Highlights along Oklahoma Route 66
A partial listing of Oklahoma Route 66 towns follows, arranged East to West
Below is a summary of the towns along Oklahoma Route 66. More comprehensive information, including directions and our Business Members in each community, is available in our Trip Guide, available here.
Quapaw
Established in 1897; named after the Quapaw tribe, originally from the Ohio Valley and Arkansas. Headquarters of the Quapaw Nation.
Part of the Tri-State Mining District; the Dark Horse Zinc Mine (1904) brought Boom Town days during World War I.
“East Meets West” ceremony held here in 1933 when US Highway 66 paving was completed, connecting Chicago all the way through Ottawa County. There is a commemorative boulder next to the fire department that locals encourage people to sign like a guestbook.
Devil’s Promenade Road east of town is home of the “Spooklight” phenomenon.
Commerce
Established in 1914; originally a mining camp named Hattonville. The town’s official name comes from the Commerce Mining and Royalty Company.
Home town of baseball player Mickey Mantle (“The Commerce Comet”). His home at 319 S. Quincy has been slated for a museum for some time. There is a statue in his honor next to the ballfield along the modern alignment of Route 66.
Famous for the shootout between Bonnie & Clyde and a local constable, William Campbell. He was killed and a local police chief was kidnapped.
Stop by the Dairy King for a bite to eat and to learn more about local history; it’s in an old Marathon Filling Station that dates to the 1920s.
Across from the Dairy King is the “Hole in the Wall” Conoco station. It hasn’t been a functioning gas station since the early days but it’s a great photo op.
Miami
Established in 1895 and pronounced “My-Am-Uh”, named after the Miami Tribe which was relocated here from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. It is also the capital of the Modoc Tribe, the Ottawa Tribe, the Peoria Tribe, and the Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
Part of the Tri-State Mining District, extending from Ottawa County through SE Kansas to Joplin, Missouri.
George L Coleman Sr. made a fortune in mining and built the Coleman Theatre Beautiful in 1929.
Home of the Dobson Museum, named for the family that homesteaded here in 1892 and collected county artifacts. The museum has a section dedicated to Route 66.
Newell Coach motorhome company established here in 1967.
Section of the cemetery on the north edge of town contains graves of British pilots who died here during training for World War II.
Waylan's Ku-Ku Burger is the last location of a once 200-location-strong chain of restaurants.
Route 66 Landmark: the Sidewalk Highway, a 9-foot wide old alignment of 66 that once connected Miami and Afton. Parts of it still exist south of town.
Route 66 through town was also part of the Jefferson Highway.
Narcissa
Established 1902 due to proximity to the Frisco Railroad. Most of the town is now gone.
The only town that existed on the Sidewalk Highway that ran between Miami and Afton.
Afton
Established in 1886 in part of the Cherokee Nation. Supposedly, a Scottish railroad surveyor named the town for his daughter; others say it comes from a Robert Burns poem. Both are references to the River Afton in Scotland.
Home of the Buffalo Ranch, a former roadside attraction that is now a filling station. Bison can still be seen here.
Site of the former Afton Station, a vintage DX gas station operated by Laurel Kane as a Packard automobile museum.
Easy access to the Har-Ber Village Museum on the Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees.
Brief period of late population growth when the towns of Cardin and Picher (near the Kansas Border) were abandoned due to ground contamination.
Vinita
Established in 1871; originally named Downingville and renamed honoring Miss Vinnie Ream, the first woman to receive a commission as an artist from the U.S. government for a statue. Her most famous work is the statue of Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
Home of Yvonne Chouteau, world-famous ballerina and one of the “Five Moons” Native American dancers.
The Eastern Trails Museum is free and displays artifacts from the town’s history.
Annual festivals: the Will Rogers Memorial Rodeo (since 1935), the World's Largest Calf Fry Festival (since 1979), and the Vinita Route 66 Festival (since 2014).
