Memorializing the Mother Road in Oklahoma

“Well it goes from St. Louie, down to Missouri

Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty

You’ll see Amarillo, and Gallup, New Mexico

Flagstaff, Arizona don’t forget Winona

Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernadino

Would you get hip to this kindly tip

And go take that California trip

And get your kicks on Route 66”

In 1926 it was built to be “The Main Street of America.”

In 1927 Phillips Petroleum tested a new fuel mixture on Route 66 in a car driven at the then-breathtaking speed of 66 miles per hour and created the Phillips 66 brand.

Phillips 66 station No. 1423 in Chandler, Oklahoma, was built in early 1930, and operated until as a Phillips 66 station until 1967. It has been undergoing restoration since 1998. Phillips 66 was named after a test drive on a car using the Phillips fuel blend achieved a speed of 66 mph driving on Route 66.

In the 1930s John Steinbeck christened it “The Mother Road” as he followed the Dust Bowl refugees to California.

In 1946 songwriter Bobby Troup celebrated it in a song first recorded by Nat King Cole and later by the likes of Chuck Berry and The Rolling Stones.

From 1960 to 1964 Americans followed Tod and Buz on their journey across America (mostly) along the iconic highway in the TV series named for it.

In 1985, U.S. 66 was officially decertified, replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Now sections survive as two-lane state roads, often designated Historic 66 or State Road 66 in the eight states it once passed through.

But in Chandler, Oklahoma those of us who remember travels along the highway, or long to experience an America that seemed so young and hopeful, can revisit those days at the Route 66 Interpretive Center.

According to Chandler artist, author, and historian of Route 66, Jerry McClanahan, Oklahoma has some of the longest sections of the old route still active.

“Much of the original highway has been lost, abandoned or reverted to dirt roads,” McClanahan said. “In Oklahoma it’s still on the original route except for about a mile in Oklahoma City. There’s one section that goes from west of El Reno to Hydro that still has the original concrete roadbed from 1933.”

The center is housed in an old National Guard armory built in 1937 as a WPA project and closed in 1972, when a new armory was built in Chandler.

Center Director Susan Pordos shows a stonemason's tool used to shape the texture of the 20 inch sandstone blocks used to build the National Guard armory in Chandler, now the Route 66 Interpretive Center.

“It was built of 20 inch handmade sandstone blocks quarried locally,” said museum director Susan Pordos. “It was placed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1991. Renovation started in 1998 and we officially opened in 2007.”

In Oklahoma alone there are 185 places on the NRHP along Route 66. There are also roadside attractions such as the Alien Landing Yard Art in Stroud, the great Blue Whale of Catoosa, and the clothing-optional Bike Stock Oklahoma campground in Depew.

The center attracts visitors from all over the world and is supported by the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma Route 66 Association, entry fees, a gift shop and rental of the former drill hall for weddings and events.

The drill room of the former National Guard Armory in Chandler is now available to rent for weddings and occasions to support the Route 66 Interpretive Center.

The renovation was designed by Oklahoma City architect Hans Butzer, who also designed the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, with input from the Chandler community and the Benoit Bavouset of the Ecole d’Architecture and the University of Blaise Pascal of Clermont-Ferrand in France.

In the past 12 months of 2014-2015, the guestbook shows visitors from as far as Africa (9), Australia (240), England (96), Germany (144), and New Zealand (42), 31 countries in all.

What they find is interactive exhibits they can enjoy sitting in vintage car seats from a Willy’s Jeep, a 1964 Mustang, a Model A; motel beds, and a mini-movie theater with touch screen displays of life along the Mother Road.

Wisconsin native John Wesley stopped by the Route 66 Interpretive Center on a motorcycle trip following the Mother Road from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Wisconsin visitor John Wesley found the center by chance while following the original route on his motorcycle from Chicago to Los Angeles.
“This is a lot of fun,” Wesley enthused. “I like the way it’s set up.”

Wesley was also delighted to find there are no less than two motorcycle museums along historic 66 in Oklahoma; one in Miami and one just a few miles down the road in Warwick in the historic Seaba gas station.

One display features the reminiscences of Dick Besser’s Route 66 adventures in 1959 as an 18-year-old high school graduate, and again in 2000 when he retraced his route from Chicago to Winslow, Arizona.

Besser attempted to find all the motels he stayed at, places he ate, and sights he saw. He found a surprising number of places remained and were recognizable after 41 years.

Perhaps life off the interstate moves at a slower pace.

Photos by Red Dirt Report’s Steve Browne.