As with many other towns and cities we've reached so far, the real founder of Tucumcari, New Mexico, was the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, which built a construction camp in what is now the town in 1901. Initially called Ragtown, the camp's reputation for lawlessness quickly earned it the popular name of Six Shooter Siding, with the official name - Douglas - hardly used. By 1908, the settlement had settled a little, taking its second and permanent official name, Tucumcari, after a nearby mountain. Although it's unknown where the mountain got its name, it's very similar to the Comanche word for 'ambush'.
The town might be 'run down' according to tourist reviews, but the Dinosaur Museum is something of a hit. Opened to the public in 2000, the Mesalands Community College Dinosaur Museum has around 14,000 visitors each year from around the world. The exhibits are a mixture of fossil findings, bronze skeletons, replica dinosaurs and other animals, with the bronzes made onsite in the college's foundry.
Concentrating on the Mesozoic Period - the 'Age of Dinosaurs' - the museum prides itself on its children's activity area and that most exhibits are touchable. Pride of place - and sadly not touchable - is given to the Torvosaurus skeleton, a relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. This rare skeleton presented the small museum with a first; they were the only museum in the world with one on display.
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By the time the 19th century ended, Amarillo was a cow town, not just any cow town; it was one of the world's biggest and busiest cattle points. However, it wasn't cattle that made the town's fortunes. Gas and oil reserves led to the Federal Bureau of Mines operating the Amarillo Helium Plant from 1929, and it remained the only producer of helium for commercial purposes in the world for many years.
Amarillo isn't just famous for producing gas - it also makes its cowboys tough. Thomas Everett Blasingame was born on 12th February 1898 in Ellis County and decided as a small child that he would work on a ranch when he grew up - he started riding at six. In 1918, he headed to the Texas Panhandle and began work, not stopping for 73 years; he was still putting in full days on the job at 91. In fact, Tom Blasingame almost died in the saddle; two days after Christmas in 1989, he got off his horse, laid on the grass, folded his arms over his chest, and died - he inspired writer Linda M. Hasselstrom to write her moving poem, 'Death of the Last Cowhand', and with Blasingame, an era ended.
One of Amarillo's other great legends is the Cadillac Ranch, twin to the Bug Ranch in Conway (or the other way around!). Myth has it that an eccentric Amarillo millionaire would bury his cars nose down on his land when he got a new one, but it's actually a great deal more planned than that. The millionaire in question was an eccentric, but he was also a visionary; representing the 'golden age' of American motoring, they were junkyard purchases, costing around $200 each.
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If you're not looking for it, you might miss Conway, what with it only having a population of 20 at the time of the census in 2000. However, it's real panhandle territory that was more densely populated 10,000 years ago by hunter-gatherers, as evidenced by the stone tools they left behind.
Prior to any European discovery and invasion, those early Native Americans hunted on foot - the Spanish introduced European horses in the 15th century. They were soon completely outstripped in terms of horsemanship. The native population here - as elsewhere along Route 66 - was confined to reservations, and the territory was up for a succession of land runs.
Before Conway was Conway, it had a school, a post office, and a railway. In 1905, it acquired a name and an increased population - in 1939, there were 125 residents, despite hard financial times across the country. However, a decline began in the late 1960s; the post office and railway closed, and the I-40 bypassed the town, leading to a population you can literally count on your fingers and toes today.
That late 1960s decline, however, gave Conway - and Route 66 - one of the strangest sights along the route, burying five Volkswagen Beetles nose-down in the dirt. No one 'owns' the site, and visitors are encouraged to bring spray paint to leave their mark behind.
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You could be forgiven for thinking McLean's day has been and gone. Alfred Rowe, an Englishman who perished on the Titanic in 1912, gave land for a cattle loading stop and town in the area in 1901, and that community grew very rapidly. Three years later, it had a newspaper, a bank, three general stores, wagon yards and stables, and a wood yard. Tourism arrived with Route 66 in 1927, and by 1940, there were six churches and some 59 businesses, not to mention around 1,500 people living there - a number that trebled when a prisoner of war camp was built close to the town in 1945 to house 3000 German prisoners.
