Oklahoma Route 66 - Sapulpa

Rock Creek Bridge

Bricks and rusty steel trusses, Rock Creek Bridge

Overgrown ticket booths at the Tee Pee Drive-in

Tee Pee Drive-in

     The Rock Creek Bridge offers a crumbling brick roadway and plenty of rusty steel trusses. A lack of traffic also affords one a leisurely walk across. And be careful when you get back into your car and continue west on 66 by driving over the bridge - it is only one lane wide.
     "You'll find Ma, Pa and the kids at the drive-in," said one of Sapulpa's leading citizens upon leaving the gate. "We've found our summer's entertainment at the Teepee." - Sapulpa Daily Herald, May 7, 1950. The Tee Pee had just had its opening night, with a showing of "Tycoon" starring John Wayne and Laraine Day. A "gigantic fireworks display" thrilled the audience after the first show. The Tee Pee lasted longer than most outdoor movie theaters, closing at the turn of the century. 
     These images from the outskirts of Sapulpa conjure up what I originally expected to find all along modern day Route 66 - narrow country lanes, crumbling concrete and brick roadways, and long abandoned antiques like the Rock Creek Bridge and Tee Pee Drive-In. No big cities, no functioning businesses, no natural wonders, and no people. Of course, my original expectations came from all the 66 photography that tends to focuses on such vintage stuff. And rightly so that it does. But we all know better now.