Shortly after WWI, Avery opened a proto-
motel outside Tulsa. Avery soon realized that an interstate system of highways would help his adopted city and state prosper.
Good Roads Movement Impressed with Missouri's
Good Roads Movement, Avery joined the Oklahoma Good Roads Association. He also served as president of the
Albert Pike Highway Association from 1917 to 1927. He also began pushing for a statewide improvement of roads. He eventually became involved in the creation of the
Ozarks Trails, a system of roads connecting
St. Louis and
Amarillo,
Texas. After working with creating more roads, he was elected president of the Associated Highway Associations of America. In 1923, he was appointed to the Oklahoma State Highway Commission, where he implemented a gasoline tax to fund the highway department. He became instrumental in pushing for a federal level of good roads. In 1925, the
United States Secretary of Agriculture appointed him to the Joint Board of Interstate Highways, which was to designate the new federal highways and mark them. One of the routes requested by
Congress was a road running from
Virginia Beach, Virginia to
Los Angeles, California. This road would follow what is now
U.S. Highway 60 from Virginia Beach to
Springfield, Missouri, continue west to
Joplin, across southern
Kansas,
Colorado,
Utah, turning south to
Las Vegas, Nevada, then further south and west to Los Angeles. 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. His suggestion that this highway should go east from Springfield to St. Louis and
Chicago, Illinois, as commerce naturally continued in that direction, was also adopted. After the highways were routed, the group decided not to name the highways (as had been done by many non-profit groups which were currently connecting various state routes into longer multi-state and transcontinental routes), but instead to follow the pattern of numbering the highways, as established in
Wisconsin and
Missouri. The current east-west routes would be even numbers, and the north-south would be odd. Major routes would be one- or two-digit numbers ending in either "1" or "0" depending on the route. To avoid a "U.S. 0",
U.S. Highway 2 was treated as a "0" highway and
U.S. Route 101 would be treated as a two-digit highway to expand the number of available routes north-south. Avery, arguing that the Chicago to Los Angeles route would be a major highway, numbered the highway US 60, began production of roadside signs. However, political trouble was brewing.
U.S. 60 vs. U.S. 62 The Virginia Beach–Springfield route had been designated as U.S. 62 and actually terminated south of
Galloway, Missouri at
U.S. Highway 65. Kentucky would be the only state without a "0" highway. They countered Avery's US route by pushing for US 60 to run between Virginia Beach and Los Angeles; the Springfield to Chicago section could be "U.S. 60 North". Avery returned with "U.S. 60 South" for the Springfield–Virginia Beach alignment. Kentucky threatened to walk completely out of the new highway system (individual states could not be forced to participate in it). Finally, Kentucky offered a compromise: connect their highway with Avery's in Springfield and give their highway the number 60. Avery could have his Chicago–Los Angeles highway if he would accept the number 62 which was originally assigned to their road. Avery disliked the number 62, found out 66 was not used, and designated the Chicago–Los Angeles highway as U.S. 66. In 1926, the Federal Highway System was approved by Congress. With this done, Congress also de-certified all the old "association" highways.
Avery and the U.S. 66 Association In 1927, Avery pushed for the creation of the
U.S. Highway 66 Association to promote paving U.S. 66 and promote travel on the highway. He was elected vice president in 1929, and recruited
Lon Scott for to promote the new highway. He got a business connection in Springfield, Missouri appointed as president. In the 1930s, Avery would attempt to have himself elected president of the organization, but he never succeeded. ==Death==