August 11th, 2021 … Summer of Fun continues! Day 15 Route 66 Caravan – Elk City, OK

We departed Twin Fountains RV Resort in Oklahoma City OK and caravanned to Elk City OK today. Charlie & I have stayed at Twin Fountains before, it was just as nice this time as it was about 4 or 5 years ago! The sites are 99% concrete with a large number of pull thru sites. There is grass between all sites and sidewalks on every road. The amenities are well maintained and available to all guests! It is built on a side hill, so I did get a good workout every time I walked!

We departed on I-44 and quickly turned onto Historic Route 66. The first town we came thru is Warr Acres. Yesterday, we ate lunch at the Boomarang Diner here in Warr Acres. Boomarang Diner started 25 years ago as the East Side Diner in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded with the simple goal of making the best burger ever, every day, Boomarang Diner quickly expanded from those humble beginnings to 53 locations in Oklahoma. The day we went, the A/C was broken, but we stayed anyway and enjoyed a variety of food! Charlie had fries, Rod had breakfast, Helen had chopped steak and I had fried pickles and mushrooms! All were delicious!

  

Warr Acres is one of the Oklahoma City area’s numerous urban islands, an incorporated town. Warr Acres was created in 1948 in western Oklahoma County. In this area, well outside Oklahoma City’s and Bethany’s corporate limits, developers began to create residential areas there. In 1909 Israel M. Putnam, real estate developer and member of the first state legislature, had purchased land west of Oklahoma City in Council Grove Township. On a 160-acre tract about eight miles west of downtown, he sold lots in Putnam, later Putnam City. More significantly, he attempted unsuccessfully to engineer the relocation of the state capital from Guthrie to his Oklahoma County property. Putnam City grew but never incorporated. Warr Acres housing addition was created nearby in 1937 by Clyde B. Warr, an Oklahoma City real estate promoter since the 1920s. He followed with Warr Acres Second Addition. In the area’s early years an interurban railway provided quick access to jobs in Oklahoma City, and a bus line launched in 1946 by Warr provided similar service. Transportation promoted growth that accelerated in the post-World War II era. In future years Warr Acres annexed adjacent residential developments that were not in Oklahoma City or Bethany, and by 1979 the town comprised more than three square miles.

Bethany is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The community was founded in 1909 by followers of the Church of the Nazarene from Oklahoma City. It was the next town we passed through on Route 66. Southern Nazarene University was founded in 1899. It is a private, Christian, liberal arts university and is a service of the Church of the Nazarene. Located on a 40-acre campus in Bethany, SNU grew out of several small colleges committed to training people for service to God and their fellow man.

There is a connection between Bethany and the novel, Grapes of Wrath. Grandpa Joad died on the day he left the farm.  He died when the family stopped for the evening somewhere just west of Bethany, Oklahoma.  That means that he must have passed away right around the Canadian River.  Well... it just so happens that I have a picture of the Route 66 bridge that spans the Canadian River. Bethany calls itself the Heart of Route 66.

In Bethany, you can also stop at Allen Vineyards. Allen Vineyards is a huge vineyard with the best quality grapes. They take you on a guided tour and show you how wine is made. The place smells heavenly and also has a restaurant inside. They offer a wine tasting session for you to be able to choose the best one according to your preference.

Yukon was the next town we drove 21 RVs through. In addition to historic Route 66, the town is traversed by State Highways 4 and 92 and is immediately north of Interstate 40. A. N. Spencer founded the town in 1891. Associated with the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway, Spencer made an agreement with Minnie Taylor and Luther S. Morrison to plat a townsite and lay the train tracks through the town in exchange for half the lots. Taylor and Morrison, who had acquired the land by homestead following the opening of the Unassigned Lands in 1889, deeded the land to Spencer, who then platted it before deeding half of the lots back to Taylor and Morrison. Beginning in about 1898 Yukon began attracting a sizeable Bohemian population. Following World War I and the dissolution of Bohemia into Czechoslovakia and Moravia, the Yukon Bohemians became "Czechs." This heritage is still recognized today. Yukon has been proclaimed "the Czech Capital of Oklahoma" and since 1966 has held an annual Czech Day in October. A tangible reminder of the Czech presence is the historic Jan Zizka Lodge Number 67, popularly known as Czech Hall.

