Route 66 in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Part 1)

 

Tulsa, OK is one of the larger cities along Route 66. A lot of the ones I've been to had population in the single digit thousands, Tulsa has over 410 thousand people.  Even with the size, Route 66 is an core part of Tulsa's identity (and certainly more uplifting than the Tulsa race massacre). For this post I'm going to concentrate on the portion of Route 66 on 11th street between South Peoria Avenue and South Lewis Avenue. This is just outside the core downtown area, but very much in the city.

The best place to start is Bucks on 66, which is a restored 1950s PEMCO gas station that has been converted to a souvenir store. The owners really like giant muffler man statues, and the first one to see is Buck Atom, Space Cowboy. Unlike most muffler man statues you see, this one wsa custom designed and built.

Stella Atom Space Cowgirl
Stella Atom Space Cowgirl is another custom giant statue. She shares the parking lot with Buck Atoms. There is also Balony Maroney's food truck (or trailer, as you can see). And, I don't know, the Stay-Puft marshmallow pig?  I'm not really sure.

Meadow Gold Mack, the friendly lumberjack

Unlike the other statues in this land of giants, Mack is an original muffler man. His prior jobs include working at a lumber store in Crystal Lake, Illinois and at a flea market in Melrose Park. He moved to Tulsa in 2024.  You can tell the originals (or ones made like the originals) by looking at their hands. Their right hand is turned up and the left hand is turned down.

Cowboy Bob
Cowboy Bob is the newest giant "muffler man" statue in Tulsa, he just joined us in August of 2025.  A custom built 21 foot tall cowboy playing a guitar.  The reason there are so many of these tall statues is that local entrepreneur Mary Beth Babcock was involved in all of them. She's also an owner of Buck Atom's Cosmic Curios and Meadow Gold Mack. 

There are a number of murals along 11th street, here's just one at the corner with Quincy Avenue.  It's got the nearby Meadow Gold sign, the Golden Driller statue, and various other Oklahoma related icons.

This row of shops has been painted in bright colors and has designs on the front.  There has been some turnover since the first time I was here, the purple store on the end, Looped, used to be a secondhand clothing store, Mom's Closet, and the pink store was Vagabond.

Prior stop: Catoosa, Oklahoma. You can see all my Route 66 posts here.   

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