19 Facts About Cyrus Avery

Cyrus Stevens Avery was a businessperson, oilman, and highway commissioner.

Cyrus Avery created the US Route 66 while being a member of the federal board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, then pushed for the establishment of the US Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway.

Cyrus Avery was born in Stevensville, Pennsylvania on August 31,1871.

In 1890, the family moved to Noel, Missouri, where Cyrus received a certificate to teach in public schools.

Cyrus Avery married Essie McClelland after graduation, then moved to Oklahoma City to be an insurance agent.

Cyrus Avery bought a farm near Tulsa in 1908, where he raised Holstein and Ayshire cattle, Druoc hogs, Shopshire sheep, and Percheron horses.

Cyrus Avery soon realized that an interstate system of highways would help his adopted city and state prosper.

Cyrus Avery served as president of the Albert Pike Highway Association from 1917 to 1927.

Cyrus Avery was elected chairman of the Tulsa County Commission, serving from 1913 to 1916, and is considered responsible for the construction of the Eleventh Street Bridge, which replaced an older wooden bridge across the Arkansas River.

Cyrus Avery began pushing for a statewide improvement of roads.

Cyrus Avery eventually became involved in the creation of the Ozarks Trails, a system of roads connecting St Louis and Amarillo, Texas.

Cyrus Avery became instrumental in pushing for a federal level of good roads.

Cyrus Avery successfully argued that to avoid the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the road should turn south through Tulsa and Oklahoma City, continue west across the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California.

Cyrus Avery, arguing that the Chicago to Los Angeles route would be a major highway, numbered the highway US 60, began production of roadside signs.

In 1927, Cyrus Avery pushed for the creation of the US Highway 66 Association to promote paving US 66 and promote travel on the highway.

Cyrus Avery was elected vice president in 1929, and recruited Lon Scott for to promote the new highway.

Cyrus Avery got a business connection in Springfield, Missouri appointed as president.

Cyrus Avery died in Los Angeles, California on July 2,1963, and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa.

Cyrus Avery Drive, a street in southwest Tulsa, was named for him.