Route 66 turned 100 yesterday. The highway was established on November 11, 1926, according to the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. That made Wednesday the exact birthday of the road that runs through downtown Kingman.
Most of the anniversary in Kingman lands three days later. On Saturday, November 14, a veterans parade goes down Beale Street in the morning, and a 140-mile footrace on the old highway reaches town in the afternoon. A lot of the rest of the centennial is already on Beale Street, painted on buildings and on display in the Powerhouse, and none of that depends on a date.
The centennial was planned as a year
The national celebration didn't wait for November either. The U.S. Postal Service held the first-day-of-issue ceremony for its eight-stamp Route 66 set in Phoenix on May 5, 2026, six months before the anniversary. USPS still cites November 11, 1926 as the designation date.
The state association set things up the same way. It describes Arizona's celebrations as running all through 2026, with beautification and revitalization grants and an Arizona Route 66 passport spinoff meant to work in any season. Kingman's own tourism calendar lists the "Route 66 Centennial Celebration" on Beale Street downtown as running "All year, 2026."
So on a calendar built around a whole year, the 11th is one date among many. For Kingman, the busiest single day of the anniversary week is Saturday.
Saturday, November 14: Beale Street in the morning, the course in the afternoon
Two events with different reasons for being here share the same Saturday. One is in town. The other is spread over most of Mohave County.
10 to 11 a.m.: the Veterans Day Parade
The Kingman Area Veterans Association holds its third annual Veterans Day Parade on Beale Street downtown, between 5th Street and 1st Street. It starts at 10 a.m. and runs until 11 a.m. The parade is set for the Saturday after Veterans Day, which this year fell on the same Wednesday as the highway's 100th birthday.
That puts the parade on the street at the center of Kingman's Route 66 story, during the anniversary week. The two things just happen to line up.
7 a.m. in Seligman, afternoon in Kingman: the Route 66 UltraRun
While the parade lines up, runners in the Route 66 UltraRun are already a few hours into their race. The 140-mile event starts at 7 a.m. Saturday in front of Angel and Vilma's Original Route 66 Gift Shop in Seligman. The organizers say it is a Certified Route 66 Centennial Event. Heather and Marshall Ulrich are the co-race directors. A separate 100-mile CenturyRun starts in Peach Springs at 10 a.m.
Kingman is a time station on the course, not the start. You can tell when runners will come through town from the volunteer shifts the organizers post for each station:
| Time station | Volunteer coverage |
|---|---|
| Peach Springs | Sat 11/14, 11 a.m. to midnight |
| Kingman | Sat 11/14, 3 p.m. to Sun 11/15, midnight |
| Donkey Haven | Sat 11/14, 5 p.m. to Mon 11/16, 4 a.m. |
| Oatman | Sat 11/14, 7 p.m. to Mon 11/16, 10 a.m. |
The Kingman station is open for about 33 hours. Faster runners can come through on Saturday evening, and slower runners are still arriving on Sunday night. The station shifts are open to volunteers, who sign up through UltraSignup by choosing a station and a time slot.
After Kingman, the course keeps going west past SOS Donkey Haven, Cool Springs and Oatman toward Topock. That means runners pass through Kingman on their way to the river. East of town, the organizers list Grand Canyon Caverns, Peach Springs, Keepers of the Wild, Hackberry and Antares as places to stop and cheer.
The start is open to the public. Organizers invite anyone to be in front of Angel and Vilma's before 6:30 a.m. Saturday and walk the first mile with runners, crews and volunteers behind pace vehicles, including the Seligman fire truck and a classic T-Bird. People who would rather drive can bring a classic car, truck, bus or hot rod and join the lead pace pack. Marshall Ulrich calls it a "rolling, Indy-type" start, meant to keep everyone together.
If you have a car built for the old highway, there's a full Saturday here. Drive the pace pack out of Seligman at dawn, head west on Route 66, and get back to Kingman as the afternoon station opens.
The parts of the centennial that don't need a date
The date matters less in Kingman partly because so much of the centennial here is permanent. The town calls itself "the heart of historic Route 66," and a September 10 feature in The Bee notes that Kingman sits at the center of the longest remaining uninterrupted stretch of the highway.
On Beale Street, the Dunton Motors dealership building has a panoramic mural celebrating the centennial with a patriotic theme. The Dunton family is marking its own 100 years of business on Route 66 in western Arizona this year, so the building is celebrating two centennials at once. Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner and its gift shop are in the same historic dealership complex.
According to The Bee, Ray Harvey's Route 66 murals at Mudd on 66, Tin Can Alley on 66 and the historic Old Trails Garage are the only murals by the artist outside Missouri. Kingman Tourism dates its centennial run-up to 2021 through 2024. That includes the Drive Thru Shield, the Kingman Tours Plaza, the Guardian Angel exhibit, the Beale Street renovation and the Harvey murals.
The Arizona Route 66 Museum at the Powerhouse finished its exhibit renovations in November 2025, almost exactly a year before the anniversary. Kingman Tourism lists it as open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That makes it a good stop when visitors are in town for parade weekend, or any other day.
Kingman spent years building its centennial into Beale Street, and Saturday's parade route runs along the same blocks.
After the race weekend, Beale Street turns to the holidays
When the last UltraRun runners leave the Kingman station late Sunday night, the calendar moves to the holidays. Downtown stays the center of it.
- Friday, November 27, 4 to 6:30 p.m.: Radar Hill Tree Lighting. The Kingman Chamber of Commerce hosts the lighting at Heritage Complex, 701 N. Stockton Hill Road, the day after Thanksgiving. The event page lists games for kids, food trucks, free hot cocoa and cookies, and music. Entry is free, and parking is off Johnson Avenue and Hall Street behind Walgreens. The Kingman Miner describes the tree-shaped lights as sitting on the radio-tower hill, where they can be seen from many parts of town.
- Saturday, December 12, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Downtown Cookie Crawl. The Kingman Area Chamber of Commerce runs a crawl through participating downtown businesses. This year's theme is "Dancing Snowmen," and the listed address is 309 E. Beale Street.
- April 30 to May 2, 2027: Route 66 Fun Run. The next run follows the road from Seligman through Kingman to Topock, the same direction the UltraRun goes this weekend.
The Fun Run passes the same murals, the same museum and the same Beale Street blocks the veterans parade will use Saturday morning.
The road has spent all of 2026 in the spotlight. If you own a home, land or a commercial building near Kingman's historic corridor and want to know what the centennial attention means for selling, The Modern Desert Group can put together a strategic listing plan or a cash offer on a timeline that works for you. Make a bold move.