Dominating Yukon's industry for decades was the Yukon Mill and Grain Company. Founded in 1893 as a small elevator and acquired by John F. Kroutil, Frank L. Kroutil and A. F. Dobry in about 1903, the mill became the largest flour plant in the state as well as in the Southwest. By the 1930s the mill had a capacity of two thousand barrels of flour per day. Selling out in 1933 to the Kroutil family, the Dobry family started a second mill across the street, aptly called Dobry Mills. Both mills continued in operation for many decades before being sold to larger corporations, with Shawnee Mills purchasing the Yukon Mill and Grain Company and Mid-Continent the Dobry Mills. In 1972 Mid-Continent purchased the historic Yukon Mill and Grain Company, and it remains in operation on Yukon's Main Street.

The main thoroughfare in Yukon has further acclaim due to its association with US Highway 66. Designated in 1926, Route 66 was a major transportation artery through the town for decades before the four-lane Interstate 40 displaced it in the 1960s. Like its predecessor, Interstate 40 has created a commercial vacuum, attracting restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses along its off-ramps. The commercial strip at the main Yukon exit, renamed Garth Brooks Boulevard in the 1990s for one of the town's favorite sons, has expanded to the south side of the Interstate. A major construction boom occurred there just after the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Yukon still takes pride in being on Route 66, by hosting an annual “Rock the Route Festival.” The Thursday night before Labor Day, across the darkened prairie of Yukon, expect to hear the thousands of fans crying out in enjoyment at one of Oklahoma’s favorite Red Dirt music festivals! Rock the Route, Yukon’s popular FREE concert event! Celebrate the Mother Road with great quality music, food trucks, and plenty of fun activities for all ages in downtown Yukon for one night only, from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Whether you’re a die-hard red dirt or country music fan or just looking for a fun night out with friends or family, Rock the Route brings something for everyone.

El Reno was established in 1889, in the heart of Oklahoma, where Interstate 40, Route 66 and the Chisholm Trail all meet. They got their start as a home to a historic fort and then boomed as the Rock Island Railroad moved into town.

In El Reno, you may just find one of the more unique and memorable events in the Oklahoma City metro area like the famous Fried Onion Burger Day Festival in May, which celebrates the annual cooking of the world's largest fried onion burger. Speaking of Fried Onion Burgers, Sid's Diner in El Reno is a nostalgic-style diner serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. This decades-old Route 66 establishment is famous for El Reno-style fried onion burgers, cooked to order. 

          

At Sid's, you can expect a hand-formed patty combined with a heap of freshly shredded onions married on a seasoned flat-top grill for an experience that's caught nationwide acclaim. Pair your Sid's burger with an old-fashioned malt or shake made with real ice cream and a variety of flavorings including peanut butter and classics like vanilla. Order a coney covered with chili sauce and Sid's trademark slaw and enjoy your meal surrounded by a healthy dose of small-town charm. Whichever entree you choose, don't forget to add a side or two of Sid's freshly cut fries or thick, golden onion rings.

Located a few miles northwest of El Reno, the Historic Fort Reno began as a military camp in 1874 during the Indian Wars Era and is where the city got its name. Today, the 6,000-acre property is a popular tourist attraction that features tours, reenactments, a wedding chapel, and the annual "Ghosts of Fort Reno" event in the fort's on-site cemetery. Stop by the Fort Reno Visitor Center and Museum for an up-close look at the history of the region through a variety of artifacts, photographs, and art. Included in the museum, you'll find images of the 1888 Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, German prisoners of war letters, the historical dress of Buffalo Soldiers, and more information on the living history events that take place at Fort Reno.

After El Reno, we left historic Route 66 and got back onto I-40. There were lots of cross winds today, making the ride on I-40 a real challenge. Speaking of wind, we saw a parade of wind turbines parts on the road today.

We arrived at Elk Creek RV Park in Elk City Oklahoma. It’s our home for one night. It’s just a stopping over place with a great set of museums, one of which is dedicated to the Mother Road!

Myrtle has been greeting travelers on Route 66 since 1962. The 14-foot-tall kachina doll made of oil drums and scrap metal stood outside Queenan’s Trading Post on Route 66 at the west end of Elk City for decades. Through blistering heat waves and fierce storms, Myrtle maintained a silent vigil over the property until 1990 when, after renovation, she began a second career on the Mother Road at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City.

