On Tuesday afternoon, April 30th, Route 66 aficionados will gather in downtown Springfield, just south of the Woodruff Building, now called Sky Eleven, to celebrate the birth of Route 66. Ninety-three years ago a telegram was sent from the telegraph office in the Colonial Hotel, now an MSU parking lot, to Washington DC that is the first recorded use of the number 66 for the proposed national highway from Chicago to Los Angeles. The celebration is free and open to the public. Brief remarks will be made at 4:00 p.m., the time the telegram was sent. Refreshments will be served.