Oklahoma

☆ – Attractions we have seen
★ – Attractions we wish to see

Weird Attractions and Oddities

  • Ada: Frog Rock [RA] – A rock is painted to look like a green frog with goggle eyes.
  • Akins: Grave of Pretty Boy Floyd [RA] – Charley Floyd was Public Enemy No. 1 when he was shot dead by G-Men in Ohio. His 1934 funeral was the largest in Oklahoma history, but you’d never know it from his small tombstone.
  • Aline: Sod House Museum [RA] – A two-room house of buffalo grass sod blocks built in 1894: the last of the authentic Oklahoma sod houses. Now protected inside a bigger, wooden building with a helpful sign, “Sod House Inside.”
  • Altus:
    • ICBM Missile at Missile Park [RA] – Altus was home to the 577th Strategic Missile Squadron (1961-1965). The deactivated ICBM rocket serves as a landmark for the town’s baseball fields. Region is still dotted with decommissioned missile silos.
    • Restored 1920s Phillips 66 Gas Station [RA] – The gas pumps are for decoration only. The little gas station probably looks better now than it did when it was open.
  • Alva: Cherokee Strip Museum [RA] – The museum features an exhibit on Alva’s World War II POW camp, where the most difficult Nazis prisoners were kept.
  • Anadarko: Candle from Lincoln’s Funeral [RA] – Anadarko Heritage Museum. Small relic stands on its own among the headdresses, cradleboards, Victorian wedding dresses, porcelain dolls, and old guns in this museum.
  • Apache: 24-hr. Prayer Teepee [RA] – Sort of like an always-open tiny church, but designed for Native American spiritual appeal.
  • Ardmore:
    • ★ Cloverleaf: Quirky Store [RA] – A store run by self-confessed “junker” Heidi Chapman. Outdoor decor ranges from old carnival rides to several dozen rainbow-colored bicycles. Heidi claims to sell $1 million worth of junk a year.
    • ★ Great Fire, Big Explosion, Jesse James Bar Fight [RA] – Greater Southwest Historical Museum. Museum is three wings with exhibits on the oil industry, transportation, military history, a transplanted pioneer cabin, a replica olde timey drug store, and the story of the Spudder Rig, a large oil rig on the museum grounds. In Sept. 1915, a 250-tank train filled with natural gasoline exploded; 20 years before that the Great Fire destroyed most of downton. And Jesse shot a music box in a saloon.
  • Atoka:
    • Atoka Museum and Civil War Cemetery [RA] – Small museum with a wide range of local exhibits, including dino bones, Choctaw Indians, a world champion bull rider, and Reba McEntire. Confederate cemetery in the back lot.
    • BBQ Revolver [RA] – Large roadside pistol, actually an old custom barbecue grill, pointed at the highway.
  • Bache: Muffler Man – Bunyan [RA] – Moved to Bache in 2019 after storage in Cheshire, Connecticut for more than a decade. From 1964 to 2001 he was “Big John” and stood in St. George, Utah.
  • Barnsdall: ★ World’s Only Main Street Oil Well [RA] – Literally in the middle of Main Street; the road splits to pass around it.
  • Bartlesville:
  • Beaver: Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World [RA] – It is here that the World Championship Cow Chip Throw was first held in 1969, and every April ever since the town has been ready to hurl. A giant beaver holding a cow chip greets visitors.
  • Big Cabin: Standing Brave: Giant Indian Chief [RA] – Standing Brave is nearly 50 feet tall and greets visitors to a travel plaza in the Cherokee Nation. Built in 2001.
  • Big Cedar: JFK Dedicates Last Stretch of US 259 [RA] – a bronze face of the martyred President at the top of a tall granite slab, marking his appearance in Ouachita National Forest in October 1961 to open the final stretch of US Highway 259.
  • Billings: Large Dog Statues [RA] – Two larger-than-life full-color canine statues await your attention at a travel stop dog-play area.
  • Binger: Johnny Bench Museum [RA] – The Hall of Fame baseball catcher grew up in this small town, and donated a lot of his trophies and other memorabilia to his namesake museum.
  • Boise City:
    • ★ Cimarron Heritage Center [RA] – 3.5 acres, multiple buildings. Among all the expected arrowheads and spinning wheels, there’s bound to be something quirky and memorable.
      • Tin Woodsman [RA] – Cimarron Heritage Center Museum. John D. “Pete” Morris made his own 13-ft. tall version of The Wizard of Oz character to promote his cafe. The Tin Man is now an exhibit at the Cimarron Heritage Center.
    • Life-Size Metal Dinosaur [RA] – A looming metal brontosaurus — a sort of cut-out in 3 dimensions — stands at the northern outskirts of town.
