{"id":217300,"date":"2026-05-02T00:24:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/217300\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:24:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:24:57","slug":"the-route-66-centennial-has-brought-a-lot-of-new-things-to-the-ozarks-and-some-of-them-are-here-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/217300\/","title":{"rendered":"The Route 66 Centennial has brought a lot of new things to the Ozarks, and some of them are here to stay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) &#8211; The Route 66 Centennial Celebration is far from over, with a whole lineup of events happening Friday night, but once the festival is over, new icons of the Mother Road will be sticking around for a long time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">First, it\u2019s a royal welcome to the Queen City, lit up in gold\u2014the Queen\u2019s Gate is just one of the new things you\u2019ll find permanently in the Ozarks with the celebration of the centennial year for Route 66. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">The sculpture will officially be dedicated at 11 Friday morning. It\u2019s supposed to let people pause and reflect right where Route 66 began. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cRoute 66 is known for these iconic stops,\u201d said Cora Scott with the Route 66 Centennial Commission. \u201cPhoto opportunities long before selfies existed and Instagram. So, Cadillac Ranch, the Santa Monica end of the pier sign, is another one. Catoosa Whale, these images are kind of burned in people\u2019s imagination. Well, now you\u2019re going to have the Queen\u2019s Gate sculpture at the birthplace of Route 66.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">But that\u2019s not the only thing to come to the Ozarks. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Three landmark tour stops are in Laclede County, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ky3.com\/2026\/04\/25\/route-66-100-year-ride-visits-marshfields-historic-gas-station\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ky3.com\/2026\/04\/25\/route-66-100-year-ride-visits-marshfields-historic-gas-station\/\">Webster County<\/a>, and right here in Springfield\u2014that\u2019s the Birthplace Plaza in downtown, where the TODAY show was Thursday morning. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Of course, you can also find signs up and down the Route letting you know exactly where you are. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">For these new landmarks in Springfield, don\u2019t worry about rushing to see them just this weekend. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">\u201cForever,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThat\u2019s the idea, that while we are commemorating the 100th anniversary, that this will lead us forward and then be able to entertain visitors and locals alike across along Missouri forever.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">To report a correction or typo, please email <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ky3.com\/2026\/05\/01\/route-66-route-66-centennial-has-brought-lot-new-things-ozarks-some-them-are-here-stay\/mailto:digitalnews@ky3.com\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">digitalnews@ky3.com<\/a>. Please include the article info in the subject line of the email.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KY3. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) &#8211; The Route 66 Centennial Celebration is far from over, with a whole lineup of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[79033,47904,1361,17226,85674,9,24,63,122,124,123,76169,6075,85673,85672,6201],"class_list":["post-217300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-centennial","tag-destination","tag-event","tag-icon","tag-ky3","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-route-66","tag-sculpture","tag-springfield","tag-stop","tag-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}