Father of the Mother road Virtual Cache
Father of the Mother road
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(virtual)
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Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog (visit link)
To claim this virtual geocache visit the location and answer 3 questions. Adding photos from around the Plaza is welcome, but photos of the plaques will be deleted. Enjoy your visit to in Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza!
Questions: 1. How many flag circle the Plaza?
2. How many Route 66 Pedestals are there?
3. What 3 items are in the back of the wagon?
Father of the Mother Road – (virtual geocache) Cyrus Stevens Avery (1871–1963) was known as the "Father of Route 66". He created the route across eight states then pushed for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway. Avery realized that an interstate system of highways would help to prosper his adopted city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma. He became instrumental in pushing for a federal level of good roads. In 1925, the United States Secretary of Agriculture appointed him to the Joint Board of Interstate Highways, which was to designate the new federal highways and mark them.
One of the routes requested by Congress was a road running from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Los Angeles, California. This road would follow what is now U.S. Highway 60 from Virginia Beach to Springfield, Missouri, continue west to Joplin, across southern Kansas, Colorado, Utah, turning south to Las Vegas, Nevada, then further south and west to Los Angeles. Avery successfully argued that to avoid the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the road should turn south through Tulsa and Oklahoma City, continue west across the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California.
His suggestion that this highway should go east from Springfield to St. Louis and Chicago, Illinois, as commerce naturally continued in that direction, was also adopted. After the highways routes were chosen, the group decided not to name the highways as had been done, but instead to follow the pattern of numbering the highways. The current east-west routes would be even numbers, and the north-south would be odd. Major routes would be one- or two-digit numbers ending in either "1" or "0" depending on the route. Avery, arguing that the Chicago to Los Angeles route would be a major highway, numbered it US 60. This received support from Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri. But the idea was outright rejected by the delegation from Kentucky. The Virginia Beach–Springfield route had been designated as U.S. 62 and actually terminated south of Ozark, Missouri at U.S. Highway 65. Kentucky would be the only state without a "0" highway. They countered Avery's US route by pushing for US 60 to run between Virginia Beach and Los Angeles; the Springfield to Chicago section could be "U.S. 60 North." Avery returned with "U.S. 60 South" for the Springfield–Virginia Beach alignment. Kentucky threatened to walk completely out of the new highway system (individual states could not be forced to participate in it). Finally, Kentucky offered a compromise: connect their highway with Avery's in Springfield and give their highway the number 60.
Avery could have his Chicago–Los Angeles highway if he would accept the number 62 which was originally assigned to their road. Avery disliked the number 62, found out 66 was not used, and designated the Chicago–Los Angeles highway as U.S. 66. In 1927, Avery pushed for the creation of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to promote paving U.S. 66 and promote travel on the highway.
He was elected Vice President in 1929. In the 1930s, Avery attempted to have himself elected president of the organization, but he never succeeded. In 1997, the National Historic Route 66 Federation established the “ Cyrus Avery Award” which has been presented to various individuals for outstanding creativity in depicting Route 66 and to organizations for noteworthy preservation projects. In 2004, the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma renamed the bridge which carried US 66 over the Arkansas River the Cyrus Avery Route 66 Memorial Bridge in his honor.
In late 2012, artist Robert Summers unveiled "East Meets West", a sculpture in Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza at Southwest Boulevard at Riverside Drive in Tulsa. The detailed 135%-scale bronze depicts Avery and his family in a Ford motorcar meet head-on two frightened horses pulling a wagon laden with oil barrels.
Special thanks to Extreme Mom for the push and help on this one.
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