Route 66 - Part 1
Day 16 Claremore to
Bristow
10/9/2012
65 Actual Miles / 1750 Actual Elevation
Due to a hotel change for the rest day to the Will Rogers Inn, 940 S Lynn Riggs Blvd, Claremore, OK, the mileage for today is supposed to be 2.2miles less than posted.
Oologah
Cherokee Kid - A nickname for Will Rogers, who was part
Cherokee Indian. A bronze sculpture of Will Rogers on horseback that stands in
his hometown of Oologah, OK.
Dog Iron Ranch - Open to the public, Will Rogers' 400-acre
boyhood home includes a house, barn, petting zoo, and a lot more. Oologah is
approximately 13 miles from Claremore, site of the Will Rogers Memorial.
Verdigris
Catoosa
Arrowood Trading
Post - Former trading post just across the highway from the Blue Whale of
Catoosa. Also known as the Chief Wolf Robe Trading Post.
Blue Whale - A true roadside attraction of the old
school, the Blue Whale of Catoosa is the centerpiece of a small 1970s-era
animal themed water park built by Hugh Davis, a curator at the Tulsa Zoo. The
whale sits at the edge of a pond with several picnic tables nearby. Back in the
day, Route 66 motorists in the mood for a swim could enter the whale's mouth,
and from there make a splash into the pond either by diving from the whale's
tail fin, or by sliding down a chute on one side. The park was closed circa
1980 and remained idle for many years. In 2002, the whale and other features of
the park were refurbished by volunteers from the family of the original
curators, with a little help from the Hampton Inn Brand of Hilton Hotels, as
part of the Save-A-Landmark program.
I wonder how many other tourists have posed the same way as Rich?
Catoosa, the furthest
inland seaport in the US, is linked, by way of impressively engineered
improvements to the Arkansas River system, to the Gulf of Mexico. The McClellan-Kerr Navigation System is
a 445-mile waterway. There is the Arkansas River Historical Society Museum
(5350 Cimarron Road) which can educate you on this construction project.
Catoosa Historical
Museum – 207 Cherokee Street – An
old RR depot with a “Ship it on the Frisco” caboose.
Blue Dome Gas
Station – 2nd and Elgin -
An automotive service station on an old alignment of 66 in Tulsa distinguished
by its blue-domed roofline.
Center of the
Universe - In the roadside attraction tradition of "mystery
spots," this is a location at the apex of a pedestrian walkway downtown
that has odd acoustical properties. Stand on the spot, speak in a normal tone
of voice, and your words will strongly reverberate back to you. It's on the
Boston Avenue walkway between First and Archer Streets.
Golden
Driller – 21st
Street west of Yale – A 76-foot-tall statue of an oil worker that stands at the
Tulsa fairgrounds. Pays tribute to Tulsa’s oil heritage (the former “Oil
Capitol of the World”)
Meadow
Gold - A brand name, part
of Beatrice Foods. Notable because there was an enormous "Meadow
Gold" neon sign (20-by-40-foot) in Tulsa, OK, at the southwest corner of
11th Ave (Route 66) and Lewis. When the owner of the building on which the sign
was mounted announced his intention to remove the icon, there was a groundswell
of local support for the sign's preservation in 2004. Those preservation
efforts led to the sign's dismantling and storage, and the identification of a
new site for its eventual reassembly and display.
Gilcrease Museum [918-596-2700]
- Bought with the fortune benefactor Thomas Gilcrease made when oil was
discovered on his land, the collection includes some of the most important
works of Western American art and sculpture, with major works by Thomas Moran,
George Catlin, and others, plus Native American artifacts and early maps that
put the frontier region into its historical contexts.
New Atlas Grill
- 415 S. Boston Street [918-583-3111] You can still get a feel for the old days
downtown at this retro 1920s restaurant serving full breakfasts plus soups,
salads, and lunchtime sandwiches in an Art Decco tower.
Tally’s Good Food
Café - 1102 S. Yale Avenue [918-835-8039] A retro-Route 66 diner with good
honest food.
Rancho Grande
– Vintage neon sign of lasso-twirling vaquero and a cactus
Desert Hills Hotel
- 5520 East 11th Street – A classic neon sign
Rich's bike on Route 66 in Tulsa, OK
Route 66 Mingo
Greenway – at the intersection of East 11th Street and Mingo
Road – a mile long park on the 1926-32 alignment, with walking trails,
interpretive information and picnic tables.
Cultural
Crossroads – 11th Street at Yale – Engaging all four corners of
the 1920s Tudor Revival neighborhood, and listed on the National Register of
Historic Places, you’ll find heritage murals, Tally’s Route 66 Café, and a
Route 66 Deli.
The Oasis Motel's classic neon sign.
Red Fork
Red Fork - A
small community southwest of Tulsa, OK. Oil was discovered there in 1901, an
event which led to a boom period for Tulsa and the rest of the area. Route 66 Transportation Village /Route 66
Station. A 154-foot oil derrick replica has been built to attract the eye
from a distance, and on site you’ll find a 1941 Frisco 4500 steam locomotive, a
Pullman car, a caboose, and interpretive displays.
Ollie’s Station
Restaurant
Oakhurst
Bowden
Sapulpa
Giant
Coke Bottle – Frankhoma Rd and
OK-66 – at the “Tribute to Sapulpa Industry and workers.”
Rock
Creek Bridge - Circa-1921, this bridge
is a reminder of what the old roads were really like—120 feet long yet only 12
feet wide, the truss is rusty by the bridge still stands as a proud reminder of
the original 1920s Route 66.
Frankoma Pottery - Pottery company with a distinctive style
that has been operating on an old alignment of Route 66 since the 1930s.
Diamond Bart’s
Café - 408 North Mission Street – Formerly Norma’s Café, reopened as
Diamond Bart’s after Norma passed on has been serving travelers of the Mother
Road for years.
Sapulpa Historical
Museum - 100 E. Lee Street – It is housed in a circa-1910 YMCA building and
features an 1890s-era kitchen and schoolroom, a telephone exhibit and items
pertaining to the Frisco Railroad.
Kellyville
Former cotton gin
Bristow Motor Company building with plaster sculptures of “spoke
wheels” on the façade
Wake Island Memorial
Bristow Historical
Museum – E. 7th
Street – Railroad Depot
Anchor Inn – 630 S. Roland – burgers since 1950
Giant Penguin
at the Chrysler Dealer
Russ’s Ribs 233 S. Main Street [918-367-5656] Home to some
of the best barbecue sandwiches. Also makes some excellent deli sandwiches.
We are staying at the Carolyn Inn, just on the edge of the town of Bristow. Looks like we will be taking orders and picking up food since the restaurants are 1/2 mile from the hotel. But on the upside, there is a surprise for everyone, since we got pies from the Hammett House in Claremore, OK for happy hour. We got Lemon Pecan; Coconut Cream; German Chocolate; and Peanut Chocolate Chip pies.!
Tomorrow we are off to Edmond. OK.
We are staying at the Carolyn Inn, just on the edge of the town of Bristow. Looks like we will be taking orders and picking up food since the restaurants are 1/2 mile from the hotel. But on the upside, there is a surprise for everyone, since we got pies from the Hammett House in Claremore, OK for happy hour. We got Lemon Pecan; Coconut Cream; German Chocolate; and Peanut Chocolate Chip pies.!
Tomorrow we are off to Edmond. OK.
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