Arrowood Trading Post - Route 66 - Catoosa, Oklahoma, USA.
N 36° 11.574 W 095° 43.934
15S E 254323 N 4008804
The former 'Chief Wolf Robe Hunt Trading Post' established in the 1950s, A Cafe & Curio Store selling Tribal Silver & Art, to 66 travellers. Renamed Arrowood Trading Post in 1990, located opposite the Blue Whale, Historic Route 66. Catoosa, Oklahoma
Waymark Code: WMWPD1
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 09/26/2017
Views: 13
The sign out front reads Arrowood Trading Post, but it was originally 'Chief Wolf Robe Hunt Trading Post' established in the 1950s, then becoming the Catoosa Trading Post and in the 1990's it reopened as Arrowood's Indian Arts and Silverworks, & now currently known as 'Arrowood Trading Post'.
Another example of period culture alongside Route 66, now empty & in decay, that may dissapear forever.
Apparently most travellers on Route 66 travelled in the cool of the night. This store opened at 3am & most business was done before 10am.
Located directly across old Route 66 from the iconoc Blue Whale in Catoosa, Oklahoma.
From the Deviant Art Website:
"I was surprised to learn that this had not been just another tourist trap that sold cheap gifts.
It was owned and operated by Wolf Robe Hunt (1905-1977) who was a full blooded Acoma Indian, who was famous for his Indian paintings and silversmithing. He had another trading post in Catoosa, but mainly due to competition from mass-produced "Indian" jewelry made overseas, that store struggled financially. In 1952 he decided that a change in location might help and so he opened up this shop on Route 66 directly across the road from his brother-in-law Hugh Davis, who would later build the Blue Whale. The new shop had gas pumps and a cafe (I swear every thing with four walls on Route 66 supposedly had a cafe in it at one time). The new location did much better and he closed the other shop in 1954.
Wolf Robe Hunt passed away in 1977. I don't know if the Trading Post closed then or sometime after that.
In 1991 Doug and Pam Jennings restored the building and reopened the shop. Doug Jennings was a silversmith and from the little information I've been able to find, the store did well to begin with. But for whatever reason the store closed sometime later in the 1990's. The building is now being used as an auto body shop."
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An article on the Arcoma Chief, & the Trading Post at Catoosa, can be read at: Google Books, Page 117
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