A Very OK Podcast
Episode 56: “Historic Architecture on Route 66”
March 17, 2026
Episode Transcript
(upbeat music playing)
Trait Thompson: Hello, and welcome to A Very OK Podcast. My name is Trait Thompson. I’m the executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society. and here with me, as always, is Dr. Bob Blackburn. Bob, it’s great to see you again. It’s March in Oklahoma, and we are off to the races having a little severe weather already here in Oklahoma.
Dr. Bob Blackburn: Yeah, but I’ll take a little severe weather after the beautiful winter we’ve had. If you don’t like snow and ice, this has been a great winter. We have had very little of either. Of course, we haven’t had a moisture. We need that. But I just love the spring in Oklahoma, and I love watching the clouds. I don’t know if anyone was around this last Monday night, but that big storm that grew to about 50,000 feet, you could just see the hail going up into the outer, you know, the stratosphere, and then coming back down the size of golf balls. But it’s a fascinating time to be in Oklahoma.
Thompson: Absolutely. Redbud. The redbud trees are blooming right now, and they are starting, Yes, the allergies are going crazy, and it is spring in Oklahoma. We’re talking about the 100th anniversary of Route 66 this year, and so all of our podcast episodes are centered somewhere around Route 66 and that, this year of 2026. And I’m excited about one thing, and this is a personal story of mine that’s related to my family and my recently passed father-in-law, and he passed away. His name was David McCord, and he passed away last September. And just a wonderful man. It was an unexpected passing. And so, we’re all very sad to have missed him. And, but one thing that he had was a couple of years ago, he bought a 1967 Pontiac GTO car because that was one of the, that was a car he had when he was in high school. And, my sister-in-law, Amy McCord, was wondering what she was going to do with the car and thought about selling it for a while, and then decided to keep it. And right about that time, we had our transition in leadership out at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. And I suggested to Amy, why don’t we look at putting that car on loan out to the museum? If you been to that museum, you know it’s got that big glass window out in front, and they usually have a car or a truck or some sort of classic vehicle that’s sitting in that window. And we were between vehicles, and I said, why don’t we put that car out there as a tribute to your dad? And we did that. It’s sitting out there now, and it’s beautiful, black ‘67 GTO, looks great out there. But that was really, really important for us to do that. And on the on the exhibit panel, it says that it’s on loan from Amy McCord in memory of her father, David McCord, and so I’d love for people to go out there and check out that car next time that they’re out in Clinton and go see that museum.
Blackburn: And I’ve got to do that because that brings back some personal memories. I was born in 1951, so in 1967, I was 16 and wanting my first car. Well, I wanted a GTO or a SS396 or a T-Bird or something like that. My dad, former highway patrolman, knew better than to put a 16-year-old in an engine with a body around it, and so the day he called me, okay, Bobby, I’m bringing you your your new car, or not a new car, but car. I said, oh dad, I can’t wait. He got there, I went outside all enthusiastic. It was a Volkswagen Bug. (laughing)
Blackburn: But dad was a lot smarter than I was. In retrospect, I think back to it, but those ‘67 cars are just beautiful pieces of machinery, and the horsepower was there. Of course, leaded gas, you can’t get now very easily, but it was a certain time period. I later got a ‘69 Impala, Chevelle. A very similar body style, but it was not like getting an SS396 or a GTO, And that was part of car culture at the time. That was part of what you heard on the radio, cars, surfing girls, you know, the whole thing. And, that’ll bring back a lot of memories for a lot of people.
Thompson: Yeah, they’re beautiful cars. The lines on there, and they look like a great muscle car, a great sports car. And so we know that my father-in-law, David, would be very, very happy and excited that that car is on display out there. And of course, this year there will be thousands and thousands of people from all over the world coming through that museum and seeing that car. So we’re excited about that.
I want to bring our guests into the conversation now. This week we are going to be talking about historic architecture on Route 66. And I could think of no better people to join our discussion than a couple of people who are very, very important in our State Historic Preservation Office. To my right, I have Lynda Ozan. She is the deputy SHPO, for the state of Oklahoma. Technically, I’m the SHPO, but I have to tell you, Lynda knows everything, and I just do what she tells me to do. And with us also is Michael Mayes, who is the National Register of Historic Places coordinator for the state of Oklahoma in our SHPO office. And it’s great to have you guys with us today.
Lynda Ozan: Thank you for having us.
Michael Mayes: Thanks for having us.
Thompson: Well, Lynda, you have a classic car, don’t you? replace with:
Ozan: I do, I have a 1955 T-Bird, and it is in the process, hopefully next week, of coming back to our house. Had the engine rebuilt, had the transmission worked on, and we’re ready to roll up and down Route 66.
Blackburn: Take out a new mortgage on your house to pay for that? (laughing) replace with:
Ozan: No, but yes, but it gets to sit in the garage, and nothing else does.
Thompson: And we were just talking with Michael. In addition to your great work that you do here at the agency for the National Register of Historic Places, you are a musician, and you play Irish music. And in the upcoming Saint Patrick’s Day festivities, you are going to be doing some playing, right? replace with:
Mayes: Yeah, doing lots of playing, most of all of Tuesday, from noon to about 9 o’clock. I’ll be playing music from Oklahoma City up to Edmond. I also have a classic vehicle, a 2014 Ford F-150 that I’ve dubbed White Lightning. (laughing)
Thompson: Well, and I’ll join the, I’ll join the parade too, just in the fact that I have my dad’s 1996 Chevy Silverado pickup, which is 30 years old this year. And it is, I think, technically considered a classic now. Although it is classically draining my wallet on all the repairs that I’ve had to do to it lately. But it is fun to drive, and it does remind me that that was my dream pickup when I was in high school was those 1996 Z71s. Yes. Boy, I wanted those bad.
Blackburn: Now the downside of you guys having pickups though is that your friends know that, and they want you to help haul stuff. So that’s the downside of pickup.
Thompson: That’s true. And I was a pickup driver for a long time. And when I was in college, I owned a pickup, and I got called on to move a lot. Thankfully, as you know, we’ve progressed a little bit in our incomes over the years. Now most of us have money to hire movers, and we have bad backs now, so I don’t help anybody move any more if I know they have the wherewithal to hire young, strong people.
Blackburn: Just write a check and hire a pickup.
Thompson: Exactly.
Blackburn: And White Lightning, that sounds like you were a bootlegger at one time, Michael. Do you ever have another story to tell here?
Mayes: None that I would tell. I do have some skeletons in the closet on my paternal side.
Blackburn: I resemble that as well. (laughing)
Thompson: Well, I would like to start out by talking about the importance of historic preservation. And I don’t think many of our listeners may know or understand the work that the SHPO office does and what you all do for the state of Oklahoma. And so, Lynda, could you just kick us off? Tell us a little bit about your role. Tell us a little bit about, you know, the Historic Preservation Fund, why SHPO was formed, and how that manifests itself today.
