SHAMROCK

Visit: U-Drop Inn/Tower Conoco
Shamrock is the first town along route 66 when entering from the east. It was founded in 1890, and is best known for the iconic U-Drop Inn and Tower Station, which was built in 1936. The Pixar film crew fell in love with it so much that it inspired Ramone’s Body Shop in the movie Cars. It’s a visitor center and gift shop today.

ALANREED

Visit: 66 Super Service Station - Main and Third
Like virtually every town across the Texas Panhandle, Alanreed was founded and laid out based on the presence of, or plans for, a railroad. The Choctaw, Oklahoma and Texas Railroad was the impetus in 1900 for this farming and ranching town named for the contracting firm responsible for it all, Alan and Reed. While this may be more legend and lore than fact, it makes for good story for a town that marks the transition point between the higher, flat Plains to the west, and the rolling Plains to the east.

JERICHO

Jericho, founded 1902, is a ghost town today, but was once a vibrant farming and ranching community along the railroad. All that’s left today are an old homestead, the ruins of a small motel/diner/gas station complex, and the cemetery. It is best known for being alongside a dirt alignment of Route 66 that would become impassable after heavy rains, and farmers pulled out motorists for a fee. Or maybe it was the farmers who had watered the road in the first place. Watch for news on the upcoming changes to Jericho as the new owners bring new life to this ghost town.

MCLEAN

Visit: Devil’s Rope Museum - The History of Barbed Wire
Restored Phillips 66 Gas Station - west of Main on First Street
While McLean is the second-largest town in Gray County, one must remember that all things are relative. Like most other dots on the Texas Route 66 map, it is a quaint small town with a lot of history packed in, including the Barbed Wire Museum (once a brassiere factory), and the restored 1928 Phillips 66 station. While the town is named for Railroad Commissioner William P. McLean, its best-known resident is, sadly, rancher Alfred Rowe, who perished on the Titanic in 1912.

GROOM

Visit: Former Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere
Groom is a farming community best known for the 190-foot cross towering over it. Constructed in 1995 by a nearby Texan as a profession of faith.
The land was donated, and construction took eight months. It has a visitor center and gift shop, as well as the stations of the cross for the faithful as well as curious to all and photograph. It is estimated that more than 10 million drivers and passengers pass by the cross each year. In 2001, a cross was built in Effingham, Illinois that surpasses the height of the Groom cross by 8 feet.

CONWAY

Visit: “Bug Ranch” - play on Cadillac Ranch with VW Beetles
Only three residents shy of being a complete ghost town, it didn’t exactly start out that way in Conway. Settlers established a school in 1892, the first permanent school in the Panhandle. The coming of the railroad brought a Post Office, churches, and various businesses. The coming of the freeway brought an end to all of that, but the old school, an historic gas station, and a towering grain elevator remain for photographs and memories.

AMARILLO

Visit: Cadillac Ranch, the Big Texan and Historic 6th Avenue
Founded in 1887, Amarillo is the larges city in the Panhandle, with a population of 200,000. It is steeped in Route 66 history, especially along the magnificent mile of Southwest 6th Avenue between Georgia and Western Streets. The pop culture icon Cadillac Ranch beckons spray paint artists to leave their mark, while the Big Texan invites hungry travelers to sink their teeth into a 72-ounce steak.

BUSHLAND

Named for Chicagoan William Henry Bush who donated land for the townsite, Bushland was never more than a grain elevator and feed store a few miles west of Amarillo. But suburban sprawl has seen its population explode this century, and a new high school and small businesses have followed the human influx. Bushland is a bedroom community today, offering country living only 15 minutes from Center City Amarillo.

WILDORADO

Named for a nearby dry creek, Wildorado was founded in 1900 alongside the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railroad. Contrary to common error, the town’s name does not rhyme with Colorado, the “a” being long. A historic grain elevator stands in the middle of town, along with the shuttered remains of a general store a short distance off Route 66. Other business ruins are along the south side of the freeway.

VEGA

Visit: Restored Magnolia Station
Spanish for meadow, Vega is the county seat and largest community in Oldham County. It’s home to Dot’s Mini-Museum which showcases living life on Route 66, and the Milburn-Price Culture Museum. In 2004, a Magnolia Service Station was restored to its former beauty and now serves as a small museum and a photo op for travelers.

LANDERGIN

Now a ghost town with little more than a grain elevator, in 1996 Landergin was host to the first Route 66 Festival in Texas.

ADRIAN

Visit: The Midpoint Cafe
The last current town of any size along Texas 66, Adrian claims to be the geo-mathematical midpoint of Route 66. The Midpoint Cafe serves comfort food, along with amazing homemade pies. A photo op across the street and road markings commemorate the middle-of-the-route location.

GRUHLKEY

There’s not much left to Gruhlkey today aside from an old homestead, another residence, and a long-closed diner block gas station. The pumps are still outside, but you can’t get gas here anymore. A short distance west from here is where Route 66 and the railroad plummeted off the Caprock into a very different landscape seen before this. This is where the west begins.

GLENRIO

One of the most popular ghost towns along all of Route 66, Glenrio straddles the New Mexico state line, and is the only pair of twin cities along 66. It was founded in 1903 by the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway to serve area ranchers. Its name is a portmanteau of the Scottish “glen” (valley) and the Spanish “rio” (river). Oddly, there are neither nearby.