Fill your gas tank on your Harley-Davidson with fuel, rev your engine, and get ready to see the various Route 66 roadside attractions and iconic landmarks located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, below.
Golden Driller
Location: 21st St. and Pittsburgh Ave. Tulsa County Fairgrounds.
The first Golden Driller was built for the 1953 International Petroleum Exposition as a symbol for the "Oil Capital of the World". It was such a success that it was used again in 1959.
Its owner and sponsor, the Mid-Continent Supply, donated it to the Tulsa County Fairgrounds Trust Authority and built the current and permanent version for the 1966 Expo.
It is 76 ft. (23 m) tall and designed to withstand winds of up to 200 mph. It contains 2.5 miles of steel rods and mesh and is covered in concrete. Its hand rests on a real oil derrick.
It is said to be the largest free-standing statue in the world and weighs 43,500 lb.
Cyrus Avery Centennial Place and Gateway
Location: Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza. Southwest Blvd. and Riverside Dr.
East Meets West Sculpture
The bronze sculpture 20 feet tall by 40 feet shows the Avery family in a 1926 Ford encountering an oil-cart. It is the work of Robert Summers and was dedicated in 2012.
Route 66 Gateway
Next to the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza and the 11th St. Bridge, the gateway welcomes visitors traveling along Old Route 66 as they enter or leave Tulsa.
Cities Service Station #8
Location: 1648 Southwest Boulevard, Tulsa, OK
Cities Services Station #8 is a typical "oblong box" style gas station that was in vogue between the 1930s and 50s. The two-bay garage was added to the original 1926 station in 1940, and then, the old office was demolished and replaced with the new office in the 50s, using large glass windows and the green trim that identified the Cities Service Co. brand.
Route 66 Historical Village
Location: 3770 Southwest Blvd, Tulsa, OK
The Route 66 Historical Village is an open-air museum with some large artifacts. See the restored Frisco 4500 Steam Engine, a passenger car, a caboose, and oil derrick that is 194 feet high.
Route 66 Western Gateway Arch
Location: 4249 Southwest Blvd, Tulsa, OK across from parking lot of Crystal City Shopping Center
The Route 66 Western Gateway Arch is an artistic arch celebrating Route 66 and Tulsa, with a Route 66 shield on its tip and the word "Tulsa," it is a symbolic arch, built-in two pieces, one on each side of the highway.
Meadow Gold District
Meadow Gold Neon Sign
Location: 1300 Block of 11th and Quaker Street, Tulsa, OK
The Meadow Gold brand of milk and ice cream once belonged to Beatrice Food Company and was popular in the mid-western market in the years after World War II.
A sign with the brand name loomed over the intersection of Lewis Ave. and 11th. From the mid-1940s until 2004, when the building where it was mounted was sold and demolished.
The new owner of the lot gifted the sign and its supporting structure to the city of Tulsa. It was dismantled and structurally restored to retain its vintage look.
It was set up again to greet visitors entering the city as it did in the past a few blocks to the west.
Buck Atom Cosmic Curious
Location: 1347 E. 11th St., Tulsa, OK
This old gas station has been refurbished and is now a shop selling Route 66 memorabilia.
The store owner, Mary Beth Babcock, conceived Buck Atom, the Cosmic Cowboy when she operated a downtown boutique (2006 - 2016), and she made him something real: a modern-day muffler man.
The brand new statue is 21 feet tall (6.4 m) and is the work of Joel Baker (he owns American Giants, a company that restores Muffler Men) and artists Mark Cline and Chris Wollard. They worked together to create the statue.
Tulsa Monument Company Building
Location: 1735 E. 11th St., Tulsa, OK
Built-in 1936, the Tulsa Monument Company Building is a good example of Art Deco style architecture. It has a symmetrical facade, a rectilinear geometry with its triple banded pillar caps (known as the "3-Bar Modern" style), and the gray trim contrasting with the white plaster concrete. It was designed by Harry Mahler to look like a monument (hence its name).
Boston Avenue Methodist Church
Location: 1301 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa, OK
The Boston Avenue Methodist Church was hailed as the country's first church designed in a strictly American style of architecture. Strikingly handsome when completed in 1929, it remains a remarkably effective blending of traditional church design and modern "skyscraper" techniques.
Blue Dome Service Station
Location: E 2nd and S. Elgin Ave., Tulsa, OK
The Blue Dome Service Station dates back to 1924 and was known as the White Star Gulf Oil Station, and it was open 24 ⁄ 7, and the gas station attendant lived inside the dome.
Cain's Ballroom
Location: 423 N. Main, Tulsa, OK
The "Cain's" features a ballroom that measures 79 feet by 90 feet. The highlight of the ballroom is the historic, spring-loaded, curly maple dance floor that is laid in a "log cabin" or concentric square pattern. The historic, painted, white, drop ceiling is ornamented with painted red diamonds. Lighting the dance floor is a four foot, blue and red neon star which was likely added circa 1950 when other changes were made including the addition of photographs of noted musical artists that line the walls. These photographs include Bob Wills, Johnnie Lee Wills, Ernest Tubb, Ted Williams, Kay Starr and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
The "Cain's" was known for its association with Bob Wills, who was known as the "King of Western Swing." Wills made a significant contribution to American music from the 1930s through the 1960s. He has been inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame (1968) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999).
Route 66 Rising Sculpture
Location: Cyrus Avery Traffic Circle
This is a gigantic sculpture, 70 feet wide and 30 feet high. it cost $655,000.
It was designed by Eric F. Garcia from Albuquerque, NM.
Blue Whale of Catoosa
Location: 2680 OK-66, Catoosa, OK
The Blue Whale was built by Hugh S. Davis and is the most famous landmark along Route 66 in Catoosa. His property had a pond where, after his retirement, he decided to build a "fish". The fish became a whale, and it was a big one too.
He made an iron framework for the body, 80 ft. long and 20 ft. tall and covered it with cement. The making of the whale took two years and was completed in July 1972. People would come and swim in the pond and slide off the whale's tail.
The Blue Whale closed in 1988, and Davis passed away in 1990. It is now owned by Dee Dee (Davis) Belt and her husband and was refurbished in 1997 by the Catoosa Chamber of Commerce.
Praying Hands
Location: 7777 South Lewis, Tulsa, OK
Tulsa is known as the "buckle of the Bible Belt" and is the site of Oral Roberts University and the university's Prayer Tower.
At the entrance to campus is the statue of the "praying hands", which is 60 feet (18 m) tall and the largest bronze sculpture in the world, it was cast in Mexico in 1980.