Route 66’s most-photographed whale is back, and Catoosa, Oklahoma is celebrating hard

It’s reopening just in time

One of Route 66’s most photographed roadside stops sat behind construction fencing for nine months. Now it’s almost ready.

The Blue Whale of Catoosa, that 80-foot concrete whale grinning beside a pond in eastern Oklahoma, reopens on May 30, 2026, with a brand-new visitor center and a full day of celebrations.

The timing lines up with Route 66’s centennial year, since the highway got its designation on Nov. 11, 1926. But the whale’s own story starts with something smaller and sweeter than a highway anniversary.

A retired zookeeper sketched a whale for his wife

Hugh S. Davis spent his career as a zoologist at the Tulsa Zoo.

After he retired in the late 1960s, he started drawing plans for something unusual: a whale for the family pond. His wife Zelta collected whale figurines, so the shape made sense.

Hugh brought in his friend Harold Thomas, a welder, and the two got to work.

They spent two years welding an iron frame and slapping on hand-mixed concrete, hauling it five-gallon bucket at a time. By 1972, an 80-foot-long whale stood 20 feet tall beside the water.

Zelta got the surprise on their 34th anniversary

On Sept. 7, 1972, Hugh showed Zelta the finished whale.

It sat right next to a spring-fed pond on their property along Route 66, and he built it as a gift for their 34th wedding anniversary. The plan was simple: give their grandchildren a place to play.

Kids could slide down the tail, jump off a platform into the pond and climb a small ladder inside the whale that led up to a compartment in its head. It was a family backyard project, nothing more.

Travelers on Route 66 could not drive past it

The whale faced Route 66, and drivers kept pulling over. Hugh rolled with it.

He trucked in tons of sand, built picnic tables and hired lifeguards. He opened the grounds to the public and named the place Nature’s Acres.

Then he added a small zoo called the A.R.K., short for Animal Reptile Kingdom, housed inside a wooden ark-shaped building. Inside you could find reptiles, alligators, a snake pit and a prairie dog village.

A retirement project had turned into a full roadside attraction.

The trading post across the highway had its own story

Across the road from the whale stood the Arrowood Trading Post. Hugh’s brother-in-law, Chief Wolf-Robe Hunt, ran it.

A member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe, Chief Wolf-Robe Hunt had built a name for himself as a painter and silversmith.

Between the whale, the zoo and the trading post, the Davis family property became a natural pit stop for families driving Route 66 through Oklahoma.

You had a reason to pull over and three reasons to stay a while.

The whale went quiet after Hugh got sick

By the late 1980s, Hugh’s health had gone downhill, and he and Zelta could no longer keep the place running. The Blue Whale closed in 1988.

Hugh passed away in January 1990. Zelta followed in 2001.

Without anyone to care for it, the whale and the grounds fell apart. Paint peeled off in sheets.

Concrete crumbled. Weeds swallowed the picnic area.

For a stretch of years, the big blue whale just sat there by the pond, fading.

Volunteers repainted the whale back to bright blue

In the 1990s, a fresh wave of interest in Route 66 put the neglected whale back on people’s radar. By 1996, the Catoosa Chamber of Commerce organized a push to save it.

Volunteers and employees from a local hotel raised money, and by 1997 the whale wore a fresh coat of its original bright blue. The picnic area came back to life too.

Hugh and Zelta’s son, Blaine Davis, stepped in as caretaker and kept the grounds in shape for years after.

Catoosa bought the whale in 2021

The City of Catoosa purchased the property from the Davis family in 2021 and turned it into a city-run park.

Picnic tables went in, a small gift shop opened, and visitors could still walk through the whale and climb a ladder to the head.

Swimming in the pond ended for safety reasons, but the rest of the experience stayed intact. You could show up any day, explore the grounds, snap photos from every angle and never pay a cent.

The whale stayed free.

Nearly $2 million is reshaping the whole site

In June 2025, the city broke ground on a major renovation.

A $1.8 million grant from the Oklahoma Route 66 Commission funded the project, and the goal was clear: have everything ready for Route 66’s centennial celebrations running throughout 2026.

Oklahoma has more than 400 drivable miles of Route 66, the most of any state.

The state created a Route 66 Centennial Commission to coordinate yearlong events and preservation projects, and the Blue Whale landed near the top of the list.

A whale pod playground and neon signs light up Catoosa

The new visitor center sits at the heart of the renovation. Around it, the city added a whale pod playground, a whale tail sculpture and a walking trail.

New neon signage already glows over the Catoosa skyline at night. Expanded parking, better lighting and refreshed landscaping fill out the rest.

The old A.R.K. structure got taken apart and stored during construction, but plans call for working it into the new layout. The whole park looks different now.

The grand opening runs from a 5K to fireworks

Mark Saturday, May 30, 2026. The site opens at 8 a.m. with the inaugural Route 66 Blue Whale Run, a 5K and fun run.

At noon, craft, art and food vendors set up. A ribbon-cutting ceremony kicks off at 2 p.m. Live music starts at 4:30 p.m., and the day wraps with a fireworks show.

The whole thing runs until 8 p.m., so you can show up early for the run or late for the music and still catch something good.

Fifty years later, the whale still makes people pull over

More than 50 years after Hugh Davis finished his creation, people from around the world still stop to see the smiling whale in its little pond.

What started as one man’s anniversary gift to his wife grew into one of the most recognized landmarks on Oklahoma’s stretch of Route 66. You can walk up to it, walk through it and take as long as you want.

It costs nothing. The whale is still here, still blue, still grinning at the road.

Visit the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma

You can find the Blue Whale at 2600 N. Highway 66 Expressway in Catoosa, about 14 miles northeast of Tulsa. Admission is free.

The site reopens on May 30, 2026, after its renovation, and regular hours run daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can walk through the whale, explore the new visitor center and grab Route 66 souvenirs at the gift shop.

If you’re driving Route 66 through Oklahoma, the detour takes minutes and the whale is right on the road.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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