It has shrunk somewhat since then, with fewer than 900 people living there. It is, however, home to one of the strangest museums on earth - a museum entirely dedicated to barbed wire. Fencing wire in itself might not seem particularly fascinating. Although several patents were issued between 1853 and 1868, only one of them had projections, or 'barbs'. What we recognise as barbed wire was developed by Joseph F. Glidden in 1874, now known as the Father of Barbed Wire. Today, there are more than 2000 types.
The museum was opened in 1991 and took over the premises of a disused factory. It is dedicated to the history of barbed wire, ranching and fencing. The exhibits also include location-relevant artifacts from McLean's Route 66 history.
There's also a gift shop with a difference. Where other museums sell tea towels and tote bags alongside books and postcards, the Devil's Rope Museum sells, you guessed it, different kinds of barbed wire as a memento of your visit.
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Oklahoma City was founded in the Land Run of 22nd April 1889, and within a few hours of its official foundation, it already had a population of over 10,000 people. Within a decade, the population had doubled. By the time it was admitted to the Union in 1907, it was streets ahead of Guthrie - the territory capital - both as a population centre and a successful industrial and commercial hub.
Oklahoma enjoyed a prosperous reputation, largely due to oil, and as a federal government centre. In April 1995, however, the Murrah Building was subjected to the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history and the worst act of terrorism on American soil until September 11, 2001. 168 people died, and over 600 were injured.
Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the building as revenge for the government's handling of the Waco siege, which killed 76 people exactly two years earlier. McVeigh, a decorated soldier, was shocked by his orders to execute Iraqi prisoners who were surrendering. On his return from the Gulf, he appears to have become completely disillusioned by the government. He wrote a letter to a local newspaper containing the line, "Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system?"
By 1995, he was completely radicalised and turned to violent terrorism. His 168 victims at the Murrah Building included 19 children in a second-floor daycare centre, which he said would have given him cause to choose another target had he known (although it is widely thought that he did know and didn't care). McVeigh was convicted and executed by lethal injection at 7.14 a.m. on 11th June 2001.
Rescue and recovery operations continued at the site for over a week until the ruined building was demolished a month later. On the fifth anniversary of the bombing in April 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was formally dedicated, commemorating all those affected by the atrocity, including rescuers and family members.
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Welcome to Chandler, Oklahoma, the county seat of Lincoln and home to many Route 66 attractions. However, it didn't have the smoothest of starts. Due to be 'opened' on 22nd September 1891 as part of a land run - literally a first-come, first-served rush to previously restricted territory, usually Native American settlements - Chandler was already 'settled' insofar as there was already a post office and several other official buildings. However, the site survey wasn't in place, so Chandler had its own exclusive run six days later.
The Chandler courthouse seems to have had a run of bad luck, too - torn down by a tornado in 1897 (17 town residents died), a stone courthouse eventually replaced it, but this was burned down in December 1967 and rebuilt again. Third time lucky for the courthouse, it's still standing today.
Despite oil discoveries in the surrounding area, Chandler has surprisingly never become a boom town. The population has also been relatively small, at less than 3000 inhabitants.
The Lincoln County Historical Society and Museum of Pioneer History contains thought-provoking information about the area, not to mention photographs and mementos of families dating back to before the land rush of 1891. Records of business, people and the general history of the whole county are on display, dating as far back as the Spanish-American War in 1898.
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Welcome to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the very birthplace of Route 66 and home of the one and only Route 66 Village. It takes its name from the name for 'old town' - Tallasi - in the language of the Lochapoka and Creek tribes who officially settled here in 1836 and were part of the so-called 'Five Civilised Tribes'. Descendants of the Mississippian culture societies were largely farming and agricultural communities. They appropriated many aspects of the colonising and displacing pioneers - although the absorption wasn't always peaceful or welcome.
