Route 66 advocate named to Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame

Route 66 Interpretive Center, Chandler, OK

Sally Bourne Ferrell of Chandler, Oklahoma, an early leader in the creation of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and one of the champions in restoring a historic armory that became the Route 66 Interpretive Center, was announced as an inductee to the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame, according to a report in The Oklahoman newspaper.

The induction ceremony by the Oklahoma Historical Society will be at noon April 24 at the Artesian Hotel in Sulphur, Oklahoma.

The article listed some of Ferrell’s accomplishments:

She wrote a long-running series on historic buildings in Chandler for the Lincoln County News, and she was a leader in getting more than 20 buildings in Chandler placed on the National Register of Historic Places. She and her husband purchased several of these buildings and restored them. One of those buildings, the Mascho-Murphy building, became the home of the Lincoln County Historical Society, of which she was and remains a prominent leader. Ferrell was an early leader in the creation of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association. She also was active in saving and restoring the WPA-constructed National Guard Armory in Chandler and having it become the home of the Chandler Route 66 Interpretive Center.

Ferrell also served as an adviser for National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Oklahoma Historical Society.

One of the other inductees is former Tulsa World reporter John Wooley, who’s written a slew of books about Oklahoma history that includes “Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park,” a popular side trip in Foyil for Route 66 travelers.

(Image of the Route 66 Interpretive Center by ECV-OnTheRoad via Flickr)

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