Route 66 - Cars on the Route! (Day 3 - Part 1 - Joplin to Catoosa)

Late last summer, Alan and I spent 22 nights on the road in a dedicated effort to travel Historic Route 66 from start to finish, Chicago to Santa Monica.  Eight states, three time zones and 2,448 miles.  Come along with us as we continue to “get our kicks on Route 66.”

Ending Day 2 of our Route 66 adventure in Joplin, Missouri, meant that we were only five miles from the Kansas border when the sun rose the next morning.   Although Route 66 traverses eight states and covers almost 2,500 miles, only 13.2 of those miles are in Kansas, cutting across the very southeastern corner of the state.  Kansas was the only state that was completely bypassed when Interstate 44 replaced Route 66 in the 1960’s.  That doesn’t stop Kansas from celebrating the historic route, though – far from it.  A round of applause for the Kansans who keep Route 66 not just alive, but thriving.

Galena, Kansas – named for the ore that was mined here – quickly became a boom town when lead sulfite was discovered in the area in 1876.  By the 1970’s, mining had dropped off, and the Eagle Picher plant – once one of the largest smelters in the United States – declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005 when toxic levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and zinc were discovered in the local soil and surface water.  At the turn of the century, 30,000 people were living in Galena.  Now, there are fewer than 3,000.

Are there any fans of the Pixar movie Cars out there?  Galena, Kansas, was the inspiration for the movie’s fictional town of Radiator Springs.   “Cars on the Route,” a historic service station on North Main Street, originally operated as a Kan-O-Tex gas station.  Now, the owners sell snacks and souvenirs, but outside you can still see the old red and yellow Kan-O-Tex gas pumps and several restored vehicles – including a replica painted to look like “Tow Mater” from the Cars movie.  Allegedly, due to trademark reasons, the old truck in Galena is called “Tow Tater,” but if you zoom in on the photo below, you can still read “Tow Mater” on the driver side door.  (Shhh. Don’t tell anyone!)

DAY 1 Scavenger Hunt Highlights:

Galena, KS

Cars on the Route - Galena, KS

The original Kan-O-Tex gas pumps

Tow Mater/Tater smiling in the middle

Brush Creek Bridge - between Riverton and Baxter Springs, KS

Also known as the Rainbow Bridge

On Historic Route 66

The Brush Creek Bridge is in beautiful condition.

Baxter Springs Independent Oil & Gas Service Station - Baxter Springs, KS

Dairy King - Commerce, OK

Dairy King - ice cream with a side of history

Conoco Hole in the Wall - Commerce, OK

Ethyl - 18 3/10 cents per gallon

Regular gas - 17 9/10 cents per gallon

Mickey Mantle's Boyhood Home - Commerce, OK

Commemorative statue of "The Commerce Comet" - Commerce, OK

Waylan's Ku Ku Burger - Miami, OK

The Coleman Theatre - Miami, OK

The Hogue House - Chelsea, OK

The beloved Blue Whale of Catoosa - Catoosa, OK

Random Comments, Observations and Bits of Info

On Route 66 between Riverton and Baxter Springs, Kansas, you can find the Rainbow Bridge over Brush Creek.  This bridge is the only remaining “Marsh Arch” bridge left on Historic Route 66 in Kansas.  It’s named after its designer, James Barney Marsh, and is built in his signature style featuring two arched ribs that look rather like the top half of a wagon wheel.  The bridge appears to be in excellent condition, and is yet another example of the eclectic nature of attractions along the route.  Seriously, people, if you can’t find something to pique your interest on Route 66, you must be dead.

The Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station is an example of “cottage style” gas stations that became popular after the Great Depression.  The pitched roofs, window shutters and brick siding were designed to remind travelers of the comforts of home.  This station in Baxter Springs was restored to its former glory with a grant from the National Parks Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.  It now serves as Baxter Springs’ Route 66 Visitor Center.

For a small town of fewer than 2,300 people, Commerce, Oklahoma, surprised us with three very cool stops.  The first was literally “cool;” the next two were figuratively cool.  The Dairy King on North Main Street was once a Marathon Service Station in its former life – two attractions for the price of one!  Now they sell burgers and, of course, ice cream AND Route 66-shaped cookies.  It was closed when we cruised through town, but you can bet we would have stopped for ice cream had it been open.

