Long known as a central link in the history of America’s “Main Street,” Tulsa, Oklahoma, has secured the U.S. copyright designation as the mecca of the “Mother Road” and can now officially claim the title of the Capital of Route 66.

© Visit Tulsa

The Tulsa Route 66 Commission, an official City of Tulsa commission, secured a copyright on the term Capital of Route 66, leaving no question of Tulsa’s significance to the history of the Mother Road. In a process that lasted more than two years and involved exhaustive research and surveys, it finally resulted in final approval from the federal government in April 2024.

“Tulsa and Route 66 are deeply connected with the Mother Road running through the heart of our city,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “Route 66 is an integral part of Tulsa’s identity and we have long been known as the Capital of Route 66. To now have this official designation is an exciting day for Tulsa, our region, and the state of Oklahoma.”

© Mother Road Market

Property owners along Route 66 will now have a new incentive to preserve and rehabilitate historically significant structures as Tulsa Route 66 Commission announces a new Façade Matching Grant Program, with funding from the Vision Tulsa Route 66 Revitalization Project.

Tulsa has 28 miles of Route 66 road within its city limits, bordered by Gateway Arches on the east and west. Route 66, originally not paved, was the main highway through much of the country beginning in 1926. Cyrus Avery, a businessman in Tulsa, is credited with creating the identity of Route 66. In the early 1920s, Avery saw the need for better roads through his state, and as chairman of the state highway commission, he helped plan the national system of numbered highways.

© Visit Tulsa

Avery was a strong advocate for the highway to take a southwest direction, and Tulsa’s 11^th Street Bridge, opened in 1916, was the safest place along the Arkansas River travelers could cross without taking a ferry. Today, Route 66 stretches 2,278 miles from its origin in Chicago to the highway’s end in Santa Monica, California.

“Working tirelessly behind the scenes, Tulsa’s Route 66 Commissioners continue the same forward-thinking momentum Cyrus Avery began almost 100 years ago,” said Josh Stout, chairman, Tulsa Route 66 Commission. “We are restoring and reinventing the “Capital of Route 66®” for the next century of dreamers, preserving the history while simultaneously investing in new growth across Tulsa’s corridor.”

© Visit Tulsa

Today, Tulsa’s stretch of Route 66 allows visitors to experience memorials to the road’s past with original and newer attractions, including Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza; Mother Road Market; Decopolis Discovitorium Art Deco museum and gift shop; Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios, which features the 21-foot-tall Buck Atom Muffler Man and its newest addition, Stella Atom Space Cowgirl.