    • Slab of a Great Sequoia Tree [RA] – A 10-ft. diameter slice from a California Sequoia Tree was brought to Boise City in the 1950s by a local for display at county fairs.
  • Boswell: Old Boswell City Jail [RA] – Grim concrete box with rusty iron bars was the town jail from 1906 to 1965.
  • Burlington: Roadside deVine Artesian Well [RA] – Water from the well, which conveniently pumps itself, has been refreshing thirsty travelers for free since 1954. Local company set up a stop along the roadside with a flowing artesian well. Visitors are free to fill up their jugs or water bottles.
  • Cache: Holy City Of The Wichitas [RA] – Site of an annual Passion Play, the buildings look like old Israel and include some statues, rooms with mannequins, and other treats. Also here: a prairie dog town.
  • Caddo: Indian Territory Museum [RA] – Sit in this museum’s old strap metal jail cell and pretend you’re an Indian Territory lawbreaker.
  • Chickasha: Giant Lady Leg Lamp [RA] – Inflatable, but the town plans to build a permanent version in late 2022. Chickasha claims to be the Birthplace of the Lady Leg Lamp.
  • Cushing: Pipeline Crossroads of the World [RA] – The pipeline sign welcomes visitors to Cushing. The town can store 80 million barrels of America’s Strategic Oil Reserve.
  • Davis: Fried Pie Dinosaur [RA] – Pipeline sign welcomes visitors to Cushing. The town can store 80 million barrels of America’s Strategic Oil Reserve.
  • Dewey: Tom Mix Museum: Suitcase of Death [RA] – The bulk of the collection is the actual items that Tom owned and used, which includes hats, clothing, saddles, bridles, spurs, trophies, and guns (Some of the guns were stolen from the museum, but there’s still a display case full of them). There are numerous movie stills and other items. Come for a visit, sit in the theater, and watch Tom Mix movies! On display, is the luggage that killed the king of the silent film cowboys.
  • Duncan:
    • Chisholm Trail Heritage Center [RA] – Small museum. A little bit of everything. What is worth the trip is the multi-sensory Chisholm Trail Experience Theater. Also a super exhibit of wildlife.
    • Crapemyrtle Capital of Oklahoma [RA] – The colorful crape myrtle blooms from July until Autumn, and this town claims to have more of them than any other municipality in Oklahoma. Claim-to-fame mural is downtown.
    • Halliburton Statue – Memorial Park [RA] – Memorial Park. Nice park with monuments, but look for the statue of Erle P. Halliburton, a giant of the oil industry with his concrete reinforced wells, who left the world a legacy in the form of Halliburton the corporation.
    • Heartbreak Hotel Mural [RA] – The Elvis Presley hit, “Heartbreak Hotel,” was written by Mae Boren Axton in the lobby of the building — formerly a hotel — on which the mural is painted.
  • Enid:
    • Bridge Shark [RA] – A fearsome, razor-toothed shark maw has been painted on the side of this railroad overpass to discourage too-tall trucks from smashing into it.
    • Midgley Museum – Glowing Rocks [RA] – Built around the rock and mineral collection of Dan Midgley and his wife, the structure is composed of 30 different rock types. Includes a room black light minerals, and a room of mounted wildlife trophies.
    • Sparky the Fire Dog Statue [RA] – A bronze, anthropomorphized dog that fights fires, stands next to an unnaturally tiny child. Sparky was created in Enid in 1951.
  • Felt: Sit On Three States At Once [RA] – An elevated post in a dusty patch of rangeland marks the spot where Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas meet. Room for only one sitter at a time.
  • Fort Gibson:
    • Fort Gibson National Cemetery [RA] – Military cemetery includes the graves of Billy Bowlegs, the abandoned wife of Sam Houston, and Vivia Thomas, who dressed like a soldier to kill her runaway fiance, then died of exposure from visiting his grave.
    • Monument: Site of Irving’s Tent [RA] – Author Washington Irving camped in this spot in 1832, while writing “A Tour of the Prairies.” The monument was placed in 1909 by the editor of the local paper — obviously an Irving fan.
  • Fort Sill:

Oklahoma City area

Tulsa area

  • Edmond:
    • Big Indian: Chief Touch the Clouds [RA] – 18 feet tall, made of over 10 tons of bronze, the gaudy statue depicts a Miniconjou chief who was seven feet tall. Sculptor Dave McGary died in 2013.
    • ☆ Giant Cross [RA] –
    • Going Postal Memorial [RA] – On the morning of August 20, 1986, Patrick Sherrill entered the post office, shot and killed one of his supervisors, then calmly walked through the facility, gunning down his co-workers. In less than 15 minutes he had shot 20 of them and killed 14, before shooting himself in the head.
