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. This work is made possible thanks to the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 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 many years. He has collected over 1,400 historic postcards, and over the past decades recreated the photos of sites along Route 66. These photos are what is left of many places, and many of Willie’s recreations 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 help scan and preserve the over 30 binders Willie has created of postcards, hand drawn maps, then and now photos, coins, and more. Then funding from the grant will help pay for the publications of five booklets based on these binders. Stay tuned to our blog while we post stories of Route 66 from Willie’s travels. Keep an eye out for more tours from Willie. If you would like to support this project, we are currently seeking donations to help cover our matching funds 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