Editing Towanda, Illinois (section)

===Twentieth century===
Towanda has been plagued with fires. In 1905, a large part of the downtown area burned, and in 1917 the original railroad station went up in flames. However, there was also progress. In 1901, telephone service began, and in 1937 Main Street was paved.<ref>Towanda, ''McLean County'', ca 1976, pp 28-31</ref> Still, Towanda remained in the shadow of its larger neighbors to the south, Normal and Bloomington, and was always smaller than Lexington, the next town north on the stagecoach road and the Chicago and Alton Railroad line, which generally paralleled each other between [[Chicago]] and [[Springfield, Illinois|Springfield]].

Trains were essential to the development of the town, but traffic was never heavy; in 1887, only one southbound and one northbound freight stopped at Towanda.<ref>''Official Railway Guide: North American Freight Service Edition'' American Association of Passenger Traffic, 1887)p. 371.</ref> Passenger service stopped altogether in the 1940s. Most travel had long since been replaced by automobile and truck traffic along the roads that paralleled the Chicago and Alton rail line: [[Illinois Route 4|State Bond Route 4]] during the 1910s, [[U.S. Route 66]] from 1926 through the early 1970s, and [[Interstate 55]] from the 1970s onward. In 1955, U.S. Route 66 was locally widened to four lanes, as a partially divided highway with a grass median between the northbound and southbound lanes along much of its stretch. The former southbound lanes of Route 66 are now long disused, whereas the northbound roadbed is still in use as a two-lane local highway and the current path of Historic U.S. Route 66 in Illinois, now known as the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, a designated [[National Scenic Byway]].

When in 1977 the construction of Interstate 55 detoured [[U.S. Route 66 in Illinois|U.S. Route 66]] in a gradual curve around the northwest side of Towanda, a {{frac|3|1|4}}-mile section of southbound Route 66 was closed off to motorized traffic and abandoned.  Between 1998 and 2000, a not-for-profit student and community project created the Towanda Historic Route 66 Parkway, also known as the Historic Route 66 Trail (as seen on Google Maps), on a {{convert|2.5|mi|km|adj=on|1}} stretch of the old disused Route 66 roadway between the south end of Towanda and a point about {{convert|3|mi|0}} northeast, where Interstate 55 swings east to meet up with and once again closely parallel Historic Route 66. The parkway, an ongoing project that preserved the Money Creek Bridge north of town on Route 66 and begins about {{convert|750|ft}} northeast of the bridge, also includes an outdoor educational exhibit on the history of Route 66 called "Historic Route 66: A Geographic Journey" that details the path of Route 66 through all eight states.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://route66towanda.org/|title=Towanda Route 66 Parkway – Towanda Route 66 Parkway}}</ref> This exhibit extends from the intersection of Historic Route 66 and Jefferson Street near the I-55 interchange to a point at the southern tip of town just past an unnamed pond off Historic Route 66 (at 40.557656, -88.908876), where there is a rest stop and parking area for catfish and bass fishing in the pond. The stretch of the parkway where the exhibit was erected is a subset of the overall Towanda Trail, which includes a three-flagpole garden on the northeast corner of Jefferson Street and Route 66, several picnic areas along the length of the trail, scattered birdhouses, and intermittent landscaped areas extending from the Money Creek Bridge to the south end of the pond. The trail and parkway exhibit, now a popular local tourist stop on Historic Route 66, continue to be improved on an irregular basis, and the progress of improvements is detailed on the project website.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://route66towanda.org/restoration-efforts/|title=Restoration Efforts – Towanda Route 66 Parkway}}</ref>