    • Scooby Doo Mystery Machine [RA] – Seasonal attraction. Sits outside the “Scooby Shack” snow-cone business during the summer.
    • The Blue Hippo [RA] – Goofy cartoon hippo has been sitting in this spot since at least 2007.

Route 66 (East to West)

  • Quapaw
    • Tribal Museum – 905 Whitebird St.. A place to learn more about the tribal history, traditions and artifacts of the Quapaw people.
    • Annual Quapaw Pow Wow – July 4th
    • dirt surfaced 1926 Route 66 alignment
    • “Lovers’ Leap” – On the bridge of E 57 Rd. over Spring River. The local legend tells about young Indian warrior who fell in love with a girl of the Quapaw tribe, but the maiden’s father asked for a large payment for his daughter’s hand. The lovers eloped but their escape was discovered and the angry Chief sent a party to capture them. The couple knew their fate: death, so they chose to die together by jumping off the rocky cliff.
    • “Spook Lights“. A local phenomenon called Spook Lights is said to be caused by the nightly return of the young Indian couple’s ghosts to the spot where they died.
    • ☆ Dallas’ Dairyette – 103 E Main St, is has been run for over 50 years as a family-operated restaurant. Dallas Wall opened it back in 1969.
  • Commerce:
    • ☆ Mickey Mantle Statue #1 [RA] – a bronze Mickey Mantle stands beyond the center field fence of the Commerce High School baseball field. “The Commerce Comet,” as he was later known, played for the Commerce High School baseball team after the Mantle family moved to town when he was four.
    • Mickey Mantle’s Boyhood Home [RA] – Small, weathered building in a hardscrabble neighborhood. There’s a plaque next to the front door; the house appears to be unoccupied.
    • ☆ Dairy King – Former Marathon – Tydol – Broyles station. Now sells ice cream.
    • Cal Campbell Memorial – On April 6, 1934, Commerce Constable William Calvin Campbell (age 60) was shot and killed by Bonnie and Clyde. They also wounded the Chief of Police. Campbell is buried in Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery, Miami.
    • ☆ Hole in the Wall Conoco Station [RA] – Allen’s Conoco Fillin’ Station is a Route 66 relic, built into an old brick wall. Now a gift shop.
  • Miami:
    • ☆ Waylan’s Ku-Ku Bird and Burgers [RA] – Popular burger joint on Route 66 still sports the Ku-Ku Bird on his rooftop perch and vintage sign.
    • Route 66 Vintage Iron Motorcycle Museum – It features plenty of old Harley’s, Ducati’s and Indians to satisfy most bike lovers, as well as an original 1917 Harley Davidson and even some of Evel Knievel’s x-rays!
    • ☆ Ribbon Road – Section of Old Route 66 9-foot wide “Ribbon Road” or “Sidewalk Highway” still visible near Miami
    • ☆ The Gateway to Route 66 sign
    • ☆ Coleman Theater – The Coleman Theatre is a beautifully restored theatre that was donated to the City of Miami by the Coleman family in 1989. Originally opened in 1929 as a vaudeville theatre and movie palace, the Coleman was designed to bring a touch of glamour to the city. The Coleman Theatre is open for tours that are packed with stories of its past glories and supernatural history – legend has it that three ghosts roam the Coleman Theatre!
    • St. James – Holvey’s Main Hotel – 1 US-69. erected in 1917-19 as the Commerce Building. It was George Holvey’s Main Hotel and later became St. James Courts.
    • Vintage Gas Stations
      • ☆ Marathon Oil Company Service Station [RA] – 1 4th Ave SE. Dating back to 1929, a restored Marathon Oil Company service station included a new roof and vintage pumps — until they were stolen in 2018.
      • Ice Box Gas station – 499 US-69. A tiny box-shaped replica of a filling station it even has a concrete pump island; well done.
  • Narcissa – small village, almost a ghost town
    • Ribbon Road – A 15.46 mile segment that ran between Miami and Afton, and was paved in two sections completed in 1921 and 1922 as part of Federal Highway Project No. 8. It is the only remaining section with a 9 foot paving along the whole of Route 66.
    • Abandoned stone garage – 14999 US-59. Now a ruin.
  • Afton:
    • ☆ Afton Station and Route 66 Packards – a small private Route 66 memorabilia and antique car museum housed in a 30’s era restored filling station. The car museum can hold 14 vintage autos and a collection of Route 66 and Buffalo Ranch memorabilia along with other interesting items.