Oklahoma still wasn't a state by the time of the American Civil War, but that didn't stop Tulsa from seeing its fair share of skirmishes and, later on, some of the more notorious outlaws of the Wild West, not least the Wild Bunch, and the Dalton Gang. In the 20th century, oil protected Tulsa from the worst of the Great Depression. The city's Greenwood neighbourhood was the home of what was termed 'Black Wall Street' - a highly successful and wealthy black community. Horrifying race riots - sparked by an alleged assault on a white 17-year-old girl - in 1921 led to the shameful massacre of hundreds of black residents; the neighbourhood was razed to the ground in the space of just a few hours. Those who survived and chose to stay rebuilt Greenwood, and it thrived. The massacre was rarely mentioned in history books or classrooms, and not in the press.
When Cyrus Avery, a local businessman, had the idea for a Chicago to Los Angeles road in 1925, little did he know that Route 66 would become world-famous. The Route 66 Village in Tulsa is a must-see transportation museum, complete with rail cars and other memorabilia from the town's early days.
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Foyil, Oklahoma is tiny, absolutely tiny. In the 2000 census, there were only 68 families, 97 households, and 234 people in the town. However, over the next decade, the population grew by almost 50%, reaching a booming 344 - the largest population Foyil has had since its first U.S. census in 1920.
The area used to be part of the Cherokee Nation, but like much of the rest of the American Midwest, the railway brought a small and thriving settlement of rail workers and, in 1890, a postmaster, Alfred Foyil. The town was built on his farmland, and with the addition of a general store (also owned by Foyil), a chemist, and a furniture shop by 1898, then a bank in 1905, Foyil might have been small (at around 150 residents), but it was perfectly formed. In 1911, it was home to - amongst others - two doctors, two blacksmiths, a lawyer, nine teachers, and even its own newspaper.
Route 66 helped the small town survive, but like many other small communities, boom and recession affected the size of the population. However, in 1937, Foyil started to garner fame as the home of a rather strange and wonderful piece of folk art - the world's largest totem pole. Nathan Edward Galloway's concrete construction wasn't finished until 1948. Although it was hailed as a wonderful monument to the former Native American history of the area, Galloway later stated it was just to give him "something to do" in retirement.
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Carthage, Missouri, is, in many ways, as fascinating as its ancient namesake. Birthplace of senators, suffragists and sportspeople, it's also the birthplace of perhaps the most famous female outlaw of the wild west, Belle Starr, who died in 1889. The wonderfully named Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr (known to her family as May) was from a reasonably well-to-do family and even received a private classical education at the higher end of what a girl might expect in the 19th century. Her father, however, had been the black sheep of his own family (who were even more well-to-do). Something of that rebel streak obviously passed down to Belle, who fell in with the notorious James brothers, Frank and Jesse. She had, in fact, known them since childhood, as they grew up together.
Belle's personal style fed the later legend; she was a crack shot and rode dressed in black velvet and a plumed hat, carrying two holstered pistols on her hips. Having buried her first husband, Jim Reed, Belle married Sam Starr, a Cherokee man and famed bootlegger and horse thief.
Belle Starr's legend extends to her death. Two days short of her 41st birthday, she was shot multiple times. It's unsure whether it was a simple ambush, a lover's tiff, or a conspiracy between her third husband (Sam Starr had been killed a few years earlier) and her children. Her daughter, Pearl, became a legend in her own right - a Bordello queen, operating several properties until the end of the First World War.
Modern-day Carthage boasts the Precious Moments Park and Chapel, inspired by the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The mural artworks throughout the Chapel depict Bible stories, both Old and New Testament, and cover nearly 5000 square feet. The Chapel and Park also boasts the world's largest gift shop - a must for lovers of kitsch memorabilia.
