Route 66 is almost 100 years old. Here's how Oklahoma towns along the road are promoting themselves

ARCADIA — Communities along Route 66 between Tulsa and Oklahoma City tend to fade into the scenery.

But one entrepreneur who operates a business along the scenic stretch between those major cities wants to help promote those small towns as the 100th anniversary of the road's opening approaches.

Eddy Gochenour, owner of the Chicken Shack just down the road from Arcadia's Round Barn, wants to make travelers aware of memorable experiences that can be found within communities up and down the Mother Road.

The idea to create the MidPoint Corridor Route 66 Association came to Gochenour after he visited Sapulpa to attend a meeting of Oklahoma's larger Route 66 Association.

While there, he checked out the Gasoline Alley Classics, a automobile- and Route 66-related memorabilia shop in downtown Sapulpa, then checked out the rest of that community's downtown before heading west.

On his way back to the Chicken Shack, he made it a point to check out the business districts of every town between there and the parking lot of his business, which he had opened outside of Luther in 2016 and relocated to Arcadia in 2022.

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Sure, the 82 miles of highway itself was interesting, but Gochenour also realized business districts of those towns held interest, too.

Between 1926 and 1953 when the Turner Turnpike opened, those towns formed the backbone of the main travel corridor between Tulsa and Oklahoma City used both by Oklahomans and by others traveling between Chicago and Los Angeles.

"As I drove through all of those communities, I realized they are just 10 to 15 miles apart, and back in the day when you didn't have all the suburban stuff we now, you would just hit a town, then the next town and then the next town as you went on your way. So, that part is pretty cool. But could we connect them up?"

Christmas 'easy get' to begin process

Gochenour believed he could, and reached out to representatives of Sapulpa, Kellyville, Bristow, Depew, Stroud, Davenport, Chandler, Wellston, Luther, Arcadia and Edmond to enlist their help by joining the organization, which he formally announced in May.

As a first effort, he convinced community representatives to stage their annual holiday activities this year across parts of the months of November and December, thinking opportunities to partake in fresh activities might keep people traveling the highway interested in seeing its sites along the way.

Sapulpa got things rolling on Nov. 16 when it held its Christmas Chute celebration, shutting down its main street and historic Route 66 to offer folks and their children chances to enjoy a candy land, a ginger bread display, cookies, pictures with Santa, an activities gazebo, food trucks and more.

Kellyville, Stroud and a couple of other communities kicked off their holiday celebrations within days of that, followed nearly a week later with Bristow and its Cowboy Christmas and Davenport with its Small Town Christmas.

Similar types of events could be staged up and down MidPoint communities as many as four times or more a year, keeping them relevant as tourism destinations over that time, Gochenour believes.

Why MidPoint? Because Wellston is the midway point of Route 66's path across Oklahoma, he explained.

Corporate backers already are lining up to help.

"What's our next thing? I don't know yet, but my goal is to have four or five events a year whether it be bike rallies or car clubs, or whatever it might be. There is a lot of different things we could do if we are all connected. My thing is, let's take the main street of Route 66 and make it the main street" of everywhere between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Gochenour said.

"As we gain momentum, I believe it will give everyone a common purpose and bring everyone together, and I like that. Small communities can still do it, you know what I mean?"

Route 66 works as a linear community inside of Oklahoma, association president says

Rhys Martin, president of Oklahoma's Route 66 Association, said the Mother Road has always functioned as a linear community where its towns have been connected by the highway.

That said, Martin also said Gochenour's efforts could elevate the communities' exposure.

"Towns don't really need to compete for folks to come visit because they are coming anyway — they just are following the road," Martin said. "And to see all these towns come together, really buy in to that idea and work together on something like this is so heartening, because Route 66 is not a competition.

"What Sapulpa does helps Kellyville, and what Kellyville does helps Bristow, and so on and so forth. And to see towns like Depew, which was bypassed in the 1920s, be able to take part in something that these larger towns are able to take part in just makes my heart very happy," Martin said.

The timing of Gochenour's plans are fortunate because Route 66 will celebrate its 100th anniversary the same year the United States hosts multiple World Cup matches across North America, including stadiums as close as Kansas City and Dallas.

Those, combined with other Olympic-related events happening about the same time and the fact the nation turns 250 years old that year, means the road could get extra attention.

"There will be a lot of international travelers crossing the state," Gochenour said. "And it doesn't end in 2026. If I do my job right and MidPoint prospers, that will carry us into the next 100 years."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Towns along Route 66 getting new promotion ahead of 100th birthday