Route 66 Roadtrip: Day 4, Elk City to Amarillo

Today we had sunshine. We started out at the National Route 66 museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. This is really several museums sharing one location. Collectively they document Route 66, early transportation, an old Elk City town museum, and a collection of windmills and farm implements. As one sort of runs into another it was not clear to me which was which but collectively it was really very interesting.


There were two large buildings with a variety of exhibits and an "old Town" which is a number of small structures which show a general store, a pharmacy, a dentist's office, a bank, a law office, etc. Objects and implements from the early 1900s are arranged and visible through the windows but you can't go inside.


In the Route 66 part were some antique cars and exhibits about the early days of highway travel. This was supposed to be the Joad family from Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath".


Among the antique cars was this pristine 1940 Chevrolet. I love old cars.


There were several old Harley Davidson's and this amazing vintage Indian motorcycle.


Here are some of those hubcaps you lost on the road.


This was originally the First National Bank of Sarye, Oklahoma. The capstone carries the year as 1905.


The elegant courthouse in Sayre was featured in the original "Grapes of Wrath" movie.


In what was left of Erick is the crumbling remains of several old motor hotels.


In Shamrock, Texas is the Conoco station and U Drop Inn Cafe from the animated movie "Cars". We had lunch across the street.


The little town of Groom, Texas has two claims to fame. One is this water tower which is deliberately leaning.


The other is a 190 foot cross and religious exhibit.


For us, the real attraction has been the road and the country. This is the Texas Panhandle and it is very flat. It is miles and miles of open country as far as the eye can see. As the song says, the wind blows free. The prairie grasses undulate in the wind like water.


We will stop this evening in Amarillo and should be in New Mexico tomorrow.

Route 66 Roadtrip: Day 3, Oklahoma City to Elk City

We are trying to follow the historic route 66 as closely as possible. From north of Tulsa to Oklahoma it follows the same general route as Interstate 44. West of Oklahoma City it runs roughly parallel to Interstate 40. The old 66 meandered from town to town along the path that was easiest to pave and did not run in a straight line. The interstates bypass most towns and run as straight as possible to allow high speed non-stop travel. This means that to follow old 66 requires that you zigzag back and forth and cross the interstate in a number of places. It makes for much slower travel.


We had a little breakfast and left Oklahoma city about 10:00 AM. I was assisted by my faithful navigators Susan and Smokey.


We drove down Lincoln Boulevard to see the Oklahoma State Capital building. The dome was just added a few years ago. It is impressive and the office buildings that make up the rest of the complex are also quite handsome.


Adjacent to the capital building is a working oil well. Oklahoma is the only state to boast of this feature.


West of Oklahoma City is begins to be very flat. This is good country for wheat and corn. Most towns of any size have large grain silos to store and ship the harvest bounty. This is the main street of El Reno with a view of its massive silos in the distance.


In a way, the star of this show is the highway itself. Almost the entire length was paved in sections of Portland cement. Expansion strips were cut across the pavement about every 30 feet and sealed with pitch. This was a very durable surface and after 75 years is still in excellent condition for the most part. As you drive along the sound made as front then rear tires slap over the strips make a distinctive slap-slap, slap-slap sound.


Where some distance separates the old road from the interstate, the old road provides
secondary access to rural areas and appear to be unchanged from the days of their construction. Most have a low curb at the sides which I would guess was used to control water runoff. This scene would have looked exactly the same in 1935.


Where the volume of traffic was sufficient to add additional capacity the existing highway served as two lanes in one direction and another pair of lanes were built to go in the other direction. This new pavement was usually of a different material, often asphalt. The difference in durability is soon apparent.


Here we stopped on one of the many crossovers and looked down Interstate 40 which carries a high volume of traffic at high speeds (75 mph). If you look to the left you will see the section of old route 66 that we are about to drive on.


West of El Reno are a number of very large wind turbines beginning to supplement the electrical grid. We will be seeing more of these in the near future.


We stopped here at the "Trading Post" for lunch. Places like this used to be a common sight along the highway. It offers a variety of gifts and souvenirs and a lunch buffet which was really quite good. Since the interstate roads provide controlled access, all the commercial services are bunched up at the exits.


On one of the many crossovers we came across a scene very reminiscent of the animated movie "Cars". I suspect not by accident.