Clanton’s Café has been operated by the same family for four generations. It is the oldest continually owned family restaurant on Route 66 in Oklahoma.
Route 66 through town was also part of the Jefferson Highway.
Chelsea
Established in 1882 and named after an area in London, England by a railroad official.
Home of the Chelse-Alluwe Oil Field, which produced in the 1910s. Locals claim it’s the site of the first oil well in Oklahoma.
Served as the halfway point for the Bunion Derby footrace in 1928.
Will Rogers' older sister, Sallie, lived here with her husband Tom McSpadden. The local park was a gift to the town from them and it is named in their honor. Their son, Clem, was a famous rodeo announcer and politician. Part of Route 66 between Claremore and Bushyhead is named the Clem McSpadden Highway.
According to legend, Gene Autry was singing and playing his guitar while working the telegraph at the railway station. Humorist Will Rogers came in and encouraged the young man to pursue it as a career.
The Hogue House, a Sears & Roebuck home built at 1001 Olive Street in 1912, was the first one built west of the Mississippi River.
Route 66 Landmarks: Pedestrian Underpass, Bob Waldmire’s U-Haul Truck, Pryor Creek Bridge.
Bushyhead
Established 1898 and named after Principal Cherokee Chief Dennis W. Bushyhead.
The Post Office was removed in 1955 - right around the time that the Will Rogers Turnpike bypassed the small community.
Foyil
Established 1890 and named after the town’s first postmaster and primary landowner, Alfred Foyil.
Home of Andy Payne, Cherokee native and winner of the famous Bunion Derby (or The Great Transcontinental Footrace) of 1928. Runners went from Los Angeles to New York using Route 66 for most of the journey. The race lasted nearly 3 months and only 25% of the original 200+ runners limped into Madison Square Garden. Payne won the $25,000 prize and used it to pay off the family farm. He later served as clerk to the State Supreme Court for multiple terms.
Original stretch Route 66 concrete, now called Andy Payne Blvd, runs through the west half of town. If traveling westbound, this is the first stretch of old original Portland Cement Concrete paving you'll see in Oklahoma. A statue for Andy Payne stands at the western end of this roadbed.
A Texaco Filling Station, established in the 1930s, is being restored on the original alignment of Route 66. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Totem Pole Park, created by Ed Galloway in the early 1940s, is located about 4 miles east of town on State Highway 28A.
Sequoyah
Established in 1871 and named for inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, Ssiquoya.
Claremore
Established in 1874 as Clermont, named after an Osage chief whose tribe settled here decades earlier. After the Osage Tribe was forced out, this area became part of the Cherokee Nation. The town adopted the present name in 1882 after a clerk recording the name of the post office wrote it down incorrectly.
Known as the home town of Will Rogers, the famous entertainer and humorist. Although he was really from nearby Oologah, he once said that Claremore was much easier to pronounce. The Will Rogers Memorial here is dedicated to Oklahoma’s Favorite Son. Keep an eye out along all of Oklahoma Route 66 for granite Will Rogers Highway historic markers.
Sulphur springs were discovered here in 1903 when drilling for oil. It was marketed as “radium water” which was featured in bath house businesses throughout town, including the Will Rogers Hotel on Route 66.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! is set in Claremore (playwright Lynn Riggs was from here) as is the 2000 film Where the Heart Is.
The J.M. Davis Gun Museum houses the largest collection of firearms in the world.
Hometown of singer Patti Page and astronaut Stuart Roosa.
Verdigris
Established in 1880 (pronounced Ver-duh-gris), the town is named after the nearby Verdigris River.
Population boom in the 1920s thanks to the Lock Joint Pipe Company, the factory that produced the Spavinaw Pipeline to Tulsa.
Home of the second-largest ammonium nitrate production facility in North America.
Catoosa
Established in 1883, named after the Cherokee word Ga-tu-si, meaning “on the hill”.
