Willie Lambert’s Route 66 Guides

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 – Historic Santa Fe Foundation is excited to announce that we are working in collaboration with Willie Lambert to publish his comprehensive guides on Route 66 in New Mexico. This project is currently in progress, with the first guide slated for release by summer 2025. This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. To help us meet the matching funds requirement, we invite you to contribute to this project through donations. Read more about the project below.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Historic Santa Fe Foundation is excited to announce our collaboration with Willie Lambert to publish his guides on Route 66 in New Mexico. 

Many of you might know Willie from his Santa Fe to Romeroville tours in 2022 and 2023, or from his binders sprawled across multiple tables at El Zaguán, San Miguel Chapel, and other establishments along Route 66. Willie has been researching and traveling New Mexico's portion of Route 66 for several decades, during which he has collected over 1,400 historic postcards and used them to recreate photos of sites along the route. These photos are what is left of many places, and Willie’s recreations often depict piles of dirt where an adobe building used to stand, or paint flakes of a once beautiful mural. Willie knows where most of the road bed is from east to west, and is still excited when he discovers new portions. 

This grant will support the digitization and preservation of over 30 binders compiled by Willie, which contain a diverse collection of postcards, hand-drawn maps, comparative photographs, coins, and more. Additionally, funding from the grant will help pay for the publication of five booklets based on these binders. Follow our 545 Blog for updates, where we will share stories from Willie's travels along Route 66 as this project progresses, and keep an eye out for more tours guided by him. If you would like to support this project, we are currently accepting donations to assist with the matching funds required for the grant.

ABOUT THE PRESERVE ROUTE 66 GRANT FUND

This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Grants from this fund provide support to public agencies, tribal governments or nonprofit organizations to preserve and interpret historic places along Route 66 corridor. For more information on all grant programs from the National Trust, visit: https://savingplaces.org/grants