The new owner of Afton Station in Afton, Oklahoma, wants to put a Route 66-related business there but is unsure what type. So he’s appealing to the Route 66 community for ideas.
Louis Cox, a retired 22-year Army veteran from nearby Ketchum, Oklahoma, purchased the former gas station for $72,000 during an auction Saturday where the building and its remaining contents — including a large amount of Route 66 memorabilia — were sold off.
The deaths of Afton Station’s co-owners in less than two years prompted the auction. Laurel Kane. 69, died in January 2016 from a short illness after a fall at her home in Tulsa. Her former husband, David Kane, 74, died in an accident at his home in Grove, Oklahoma, in August 2018. The Kanes, who hailed from Connecticut, in 1998 bought the former D-X gas station, built along Route 66 during the 1930s, and spent two years restoring it.
Cox said during a phone interview Monday he wanted to buy a property that will provide him some income before his four sons begin to go to college in a few years. What type of business that would be in Afton Station, he doesn’t yet know.
“We just bought it as an investment,” he said. “We’re leaning for anything that promotes Route 66.”
Cox acknowledged he’s not a Route 66 enthusiast, although he holds several memories of the Mother Road from his years of travel. He said he visited David Kane several times at Afton Station because Kane was a soccer coach for one of his sons.
So Cox is asking Route 66 fans for business ideas for Afton Station, whether it be a restaurant, shop or anything like that. In the meantime, he said he and business partner Teresa McCoin of rural Afton likely would use Afton Station was a temporary antique shop or flea market for six months or so until a more permanent business is found.
Cox said he’d install a suggestion box for ideas at the station next week. He also is putting out his phone number (918-782-9945) and McCoin’s (918-533-7738) so people can call with ideas, as well. He said he’d give a $50 reward to the person whose idea becomes a reality.
Cox said he wasn’t bothered by the prospect of a slew of phone calls from Route 66 enthusiasts.
“If we get one good idea out of that batch, it’ll be worth it,” he said.
Longtime Route 66 fan Pat Bremer and Oklahoma Route 66 Association President Rhys Martin attended the auction. Much of the memorabilia was scattered to the four winds. A Minnesota car dealership bought the U-Haul truck painted by late Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire. An Arizona auction company bought another Waldmire painting. Memorabilia from Buffalo Ranch, a former Route 66 attraction in Afton, likely will go to the new Buffalo Ranch on the north edge of town.
Bremer wrote this Saturday night in a Facebook post:
Have to say I was good going into this auction of Laurel’s stuff, but afterwards it hit me that it was the last time I’d likely ever step foot into the old gas station on Route 66 that she brought back to life over 15 years ago. Even though she’s been gone 3 years and I’ve not been to Afton Station since then, the finality of today’s estate auction hit me on the drive back to our motel today. A piece of our Route 66 trips through northeast Oklahoma was gone for good. Sad, yes, but makes you appreciate the memories even more.
(Hat tip to Rhys Martin and Pat Bremer; image from Afton Station auction courtesy of Rhys Martin)
A real mix of emotions with this…don’t know what to say. Best wishes to the new owner.