Oklahoma Route 66 Museum

About

The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum takes travelers through the Mother Road decade by decade, using historic vehicles, photographs, artifacts, recreated environments and sound to tell the story of the people who built, traveled and lived along Route 66. Exhibits explore everything from the highway's beginnings and Dust Bowl migration to the Big Band years, postwar family vacations and the changing roadside culture that developed along the route. Visitors can step into a recreated 1950s diner, see classic automobiles and experience galleries designed to capture both the history and mythology surrounding America's most famous highway.

The museum grew from an earlier Clinton attraction known as the Museum of the Western Trails. After the Oklahoma Historical Society assumed responsibility for the facility, community leaders, donors and the state worked together to reinvent it around Route 66. A federal grant and locally raised matching funds helped finance a $1.7 million redevelopment, and architect Rand Elliott was brought in to expand the building and give the new museum its distinctive roadside presence. When it opened in 1995, it became the first facility in the nation devoted specifically to the history and culture of Route 66. The galleries received another major renovation in 2012, while changing exhibits continue to add new perspectives to the Mother Road story.

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