The Port of Catoosa is the largest inland seaport in the United States. It is also the site of the Arkansas River Historical Society Museum.
The eastern edge of town contains one remaining in-use truss bridge over the Verdigris River (tributary). The eastbound span was built in 1957. Its twin, the former westbound span, was built in 1936 and removed in 2011. It was saved, however, and now is split between a park next to the modern-day Verdigris River and the entrance to Molly’s Landing restaurant.
The Blue Whale is perhaps Oklahoma’s most well-known roadside attraction. It was built in the 1970s as an anniversary present. Across the street, the former Trading Post operated by Wolf-Robe Hunt is currently used as a storage facility.
The Hard Rock Casino and Hotel is operated by the Cherokee Nation.
Tulsa
Settled in 1836 by the Lochapoka and Creek Tribes in 1836 under the Council Oak Tree near the Arkansas River. They named the settlement Tallasi, meaning “old town”. The town was officially incorporated in 1898. It is the intersection of the Creek Nation, the Cherokee Nation, and the Osage Nation. It is the second-largest city in Oklahoma.
The first oil well in the area was struck in 1901; four years later the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve was discovered and Tulsa became known as the Oil Capital of the World. The money and notoriety of this discovery led to much of the Art Deco architecture found in downtown.
Site of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. Greenwood Rising, a history center that tells the story of this tragic event, is currently under construction.
Home of Cyrus Avery, known as the “Father of Route 66”. He was responsible for the construction of the 11th Street Bridge, built in 1915. When serving on the national board to establish the Federal Highway System in 1926, he lobbied to create US Highway 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles — coming through Tulsa and across that state-of-the-art bridge. Originally, Route 66 came into town on 11th Street, then took Mingo Avenue north to Federal Drive (now Admiral Blvd). This took the road right past Cyrus Avery’s Tourist Camp. The road was re-aligned in 1932 to take 11th Street all the way into town.
Tulsa contains several world-class museums, including the Gilcrease Museum, the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, and the Woody Guthrie Center. The Bob Dylan Archive is currently being developed.
The Golden Driller statue, located at the Expo Square Fairgrounds, is the tallest statue along the entire Route 66 corridor and the tallest free-standing statue in the world.
The Gathering Place public park has been recognized by USA Today, Time Magazine, and National Geographic. It spans about 100 acres today and is expanding with a hands-on children’s museum.
Home to Route 66 authors Michael Wallis & Marian Clark.
The Meadow Gold neon sign is one of the largest vintage signs on Route 66.
Voted the Capital of Route 66 in an online poll conducted by Route 66 News.
Sapulpa
Established in 1898 and named for “Chief” James Sapulpa, a member of the Creek Tribe from Alabama that built the first trading post here circa 1850. The Euchee Mission Boarding School was built in 1894 and shuttered in the 1940s.
Early local industry included harvesting walnut trees, producing bricks, and operating multiple glass plants. Frankoma Pottery was based here for many years.
The Sapulpa Historical Museum provides more in-depth history of the area and is located nearby a restored Barnsdall Oil Service Station.
A shortline railroad called the Tulsa-Sapulpa Union Railway still operates and has a small museum on Route 66.
Route 66 Landmark: the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum features a giant gas pump.
The Rock Creek bridge on the west side of town was part of the Ozark Trail, pre-dating US Highway 66. The original roadbed west of the bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places. Also, the nearby remnants of the Teepee Drive-In Theater are currently being restored.
Kellyville
Established in 1893 and named after James E. Kelly, who established a trading post here the year prior.
Home of the worst train disaster in Oklahoma history when two Frisco trains collided in 1917.
Plans to build Oklahoma’s first artificial ski resort here in the 1970s fell through.
Bristow
Established in 1898, named after Joseph L. Bristow, a senator from Kansas.
Site of Oklahoma's first radio station, KRFU, “The Voice of Oklahoma.” Later renamed KVOO and moved to Tulsa in 1927.