    • Gas stations
      • ☆ Historic D-X Station – 12 SE First Street. What is now a D-X station began as a Cities Service Station back in 1933.
      • ☆ Gray Garage and Station – On the SW corner of S. Maple and U.S. 66. It was built around 1930 and is also known as F.D. Mitchell Conoco Gas Station. It has a peculiar rock-faced facade topped with dinosaur-like stone battlements.
      • ☆ Another Vintage gas station – Near the Gray Garage, a box-shaped 1950s gas station with a single service bay, office, and flat roof canopy held up by slender poles.
  • Vinita:
    • ☆ Hi-Way Diner – 437918 US-66.
    • Clanton’s Cafe – 319 E. Illinois Ave. It is the longest continually family-owned restaurant along the whole of Route 66, and has been operated by four generations of the same family.
    • ☆ Worlds Largest McDonalds building – A bridge restaurant over I-44. It was built in 1957.
    • ☆ Historic Vinita Mural for the Sesquicentennial – 123 E Illinois. This mural depicts the history of Vinita over the course of the past 150 years. It is the work of Jessica S. Stout.
    • ☆ Center Theater – The building was built in 1922 as the Lyric Theater, remodeled in the 1930s, and restored recently and is probably the oldest theater in Oklahoma that is still operating.
    • Historic Hotel Vinita – 106 West Canadian. The historic hotel was built in 1930 and, unlike previous hotels which were built to cater to the railroad passengers, this one was especially built on Route 66 to serve those traveling down the highway which ran right past its door.
    • ☆ Will Rogers Highway Marker – 345 Dwain Willis Ave. The marker was erected in 1999 and tells that US66 was renamed Will Rogers Highway in 1936,
  • Chelsea:
    • ☆ Walk Under Route 66 [RA] – The underpass had been abandoned for years. In 2016 the town revived it as a Route 66 attraction. Local artist Ken Hollingshead was hired to cover one wall with a mural, while the other was left blank for nether-worldly Route 66 travelers to sign their names. On the eastern side of the underground. This sign is a great spot for a picture, with distance to Santa Monica and Chicago, and also other Route 66 landmarks (Catoosa whale, or Foyil Totem Poles).
    • Pryor Creek Bridge – built in 1926, and spans the Pryor Creek carrying Historic Route 66 across it until realignment in 1932.
  • Foyil:
    • ☆ Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park [RA] – Folk art environment includes the World’s Largest Totem Pole, sculpted out of concrete. Not technically on Route 66, but Mother Road fans have embraced it anyway.
    • ☆ Route 66 Great Transcontinental Footrace Winner [RA] – Statue of Cherokee Indian Andy Payne running the Transcontinental Footrace of 1928. Back then, the idea of a 3,400-mile race from Los Angeles to New York City was novel. Some 2,400 miles of the route were along the new Route 66, the highway that connected the nation.
    • Foyil Hotel – It opened around 1900 and was managed by John Andrews. After 1928 Tom and Molly Peters ran it until 1938 when it became a home that still exists.
    • 1931 Alignment in Foyil – This 0.7 mile-long stretch of Route 66 begins at E 3rd St. and ends next to its intersection. It is a narrow two-lane road, paved with Portland concrete.
  • Catoosa:
    • 65-Foot-Tall Guitar [RA] – Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
    • ☆ Blue Whale [RA] – Built in the early 1970s by Hugh Davis as an anniversary gift, the 20-foot tall iron and cement Blue Whale turned into a swimming park, and closed in 1988.
    • D.W. Correll Museums [RA] – This Route 66 attraction features rocks and gems from all over the world, as well as glass and automobiles, including the only 1914 Oldsmobile known to exist! D.W. died in 1998, and it took three years to sort through all of his rocks, cars, and whiskey decanters before his namesake museums were finally opened.
    • ☆ Port of Catoosa – the largest and most inland river port in the United States.
  • Tulsa – see above.
  • Sapulpa:
    • Bronze Buffalo [RA] – A larger-than-life bronze sculpture of buffalo, state animal of Oklahoma, is visible from the interstate and has its own little parking area along Route 66.
    • Mini-Statue of Liberty [RA] – A typical replica in fiberglass advertises a local business.
    • ☆ World’s Tallest Gas Pump [RA] – Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum. The cylinder-topped pump is a skyscraping replica of the type commonly in use when Route 66 became a national highway in 1926. It was commissioned by the adjacent Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum as a way to attract visitors, and it won the Best New Attraction in Oklahoma award in 2018. It does not pump gas.
    • Waite Phillips Filling Station Museum – restored by the Sapulpa Historical Society and is currently used as a museum that houses vintage cars from the 1920s.
