Afton Station, a closed landmark along Route 66 in Afton, Oklahoma, and its remaining contents will be auctioned June 29 after its co-owners died within a period of less than two years.
The Oklahoma Route 66 Association on Thursday announced the auction on Facebook. The auction will begin that day at 10 a.m. at the station at 12 SE 1st St. (map here).
A pre-auction open house will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 18.
According to the placard, on the block will be Route 66 memorabilia and antiques, an RV camper, Buffalo Ranch memorabilia, an ATV, tools, household items, the buildings and more. Buffalo Ranch was a former roadside attraction along Route 66 in Afton.
According to an auction photo gallery, the auction also will include a Bob Waldmire-painted moving truck that’s been parked there for years and at least two Route 66 road signs.
Here’s the description:
Selling a 5,000 +/- square foot building (per county records) with 2 showrooms, shop and storage rooms. Showroom has overhead doors and walk-through doors, and are climate-controlled. Property also has a 38′ x 21′ detached garage for motor home, a 45′ x 20′ shed, a 30′ x 30′ quonset shop, a 15′ x 14′ utility shed and a 32′ x 25′ quonset shop. The showroom was formerly a Route 66 Station shop as well as a Packard museum. The shop has a metal I-beam with chain hoist. Owners: Estate of David Kane.
United Country Hendren & Associates in Jay, Oklahoma, is in charge of the auction. A more complete photo gallery of the items that will be up for sale is here.
Laurel Kane, 69, the matriarch of the Afton Station visitors center for nearly 15 years, died in January 2016 from a short illness after a fall at her home in Tulsa. She was 69.
Kane estimated she greeted about 7,000 Route 66 tourists a year from 18 countries at Afton Station. Visitors included late country-music star Roy Clark and actress Jeanne Tripplehorn.
Kane maintained a Ramblings of a Route 66 Business Owner blog that not only kept up with the goings-on at Afton Station but along the Route 66 corridor during her commutes from Tulsa. Her Afton Station Route 66 Postcards website also remains online, but for how long remains uncertain.
Her former husband, David Kane, 74, died in an accident at his home in Grove, Oklahoma, in August 2018. He kept a collection of his Packard automobiles at the station.
His car collection was sold and hauled away in December, so an auction of the station’s remnants couldn’t have been much of a surprise at this stage.
The Kanes’ daughter, Sarah, said in a Facebook comment she won’t attend the action, “but maybe for the best because it’s pretty heartbreaking.” She lives in the Chicago area.
David and Laurel Kane, who hailed from Connecticut, in 1998 bought the former D-X gas station, built along Route 66 during the 1930s, and spent two years restoring it. Laurel moved to Oklahoma permanently in 2002 and met Route 66 tourists at Afton Station several times a week, except for a couple of typically slow winter months. David Kane also kept his collection of vintage Packard automobiles and memorabilia there.
The fate of Afton Station remains unclear until after the auction. Regardless, it represents the end of a Route 66 era in that part of eastern Oklahoma. And it won’t be surprising if many Route 66 enthusiasts attend the auction to score Mother Road memorabilia or take home a souvenir of their memories of Laurel.
(Image of Afton Station in Afton, Oklahoma, in January 2016 by Mobilus in Mobili via Flickr)
Time marches on, but it is so sad to see what Laurel and David built slowly slip away. I sure hope someone can do something interesting with the structure that continues to benefit the Afton OK community and Route 66 travelers.