Representing Mayor G.T. Bynum, Economic Development Director Kathy Taylor hosted a dedication of Tulsa’s newest Vision 2025 project – new Route 66 artwork in Howard Park, 2510 Southwest Boulevard. District 2 City Councilor Jeannie Cue, Tulsa County District 2 Commissioner Karen Keith, and the artist, Patrick Sullivan, joined Taylor for the dedication.
Entitled Route 66 #1, Route 66 #2, and Route 66 #3, the sculpture consists of three Indiana limestone monoliths with themes to celebrate Tulsa’s history during the era of Route 66. Each monolith has its own theme: Transportation, Industry/Native American, and Art Deco/Cultural.
The artwork shows the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation, Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Osage Nation chiseled in proximity to Tulsa’s two alignments of Route 66. The original 1926-1932 alignment of Route 66 along Admiral Place (formerly called Federal Boulevard) shadows the Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee Nation boundaries. The artwork also includes greetings from the three tribes written in English and tribal text along with the phonetic pronunciations.
This $90,000 Route 66 enhancement project was funded by the Vision 2025 sales tax approved by Tulsa County voters in 2003.
This is the second time that Patrick Sullivan has created public art for Tulsa and worked outdoors at a park to create it. In the summer of 2014, Sullivan worked at Guthrie Green to create the sculpture that now stands at the Charles L. Hardt Operations Maintenance and Engineering Center, home of Tulsa’s Traffic Operations Division at 4015 N. Harvard Ave. That artwork honors three major contributors to roadway networks: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the U.S. interstate highway system; Cyrus Avery, Tulsa’s Father of Route 66, and Clinton Riggs, a Tulsa Police officer who invented the yield sign.
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