The Oklahoma Route 66 Association needs your help to preserve one of the most important sections of Historic Route 66 in the country: the Ribbon Road.

Download this poster here

First, we have a change.org petition to show the Ottawa County Commissioners and Guy Engineering that this road means a lot not just to us here in Oklahoma, but to people from around the world. Although this kind of petition isn’t always actionable, it is a show of strength in numbers. Click the link above and sign the petition to add your voice!

Second, we need people to call or write the appropriate legislators and other public officials…especially if you live in Oklahoma. A list has been provided below with contact information along with a standard statement. Please customize it and make it your own…and be respectful!

Scott Hilton - Commissioner District 3
918-676-3227 || D3@ottawa.okcounties.org

Finally, share this campaign! Not just online, but the poster below can be downloaded and printed. The more people we get involved, the greater our chance of success in preserving this stretch of road. In our opinion, it would be better to do nothing than to mill up the existing pavement. We hope that by speaking with one voice about a reasonable solution we can convince the powers that be to patch what exists and truly preserve the Ribbon Road for generations to come.

Ottawa County wants to wrap up the review and comment by the end of April. Time is running out!

Thank you KOAM News for covering this story! Check out their March 25th story here.

HISTORY

If you’re not familiar with this unique segment of the highway, here’s a brief summary. In the early 1920s, several years before US Highway 66 came into being, the State of Oklahoma was already working on paving their most traveled roads. Legend has it that, due to budgetary constraints, officials had a choice about the section between Miami and Afton: pave half of it and wait, or pave all of it at half the width. Of course, automobiles were not yet terribly common…so if one car encountered another coming the other way, one could just pull off to the side to let the other pass. Not only is the nine-foot-wide lane unique, but the makeup of the pavement is different than any other roadbed along Route 66. A thin layer of asphalt is contained within concrete curbs and a base.

This road served as Route 66 from its inception in 1926 until it was bypassed in 1937. There are two segments left, the northern stretch covering about three miles on the south side of Miami. Today, the road is not in good shape. Age is a factor, but primarily the use of gravel and grading equipment has caused an accelerated decay of the existing roadbed. If you’ve driven it yourself, you know that entire sections of the original pavement are missing and the visible areas are rough, pitted, and in need of attention. Local traffic is mostly heavy agricultural machinery, which further damages the century-old road.

Still, it attracts the attention of travelers from around the world. You can often find rental cars and classic cruisers on the single lane, taking in a landscape that has changed very little since those early days. It’s a unique tourist attraction that has no equal anywhere else between Chicago and Santa Monica. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

In March of 2020, a public meeting was held in Miami, Oklahoma to talk about plans to rehabilitate the road. Ottawa County Commissioner Russell Earls led a presentation which outlined several proposals. Options included widening one side of the road and creating a parallel, modern road…making the ribbon a shoulder. Others included widening the gravel shoulders, which would not solve the issue with ongoing damage from grading equipment.

Of course, the pandemic slowed everything down. It took nearly three years before Ottawa County reached the next step: Section 106. This is a process of review that must be undertaken any time a historic asset is impacted by modern construction and federal resources are used. Although this is a county road, federal funds are being sought to undertake this project. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is facilitating this process between Ottawa County and all identified stakeholders.

The initial Section 106 contact came in January of 2023 and the Association formed a small committee to track and respond to project proposals. The proposal called for restoring the Ribbon Road and paving the gravel shoulders with a tinted chip-and-seal surface to emulate the look setting the road apart from its surroundings. But that’s not all.

The plan also called for the concrete curbs to be chopped off and re-poured rather than repaired. Additionally, the asphalt was to be entirely milled up and replaced with a modern mix. A 2019 core sample taken by Rich Dinkela, President of the Route 66 Association of Missouri, proved the existing asphalt was historic in nature (due to the aggregate used) and had a higher asphalt content than modern materials. These steps would destroy the very fabric of the road the county claimed it wanted to save.

The Association responded firmly that destroying the road in order to preserve it – wasn’t preservation at all. We agreed that certain sections were decayed beyond repair, but that significant sections of the Ribbon Road could be patched and retain the historic, authentic road that attracts visitors from around the world.

Over the summer, more meetings were held with members of the Oklahoma Legislature, the Ottawa County Commissioners, and others to express our concerns and desire for a preservation-minded solution. ODOT led a call in September of 2023 to bring all consulting parties together to hear their concerns, including ours.

In December, the county came back with an alternate proposal. This time, they proposed leaving the Ribbon Road alone entirely and adding two modern, striped asphalt lanes on either side. This, too, was unacceptable and that’s how we responded.

On February 16th, a second revision was presented. Now, the concrete curbs would be patched where possible rather than chopped off – but the milling up of the asphalt and replacing with a modern, inauthentic mixture was still there and the chip-and-seal lanes are to be striped. Here is a graphic representation of what that will look like.

Once again, the Oklahoma Route 66 Association finds it unacceptable that the historic materials are not being retained. Now, we need your help! Scroll back to the top of this page to see our Call to Action.