{"id":4251,"date":"2026-01-29T18:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/?p=4251"},"modified":"2026-06-28T19:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T19:07:14","slug":"wheels-museum-route-66-centennial-speaker-series-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/?p=4251","title":{"rendered":"Wheels Museum Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series List"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wheels Museum
1100 2nd St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: (505) 243-6269

11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m
Admission is Free, but donations are gladly accepted.

See the WHEELS Museum Events Calendar<\/a> for current schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download list<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1\/24\/2026 – Hazel Lathrop<\/strong>
Tijeras Canyon – Five Miles of Road and Hundreds of Stories<\/em>
Tijeras Canyon with Tijeras at the east end and Carnuel at the west end has been an important community for hundreds of years. Communites thrive because of the people who live and work there. This talk focuses on those people and their stories in a time frame of 1900 to 1950.

2\/28\/2026 – Jacqueline Murray Loring<\/strong>
The KiMo Theatre: Fact and Folklore<\/em>
The Majestic KiMo Theatre on Route 66. For ninety years, hundreds of thousands of adults and children have packed the KiMo theatre to watch ballet, drama, spoken-word, and to listen to poetry readings. Performers have acted, sung, danced, and spellbound audiences with magic. Local filmmakers flock there to watch their indie films come alive on the new silver screen.

3\/28\/2026 – Abraham Santillanes<\/strong>
Why turn left at Albuquerque? Albuquerque, Route 66 and the many roads that came before.<\/em>
Transportation played an important role in bringing Albuquerque to the significant position it holds today in New Mexico. Starting with Francisco Coronado\u2019s trek from Mexico, through Juan de O\u00f1ate establishing the Camino Real, to William Becknell opening the Santa Fe Trail, many routes led to the original Albuquerque we now call Old Town. Later the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and Route 66 helped solidify Albuquerque\u2019s importance.

4\/25\/2026 – Joseph Sabatini<\/strong>
North Fourth Street \u2013 Albuquerque’s Original Route 66<\/em>
Retired librarian Joe Sabatini will present an illustrated history of Fourth Street, which served as the first Albuquerque alignment of Route 66 from 1926 to 1937. He describes its evolution as a city street, a federal highway, a suburban commercial strip and a redeveloping urban transit corridor. – He uses maps, postcards, photographs and Albuquerque Progress magazine issues to celebrate \u201cthe most beautiful ugly street in the world.\u201d

5\/23\/2026 – Richard Ruddy<\/strong>
An Iconic View: Route 66 in Downtown Albuquerque<\/em>
Ruddy\u2019s talk looks at the impact that Route 66 had on Albuquerque\u2019s main street, Central Avenue. We see downtown grow from before Route 66 was founded to a vibrant business district the Saturday Evening Post said had \u201ca blazing main drag\u201d and which the Chamber of Commerce claimed to be the brightest main street in America. But there is a downside to this growth which the iconic photographs also show as the city today valiantly fights to find a new identity for its central business district.

6\/27\/2026 – Aimee Tang<\/strong>
Chinese Merchants of Albuquerque\u2019s Route 66<\/em>
As Route 66 connected already well-traveled roads from Chicago to Los Angeles via the American Southwest, Chinese merchants on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico proved ready to be a welcoming destination along the \u201cMother Road.\u201d This presentation will feature Fremont\u2019s Fine Foods, a gourmet grocery store in the heart of Albuquerque established by Chinese immigrants in the early 1900\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7\/25\/2026 – Gordene MacKenzie<\/strong>
Agriculture, Architecture, Artists, Bootleggers, and Businesses along the Mother Road in Los Ranchos<\/em>
Who were the residents? What were their lives like? What did they do and how did they survive and use Fourth street (old Route 66)? What was historic Los Ranchos like during the pre-alignment period from 1926- 1937? The Mother Road played a significant role in shaping history and identity even after the realignment and before the Interstate was built.

8\/22\/2026 – Roger Zimmerman<\/strong>
Rerouting Route 66 through New Mexico<\/em>
This presentation addresses the factors leading to the establishment of Route 66 in the new Federal highway system and the politically charged changes that resulted in a 107 mile shortening in New Mexico during the 1926-37 timeframe. La Bajada Hill was removed as an obstacle and problems of – crossing the Rio Grande and the Rio Puerco had to be resolved.

9\/26\/2026 – Lynne Franchini Peckinpaugh<\/strong>
The Italians’ Pathway to Prosperity on Albuquerque’s Route 66<\/em>
Various Italian owned businesses along Albuquerque\u2019s Route 66 began appearing in the early 1900\u2019s on Central Ave and nearby streets. Theaters, shoes and clothing stores, beer gardens, grocery stores, bakeries, and auto repair shops provided the Italians’ pathway to prosperity. Each of the families and businesses will be introduced providing a glimpse into the Italians’ mark on Route 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10\/24\/2026 – Jennifer Bohnhoff<\/strong>
The Civil War on Route 66<\/em>
The Battle of Glorieta, often called the Gettysburg of the West, might have changed the outcome of the whole war, but it is only one of three Civil War battles that occurred along Route 66. Join Educator and Author Jennifer Bohnhoff as she provides pictures, maps, and stories about the Battles of Glorieta, Albuquerque, and Peralta.

11\/28\/2026 – Gary Herron<\/strong>
Motels on Route 66\/Central Avenue in Albuquerque<\/em>
Who among us hasn\u2019t spent at least one night in a motel in Albuquerque? Back in July 1975, Gary Herron and his then-wife checked into the luxurious Pinon Motel on Central, just west of Wyoming Boulevard. A half-century later, Gary now has an interesting story about the 100 or so motels that once lined Central Avenue, aka Route 66!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wheels Museum1100 2nd St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102Phone: (505) 243-6269 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.mAdmission is Free, but donations are gladly accepted. See the WHEELS Museum Events Calendar for current schedule. Download list 1\/24\/2026 – Hazel LathropTijeras Canyon – Five Miles of Road and Hundreds of StoriesTijeras Canyon with Tijeras at the east end and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4251"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4263,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}