Route 66 Towns the Interstate Killed

On September 22, 1978, a barber in Seligman, Arizona listened to the highway go quiet. Interstate 40 had opened a few miles away, and the traffic was gone in an afternoon. His town survived. Most of them didn't. We drive the old road west from Kansas to the Mojave and count down twelve Route 66 towns that lived on passing traffic and lost it: a mining boomtown, a trading post with an unsolved murder, a giant arrow in the desert, a town famous for having no TV, and a town with a famous neon sign and a population of zero. (Texas is skipped; that stretch belongs to our sister channel, Faded Texas.) CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro: the day the traffic stopped 1:49 No. 12 Galena, Kansas 3:28 No. 11 Spencer, Missouri 5:04 No. 10 Texola, Oklahoma 6:33 No. 9 Erick, Oklahoma 8:08 No. 8 Endee, New Mexico 9:31 No. 7 Cuervo, New Mexico 10:57 Still to come 11:27 No. 6 Budville, New Mexico 12:58 No. 5 Twin Arrows, Arizona 14:36 No. 4 Two Guns, Arizona 16:09 No. 3 Ludlow, California 17:42 No. 2 Essex, California 19:17 No. 1 Amboy, California 21:12 Seligman, Arizona: the town that fought back 22:16 Credits SOURCES: US Census; National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Program; National Register nominations; state historical societies and DOT bypass dates. CREDITS Photos via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and colour-graded by Faded America. Every photo link is in the pinned comment. Abe Ezekowitz (CC BY-SA 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Alienburrito (CC BY-SA 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Chris English (CC BY-SA 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Chris06 (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Curtis Clark (CC BY-SA 2.5): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Edklein69 (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... el-toro (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Eric Friedebach (CC BY 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... G. Edward Johnson (CC BY 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Gorup de Besanez (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Grenzlandstern (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... inkknife_2000 (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Jay Gannett (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... John Phelan (CC BY 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Marcin Wichary (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Marcy Reiford (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... MARELBU (CC BY 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Matthew Nichols (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Michael Zanussi (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Qygen (CC BY-SA 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... TheDoctorWho (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Thomas Shahan (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Tony Hisgett (CC BY 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Tony Webster (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Xnatedawgx (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... No attribution required, credited anyway: Ammodramus (CC0), CTLiotta (CC0), Eric Polk (Public domain), Sanborn Map Company (Public domain) Creative Commons footage (CC BY, cropped, graded, sped up where noted, audio removed): Great Places Seen GPS:    • Route 66 - Arizona & California - Seligman...      • Route 66 - Arizona - Winslow to Seligman |...      • Route 66 - California - Needles to Barstow...      • Route 66 - Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma - Sp...      • Route 66 - New Mexico - Santa Fe, Albuquer...      • Route 66 - New Mexico - Tucumcari to Santa...      • Route 66 - Oklahoma & Texas - Weatherford ...      • Route 66 - Texas & New Mexico | Solo RV Tr...   Great Places Seen GPS 2:    • Route 66 Time Lapse - Amarillo TX-Tucumcar...      • Route 66 Time Lapse - New Mexico - Santa F...      • Route 66 Time Lapse - Weatherford Oklahoma...      • Two Guns - Winslow, Arizona | Solo RV Trav...   Archive film (public domain, Prelinger Archives / Internet Archive): Building a Highway (1948) https://archive.org/details/Building1948 · Highway Hearing (1956) https://archive.org/details/HighwayH1956 Stock footage: Storyblocks Maps: US Census Bureau boundary files (public domain) Music: [ADD ONCE PLACED: track, artist, source, licence] Faded America · The America the maps forgot #Route66 #GhostTowns #FadedAmerica