Route 66 crosses Missouri for about 317 miles, from the Mississippi River at St. Louis to the Kansas line just west of Joplin. The stops worth the brakes, east to west: the Chain of Rocks Bridge and Ted Drewes in St. Louis, Route 66 State Park in Eureka, Meramec Caverns near Stanton, the murals and the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, the giant rocking chair at Fanning, Rolla, the 1923 bridge at Devil's Elbow, the Munger Moss sign in Lebanon, Springfield (the Birthplace of Route 66), Gary's Gay Parita station at Paris Springs, Boots Court and the 66 Drive-In in Carthage, and Joplin. Give the state two days, three if you want the caverns and a full evening in Springfield.
I'm Helena. I drove all 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica in April 2026 for the Centennial Edition of my Route 66 Field Manual, and Missouri is the state where the old road and the interstate keep trading places. I-44 runs beside Route 66 for long stretches, and the best parts of the state are the ones you only find by leaving it: the Ozark hills, the stone motels and the small-town main streets.
How many miles of Route 66 are in Missouri?
About 317 miles, the figure Visit Missouri uses and the same one in my Route 66 map with cities. As in every state, the exact number depends on which alignment you count, because the road was moved and straightened several times between 1926 and the end. Missouri is the second state if you drive west, after about 301 miles in Illinois, and the road leaves it for the shortest state of all, the 13 miles of Route 66 in Kansas.
The interstate that replaced it here is I-44, and that matters for planning. Between St. Louis and Springfield the old road often runs right next to the interstate as an outer road, so it's easy to get on I-44 by accident and miss a whole town. I explain where each one makes sense in Route 66 vs I-40.
Route 66 Missouri map: the stops in order
Here is the state as a list you can follow on a map, east to west.
| Town | Stop | Why stop |
|---|---|---|
| St. Louis | Chain of Rocks Bridge, Ted Drewes | The bridge with the bend, and a concrete on Chippewa Street |
| Eureka | Route 66 State Park | Visitor center in a 1935 roadhouse on the Meramec River |
| Sullivan | Shamrock Court | A 1940s stone motel that reopened in May 2026 |
| Stanton | Meramec Caverns | Cave tours since 1935 |
| Cuba | Route 66 murals, Wagon Wheel Motel | The Route 66 Mural City and its stone cottages |
| Fanning | Fanning 66 Outpost | A rocking chair about 42 feet tall |
| Rolla | Buehler Park Route 66 Memorial | A new centennial memorial on Kingshighway |
| Devil's Elbow | 1923 bridge over the Big Piney River | The prettiest bend in the Ozarks |
| Lebanon | Munger Moss sign, Route 66 Museum | Neon relit in June 2026, and a free museum |
| Springfield | Birthplace of Route 66 | Where the number 66 was chosen in 1926 |
| Paris Springs | Gary's Gay Parita | A rebuilt Sinclair station in the countryside |
| Carthage | Boots Court, 66 Drive-In | A 1939 motor court and a 1949 drive-in |
| Joplin | Route 66 Mural Park | A mural of 25 landmarks, last city before Kansas |
The same towns, with distances for the whole road, are in my Route 66 road trip planner.
Route 66 in St. Louis
The Chain of Rocks Bridge, from the Missouri side
The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge opened in 1929 and crosses the Mississippi with a 22-degree bend in the middle. It has been closed to cars since 1970 and is now a walking and cycling path. Most travelers reach it from Illinois, but in 2026 that is not possible: Great Rivers Greenway says the canal bridge on the Illinois side is closed for construction from June 22 through the rest of 2026, and the old bridge is open from the Missouri side only.
So start in St. Louis. Chain of Rocks Park is at 10840 Riverview Drive, open daily from 7 a.m. to 30 minutes after sunset. One more catch: the westbound I-270 exit to Riverview Drive is temporarily closed. The posted detour is Lilac Avenue at exit 33, then Dunn Road east to Riverview Drive. Park, walk out to the bend, and look back at the city. If you are coming from Chicago, my guide to Route 66 stops in Illinois covers the road up to the river.
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
Ted Drewes has made frozen custard since 1929, and the stand at 6726 Chippewa Street is the Route 66 one. It is open all year, every day from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and still family-run in its fourth generation. Order a concrete, custard so thick they hand it to you upside down. The second stand on South Grand is summer only.