Wanda Queenan, who once owned the trading post with her late husband, Reese, donated Myrtle to the museum, where she continues to serve as unofficial mascot. Elk City’s sprawling Elk City Museum Complex includes the National Route 66 Museum. It takes visitors on a virtual walking tour of the Mother Road. It is festooned with audio kiosks, murals, vignettes and memorabilia celebrating the historic highway, including an old truck that recalls the Okies’ flight from the Dust Bowl down Route 66 in the 1930s, as dramatized by The Grapes of Wrath.

Located near the National Route 66 Museum is the National Transportation Museum, which officially opened in 2006. Tucked into the museum’s collection of vintage cars, trucks and motorcycles are elaborate interactive displays that give visitors the opportunity to drive a pink 1955 Cadillac or watch the movie The Blob from behind the wheel of a 1959 Chevy Impala at a drive-in theater.

The complex also includes a collection of buildings constructed to resemble an early 20th-century Plains village. Visitors can peer through the windows of the Cowtown Watering Hole, Rock Bluff School and Pioneer Chapel as they follow an old-fashioned boardwalk around the property.

The upstairs of  one of the buildings is dedicated to the Beutler Rodeo. The Beutler Brothers were one of the twentieth century's premier rodeo livestock contractors. Elra (1896–87), Jake (1903–75), and Lynn (1905–99) Beutler learned the cowboy trade on the Beutler ranch near Elk City. They produced their first show in Clinton, Oklahoma, in 1928. In 1929 the trio founded the company that would eventually become the world's largest producer of rodeos.

The brothers' business sense and their acute judgment and skillful handling of rough stock enabled them to expand their herd, control the rodeo livestock-contracting business in Oklahoma, and branch out in the rest of the national rodeo circuit. With the brothers' good eye for bad bulls and broncs, and with Lynn as the "front man" who made the contracts, the company's reputation and its stable grew. In 1952 the Beutlers entered the national arena by buying out Verne Elliot, the nation's current top rodeo producer. After this deal the Beutlers became involved in all of the nation's most prominent rodeos, such as those at Cheyenne, Denver, Tucson, and Snake River, Idaho.

According to rodeo authorities, "Beutlers' stock was a cowboy's nightmare." One of their most famous "stars," a Brahma bull named Speck, was ridden only once in 103 tries during five years. Among Beutler Brothers' famous equine buckers were Tom Dooley, Wild Bill, and Sam Bass. The bucking string also included Lee Rider, Scar Neck, and King Tut (whose action always ended the 1960s television series Stoney Burke). As rodeo producers (those who created and presented the whole show, including the livestock) Beutler Brothers always mounted spectacular, patriotic entry parades with flags, matched horses, and nattily attired riders.

Look at the detailed leather tooling on this luggage. My Dad did leather tooling and seeing these pieces, made me remember him.

     

Also part of the complex is the Farm & Ranch Museum, which features a blacksmith shop and an assortment of windmills, antique tractors and agricultural tools. 

Did you know that Elk City claims it was the Broom Corn capital? Oklahoma housewives treasured a good broom to combat the state’s omnipresent red dirt. Unique among agricultural products, broomcorn brush was adapted for making brooms, and no other fiber equaled it for sweeping. During the Territorial Era small broom-making shops appeared in many Oklahoma towns. Later, factories and institutions for the blind made hundreds of brooms each day. When the first broom factory opened in Elk City in 1893, the state held a minor position in broom production. However, broomcorn grew exceptionally well in Oklahoma, and the state led the nation in production between 1915 and 1946. Oklahoma’s broomcorn brush was sold to local, state, and national broom factories, which purchased it directly from the growers during harvest or from broomcorn warehouses. In the 1940s the state comprised two broomcorn districts. In the northwest, broomcorn first appeared in the Panhandle in 1889. Elk City became known as “the Broomcorn Capital of the World.

          

We tried our hand at a game, too! None of us was successful!

  

The museum draws 20,000 visitors a year, not counting those who stop just long enough for a quick outdoor photo op with the statues of a buffalo and a Texas longhorn with horns the size of a car, the giant neon Route 66 shield out front.

It was another great day to be on the #Route66RVcaravan

#yankeeRVtours