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Last month, while I was neglecting my blog, I was busy working on a nomination submission to have Frank T. Sheets inducted into the Route 66 Association of Illinois’ Hall of Fame.

While Mr. Sheets is not a household name, it is my view that his contributions to the Illinois section of 66 make him worthy of being called the “Father of Route 66 in Illinois.” I guess I made a good case, because this weekend the Hall of Fame committee voted in favor of Mr. Sheets’ induction. I appreciate the committee’s due diligence and careful consideration that let to this positive outcome.So, who is Frank Sheets? I have the full nominating materials that I submitted available for viewing or download here (warning, the file is 1.5 megabytes and may take a while to open or download). Below are some bullet points about Mr. Sheets:

• Frank T. Sheets headed the Illinois Division of Highways from 1920-1932. During his tenure, the state came from “out of the mud” to break the record four times for miles paved in a year by any state. The Division’s work under his command included the completion of hard surface pavement on all of Illinois State Bond Issue (SBI) Route 4 between Chicago and the McKinley Bridge (over the Mississippi River into St. Louis) by the end of 1926. When U.S. 66 was commissioned and routed along SBI 4, Illinois could boast of being the only state with hard roads along the entire length of its share of the highway.
• Mr. Sheets also served as President of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) and a member of its “Committee of Five” that created the original U.S. Highway map and numbering system. He fought against the regional interests that wanted the highway connecting Los Angeles and St. Louis to continue east through Kentucky and Virginia. He and his fellow committee members won the battle for a “single-numbered highway” connecting Chicago to Los Angeles, and thus they created the highway we now “preserve and promote.”
• From 1927-1932, the Division of Highways under Mr. Sheets continued to improve Route 66 with wider pavements, grade separations, and the change in routing that brought such beloved towns as Litchfield and Hamel into the Route 66 community.

For these reasons, I thought that Frank T. Sheets belonged in the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame. He was in charge of building, maintaining, and improving the highway, and he was instrumental in its designation as U.S. Highway 66. I believe he truly is the Father of Route 66 in Illinois. I am glad the Hall of Fame committee agreed as to his worthiness for induction.

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Real life has gotten in the way of my posting activities in the last few weeks, so I just wanted to make a quick entry here to catch up on a few recent items.

• As stated in a previous post, I gave a presentation on Historic Route 66 at the Park Ridge, Illinois Library on February 26, 2008. There was a snowstorm the previous day, and the night of the 26th was extremely cold, but nonetheless an overflow crowd showed up to see the presentation. It’s great to see so many folks with an interest in 66–so much so that they brave nasty weather in order to take a virtual tour on the Mother Road. My thanks again to the staff at the Park Ridge Library for hosting the event and helping to make the evening a success.
• In February, I spent a large chunk of time preparing a nomination for the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame. Each year, nominations are sent to the Hall of Fame committee for people, businesses, or structures that “have made significant contributions to the character or history of the Illinois portion of Route 66 while it was an official United States highway in the State (1927-1977),” (quoting from the Association’s bylaws). The person I nominated was Frank T. Sheets, who was in charge of the Illinois Division of Highways from 1920-1932. In 1926, when State Bond Issue (SBI) Route 4 was designated as U.S. 66, Illinois was the only state that could boast of having its entire piece of the highway completely paved with a hard surface. Frank Sheets was the guy in charge of making that happen. Later today, I will post up the full text of my nomination. Yesterday, I received a call from Marilyn Pritchard, Hall of Fame Museum Curator, and she told me that Frank Sheets had indeed been inducted into the Hall of Fame by the committee. This is great news, since, in my opinion, Mr. Sheets was truly the Father of Route 66 in Illinois. So check back a little later to read more about Mr. Sheets.
• On Saturday, after a long, bitter winter, I gave my first walking tour of 2008. An Irish family from Toronto was in town for St. Patrick’s Day. They had never been to Chicago before and had little foreknowledge of Route 66, so I gave them a good orientation to the city and the highway. It was 40 degrees and a bit breezy, but as always we explored inside of buildings as well as outside, so we were never far from places to warm up. So, to anyone out there–if you come to Chicago, I am available to give you a tour that will be enjoyable even if the weather isn’t!

I’ll be working on my next quarterly newsletter in the next few days–I have several more library presentations coming up in April and May, as well as other announcements. Stay tuned!

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