Ozan: So fortunately, in around 1966, the federal government started to recognize how important historic preservation was across the country. Things were, we were quickly losing important historic resources in New York City, in Washington, DC, in the major metropolitan areas, and they crafted a law that stated that we would focus on historic preservation and protect these important resources. And out of this law came our office, and the obligations that we have under that law include the National Register of Historic Places, federal tax credits, Certified Local Governments, architectural survey work, as well as Section 106, which is the federal review, or review of all federally funded, licensed, and permitted actions across the state. So we’re actively involved on a daily basis with historic buildings and archaeological sites across the state.
Thompson: Bob, we were losing a lot of our historic resources. I know we’ve talked a little bit before on this podcast about urban renewal and how much of our original historic buildings and structures like bridges and things like that we were losing. Why was it important for the federal government to step in here?
Blackburn: Well, it was kind of a traumatic experience across the country because all of a sudden, you get massive change. In any urban environment, you get natural evolution, where the last generation of buildings may no longer serve the needs of the community. So they tear one down, build something bigger, taller, more modern or whatever. Well, that started breaking down in the 1930s in the Great Depression. So from the 1930s through the 1960s, you have downtowns across the country frozen in place, with developers building out on the suburbs, cheaper land, where they couldn’t afford to buy an old building that’s 30 stories tall, tear it down, rebuild. So go out to the suburbs. Well, that created a problem in our downtown areas, and then the federal government recognized that in the late 1950s, Senator Robert S. Kerr from Oklahoma would have been very important in that legislation, passed the Historic Preservation Act finally.
Excuse me, I’m getting ahead of myself, created what we now call urban renewal, is a euphemism for that. But these block grants to the states coming out of the federal budget, which was very healthy at the time, an expanding economy. We were the world leaders in economic development, manufacturing, and everything else. So there’s money there to give to the states, to then, and cities, and other granting institutions, to buy the older buildings, tear them down, redevelopment. So it’s a subsidy to create new. Well, because it happened all at once, and in cities like Oklahoma City and even Tulsa to a degree, not quite like Oklahoma City, but a lot of cities, aggressive urban leaders started getting these block grants and tearing everything down at once. And it was such a dramatic trauma for people who’d grown up seeing a certain skyline, knowing these old historic buildings are part of our shared memory, of these landmarks that made us who we are. Suddenly they’re gone, and it was this emotional reaction that led by 1966 to passing this law. Well, we need to understand what is important and not that we have to save everything. That’s a misnomer. Everyone thinks, oh, well, you have to save everything. You can’t. There’s no way. But what’s important, what can be saved. What can you do with adaptive reuse of historic properties, and how can we keep the federal government from tearing down those that might have a place in our society today and should be preserved?
So that’s where it really started coming at that emotional reaction, urban renewal, and then the program has grown. And what I like best about the Preservation Office, and I was SHPO for a couple of decades, is that it’s a collecting mechanism. It’s a place that we can collect information about places, archaeological as well as the physical, that we see on the side of the road. And so, and it could be a landscape, it could be a building, it could be open space, it could be whatever. But we’re documenting these important places in Oklahoma. We’ve been doing that in Oklahoma. We got a little late start, but at least by the early ‘70s, we kind of jumped on the bandwagon. Kent Ruth and a few others were doing nominations to the register, and people were gathering this information. And today we have this this deep repository of information about buildings. In little bit, Lynda and Michael can explain how people can have access to that. It’s all online. So if someone wants to know what are the historic buildings in Weatherford, Oklahoma? Go right to Custer County, go to Weatherford, find out. It’s a great repository for collecting all this material. Then Lynda and Michael and her staff use that data and share it with the Archeological Survey in Norman. What is important and how will this federal undertaking impact these resources? Most times I say, hey, it’s going to have to come down, and we’re going to change it, but here’s mitigation, here’s what we can do to limit the impact on the environment.
Thompson: Right. Michael, tell us a little bit about the National Register of Historic Places and maybe about the process. Why would someone want to get one of their structures into the National Register of Historic Places?
Mayes: There can be a few reasons. One would be tax credit, so developers can take advantage of a 20% from state, 20% federal, to rehab an old building as opposed to demolishing it. So, and Lynda’s a lot more keen on the tax credit aspect than I am. But that is one, it’s kind of an incentive to keep these old buildings around for these developers instead of just going in and putting up a new metal fabricated Dollar General store, we can keep this old building. It’s environmentally friendly, and it’s also providing incentive for these developers to keep our buildings. Anything you wanted to add?
Ozan: I would say tax credits is definitely a huge component of that. The other part of it is just institutional, communal memory, and people want to save their family history. They want to save their community history, and memorializing it in a National Register nomination, which is kept in perpetuity. All that documentation goes to the National Archives. That is a great way to preserve that memory, that history, and so it’s kind of the opposite sides of the coin there. One is a financial incentive, and one is just kind of a memory issue. And so we want to keep that alive too.
Thompson: And I’ll say too, what I like about the National Register of Historic Places is that it shines a spotlight on a particular structure, and I think that it makes people think twice before they may want to do something to that structure that would have an adverse effect, because it is recognized both at the state and federal level as being something historic and being something important. And, Michael, you might mention, what are the categories that something has to fit to be able to be recognized as a historic structure?
Mayes: It can fall under architecture. It can be an archaeological site. It can be, something we just recently had nominated is the Melvin Tolson House in Langston. It’s an older building. It was nominated for literature. So there’s a very wide aspect of certain criteria that a structure, building, a site can meet. Education is another one, different ethnic heritage. The criteria for architecture is usually kind of the main one that developers take advantage of. Is there anything...
Blackburn: Associations with famous people?
Mayes: Yes.
Thompson: So and I think it’s also important to note, the building doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t have to be in good condition. It doesn’t have to be architecturally superior in any way. There are many reasons for a building to be listed inside the National Register.
Blackburn: Trait, if I mention one thing, I cut my teeth in historic preservation while I was still working on a PhD in the 1970s, in the early days of preservation. And over the years, the Preservation Office has sponsored surveys using federal funds, finding partners to put up what is a 40% match, Lynda?
Ozan: Yes.
Blackburn: And I was at OSU at the time when the chairman of the department was real aggressive, trying to get money to come in for graduate students, and the professors would take their hours on a project as a 40% match, get the cash, hire us graduate students to go survey. We did surveys on military properties. We did it on grain elevators, Route 66 by the 1980s. Melvena Heisch jumped on top of that very early and says, we need to get on top of this Route 66. This is coming along at some point, but we’ve done all these surveys on thematics and topics. And so we have this database, so if someone was doing a history about rural life in Oklahoma and how grain elevators are part of the economic cycle of planting and preserving and marketing. Well, that data is there, and how different communities built—the size, the materials and how were they used. All that information there on Route 66. So it’s all part of this repository of information.
