Prior to our recent trip up Route 66, I was unfamiliar with “Muffler Men.” Aaccording to Wikipedia, Muffler Men are “large moulded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions or for decorative purposes, predominantly in the United States.” Most Muffler Men are around 20′ tall and share a similar stance. According to the article, the original Muffler Man was a Paul Bunyan figure designed to hold an axe; subsequent figures have been seen holding mufflers, car tires, a giant hot dog, and in at least two cases, a rocketship.
All Muffler Men are made of fiberglass, and many of them were made by Steve Dashew, who purchased International Fiberglass and discovered the mold for the original Paul Bunyan character in his inventory. Because that figure had one palm up and one palm down (to hold an axe), most of the subsequent Muffler Men have the same hand configuration. According to the article, thousands of Muffler Men were made and sold to businesses throughout the 1960s; by the 1970s, the oil crisis put an end to the fad.
Buck Atom is the newest Muffler Man to make an appearance on Route 66. Part cowboy, part spaceman, Buck Atom made his debut in May of 2019. Buck was born as a cowboy muffler man in the 1960s in Calgary, Alberta, and ended up as broken pieces in an Edmonton junkyard. Fiberglass artist Mark Cline acquired the cowboy’s remains and used the pieces to create a new mold in the image of the mascot of Route 66’s Cosmic Curios gift shop, Buck Atom.
According to the legend, Buck Atom was abducted by aliens in 1953 and spent 66 years zipping around in space before eventually returning to Route 66. Today, he helps Route 66 by getting drivers to stop and shop, which we did.
There are many other things to see in the parking lot of the Cosmic Curios gift shop. There are multiple robots cobbled together from different pieces of metal, and a large fiberglass pig who stands near the street, greeting cars that pass by the shop on Route 66. The gift shop itself is relatively small. There are lots of interesting t-shirts, magnets, and stickers available for purchase, but even with only one other person in the shop, it was difficult to navigate the store.
The other thing in the parking lot is a small ice cream stand. Despite frigid Oklahoma winds, Susan and I treated ourselves to a scoop of ice cream (her) and a small root beer float (me). While enjoying our frozen treats on a freezing day, we sat on a picnic bench in the parking lot watching cars drive by on Route 66.
Read more about Buck Atom and shop online here: BuckAtomsOn66.com
