Route 66 Tour

On the third weekend in October, Alice and I took the opportunity to again enjoy a great encounter with American history through driving our ’57 Golden Hawk down beautiful stretches of Oklahoma’s Route 66. As you may know, Oklahoma Highway Commissioner Cyrus Avery was appointed to the US Bureau of Public Roads in 1924 to create our nations first interstate US roadway. In 1926 the initial Route 66 roadway was formulate using hundreds of existing road thru the eight states. By 1937, Oklahoma lead the way by replacing most of the original gravel and dirt roadways with standard width Portland Concrete bridges and surfaces much which had rolled curbing. Over the 58 year history of US Route 66 many, many realignments were initiated improving safety, speed and uniformity before it was finally replace by the Interstate system and decommissioned in 1984. Today, Oklahoma still has nearly 400 miles of Route 66 Portland Concrete road surfaces still available for touring. Alice and I had several false starts before finally heading north out of Commerce at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon. We got on the Indian Nations Turnpike at Hugo and ran on it to Henryetta, Oklahoma where we were dumped out onto US 75 leading to Okmulgee where we had dinner. Twenty miles south of Tulsa we went east on OK-6 to Sapulpa which is on what is now Oklahoma Route 66. We drove through downtown to get to our Super 8 Motel. We began our Route 66 tour on Sunday morning first stopping at the Tribute to Sapulpa Industry and Workers at Frankhoma Rd and OK 66 – a Giant Coke Bottle on the east side of Sapulpa.

Sapulpa has always been nice size manufacturing center. On Dewey Street we next encountered a tribute to their transportation and rail development – the Tulsa-Sapulpa Union Railway line which was initiated in 1917 as an interurban system. In front of the old depot was a restored trolley car and caboose with figures of passenger inside.

Sapulpa’s downtown district was quite healthy with numerous tall buildings and old hotels still in existence.

Heading west out of Sapulpa on Route 66 no more than four miles we hit a stretch of 66 which was part of the initial road surface which had originally been part of the Ozark Trail with the Rock Creek Bridge being built in 1925 the year before the road was commissioned as US Route 66.

On to the west on this same stretch of 66 we encountered a old outdoor theater which had not been in use for several years. This theater reminded me of the one that had been used as a prop in the movie entitled, “The Last Picture Show”.

At the other end of this same stretch of 66 just east of Kellyville we had to cross under an old railroad bridge.

Leading into Kellyville, reminded me of a beautiful fall winding road which could have been leading to Grandma and Grandpa’s house at Thanksgiving. In Kellyville, we discovered a building which had portions of two boats projecting out of both the deck and the building walls.

West of Kelleyville we found ourselves traveling alone on an original road surface parallel to a somewhat newer alignment of 66.

Just east of Bristow we found a short section of original 66 with this quaint embankment.

Alice and I enjoyed a late breakfast at Bristow’s Stake and Egg Restaurant at which we had eaten breakfast on our way to the 2011 SDC International Convention in Springfield, MO. Stopped by the Bristow Motor Co. (Ford Dealership) building on Main Street. This building was built during the second decade of the 20th Century and was used to assemble portions of early Model T’s when they arrived to be sold.

Ten miles on east of Bristow on Route 66 is a ’25-’28 loop through the town of Depew, pop. 800. It’s downtown if nearly completely empty, but it has nice active churches and a public school. They should be proud that many of their brick bldgs are still standing even without roofs.

Nine miles east on historic Route 66 from Depew we entered Stroud, OK. Stroud is a medium size town with a vibrant business sector. Here we found the 1939 Rock Café which has wonderful food. It had burned on May 20, 1908 and has be rebuilt to its former glory. Here we encountered 40 motorcyclest from “Down Under” – Australia. They all had their deep British accents and were in love with the Golden Hawk. They were touring west and we would see them again at Seaba’s Station in Warwick, OK.

West of Stroud about 11 miles along Route 66 is the town of Davenport with a less than thriving downtown business section with many building missing, but not as desolate as Depew.

West of Davenport is the much larger and prosperous town of Chandler with a population of probably 8,000. Here we found an English car group also traveling west and a Ford Mustang club touring eastward on Route 66. The Mother Road appears to be coming back alive due to its historical significance during the dust bowl and depression days of the 1930’s and to its favor with young GI families after WWII - the “Greatest Generation”.

From Chandler we traveled on west to Warwick where we visited the famous Seaba Station (motorcycle) Museum. It was now 2:00 in the afternoon, so we decided to leave Route 66 and turn south for home. Going home we took a southeastern diagonal path thru Shawnee, Ada, Atoka to Hugo before turning due south to Paris, Cooper and Commerce. We made it to Commerce by 8:00 pm. In retrospect, I must say that the ’57 Golden Hawk preformed perfectly without even a bobble garnering attention and praise at every turn and stop. In conclusion, I have determined that Studebakers must have been made for driving