Route 66

Route 66

CLAREMORE, OKLAHOMA
AN AMERICAN CLASSIC

"Route 66" has a mystic all its own. The younger generation has mustered-up enough curiosity to get off the fast and boring freeways to take a peak at the people and places that have formed our country. Thoughts of those happy, growing-up years are causing senior citizens to take one more cruise to hometown America. The Europeans are paying big bucks to travel down that old, but famous highway and are getting their kicks while seeing mid-America, the heart of the United States.

In northeast Oklahoma is Claremore, an American Classic, with Highway 66 running right through the middle of it. One of the nation's most honored citizens, Will Rogers, claimed this as his hometown. More than 20 million people have visited the Will Rogers Memorial since it opened in 1938 .

The Rogers County Historical Society presented to the City of Claremore a life-size, bronze statue of Will Rogers in November of 1996. "All I Know Is What I Read In The Papers", a sculptor by Sandra VanZandt, has Will sitting on a park bench reading the local newspaper, The Claremore Progress. It is exciting to see people stop, sit on the bench with him, and some have even admitted talking to him.

"The Life of Will Rogers" will be presented in five bronze statues throughout the city. The first one represents his career as a journalist. His years in radio broadcasting will be the second statue to be unveiled in November of 1997 with the grand re-opening of the rehabilitated Will Rogers Hotel.

Will Rogers never forgot Claremore, as he mentioned it nearly everywhere he went. You won't forget it either.

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Background midi music is Get Your Kicks on Route 66 composed by unknown artist.

This Page Last Updated 12 July 97 by Mike Swatek

This page has been accessed () times since 13 September 1999