OK County 66 - John's Place(57)

ARCADIA

Just outside Arcadia on Old Route 66, there is a collection of things like none you've seen before. John's Place is a museum that celebrates the essence of Route 66 which, for me, is a wide variety of crazy stuff. But you don't have to travel the entire length of 66 to get a peek at what The Mother Road feels like.

I interrupted John in the middle of two of his newer projects. One is a classic car and the other is the Statue of Liberty. Honestly, I wouldn't have been all that surprised if I had walked around a corner and saw a full sized Lady Liberty on his property. But, it was a scale model in his garage lying on her back as John prepared the metal base she was going to mounted on. The smell of hot metal filled the air as he used the grinder to make sure she was going to fit on the base. It made me miss shop class! He stopped what he was doing and showed me around his place.

The first stop was his sign in book. These small museums can qualify for funding and attention if they can prove people actually visit them. So be sure to sign every guest book you see. John's book was filled with people from every country on the planet that were taking a tour of our wonderful Route 66. I saw Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Canada, and Uruguay and I only turned one page. He said he has many many books that look exactly like it. He said, "I'm more popular is Spain than I am in Oklahoma!" I laughed because it was funny, but it proved the point of this project. Us Okies need to know that there is a ton of cool stuff near us that we should go see. And, and you can see from the photos below, there's a lot of great things in John's collection. From the Herbie, the Love Bug sticking out of his second story barn, to his trusty dog Buddy. Buddy was a super sweet dog. He was glad I was there, but he didn't need to stop and get pets which was a little agonizing for me. I need to pet Buddy!! John told me he was abused and he rescued him so he likes to look at people but not interact too much. Sweet boy!!

As I roamed around John's Place, I could feel the nostalgia, the hard work he's put in, and the silliness that we all need in our lives. Without a little silliness, what's the point of being here? If you go to John's Place, you'll get your fill of it. Don't forget to go see his life sized replica of Fillmore from the movie "Cars". "I'm telling you, man. Every third blink is slower." HA! Great movie. And John's place is a great museum. Go see it!!

13441 OK 66, Arcadia

405-396-2055

Entry Fee: Free, but donations are appreciated

Hours: Sun to Sat-12:00 to 6:00

No website available

Jonathan Elmore ©2025