Thompson: I want to say to I’ve written one nomination, and I don’t know that I ever want to do it again because it’s difficult. Not only do you have to know the history of the structure, and this is like writing a college term paper, is you can’t make up stuff. Everything has to be cited. You have to have all your research in order, but you also have to write a very detailed architectural description of the property that you are putting into the register. And that was certainly not my my area of expertise. And so I’m thankful, Sara Werneke, God bless her, when she worked here at SHPO, she helped me out so much in that regard. But there’s a reason that there’s a whole group of consultants that help with these projects to get these properties into the register, because it’s a very difficult thing to do. It is not, you know, sit down at your keyboard in a weekend and bang one of these things out.
Ozan: No, it definitely is time consuming. I think the whole premise is that in that architectural description, I remember when you had a challenge with that, that in theory you can take that written word and be able to kind of reconstruct that building. So you’re doing it not just in written word, you’re doing it visually with photographs. So there’s so many components to a National Register nomination. I think people don’t realize.
Blackburn: I was supporting myself in graduate school doing nominations for fee, and I’ll never forget, in 1978, I got a call from a developer in Oklahoma City who had developed, redeveloped a couple of historic buildings, and he had his eye on some old industrial buildings on the east side of Oklahoma City. Neal Horton was his name, and Neal contacted me. And he said he wanted to put at least 10 of the buildings on the National Register. At that time, I think it was at 10% tax credit. It could have been 20, but something. No state tax credit at the time. But he said, Bob, how much would you charge to get 10 buildings on the National Register? You know, I’ve always undervalued time. And I said $500. So I did ten National Register nominations, but I felt rich. I had 500 bucks, and when before I had 20, and so it was a good deal for me. It was a good deal for, even though Neal went bankrupt, that Bricktown survived long enough for MAPS to catch up with it, and a little combination of private and public investment.
Thompson: Boy, they saw you coming.
Blackburn: They did. They said yes very quickly. I do remember.
Thompson: Well, I want to jump into our buildings and structures we want to talk about today, because we are talking about the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and so we’ve picked out some structures to talk about first. Obviously we can’t cover all of the historic structures all along Route 66 because there are many, many of them. What I’ve been hoping to do today is that we can pick out some that have, they’re different. They’re different uses. We may have service stations and bridges or jails and things like that. So it gives you a good sense of the flavor of these great structures that are out on Route 66. Almost all of them that we’ll talk about today are in the National Register of Historic Places, and so you can go and visit them today. They’re out there as you’re doing your own Route 66 road trips. So we want to highlight a few to talk about.
And I thought we’d just start out with one of them that is a beautiful building in Miami, Oklahoma, and that’s the Coleman Theater. The Coleman Theater was, the idea came from George Coleman Sr., who was a mining magnate in the Miami area. He was into lead and zinc mining. In fact, he founded companies that provided a lot of the lead and zinc necessary for the World War I effort, and he made a lot of money doing that, and he wanted to bring modern conveniences to Miami, Oklahoma, and so one of the things that he did, he said, we need a great theater. We need to bring the best people and performers to Miami. I want to bring the best movies. And so he conceived this idea of the Coleman Theater beautiful that would be built. It was completed in 1929. It has Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. And everything in there was of the highest class, very opulent, beautiful carved wood. Just the wonderful chandeliers. It had a, mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ that was installed in 1928. I’m sorry, installed in 1929, that sold for $35,000 that is actually still in the theater today. It is still an operating theater. And it was built for $600,000, which was a massive sum of money, in this time, right before the Great Depression started. So what are your thoughts about the Miami, the Coleman Theater?
Ozan: I think that’s one of the things that Michael and I talked about the other day was the time in which it was built. Right? I mean, you’re talking 1929, right before the Depression hits. And what kind of impact did that have after the Depression struck up in Miami?
Blackburn: And right as the talkies were coming in. So there were still silent movies, but there was a combination of live theater as well as school performances, and it’s still serving that function today in town. The high school uses that movie theater for their performances and graduation ceremonies, and it’s a good example of how a National Register property fits into the life of the community. What you were saying, Lynda, in this shared memory, the sense of community, the Coleman is one of the best examples of how that leadership and that community have pulled that in with the college and the downtown Main Street. The connecting theme of Route 66, and it’s working for Miami.
Ozan: Absolutely, and it’s a beautiful piece of architecture. I mean, Trait touched on that. You just don’t see them like that across the Oklahoma landscape much anymore. I mean, and it’s a pretty rare resource. And the fact that again, it’s still in use, all those historic features of the interior are still there. You can still see it, you can still hear it, you can still experience this building.
Thompson: It’s got a bell tower on it. And it’s one of the best examples of this Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in a commercial building. You see it in residential from time to time, but not very often in commercial. Maybe, does the Paseo have that kind of architecture?
Ozan: It does have that kind of architecture, but not to quite that scale.
Thompson: Right? Yeah. Not as grand as the Coleman Theater in Miami.
Blackburn: Trait, I’ve got a little personal anecdote as well, is that back when the legislature was still doing projects, you know, that’s a polite way of saying money directed towards a local community. There was a very strong senator and representative from up there that wanted help, and it was a good year or two in the legislature. And so they provided money, in fact, two years in a row. So I was involved with writing contracts to restore the chandelier that’s up there. It is, it was in pieces. They had me have to look at it, and the chandelier was in the basement. It was in probably 5,000 pieces. It’s an amazing cut-glass chandelier, and they said they want it restored. I said, okay, so we brought it, it was a historic piece, preservation, fit our mission of preserving history, and so they did it. And then the next year, we had money for that Wurlitzer that you mentioned.
So I got invited to the first silent movie shown on the stage, on the old screen with someone playing the Wurlitzer for the soundtrack, and there were probably 1,000 people there for this event. I think half of Miami came out for that performance, but that was a good experience that I, there were owners of a drug store right next door who were taking the lead in that. There were a few community leaders. I wish I could remember their names now. That’s been 40 years. But I really admired the people in Miami and what they were trying to do with that building. A lot of communities would have found other uses or not care that much, would not have had the fundraisers. But the city of Miami really embraced it and made sure it was preserved.
Thompson: Yeah. The Coleman family turn it over to the city in 1989, and there really wasn’t all that much money available to restore that building. It had fallen into a bit of disrepair, but the local community, as you said, really stepped up. They brought out lots of local volunteers to help with the restoration effort. They raised money. School kids even collected cans to fund the restoration of the stained glass light covers in the auditorium. That shows you the level of involvement from the community here, and today, it’s a thriving theater. They’re still doing programs there. They’re still having concerts. They are still showing movies there. And I encourage everyone listening, go take a look at that theater, because as you walk in, you don’t see that anymore. You don’t see that level of opulence. Nobody builds like that anymore. And it will take your breath away.
Blackburn: And they have scheduled tours there. But if someone is going, make sure you check the website to make sure you hit it when they’re giving a tour. Otherwise, the door will be locked. And they can make special appointments if it’s a group, but they try to accommodate the visiting public as much as they can.
Thompson: So the first movie that was shown there when the theater opened was called The Dummy, and it opened on April 18, 1929. So this is just a few months before the stock market crash, and 1,600 people came to this event. Any guesses on how much money each ticket cost to get in? A dollar. It cost a dollar to get in.
