Pops 66 Soda Ranch: A view of the modern structure that houses the Pops 66 Soda Ranch catches the eye of travelers as they arrive at the business. The large cantilevered roof over the entrance and gas pumps is 100 feet long. The facility has won multiple architecture awards. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Soda Bottles: Seven hundred varieties of soda fill the soda shop at Pops 66 Soda Ranch in Arcadia, Okla. The bottles are neatly arranged by color of soda on shelves in the aisles and in the wall of coolers. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Big Bottle: The largest soda bottle in the world greets visitors as they approach the Soda Ranch. The huge bottle is made with a steel frame and glass tubes inside. LED lights within the glass tubes allow the bottle to light up the skies in various bright LED colors at night. The bottle stands 66 feet high (in reference to Route 66, which passes in front of the store). The bottle weighs in at four tons…it’s a big one! Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
As we travel around the country in our van, we are always on the lookout for the next “roadside attraction”. The attractions vary greatly from stop to stop, but the common thread is that these attractions are unique and fun stops.
These pauses in our travel days allow us to stretch our legs and see what makes the attraction a popular stop.
We encountered a very unique attraction in Oklahoma while driving across the state on Route 66 a few months ago. The first thing that makes this roadside attraction different is that it is a business. Many attractions are unique landscape features or clever art installations or whatever, but occasionally a business will qualify as an attraction.
The business in Oklahoma is “Pops 66 Soda Ranch” in Arcadia, Okla. This business is a convenience store, gas station, restaurant, and soda shop. All of that and the business is housed in an award-winning modern architectural building. However, the theme of the entire place is the soda shop.
Pops 66 Soda Ranch can’t be missed when traveling north on Route 66 out of Oklahoma City. Not long after leaving the city, travelers are greeted by the largest soda bottle in the world. The steel frame bottle features glass tubing filled with LED lights. During the day the bottle appears white but at night the outdoor bottle can light the skies with multiple colors of bright LED lights.
Visitors can see rows of colorful sodas through the glass front of the shop before ever entering the doors. The front windows are all glass and extend up to the level of a two-story building. The sodas are grouped by color, such as orange, purple for grape flavor, etc. When the sun’s rays strike the wall the various colors make the windows look like stained glass.
The most unique feature of the sodas is the sheer volume of various flavors. The Pops 66 Soda Ranch features more than 700. The most popular flavor sold is root beer, and the shop features more than 80 varieties of that flavor.
There are flavors that are very unique such as buffalo wing soda or sweet corn soda and hundreds of others. There are some flavors that are just gross and I will leave it at that; use your imagination and it is probably on the shelf.
There is a large selection of cold sodas in the wall of coolers and rows of bottled soda along each aisle in the shop. It may sound weird but we found it fun to just walk the aisles and explore the various brands and flavors of sodas on display. After all, there are sodas made in the U.S. and over a dozen countries around the world.
The restaurant portion of the business serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner and features salads, sandwiches, burgers, and hot dogs during the mid-day when we stopped at the shop. Many flavors of ice cream and shakes are also popular items at the 1950s diner inspired restaurant. The menu includes full dinners as well as the popular lunch menu.
In addition to the modern structure at the Soda Ranch, there is outdoor seating and a park-like environment throughout the grounds and a huge parking lot to accommodate the crowds during the high traffic season. The business, which is a big roadside attraction, attracts about 500,000 visitors every year.
Route 66 has dozens of attractions in each of the eight states that it passes through and Pops 66 Soda Ranch is a must stop when traveling the highway in Oklahoma. Be prepared, this is not a quick stop and restroom break; be prepared to spend much longer as it is easy to become much more of a soda shop fan than you ever expected!
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Outside Looking In: Visitors are greeted by a glass soda wall almost two stories high as they approach the entrance to the Soda Ranch. The front of the structure is all glass and angled as seen in the photos. The bottles in the window are for display only, but all types of sodas in the windows are available inside the shop. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Colorful Bottles: The wall of bottles as seen from inside the building glow when the sunlight hits the colorful sodas, making the windows appear to be stained glass from different angles. In the foreground at the bottom of the photo are several small tables for visitors to sit and enjoy a soda and snack. The opposite end of the building houses the restaurant, which is decorated like a 1950s diner. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Soda Wall: As we sat and enjoyed a cold soda I kept admiring the colorful bottles on the angled wall above our heads with the light shining through the various varieties. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com