At dusk in the east parking lot of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, a red cowboy boot 35 feet tall begins to glow from the inside. It holds more than 1.2 miles of white LED lights, run through the boot and through a prickly pear cactus at its heel. The paint color is rosso corsa, Italian for "racing red," chosen as a nod to the 1966 showdown between Ford and Ferrari. Artist Cameron Eagle is submitting it to Guinness World Records as the world's tallest boot.
"Kicks 66" is the biggest of seven lit Route 66 landmarks that Oklahoma City has put up ahead of the highway's 100th birthday on Nov. 11. Four of them went up just last month. None of them is an event with a start time. You can visit all seven, and most of them sit within walking distance of somewhere to eat.
The Birthday Bash Is in Tulsa
Route 66 was established on Nov. 11, 1926. The statewide celebration of that date belongs to Tulsa. TravelOK's announcement of Oklahoma's centennial plans puts the Nov. 11 birthday event in downtown Tulsa, ending at Cain's Ballroom. That makes sense for the hometown of Cyrus Avery, the Tulsa businessman known as the father of Route 66, who picked its number.
Oklahoma City held its party early. KOCO reported that the "Kickin' It on Route 66" celebration filled Scissortail Park on May 30 with Oklahoma musicians, local vendors, tourism exhibits and a drone show. The Oklahoma Route 66 Association's centennial calendar lists Tulsa's Nov. 11 bash and parade. It shows no Oklahoma City event for the birthday week itself.
What Oklahoma City built is permanent. There are six Route 66 Centennial Monuments, each a 16-foot take on the classic shield sign and lit from within, plus the boot. The boot and the four newest monuments were paid for through MAPS 4. In 2021, city crews put up about 200 smaller Route 66 signs to mark the old alignments for drivers. Those signs show you where the road ran. The new monuments are big enough to plan an evening around.
A Sign Built Here and Shipped Out
The monuments are an Oklahoma City product. VOX Audio Visual, based in OKC, created them with OKC artist Stan Carroll. GS Signs, an OKC sign manufacturer, builds and installs them across the country. The Route 66 Centennial Monument Project is an official project of the U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission. The city calls it the first national monument for all of Route 66.
As of mid-September, 32 of the monuments stood between Illinois and California, with more planned in Oklahoma and farther along the route. The Oklahoma Gazette summed it up this way: a project conceived and built in Oklahoma City is becoming part of the Route 66 roadside across the country. The project's own site, route66monuments.com, tracks installations along the road.
Oklahoma City now has six of them. The first two went up over the past year, at NW 23rd Street and Hudson Avenue in Uptown and on NW 39th Expressway just east of the Lake Overholser bridge. The other four were installed the week of Sept. 17 and cost $132,000 combined. That's about $33,000 per sign. "The Route 66 Monuments are striking and impossible to miss," Mayor David Holt said in the city's announcement, calling them "a perfect use of our MAPS 4 beautification funds."
One Evening, Seven Stops
There are 51.5 miles of Route 66 inside city limits, spread over several alignments. Those alignments pass through five commercial districts: Britton, Western Avenue, NW 39th Street, the Asian District and Uptown 23rd. Each district now has its own monument, so a loop of the signs also takes you past dinner. One sensible order runs from west to east, ending at the boot:
- NW 39th Expressway, east of the Lake Overholser bridge. The anchor here is the bridge itself. The Lake Overholser Bridge, at 8703–8709 Overholser Dr. in Bethany, is a truss bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Go here first, while there's still light on the water.
- NW 39th Street and Barnes Avenue. The NW 39th Street District gives the loop its strongest late-evening stretch. The Boom, at 2218 NW 39th St., hosts drag brunch and dinner shows. Rainbow Bistro, at 2215 NW 39th St., Suite 300, serves sandwiches and snacks late into the night. The Veil, at 2125 NW 39th St., is a newer bar on the district roster that posts its shows online.
- NW 43rd Street and Western Avenue. A Date with Iris, at 4201 N. Western Ave., sits just south of the monument on the Western Avenue directory.
- Britton Road and Classen Boulevard. The Britton District roster includes El Coyote, at 925 Britton Rd., and Madhopper Brewing, at 923 W. Britton Ave.
- NW 32nd Street and Classen Boulevard. In the Asian District, Pho Cuong at 3016 N. Classen Blvd. is a good bowl to stop for. A few blocks south, at 2426 N. Classen Blvd., is the Milk Bottle Grocery building, another National Register Route 66 landmark.
- NW 23rd Street and Hudson Avenue. In Uptown, the monument shares the corner with the historic Phillips 66 station at Hudson and 23rd, a landmark on the city's Route 66 list. The Uptown 23rd directory lists the Tower Theatre at 425 NW 23rd St., Bunker Club at 433 NW 23rd St. and Cheever's Cafe at 2409 N. Hudson Ave. Kaizume, a newer restaurant in the former Syrup space on NW 23rd, appeared in Visit OKC's August roundup of new restaurants.
- Kicks 66, 1700 NE 63rd St. Last stop, and the only one with a closing time. More on that below.
Call ahead to check hours before you go, especially on the birthday itself. These are working businesses on a Wednesday night.
The Boot Closes at 10
Kicks 66 is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. year-round. If you're saving the brightest stop for last, get there before 10. The city cut the ribbon on June 25. News 9 reported that the boot is 35 feet, 4 inches tall and carries the lyric "Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty." Eagle based the cactus on photos he took of local prickly pear.
The rest of the specs read like roadside attraction trivia. The boot is aluminum and weighs about 7.5 tons. If someone could wear it, their shoe size would be 1,215. Eagle has his own history on the road. He grew up bowling at Route 66 Bowl. After the alley closed, he and friends turned wood from the building into custom guitars and furniture. If dinner never happened along the way, Museum Grill is inside the museum.
Postcards Are Due Before the Birthday
The boot comes with a deadline that falls before the anniversary. The city is collecting messages for a time capsule that will go in the ground near Kicks 66 on Nov. 12 and be opened in 2126. Free postcards are available through Nov. 5 at the front desks of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the Oklahoma History Center. Both foyers are free to enter.
The prompt on the city's announcement is short:
What would you say to Oklahoma City residents 100 years from now?
As of mid-October, more than 1,000 postcards had come in from libraries and other sites around the city. With the Nov. 5 cutoff one week away, there's still time to pick one up. Write your card at the Cowboy front desk, walk out to the boot in the east lot, and you've started the loop at its last stop.
The city keeps a map of every alignment at okc.gov/route66. It's useful if you want to drive the old road between the signs instead of taking the fastest route.
Route 66 runs through five of Oklahoma City's commercial districts, and each one has a new monument out front this fall. If you're curious how those districts compare as places to live, Simms Realty can walk you through them, from Britton to Uptown 23rd. Schedule a complimentary consultation.