Just outside of Canute we passed a lot of cotton fields. Susan had never seen cotton in the field. It is still a significant cash crop in western Oklahoma.


This looks about ready to be picked. Until a machine for mechanically picking cotton was invented in 1948, cotton was universally harvested by hand. This was back breaking work and left the hands sore from the many cuts inflicted by the sharp bolls which held the loose cotton. It was the mechanization of harvesting and processing cotton that encouraged the migration of southern farm workers to northern cities in search of work.


We encountered the Cotton Boll Motel in Canute, Oklahoma. It appears to have seen better days.


Also in Canute we admired the Canute City Hall and Water Department, the Canute Lions Club, and Joe's Liquor Store all in the same small building. We imagined a number of ways that this arrangement might facilitate local politics.

at 4:30 PM we stopped for the day in Elk City. The National Route 66 Museum is here and promises to be worth investing some time. We will look at that in the morning and start west to Texas and hope to make it to Amarillo by tomorrow evening.

One of the things that has surprised us on this trip is how much time it takes to travel this way. The road twists and turns, we have to stop and go at every little town, and by necessity drive much slower. We tried to imagine making this journey in an old car whose reliability was marginal or breaking down in the middle of nowhere miles from any mechanic.

Another simple fact was that in the early days there were long distances without anyplace to buy gasoline or oil. What people did from necessity was go to the nearest farm and hope they had some surplus gas they would sell. Ah, the good old days!

Route 66 Roadtrip: Day 2, Tulsa to Oklahoma City

We got on the road at about 1:00 PM and resumed our journey on Southwest Boulevard and began to retrace the original Route 66. The old route 66 is still there but in places it has been covered by the interstate or crosses the newer roads as it goes from town to town. If we were to drive on Interstate 44 it would take about 90 minutes to get from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. By following the old route it took us 4 hours. Of course that includes stops for pictures and an hour break for lunch but if we had not stopped it would still have been a 3 hour drive. I have to admit that in spite of having lived here my whole life, I saw some things for the first time today and we had a great time.

Now I have a minor dilemma. I took a lot of photos today and will be taking more every day for a week. Now I either dribble them out over a long time, or post more material than you may want to see at one time. Well, I guess it is now or never. Please be patient and I hope you enjoy coming along on our trip. If it is too much then I invite you to come back and digest it over time. Please enjoy.


As we pass through West Tulsa the dominant feature on the west side of the Arkansas River is the maze of oil refineries and storage tanks. Tulsa came into being as an oil town and still produces and refines a lot of petroleum products. Granted that this is not the most scenic part of town and occasionally gives off an odor resembling rotten eggs. Long term residents will just laugh and tell you that it's the smell of money.


As we pass through the area known as Red Fork most of the old motels and attractions have disappeared but Ollie's is still here, and still serves great diner food. We have been here before and enjoyed the model trains that move around on tracks suspended from the ceiling.


Just west of Tulsa is Sapulpa, a town of about 20,000. Known for its conservative politics, the Sapulpa Daily Herald gained national media attention in early November 2008 for not reporting the election of Barack Obama as President, instead only writing that John McCain had won Creek County. For many years Sapulpa has been known as the home of Frankoma Pottery.


We stopped at the Sapulpa Trolley and Rail Museum. It is closed on Sunday but we still took a few photos.


I remember that every train had a caboose. Now very few do.




We passed through Bristow and noted that it has a number of elegant Victorian homes. Some have been Restored like this one. It is the office of a Home Health organization.


Others are less fortunate and are looking for someone to love them.


This is Stroud, Oklahoma. The downtown area is very typical of small Oklahoma towns. The prosperity of the 1920s looks frozen in time. These towns derived income from traffic of route 66 passing through. Now they are just exits off of the interstate.


The Skyliner Motel with its elaborate neon sign is typical of busier times.


The stone Rock Cafe was opened in May of 1939 and was a landmark on old highway 66. It burned to the ground in May 2008. The proprietor Dawn Welch rebuilt the cafe with the help of her family and it was reopened in May of 2009.


We enjoyed a very nice lunch there this afternoon and enjoyed meeting Dawn and her daughter Elexa. They are typical of a lot of the good people who live in Oklahoma.


In Chandler is the massive 1937 stone armory built by the WPA during the depression. It is now the Route 66 Interpretive Center with videos and exhibits.


