The teardown of a decades-old gazebo in Weatherford, Oklahoma, to make way for a large, Route 66-themed astronaut statue has blindsided or irritated some residents.
KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City interviewed one resident who said the city “out of nowhere” tore down the structure, noting it was an Oklahoma Centennial site in the 1990s.
The Weatherford Daily News also expressed surprise about the teardown:
City leaders insisted the teardown of the gazebo was duly discussed:
“It was in the paper a month ago,” Mayor Brown said. “I looked. I had a stack of papers from the past month. It was in the paper on January 29. It’s been on the radio several times. Every meeting I go to, I talk about it. I really don’t think it was a surprise. Whether or not people realized that the gazebo was coming down, we talked about this location. It’s had yellow tape around it for the last month, so if somebody was wondering they probably should’ve asked a question then. One of our city commissioners walked up and down Main Street, and asked business owners what their thoughts were prior to us picking this spot. They said it’d be great.” […]
“I thought it’d be an opportunity to generate more people in this area, and hopefully they spend a little money while they’re down here. We had a gazebo that was maybe around 25-30 years old. It wasn’t in the greatest shape. It was in a great location for us, so we decided to take the gazebo down. It’s still McPhetridge Centennial Park. We thought it was a good opportunity to not only talk about the centennial for the city, but also the centennial of Route 66.”
I strongly suspect the mayor’s insistence that the gazebo was discussed during city meetings is true. As one who has covered several municipalities during my career, I’ve encountered numerous instances where a few residents claim “we weren’t informed” when meetings actually were held on the subject and duly reported or legally posted in the newspaper.
In short, sometimes you have to take responsibility for your own ignorance.
Regardless, Brown apologized to those who were sentimental about the gazebo.
The mayor said the city received $1 million from the Oklahoma Route 66 Commission to add improved signs. The 30-foot-tall Route 66 astronaut statue is a nod to the Stafford Air and Space Museum and recently deceased NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, a Weatherford native.
The statue should be installed before 2026, which is Route 66’s centennial year.
The gazebo site also is where commemorative bricks and a time capsule were laid, and city leaders said those will stay there.
(Screen-capture image from KOKH video of the forthcoming astronaut statue in Weatherford, Oklahoma)
Speaking as an outsider but from a Route 66 perspective, the purpose of putting the Muffler Man downtown is to draw tourism into the heart of the city. Having it on the outskirts makes it too easy to get back on I-40 and skip downtown. In order to see McPhetridge Park’s Muffler Man , one essentially has to drive through town thereby possibly finding places to shop and support small business. Weatherford is a nice town with many small, unique businesses that will benefit from this project. Sadly enough, the gazebo was a beautiful structure but anything made of wood has a limited life span and with the rising cost of materials over the period of time it’s been there, perhaps this is the best solution. Route 66 fans will love it but so many younger people aren’t knowledgeable of the Route 66 phenomena. If you’ve ever been to Winslow, Az and stood on the famous corner, you will understand what the Muffler Men will draw in. And honoring a hometown space hero like General Thomas P. Stafford will always be the right thing to do.