Blackburn: Oh, that’ll be like a $20 now.
Thompson: So a dollar to go see The Dummy, but a great theater. I certainly recommend going to see that. Let’s talk now, let’s go a little bit of a different direction. Let’s talk bridges on Route 66. How does that sound? So everybody up for a little bridge talk? Sounds fun, right? There are two bridges that I’ve selected for us to look at in this conversation. And one of them is the 11th Street Bridge in Tulsa, and the other is the Bridgeport Bridge near Bridgeport or Hydro out in that area of western Oklahoma. But the 11th Street Bridge is a really, really important bridge. And in our first episode this season, we talked about Cyrus Avery, and we talked about his role in the creation of Route 66. But going back into the 19 teens, Cyrus Avery was a county commissioner, and he was very, very passionate about the building of roads, and he was instrumental in helping the 11th Street Bridge to get built. And, you know, Bob, if we know anything about the Arkansas River in Tulsa is that it’s a finicky river. It likes to flood. It likes to change course a little bit. It’s a very wide river, and so there were many bridges before that that had been wiped out, washed out, and to connect Tulsa to west Tulsa and on to the rest of the state, we had to have a good bridge.
Blackburn: Well, and the critical thing that County Commissioner Avery was trying to accomplish was how you connect the merchants of Tulsa with the oil patch just across the river, 14 miles to the southwest. The Glen Pool had come in in 1905. It was the first giant oil field in Oklahoma history. So how do you connect those merchants, those bankers, the labor force to get across the river, to get to the oil patch. And so it’s very important. And it was functional, and it was for economic development. They thought it was a good investment, which really predates Route 66.
Thompson: Yeah. And Lynda, I spoke to a group from Tulsa at the State Capitol earlier this week, and I told them that one of the reasons that you have Route 66 running through that community is because of that bridge, because if that bridge hadn’t been there to span that river, Route 66 may have been routed somewhere else.
Ozan: That’s right. And I think that’s one of the things that we don’t think about when we talk about transportation in general. We don’t think about how important the bridges are. Right? You’re not going to get commerce from one side of our state to the other without having solid bridges. And so this bridge in particular, in Tulsa, played such an important role in transportation just in general. And the design doesn’t hurt either, because it’s a very pretty bridge to look at.
Thompson: Yeah. Michael, I was going to mention it to you and see what your thoughts are, because, you know, today’s bridges are functional. They’re utilitarian. This is a beautiful bridge to look at.
Mayes: Yeah. That was Lynda’s to talk about.
Ozan: Yeah.
Thompson: Yeah, I am sorry. I called on Michael. I was supposed to call on Lynda there. See, folks? We wing this all the time here.
Ozan: Well bridges tend to be my thing in our division. I think one thing to keep in mind. This bridge is closed, right? They closed it down. They build a new bridge. Like you said, they’re constantly having to adapt to the environment, changes in transportation patterns, materials. Right? Making sure that the materials can last and withstand the transportation that crosses it. And so they build a new bridge, and they leave this bridge in place because it is a beautiful bridge. And this goes back to, what does our office do? What’s our role in preservation? And so when they went to close this bridge down, one of the things that we told them they had to do was make it so that people could still enjoy the historic bridge. And so part of that new construction involved a viewing platform, so that when you’re on one of the bike trails there along the river, you can stop off to the side, go on to this viewing platform, and still be able to see this bridge. And that was a result of a federal undertaking coming into our office for review to make sure that people could still be able to stop and enjoy this bridge.
Blackburn: And I was SHPO at the time that that happened, and I still have a couple of scars on the back where a few folks at ODOT were not real happy with us. But I can give a shout out to Tim Gatz, who was working with us on historic preservation projects. TEA-21 of ISTEA projects. Tim understood and was an advocate, and he is now director of ODOT and is a real advocate for Route 66, as we all know now. But, yeah, there were some unhappy people at the time that they had to spend that extra money. I think it was a TIGER grant.
Ozan: It was.
Blackburn: Yes, there was an economic crisis where the federal government said, hey, whoever’s got a ready to bid project, you’re going to get the money. Well, they had the ready built, or the construction documents for that bridge. So it got the TIGER grant, and we were slowing it out, but it all was done. Mitigation, negotiation. That’s what it’s all about, right? Preservation. We’re never going to say it can’t be done, but how should it be done is what we try to get that do. And Lynda did a good job on that project.
Thompson: Yeah a little bit. Just to give you a sense of the scale of this bridge. It is 1,470 feet long. It had a 34-feet-wide roadbed, which was expanded later. It had pedestrian walkways on either side. Those pedestrian walkways were narrowed to expand the bridge. But of course, as we know, modern traffic comes along, and those old bridges, they just become very, very difficult for these large trucks and vehicles that we have nowadays. When you compare the size of a Model T to a modern F-150 pickup truck, I mean, we have wider vehicles now. There’s no getting around it. Interestingly enough, 10,000 yards of concrete, over 500 tons of reinforcement materials in this bridge, and it was completed in 1916. And it became a major factor in the routing of Route 66 coming through Tulsa, Oklahoma, because the Arkansas River goes up into Kansas, it goes down into Arkansas, and you have to find a good place to cross that river. And it was pretty much the only good place to cross, right?
Blackburn: One other part of this mitigation effort, with the Preservation Act and limitations on spending federal resources, is that bridges have to be repaved. We understand that health and safety comes first. We have to have safe bridges where people aren’t going to die. And, you know, we’re not going to argue with that. But fortunately, over the years, we’ve been able to mitigate some of the loss by saying, well, if that bridge has to come out, let’s move it. You find one in Chelsea, Oklahoma. That’s an original 1926 single-span truss bridge that still has wooden planking on it. It’s not on Route 66 anymore. It has moved so they could build a new one, and that was replaced within five years that it going in. But yet the little community of Chelsea treasures that. There’s a marker there. People can get off the old Route 66 right there at Chelsea, go in to right off the main drag and see that little bridge. And here in Oklahoma City, when they had to replace a multiple-truss bridge over the North Canadian, they saved it. The Oklahoma City Parks Department put it out right off of current Route 66. And as you’re driving out toward Yukon and El Reno, it’s just there on the south side, and you can, you can get off, get on a side road, and drive across the old bridge. I gave the dedication speech the day that the City of Oklahoma City dedicated that. You still see these old bridges, even though they been replaced around Oklahoma.
Thompson: Absolutely. And with that, let’s take a quick break.
Announcer: Celebrate spring with the Oklahoma Historical Society. Fort Gibson Historic Site will have its annual Spring Bake Day on Saturday, April 19, from 12:30 to 3:30. Staff will bring the bakehouse to life by making bread, just like they did in the 1800s. The first loaves will come out of the oven around 12:30 p.m., and the last batches around 3:30. Fresh loaves are available for a donation. Hunter’s Home in Park Hill will have “Spring on the Farm” on Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stop by and see firsthand how farms would prepare for the changing seasons in the 1800s. Hunter’s Home is a living history farm with animals, crops, and more. Learn more about these events and more at okhistory.org/events.
