Route 66 Museum

By Cheryl Eichar Jett Photographs by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66

Once upon a time, Route 66 traffic was heavy through all the long, dusty length of

Oklahoma. Next to a small farm near Clinton that edged right up to the road’s pavement, U.S. Highway 66 traffic hurried by a family’s front yard, where a little girl and her sister sat in their swings, wondering where all those cars were going. That memory never left the little girl, whose name was

Pat — short for Patricia — and although she moved off that farm, she never strayed very far from the Mother Road’s path — and its story — through Custer County, Oklahoma.

Years later, all those cars had moved over onto the newly opened I-40, where they moved even faster, and Pat, with a college degree in business and a husband named Virgil Smith, was working in an office job for the State of Oklahoma.

Pat, always interested in history and never forgetting her childhood memories of the intrigue of Route 66 flowing through her native state, heard of an opening at the Western

Trails Museum in Clinton. She applied and was hired in 1989, and although it hasn’t been known as the Western

Trails Museum since 1995, Pat is still there, doing what she loves — carefully tending to the history of Route 66 — arguably one of the most important trails to ever wind its way through Oklahoma.

Known as the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum since its grand opening in 1995, the former Western Trails Museum pulls in thousands of visitors a year to see and hear the Mother

Road’s romantic story through elaborate, interactive exhibits along a Route 66 “highway” that curves throughout the museum’s 10,000-square-foot building. And Pat Smith is still there, greeting guests and keeping things running smoothly.

The story of this neon-kissed museum is a textbook lesson in success, but it begins with the museum’s predecessor.

The Western Trails Museum

The Oklahoma Territory was crisscrossed with trails — Indian traces, military roads, settlers’ and pioneers’ wagon tracks, and the paths of the great cattle drives, such as the Great Western Trail and the famed Chisholm Trail, regarded at the time as a near-wonder of the western world. Transportation, no matter the conveyance, has always been of great importance throughout what became the State of Oklahoma in 1907. And in the small city of Clinton, which grew from a railroad junction just south of the town site to a village first named Washita Junction, the city fathers recognized the importance of transportation, from the horse and buggy bouncing along a dirt path to a shiny finned automobile flying by on Route 66.

And so, in 1968, the Western Trails Museum was opened and operated by the Oklahoma Industrial Trust and Recreation Department (which later became the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation) to tell the story of all who traversed the area. A brand-new building was constructed just for that purpose at 2229 West Gary Boulevard — on Route 66 — with close to 10,000 square feet of space in which to display artifacts reminiscent of the state’s various modes of travel.

The new museum enjoyed a significant grand opening, coinciding with a huge event in Clinton — the 76th anniversary of the 1892 Oklahoma Land Run, which had introduced white settlement onto former Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian reservation land. On the weekend of April 19-20, 1968, a big parade, two days of rodeo, Indian dances, and near-constant programs from the reviewing stand brought an estimated 20,000 attendees into town. The edifice continued to operate, with support from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism, until it closed in 1993, the victim of auto traffic moving onto the interstate and a waning interest in local history.

But it was to this building and to the Western Trails Museum that Pat Smith, who never forgot the highway that she fascinatedly watched as a child, came in 1989, not long before that museum’s closure. “[Although] my degree was in business and I actually worked for the state, I had a friend that worked for the museum, and she encouraged me to come there. At the time there was an opening as a historic site interpreter, and I ended up going to work for the museum,” Smith explained. “I enjoyed it so much that I’ve been there all this time!”

A Change in Focus

Smith did stay put, but in 1991, Oklahoma’s tourism department was faced with a problem. Dotted around the state were several small museums that the department was still supporting, albeit with limited, local interest. Whereas, the Oklahoma Historical Society had begun to develop museum themes that could continue to share regional history, but with a more universal appeal that would do a better job of attracting visitors. And so, the Western Trails Museum in Clinton was included in the transfer of several small museums in the early 1990s, from the state’s tourism department to its historical society.

Sandy Stratton, Development and Special Projects Director at the Oklahoma Historical Society, along with the staff of the Western Trails Museum, began a dialogue about

Vintage images and memorabilia decorate the gift shop and lobby in the Route 66 Museum.

converting the museum to a Route 66 theme to attract a wider audience. Just as the town’s businesses along Route 66 had suffered from the interstate bypass, so too had the mainly local-interest museum. Clearly, a Route 66 revival in Clinton would be a good thing. And so, the Western Trails Museum closed in 1993 for a comprehensive redesign by Oklahoma City architect Rand Elliott, recognized for his sensitivity to culture and setting in his architectural work. In 1995, the stunning new Oklahoma Route 66 Museum opened under the auspices and support of the Oklahoma State Historical Society with a shiny new look, an appealing new focus, and a new young curator.

