The 66-foot-tall gas pump in front of the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, neared completion last week with the installation of what will be a lighted medallion on top.
Officials are billing it the World’s Tallest Gas Pump, with the idea of the oversized landmark drawing visitors into their museum. The gas pump actually will serve as an observation deck.
KTUL-TV in nearby Tulsa reported on the globe being installed Friday:
Getting the 14-foot globe to the top of the sign was a project, and one that the museum has been looking forward to for months.
Clint Oare has been building parts of the sign himself and feels like a bit of a proud papa.
“I had a little bit of background being able to do stuff like that, the result is what you see outside,” said Oare. “This is by far the craziest thing I’ve ever decided to build, but it’s worth it.”
Much of the sign was donated, especially labor, from local companies like Bennett Steel.
“Mr. Bennett has lived here for 40 years and he’s a big advocate of anything that Sapulpa as a community needs help with or wants to grow with,” said Heath. “It’s just something that we couldn’t pass up.”
The station reports that only thing left to install on the gas pump is the railing, a handle, a hose and a coat of paint.
Fox 23 in Tulsa reports that when finished, the museum plans to submit the big gas pump for inclusion to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Here’s Fox 23’s report from the globe installation Friday:
The Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum has been open since August 2016. It’s off Route 66 on Sapulpa’s southwest side.
UPDATE: In a comment on Facebook, Lina Holmes at the museum said the big gas pump won’t be used as an observation deck as originally planned because of ADA and safety codes would have made the project too complicated.
(Image of the giant gas pump at Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum via Facebook)
A gas pump pumps gas. Therefore – unless people can fill up from it – this is not a gas pump. It is an imitation of a gas pump.