In the far northeastern corner of Oklahoma, a stretch of old Route 66 leaves I-44 exit 313 from the town of Miami, zig-zagging to the Kansas border through a hardscrabble former mining region. The first of these towns, Miami, holds the magnificent Spanish Revival–style Coleman Theater, built in 1929 and luxuriating in the riches that came out of the surrounding lead and zinc mines. The next town along, Commerce (pop. 2,426), was another old mining town, noteworthy as the boyhood home of the late, great Yankee player Mickey Mantle, in whose honor the old Route 66 alignment down Main Street has been renamed.
Quapaw, the first or last Oklahoma town you visit, depending upon your direction, is worth a look for the many murals painted on the walls of downtown businesses. It’s three miles from the Kansas border.