If you have an hour before October 27, the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis is running a Route 66 centennial exhibit, Roads, River, Rooms, and Reels, daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum's permanent collection also holds a reassembled cabin from the Coral Court Motel, the famous Route 66 motel that no longer stands.
Eureka to Cuba: the river, the caverns and the murals
Route 66 State Park, Eureka
Route 66 State Park sits on the Meramec River, on land that was once the town of Times Beach. Route 66 was rerouted through Times Beach in 1933; in the 1980s the town was evacuated after dioxin contamination was found, and after the cleanup the park opened in 1999. The visitor center is the former Bridgehead Inn, a 1935 roadhouse on the original road, with exhibits on the highway. On Saturday, November 7, 2026, the park holds a free Route 66 Centennial Celebration from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with live music, hayrides and a guided hike.
Meramec Caverns, Stanton
Lester Dill opened the cave to tourists in 1935, and painted Meramec Caverns barns still advertise it as far away as Illinois and Oklahoma. The guided tour takes about an hour and twenty minutes and covers about a mile and a quarter of walkways. The cave stays at 58°F all year, so bring a light jacket. Tickets are $30.50 for adults and $16.50 for children 5 to 11, and children under 5 go free. In October the cave is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; it closes entirely from February 5 to 27, and the official site asks you to call ahead in November and December.
Sullivan: Shamrock Court
Shamrock Court in Sullivan is a late-1940s motel of giraffe-pattern stone, listed on the National Register in 2022. Rich Dinkela, a former president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri, reopened it to overnight guests on May 29, 2026, with nine rooms from $135 to $250.
Cuba: the Route 66 Mural City
Cuba has called itself the Route 66 Mural City since 2007. The local group Viva Cuba started commissioning outdoor murals in 2001, and there are now 14 of them, with scenes from local history, including visits from Harry Truman, Amelia Earhart and Bette Davis, and old Route 66 businesses. Pick up a mural map at the visitor center at I-44 exit 208 and walk it; an hour is enough.
Then sleep at the Wagon Wheel Motel, known as the oldest continuously operating motel on Route 66, with Ozark sandstone cottages and a neon wheel sign from around 1947. It changed hands on April 8, 2026: Rich and Christina Dinkela bought the 19-room motel for $1 million, the same Dinkela who runs Shamrock Court. Book by phone and confirm a few days out. My notes on the cottages are in the best Route 66 motels.
The Ozarks: Fanning, Rolla and Devil's Elbow
Fanning: the giant rocking chair
A few miles west of Cuba, at I-44 exit 203 and one mile east on Highway ZZ, the Fanning 66 Outpost has a steel rocking chair 42 feet 4 inches tall, put up on April Fool's Day 2008. It held the world record from 2008 to 2015, until a larger rocker went up in Casey, Illinois, and today it is billed as the world's largest rocking chair on Route 66. The chair is outside and always there for a photo. The store has changed hands over the years, so if you are counting on it for a snack, check before you go.
Rolla
Rolla is a university town and a good place for gas and lunch. In August 2025 the city dedicated a new Route 66 Memorial in Buehler Park, where Kingshighway, the old Route 66, meets Highway 72 on the west side, paid for with a grant from the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission. Two old landmarks are gone: the Totem Pole Trading Post closed on September 30, 2024 and was torn down in 2025, and the Mule Trading Post building is now an axe-throwing business.
Devil's Elbow
This is the stretch I tell people never to skip. The original road, now called Teardrop Road, drops down to the Big Piney River and crosses it on a steel truss bridge built in 1923. The bridge was restored for $1.3 million and reopened to traffic on May 22, 2014. Rafters named the bend in the 19th century, because their tie rafts broke up on it. In the 1940s a four-lane highway was blasted through the ridge to the north at the Hooker Cut and bypassed the village.
In mid-October the hardwoods on the bluffs turn, and this is the best fall color on the Missouri road; I wrote about it in Route 66 in the fall. The river does flood, as it did in November 2024, so after heavy rain check that the road through the village is open.