  • Stroud:
    • Alien Yard Art [RA] – Flying saucers and mysterious cattle mutilations seem to have inspired yard artist Craig McGuire along Route 66. His invasion scenes make liberal use of junk and aluminum foil.
    • Metal Locomotive, Cactus, Cow [RA] – Built of metal in the 1970s by the late Paul Hicks, sculptures are now being overtaken by shrubs and trees.
    • ☆ Rock Cafe – Route 66 [RA] – Opened in 1939. Route 66 restaurant is on the National Register of Historic Places. Sally, in Disney’s “Cars,” was based on the popular stop’s owner. Vintage sign and rock exterior.
    • Route 66 Shoe Tree [RA] – An earlier tree, promoted with its own sign fell down in 2010. Other trees stepped into the vacuum, and continue to blossom with new shoes.
    • Ozark Trail original obelisk – an exact replica of the original Ozark Trail Marker now located between Stroud and Davenport. The Ozark Trail was a precursor for Route 66 and existed from 1915 to 1926.
    • Coca-Cola ghost sign – 212 W Main Street. A ghost sign is an old hand-painted advertisement that has survived on a building for a long time and has not been removed or painted over. The old sign advertising Coca Cola painted on the eastern brick wall of the Burford building at 214 Main St. is a ghost sign that has been maintained. There is one next to it, to the left, but it is illegible.
  • Davenport
    • Spherical Storage Tank – Visible on the north side of E0890Rd just before its junction with paved N 3503 Rd. It was built by Magnolia Oil. Co., as a natural gas storage tank in 1925. It is said to be the very first round steel tank built on an oil field in the whole world.
    • ☆ Tallest Mural on Route 66 – On the Farmers Bank Building dates back to 1905. There are several paintings on the wall that depict a stagecoach, Postmistress and first settler’s daughter Nettie Davenport and a reproduction of the “Land Run” from Harper’s Weekly magazine, September 1891 issue, the “Second Land Run Oklahoma”. Three more murals along Broad Street.
    • Tammy’s Round-Up Cafe – 1023 North Broadway
  • Chandler:
    • Route 66 Interpretive Center – In an old armory that was constructed by the WPA, this museum did not have much other than some art and videos about Route 66, but what made it interesting was that you watched the videos by sitting in vintage car seats or motel beds.
    • Lincoln County Historical Society and Museum of Pioneer History – Exhibits of the artifacts and photographs of the town and its residents, from the days that preceded the Land Run of 1891, onwards.
    • Crane Motor Co. – 722 Manvel Ave. A vintage automobile repair and sales shop of the early 1930s.
    • St. Cloud Hotel – 1216 Manvel Ave. A classic hotel established in 1903, slowly falling apart.
    • Vintage Lincoln Motel – 740 E 1st St. The motel is a typical example of the cottage-style rooms frequent in vintage Motels along Route 66. This Route 66 icon was built in 1939 and now includes a retro-looking neon sign.
    • “Meramec Cavern” advertisement barn – West along Route 66, 3.6 miles west of the junction of W 15th St. and Manvel. One of the last in Oklahoma.
    • Route 66 Bowl – Bowling alley with plenty of classic gas station signs in the parking area in front of the building. They reused the original neon sign from the now-gone “66 Bowl” of Oklahoma City, which opened in 1959 and closed in 2010.
  • Luther:
    • Engels’ Dry Goods Store (historic site) – 112 S Main. A typical American store of the early 1900s on the town’s Main Street. Michael C. Engels opened the dry goods store in Luther in 1915, he moved across the road to its current location in 1921.
    • Run of ’89 Marker – 15998 OK-66. Reads “Run of ’89 East Boundary – At the opening of old Oklahoma April 22, 1889, this was the east line for the Run starting at 12 o’clock noon. Prairies and hills in the 2,000,000 acre tract west were people by tens of thousands. Homes were planted and tent cities sprang up before nightfall“.
    • The old Route 66 alignment west of town – a short section of the original Route 66 still survives in the town, one block of N. Dogwood St.
  • Arcadia:
    • ☆ Famous Round Barn [RA] – This barn is unique, shaped like a cylinder, with a hemispherical shingled roof. It was built in 1898. William Odor believed that being round would help the structure resist the frequent Oklahoma tornados.
    • ☆ OK County 66 [RA] – the creative product of John Hargrove, a former airplane and school bus mechanic. Replicas of classic roadside imagery, most of them found along Route 66, and scattered around his property.
    • ☆ World’s Largest Pop Bottle and Store [RA] – A 66-foot-tall color-shifting LED sculpture bottle and a store full of pop (soda).