VFW Post 3656 contains a Wake Island Memorial, the only memorial to this World War II battle in the lower 48 states.
The restored railroad depot, which also once employed singer Gene Autry as a telegrapher, is now home to a local history museum.
The Mediterranean-style Post Office and postmaster Pat Moore was recognized as a part Ladybird Johnson’s beautification initiative in the 1960s.
Nearby Tank Farm Loop segment of Route 66 contains original concrete and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Depew
Established in 1901 and named for New York Senator Chauncey Depew.
Route 66 originally went through the center of town. It is generally known as the first town entirely bypassed by a re-alignment of the road in 1928; the brick Main Street buildings and former Gimble Gas Station downtown are fairly well preserved.
Home of internationally known Yuchi painter and sculptor Wayne Cooper.
An older alignment of Route 66 can be seen and partially driven between Depew and Stroud.
Stroud
Established in 1892 and named for trader/developer James Stroud. Home of the national headquarters of the Sac and Fox Nation.
Outlaw Henry Starr and his gang robbed two banks here at the same time in 1915.
The Rock Café was established in 1939 using displaced sandstone removed during the construction of US Highway 66. The character of Sally Carrera in Pixar’s film Cars is based on Dawn Welch, the owner of the Rock Café when the studio crews came through town on a research trip. The restaurant was gutted by a fire in 2008 but the grill and walls survived.
A replica Ozark Trail obelisk stands near Ed Smalley Centennial Park. An original obelisk can be found southwest of town.
Davenport
Established in 1892 and named after Nettie Davenport, the first postmistress.
Main Street is paved with bricks made at the local brick plant, which closed in 1930. The road is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The buildings downtown feature many ornate and colorful murals that tell the story of the town’s history.
The world’s first spherical oil tank, built by the Magnolia Oil Company in 1925, can be found along the gravel Ozark Trail alignment (E 0890 Rd) just north of town.
Chandler
Established in 1891 and named after Judge George Chandler. The townsite was almost completely destroyed by a tornado six years later but the town survived.
Famous retired US Marhsall Bill Tilghman was shot and killed by a corrupt Prohibition agent in 1924. A historic marker is in place at the Oak Park Cemetery.
Home of Jerry McClanahan and his Route 66 Gallery. His EZ-66 Travel Guide is regarded as the best turn-by-turn travel guide that covers all of Route 66.
The Lincoln County Museum of Pioneer History downtown is located in some of the oldest buildings in Lincoln County. Among other historical artifacts it features hand-carved marionettes used by a local schoolteacher in the town’s early days.
The Route 66 Interpretive Center, located in a restored WPA Armory, is also the home of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association.
Route 66 Landmarks: restored 66 Bowl neon sign, the Lincoln Motel (operating since 1939), Phillips 66 Station #1423, Meramec Caverns painted barn west of town (facing west).
Warwick
A post office was established here in 1892 and the townsite was named for a county in England. Warwick didn’t formally incorporate until 1963, however, under fears of being annexed by another town.
Route 66 landmark: Seaba Station, a former filling station and machine shop, was built in 1921 and now houses a motorcycle museum. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Wellston
Established in 1884 and named for local merchant Christian T. Wells. Part of the Kickapoo Nation.
Route 66 was re-aligned in 1932, bypassing the town and causing a dispute that escalated to the State Supreme Court. The state highway department established Highway 66b through town and improved the road.
Route 66 Landmarks: remnant of a former motor court (Pioneer Camp BBQ later in life), colorful murals downtown, Captain Creek skewed-truss pony bridge.
Luther
Established in 1891 and named for businessman Luther Jones, who himself was named after the original town surveyor Luther F. Aldrich.
Site of the Threatt Filling Station, built in 1915 and one of the first Black owned-and-operated service stations in the country. The family land also once housed a working farm, baseball field that hosted games for the Negro League, and an area for Black travelers to camp when sundown towns surrounded the area. The Threatt Family is working to reopen this sandstone station as a museum.
