The Cotton Boll Buzzes Again
The Cotton Boll Motel sign shines brightly alongside Historic Route 66.
After more than 30 years of darkness, the iconic Cotton Boll Motel neon sign in Canute, Oklahoma is alight once more. The sign relighting is the first phase of multiple projects the community has in the works to highlight their local history and celebrate their place on the Mother Road.
Cotton Boll Motel postcard image courtesy of Joe Sonderman.
The Cotton Boll opened in May 1960. Woodrow and Viola Penick, who had been cotton farmers, had the 16-room motel built alongside US Highway 66. Joe Mahl of Elk City was the builder of the structure and Seright Neon of Elk City created the stunning sign. The motel advertised air conditioning, vinyl tile, and a TV set in each room. Ten years later, the I-40 bypass was completed, severing Canute from the flow of most tourist traffic. But the Cotton Boll survived on oilfield and agricultural business. The Penicks sold the motel in 1979 and it continued to operate until the early 1990s.
Cotton Boll neon sign in the 1990s, courtesy of Kathy Anderson.
Pat and Cheryl Webb bought the motel in 1993 as a private residence shortly after it closed. By then, the sign was no longer operable. However, the distinctive porcelain cabinet had already become a popular photo stop for travelers from around the world. People in the town had reached out to the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and the State Historic Preservation Office at the time about preserving the sign and making it a monument, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Joe Kisicki, President of the Association at the time, told The Daily Oklahoman that the Association didn’t have the resources to finance such projects, but that it was certainly, “part of the attraction of Route 66.”
Photo of Route 66 from the 90s or early 2000s, taken by Bob Waldmire. Photo courtesy of Buz Waldmire.
When the State of Oklahoma created the Oklahoma Route 66 Revitalization Grant in 2023, preservationists in the town of Canute took notice. Their local CPR Group (Canute Preservation and Restoration) applied for a grant that would bring new life to Old Route 66 in their town - and got it. The Cotton Boll project is just the first phase and will be followed by work to other structures, including the Washita Motel sign to the west and the former Hi-De-Hi Drive-In to the east.
Pat Webb, who still owns the motel, gifted the sign to the City of Canute so that the project could take place and the work was completed by Just-In-Time Signs out of Sayre. In fact, the sign cabinet itself wasn’t even repainted - the porcelain was simply cleaned and polished.
On the evening of March 21st, a crowd of 130 people gathered in Canute (population 494) on the side of Historic Route 66 to be there when the switch was flipped. People from as far away as Houston, Texas and Tucumcari, New Mexico came to be a part of the special occasion. In attendance were the presidents of both the Texas and Oklahoma Route 66 Associations and numerous Route 66 roadies from around the region, but the stars of the evening were the Penick daughters, Marilyn and Shirley, who came in from southeast Texas.
The Penick daughters pose just after the sign was turned on.
After speeches from the mayor and a few others, the neon was turned on just before 7:00 PM to great fanfare. People from near and far continued to snap photos as the sun set behind the concrete roadway and many revelers migrated to the nearby Friends Pub & Pizza, where they visited until well after 10. The motel is still a private residence, but in this Centennial year the sign will call to Route 66 travelers as both a reminder of yesterday and a dream of tomorrow.