The second cool stop in Commerce – and, perhaps, the most adorable stop of the trip – was the tiny “Allen’s Fillin’ Station” known as the “Conoco Hole in the Wall” – a brick, cottage-style Conoco gas station built into a brick wall.  SO cute!  My understanding is that it was later reincarnated as a beauty salon, but I was happy to see that it had been restored to its original look.  If we had room in the truck, I would have taken it home with me.

If I told you that we entered Commerce on Mickey Mantle Boulevard, would that give you a hint as to what the last cool stop was?  As a kid, I collected baseball cards.  I remember how that stick of gum inside the packs of Topps made the cards inside smell so yummy.  But, I digress.  By high school, I was a serious baseball fan, and I’ve loved the game ever since.  There’s nothing better than listening to a veteran announcer calling a baseball game on the radio.  You may not be at the game, but you’ll see it, hear it and feel it as if you were.  SO much better than the television announcers who chat among themselves while you watch the play on the screen.  Sigh.  I digress yet again.  Back to Mickey.  Baseball great Mickey Mantle grew up in Commerce, Oklahoma, and graduated from Commerce High School in 1949.  If you exert some effort, you can find his childhood home on South Quincy Street in Commerce.  And if you’re really determined, you can figure out how to circle the entire school baseball field to find his commemorative statue.  These two pieces of Mantle history were not among the easiest to locate on our Route 66 adventure, but we were happy that we stuck with the search and, eventually, emerged victorious.  (And this, my friends, is why you can spend weeks on your Route 66 trip.)

Waylan’s Ku Ku Burger in Miami was built in 1965, and is the last remaining location of the Midwestern chain that used to have over 200 restaurants.  The cooked to order burgers are still popular today, and the huge neon sign out front is a classic.  Some say that the building itself resembles a cuckoo clock.

The Coleman Theatre, also in Miami, was built just before the Great Depression hit, and was considered the most elaborate entertainment venue between Dallas and Kansas City at the time.  It’s one of the best surviving examples of a Spanish Colonial Revival building in the state.  I’m no expert on architecture, but I will say that the theatre is very impressive!

By now, I’m sure you’ve figured out that I really, really, really liked the Moon Route 66 Road Trip travel guide.  That book was truly the Bible of our trip.  We did find two errors in it, though.  One was the location of the Hogue House – a lovely little house built from a kit.  The book indicates the house is in Vinita, but it’s actually in Chelsea – about 18 miles away.  The Hogue House is one of the first Sears kit homes to be built west of the Mississippi River, and it’s rumored to be the very first kit house in Oklahoma.  Sears pre-fabricated house kits contained all the materials needed to build the house, and the Hogue House is an example of the “Sears Saratoga.”  That’s such a neat little piece of unique history, and we never would have known about it except for that guide book.  After trying several times to find the address on Olive Street in Vinita (where there was no Olive Street), I searched for the Hogue House online.  That’s when Google informed us that it was in Chelsea, not Vinita, and about 30 minutes later we had snapped a photo and checked it off on the scavenger hunt.  I still haven't remembered what the second error was.

The Blue Whale of Catoosa was another return visit, much like the Wagon Wheel Motel in Missouri.  We had stopped here on a prior cross-country trip, but it’s such an iconic Route 66 attraction that Alan and I decided we wanted to include it on our “official” Route 66 adventure.  The whale was created in 1972 by Hugh S. Davis, who gifted it to his wife as an anniversary present.  Zelta Davis collected whale figurines, and I’d have to bet that the Blue Whale was largest in her collection.  I’m thinking that she probably didn’t own any others made of pipes, concrete, rocks and sand that sat at the edge of a pond.  Just sayin’.  We didn’t stay long, but it was heartwarming to see that the Blue Whale was still in fairly good condition and still a memorable Route 66 roadside attraction.

We were well into the afternoon when we pulled into Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The population of Tulsa is over 400,000 people – and that’s just within the city limits.  Since Tulsa contained a plethora of Route 66 attractions that we wanted to find, we ended up driving back and forth across the city several times.  By the time we were done in Tulsa, we were done with Tulsa.  This is a perfect place to pause in our Day 3 travels.  In the next post, we’ll finish up with Day 3.  Join us as we determinedly seek out every Tulsa attraction on our scavenger hunt.