Because of Hickok's fame as a Pony Express rider, the event made nationwide news. Half a century later, travelers rode another legend into town. In 1938, Route 66 became the first completely paved transcontinental highway in America, stretching from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast. Traces of the Mother Road are still visible here along Kearney, Glenstone, College and St. Louis Streets , and on Highway 266 to Halltown. Their motorized migration westward followed the footsteps of ancestors who knew Missouri a century before as the beginning of the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail - the Missouri that was the Mother of the West.
All places highlighted in bold type exist in Springfield today.