    • ☆ Original 1928-29 Route 66 roadbed – Route 66 Jct. N. Hiwassee Rd. This is an original segment of Route 66 built in 1926, paved in 1928 and 29, and part of the Mother Road until 1952, when it was bypassed. There are two markers, one at each tip of the segment. On this segment is a sign that states “One of the Beatles was here”, and tells the story of how Paul with his girlfriend Nancy Shevell, stopped on August 5, 2008, and asked local resident Toby Thompson for directions. It was Paul McCartney’s 66th birthday. Thompson told his neighbors Jim Ross and his wife Shellee Graham about this brief encounter.
    • Washington Irving Monument – 11999 OK-66. It marks the spot where Washington Irving (1883-1859), an American writer, essayist, historian, and diplomat saw herds of wild horses running next to the Deep Fork River during an expedition in 1832.
    • ☆ Phillips 66 gas station styled-house – 13022 E Old Hwy 66. A house that was designed to look like a “cottage style” Phillips 66 station from the late 1920s. This is the home of Route 66 historian Jim Ross.
    • ☆ Historic Tuton’s Drugstore – At 201 N. Main Street. The Tuton Drugstore was built in 1917 and survived the fire which gutted the town in 1924. It is a local sandstone two-story structure that houses an Art Gallery.
    • ☆ Route 66 Marker – There is a pink stone marker across the street from the Round Barn. Erected in 1994 by the Oklahoma Historical Society (#215).
  • Edmond:
    • ☆ 1889 Territorial School – 124 E 2nd St. Believed to be the first built in the Oklahoma Territory.
    • Citizen’s Bank – 100 S Broadway. The building is a typical example of a sandstone construction in the Oklahoma Territory in 1901. It had a “burglary proof and fireproof” vault.
    • Blue hippo – Fiberglass kitsch art statue that is famous. It was repainted in 2020 and officially declared a landmark.
    • Giant cross – at the LifeChurch campus. The cross is made of concrete and measures 138.5 feet tall (42.2 m). It was erected in 1998.
  • Oklahoma City – see above
  • Bethany:
    • Old Farmer’s Bank – 6666 NW 39th Expy. The two-story brick building built in 1922. No longer a bank.
    • Old Mr. Swiss – 6600 NW 38th St Bethany, now it is the 38th Street Barbershop, but the A-frame building was a “Mr Swiss” hamburger drive-in.
    • Western Motel – 7600 NW 39th Expy. Bethany; the Western Motel a 1960s postcard tells us: “Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Diffee, Owners-Operators – 24 Units with Tile Baths – Tub or Shower… Wall-to-Wal Carpeting Heavy Duty Beautyrest Mattresses“. Still up and running, its neon sign is intact, which is quite unusual. 
    • Murals
      • East College Street Mural –  6700 NW 39th Expy. It is 50 ft. long and 20 feet high, featuring Route 66 businesses spanning the period from 1926 to the mid 1950s. And includes a US 66 Oklahoma shield.
      • Route 66 mural at 3935 N College Ave.
      • Pony Express “The Ambush” – 6606 NW 38th St
      • Wehrenberg Soda Fountain – On the north side of the parking lot between College and Asbury Avenues. Apart from depicting Melvin Unruh who operated the soda fountain, there are flowers beneath it to remember the McClures’ Flower shop.
      • On Asbury there are two murals, one on the SW corner, the other on the eastern side of the street.
        • The western mural shows five of Bethany’s institutions that date back to 1909: the City itself, Bethany First Church of the Nazarene, Bethany Public Schools, Southern Nazarene University and the Oklahoma Orphanage
        • Across the road portrays some well known local landmarks (Lake Overholser bridge on Route 66, the rail car of the El Reno, or Oklahoma Railway Company among others).
  • Yukon:
    • ☆ Yukon Mill – 3rd. St. and Main St. Yukon. The “Yukon Mill and Grain Company” began in 1893 as a small business operating a grain elevator and mill. The plant could mill 2,000 barrels of flour per day in the 1930s. The students of Yukon High School are known as “Millers”, and their mascot is the tough “The Miller Man”, in red overalls. The side of the elevator silos, painted white, read: “Yukon’s Best Flour, no finer or more modern mills in America. Yukon Mill & Grain Co. – Yukon, OK Yukon Czech Capital of Oklahoma” The 42 x 55 foot sign atop the elevator lights up at night using energy-saving LEDs and announces “Yukon’s Best Flour”
    • “Yukon’s Best” Mural – Facing Route 66, at the base of the flour mill elevators. The mural is the work of Carlos Barboza and was commissioned by a local group called “Friends of Yukon’s Best”. It depicts typical Yukon figures such as a Czech Queen, a longhorn on Chisholm’s Trail, Route 66 with its shield, flour, the Miller man mascot and Garth Brooks with his guitar (Brooks, a country singer and songwriter is the city’s most famous son).
