A compromise between state and local officials will preserve one mile of the fabled Ribbon Road of original Route 66 in northeast Oklahoma after the county voted recently to grind up the asphalt on the three-mile stretch.
KSNF-TV in nearby Joplin, Missouri, reported that Miami Mayor Bless Parker, state Rep. Steve Bashore, Lt. Gov. and state tourism head Matt Pinnell, Oklahoma Department of Transportation officials and Ottawa County Commissioner Scott Hilton agreed to preserve part of the Ribbon Road as is.
Hilton said Tim Gatz, Oklahoma Department of Transportation secretary, received permission through ODOT officials to leave one mile of the “Ribbon Road” untouched.
“The one-mile road will be reclaimed and restored, but we (the city) will need to secure funding,” Parker said.
The article also contains a letter from Bashore that details the compromise.
Oklahoma Route 66 Association President Rhys Martin, reached by Facebook Messenger, said the compromise didn’t involve his organization directly.
“Our Board is still discussing this development, but I can say that this is good progress. Our goal is to preserve as much of the endangered three-mile stretch as possible, but we also recognize the necessity of the county to provide safe and reliable roads.
“If this is indeed what moves forward, we will absolutely need to stay engaged to help with a solution to prevent the untouched mile from further deterioration.”
An announcement less than two weeks ago by Ottawa County to reject a preservation proposal from the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and grind up the original 1922 asphalt on the historic highway drew widespread criticism, including from the association and the City of Miami — the latter which passed a resolution on Monday opposing the road’s destruction.
The preserved stretch of Ribbon Road, aka Sidewalk Highway, is marked as E140 Road.
When the highway was paved in the early 1920s a few years before the federal government created U.S. 66, the state of Oklahoma decided to make it only 9 feet wide. Legend has it the state had only enough money to cover half the distance between Miami and Afton. So it instead made the road half as wide.
(Image of the Sidewalk Highway in 2007 near Miami, Oklahoma, by gsamx via Flickr)
I don’t fully understand the state’s logic here (if you can preserve one mile, why not all three?), but preserving a mile Vs. losing it all is good progress, I guess.
Why not preserve/conserve the whole three miles? How much are the three miles used today?
I have a friend who in 1970 drove a Series IIA Land Rover from England to India. He came across ‘ribbon roads’ in India, where, when passing, each vehicle had to put two wheels on the
dirt strip either side of the tarred central section.