Laclede County saw the Main Street of America Route 66 Centennial Caravan pass through on Sunday as it toured the Mother Road.
The Record visited the caravan as it stopped at the Gasconade River Bridge, a historic landmark near Hazelgreen that is now under the care of the Route 66 Association of Missouri.
Caravan organizer Rhys Martin, who is also the president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association, Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership board member and manager for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserve Route 66 initiative, has done the whole route before, but not all in one go.
“The highlight, honestly, has just been meeting all of these new people that are on the road for the first time,” he said, and who were experiencing the Mother Road with a group. City leaders, historical societies, and advocates have met the caravan and left a huge impression which shows the vitality and constantly emerging stories of Route 66, according to Martin.
The Route 66 Caravan, an official Route 66 Centennial event the Road Ahead Partnership organized, described itself as a lengthy parade that gave communities moments during the 100th birthday of the Mother Road as well as the knowledge that they belonged to the Route 66 community.
The Route 66 Caravan also said it gave an opportunity to highlight stories about preservation success in the Mother Road’s eight states. The journey from Santa Monica to Chicago began June 6. According to the Route 66 Caravan, the public could join in for as long as they liked.
Martin said the average number of cars in the caravan has 35-40, with 75 being the most. Oklahoma has had the most people participate, with the state’s transportation getting involved.
After spending Saturday night in Springfield, the caravan was headed to Rolla Sunday. Originally, Martin said the plan was to first visit the replica of the Hubble Space Telescope at Marshfield’s courthouse, but upcoming storms had the caravan turn the stop into a roll-by.
In Lebanon, Martin said the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society and Rebecca Rupard, Lebanon’s tourism director, welcomed the caravan at the Cowan Civic Center instead of the planned Boswell Park stop due to the weather.
“They basically took the weather into account and helped us have a really good stop in Lebanon anyway, and talk about the history of Route 66,” he said.
At the Gasconade River Bridge, caravanners parked their cars and had the chance to stretch their legs at their last stop in Laclede County.
For caravanner and Old Route 66 Association of Texas President Gary Daggett, this was the first time he and his wife and vice president of the association, Stephanie Daggett, had travelled the whole of Route 66 with a caravan, though they had travelled the road about 30 times.
The main goal, he said, was to let people know the Mother Road was still out there and to promote it.
“When you do this, you obviously don’t have time to see everything,” he had said earlier. “The main goal is to show these people these little communities and what they have so hopefully they’ll come back and do this trip on their own or see enough of these communities they’ll come back and visit again.”
The bridge was what the pair had looked forward to on Sunday, having driven across it when it was still open to vehicle traffic. The Daggetts loved old gas stations and bridges.
The caravan’s trip has not been without hardship. During the journey, the caravan has had to deal with the unexpected loss of historian T. Lindsay Baker, the caravan’s official state representative for Texas.
The U.S. Route 66 Centennial Facebook page shared the news of his death on June 11. A KCBD article said the renowned historian and author died in a car crash that day in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Martin said the death of Baker, whom he had known for around a decade, had been very difficult. After that happened, he said, the leadership team from the eight states had come together to decide what to do next.
“And we all agreed unanimously that he would want us to continue,” he said. “He was all about authenticity, he was all about experiencing America, and Route 66, and that he would not want us to stop on his account, even in such a tragic circumstance.”
According to Martin, Baker was about the experience and intentional in what he did, which was why Baker used a 1930 Ford Model A in the caravan.
“He wanted people to understand where we had been so we could find out where we were going,” he said.
June 25, 2026 update: Fixed headline typo, text formatting, and added preview image.
