Will Rogers in Oklahoma Rt. 66 Hall of Fame

Steve Gragert, Will Rogers Memorial Museums executive director, received a duplicate plaque and acknowledged induction of Will Rogers into the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame in the Route 66 Museum in Clinton on May 26. Also inducted was Carol Duncan, Clinton community leader. Third District U.S. Congressman Frank Lucas was keynote speaker. The occasion marked the grand opening of renovated exhibit galleries of the Clinton Museum and Clinton’s Route 66 Festival. Will Rogers is featured in several segments of the exhibit. Clinton is on Highway 66 between Oklahoma City and the Texas border. Three years after Will Rogers’ death in 1935, the entire length of 2,200-plus mile route of United States Highway 66 was officially designated as Will Rogers Highway.


Posted by Rick Mobley

Route 66 Cruise through Tulsa ends at Will Rogers Memorial Museum

Rev your engines and join the Saturday, June 23, first annual Will Rogers Memorial Cruise on Historic Route 66. The event is open to all cars and clubs. Sign-up will begin at 1 p.m. at Historic Crystal City Shopping Center, 4200 Southwest Blvd. in Tulsa and end on Will Rogers Boulevard.

The final destination is Claremore and the Will Rogers Memorial Museum about 6 p.m.

For the full Cruise, sign up at the shopping center. Highlights along the route will be World’s Tallest Oil Derrick/Frisco 4500 Steam Locomotive in Route 66 Village, in  Tulsa, drive-through at Cyrus Avery Plaza, a drive path through downtown Tulsa,  stop at Meadow Gold sign, drive by Desert Hill Inn, stop at Blue Whale in Catoosa, drive by Will Rogers Hotel, Claremore, and stop at J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum.

Cruisers will end their journey at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, where cars will be parked for showing. Events inside and on the Museum’s south patio, overlooking Claremore, will be showing of A Journey Down Route 66, narrated by Michael and Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis, live music, sock hop and dinner.

Cost is $20 per car for the day of activities, including dancing to the live music of Bill Holden Band at the Memorial Museum. Admission at the door is $10. Will Rogers Memorial Ropers (docents) will have a Will Rogers Memorial Foundation fund-raiser food booth of barbecue on bun, chips, cookies and drinks  for individual purchase.

The day of cruising Historic Route 66 is hosted by the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in cooperation with Route 66 Cruisers, Claremore. For information visit the web site http://www.route66cruisersok.org/willrogersmemorial.htm or call the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, 918-341-0719.

Posted by Rick Mobley

Route 66 Museum renovation opening May 26

Will Rogers’ widow, Betty (front row fourth from left); son, Jimmy, and his wife, Astrea; and eldest son, Will Jr. (far right front row); were in Amarillo, Texas, for the opening of Highway 66 designated Will Rogers Highway. The group then went on to  Claremore. Will Rogers will be inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame on May 26 in Clinton. (Photo from Will Rogers Memorial Archives)


Route 66 Museum renovation opening May 26
Will Rogers will be inducted into Route 66 Hall of Fame

Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton has undergone a renovation of exhibit galleries and will celebrate a grand opening Saturday, May 26, at 2 p.m. At the same time, Will Rogers will be inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame. Will, whose name was on the Highway many years, and Carol Duncan of Clinton, are the inductees.

After 17 years, the gallery has undergone a full renovation, “bringing the facility into the 21st Century,” said Museum Director Pat Smith.

Following the designation of Route 66 as a Scenic Byway in 2007, the museum was awarded a $120,000 federal grant from National Scenic Byways Program and the Department of Transportation. The Friends of the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Inc., and Oklahoma Historical Society collaborated and raised the remainder of funds needed to complete the project.

The grand opening ceremony will be during Clinton’s 2012 Route 66 Festival. Activities are scheduled throughout the day, including special Route 66 guests, music, free museum admission and refreshments. Clinton is on Highway 66 between Oklahoma City and the Texas border.

“With the possible exception of Curtis Avery, no historic name has been as closely associated with the iconic Route 66 than that of Will Rogers,” said Steve Gragert, Will Rogers Memorial Museums executive director.

Three years after his death on Aug. 15, 1935 in an Alaskan plane crash, Will Rogers was posthumously honored with the official designation of the entire length of United States Highway 66 as Will Rogers Highway. Markers were placed along the 2,200 –plus miles route and at each end,  from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, ending at Los Angeles and Santa Monica, where Will Rogers lived at the time of his death.

As a youngster, Will Rogers rode his pony along the old cattle trail that became Route 66 when he went from Chelsea to Vinita to attend school, and later as he drove the highway between his sisters’ homes in Chelsea and his self-declared hometown of Claremore, a concrete plath where his fellow Cherokees, his father’s herds, and the pioneer settlers of the West had made early history of what became Oklahoma, according to Gragert.

Jim Ross, Route 66 author; Shellee Graham, Route 66 photographer; and Jerry McClanaham, Route 66 author/artist; will host a book signing of their collaborative work, Route 66: Sightings, during the opening. Jared Deck will perform rock and roll hits heard during the Route 66 heyday. 

Exhibits at the Route 66 Museum have not been updated since being built in 1995, Smith said. The museum continues in the thematic approach of Route 66 by decade. Modern technology allows interaction with exhibits. Pre-recorded conversations and the more common sounds of a diner are overheard as patrons sit in booths located in the “Diner” exhibit. Kiosks are strategically placed;  loaded with games, video excerpts and other interactive activites for patrons of all ages.

An embedded children’s tour is a special addition, as caricatures of popular models of classic cars guides through the exhibits.

Changes create a more personal, hands-on Route 66 experience, Smith said.

The event is open to the public and is free of charge.

(For additional information contact Pat Smith at rt66mus@okhistory.org or call 580-323-7866.)


Posted by Rick Mobley

Rotary gift

Steve Gragert, Will Rogers Memorial Museums executive director, shows Roger Fleming, Reveille Rotary Club of Claremore president, the new admissions desk funded by the Claremore club with matching funds from Rotary District 6110 through The Rotary Foundation. The desk was installed when the Museum started charging admission this year, the first time since the museum opened 73 years ago. A plaque on the desk is dedicated to Reveille Rotary and The Rotary Foundation. Gragert said the $2,000 in grants “essentially covered all the costs of Pixley Lumber’s construction of the desk.” An increasingly constrained budget necessitated the move to charge admission. Income generated will allow the museum to sustain and  increase educational programs, mount new exhibits and conserve the vast collections. (Will Rogers Memorial Museum Photos)

Posted by Rick Mobley