100 Years of the Mother Road: Wellston’s Route 66 revival

As we highlight the centennial of Route 66, News On 6 is taking a look at how one Oklahoma town fought for the Mother Road, suing when developers wanted to bypass it. Today, that court decision is still having an impact, as the community is seeing a resurgence 100 years in the making.

The midpoint of Route 66 in Oklahoma

Of the 400 miles of Route 66 in Oklahoma, one town sits right in the middle.

“We’re the midpoint of Route 66 in Oklahoma, which is kind of a cool thing to hang our hat on,” Route 66 Commission Chairman Thomas Tillison Jr. said.

The town of Wellston is halfway to Texas, halfway to Missouri and at one point in time was a key point along the Mother Road.

“We have photos of businesses down here — Main Street is packed. Every spot is full. Over time, it became less and less,” Andrew Steffenson said.

Like so many other small towns along Route 66, time ticked on, interstates moved in and people moved away. Wellston, though, faced an additional challenge: in the 1930s, developers almost took this town essentially off the map.

“As far as locally here, that’s a point of frustration for our small town, because it kind of crushed our small town,” Tillison said.

Tillison has lived here since 1980 and, like others here, is well versed on the town’s complicated history and strong resilience.

“We were a thriving community”

The year was 1932. Route 66 was six years old. Wellston was hotter than ever.

“We were a thriving community,” Tillison said. “We had multiple cotton gins, mercantile stores, car dealerships, pharmacies; our downtown was thriving.”

But federal highway planners wanted to straighten Route 66 in spots by creating a shorter, more direct path west. In Wellston, that meant a new alignment south of town, which became known as the “gap.”

“When they bypassed us, we look at more of a bypass than a gap,” Tillison said.

Knowing what it would do to traffic and the local economy, locals quickly fought back. By 1933, residents filed several lawsuits, which eventually made it all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The Court sided with the town, meaning the highway department was ordered to pave and maintain the loop through Wellston. But despite the victory, the gap was paved as well.

“It just has slowly deteriorated since we were bypassed because we weren’t the main thoroughfare anymore,” Tillison said.

By 1939, the number of cars on the gap exceeded the number on the loop.

Restoring Wellston’s History

Today, the town of Wellston is still a very unique spot along Route 66. There is Route 66, but a loop called 66B takes you into the town of Wellston.

Along 66B, Steffenson runs one of the few businesses on the loop and has old pictures in his office.

“It’s nice to see how Wellston was and how it could be,” Steffenson said.

He and many others in town are working to restore its history. New murals and landmarks are popping up, with plans for more this year. But perhaps the biggest draw to Wellston in recent years has to do with the smell of barbecue.

The Butcher BBQ Stand is a Wellston restaurant only open for lunch on weekends, but one that is gaining some fame outside of Oklahoma.

“Cutting meat and barbecuing on the weekends literally has been my whole life forever,” owner Levi Bouska said.

Bouska opened it in 2015 after growing up barbecuing with his dad and grandparents.

“When I first opened, it was just a 40-foot Conex, and everyone stood outside and waited in line,” Bouska said.

Word soon spread, and then people followed. And not just Oklahomans. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a line forms out front, long before the doors even open, with many of them taking Route 66 to visit Wellston specifically.

It’s something that’s been years in the making, and something people here hope is a sign of things to come.