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Living Life to the Fullest In Southwest Missouri

Route 66 Commerce

Route 66 Commerce

A U.S. president lived here.

A baseball great learned to play the game here.

An infamous lawless duo kidnapped and murdered people here.

The country’s most iconic highway cuts right through here.

This is Commerce, Oklahoma.

route 66 commerce vintage

Mining Days

Like many towns in the surrounding area, Commerce was once Indian Territory – in this case, the land of the Quapaw Indians. In 1906, a mining camp named Hattonville was formed here after the discovery of zinc. The Commerce Mining and Royalty Company bought the camp, and then formally platted the town of Commerce in 1914. In 1916, a municipal government was formed.

During this time, President Harry S. Truman set up residence here to oversee the mining company that he owned with two partners.

Did you know that Truman lived in Commerce, or even that he owned a mining company?

Thanks to Charles Duboise, co-owner of Dairy King and the walking encyclopedia of Commerce, I learned that bit of trivia.

dairy king truman

Truman wrote about his time in Commerce in a letter to his beloved Bess, and you can read the letter in Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959.

Route 66

Once the mining era wound down, a new era began: the Route 66 years. In 1926, Route 66 came to town, and in 1927 a Marathon service station was built on Main Street/Route 66.

dairy king vintage marathon

This building (100 N. Main Street) is still in operation today as a diner; it’s the Dairy King owned by Charles Duboise and his mother Treva.

dairy king owners
Treva and Charles at Dairy King

Read about the incredible banana split I enjoyed (along with the history lesson I received) at Dairy King right here.

Here’s a bit of trivia, courtesy of Treva: The original Route 66 highway has square corners (like the square corner in front of Dairy King); later revisions of the highway include some curved turns.

route 66 commerce hole in wall

Here’s another trivia nugget from Charles: The Hole in the Wall Conoco Station (101 S. Main Street), located across from Dairy King, was never an operational filling station. It was built to look like a filling station after an accident damaged the last building on the block (scroll up to see what this building looked like before the accident; it’s the one with the Ford sign on it).

I didn’t find any history about the Hole in the Wall Conoco in my research, so I guess I’ll defer to Charles on this one. Whatever the case may be, it sure is a fun and quirky little building.

Wild Times

Duboise told me about the 1934 incident which involved the criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde. They, along with Henry Methvin, killed Commerce Constable Cal Campbell, then kidnapped Police Chief Percy Boyd. They later released Boyd in Kansas. You can read the details about this incident here.

The Commerce Comet

In 1935, a man named Mutt Mantle moved to town to work in one of Commerce’s mines with his family, which included his 3-year-old son. This boy’s name was Mickey, and in his adult years, he was known as one of America’s greatest baseball players.

route 66 commerce mantle home 1

Nicknamed the Commerce Comet, Mickey grew up just off of Route 66 in this house (329 S. Quincy Street). He practiced playing baseball with his father in the yard, using the tin barn as a backstop.

Modern Commerce

By 1960, the area mines had closed and many people left town. Today, Commerce’s population of around 2,500 enjoys thousands of visitors each year who stop, shop, and eat while they make their way down Route 66.

route 66 commerce goodrich sign

There’s an antique mall and flea market located in the middle of downtown Commerce that’s called the Hitch-N-Post (401 Commerce Street), and it’s “the largest flea market on Route 66,” according to its Facebook page.

route 66 commerce hitch n post ext

But I didn’t know that before I visited the Hitch-N-Post, so I was flabbergasted when I went inside. From the outside, it looks like a small store, but inside there are literally hundreds of booths, plus two furniture rooms.

The rows go on and on, eventually leading to the back of the building to the Diner 66, a small restaurant where you can get some sustenance to keep you going while you explore the rest of the Hitch-N-Post.

route 66 commerce diner 66

Later that day when I was at Dairy King, I mentioned to Charles that I was surprised by how large the Hitch-N-Post was, and that’s when he told me that the building once housed a garment factory that employed 400 people. Who would have thought?

Commerce, Oklahoma, is a small town filled with surprises, and Route 66 takes you right through the heart of most of them.

butterfly-pic

WANT MORE? 

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This article was commissioned by the Joplin CVB, however the opinions expressed are purely my own. The purpose of Joplin MO Life is to highlight all the best that our area has to offer, and when an article is written about a restaurant, business, attraction, or event, it is because I have had an enjoyable experience and want to share it with others.

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Living Life to The Fullest!

Joplin MO LifeI love seeking out new experiences and finding places off the beaten path. I started Joplin MO Life in August 2013 as a way to share my discoveries with others in the Joplin community so that they can learn about the resources that exist right in their own backyards.

I have worked in education and event planning, and have always loved to write. I hold a master's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree in marketing from Tulane University.

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