Adopt a Highway event cleans up Historic Route 66

FLAGSTAFF – As it nears its 100th anniversary, Historic Route 66 got a makeover when 22 volunteers spent Saturday morning giving back to their community.

At a special Arizona Department of Transportation Adopt a Highway event in Flagstaff to mark the Route 66 centennial, volunteers removed 19 bags of litter, totalling more than 260 pounds, from a one-mile stretch of iconic Historic Route 66. 

While this stretch of roadway is no longer designated as US Route 66, it travels the same path of the famous highway and is called Historic Route 66. This Adopt a Highway event is just one of hundreds of events taking place this year across the country to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the “Mother Road.”

The Route 66 Centennial Adopt a Highway event drew volunteers from Flagstaff, Williams, Phoenix, Glendale, Mesa, Tempe and other towns.

Adopt a Highway volunteers help make a big difference in keeping Arizona grand. In 2025, nearly 8,000 people with 823 groups cleaned 1,982 miles of highway and filled 12,876 bags of trash and roadside litter. The labor value of those volunteers’ work is over $589,000. 

There’s room for you among the hundreds of groups and thousands of volunteers behind ADOT Adopt a Highway. Civic-minded individuals, families, religious groups and others may receive two-year permits to clean up roadside litter on highway segments, usually a mile in each direction and largely in rural areas, that are deemed safe for volunteers. 

Groups agree to pick up litter in an adopted stretch at least once per year and preferably three or more times a year. They coordinate with ADOT to arrange for safety vests, litter bags and training for pickup events and then report the results. 

Each adopted stretch has a recognition sign bearing the Adopt a Highway group’s name.

For more information and to join our Adopt a Highway family, please visit azdot.gov/adoptahighway.