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Glenrio is one of the best-preserved ghost towns from the mid-1900s in the United States. It sits right along Route 66 and straddles the border between Texas and New Mexico.
The moment you exit the highway, a shattered Chevron station, lost to graffiti, greets you. It's the first sign of what once was here.Empty beer and soda bottles told my videographer and me that we weren't the first to carefully step inside.Abby Narishkin / Business Insider
The town was never huge, peaking at 100 people.
Beginning in the early 1900s, it was a robust railroad community, with multiple grocery stores, a post office, and service stations.
Then, it became a haven for drivers fleeing the Dust Bowl and braving Route 66 through the desert.
Today, abandoned buildings dot the town.
The only sign of life was a man sitting in his truck at the abandoned gas pump, watching what I could only assume were very funny YouTube videos.The man didn't seem to be a town official or police officer. He didn't look up at us or our cameras.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Crossing over the interstate, we arrived at the main stretch of Route 66 through Glenrio.
This was once a bustling corridor along the state line. Texas had lower gas prices than New Mexico, so stations were built on the Lone Star side of the border.
Joseph Brownlee opened this Texaco in 1950.Private property signs blare out an unwelcome message.Abby Narishkin / Business Insider
In the 1970s, Interstate 40 bypassed Route 66 and this town. Travelers stopped coming by, and virtually overnight, this town dried up.
What's left of it is overwhelmed in eerie silence. The former Texaco and the 1969 Pontiac Catalina out front sit unmoving, riddled with rust.
Brownlee's daughter is the only remaining resident of Glenrio. Her husband was killed during a robbery while working in the neighboring town. That's the 1969 Pontiac Catalina that he drove to work every day.
Brownlee also opened up the Brownlee Diner next door in 1952, serving burgers, fries, and milkshakes.A 1973 Chevrolet El Camino seems permanently parked on the side.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
I could only imagine how cozy the chrome details and the small footprint of the diner would've felt after a long drive in the 1950s.
After a short stint as an antique and oddities shop, the diner permanently closed in the 1970s.
Right next door is what's left of the State Line motel, opened in 1955.This motel was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2007.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
On one side, it reads "Last Stop in Texas." The verbiage added to the ominous feeling lingering in this place.
On the other side, the sign says "First Stop in Texas."The motel got a new sign, completed in July 2026, just a month before we visited.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Texas had many dry counties at the time, but this part of New Mexico allowed alcohol. So the motels and bars were cleverly built on the New Mexico side of the border, and loads of folks came here to drink.
Just like the diner next door, the motel closed in the 1970s.
The abandoned motel has become a canvas for artists.Much of the art advertised movements, honored Route 66, or memorialized lost loved ones.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Nature was also overtaking the space.Giant tumbleweeds bounced around, trapped in motel corners.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Could a smoke shop save this town?The owners had to determine the ambiguous boundary of the state line to ensure the Glenrio Smoke Shop was operating legally.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
The only thing left standing in this town is a new smoke shop that opened in 2023.
Just like in the days of dry counties, it's on the border for a reason. Recreational marijuana is still illegal in Texas, but it's been legal in New Mexico, where the shop sits, since 2021.
The lively energy and the presence of people were disorienting after wandering the ghost town.The owners had to determine the ambiguous boundary of the state line to ensure the Glenrio Smoke Shop was operating legally.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
I asked Harrah, the shop's general manager, what it's like to work in a town that essentially doesn't exist.
"Time doesn't exist either here. Texas is in Central, and New Mexico is in Mountain [time]. So it's an hour difference depending on where you are. And then it's exit zero. So it's really just its own entity, its own energy, its own everything," she said.
Abandoned businesses dot Route 66 through Texas and New Mexico.This farm on the New Mexico side of Glenrio looked almost crushed. Dozens of forgotten cars were dumped in a field nearby.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
The ghost stations of Glenrio were far from the only boarded-up gas pumps we came across on our road trip down Route 66 from Amarillo, Texas, to Tucumcari, New Mexico.
The construction of the interstate hurt the economies of the other towns along this section of the old road, too.