Thompson: And we’re back. Let’s talk about the Bridgeport Bridge to continue our bridge conversation. And, Lynda, is this still in your category here?
Ozan: It is still in my category.
Thompson: Okay, fantastic. Well, this is a pretty fascinating bridge because this is a completely different; this is a pony truss bridge, different structural style, different materials. And tell us a little bit about this one.
Ozan: I think one of the things, again, I’m an architectural historian by training. So I look at architecture, I look at engineering through time, and people prescribe certain types of bridges and different types of environments. And the general public doesn’t understand what you mean by a truss. They don’t understand what you mean by a through truss. They don’t understand pony truss. I wanted to take a minute to explain that.
Thompson: Thank you, I appreciate that.
Ozan: So the easiest way to think about that is a pony truss is, you know, it has the top cords that you can drive through, but a through truss has a beam that goes over your head. So you think about it as you’re driving through the bridge. That’s how I always try to explain it to students is, you know, a through truss is when you actually drive through. A pony truss is when you drive over, and so out here we get this very long bridge that is the longest bridge in Oklahoma. At the time, it was the longest bridge on Route 66, and it’s 38 of these pony trusses put together with camel trusses, and it’s very distinctive in its design. A camel truss, for those who don’t know, think of what a camel looks like, and it’s going to have these humps that go across. So there’s 38 of these, and it’s a really impressive bridge historically.
Thompson: Yeah. The bridge in Tulsa was about 1,400 feet long. This one was 3,994 feet in length, 25 feet wide, and made up of 38 100-foot steel truss spans all the way across. And the riverbed that we’re crossing here is about a mile wide. It is a massive river that we’re crossing. Now, if you cross that river today, you’ll see some meandering water here and there. But the bed itself of the river is wide, and that river can flow pretty heavily if we get good rains here in Oklahoma. There’s some interesting history with this bridge, because it did take a while for this to open, even though it was authorized in the early 1930s, it took until 1934 for it to open. And in my research about this bridge, I found a poem in the June 14, 1934, edition of the Oklahoma City Times that wrote about the delay. And I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist. I have to read this poem because this is, you don’t see this in the newspapers anymore. And it says “The Bridgeport Bridge will open/About June 29/At least the folk are hopin’ /Along that cheerful line./A proper celebration/Is planned just for that date. /And better transportation/Is welcome, soon or late. /But how many sovereign voters/Have heard that line before. /But still have steered their motors /O’er highways men deplore. /‘Twas early in November /That Joe O’Brien said. By March, as some remember. /That bridge would tires tread. But one who chose to travel /The route in early May/ Detoured on sorry gravel /Along the ancient way.” (laughing)
Thompson: I love journalism in the ‘20s and ‘30s. It’s fantastic.
Blackburn: Trait, one little embedded part of that poem is about what the local people thought, and this was the time when rivers and creeks were still an impediment to travel. County commissioners were in charge of building bridges across waterways, but they might be miles and miles away. If you’re a farmer, and you’re picking your cotton crop, and you’ve got to get it to the gin before the rains or the market goes down, a few miles would make a difference. And so there could be a gin on one side of the river and the farmer on the other side, and he’s having to travel 30 miles just to get across that river. Today we don’t think about that, because we have so many crossings over rivers, but in the ’19s and ‘20s, really before dams controlled it, in the springtime, that river bed might have been full of water.
Thompson: Yeah.
Blackburn: Oklahoma City, downtown Oklahoma City flooded as late as 1923 from the North Canadian that looks like a trickle on the west side of town before it gets to the dams downtown. And it was a real impediment to travel and safety.
Thompson: Well, and I should mention the bridge is notorious, because it is actually named for William F. Murray, “Alfalfa Bill” Murray, who was governor in the early 1930s in Oklahoma, but it was also featured in the movie The Grapes of Wrath as well. And so you can see that in the John Ford 1940 movie, which, spoiler alert, we’ll we’ll be talking about The Grapes of Wrath as part of our next episode. So, you can tune in and learn more about that. Let’s get into, I know this is a subject that Michael has studied quite a bit. Let’s talk about jails.
Blackburn: All right. Jail.
Thompson: Michael, this is in your wheelhouse, right? Let’s talk about jails. I’ve got two jails on our list I want to cover. And once again, two very different architectural structures. One is the Canadian County jail, which is a beautiful Italian Renaissance jail in Canadian County. and then the second one is the one-room jail in Texola, far on the western side of the state. You can spit across the state line from Texola. And, Michael, what are your what are your thoughts on these jails?
Mayes: Well, they’re completely different. One was designed by Solomon Layton, and the other one obviously was not. (laughter) So the Canadian County jail is listed, it was built in 1906. So it is listed for its architectural significance as an Italian Renaissance Revival. It’s also nominated under politics and government. It was built by A. C. Kreipke, and it’s the only Solomon Layton building left in the town of El Reno. On the opposite end of that, you have the Texola jail, which is just a single, small one-room jail in the town of Texola, and in that same vein, it is almost one of the last remaining buildings in Texola. We do have a service station listed on the National Register. But the last time I was through there, it’s in terrible disrepair. The garage has been demolished. The awning out front has fallen down, so it’s not going to be around much longer. The interesting thing I found when I was researching this part, a lot of the information on these small jails is held, you know, at the local significance. When you have a town like Texola where there’s not even a local government anymore, those resources are in danger of disappearing. It’s really hard to find any information on these. It’s interesting, though, that this little jail in Texola has the same concrete block design as the service station that’s listed. So we can kind of narrow down from that. We know that the service station was built in 1925, so just surmising from there, we can kind of get a good glimpse of when this little jail was built, both of them right along Route 66. I think those two structures, and maybe one other building, are the only thing that’s left in the town of Texola right now.
Thompson: So, yeah, I was through Texola last year as I was on my way to Albuquerque. And you’re right, nothing much left there in that town, and that service station there is in very much in disrepair. And I think you’re right, it won’t be with us for very much longer. But in doing my research on the one-room jail, I couldn’t find anything about who may have built it. I couldn’t even really find a hard and fast date on, you know, when it would have been built. If you do stop in Texola, you can walk inside the jail. I can just picture what it might have been like if you had to spend a night in there in, let’s just say December, in a cold, concrete stone building that is, really. I’m 6’2”. If I had laid down in that thing, I don’t know that my feet would fit inside. It is very, very small. And there is a marker outside of it, to the class of 1938, in Texola. I don’t know why they chose to put it in front of the jail, but maybe there was some, maybe a some a few bad people there that they just felt like the jail was the best place there.
Mayes: Yeah a lot of these are now, you know, photo ops for these small towns. I mean, it’s all that’s left. And so back then in the ‘30s, I imagine the pranksters, you know, would visit the jail quite a lot. We nominated one in Covington, and in the ‘40s, the senior class pulled the prank on the city of Covington by building a second story onto the jail. So a lot of fun for the small town kids. And that one in Texola actually is pretty accommodating because it had a heater in it.
