Travel: As Route 66 turns 100, Oklahoma bets on visitors

TULSA, Oklahoma — As the United States prepares to mark the centennial of Route 66 in 2026, Oklahoma is making a deliberate case that the Mother Road’s future matters as much as its past.

It would be easy to drive straight through without ever stopping. Interstate highways allow motorists to cross the Sooner State in a matter of hours, pausing only for fuel or fast food before pushing on to somewhere else. But to do so would miss the point — and the place.

Oklahoma, which in 1907 became the 46th state admitted to the Union, offers visitors a glimpse of the real America: a state shaped by movement and migration, by frontier ambition and reinvention and by communities that rose, adapted and endured as the country changed around them.

With more than 400 drivable miles — the longest continuous stretch of Route 66 in any state — Oklahoma is leaning into the anniversary as a way to drive modern tourism.

Tourism, which makes up the state’s third-largest industry, is especially important to state and local governments because funding for core services, including police and fire protection, is largely driven by sales tax revenue.

To better understand what the Route 66 centennial represents for Oklahoma, this writer sat down for an exclusive interview with Lieutenant Gov. Matt Pinnell earlier this month in Tulsa.

“We live or die on the sales tax,” said Pinnell, who was in Gov. Kevin Stitt’s cabinet as secretary of tourism and now chairs the Tourism and Recreation Commission. “You want people to come into your state, drop dollars and then go home.”

Route 66 enters Oklahoma City, the state’s capital and largest city, not as a relic but as part of a working capital where tourism, government and culture intersect. Multiple historic alignments trace how motorists once moved through town before interstates reshaped travel patterns, and those routes now pass some of the city’s most consequential landmarks. The State Capitol provides a natural starting point. Rising from a landscaped campus north of downtown, the limestone building is the only state capitol with an active oil well on its grounds.

Built during the oil boom years, the 109-year-old domed structure, with its neoclassical design and neighboring midcentury modern office buildings, reflects the same confidence and forward momentum that defined Route 66’s early decades, when automobiles promised freedom, prosperity and connection. Don’t overlook the nearby Oklahoma History Center, a state history museum that is quite good. Modern and well curated, it covers the entirety of Oklahoma’s story.

A short drive away, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum adds cultural depth. Long regarded as one of the premier Western museums in the country, it explores ranching, Native American history, Western art and the mythology of the frontier.

For Route 66 travelers, the museum places the highway within a longer historical continuum. Long before motorists took to the road, routes forged first by Indians and then cattle trails and railroads shaped the land.

West of Oklahoma City, the landscape opens up, broken only by the occasional town or roadside attraction, including retro diners and period buildings.

Seventy miles away in Weatherford is one of the most unexpected highlights of the Oklahoma Route 66 experience.

Millions of dollars in state revitalization grants have helped communities along the old highway spruce up streetscapes and create new attractions aimed at visitors. One example is the recent addition in downtown Weatherford of a 30-foot “Space Man” statue honoring native son Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, an astronaut who flew on Gemini and Apollo missions and later commanded the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

The big draw here is the Stafford Air & Space Museum.

What began as a modest exhibit at the local airport is now a Smithsonian affiliate with an impressive collection, including a disarmed nuclear bomb and artifacts linked to Stafford and NASA more broadly. You do not expect to find a museum of that caliber in Oklahoma, let alone in a town of 12,076 people. That surprise alone can turn a quick stop into an overnight stay.

Farther west, Clinton provides the narrative backbone of Oklahoma’s Route 66 experience.

The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum is hardly roadside kitsch. The exhibits chronicle the highway’s full arc from Dust Bowl migration to postwar road trips and the disruption caused by the interstate system.

At the eastern end of Oklahoma sits Tulsa.

If Route 66 has a capital, it would be here. The state’s second-largest city has fully embraced the highway as part of its identity.

Tulsa’s architectural legacy also looms large over the route. One standout is Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. With its distinctive Art Deco design, the landmark reflects the oil-era prosperity that paralleled the golden age of car travel.

Music history adds another layer through the legacy of musician and songwriter Leon Russell, who transformed a derelict Methodist church into a recording studio. That space, known today as the Church Studio, remains active. Tours offer visitors a chance to explore its past and glimpse its future.

Driving the slow way through Oklahoma is an invitation to do more than follow an old highway. It is an opportunity to stop, linger and discover a state that consistently punches above its weight.

“Tourism is the front door to economic development,” Pinnell said. “When we can get people here for three days or a week, we can show them what Oklahoma really is — a modern frontier, a great place to do business and a great place to raise a family.”

A century after Route 66 was established, Pinnell and other Oklahoma leaders are betting that travelers will choose curiosity over speed. Those who do may find that the Sooner State is not just something to pass through, but somewhere worth returning to long after the centennial banners come down.

If you go

The airports in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City are frequently served by the major airlines. You’ll probably want to fly into one airport and out of the other.

For hotels, the Fordson Hotel in Oklahoma City, which is part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection, is housed in an Albert Kahn-designed former Ford Motor Company assembly plant. Alternatives include the Omni and Hilton's Skirvin. In Tulsa, the Ambassador Hotel, a Marriott Autograph Collection property, or the Hyatt Regency are options.

Dennis Lennox writes a travel column for The Christian Post