Discover Catoosa: Route 66 and Maritime History

Catoosa’s cultural and historical themes offer several distinct ways to explore during a visit. Route 66, shipping, and museums appeal to different interests, ranging from a historic landmark and a guided tour to an educational offering and two museums with their own focus. When planning your trip, you can first consider whether you want to focus on a single landmark, a community’s history, maritime topics, or collections.

Route 66: Landmarks and Local History

The Blue Whale of Catoosa is a historic landmark on Route 66. The Catoosa Route 66 Monument honors the community’s history along the Mother Road. These two connections highlight different sides of the Route 66 story: a single landmark and the history of the community along the road. This lets you explore Catoosa through both a specific landmark and its local history. For planning your trip, it may help to distinguish between the two: Would you like to focus mainly on one landmark or on the community’s history along the Mother Road?

Maritime Topics: Tour and Educational Offering

A guided tour of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa gives visitors the opportunity to see tugboats and barges on the canal. The Oklahoma Maritime Education Center offers a different perspective: visitors can learn about the history of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System and explore the tugboat M/V Charley Border. The offerings focus on different aspects. On the tour, the vessels on the canal are the main sights; at the center, the focus is on the history of a navigation system and a named tugboat. When choosing between these maritime topics, you can consider whether you would rather see tugboats and barges or learn about the system’s history and explore the tugboat.

Museums with Distinct Focuses

The Catoosa Historical Society Museum is housed in the city’s old train station. The station gives the museum a specific architectural point of reference: you can also view the museum’s location as a former train station. For travelers interested in history as it relates to a particular place, this connection offers a distinct perspective.

The D.W. Correll Museum consists of two buildings. One houses vintage cars restored by Correll. The second contains rocks, gemstones, minerals, and seashells from around the world. This layout makes it easy to find your way: one building focuses on restored vehicles, while the other features a collection of natural materials and seashells from around the world. This makes it easy to distinguish the museums’ two areas of focus rather than viewing them as one unified collection.

When planning your trip, you can prioritize the topics according to your interests: Route 66 connections, maritime history, or the museums’ distinct areas of focus. This selection gives your trip a specific thematic framework and can also help guide your search for hotels in Catoosa.

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