Thompson: Oh, well, luxury. Luxury. I will say this, and this is some interesting facts about the town of Texola. It’s actually been surveyed eight different times because they never could quite be sure. Is it in Texas, or is it in Oklahoma? And they finally determined that it is in Oklahoma, but just barely. The economy was really agricultural through, you know, the early 1900s and into the 1930s. By 1930, the population got to up to 580 people. But after that, it just steadily went down. And of course, towns like Texola, Bob, as the interstates come in, and they get bypassed, whatever small amount of commerce was left just totally dried up.
Blackburn: Yeah, and Trait, that was one of the introductory remarks I meant to make and didn’t, is that one reason that Route 66 is such a pleasant drive for people, and people worship Michael Wallace’s book, The Mother Road just celebrates this whole thing. One of the reasons is that Route 66 did not bypass, as it went through towns typically. So you’re only going through Miami, you’re going through town, and you go through Bristow, you’re going through town, you’re going to Chandler. And so the experience of driving Route 66 then was that you would actually go through these towns. So we have so many buildings associated with both the local economy and growth and with Route 66 and that combination. And so that has made it.
And then two, you get the entire industry of service-related buildings being built because of cars, more people driving cars. That means more people need gasoline, they need tires, they need service stations. And so you get an entire generation of new buildings that many of which are still with us today. And then tourism, with the popular culture sites along the route, is that this is the golden age of tourism on the open road, because now there’s an open road to drive on rather than going on dirt roads, muddy roads, sand roads from town to town. Now you can get on these interstate roads like Route 66, and it promotes tourism as a way to make a living as you’re going through these little towns. And so you get the Blue Whale, and you get the totem pole village, and you get things that are unusual. So you get this pop culture along with the road culture from service stations and car culture and going through the towns. That made it a rich experience. So today, people have to pretty much get off the interstate and go through these towns to really see what, you know, five decades of traveling Route 66 was like.
Thompson: I want to go back to the Canadian County jail real fast and just talk about that, because if you ever stopped there, it does not look like a jail at all. It really looks like a nice house in a nice neighborhood, the way that it was designed by Solomon Layton. And I should note that Solomon Layton came to Oklahoma in 1902, and the first place that he set up shop is in El Reno. And of course, if you don’t know Solomon Layton, which at some point we’re going to have to do a whole episode about Solomon Layton. He is one of most of Oklahoma’s most prominent and prolific architects for, you know, early 1900s, all the way through the 1940s. Over 40 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places were designed by Solomon Layton, and he designs this jail. And at the time, prisoners of the county were being held in the Canadian County Courthouse. In an article in the El Reno Democrat, it said that “three and four people contained in one little cage that was never intended for but two makes it quite unhealthy.” That was an article in 1893. So this jail is authorized in 1905. They began building it in 1906, and it’s completed in 1907 for a cost of $18,000. It was a modern facility with steam heat, bath and toilet rooms, steel cages, a separate female ward, a spacious office for the sheriff, and a jail-proof retiring room for attorneys with their clients, which was very modern for those days. And get this, Lynda, this jail was in use for 73 years, the longest, longer than any other jail in the state.
Ozan: It was, and I can tell you, not that I’m saying ours is any better than this podcast, but the SHPO has a Lunch and Learn program that we have on our own YouTube channel. And the current people who are working to preserve this facility did a Lunch and Learn for us. So if you want to learn some more about it, it’s still available on the SHPO website.
Thompson: Yes, and I’m glad you mention that because the group is called Preservation El Reno. And they were, this jail was in terrible condition. The roof was falling in, and the county was looking at tearing it down. A few years ago, this group, once again Bob, talking about that, those local people who are passionate about their own history, they got together and they said, we want to try to help save this. They raise money. They applied for grants. I’m happy to report that as of the news articles that I read, that the roof has been replaced now. That building has been stabilized. According to a April 2025 post on their Facebook page, they replaced the disintegrating front doors and repainted the window trim to match the original 1907 paint. So you’ve got a local group there who’s working really, really hard to save a unique structure in not only in El Reno, but in the entire state.
Blackburn: One other use of that courthouse, which would have been typical of almost every courthouse in the state during prohibition, which was 1907 to 1959. Typically, if a highway patrolman or deputy sheriff or city cop confiscated bootleggers on the road, you could always see their car was riding low. They’d get it. Well, it might be ten cases of booze in the trunk. They’d take it to the courthouse as evidence. Well, the thought was, why do you need ten cases of evidence to convict one little bootlegger? So all the lawmen was split up all the booze and take it home. So that was another part of our Oklahoma culture.
Thompson: That’s fantastic. Man, I love our state. (laughing)
Thompson: Well, Bob, you mentioned it a few minutes ago when you talked about car culture and you talked about the road, and it’s hard to get out on the road without gasoline, and what some of the most important structures that we have are gas stations across the state. And once again, I want to contrast a couple of them that people can find out there on the road. And one of them is near and dear to our hearts because, Lynda, I know you and your team have worked quite hard on it, and that is the Threatt Filling Station near Luther, Oklahoma.
Ozan: This podcast isn’t long enough for me to talk about the Threatt Filling Station, but yes, we have a great deal of experience with the family and in this particular service station. And one of the things, again, I’m going to I’m gonna step back a minute and talk about the evolution of these service stations, alright? I think they’re the best example of the evolution of commerce along Route 66, because we have basically five types of stations that develop along the route. So you’ve got basically the curbside station, the early station that you pulled up to to get your gas. Then you get kind of the shed or house, cottage style that develops. Then you move into the houses with canopies or houses with service bays, and then eventually you get to this oblong shape of a service station, and they are service stations. So they provide not just gas, they provide service to the cars. You can buy your windshield wipers. You can do all these things. And the beauty back then was that of course they came out, did all of it for you. You paid them, and you drove away. Now you have to do it all yourself. But we’ve kind of come full circle. And now we’re back to, you know, the basic gas station where you can get some food, and you drive away, and you go to the dealership for service. So Route 66 is kind of this iconic time capsule of commerce. And it’s certainly in the in the filling station industry. But then when you get to the Threatt Filling Station in particular, this is a segregated gas station. This is the only place left in the state of Oklahoma that represents where minorities could stop and get service.
Thompson: Yeah.
Ozan: And so it becomes so important from that aspect. We have a family who built the service station, who still owns the property, owns almost 180 acres right there. And so they are tied to that piece of history in that acreage. And then you also look at how it’s constructed, and it’s very distinctive in its construction pattern. It’s what people call giraffe architecture or Ozark architecture. So it’s made out of sandstone that in this case is quarried right there on site. The family, during the Depression opened their quarry, and that’s how they made additional funds was to quarry and provide sandstone to people. So you’ve got the sandstone architecture with really wide mortar joints. In their case, it’s painted black. Most times it was painted white, hence the name giraffe architecture. Done by a lot of itinerant construction people, itinerant being people who traveled around the country just looking for work to build buildings. But it’s very common in our region to see this type of architecture. And so this one place really categorizes so much Oklahoma history, so much Route 66 history, that you can’t get anywhere else.
