I’m a bit surprised no one has done this before, but someone recently added a grave marker for Grandpa Joad from “The Grapes of Wrath” film at the west end of Route 66’s landmark Pony Bridge near Bridgeport, Oklahoma.
Jonathan Dobbs alerted the Historic Route 66 group on Facebook about the wooden grave marker, simply marked “Joad” on a cross, a few hundred feet from the bridge.
In the Oscar-winning 1940 film based on the classic novel of the same name, Grandpa Joad dies while his extended family — uprooted by the Dust Bowl and the Depression — travels west on Route 66 to California.
The family buries the deceased man near Route 66 where they stopped after crossing the bridge, bringing as much dignity to the ceremony as their poverty allowed before heading west again.
I remember seeing the film for the first time on television as a teenager. The burial scene left quite an impression, as did other scenes in the film.
The Joads are fictional, but the mass migration of Okies and Arkies during the Depression was real. Between 200,000 to 500,000 of them moved west.
Dobbs included screenshots from the film where the overloaded Joad vehicle is pulling off the side of the road after crossing the Pony Bridge, which had been open for less than a decade during the film’s production. He also included an image of the road and bridge from a roughly similar angle.
Dobbs said on Facebook Messenger he knows who erected the marker, but he “doesn’t want to be known, just in case of legalities.”
Dobbs acknowledged the creator of the marker is not a local to that part of western Oklahoma.
“The Grapes of Wrath” film, based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, was directed by John Ford and is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won two, including Best Director.
Ford shot the movie on location along Route 66 in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
The Pony Bridge, aka the William H. Murray Bridge, remains one of Route 66’s most iconic spans. Built in 1934, it stretches more than 3,900 feet over the South Canadian River and consists of 38 yellow “pony” trusses, hence its nickname.
The bridge in 2022 underwent an extensive rehabilitation and widening project, but its distinctive trusses were preserved.
(Images courtesy of Jonathan Dobbs)