The state historical society had hired a contract employee, Jeffrey Moore, as curator of the new Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. “It had been decades since the historical society had actually created a new museum. It was early ‘90s, right after Michael Wallis published his book, one of the first books on 66. It was the first publicly funded museum on the route, so all that was very exciting. As the curator, I was responsible for overseeing the acquisition and the installation of the objects — artifacts, documents, photographs, cars. It was kind of a big scavenger hunt and the fact that it was a new project added to the enthusiasm in the agency and staff,” Moore explained.

Changing the museum’s focus really took flight when another Clinton resident, Gladys Cutberth, offered support in the way of donations from the vast collection belonging to her and her late husband, Jack Cutberth. Cutberth’s donations became a very real kickoff to the transition into the Route 66 Museum. The Cutberths had headed up the U.S. Highway 66 Association for decades and became an information clearinghouse for Route 66 enthusiasts and travelers. “All the information, the letters, and all the correspondence, of where they communicated all over

the United States from Chicago to Santa Monica, was donated, and artifacts from their travels all over Route 66, artifacts that we could put in our curio cabinet,” Smith said. And Jack Cutberth’s podium that he used for the Route 66 Association has been put to use at almost all the museum’s events.

But there was more to come. “We also had Joe Morgan, who was an engineer for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT), help us acquire numerous artifacts that were actually used on Route 66. He got us the road grader, cement mixer, the actual original tables that were in the park areas along Route 66, and signage,” Smith added. Other pieces that came from the Department of Transportation included actual pieces of the concrete curb and cutaway pieces of the original road.

“The artifacts and road equipment from ODOT showed the importance of a state department of transportation and how critical their role is in the 66 story,” Moore said. “Infrastructure and logistics were incredibly important, and in the ‘20s, that was a new concept. You’re just two decades from horse and buggy and it’s not like all that was established.”

The First Route 66 Museum Opens

During the summer of 1995, Oklahoma Historical Society’s Museums Director Kathy Dickson announced that $16,231 in funding had been awarded by the Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities for projects for the new Route 66 Museum. This was in addition to the $17,320 raised by the Friends of Oklahoma Route 66 Association in Clinton, plus $9,973 worth of in-kind contributions. Altogether, about a million dollars in federal, state, and private funds renovated the building, created the exhibits, added “fins” to the roofline, and constructed a stunning new facade for the building, consisting of a glass-fronted lobby and an addition to the gift shop just behind it.

“Rand Elliot, the architect responsible for the remodel, added the architectural features that we associate with the Mother Road and the ‘50s and the post-war economic boom, resulting in people going on vacations,” said Moore. “What seals 66 in the minds of so many people is that boom of creativity with cars. That’s something that was captured in the architectural design of the building.”

A crowd of 3,000 people showed up on Saturday, September 23, 1995, for the opening of the new Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and Lt. Governor Mary Fallin each presided over separate opening ceremonies.

Curator Jeff Moore remained at the new museum for about six months after its opening, before being transitioned by the Oklahoma Historical Society into opening other new museums as their Curator of Special Projects. But the experience and thrill of opening the first Route 66 museum stayed with him. “It all started with working on Route 66 and being able to really engage the community and do something lasting for Oklahoma.”

Up to the 25th Anniversary

In 1999, Pat Smith became the Museum Director. It was a role that she had been preparing for her whole life. “Having the personal memories was a plus. It made it more exciting, having lived part of it [Route 66],” Smith reminisced. “My father passed away, and we moved to a farm between Clinton and Weatherford, and that’s where I had my memories of Route 66; it went right by our house. I remember it passing by so well, and I remember when they were building the interstate. I remember riding my bike down the hill where the drive-in theater is now in Weatherford.” In 2002, a very large artifact arrived at the museum — one of the iconic Valentine diners manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, from the 1930s into the mid-’70s. It had been opened as the Porter House Cafe in 1956 in Shamrock, Texas, operated until 1964, and then moved to the Porter’s backyard for some 30-plus years. “It was in their yard. A friend got it and brought it here, and my husband and another friend completely restored it. It is so cute [now]. It was in horrible shape, and they completely restored it and found original artifacts to put back in it like a shake mixer,” said Smith.

The Route 66 Museum neon sign proudly lights up the night as the sun lowers below the trees.

In June 2007, the museum’s reputation enabled the City of Clinton to attract the International Route 66 Festival, a weekend of cars, speeches, and awards gathering somewhere around 8,000 people, including familiar names like Michael Wallis, the late Bob Waldmire, the Road Crew Band, artist Jerry McClanahan, and many others.

Five years later, in 2012, the museum closed for exhibit renovations before reopening with a grand ceremony and festivities. Grants were applied for to update the galleries, but the awarded amount fell short of what was needed. “So, we were [just] going to redo the first room and the last room, but the people here in Clinton raised $389,000 in funds to match. This community is very supportive of us and that’s how we redid the [whole] museum,” Smith explained. The renovated exhibits offered visitors the experience of a chronological journey all along the Mother Road through its notable eras: the drought and despair of the Dust Bowl; the raucous sounds of the big army trucks and the Big Bands of the ‘40s; the murmur and clatter of a classic diner; and the exhilaration of the open road through the vacation-centric 1950s. It was undeniably a grand reopening deserving of a celebration.

