ELK CITY, Okla. – Besides the quirky stops along Route 66, there are fun agricultural ones as well. Stopping to see agriculture along the Mother Road is a great way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and the 250th anniversary of the USA. One great place to enjoy is the National Route US 66 Museum’s Farm Machinery Museum and more.

This museum is one of many. They focus on the people who lived, worked and traveled along the route, and they covered a walk through all eight states. While there is fun to be had all through the complex, a highlight is the Farm and Ranch Museum Barn, Shed and Office donated by the Western Oklahoma Historical Society.

Collectors will enjoy farm models with horses and wagons along with an amazing array of broom-making equipment. They also offer a broom corn bale. A sign at the museum shares, “Broom corn was last grown in this area about 1965.”

It was fascinating to learn that the soil around Elk City was perfect for growing broom corn. It is not corn, but a type of sorghum with long fibrous tassels. By 1918, Elk City had two broom corn factories, competing with cotton gins and flour mills. A rare Carnegie U.S.A. Broom baler is also on display.

A cotton gin represents the cotton industry. The display includes the two last cotton bales from Elk City and Canute, Okla. An International 21 cotton stripper is on display that was used up until around 1960. Agricultural history is the best. There is also a plaque denoting the Wester Cattle Drive trail that brought over six million cattle from 1874 to 1888.

There are trucks, like the cool American Truck to the Model T Ford pickup and more. There are tractors along with horse and hand directed equipment and wagons like Studebaker. At this museum they include information about farm building as well like the Wagon Yard Wheel Wright with patterns for both the wagon wheel, and the wagon. Jacks and tools are also part of the information collectors can view. There is one section of a tool collection donated by Delbert Trew with labels depicting exactly what the tool is.

Horse shoeing equipment, saddles and details help share a bit of using horses in farming operations.

Machinery examples include a one-row McCormick-Deering Cultivator, a Go Devil, a one-row John Deere cotton stripper. Tractors come in all make and models from a small Mayrath to Caterpillar, Allis Chalmers, Farmall, Ford and more. An extensive tractor seat collection shares many, many model types.

Along with equipment, there is also farm art created by Augusta Isabella Corson. Then there is the metal art. The old iron outside of the museum. Windmills decorate farm tractors on steel along with harvest equipment in their working clothes. The original patina gives off its own farm beauty.

Besides the metal beauty of the vintage farm equipment outside the museum, there is some stunning blacksmith work that was done by Bob Kennemer’s blacksmith shop. He provided his collection of antique tools, anvils and forging equipment.  There is a Christmas tree comprised of horseshoes, same with an artistic metal dome. Ornate fencing is made using metal and farm tools like an array of wrenches, tractor seats and more.

Cowboy art is also on display at the museum. A huge bronze cowboy, long horn steer, and buffalo catch the eye. With cowboys come rodeos and the National Route 66 Museum has a Rodeo Hall of Fame. There are names that include both the cowboys and the broncos like Vodoo Child, Bucking Bull of the year 2007-2008. Part of the fun are the clothing items like vests, hats, chaps, boots and beaver hat. The trophies are huge, as is the history of these romanticized cowboys that take their very lives in their hands every time they hit the rodeo ring.

Located at 27217 W. 3rd St., Elk City Okla.; call 580-225-3542 for details.