Portions of a former alignment of Route 66 can be seen on the north side of modern Route 66, most notable in the form of empty bridge abutments. The remains of the roadbed itself is on private property.
Arcadia
Established in the Land Rush of 1889; it wasn’t until nearly 100 years later that the town was formally incorporated due to fears of being annexed by another town.
The Round Barn, constructed in 1898, was famously restored in the 1990s after the roof collapsed. It is one of Oklahoma’s most well-known roadside attractions.
Other Route 66 Landmarks: Pops Soda Ranch, a service station/rest stop featuring a giant 66 foot pop bottle out front, and the “Rock of Ages” Conoco station, infamously tied to local legends about a counterfeit money operation.
Home of author/historian Jim Ross and author/photographer Shellee Graham. Their home, which sits on an original alignment of the road, is modeled after the familiar Phillips 66 Cottage Station design.
An original curbed segment of US Highway 66 can be found here. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and also features a historic marker that tells the story of when Sir Paul McCartney came through on a Route 66 road trip.
Edmond
Established during the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, keeping the name of the existing railroad station named after Edmond Burdick, a traveling freight agent of the Santa Fe Railroad.
The first public schoolhouse in Oklahoma Territory still stands as a historic monument on 2nd Street.
The Edmond Historical Society Museum is located in an old WPA armory.
Home of Shannon Miller, the most decorated Olympic gymnast in the United States.
Memorial Park Cemetery is the final resting place of Wiley Post, famous aviator and friend of Will Rogers. They died in the same plane crash in 1935.
Oklahoma City
Established in 1889 as a part of the Land Run. Although nearby Guthrie was the original state capital, the seat of government was moved to Oklahoma City a few years after statehood. The State Seal was moved under cover of night and cries of scandal.
OKC is the largest city in Oklahoma and is known for their vast stockyards district and as a major interchange hub for road and rail. The Devon Energy Tower is the tallest building in Oklahoma.
The site of the tragic Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 is now the home of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
The alignment of Route 66 through Oklahoma City evolved several times over the years, including a bypass on Britton Road. The most familiar alignment of the road, which travels from Edmond on Kelley and Lincoln Ave and takes 23rd Street west, passes right by the State Capitol Building.
The second “Robots on 66” statue, Rt-19, stands across from the Tower Theater on NW 23rd St.
The Asian District, known as “Little Saigon”, straddles Route 66 around 23rd and Classen. It was formed in the 1970s from a large group of refugees after the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. There is a monument called “Brothers in Arms” dedicated to veterans of the war.
Route 66 Landmarks: Tower Theatre on NW 23rd Street, Milk Bottle Building at Classen and 23rd, and the Gold Dome nearby.
The Centennial Land Run Monument in the Bricktown district is the largest bronze sculpture in the world.
Scissortail Bridge crosses I-40 south of downtown; the design is inspired by the state bird, the Scissortail Flycatcher.
Other notable museums: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma History Center, 45th Infantry Division Museum, American Banjo Museum.
Home of baseball catcher Johnny Bench, football player Brian Bosworth, musician Wayne Coyne, and many others.
Warr Acres
Established in 1948 and named after a housing edition developed by Clyde B. Warr.
A significant part of the town was originally known as Putnam City, but it never formally incorporated. References to Putnam City are still found in the area.
Bethany
Established in 1909 by the Church of the Nazarene and named after the biblical location.
Major tornado in 1930 killed two dozen people and destroyed over 600 buildings.
Route 66 Landmark: Lake Overholser Bridge was part of the original alignment of Route 66 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Route 66 Park on Lake Overholser is also nearby.
Yukon
Established in 1891 and named after the Yukon River in British Columbia and Alaska.
Known as the “Czech Capital of Oklahoma” due to large population of Czech immigrants. An annual Czech Festival is held here and the Czech Hall is a national and state historic site.
