Peanuts in Bristow: It’s the Law
Clip from the Tulsa World, April 1st 1940. Courtesy of newspapers.com
by Rhys Martin
In 1940, the City of Bristow passed an unusual ordinance. It declared it unlawful for any public eating establishment within town limits to serve a glass of water to a patron without also serving them one peanut in the shell. Violations would incur a fine ranging from fifty cents to five dollars.
What in the world? Did that really happen? The short answer is: yes.
For a decade prior, the local Chamber had been trying to convince local farmers to convert their cotton fields to peanuts. A local business owner announced he would build a peanut shelling plant in early 1940 and city leaders saw the opportunity they had been waiting for.
As an advertising stunt, Bristow passed an ordinance aimed at promoting themselves as the top regional peanut producer. The Chamber of Commerce provided local cafes with single shelled peanuts in little cellophane wrappers, which also included a copy of the ordinance. The Bristow Daily Record even added Peanut Capital of the Southwest to the front page of the newspaper.
The effort caught the attention of folks from around the country, with stories popping up in national newspapers and periodicals like Newsweek. Not everyone was pleased with the town’s new goobernative policy. Some restaurants complained about the peanut shells that found their way to the floor and said they didn’t have the staff to keep it clean. But tourists that came through Bristow, having read about the legislation, demanded their peanut if they weren’t provided one. One man from Maine even sent a letter to the Chamber of Commerce directly to have a peanut posted to him because one was not provided during a visit.
Clipping of the January 1942 comic from Ripley’s Believe It or Not
Two years later, Ripley’s Believe It or Not featured it in a comic, which was syndicated around the country, and interest spiked again. Traveling circuses like Ringling Brothers said that their elephants were especially keen on legumes from Creek County. The Bristow Chamber held a meeting to determine if they should restart enforcement of the law, claiming that one arrest had been made over it, resulting in a waitress shelling out two quarters to pay the fine.
After about a decade, the peanut business in Bristow cracked. The crops dwindled and the law was officially rescinded. The law continued to show up now and again in stories about quirky, nonsense legislation. In 1980, forty years after the original ordinance was passed, Billy Carter came to Bristow to campaign on behalf of his father for President. The city, again seeing an opportunity, revived the spirit of the quirky law and presented him with a glass of water and a peanut in honor of Jimmy Carters peanut farming legacy.
Today, the Bristow Train Depot and Museum has a little display about the law – complete with packaged peanut. As far as the Oklahoma Route 66 Association is aware, there is no other formal marker or reference to the city’s one-time claim to fame…but perhaps that will change someday. Fun and unique ideas are a big part of the Route 66 experience…especially if they are a little nuts.
