Cheesy Route 66: The Blue Whale of Catoosa

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One of the things I’ve mentioned in my reports along Route 66 (both this year and last year in Illinois) is how these “tourist traps” sprang up to get people out of their cars and into the town to spend money. When I was in Tulsa I found one of the cheesiest roadside attractions that I’ve seen along the Mother Road. (Understand, I haven’t even driven half of the road, so there’s probably plenty that I’ve missed!) This is a figure of a blue whale. Whoopty doo, right? It’s located outside of Tulsa in the town of Catoosa, Oklahoma. While it’s cheesy, it does have a sweet backstory: the man who built it, in the 70s (when it was obvious that Route 66 was dying), did so as a present to his wife, who liked whale figures. Well, she got a whale of a whale figure with this one, wouldn’t you say?? After the road died and the couple died, the site nearly did as well. However, with next year being the centennial of Route 66 and the general renewal in interest and preservation, it’s been cleaned up. It’s in a pond and is more or less a dock for fishing (catch and release only), a far cry from its former glory as a swimming facility with a small zoo. I grew up in the era of these goofy roadside things, so I suppose that’s one of the things that attracts me to driving along Route 66: it reminds me of all the things I saw out of the car window on the way to Florida as a child. The photo is the Blue Whale of Catoosa.