U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).
Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado. It is located within the JCRS Shopping Center, now known as the Lamar Station Plaza. The resturaunt has attracted a cult following among Colorado residents since its inception, and is considered by many to be an icon of Lakewood and the greater Denver metropolitan area.
A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than actually being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboards. The modern tourist-oriented highway attraction originated as a U.S. and Canadian phenomenon in the 1940s to 1960s, and subsequently caught on in Australia.
The Turner Turnpike is a toll road in central Oklahoma, connecting its two largest cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Authorized by the Oklahoma Legislature in 1947 and opened in May 1953, it is the oldest of the state's eleven turnpikes. The route is signed as Interstate 44 for its entire length, but was constructed prior to its designation as such. The Turner Turnpike was named after Governor Roy J. Turner, who pushed for efforts to build this toll road to connect the state's two largest cities.
The Will Rogers Turnpike is a freeway-standard toll road in the northeast portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The highway begins as a continuation of the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa, continuing northward from the I-44/US-412 interchange there to the Missouri state line west of Joplin, Missouri. The turnpike carries the I-44 designation for its entire length. The turnpike is 88.5 miles (142.4 km) long and costs $4.75 to drive one way. The Will Rogers Turnpike opened to traffic on June 28, 1957. It was designated as I-44 in 1958. It is named for Will Rogers, "Oklahoma's Favorite Son".
Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park consists of eleven objects and one building on 14 acres in Rogers County, in northeastern Oklahoma. The park is ten miles (16 km) north-east of Claremore and is located 3.5 miles (6 km) east of historic U.S. Route 66 and Foyil. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1999. The park is now owned and operated by the Rogers County Historical Society. The park's main totem pole is billed as the "World’s Largest Concrete Totem Pole."
Hiway House was a motor hotel chain founded in 1956 at Phoenix, Arizona, by the late Del Webb, a construction magnate who owned the New York Yankees baseball team and later created the Sun City retirement communities. A remnant of the old Hiway House chain is still in operation at Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Summit Inn was a historic U.S. Route 66 roadside diner built in 1952, located at the summit of Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, California. The building was destroyed by the Blue Cut Fire on August 16, 2016. The building's current owners plan to rebuild the restaurant, as it appeared before the fire.
Novelty architecture, also called programmatic architecture or mimetic architecture, is a type of architecture in which buildings and other structures are given unusual shapes for purposes such as advertising or to copy other famous buildings without any intention of being authentic. Their size and novelty means that they often serve as landmarks. They are distinct from architectural follies, in that novelty architecture is essentially usable buildings in eccentric form whereas follies are non-usable, ornamental buildings often in eccentric form.
Aubrey Kerr McClendon was an American businessman and the founder and chief executive officer of American Energy Partners, LP. He also co-founded Chesapeake Energy, serving as its CEO and chairman. He was an outspoken advocate for natural gas as an alternative to oil and coal fuels, and a pioneer in employing fracking.
The historic U.S. Route 66, sometimes known as the Will Rogers Highway after Oklahoma native Will Rogers, ran from west to northeast across the state of Oklahoma, along the path now taken by Interstate 40 (I-40) and State Highway 66 (SH-66). It passed through Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and many smaller communities. West of the Oklahoma City area, it has been largely replaced by I-40; the few independent portions that are still state-maintained are now I-40 Business. However, from Oklahoma City northeast to Kansas, the bypassing I-44 is mostly a toll road, and SH-66 remains as a free alternate.
McDonald's is a 29,135-square-foot (2,706.7 m2) restaurant that spans the Will Rogers Turnpike section of Interstate 44 (I-44) near Vinita, Oklahoma. It is notable as the first bridge restaurant in the world and as an example of a U.S. roadside restaurant. It was the world's largest McDonald's before the current largest McDonald's in the world located in Orlando, Florida was built.
The City of Oklahoma City uses Special Zoning Districts as a tool to maintain the character of many neighborhood communities.
Wagon Wheel is a densely populated, planned neighborhood of Oxnard, California at the intersection of U.S. Route 101 and Oxnard Boulevard. The neighborhood was originally developed as an office, motel, and restaurant complex named Wagon Wheel Junction with a convenient roadside location near the historic community of El Rio. The site in Ventura County became a popular stop for travelers between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, particularly during its heyday in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The entire site was demolished in 2011 to begin the development of the community with 1,500 residential units.
The U-Drop Inn, also known as Tower Station and U-Drop Inn and Tower Café, was built in 1936 in Shamrock, Texas along the historic Route 66 highway in Wheeler County. Inspired by the image of a nail stuck in soil, the building was designed by J. C. Berry. An unusual example of art deco architecture applied to a gas station and restaurant, the building features two flared towers with geometric detailing, curvilinear massing, glazed ceramic tile walls, and neon light accents. It has traditionally held two separate business: "Tower Station," a gas station on the western side, and the "U-Drop Inn," a café on the eastern side. Though it has passed hands several times in its history, the building has consistently housed the same types of businesses it was originally constructed for.
Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, doing business as Love's, is an American family-owned chain of more than 600 truck stop and convenience stores in 42 states in the United States. The company is privately owned and headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Love's ranked No. 17 on the 2019 Forbes list of America's largest private companies. Love's has two primary kinds of stores: country stores and travel stops. Country stores are fueling stations with a convenience store attached. The larger travel stops are located along highways and offer additional amenities such as food from restaurant chains such as Arby's, Baskin-Robbins, Bojangles, Burger King, Chester's, Dairy Queen, Del Taco, Dunkin', Friendly's, Godfather's Pizza, Green Burrito, McDonald's, Taco John's, Subway, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Hardee’s/Carls Jr., trucking supplies, showers and RV dump stations. Love's had 25,000 employees in 2018.
The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.
The Rock Café in Stroud, Oklahoma, a historic restaurant on U.S. Route 66, takes its name from the local sandstone used in its construction.
Chicken in the Rough, also known as Beverly's Chicken in the Rough, is a fried chicken restaurant chain and former franchise. It was one of the earliest restaurant chain franchises in the United States. Chicken in the Rough was founded by Beverly and Rubye Osborne in 1936 in Oklahoma City, and the restaurant's specialty, half a fried chicken dish, was also created in 1936. The dish itself was also referred to as "Chicken in the Rough", and consisted of half a fried chicken, shoestring potatoes and a biscuit with honey. Three restaurants presently serve the dish today, located in Oklahoma City, Port Huron, Michigan and Canadian neighbor Sarnia, Ontario. The chain's logo was an image of a rooster smoking a cigar and carrying a golf club. The chain also used a logo of "Chicken's Caddie", which depicted a chick acting as a golf caddie, stating "I'll gladly be fried for Chicken in the Rough".
