By Stuart Rosebrook

In 2026 the Centennial of Route 66 is an international event being celebrated in communities from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California. Beyond the hoopla around the nation’s most famous American road, we mustn’t overlook the significance of why the national U.S. Highway system, including 66, was a revolutionary moment in American transportation history. More importantly, how did the vision of one Prescott leader, Grace Sparkes, change Arizona history and its original territorial capital forever.

In 1926 the U. S. was in the midst of The Roaring Twenties, a tumultuous decade of economic and social change. While the automobile revolution was in full swing and the first American airline companies began offering regional and transcontinental passenger air service, train travel trumped all other forms of transportation. In 1926 federal records reveal that over 17.3 billion passengers traveled on urban trains and trollies, while passengers on intercity trains logged over 37 billion passenger miles. Nonetheless, train travel was waning in America, and automobiles were slowly becoming the favored transportation choice for Americans. The only problem was the lack of roads.

An automobile traveler who ventured outside of urban areas in 1926 would have discovered a national highway system more suited for wagons than cars. According to federal records, only 140,735 miles were paved in the U.S. in 1926, compared to 2.8 to 2.9 million miles a century later. Arizona had less than 2,000 miles of paved roads, compared to 77,252 miles in 2026.

Prescott in 1926 was the economic hub of Yavapai County, but freight and passenger trains  dominated travel in and out of the city. In the decade leading up to the creation of the U.S. Highway system, Prescott’s local leaders, such as Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce Secretary Grace Sparkes, advocated for better roads–especially an interstate highway connecting Prescott to the new transcontinental highway system, slowly under construction since President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal-Aid Road Act on July 11, 1916.

Sparkes’ boosterism took her back and forth across the state for a decade, promoting good roads and a new commerce route, the future U.S. Highway 89, aka “The White Spar,” which would connect Prescott to two proposed transcontinental highways. Sparkes understood the financial benefit of Prescott being a key rail center between two national highways, so she put all her lobbying efforts into ensuring Prescott would be northern Arizona’s automobile crossroads of commerce, travel and tourism.

To achieve her goals, Sparkes promoted bypassing the Black Canyon Road and its ranch and mining communities between Prescott and Phoenix. Her vision for U.S. Highway 89 in Arizona was intensely focused; the Mile-High City would be the economic hub between two national highways, U.S. 60 and U.S. 66, thus assuring all north-and south-bound traffic between Ash Fork and Congress/Wickenburg would motor to and through the Yavapai County Seat.

So, as we plan on motoring east or west and getting our kicks on Route 66 during this celebratory year, let’s reflect on how much we owe Grace Sparkes for who we are today as modern Prescott. Imagine if Prescott had been bypassed in 1926, and they had paved another route between Phoenix and Flagstaff instead. Prescott may not have had a paved state or federal highway until 1959–the year the highway from the state capital to the Coconino County Seat was completed.

Author’s Note: Sharlot Hall Museum has opened a new America 250 exhibition, “All Roads Led to Prescott,” which explores local and state transportation history and the enduring legacy of the Mother Road through the lens of photographer Terrence Moore.

Stuart Rosebrook, Ph.D., executive director of Sharlot Hall Museum, is lecturing on Route 66 and U.S. 89 at Sharlot Hall Museum at 2 pm on November 7, 2026. For ticket information visitsharlothallmuseum.org/event-calendar/

“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are also available at www.archives.sharlothallmuseum.org/articles/days-past-articles/1 The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles and inquiries to dayspast@sharlothallmuseum.org Please contact SHM Research Center reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.