Oklahoma City is adding four new Route 66 Centennial Monuments this week, but the towering signs have an especially local connection: they were designed and manufactured in OKC.
The 16-foot illuminated monuments are being installed in four districts along former Route 66 alignments: the Asian District at NW 32nd Street and Classen Boulevard, the Britton District at Britton Road and Classen Boulevard, the NW 39th Street District at NW 39th Street and Barnes Avenue, and Western Avenue at NW 43rd Street and Western Avenue.
The monuments were created by Oklahoma City-based VOX Audio Visual in collaboration with Oklahoma City artist Stan Carroll. GS Signs, also based in OKC, fabricates and installs the monuments.
“The Route 66 Monuments are striking and impossible to miss, and they are fitting landmarks for the Mother Road as it passes through OKC,” Mayor David Holt said in a city news release. “This is a perfect use of our MAPS 4 beautification funds.”
The four new monuments cost a combined $132,000 and were funded through MAPS 4.
They bring Oklahoma City’s total to six. Two others were installed over the past year, one at NW 23rd Street and Hudson Avenue in Uptown and another on NW 39th Expressway just east of the historic Lake Overholser Bridge.
The Centennial Monument Project is an official project of the U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission. According to the city, 32 monuments have been installed from Illinois to California, with more planned in Oklahoma and along the historic highway.
That means a project conceived and built in Oklahoma City is becoming part of the Route 66 landscape across the country as the highway approaches its 100th anniversary on Nov. 11.
Route 66 was established Nov. 11, 1926, stretching nearly 2,500 miles from Chicago to California. Oklahoma has more than 400 miles of the historic highway, more drivable miles than any other state.
Oklahoma also played a major role in the road’s creation. Tulsa businessman and Oklahoma’s first highway commissioner, Cyrus Avery, is widely known as the “Father of Route 66” for his role in developing the route and selecting its famous number.
Oklahoma City has several historic Route 66 alignments, reflecting changes made as the city grew. In 2021, the city installed approximately 200 smaller Route 66 signs to help motorists retrace the different routes through OKC.
The new Centennial Monuments add a much larger marker to that history, with an Oklahoma City-made design now appearing along the Mother Road from the Midwest to the West Coast.