Get Your Kicks Challenge celebrates Route 66 centennial

The Forest Preserve District will mark this year's Route 66 Centennial Celebration with a special program filled with missions and exploration along the Mother Road.

Get Your Kicks began Thursday, April 30, and runs through Friday, July 31.

Participants will have a chance to win prizes and earn swag from the Forest Preserve and its community partners. To take part in the program, download the free Goosechase app to your smartphone and search "Get Your Kicks" or use code SI1HRK to join in the fun. 

Route 66 celebrations are happening across Illinois and all the way to California this summer as cities, towns and cultural and historical sites commemorate 100 years of travel, recreation and adventure.

The historic road passes by several Will County forest preserves.

“Route 66 stretches the length of Will County from our north border along Interstate 55 and follows Route 53 near Veterans Woods, through the heart of Joliet near Joliet Iron Works Historic Site, and south to the county border in Wilmington near Forked Creek Preserve,” said Em Wilcher, the Forest Preserve’s former recreation coordinator who now works as a real estate manager.

The Get Your Kicks program will highlight preserve and cultural stops along the way, offering an enhanced experience for travelers — whether they’re local or coming for the whole Route 66 experience, as they say, “from Chicago to LA,” Wilcher said.

The program will include:

• A stop at Prairie Bluff Preserve in Crest Hill, where travelers are invited to hop out and walk the trail, considering what the road may have looked like 100 years ago. After completing the guided experience at the preserve, participants will head to downtown Lockport to check out cultural sites and landmarks in the historic canal town.
• Stops in downtown Joliet, including Route 66 Park, Joliet Iron Works and the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum. The southern portion will guide travelers to sites in Wilmington, including the Gemini Giant, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and Forked Creek Preserve.

Missions include photo ops at Route 66 landmarks, trivia questions about transportation and industry throughout the corridor, and check-ins at local points of interest such as museums and galleries.

“We’re thrilled to partner with the City of Lockport, the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum and Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie for this offering to residents and travelers alike, and we’re looking forward to hearing about the experiences participants have out on the road,” Wilcher said.

Celebrating Route 66 and transportation corridors of the past is a good fit for the Forest Preserve, Wilcher added. Will County has a rich transportation history, and many preserves are steeped in that heritage.

Isle a la Cache Museum, the Forest Preserve visitor center located at Isle a la Cache preserve, educates visitors about travel and trade by French voyageurs on the Des Plaines River. Joliet Iron Works was built along a rail line that transported its iron and steel products around the country. McKinley Woods is located along the I&M Canal, where mules would pull goods loaded into canal boats, and also next to the Des Plaines River and its modern-day barge traffic.

“So, it makes sense that we would also celebrate Route 66 and the role the road has played in the cultural development of the Will County,” Wilcher said.