Route 66 Landmark: the Yukon’s Best Flour Mill, representative of the region’s agricultural industry. The neon sign atop the silo was restored in the 2010s and a mural was added in 2019.
The Express Clydesdale Ranch is located on the Chisholm Trail and welcomes visitors of all ages.
Home town of musician Garth Brooks.
El Reno
Established during the Land Run of 1889 and named after the nearby Fort Reno. Originally lands belonging to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
Fort Reno was the site of a Prisoner of War Camp during World War II. There is a POW Cemetery on-site that is open to visitors. Most of the grounds of the old fort are now part of a research laboratory for the U.S. Department of Agriculture but the Fort has a historic Visitor’s Center and hosts ghost tours.
Streetcar is still in operation, one of the few left in Oklahoma.
Famous for Fried Onion Burgers and holds a festival the first Saturday in May. Try one any time at Johnnie's Grill, Sid's Diner, and Robert's Grill.
Scenes from the 1988 film Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise were filmed at the Big 8 Motel, room #117; the motel has since been demolished.
Route 66 Landmark: A Route 66 shield you can sit in at the corner of Wade Street and Choctaw Avenue, and the Guardian of the Mother Road mural on the west edge of town (painted on the back of an old drive-in movie screen.)
West of Fort Reno, Historic Route 66 consists of original Portland cement for much of the alignment that parallels I-40.
A large art installation by John Cerney featuring renditions of Muffler Man roadside statues stands on private property on the south side of this alignment near Heaston Road.
Calumet
Established in 1893. The name comes from an Americanization of the French word chalumet, meaning shepherd’s pipe. Legend has it that French settlers used that word for the Native American ceremonial pipe and it somehow stuck.
The original alignment of Highway 66 went up through Calumet, across to Geary, then down into Bridgeport across a suspension bridge. The more direct east-to-west alignment was adopted in 1932.
Geary
Established in 1892 and named after Edmund Guerriere, a French-Cheyenne Army scout and interpreter.
The Canadian Rivers Museum is housed in an early 1900s building that originally served as a bank. The log jail featured here dates to 1909.
Ruins of the old suspension bridge to Bridgeport can be seen southwest of town, but they are little more than concrete piers in the river today.
Bridgeport
Established in 1895 and named after the toll bridge that once stood on the edge of town.
The Canadian River Pony Bridge nearby is known locally as the Bridgeport Bridge. The longest bridge of its kind on all of Route 66, this 3,900 foot crossing was featured in the 1940 film Grapes of Wrath and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s a ghost town today but the old post office still stands.
Route 66 Landmark: the ruins of Hinton Junction rest stop and café, just west of the Pony Bridge.
Historic Route 66 west of Bridgeport is another long segment of original curbed Portland cement.
Hydro
Established in 1901 and named for its abundance of good well water. The town sits just north of Route 66.
West of town, the Provine Station that was operated by Lucille Hamons stands as a historic site. Lucille was known as the, “Mother of the Mother Road” and operated the station from 1941 until her passing in 2000. The original “Hamons Court” sign that accompanied the on-site motel was donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and is on display there.
Weatherford
Established in 1898 and is named after postmaster Lorinda Weatherford.
Lucille's Roadhouse Diner is inspired by Lucille Hamon and her former service station near Hydro.
Birthplace of Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, one of only 24 people to fly to the moon. The town has a renowned Air and Space Museum in his honor that features exhibits on aviation, space exploration, and rocketry. They have one of the Titan II launch vehicles on display.
The Heartland of America Museum opened in 2007 and features many local artifacts dating back to the late 1800s.
A wind turbine blade is on display in a park on the west side of town, giving visitors an up-close look at this growing energy production method in western Oklahoma.
Clinton
Established in 1902 and named after Judge Clinton F. Irwin, a Justice of the Oklahoma Territory Supreme Court.
