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FATHER OF ROUTE 66: The Story of Cy Avery. By Susan Croce Kelly. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2014.
Generations of Americans knew Route 66 as the "Mother Road" that connected Chicago to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Tulsa, Amarillo, and a host of other southwestern cities and towns. Starting in the 1920s, the road became significant for its role in transporting motoring travelers and migrants westward to California. As Susan Croce Kelly shows in Father of Route 66, the road did not create itself. Rather, progressive Tulsa oilman Cyrus "Cy" Avery was a major figure in planning and shaping the route. A straightforward yet lively account of Avery's life, this book is a valuable resource for those interested in the history of the early-1900s "good roads" movement, Great Plains progressivism, and Route 66.
Cyrus Avery was born in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna valley in 1871, just six years after the Civil War. In 1884 his father moved the family to what was then Indian Territory. By 1904, Cy...