Publications

I was a writer long before my involvement with Route 66. As you will see, not all of my writing credits involve America’s roadside. My first published piece, in 1984, was an article for a para-military magazine about an action in Vietnam based on my own participation in that war.

Following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, I co-wrote two books about that tragedy and served as an editorial team member for a third. In 2013, my own Vietnam memoir was published. That said, the scales are decidedly tipped toward writing about the route, as that has been my focus since the renaissance began.

Books

  • Oklahoma Route 66: The Cruiser’s Companion (Ghost Town Press, 1992)

  • In Their Name (Random House, editorial team member, 1995)

  • Exploring Oklahoma with Children (Inprint Publishing, chapter contributor, 1995)

  • Dear Oklahoma City, Get Well Soon (Walker & Co., co-author, 1996)

  • We Will Never Forget (Eakin Press, co-author, 1996).

  • Oklahoma Route 66 (Ghost Town Press, author, 2001)

  • Roadside USA: Route 66 and Beyond (Ghost Town Press, co-author, 2009)

  • Oklahoma Route 66, Second Edition (Ghost Town Press, author, 2011)

  • Route 66 Sightings (Ghost Town Press, co-author, 2011)

  • Route 66 in Oklahoma (Arcadia Publishing, co-author, 2011)

  • Outside the Wire: Riding with the Triple Deuce in Vietnam 1970 (Stackpole Books, author, 2013)

  • Route 66 Crossings: Historic Bridges of the Mother Road (University of Oklahoma Press, author, 2016)

  • Secret Route 66: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure (Reedy Press, co-author, 2017)

Route 66 Crossings

Editorial Review

Route 66 is a beloved and much studied symbol of twentieth-century America. But until now, no book has focused on the bridges that spanned the rivers, creeks, arroyos, and railroads between Chicago and Santa Monica. In this handsome volume, Route 66 authority and veteran writer and photographer Jim Ross examines the origins and history of the bridges of America’s most famous highway, structures designed to overcome obstacles to travel, many of them engineered with architectural aesthetics now lost to time.

Featuring hundreds of Ross's own photographs, Route 66 Crossings showcases bridges ranging in design from timber to steel and concrete, and provides schematics, maps, and global coordinates to help readers identify and locate them. Ross’s comprehensive accounting of structures along the Mother Road’s various alignments includes bridges still in use, those that have vanished or have been abandoned, and the few consciously preserved as monuments. He also recognizes ancillary structures that enhanced safety and helped facilitate traffic, such as railway grade separations, tunnels, and pedestrian underpasses.

Ross seeks to encourage ongoing preservation of the structures that remain. In brilliant color and precise detail, Route 66 Crossings expands our knowledge of the bridges that linked America’s first all-weather national highway.

Tulsa book signing with author Michael Wallis

 

Maps

  • The Route 66 Map Series (Ghost Town Press, co-author, 1994, 2001, 2005, 2015, 2022)

  • Deep Tracks (creator, author, 2022)

Selected Periodicals

  • Route 66 Magazine, staff writer, 1994-1998

  • Chronicles of Oklahoma (Oklahoma Historical Society, cover story, 1995)

  • Federation News (National Historic Route 66 Federation, regular contributor, 1995-2005)

  • Essentially America (British travel magazine, three-part article, 1995)

  • Home & Away (AAA membership magazine, cover story, 2001)

  • Oklahoma Today (feature, 2006)

  • American Road (Mock Turtle Press, co-founder, managing editor, contributor, 2002-2004)

  • Route (feature articles, 2018-2019)

  • Preservation (publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, feature, 2021)

 Other

  • Book Reviews editor for American Road

  • Authored introductions to the books Legendary Route 66 (Michael Karl Witzel) and Bloody Jungle (Chris Evans)

  • Served as a subject and consultant for the books Into Cambodia (Keith William Nolan) and Red Thunder/Tropic Lightning (Eric Bergerud)

  • Photo contributor to the books Route 66 Remembered; Drive-In Deluxe; Route 66: Spirit of the Mother Road; Route 66: The Mother Road (75th Anniversary Edition); and Route 66 Backroads.

  • On-camera appearances include CBS, NBC, PBS, as well as numerous local programs and news broadcasts.

  • Served as a consultant to various media organizations and television productions, both domestic and foreign.

  • Co-producer of the documentary film Bones of the Old Road (1998)

  • Consultant to the Smithsonian Institution’s America on the Move exhibit (2002-2003)

  • Lecture venues include the University of Oklahoma, Rogers State College, Saint Gregory’s College, Redlands Community College, and various other schools and organizations.

  • Multiple newspaper interviews include The Oklahoman and The New York Times.

Honors and Awards

  • Oklahoma Historical Society Citation of Merit, 2000

  • Induction into the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame, 2001

  • Recipient of the John Steinbeck Award for Historic Preservation, 2001

  • Two-time Oklahoma Book Award finalist (1996, 2011)

  • Appointment by the Secretary of Agriculture to the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program Advisory Council, 2002

  • Recipient of the Will Rogers Award for Historic Preservation, 2012

  • Appointment by Governor Kevin Stitt to the Oklahoma Route 66 Centennial Commission, 2020