Main Street USA - Historic Route 66 - Gallup, NM - National Scenic Byways on Waymarking.com

The plaque says, "This is the greatest highway project in America!... read the headline in the April 15, 1927 edition of the Gallup Independent. From Chicago to Los Angeles the "Main Street of America" would be U.S. 66. The National Old Trails Highway was on the map. Its route would run right through Gallup, New Mexico in part due to actions of former Gallup Mayor and then NM Governor Arthur T. Hannett. Arthur T. Hannett was born in Lyons, New York, the son of William and Mary McCarthy Hannett. Upon completing high school he entered Syracuse University, where he graduated in 1910. Hannett came to Gallup, New Mexico in 1911, where he began to practice law. His first public office was City Attorney and then served as Mayor of Gallup for four years.

After serving as a member of the State Highway Commission from March 1923, until December 1924, Hannett was elected Governor of New Mexico and served from January 1, 1925 until January 1, 1927.

Governor Hannett lost his pursuit for re-election in 1926 to Richard Dillon. But not until he committed one of his final administrative acts by rerouting U.S. Route 66 to avoid Santa Fe and instead pass through Albuquerque, New Mexico west directly towards Gallup. The rerouting saved drivers traveling across the state nearly four hours. Legend says Hannett did the rerouting to punish the Republican Santa Fe Ring which controlled New Mexico politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hannett, in his 1964 book Sagebrush Lawyer, recounts that he conceived of the idea of a shorter route by laying a ruler on the map between Santa Rosa and Gallup. Historic Route 66 as we know it was created!

Every vehicle traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles on Interstate 40 experiences in some way, shape or form a part of "the Mother Road" and that road passes through Gallup, NM."

Program: America's Byways Website: [Web Link] Official Name: Historic Route 66

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