    • Yukon’s Best Railroad Museum. One block north of the Mill, to your left, you will see the restored railroad cars. Apart from them, it has historical information about the railroad.
    • Yukon’s Historical Society Farm Museum. On the NW corner of 3rd and Cedar St. next to the RR museum, it displays farming implements and artifacts from the early days of Yukon.
    • “Oklahoma Centennial monument” – a longhorn steer and a sign next to it commemorating the 100 years of Yukon (1907-2007) near the Mill.
    • Interurban Trolley line – Near Mill and railroad tracks.
    • Chisolm Trail mural – 48 N 4th Street. The mural commemorates the feat of Jesse Chisholm an Oklahoman with Cherokee blood, who laid down a trail from the Arkansas River in Kansas to the Canadian River in Oklahoma, it was later used by ranchers to drive their cattle herds up from Texas to Abilene Kansas railroad yards for shipment to the Eastern US markets. The trail was named after him.
    • Historic Mulvey Mercantile – 425 W. Main. The two-story building was built in red brick in 1904, the words “Mulvey Mercantile” are inlaid with black tiles against a white tile setting in the entry area. Mulvey Mercantile was established in 1893 and sold hardware, farm appliances, and dry goods. It was the largest store in town until The Great Depression led to its bankruptcy in the 1930s.
    • Smile You Are In Yukon Mural – 901 E Main St. On the southern wall of Yukon Dentistry. It depicts a smiling woman with glasses and the words “Smile You Are In Yukon”, has a 1950s air to it.
    • Czech Hall – 696 N Czech Hall Rd. Czech presence in Yukon is evident at the historic Jan Zizka Lodge Number 67, popularly known as “Czech Hall”. People have been dancing here (Czech dances) every Saturday night since 1925. The place is open to anyone. It is the largest dance hall in Oklahoma.
    • Route 66 Crosswalk – 10 S 5th St. A colorful depiction of Yukon’s icons (the Millers, Garth Brooks, Flour, the Czech heritage and more).
  • El Reno:
    • ☆ Heroes Plaza and Burial Mural [RA] – Northwest corner of S. Rock Island Ave. & E. Woodson St. Downtown veterans tribute includes a long, hand-painted mural of a soldier’s burial in Arlington National Cemetery.
    • Mural on Route 66 Hospice [RA] – 221 S. Bickford Ave. A mural on the side of the hospice on Route 66 depicts vintage cars and images of the building over the years.
    • Squawk-N-Skoot Chicken [RA] – Squawk-N-Skoot Chicken-N-More. A crudely constructed giant chicken appears to burst through the brick wall of a restaurant. The restaurant is closed.
    • Roadside Park – on the NE corner of W Wade and S. Choctaw Ave.
      • ☆ Route 66 Monument – The 10-foot tall black and white U.S. 66 shield was erected in 2018 It was specially designed so you can sit in the sixes and get great photos. 
      • Behind it is the Rock Island Railroad wagon
      • Beside it is the Love Padlock display. Visitors attach their locks to a metal sculpture with the shape of a map of Oklahoma with a Route 66 shield in its center.
    • Old Squaw Drive In Art – Painted on the old drive-in ruins is a mural called “Guardian of the Mother Road. It is a 50-foot tall artwork that depicts some Oklahoma symbols like wheat and a flycatcher.
    • Canadian County Museum – 300 South Grand Avenue. The museum is housed in the restored railroad depot sitting on the historic 98th Meridian. The museum grounds have historic exhibits and several historic buildings on its premises.
      • Mennoville Mennonite Church – It is the oldest building of the Mennonite Faith in Oklahoma, built in 1893,
      • Red Cross Canteen – Built in 1917 by volunteers to be used by the American Red Cross to provide comfort, food, and drink to the U.S. soldiers who were heading to World War I in Europe. restored in 1975
      • Streetcar – A diesel powered 1924 Brill Motor Car with heated and air-conditioned comfort run from the Canadian County Museum through the downtown district. Wed to Sun. Call (405)-262-5121 for more details.
      • Hotel El Reno – An Old West hotel built by John Kossuth in 1892, just three years after El Reno was founded. The restored building has ten rooms with exhibits on El Reno’s history.