Thompson: And this gas station was built in 1915, predating Route 66. It’s when it was Highway 7 that was running through here. And as you mentioned, this was a haven for Black and minority travelers. They knew that they could stop there. Not only could they stop there and get gas and get some food, but they could camp out in the back if they needed to. Later on, it became a place where they hosted baseball games. People could play sports back there. There was a restaurant there. So this really did become kind of out in the middle of nowhere, a haven for people.
Blackburn: And too, this is near some majority Black populations. It’s near Luther, Oklahoma, is the location of this. If someone’s interested in seeing it. Get on old Route 66. It’ll be, is it just west or east or Luther?
Ozan: It’s right at County Line Road.
Blackburn: County Line Road. And, but there was a lot of African American settlement during the land run period. There’s Arcadia, Luther. Both have some roots in all Black communities, although they were never 100% but largely African American communities. And, so there was this served a local community as well as those passing through on the highways.
Thompson: And as far as we know, and and I don’t know that we have any hard and fast data on this, but as far as we know, it’s the only Black-owned business in that original historic Route 66 timeframe. And I’m willing to be corrected if that’s not the case, but it was unique in that regard, and they weren’t in The Green Book. They were so well known, they didn’t need to be in The Green Book.
Ozan: Yeah, yeah. And that is, I think, the bigger part of it. When we talk about it being so much more, it was a Red Cross facility. So you could go there for medical aid. It was a bus stop, and everybody knew the Threatts.
Blackburn: A grocery store.
Ozan: Yeah. I mean, it was just all these things for them. And what was amazing when they first contacted me about the property was to get go out there and see it as it was, because they basically had boarded it up and left it alone. And so I got to go in there and I got to see the cash register where it was supposed to be, and all their ledger books of sales. And you can go flip through those ledger books, and it’s amazing the names that you see and how much they paid for things. And it was really this time capsule of what a filling station was.
Thompson: Lynda, I know you’ve developed a very good relationship with the Threatt family. And how has that helped get that service station back? Now they’re, much of it has been restored. They are using it as an interpretive center. But how has that partnership with SHPO helped them?
Ozan: I have access to the Park Service. I mean, again, our funding comes through the National Park Service, and so we’ve been able to connect them to people in the Park Service who can help them with grant funds. We’ve been able to help them connect to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And then we, you know, we just serve as a repository for them. When they have construction questions, they come to us. It’s a very, kind of, wonderful preservation story and wonderful relationship for our staff.
Blackburn: It’s a public-private partnership in the truest sense.
Thompson: And I should say, the Threatts are wonderful people. And what they have done, taking once again in this, just taking ownership of this and wanting to make this a place of education and where people can stop and really learn about the history of it. They’ve done such a wonderful job there.
Ozan: They have. And I think, I’d come back to it again. I could talk for hours on their property. But one of the things about Route 66, right, is that it was kind of kitschy in the things that people did to bring people start, you know, economy into their businesses. They had a rattlesnake pit right out front, so you can come out and see the rattlesnakes of Oklahoma. Right? And Ed told me one time in the summer that a car hit that pit, and all the rattlesnakes came out, and you never saw the moms descend and pull up those kids into the house that fast. And it’s like, so there’s a lot of, like, really interesting, fascinating stories that happened out there. But I think that’s really synonymous of of all the buildings, right, who are trying to draw in tourism, draw in the dollars, they all had this niche that they were trying to fill, and that’s how they were doing it.
Thompson: Well, let’s contrast that with the City Service Station in Afton, Oklahoma. This one was built in the Mission Revival style in 1933. Texture was stucco, had a flat roof. I believe there were living quarters on the second floor there. And one of the interesting things about this service station is on each side of it, there was separate men’s and women’s bathrooms, and I think this was a relatively new development as well.
Ozan: Absolutely. This is, again, if you’re going to go back to how we phrase or term these things, this is one of those house with canopy facilities. So it’s got a canopy out front that you would have pulled your car under, and that’s where you would have received your service. And then yes, you have these separate facilities for men and women, kind of that first time where they’re offering that as an option. Right? And so, yeah, it makes it kind of a really interesting gas station.
Blackburn: Another one that fits that category, one of my favorites, where I hate to admit it, how old I was when I first bought beer there, but Lucille’s. I went to college in Weatherford for four years, and Lucille was still alive at the time, and it was a little, she lived there up above, and it was a canopy in front, and it has been restored and is really good shape. And there’s kind of a reproduction knockoff Lucille’s Cafe in town that serves really good food if you’re out that way. But every time I drive to Weatherford, I’m working on a museum there, the Heartland Museum, which has an original diner from 1947 still intact with all the original furnishings. But I look over at Lucille’s, and there’s always somebody pulled off taking their photograph in front of that station.
Thompson: Now they’ve got a vintage pickup out front, so it makes the photo op even better out there for that. And I want to conclude with something, because you can’t talk about Route 66 without talking about the kitschy part of Route 66. And I want to talk about Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park in Foyil, Oklahoma. Now, this isn’t right on Route 66. It’s four miles east of Route 66 on Highway 28A, and I have to say, I had never been out there. I had meetings in Claremore a couple of weeks ago and had some time. So I drove about the 20 minutes that it takes to get out there, and this place is wild, out in just the middle of nowhere in the countryside, rising above the tree line, are these concrete totem poles of many different colors and with lots of different art relief pictures on them that were carved by Mr. Galloway. And this was a passion project. This was something, he was a folk artist. He dug up the sand for the concrete on his own property. He used the largest totem pole, he used in outcropping of sandstone to carve into a turtle and then built the giant concrete totem pole on top of it. I mean, it’s a wild place, and I’m just happy that a place like this exists out there in the world. Bob, have you been out there before?
Blackburn: Oh, many times. We were involved with the restoration of it, the Kansas Folklife Arts Association or something of that name, came in and repainted a lot of those about 20 years ago, and we were involved with that and the Rogers County Historical Society, John Kerry and David Anderson and that group of community leaders up in Rogers County embraced it, purchased it, and have been in the middle of the restoration and interpreting in the Fiddle House is an amazing building itself. I’ve talked to them about maybe trying to maybe put a little visitor center to the side so you can restore it back to the way it was, but it’s still a wonderful visit. And, you know, I’m in danger here of making some people aggravated. But if I could recommend one site associated with Route 66 in the 1930s in Oklahoma, it’s the totem poles. I think it is that unusual, and among folklife aficionados across the country, they know about this one site in Oklahoma. It is that unique and that spectacular.
Thompson: Lynda, you know, kitschness is part of Route 66. What role did places like this play for the route?