It was not open on Sunday but we may come back another time. The cut stone is native sandstone and is an amazing example of the stone cutter's art. Many towns have these stone armories still standing, although to my knowledge none this large. I want to see the inside.


In Arcadia, Oklahoma is this great Round Barn. Constructed in 1898, it originally served of course, as a home for livestock and also as a place where dances were held for the local townspeople. As traffic slowly declined down Old Route 66, the town of Arcadia declined with it and after suffering decades of neglect, in 1988 the barn's immense 60' diameter roof finally collapsed. A group of local retirees who called themselves the "Over the Hill Gang" raised the money and recruited volunteers who lovingly restored the barn. There is a museum on the bottom floor and the upper "loft" is available for events. They have a website at Arcadia Round Barn.

As the only truly "round" barn (most are actually hexagonal or octagonal), the Barn is 60' in diameter, 45' in height and is two stories high. The upstairs loft has a wooden floor and an architecturally impressive ceiling. The structure was designed with the notion that being round would help it withstand Oklahoma's tornadic conditions. Who knows if it is scientifically accurate, but the barn is still standing after more than 107 years.


Just down route 66 from the round barn is Pops, a service station and restaurant that sells over 400 flavors of soda. In front is a 66 foot (20.1 Meters) statue of a soda bottle that is illuminated at night.






We tried the Peach Soda (fair) and the Vanilla Cream (excellent). It would take some time to try them all.

Well, that is it for the first day. We are hoping for some sunshine tomorrow. It was cloudy and rainy today although we had a very enjoyable day in spite of that. Smokey says he had a good time too. To be continued tomorrow.

Route 66 Roadtrip: Tulsa to Santa Fe, Day 1 in Tulsa

For the next week Susan, Smokey and I will be taking a vacation from our usual routine and will retrace historic Route 66 from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico. During this time I will not try to create separate posts for my Historic Oklahoma blog. This trip will be history enough for both. We are armed with several guide books and maps but a minimum of advanced planning. In short, we are winging it. Stay tuned and we will see how it goes.


US Route 66 was opened in 1926 and was one of the original national highways. It ran a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km) from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. It is well known in popular culture as the Mother Road, and as the Main Street of America. It was the primary migration route for impoverished workers who went west during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, many from the state of Oklahoma.


During its prime the volume of traffic on Highway 66 generated revenue for many towns along its path. Beginning in 1957 a revised system of interstate highways began to replace the older roads, many of which had been pieced together from existing routes and tended to wander. They went through the center of towns along the way bringing revenue to the towns but causing the travel time to increase. The interstate highways tended to bypass the population centers saving time but drying up revenue. Route 66 was officially discontinued in 1985 although much of the original highway remains as state highways.

Many of the attractions along the way have become well known in popular culture. Today Smokey and I visited a few of Tulsa's route 66 icons.


The Blue Whale of Catoosa was built by Hugh Davis in the early 1970s as a surprise anniversary gift to his wife Zelta, who collected whale figurines. The Blue Whale and its pond became a favorite swimming hole for both locals and travelers along Route 66 alike.

Originally, the pond surrounding the massive Blue Whale was spring fed and intended only for family use. However, as many locals began to come to enjoy its cool waters, Davis brought in tons of sand, built picnic tables, hired life guards, and opened his masterpiece to the public.

By 1988, the Davises were not able to continue managing the attraction, so they closed it to the public. In 1990 Mr. Davis died. The park soon fell into disrepair, crumbling from neglect and weather. However, after a decade the people of Catoosa and employees of the Hampton Inn launched a fund-raising and volunteer effort to restore the Route 66 landmark. The Blue Whale was restored and repainted to its original brilliant blue. The adjacent picnic area has also been restored. It is no longer available for swimming but visitors are welcome to take pictures.

All along the highway were many restaurants and motels to provide food and lodging to weary travelers. Tally's is typical of these diners and still serves great food, just the way they used to.



Route 66 traverses Tulsa east to west for 24 miles, running along 11th Street until it crosses the Arkansas River and becomes Southwest Boulevard. in the 1930s a large neon sign was erected on top of a building at 11th and Lewis advertising Meadow Gold milk. It was a beacon that could be seen for miles from both directions, especially at night. Over the years it fell into disrepair and was dismantled some time in the 1970s. Fortunately the sections were preserved and recently it reappeared on a special structure at 11th and Quaker and is again an 11th street icon.