Site of the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, the first official state-operated Route 66 museum in the country. The museum is also the home of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association Hall of Fame.
Home of notable Route 66 persons: Jack and Gladys Cutberth, who revived the US Highway 66 Association in 1947 and helped sustain the tourism of the road until the 1980s, and Dr. Walter S. Mason Jr., a Route 66 booster whose Trade Winds Motel famously hosted Elvis Presley in the 1960s.
McLain Rogers Park was built in 1934 and features Art Deco architecture and a stunning entrance arch alongside Route 66. Developed as a part of the WPA and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hometown of musician Toby Keith.
Foss
Established in 1900 as Maharg (an anagram of the postmaster’s name Graham, which was already taken) but it was wiped out by a flash flood. The town relocated to higher ground and was renamed Foss after J.M. Foss, postmaster of the nearby town Cordell.
The original alignment of Route 66 came through town from the north, but was realigned south of town in 1931 to bypass it entirely.
Route 66 Landmark: the ruins of Kobel's gas station.
Canute
Established in 1899 and supposedly named after a King Cnut of Denmark.
Several historic markers sit in a plaza south of the Catholic cemetery and tell more of Canute’s history and that of The Great Western Trail. The cemetery itself houses a grotto and statues depicting the crucifixion of Christ dating back to 1928.
Canute’s city park was actually Oklahoma’s first state park built along Route 66, part of the WPA projects of the 1930s.
Route 66 Landmarks: several historic service stations and old neon signs tell the story of US Highway 66 before the interstate bypassed the town.
Elk City
Established in 1901 and named after the nearby Elk Creek.
Home of the National Route 66 & Transportation Museum and the Old Town Museum Complex. Look for the giant Route 66 shield!
Ackley Park, located near the museum complex, has a carousel, miniature golf course, and the Choctaw Express Miniature Train.
Route 66 Landmarks: Parker Oil Rig 114, 17 stories tall and originally built to drill shafts for underground nuclear testing, and Timber Creek Bridge west of town.
Sayre
Established in 1901 and named for Robert H. Sayre, a stockholder of the Choctaw, Oklahoma, and Gulf Railroad company.
Beckham County Courthouse can be seen in the 1940 movie The Grapes of Wrath as a stand-in for the State Capitol, which had no dome at the time. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Corner of 4th & Elm has an underground pedestrian walkway once used to cross Route 66. Some people mistake these for storm shelter entrances.
An older alignment of Route 66 southwest of town once crossed Sand Creek, but the bridge has long since collapsed and the road ends at private property. There is still a short segment of original Portland cement leading to the dead end, however.
Hext
Established in 1901 and named for a local resident William Hext.
Abandoned north lanes between Sayre and Erick are original 66. The current lanes were added in the 1950s to upgrade this stretch to four lanes. Last section in Oklahoma to lose its U.S. Highway 66 designation to I-40.
Erick
Established in 1901 and named for Beeks Erick, developer for the original townsite.
Part of the National Old Trails Road, a predecessor to U.S. Highway 66.
Home of the Sandhills Curiosity Shoppe, located in an old Meat Market building downtown, operated by Harley Russell. Harley and his late wife Annabelle billed themselves as the “Mediocre Music Makers” and served as one of the inspirations for the character Mater in Pixar’s Cars films.
Hometown of musicians Roger Miller and Sheb Wooley.
Texola
Established in 1901 and sits on the 100th Meridian. It is a ghost town today.
The one-cell territorial jail on the western end of town was built in 1910.
Route 66 Landmark: A sign on the western edge of town that reads, “There's no other place like this place anywhere near this place so this must be the place.”
Near the Texas border, a historic marker stands in tribute to the 1952 caravan that re-dedicated the road as the Will Rogers Highway.
Many thanks to Cheryl Nowka, Marian Clark, Jim Ross, Kathy Anderson, Marilyn Emde, and Rhys Martin for compiling this data and updating it over the years.