What goes 'Round

By Steve Lackmeyer

Published: June 22, 2007

ARCADIA — Ernest "Butch” Breger is a living Route 66 icon, welcoming guests into the world-famous "Round Barn” next to the former filling station he's called home his entire life.

Breger's introduction to the world came in what is considered the Bible of the highway — Michael Wallis' 1990 book "Route 66: The Mother Road.” Since then, Breger has been featured in three movies and countless books and articles about Route 66.

Breger points to the visitor registry as proof the Round Barn is a top attraction among Route 66 tourists, with sign-ins including visitors from England, Sweden, France, Germany and Japan.

The Round Barn is surrounded by highway businesses including Hillbillees Cafe and Bed & Breakfast and Two Brothers Pizza. But Breger is expecting the biggest crowds may hit next month with the opening of POPS — a decidedly iconic roadside gas station, convenience store, cafe and tribute to America's love affair with soda pop.

"Everybody is waiting for POPS to open,” Breger said. "We had a big stack of information about it and people came in and took every one of them.”

POPS is no ordinary pit stop. The design by Route 66 Museum architect Rand Elliott features a 66-foot-high pop bottle that will light up at night. POPS is the creation of Aubrey McClendon, chairman and chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp., an Oklahoma City-based natural gas company. And when he ventured to build a new Route 66 icon, McClendon approached Wallis, whose celebrity has only grown since he voiced the sheriff character in last year's love letter to Route 66 — the animated movie "Cars.”

"Some people might think an energy company is an unlikely source for folks who are interested in preservation and economic development of a small Route 66 town,” Wallis said. "But Aubrey McClendon is a damn good example.”

Wallis said he made a prediction to McClendon and Elliott about how the design for POPS might be received by Route 66 travelers.

"I told them, ‘if you can pull this off — and they are — you're going to have an instant iconic stop along Route 66,'” he said. "You've got to have a gimmick.

"Whether it's a 66-foot soda bottle with a neon straw or a phalanx of legions of colored soda bottles in the window, or whatever, you've got to have a gimmick,” Wallis said. "And this is a big-time gimmick, and it's going to pull a lot of people in.”

Other advice offered by Wallis:

"You've got to have a liars' table. You've got to have a big round table where the old gents and the ladies of the village can come down every morning, get their familiar cup, fill it up with java, and straighten out the world right there ... You can't just cater to Norwegian bikers or Mr. and Mrs. America and their two kids and a Bassett Hound in their Volvo motoring across the country.”

Achieving that balance is one of many challenges Elliott and POPS' new manager, Marty Doepke, faced.

Plans include a "communal table” and pictures depicting Route 66 scenes from across the state.

"There will be local color,” Elliott said. "We're hoping there will be retired people and farmers who will come in and enjoy a cup of coffee.... but we also want to appeal to the couple from Hawaii driving the highway, or a couple coming in from the city for dinner.”

Elliott's work has won numerous awards, and his portfolio includes one of Oklahoma City's newest landmarks — the Chesapeake Boathouse along the Oklahoma River. His ties to McClendon go back 19 years and include design of Chesapeake's corporate campus at NW 63 and Western Avenue.

But Elliott's ties to Route 66 go deeper. He was born along the highway in Clinton, and designed the town's Route 66 Museum. Route 66, he says, "is in my veins.”

"I was looking for an ingredient that could be a signature item for POPS,” Elliott said. "Certainly Route 66 is all about getting people to stop. There was always some interesting attraction.”

Elliott said the idea — and the name "POPS” — clicked with McClendon, whose father went by the name "Pop.”

And when POPS opens sometime next month, it will feature 1,400 varieties of soda (400 at the premises, another 1,000 can be ordered at a kiosk) and a design Elliott hopes will usher in a new future for the mother road.

Elliott said the location, previously a closed run-of-the-mill gas station, was chosen because of its Arcadia address, the Deep Fork Tree Farm and endless green rolling hills to the south.

Elliott promises a surprise awaits visitors who exit to POPS rear outdoor patio, which opens up to a grove of 66 Oklahoma Redbuds.

"You come into the building, you'll get this fabulous smell of food going on, the bustle of the market, people rushing in to get things,” Elliott said. "Go out the south door, and it's quiet. You are protected from that noise. We have walls on the side, and land of peace and tranquility is there for you to enjoy.”

Doepke envisions the patio as the perfect spot for couples wishing to dine on some of the area's best steaks, capped off with a fine wine. He promises to also offer the traditional Route 66 fare — a burger, fries and of course, a good soda pop.

Elliott points out many of Oklahoma's Route 66 attractions are nostalgic trips back in time — the Blue Whale in Catoosa, Miami's Coleman Theater, or the Round Barn. He thinks POPS will join their ranks as an Oklahoma Route 66 icon — but with a twist.

"The structural element is the excitement,” Elliott said. "It is the future. It represents what technology we can do, what structurally we can do today. It reaches, it thrusts out to the future.”

So what's next? McClendon, busy overseeing one of the state's largest energy companies with more than 5,000 employees, wasn't available Thursday to discuss his 5,000-square-foot "gas station.”

Ask Elliott and Doepke about McClendon's future with Arcadia and Route 66 and they only smile. Wallis suspects more remains to be written about McClendon's ultimate legacy on Route 66. "There is more to come,” Wallis advises, "believe me, from Aubrey, on this road.”