Route 66 museums: where to see the Mother Road's story
Updated October 2026
Route 66 is a road with museums of its own. This page gathers 16 museums in six of its eight states where the Mother Road's story is on show, from the Berwyn Route 66 Museum in Berwyn, just west of Chicago, to the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville.
Tap a dot to see that stop here.
Tap a marker for the photo and a link to the museum. For every museum near the road, art and science museums included, see all museums along Route 66.
We picked museums that are about Route 66 itself, about the cars and gas stations that grew up around it, or that stand on the old road. The Afton Station Packard Museum in Oklahoma is a restored 1930s D-X station that housed Packards, old pumps and Route 66 memorabilia. The Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum in Sapulpa is a car museum in a former armory with a 66-foot gas pump outside that sells no fuel. In Williams, Arizona, Pete's Route 66 Gas Station Museum fills a restored 1949 gas station with pumps, signs and oil cans.
Oklahoma has the most, 6 of the 16: the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, the Route 66 Interpretive Center in Chandler's old armory and the Route 66 Historical Village in Tulsa. Barstow's Harvey House depot holds the Route 66 Mother Road Museum, and the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois, is about the Muffler Man advertising giants that stand beside the road.
Many of these museums are small, volunteer-run or seasonal, and opening hours change often, so check before you drive out of your way: each place page has the address, phone and hours we know of, plus directions. The Route 66 Car Museum in Springfield, Missouri, says on its website that it will close for good on April 17, 2027. Planning a whole trip? The trip planner picks museums for each day of the drive. For the pumps and canopies themselves, see our Route 66 gas stations, and for the sights between museums, the best Route 66 attractions.
Route 66 museums in Illinois (2)
All stops on Route 66 in Illinois →Illinois starts the road with small museums: a Route 66 museum in Berwyn, just west of Chicago, and the Muffler Man giants of Atlanta.
Route 66 museums in Missouri (1)
All stops on Route 66 in Missouri →Missouri's stop is a private car collection on College Street in Springfield, a street that carried Route 66 through the city.
Route 66 museums in Oklahoma (6)
All stops on Route 66 in Oklahoma →Oklahoma has the most museums about the road itself, from Tulsa's open-air village and Sapulpa's car museum to the Route 66 museums of Clinton and Elk City.
Route 66 museums in Texas (1)
All stops on Route 66 in Texas →The Texas Panhandle's museum is a barbed-wire museum in McLean that also keeps a collection of Texas Route 66 road lore.
Route 66 museums in Arizona (4)
All stops on Route 66 in Arizona →Arizona's museums run from a restored 1949 gas station in downtown Williams and Winslow's Old Trails Museum, a volunteer-run museum in Ash Fork's old highway maintenance camp and the Powerhouse, which holds Kingman's visitor center and Route 66 museum.
Route 66 museums in California (2)
All stops on Route 66 in California →California's Route 66 museums are in the Mojave: the old Red Rooster Cafe in Victorville and the Harvey House depot in Barstow.
Route 66 museums: questions
- Which museums are about Route 66 itself?
- ten places on this list have Route 66 in their name: Berwyn Route 66 Museum, Route 66 Car Museum, Route 66 Historical Village, Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum, Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, National Route 66 Museum, Pete's Route 66 Gas Station Museum, Ash Fork Route 66 Historic Museum, Powerhouse Visitor Center & Arizona Route 66 Museum and California Route 66 Museum. The Route 66 Mother Road Museum inside the Barstow Harvey House and the Route 66 Interpretive Center in Chandler's old armory are not named for the road on our list, but they are about it too.
- In which states are the Route 66 museums on this list?
- Illinois (2), Missouri (1), Oklahoma (6), Texas (1), Arizona (4) and California (2), east to west. We have none yet in Kansas and New Mexico; the stops there are on the best-attractions page, and Kansas's Route 66 visitor center is a restored gas station that sits on the gas stations page.
- Are these Route 66 museums open every day?
- Not always. Many are small, volunteer-run or seasonal, and hours change often, so check before you drive out of your way. Each place page shows the address, phone, website and hours we know of. The Route 66 Car Museum in Springfield, Missouri, says on its website that it will close for good on April 17, 2027.
- Can I add a museum to my Route 66 trip plan?
- Yes. Tap the heart on a museum, as on any stop, and it joins your trip in driving order, with the Google Maps link, the PDF and the GPS file. In the trip planner, choose the Museums kind and the day-by-day plan picks museums along the way.
More: all museums along Route 66 · gas stations · best attractions · 14-day itinerary · the trip planner