Pat Smith and her museum staff also planned extensively for a 25th anniversary event in 2020, but suddenly, the event had to be canceled, as the museum — along with every other cultural edifice across the country — needed to figure out how to survive. “I had a huge event planned for 2020 — it was the 25th anniversary of the museum. Jerry McClanahan was going to be here, and Michael Wallis was my lead speaker. I had everybody working together, and then the pandemic hit,” Smith recalled ruefully.

Into the Future

But as the largest museum dedicated to the history and culture of Route 66 has reopened, Smith is still there telling its story to visitors from around the world. “If you’re really into the history of Route 66, this one is dedicated to telling the complete story of the road.”

Smith is excited to see international visitors returning as she and her staff welcome Route 66 travelers back to take a miniaturized version of a Mother Road trip through the museum’s exhibits.

Pat Smith’s journey from Mother Road-side farm to Route 66 museum wasn’t very long in actual miles, but it was worldwide in impact — both on her and on her thousands of guests at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. The trail that she’s spent her life on is undeniably one of the most important paths anywhere — Route 66 — and it’s the one that she’s spent decades promoting. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

A DYING BREED

Photograph by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66

A DYING BREED

By the 1920s, filling station chains dotted the lengths of American roadways. From the Whiting Brothers stations in the Southwest to the ubiquitous Phillips 66 locations across America, familiar brands promised quality products and good service. But fifty years on, those chains were bypassed or out of favor compared to modern travel stops with mini-markets and fast food. Many iconic examples of historic station architecture are now long gone, such as the Phillips 66 cottages, designed to blend into residential areas, of which fewer than 100 stations out of their original 500 still exist.

Most of the remaining tiny buildings no longer function as originally built, but serve as visitor centers, gift shops, cafes, or other adaptive reuse. But particularly for the easily recognizable Phillips 66 buildings, that Tudor cottage style can’t deny its roots, no matter what business it now holds.

Cuba, Missouri — known as the Mural City — is one of those small Route 66 towns that seems to have everything. Nearly two dozen murals decorate walls all over the city. One of the most iconic restored Route 66-era motor courts — Wagon Wheel Motel — sits along its stretch of the Mother Road. And still perched at the crossroads of Route 66 and Highway 19 is the former Paul T. Carr Phillips Petroleum Company filling station. As a destination, Cuba is a town that celebrates its Mother Road heritage.

“He [Carr] opened it in 1932 with about $18,000 that he borrowed,” said Patrick Weir, owner of Weir on 66, the restaurant that currently resides in the building. “He [also] had a Pontiac dealership there. He gave a lot of [work] opportunities to people, especially young people, in town. It brings a lot of that classic Americana flavor to the area.”

After Carr’s death in 1964, the building was purchased in 1968 by Bill and Lynn Wallis, who founded Wallis Oil Company. They turned Carr’s station into their first Mobil station and company office before moving to a large, modern, brick building across the street to house the company that now employs over 600 people.

“It was their headquarters until they eventually outgrew it,” said Weir. “They moved across the street and turned it [the station] into a bakery. It provided all the sandwiches and baked goods for their stations, but they didn’t do much to it. It still looked like a gas station. They just put a donut maker in there and called it a day.”

But after a good run as the Washington Street Bakery, supplying all of the Wallis stations with fresh-baked pastries, the building began to fall into disrepair, and for a few years sat vacant. In 2001, Bill Wallis lost his battle with cancer, and soon after, his widow, Lynn, conceived the idea of restoring the Carr-Wallis service station to its original glory in honor of her husband and the history of the station. With funding from a Route 66 preservation grant and input from the Phillips 66 organization, the Wallis family restored the building’s exterior in 2005, using the Phillips color scheme of green, yellow, and red with tri-color roof shingles. Murals were added to the garage bays in 2007.

The old station saw more new life when former St. Louis restaurant cook Joanie Weir, along with her kids, Sam and Haley DeClue, opened The FourWay Restaurant in 2016, serving dishes with Mediterranean flair.

“My sister wanted to make it into a restaurant,” said Patrick Weir, Joanie’s brother. “I helped her gut the place. Now it’s got this open kitchen, but it feels homey. You kind of feel like you’re walking back in time a little bit, with the pictures, some artifacts, the tables and chairs.”

Route 66 travelers found the FourWay a convenient place to stop and eat for nearly five years, until December 2020, when the doors were shuttered in response to the lack of international travel. But soon after, Patrick Weir himself, along with his brother, Danny, and sister, Joanie, decided to take on another restaurant in the station.

“It’s kind of an iconic building for Cuba, and we respect it,” Weir said. “I was worried about some of the modifications that I wanted to do, but I think it’ll just be carrying on the tradition. I’m honored to be a proprietor of that.”

After nine decades, Paul T. Carr’s station has a rich history, but its story isn’t over. Besides its many years of providing fuel or food, it still offers the welcoming atmosphere of a familiar roadside gas station — and the promise of more good years to come.