    • Fort Reno – 6.3 miles NW of El Reno. The fort was established as a military outpost in 1875, and continued as such until 1907. From 1908 to 1947 it was an Army remount station, raising horses and mules for the army. Becoming in 1948 a research station of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Grazinglands Research Laboratory. The fort spans 6,700 acres of land and includes historic buildings surrounding the Parade Grounds as well as a cemetery with burials that date from 1874 to 1947 and includes the World War II German and Italian Prisoner of War cemetery.
  • Calumet:
    • Cherokee Trading Post [RA] – A truck stop. The freeway was aligned next to it in 1962. It has a large fiberglass tepee, a bison statue, a large mural, and a large Cherokee Indian statue on its restaurant sign. The Trading Post has been operating since 1958.
    • Indian Trading Post and Art – 825 S Walbaum Rd. Has an Indian Muffler Man out front.
    • Muffler Men Cutouts [RA] – 18-foot-tall color cutouts of two Muffler Men and a Uniroyal Gal, tributes painted by artist John Cerney in 2019 and placed along a rural stretch of eastbound Route 66.
  • Geary:
    • Historic Public Water Trough – On Jct. of Main, Canadian and Northeast Blvd. This historic trough and well served the horses of visitors and locals between 1901 and 1939, after which horse-drawn vehicles declined. A team of two horses could be watered without having to be unharnessed from the wagon. The concrete trough measured 40 by 89 inches. The first trough was a wooden one, fed by a windmill and pump (replaced in 1903).
  • Bridgeport
    • Bridgeport Hill – Hydro Segment of Route 66 – One of the longest intact segments of the original Route 66 roadbed and roadway in western Oklahoma: 19.5 miles long. This segment begins at Bridgeport Hill, and heads west all the way to Hydro. It was paved in Portland Concrete in 1931, 33, and 34 and remained operational until 1962 when I-40 replaced it.
    • Historic Canadian River Bridge – Old Route 66 and Canadian River. The longest truss bridge in Oklahoma roughly 3⁄4 miles and of the whole Route 66, built in 1934.
    • Hinton Junction – Named so because the town of Hinton is located 4.5 miles south along US 281. It was born when US-66 bypassed Bridgeport in 1934. Bridgeport residents moved out and set up their businesses along the new Route 66, some moved to where Hinton Junction is, others to the outskirts of Bridgeport, along Route 66.
  • Hydro:
    • Grave of The Mother of the Mother Road [RA] – Hydro Masonic Cemetary. Lucille Hamons ran the Provine Service Station, and lived in a set of rooms above the gas pumps, for nearly 60 years, until the day she died on August 18, 2000. Late in life, she became a Route 66 celebrity, known for her years of hot plate breakfasts, cold beer, and friendly assistance to motorists. Lucille’s white tombstone is easy to spot; half of its surface area is engraved with a big Route 66 sign. The stone mentions her biography, her membership in the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame, her honorary song (“Mother of the Mother Road”), and the fact that she “Died at Home on Route 66.” The grave is routinely festooned with flowers left by detouring well-wishers.
    • Lucille’s Famous Route 66 Gas Station [RA] – Built in 1927 and run by owner Lucille Hamons until her death here in 2000. Now owned by a Route 66 fan who fixed it up — and then opened “Lucille’s Roadhouse” to the east, but don’t be fooled, this is the original.
  • Clinton:
    • ☆ Elvis Stayed Here Motel [RA] – When Elvis Presley and his entourage drove from Memphis to Vegas, the best midway point, in his opinion, was The Trade Winds Motel in Clinton, OK. The best room, in his opinion, was Room 215. So he stayed there on four separate occasions.
    • ☆ Oklahoma Route 66 Museum [RA] – For almost 30 years this operated as the Museum of the Western Trails. A change in management in 1995 scrapped the Old West theme and replaced it with a newer Old West theme — the Mother Road, Route 66.
  • Elk City: ☆ National Route 66 Museum [RA] – A museum about the Mother Road. The ENTIRE Mother Road. Not just the part in Oklahoma. Features a huge Route 66 shield sign and restored giant kachina statue from the (1948) Queenan Trading Post.
  • Erick:
    • ★ Sandhills Curiosity Shop [RA] – A shop where nothing is for sale and its greatest curiosities are its owners, Harley and Annabelle, “the Mediocre Musicmakers.” Its exterior is covered in old road signs and a claim that Erick is “The Redneck Capital of the World.”
    • Windmill Garden [RA] – Farm front yard collection of old windmills.
  • Texola:
    • One Room Jail and Class of ’38 Memorial [RA] –
    • ☆ Tumbleweed Grill – This cafe was located on the border of Oklahoma and Texas in the ghost town of Texola. It is the self-proclaimed oldest working café on Route 66 and housed in a former 1930s beer joint, the Water Hole #2.