Lebanon: the Munger Moss sign and a free museum
The Munger Moss Motel was built in 1946, and its name comes from a 1930s sandwich shop at Devil's Elbow run by Nellie Munger and Emmitt Moss. After the longtime owners Bob and Ramona Lehman died, the motel was sold, and the new owner, The Dels Corp., is turning most of it into studio apartments. In January 2026 the company said about 15 rooms would be offered for short stays through Airbnb and similar sites, without a date, so don't plan your night around it.
The sign is the reason to stop. The owner donated it to the City of Lebanon, which restored it and relit it at a ceremony on June 1, 2026. It now glows nightly from 8 p.m. to midnight, and it is also on one of the eight state stamps in the U.S. Postal Service's Route 66 centennial set.
By day, go to the Route 66 Museum inside the Lebanon-Laclede County Library at 915 South Jefferson Avenue. It is free and self-guided, open Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Sundays.
Springfield, Missouri: the Birthplace of Route 66
On April 30, 1926, Cyrus Avery of Oklahoma, Missouri's state highway engineer and Springfield businessman John T. Woodruff met at the Colonial Hotel in Springfield and wired Washington that they wanted the number 66. That telegram is why Springfield calls itself the Birthplace of Route 66. Missouri was also the first state to put up a historic marker on US 66, at Kearney Street and Glenstone Avenue.
What to see in a few hours:
- Route 66 Visitor Center at 318 Park Central East, on the downtown square, for maps and the town's Route 66 sights.
- Birthplace of Route 66 Roadside Park on College Street, with a replica of the T-shaped sign of Red's Giant Hamburg. Red and Julia Chaney ran the restaurant from 1947 to 1984; the sign was cut short when "Hamburger" didn't fit.
- Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven, at St. Louis Street and Glenstone Avenue, built in 1938 as eight stone cottages and listed on the National Register in 2010. Elvis is said to have stayed here in 1956, with his mother.
- Rockwood Motor Court, stone cottages from 1929, rescued and reopened in 2019. In September 2026 it made the Great American Road Trip Hotels list.
- Steak 'n Shake on St. Louis Street, a Route 66 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Route 66 Festival in Springfield
The Birthplace of Route 66 Festival is held downtown every August and usually draws 60,000 to 70,000 people. In 2026 it ran August 7 and 8, with more than 700 classic cars and motorcycles and a cruise-in each night in place of the parade. Springfield's big centennial party came earlier: the city hosted the national centennial kickoff from April 30 to May 2, 2026, timed to the telegram's anniversary. When I checked the official calendar in early October, there was no November 11 event posted for Springfield. My Route 66 centennial events calendar has the full list.
West of Springfield: Gary's Gay Parita at Paris Springs
The road west of Springfield is quiet farm country on a two-lane, and the stop everyone makes is Gary's Gay Parita at Paris Springs. Fred and Gay Mason ran the original station here; it burned in 1955. Gary Turner rebuilt it in 2005 as a 1930s Sinclair station, with old pumps, cars and signs, and became famous for turning a five-minute stop into an hour of conversation. He died in 2015, and his daughter, Barbara Barnes, keeps it going. In October 2025 the Missouri Division of Tourism gave the station its Tracy Kimberlin Hospitality Award for customer service.
Carthage and Joplin: the last miles in Missouri
Boots Court
Boots Court in Carthage opened in 1939, and a nonprofit foundation bought it in 2021 to save it. All 13 rooms are restored, each with a radio and no television, the way it was when Clark Gable stayed. The foundation also runs the Boots Court Visitors Center in a former Sinclair station next door, which the city made Carthage's official visitor center in 2025, open seven days a week.
The 66 Drive-In
The 66 Drive-In opened on September 22, 1949, closed in 1985, reopened in 1998 and joined the National Register in 2003. Its owner, Nathan McDonald, says it is the only drive-in directly on Route 66 that carries the highway's name. It shows double features on weekends from April into September, so in late fall you get the neon sign and the screen, not a movie. The address is 17231 Old 66 Boulevard.
Two Carthage bridges are changing. The two 1928 bridges on North Garrison Avenue, an alternate Route 66 alignment from 1931 to 1964, closed for good in late February 2026. And the humpbacked Oak Street railroad bridge, known locally as the "Whee" Bridge, is still open but, according to the city engineer, living on borrowed time; it is expected to close and be replaced within about a year. Drive it while you can.