Ozan: I think they play an important part because again, it was about how to draw people into the state, how to build tourism, how to build commerce, and places like this, at that time, were places that they knew people would come. Right. So it again, it’s about kitschy. It’s not just Totem Pole, it’s the Gold Dome, it’s the Milk Bottle. We’ve got quite a few of them in Oklahoma and they draw people in. And that’s what it was about. In this case, I mean, beyond what Bob talked about in restoration, now they have somebody on staff who’s been working since 2021 to do a lot of like paint analysis through time and do the restoration in a, in a very methodical, specific way. And it just it really does draw people in. And I think it is that that folklife aspect of it, this is kind of handmade. The heart of this man is in this property. And so it just has this draw.
Thompson: Yet. The largest totem pole is 70 feet tall. It is 51 feet in circumference and has over 200 images of different Native Americans and Native American–type objects. It was 28 tons of cement, six tons of steel, 100 tons of sand and rock that made up that one totem pole. Now there are others all along the, along the property. In fact, in doing my research for this, one of my favorite stories that I saw was he made a totem pole that looked like a tree because his wife had said, only God can make a tree. So he decided to make a tree that’s 14 feet tall, eight feet wide, when you take the branches into consideration, and it’s decorated with the heads of Plains Indians and seven owls on the tree itself. The Fiddle House that you talked about, Bob, was built in 1944, and it is built to resemble, it’s an 11-sided Navajo hogan. And, I didn’t get to go in when I was there because it’s still closed for the season. It’s going to open up in April. But as you peek in the windows, you can still see he built, musical instruments as well. And there are still all these old wooden fiddles hanging up in there. And that building also serves as the gift shop.
The totality of the park was built between 1937 and 1961, and this was largely a, I know he did have help from time to time, but this is largely a one-man effort out here doing this. And I just have to believe that his wife, one day he was bored and said, you need to find a hobby. And boy, did he find a hobby, because for the rest of his life he was out there building totem poles.
Ozan: And I will say, you know, we list works of art on the National Register of Historic Places. And, and when we explain it through time, we’ve always said, you know, work is an art is in the eye of the beholder, right? I’m not one to define what’s art. Michael isn’t going to define what’s art if you tell us it’s art. Okay. But boy, if there’s a site that resembles art and its significance and why it should be on the National Register, this is it.
Blackburn: And Trait, there is a lost piece of, concrete art that’s been lost. And this, gosh, this goes back 50 years. But in Roger Mills County, there was an eccentric German homesteader who built erotic art around his home. And the local ladies, after he passed, went out and destroyed most of it. And so it is now, no longer with us, but, Roger Harris, who used to work for us, did a program one time on the erotic art of Roger Mills County, but it’s no longer there. But Totem Pole is. So you still go see the Totem Pole.
Thompson: There we go. So we’re not missing out completely out there. And, you know, just down the road, it’s another incredibly massive piece of concrete art, and that’s the Blue Whale.
Ozan: Absolutely. Yeah. Again, it’s not one that’s listed on the National Register, but it definitely fits that kitschy category and it drew people in. And we’ve talked about it many times. But we should really get this thing lost on the National Register. Clearly it’s an important aspect of Route 66. So it’s one that we should definitely pursue.
Thompson: Yeah. Maybe one we should work on. As we’re getting ready to wrap up here, Michael, are there any buildings we didn’t talk about or any structures that you think we should mention before we, start to start to end this thing?
Mayes: Well, I finalized a nomination in Miami for Waylan’s Ku-Ku Burger.
Thompson: Okay. Yeah. Tell us about that. We haven’t talked about restaurants.
Mayes: Yep. So I love food.
Ozan: It’s well known.
Mayes: And the worst part of working on this nomination was not salivating at my desk thinking about all the burgers, but, the Ku-Ku Burger was actually a chain that came out of Kansas City in the ’60s, and they soon started to go out of fashion. But the very last one that’s left is the one in Miami, and it’s still operational. Eugene Waylan took over the company in ’73, and it’s, Googie architecture, which the best way for me to describe that would be if you can remember the cartoon The Jetsons.
Thompson: Okay.
Mayes: The long, sweeping arches, it originated out in California. So it was the big drive-ins back then. And you can still see today the Ku-Ku Burger has not changed. He’s added a drive-thru window. But this Googie architecture, while we’re talking about drawing people in, this is along Route 66. This, was one of Miami’s main drive-ins back then, and it’s still around today. I’ve heard he’s retiring this year and shutting it down.
Ozan: So if you want a burger, you better go get it. But what? They did something really peculiar, right? With the cuckoo clock.
Mayes: Yeah. So the cuckoo clock was their main thing, and I, I come across several articles, where they had a contest once a month where the winner would receive a cuckoo clock. And I always wondered if there were any still around when we had pictures, Burgundy up with the Miami THPO helped us out with pictures, and she did some inside photos. And sure enough, there was one picture that had the cuckoo clock on the wall.
Thompson: And one of the great things about that restaurant, too, that beautiful neon sign out front that just draws you in and is so photogenic.
Mayes: Yeah. And that he, it originally just said Ku-Ku Burger five cent, and he added Waylan’s to it, when he took over in ’73.
Thompson: So. Very nice. (BLACBURN) You know, too, I wanted to add one last concluding remark is that we often talk about Route 66 as if it is encased in glass and in the past. Route 66 is still very much alive. Things are still happening. You look at Pops there near Arcadia, designed by Rand Elliott, to me, one of the most iconic structures on the entire route. Now, it is incredible architecture. It’s almost inspiring. You know, how does that work? You know, the red boot that Cameron Eagle is designing for the Cowboy Hall of Fame right there on Route 66, northeast Oklahoma City. The, the church studio in Tulsa. People are using the energy of Route 66, not just as something in the past, present day, to drive the economy, to build new things, to be creative, to draw the community together, to generate shared memories. It is still going on. Route 66 is part of who we are, and I think always will be. It’s not just in the past, it’s here now, and in the future.
Thompson: Well, that’s exactly right. And I would say that the best days of Route 66 are not behind it. It’s in the future. And the state of Oklahoma has invested a ton of money into different projects across the state through their grant program to make sure that, A, we can preserve the past, which is so important, but also that we can, as you mentioned, Bob, we can build new things that continue to inspire us, that continue to, elevate our lives and to make things better. And, there’s a great travel stop going in at Hydro where they took an old Route 66 bridge that had been discarded. And now they’re making a beautiful travel stop area out there. So lots of great things that are happening out on the route. And we’ve only scratched the surface of these historic structures that are out there. And so, friends and neighbors, get in your car, go out for a road trip, the weather’s getting better by the day, and go explore some of these places. You won’t be sorry that you did it. Okay, well, Lynda and Michael, thank you so much for being our guests today.
Ozan: Thank you.
Mayes: Thanks for having us.
Thompson: We enjoyed having you on. And, Bob, I’ll see you next time.
Blackburn: All right. Thanks, Trait.
Thompson: You’ve been listening to A Very OK Podcast, hosted by Trait Thompson and Dr. Bob Blackburn. The podcast is produced by the Oklahoma Historical Society. Visit us at okhistory.org and find us on social media by searching for @okhistory. I encourage you to purchase a membership to OHS to help us continue our mission to collect, preserve, and share Oklahoma’s unique and fascinating history.
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