The Western Motel sign beside the old Route 66 roadway through Sayre.
Gorup de Besanez / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Oklahoma · Region

Route 66 West & the Washita

Old 66 from Clinton to Texola, two road museums, Sayre's domed courthouse, the Washita where Black Kettle's village was attacked, and Roman Nose canyon.

5 places to explore

West of Weatherford, Old 66 runs beside Interstate 40 through Clinton, Foss, Canute, Elk City, Sayre, Erick and Texola to the Texas line. The road was paved across Oklahoma by 1937, and its towns lived on gasoline, tourist courts and diners until the interstate came. Clinton has the Oklahoma Historical Society's Route 66 museum, Elk City a city museum complex with a hall for all eight Route 66 states, and Sayre a domed 1911 courthouse that appears in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath.

North of the interstate is the reservation assigned to the Cheyenne and Arapaho after 1869 and opened to non-Indian settlers in April 1892. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Tsistsistas and Hinono'ei, are governed from Concho, east of the region, and Cheyenne camping grounds became the towns of Hammon, Clinton, Thomas, Seiling and Watonga. On the Washita River outside the town of Cheyenne, in Roger Mills County, the 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer attacked the village of the peace chief Black Kettle at dawn on November 27, 1868. The National Park Service keeps the ground, with a trail from the overlook down to the village site.

In the east, north of Watonga, Roman Nose State Park fills a gypsum canyon of springs and carries the name of a Cheyenne chief who came home from Fort Marion and the eastern boarding schools.

What to See in Route 66 West & the Washita

5 places across the region, grouped by what they are.

Natural Areas

A small spring-fed cascade among trees and rocks at Roman Nose State Park.

Roman Nose State Park

Watonga

A canyon of gypsum cliffs and three springs north of Watonga, one of Oklahoma's first seven state parks, named for Henry Roman Nose, a Cheyenne chief who survived Fort Marion.

View details →

Historic Sites

A large Route 66 shield sign in front of the museum buildings of the Elk City complex.

Elk City Museum Complex

Elk City

Elk City's museums on old 66: the National Route 66 and Transportation Museum's drive through all eight states, a pioneer Old Town, a farm and ranch hall and a blacksmith shop.

View details →
The glass-fronted Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton under its red script sign.

Oklahoma Route 66 Museum

Clinton

The Oklahoma Historical Society's museum of the road in Clinton, decade by decade from the 1926 designation through the Dust Bowl and the war to the 1950s diner.

View details →
Grassland and low hills around the Washita battlefield in Roger Mills County.

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

Cheyenne

The bend of the Washita where the 7th Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne village at dawn on November 27, 1868, kept by the Park Service with a trail to the village site.

View details →

Architecture

The red brick Beckham County Courthouse in Sayre with its domed clock tower.

Beckham County Courthouse

Sayre

Sayre's domed 1911 courthouse, built to impress people stepping off the train and filmed by John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath once Route 66 came through the square.

View details →

Scenic Drives through Route 66 West & the Washita

Scenic Byway

Route 66 Across Oklahoma: Quapaw to Texola

About 376 miles of Route 66 from the Kansas line at Quapaw through Miami, Claremore, Tulsa, Chandler, Oklahoma City, Clinton, Elk City and Sayre to Texola.

376 mi · 8.5 hrs

Stories from Route 66 West & the Washita

Nature

Gobbling Grounds

In the sand country of far western Oklahoma an oak that lives mostly underground holds the cover for a prairie grouse that has lost nearly all of its range.

3 min read

Route 66 West & the Washita rewards the unhurried. Pick a base, fan out, and let the country between the headline stops surprise you.

← Explore more of Open Road Guide