When you open Strange 66 ,take alook beyond the all-American sheen to theseedy, creepy, and just plain weird stories behind America's Mother Road.

Though Route 66 conjures images of aninnocent golden age of car travel, it wasn't all about ruddy-cheeked,summer vacationers. Route 66and the regions it traverses havea side more seldom seen,rich withweird tales(mimetic architecture, paranormal phenomena, and evencryptozoology) to thedownright sordid and seedy(murder, mistreatment, and other assorted mayhem).

In Strange 66, bestselling Route 66 authority Michael Witzel explores the flip side of Route 66 toofferdetails on infamous locations that once served as hideouts for the James Gang (Meramec Caverns), Bonnie and Clyde (Baxter Springs, Kansas), and Al Capone (Cicero, Illinois).

There are thestories of unspeakable crimescommitted along 66, such as the Stafflebeck "murder bordello" in Galena, Kansas, and Arizona's "Orphan Maker of Route 66." Witzel also explores the people that passed through theregion, including theDust Bowl exodusand theTrail of Tears tributein Jerome, Missouri.

Then there are the lighter, though still strangestories, such as the Route 66 Great Transcontinental Footrace and the origins of various roadside colossi, like the Blue Whale of Catoosaand Giganticus Headicus in Walapai, Arizona. And speaking of heads, what about steak? Eat one as big as your head at the Big Texan in Amarillo-and it's free!

All of these stories culminatein a look at Route 66 unlike any other,completely illustrated with modern and archival photographyand written by an acknowledged authority on the Mother Road.