On the Rocks

Buying myself something close to Christmas is a foolish endeavor, but sometimes I come across an item that I just gotta have – and that I can afford during the whirlwind of gift-buying season! Still, I won’t buy just ANY Route 66 tchotchke. When I first met Michael Wallis years ago and told him I had fallen in love with the highway, he gave me a prophetic warning. “You’ll end up collecting something,” he said in his familiar baritone. “Most people do. Make sure it’s something small.” As I sit here and type, a decade after that conversation, my office shelves are full of various relics from my road trips and research rabbit holes. My display case of lapel pins has a few sitting on top of it because there’s no room left inside it. I have a few framed art pieces propped in the corner because my walls are covered.

To be fair, I wasn’t planning to buy this little souvenir. It popped up on my eBay notifications and, although it excited me, I just left it. However, when the auction was a few hours from ending and there were no other bids, I decided to put in the minimum bid of $12 and see what happened. Well, now I am the proud owner of a Rock of Ages ceramic swan, another relic for my shelf.

And yet, what was it about this item that I found exciting in the first place? Because I love the Dairy King in far northeast Oklahoma and it’s hard to resist Oklahoma Route 66 history.

The Dairy King is a little burger stand and ice cream shop in the town of Commerce. The hometown of Mickey Mantle has a quiet stretch of Route 66 with a few landmarks – notably, Allen’s Fillin’ Station (which the Oklahoma Route 66 Association repainted a few years back) and the Dairy King, which is set up inside a converted filling station. Charles Duboise and his mother, Treva, have operated the business since 1980. Before that, it was a legit gas station that also sold frozen treats. In the early days (back to 1934 at least) the station was owned and operated by the Mullens family.

In addition to selling gasoline, fixing tires, and working on automobiles Jim Mullens sold rocks from the nearby mines to travelers. The centerpiece of the collection, according to a story written by Dave Hicks, was a “3 by 4 foot chunk of calcite crystal covered rock, the best of its kind in the tri-state area.” The story also mentions a 300 pound mass of galena lead crystals brought to the shop by a miner that had excavated it. The shop featured all manner of interesting minerals and rocks.

Some time in the mid-to-late 1940s, the Jim Mullens sold the small Marathon station to Mr. Broyles. For a few years, he operated a station at Commerce and Elm (just west of the stoplight on Commerce Ave) but in the early 1950s he built a new station south of the stoplight on South Mickey Mantle Boulevard. In 1952, Highway 66 was re-aligned in Commerce, bypassing downtown.

Rocks and minerals were scattered around the property and sold out of a small house next to the station itself. Many locals fondly recalled going up to Mullen’s station to enjoy a bottle of Coke and look at the pretty rocks.

Jim passed away in 1983 but his sons continued to operate the station well into the 21st Century. When the station was eventually sold, the rock collection scattered, too. The building is still there. It was a motorcycle shop for a while but today, in a funny bit of continuity, the business there sells granite countertops.

Although the Rock of Ages is gone now, that original Marathon station is still standing – and still dispensing sweet treats that the Broyles family started decades ago. Next time you’re in Commerce, stop at the Dairy King and talk to Charles Duboise. He’s got so many more stories to tell! Oh, and get a cookie.

By the way, Oklahoma has ANOTHER old station generally known as the ‘Rock of Ages’ – down in Arcadia! You can read about that station here.