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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the iconic Route 66, which spans 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. The legendary “Mother Road” passes through eight states, including six western states: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 

Route 66 originated in 1926 as one of the first roadways to traverse the heart of country and connect midwestern cities like Chicago and St. Louis to the growing West Coast. It was first used as a Great Depression-era route to the promising shores of California, and then primarily as a military transport corridor during World War II. Following the war, however, Route 66 took on a whole new identity as car ownership spiked and the American road trip was born.

As more Americans hit the road, bound for the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, or southern California beaches, Route 66 – and the communities it connected – grew to symbolize the American spirit of adventure and freedom. Even though the road was ultimately decommissioned as a federal highway in 1985, it has been immortalized in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Bobby Troupe’s “Route 66”, Bruce Springsteen’s “Cadillac Ranch”, Pixar’s Cars, and countless other pop culture hits.  

This year, to celebrate the centennial, cities and towns on the route are showing off their quirky roadside attractions, neon signs, and historic stops along the way.  

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the city is refurbishing more than a dozen of the recognizable neon signs that dot its 18-mile stretch of the highway, such as the Dog House Drive-In (right). Albuquerque is also putting on Route 66 Remixed, a public art project exploring Route 66’s legacy through murals, sculptures, and augmented reality (AR) experiences, in partnership with Meow Wolf and Refract Studio.  

Other museums, such as the National Cowboy and Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, are putting on exhibits that explore Route 66 and its place in the mystique of the American West.  

To explore more along Route 66, from giant sculptures to roadside oddities and historic places, check out the official Route 66 Centennial webpage.  

Fervo goes public: last week, Fervo Energy officially became the first publicly traded next-generation geothermal company. Its initial public offering brought in nearly $2 billion and shot its initial valuation to roughly $7.7 billion.  

The valuation is far above the $3 billion that the company sought earlier this year, and it represents a milestone for the growing geothermal industry.  

For more on building the geothermal industry in the West, read the Heat Beneath Our Feet initiative report from Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ term as WGA Chair in 2023. Also, watch recordings from this week’s Energy Superabundance workshop, which explored geothermal energy with Michael O’Connor of the new Mountain West Geothermal Consortium.

New Amtrak trains: a new era of train travel is coming to the Pacific Northwest later this year, as Amtrak gets set to debut a new fleet of modern, regionally designed trainsets. The first train wrapped up testing in Pueblo, Colorado, recently and arrived in Seattle last week.  

Riders on the I-5 corridor between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, can expect to see the new Pacific Northwest-themed Amtrak Cascades trains starting in the fall.  

Utah antimony plant: last week, Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced the construction of a new antimony plant in the southwestern corner of the state. Antimony is a critical mineral used in defense systems, battery storage, and advanced electronics.  

The new plant is part of Utah’s ongoing effort to build a domestic critical mineral supply chain and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources of minerals.  

“By developing these resources here at home, Utah is helping strengthen America’s supply chains while creating hundreds of good-paying jobs in Iron and Garfield counties,” said Governor Cox. 

The Governor also discussed the new facility during a conversation with Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon at WGA’s Energy Superabundance workshop this week.  

Creating water from thin air: Nobel prize-winning chemist Omar Yaghi from the University of California, Berkeley, is taking his prize-winning research to a new startup that is attempting to harvest water directly from the atmosphere.  

The startup, Atoco, is building shipping container-sized machines that can absorb H2O from the atmosphere to produce as much as 265 gallons of water per day.  

The company plans to start taking orders in the second half of 2026, and it will target data centers and drought-afflicted regions for its water harvesting technology.