Tulsa grew rich on oil, and it still carries the confidence of a city that once called itself the Oil Capital of the World. In the 1920s the fields around it produced fortunes, and the money went into buildings, so that the downtown skyline is one of the best collections of Art Deco architecture in the United States, with ornate towers and a church, Boston Avenue Methodist, that looks like a cathedral from the future. A seventy-six-foot statue of an oil driller, built for an exposition and known as the Golden Driller, stands on the fairgrounds with one hand on a derrick, and the locals love him.
Route 66 runs through the middle of the city, and Tulsa has a fair claim to be one of its capitals. Cyrus Avery, a local businessman, helped create the highway in the 1920s and is called the Father of Route 66, and a memorial bridge named after him spans the Arkansas River on the west side of town. Old motels, neon signs and diners are scattered along 11th Street, among them the Meadow Gold sign, a restored glowing relic. To the east, in Catoosa, the Blue Whale, a smiling concrete whale with a pond, was built in the 1970s by a man as a gift for his wife and has become one of the road's best-loved oddities.
There is a darker chapter, too. In 1921 a white mob attacked the Greenwood district, a prosperous Black neighbourhood known as Black Wall Street, killing many people and burning more than a thousand homes and businesses in what is now recognised as the Tulsa Race Massacre. Greenwood Rising, a history centre opened in 2021, tells the story, and a visit is a sobering but necessary part of understanding the city.
As a rider, you will find Tulsa an easy city to cross, with wide streets, good surfaces and plenty of fuel at every junction. The old road leaves on the east side and heads toward Catoosa, Claremore and the rolling green hills of Oklahoma. Summer is hot and stormy, with tornado warnings in spring, so keep an eye on the weather. Eat barbecue or a chicken-fried steak, and enjoy the slower pace. The Gilcrease and Philbrook museums are among the best in the region, and both are worth an hour if a rest day arrives.