Joplin
Joplin is the last city before Kansas, about 6 miles from the state line. On Main Street, the Route 66 Mural Park at 619 South Main has a mural by Carthage artist Andy Thomas, unveiled in April 2025, with 25 landmarks from Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. The Joplin History & Mineral Museum reopened in early 2026 with a permanent Route 66 display built around a 73-foot mural, open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
How many days do you need for Route 66 in Missouri?
Two days covers the state at a steady pace, and that is how I split it in my two-week Route 66 itinerary: St. Louis to Cuba on the first day, Cuba to Carthage on the second. Take three if you want the full Meramec Caverns tour, an evening in Springfield and a slow morning at Devil's Elbow.
| Day | Route | Don't miss |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Louis to Cuba | Chain of Rocks Bridge, Ted Drewes, Route 66 State Park, Meramec Caverns, Cuba murals |
| 2 | Cuba to Springfield | Fanning rocking chair, Rolla, Devil's Elbow, Lebanon museum, Munger Moss sign after 8 p.m. |
| 3 | Springfield to Kansas line | Springfield sights, Gay Parita, Carthage, Joplin murals |
On the two-day version, skip the cave tour and see Lebanon by daylight. For the whole road, I answer the question state by state in how long does Route 66 take.
Where to stay on Route 66 in Missouri
Missouri has some of the best old motels on the whole road, and two of them changed in 2026, so call ahead.
- Cuba: the Wagon Wheel Motel, 19 rooms in stone cottages, new owners since April 2026.
- Sullivan: Shamrock Court, nine rooms, reopened May 29, 2026.
- Springfield: the Rockwood Motor Court, or the Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven if you want a chain with history.
- Carthage: Boots Court, 13 rooms. It fills early, so book it first. It is also the base I suggest for the Kansas stretch the next morning.
- Lebanon: the Munger Moss is mostly apartments now. See the sign, sleep elsewhere.
If you travel by RV, the campgrounds near Eureka and Joplin are in my guide to Route 66 camping and RV parks. The Field Manual lists nine hotels per state on three budgets, checked on the road in April 2026.
Route 66 centennial events in Missouri, fall 2026
Route 66 turns 100 on November 11, 2026. Here is what is left on the Missouri calendar.
- Through October 27: the Roads, River, Rooms, and Reels exhibit at the National Museum of Transportation, St. Louis.
- October 24: the Lebanon Route 66 Trunk or Treat Cruise In at the Laclede County Fairgrounds, gates at 5 p.m.
- November 7: the free Route 66 Centennial Celebration at Route 66 State Park, Eureka, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- November 10: a session of the Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series at the Lebanon library's Route 66 Museum.
- November 12: the State Historical Society of Missouri's free online talk, Telling the Missouri Route 66 Story: Centennial Conclusion.
When to drive Route 66 in Missouri
Fall is the easy answer. In October, St. Louis averages a high of 69°F and a low of 49°F, and the Ozark color usually peaks around mid-October. Spring works too, but some seasonal places keep short hours: the 66 Drive-In runs from April, and Meramec Caverns closes in February. For the month-by-month picture on the whole road, see the best time to drive Route 66.
Closed or changing on the Missouri stretch
- Chain of Rocks Bridge. Open from the Missouri side only through the end of 2026.
- Munger Moss Motel, Lebanon. Mostly apartments; the sign belongs to the city and glows from 8 p.m. to midnight.
- Wagon Wheel Motel, Cuba. Open, with new owners since April 2026.
- Totem Pole Trading Post, Rolla. Closed in 2024 and torn down in 2025.
- Granny Shaffer's, Joplin. The family restaurant on Range Line Road closed in July 2026 after more than half a century.
- Carthage bridges. North Garrison Avenue closed for good; the Whee Bridge likely closes within a year.
These are the kinds of changes my book flags with "verify operating status before travel." If we couldn't verify it, we left it out.
The short version
Missouri is about 317 miles of Route 66, and two days is enough, three if you want the caverns and Springfield at night: the Chain of Rocks Bridge from the Missouri side and a concrete at Ted Drewes, Cuba's murals and a night at the Wagon Wheel, Devil's Elbow and the Munger Moss neon, the telegram town of Springfield, Gay Parita, and a last night at Boots Court before Kansas. The Centennial Edition Field Manual has the Missouri chapter with its maps, GPS waypoints, nine restaurants and nine hotels, so you can tell the old road from I-44 every time they split.
