Route 66 Historical Village

What is Route 66 Historical Village?

The village is a group of outdoor exhibits rather than a single building. The tallest piece is an oil derrick that rises 194 feet over the spot where oil was first struck in Tulsa. Nearby is a visitor center called the Route 66 Village Station, styled after a service station from the 1920s or 1930s, with a large Route 66 map inside for planning the rest of the drive.

Rail fans get Frisco 4500, a 4-8-4 Baldwin steam locomotive that burned oil. Behind it are a passenger car, an oil tank car and a caboose. The newest addition is the Red Fork Depot, which works both as a museum and as an event space that can be rented.

History of Route 66 Historical Village

The oil strike on June 25, 1901, helped give Tulsa its old Oil Capital of the World nickname. The locomotive was built in November 1942 for the St. Louis–San Francisco line, better known as the Frisco, and pulled the Meteor, the line's fast passenger train linking Tulsa with other cities. The Red Fork Depot opened with a ribbon cutting on October 22, 2021.

Visiting Route 66 Historical Village: tips

This is an outdoor stop, so allow 30 minutes to an hour and dress for the weather. The site is listed as wheelchair accessible. The derrick and the locomotive both photograph well from the parking area.

The Cities Service Station No. 8 is about 2.1 miles away on the same boulevard, and the Philbrook Museum of Art and Woodward Park are each a little under 3 miles off. A restaurant is less than half a mile down the road.