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Congratulations on making it to Spencer, Missouri Richard, an actual real-life ghost town. Although Spencer was never much more than a wide place in the road, it did actually have not just people but a post office in the late 1870s. The local population were nearly all connected with agriculture, and Spencer gained both a church and a general store to cater to them.
However, less than forty years later, the road became unusable, and the town more or less emptied - at least for a while. By the late 1920s, when Route 66 was constructed to pass through the derelict buildings, the town reopened for business, with two shops - one grocery, one dry goods, a barber, a garage, and a Tydol station. The second death of Spencer occurred when Route 66 was bypassed by I-44 and until recently, the whole town was a row of vacant premises left over from the still rather quiet heyday of the 1920s.
In recent years, the site has been purchased by the Ryan family - bought from the Caseys, who first owned the land the 'town' was built on in 1925. The gas station has been restored, and although non-operational, is full of authentic memorabilia of the period it was first constructed, including a vintage police car parked in front. Spencer never required or got its own police station, but it's a nice touch.
Just to prove that vandals really will trash anything, the restored (but closed) barber shop was damaged in 2015, including the theft of its nostalgic red and white pole. They may have caused a few thousand pounds worth of damage, but Spencer will carry on - a lovingly-restored, slightly creepy non-town along historic Route 66.
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For a relatively small place, Rolla produces a lot of professional sports men and women, and also an impressive crop of politicians. Although incomes are a little below the national average, the surrounding area and amenities help rate the town higher than it might otherwise sit for quality of life.
In terms of its history, it's a relatively short one - the first house within the current Rolla city limits was built in 1844 by one John Webber. The following year, the railway came to town - or at least the reconnaissance mission did - led by James Abert, the first professor of Civil Engineering at the Missouri School of Mines, which later became Missouri S&T. The official town founder, however, was Edmund Ward Bishop, a construction contractor who was tasked with the job of building that branch of the Southwest Railroad.
There are two entertaining stories about the name; both might be true, or at least contain a grain of truth. In the 1860s, Rolla and neighbouring Dillon were in competition to be the county seat. Rolla won, but part of Dillon's consolation prize was to choose the name of the new city, which they did - after a particularly useless hunting dog. The official version is that it is a phonetic corruption of Raleigh in the emerging North Carolina accent, the origin of many of the settlers.
The modern Stonehenge reconstruction in the grounds of Missouri S&T is a must-see; partial, and a scale model it might be, not to mention erected with the use of modern equipment, but it underlines rather than detracts from the fact that the original prehistoric monument was an incredible feat of engineering.
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At first glance, Stanton might not appear to have much to recommend it to someone taking in the sights and landmarks of historic Route 66, but this small, unincorporated community is up there with every other example of not judging a book by its cover. It has even apparently shrunk since Rittenhouse's 1946 Guidebook to Highway 66 - then it had a garage, a gas station, a café, a shop, and a few cabins. Now, the only business open year round is the gas station, although the famed Jesse James Wax Museum does a good trade in the Summer, when it is open daily, and at the weekends in Spring and Autumn. Like the town, it pretty much closes down in Winter.
Stanton is, however, close to the famous Meramec Caverns, where the James gang holed up to avoid arrest. The caves are natural limestone, formed more than 400 million years ago, and have been used variously for shelter by Indian tribes, to collect saltpetre for the production of gunpowder in the 18th century, and even as a venue for ballroom dances in the 1890s - the same area of the caves can still be rented today for private special events.
The wax museum is devoted to all things Jesse James - including photographs of the outlaw, plus several personal items and vintage firearms. You will also hear the legend of what was possibly the greatest feat of James' criminal career; officially, he was gunned down by Bob Ford, a member of his own gang, in 1882, but legend has him escaping and dying at the grand old age of 101 in Texas in 1951. It would make a fitting end to the tale of the modern-day Robin Hood, but family questioning and recent DNA evidence have sadly debunked this.
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