“Life begins at the off-ramp.”
Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell quoted author and historian Michael Wallis as he addressed the crowd gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony at the new Route 66 Park at the Historic Rock Creek Bridge in Sapulpa on Tuesday morning.
This park is made possible by the Oklahoma Route 66 Centennial Commission, which awarded a $2 million grant to Sapulpa for the creation of a new Route 66-themed park at the historic Bridge 18 over Rock Creek at Ozark Trail Road. Sapulpa was the largest of the 11 recipients chosen in the first round of grants.
“A great day this morning for Sapulpa, America—without a doubt, one of the best Route 66 communities in the entire country,” he said. “Truly, life begins when you get off those interstates—those generic interstates—and you get on 66 into these communities—that’s real America. That is what America was, what it can be again, what tourists are dying to rediscover, the fabric of our DNA. That’s Route 66 and that is Sapulpa.”
City Manager Joan Riley said that the project has been a dream in the works for years, and that she’s glad to finally see it come to fruition. “This is a tremendous moment in Sapulpa’s history. We have this opportunity to acknowledge Route 66 for the gem that it is. It runs right through our downtown, and is such a big part of who we are,” she said.
Pinnell said that this project is not only about making a stopping point for folks traveling the Mother Road. The real goal, according to Pinnell, is turning a regular Route 66 tourist into a possible resident when they see how special Sapulpa is. “When we can get people to Sapulpa and for them to see it, then the rest of the magic happens. That’s when people begin saying, ‘hey, this is a whole lot better in Kansas City, this is a whole lot better in Austin, Texas. Maybe I should move my own family to Sapulpa, Oklahoma.'”
Other towns seeing success from Route 66 projects
Tom Tillison, Jr, one of those sitting on the Oklahoma Route 66 Centennial Commission, says that the commission has had about $140 million in requests for what is so far about a $20 million pot of funding. He said that one of the best and unexpected results of the commission is some of the projects that don’t win the grant are still getting funded elsewhere. “Just the fact that they’re putting these projects to paper, other organizations are recognizing how valuable these resources are for those towns and for those local and state tax dollars, and they’re making it work,” he said.
One such recent success story would be the restored Filling Station in El Reno, which was awarded $1.4 million by the Centennial Commission in 2024. It opened in May of 2025 to coincide with its Annual Fried Burger Day festival.
Within its first month of being open as a visitors center, Tillison said the Filling Station received visitors from 49 states, and “23 or 24 different countries.”
Pinnell said that the state is becoming well-known as a great place to live, work, and raise a family, and that Route 66 is no small part of that attraction that Oklahoma has, and that towns like Sapulpa stand to gain the most from it.
“I’m telling you, that’s happening. It’s where the people are, it’s where the workforce is. It’s where people want to raise families … but the best communities to do that in are our communities that line, again, this America’s Highway, this Mother Road, this Main Street of America, that is, again, the heart of it truly is right here in Sapulpa.”
