Route 66 Monument Plaques To Be Replaced After Being Vandalized

Thieves stole bronze plaques from a Route 66 monument in West Tulsa, and the Tulsa Route 66 Commission plans to replace them with plastic versions less likely to be stolen.

A bronze map was left behind at the West Tulsa Route 66 Gateway but shows signs it was nearly pried off. Rhys Martin, the President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and a member of the Tulsa Route 66 Commission said the stolen plaques were due for replacement.

“We'd already been looking at them because the pictures had faded a little bit; they'd been out there for a while,” he said. “Unfortunately, with the bronze plaques being liberated as it were, it sped up our timeline a little bit, but we'll get them replaced and in good shape before the Centennial gets here.

Martin said Route 66 tourism was expected to increase dramatically in 2026 during the Centennial year of the highway.

Josh Stout heads the Tulsa Route 66 Commission and said he recently found two smaller plaques stolen from another sign in Redfork.

“You can really see how it was twisted and pried off, so someone went to a great effort to remove them,” he noted, and said the Commission would work to replace them soon with a less valuable substitute. “It's a plastic sign. It holds the picture really well, people don't seem to graffiti it as much, and it doesn't have value like the bronze, so we don't have any of them stolen,” he said.