This old Shell station in Vega, Texas, lay in ruins.Some windows were broken, and furniture was stacked inside.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
This station in Adrian, Texas, dates back to 1948.This former Phillips 66 closed permanently in 1970.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
The station was originally named Tommy's Cafe and Phillips 66.
The pumps are likely around 75 years old.One sign in the corner advertised gas for 39 cents.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
It soon became known as the Bent Door Cafe because it was constructed from a former WWII air strip control tower.The founder had to bend the door to match the control tower's angular windows.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Tucumcari, New Mexico's rundown motels were the saddest of all.The Tucumcari Inn closed in 2015. The marquee stays frozen, at what I can only guess is advertising a $29.99 nightly rate.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
When we finally arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico, where we planned to stay the night, I thought the haunting, empty buildings along Route 66 were behind us. Tucumcari is, I figured, a much bigger town.
But I was wrong.
So many neon lights were dark here.
Motel after motel was overgrown with weeds, their pools long drained.This motel's name was illegible.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
But unlike Glenrio, there are actually people left living in Tucumcari who've had to witness the change.
We met a lifetime resident who cruises Route 66 in his old car to reminisce.Rocky Chavez poses in front of Tee Pee Curious, one of the few remaining businesses in Tucumcari that is open and lit up at night.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
At night, we were filming one of the town's last neon signs when a beautiful blue car drove by.
We flagged him down and met Rocky Chavez, a lifetime resident of Tucumcari. I joined him in his 1966 Chevy Impala, cruising down Route 66. Over the roar of his engine, he told me all about how the town used to be.
"Back in the heyday, this whole town was nothing but neon lights. It was so beautiful, every business was open. We had 2,000 motel rooms. We had 36 gas stations. We had like 32 restaurants," he said.
As we drove, he pointed out where old tire shops, theatres, steakhouses, drug stores, and banks had once glowed. They're all rundown lots now.The Ranch House Cafe opened in 1952 but closed when the interstate bypassed Route 66. Now, it stands as a weathered reminder of the town Chavez saw disappear.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
"There were almost 20,000 people at one time here. We had the railroad, the trucking companies, Levi Strauss used to be here," Chavez said. "Driving down this boulevard when I grew up here was so full of life. Now, you pass, and all the buildings are boarded up. There's nothing left."
On one hand, there's beauty in these buildings lost long ago.Empty and derelict signs line Tucumcari's main stretch of Route 66.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
There's something poetic about graffiti giving them new life and weeds transforming them once again.
The mere fact that they're still standing in any form means they haven't been forgotten.
They can't be. They're forceful reminders of this route through American history. And as I drove down Route 66, it felt like I was driving through a living museum.
But on the other hand, they tug at my heart.The Westerner Drive-Inn was a classic historic drive-in restaurant opened in 1949. It lasted over 50 years before closing in 2000Graham Merwin / Business Insider
I can't help but think about the family who spent their lives keeping these businesses open, only for them to fall into disrepair.
What would they think now? Would they, like Chavez, be quiet, lost in thought, as they speed by what little is left? Maybe in that way, they're cruel reminders of what was and likely will never be again.
I found hope in the businesses that have lived to see the 100th anniversary.Taking a tour of Blue Swallow Motel before my night's stay.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
While those rusted-out hot rods and boarded-up buildings still haunt me, I have settled on a semblance of optimism as I think back on this road trip.
We came across so many people who are still fighting to keep this stretch of cement alive. And to each person I asked, "Why should people care about Route 66?"
One woman told me, "People think it's just a road, but it's not. It's the path to people.
And the more I drove, the more I realized she was right.
Soon, the dilapidated motels were replaced in my memory by the Chicago couple who run the coral-colored Blue Swallow Motel.This motel inspired the Cozy Cone Motel in Disney's Cars, complete with the 100% refrigerated air sign and the parking garages.Graham Merwin / Business Insider
Rob Federico and his wife, Dawn, drove down Route 66 until they ran out of gas in Tucumcari. They bought the motorcourt in 2020. They welcomed me with open arms and a killer cup of coffee.
In the end, it was less about the ghost gas station in Tucumcari and more about Chavez, who'd picked up a weary journalist and given her the cruise of a lifetime.
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