EXTRA! - The heart of the matter

HIT THE SWEET SPOT

Bring your date to the CSRHC

On Friday, February 9, from 7 to 9 p.m., impress your Valentine with a date night at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center!

“Museum After Dark: Date Night at the Museum” is a unique Valentine’s date opportunity! Inside the museum, couples can explore the Discover Greatness: An Illustrated History of the Negro Leagues exhibit, while enjoying baseball-themed hors d’oeuvres, a choice of romantic beverages, and typical Valentine’s treats to supplement the museum experience. The Humphrey Heritage Village will be open as a part of this event so participants can see Oklahoma’s history in a new light! Date Night at the Museum is $30 per person (it will be $60 for a couple to attend). Register for Date Night by clicking here.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Valentine’s Day Couples Night

On Wednesday, February 14, the Pioneer Woman Museum and Statue will open its doors for a Valentine’s Day Couples Night between 7 and 9 p.m.

SHORT AND SWEET

Visit the Valentine Diner at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum!

For the ultimate Route 66 experience, visit the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. The museum offers visitors a personal journey through the history of the nation’s most revered highway. Among the exhibits, guests can experience everything from the Dust Bowl era to sitting at a 1950s-style diner booth as many vacationing families did while traveling on Route 66.

The fully restored Route 66 Diner, a prefabricated Valentine Diner made by the Valentine Manufacturing Company from the 1940s, is also on-site. While it is no longer a working diner, visitors can get a feeling for its past use, complete with a grill, counter, and ten stools. The diner at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum site was initially known as the Porter House Café. It was opened for business on Route 66 in 1956 in Shamrock, Texas, by M.L. Porter and his wife, Alta. After its closure in 1964, it eventually became part of the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum exterior exhibits. The Valentine Diner was lovingly restored by the Smith family and dedicated on May 28, 2003. 

Did you know?

The Valentine Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas, built pre-fabricated steel Valentine Diners between 1938 and 1974. They were the only significant diner manufacturer outside the Northeast. The design of the Valentine Diner was a small, efficient space, which was a radically different approach from that of any other diner manufacturer. The company produced most factory-built diners west of the Mississippi and shipped them to various locations nationwide. They had five to ten stools around an L-shaped counter, often featuring a take-out window. There were no tables, so these diners often experienced a “standing room only” crowd.

The diners cost $5,000. Those who purchased and operated Valentine Diners agreed to place 10% of their daily gross income in a lock box at the diner’s front door to make payments over a period of time. Each month, a Valentine Company representative—the only person with a key to the lockbox—would stop by train, open the box, and send the collected payments to the manufacturer.

The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum is located off of I-40 at Exit 65. Call 580-323-7866 for more information. Learn more about Valentine Diners at the Kansas Historical Society.