Oklahoma hosts Route 66 centennial with 400 miles of historic driving
Oklahoma possesses more drivable miles of the historic highway than any other state, prompting a family to fly in for a weekend tour of its roadside landmarks and museums.
By Lauren Foster ·
Oklahoma contains more than 400 miles of drivable Route 66, making it the state with the longest stretch of the historic highway. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the road's establishment on Nov. 11, 1926, when it officially connected Chicago, Ill., with Los Angeles, Calif., and later extended to Santa Monica.
A family from Central Florida flew into Tulsa on Friday to celebrate the milestone. They spent the weekend driving west toward Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. The group had first driven a portion of the route in 2020, traveling from Chicago to St. Louis, Mo., where they visited the Gateway Arch and ate frozen custard at Ted Drewes.
Tulsa serves as a primary hub for the route's heritage. The city features the East Meets West monument, which depicts a family in an automobile next to a horse-drawn carriage. For the centennial, the city installed a musical road near the monument. Drivers traveling at the designated speed over grooved pavement hear Woody Guthrie's song "This Land Is Your Land."
The Meadow Gold District in Tulsa displays five Muffler Men, large fiberglass statues created in the 1960s. These include Buck Atom the Space Cowboy, Stella Atom the Space Cowgirl, Meadow Gold Mack the Lumberjack, Cowboy Bob, and Rosie the Riveter. The district also hosts restaurants, bars, and shops.
West of Tulsa, the town of Sapulpa offers flower-lined streets and local boutiques. About 40 minutes further west lies Stroud, home to the Rock Café. The restaurant features a flat-top grill from 1939 named Betsy. Owner Dawn Welch spoke with Pixar creative teams while they researched the 2006 film "Cars." Her story helped inspire the character Sally, a Porsche in the movie.
In Chandler, the Route 66 Interpretive Center allows visitors to sit in a Model A Ford, a Willys Jeep, and a Mustang. The center also includes vintage motel beds. Further west in Arcadia, a 66-foot soda-bottle sculpture lights up after dark near Pops 66, a restaurant and filling station that carries more than 700 soda varieties.
Oklahoma City hosts a 35-foot-tall red neon cowboy boot outside the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The installation includes lyrics from Nat King Cole's recording of "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66." Other sites in the city include the 1937 Tower Theatre, the Milk Bottle Grocery, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
The family stopped in El Reno to try the onion burger, a regional dish created during the 1930s when cooks pressed thinly sliced onions into ground beef to stretch the meat. Sid's Diner serves the specialty. The town also restored a 1930s Texaco gas station using centennial funding. The building now functions as a gift shop and displays classic cars in its service bays.
The trip concluded at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. Exhibits cover the highway's construction, its role during the Dust Bowl, and the postwar era. The museum includes a recreation of a Dust Bowl storm and a 1950s-style diner. The group returned east via Interstate 40 and Interstate 44, noting that the modern interstates run close to the historic route in many areas.
Route 66 spans 2,448 miles in total. The family plans to complete the entire distance in the future, but they chose to focus on Oklahoma this year to coincide with the anniversary.
