Kansas numbered highways

U.S. Route 66, the historic US highway between Chicago, Illinois and Santa Monica, California, passed through one brief segment in the southeastern corner of Kansas. After the decertification of that highway in 1985, this road segment was numbered as U.S. Highway 69 (alternate) from Quapaw, Oklahoma north to Riverton, Kansas and as K-66 (Kansas highway) from Riverton east to Route 66 in Missouri.

The eleven miles (18 km) of US-66 in Kansas retains much of the character of the Mother Road. It passes through Baxter Springs, Riverton and Galena in Cherokee County.

In Galena, US-66 originally turned north on Main Street, then east on Front Street before leaving the state as Route 66 to Central City, Missouri. This portion was changed in 1979 to remain on 7th Avenue, seven blocks south of the original routing, eastward to the Missouri state line.

When US 66 was bypassed by Interstate 44 in 1961, the new Interstate highway crossed directly from Oklahoma to Missouri, bypassing Kansas entirely. US-69 Alternate was formed in 1985 when US-66 was decommissioned; the remainder of US 66 in Kansas became state highway K-66. The final (1985) alignment of US-66 therefore perfectly matches present U.S. Route 69 Alternate and K-66.

The entire route is in Cherokee County.

A restored Kan-O-Tex Service Station on Main Street in Galena was re-opened in 2007 as a roadside diner and souvenir shop. It was part of US 66 before the 1979 realignment but is bypassed by the current K-66.

Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas include the Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station (now a tourist information site for US 66 in Kansas), the Brush Creek Bridge, the Williams' Store in Riverton and the Kansas Route 66 Historic District in east Galena.

While buildings and structures on this section of US 66 in its 1950s heyday included five major trucking companies, a series of motels and tourist courts (Sunbeam Tourist Camp, Camp Joy, Baxter Court Cabins, Satterlee’s Tourist Cabins, Capistrano Motel) alongside restaurants, roadhouses, filling stations, souvenir stands and commercial stores, by 2002 almost all of the tourist lodging had been demolished. Only a portion of the former Satterlee's remains; it had been converted to storage space. Food service establishments fared somewhat better by relying on a strong local clientele after Interstate 44 bypassed the state in 1961, but ultimately lead and zinc mine closures in the Tri-State district plus the diversion of US 66 traffic by I-44 led to the closure of many local Cherokee County businesses.