Little's Station & Cafe

Route 66 at Hwy. 281, Hinton Junction, OK
Phone:

East < GO > West

Leon Little had owned a gas station on the original Route 66 in Bridgeport to take advantage of traffic crossing the swinging bridge as the road came south from Geary. When the road was realigned in 1933 he moved his business to a spot a mile or so west of the new Pony bridge. Then in 1939 he built another new station with a cafe and motel just west of Hwy. 281.

GPS: 35.535808, -98.354478

What's left of that station is hard to spot as the photo above shows. An especially interesting (to me anyhow) bit is that the Little's opened the new 1933 station the day the Pony Bridge opened and closed the later station the day I-40 opened.

The station was closed for several years during WWII because when Leon Little expected to be drafted into the military he leased the business to G. B. Entz who the built the Hinton Junction Courts and Cafe a couple blocks to the east and promptly closed the Little Station location. Even though Little ended up not being drafted because of his age, he honored the lease and let the station remain closed until the lease ended. The Little's then reopened the business and continued running it until the freeway opened in 1962. He had attempted to lease the station out in 1961 describing as a "service station station and 6 cabins at the intersection of 66 and 281 highways", note that was no mention of the cafe in the ad.

This site is located on Route 66 (Hwy. 8) just west of the roadside park where US Hwy. 281 turns south. At that point Hwy. 281 takes you a block or two to I-40 exit 101.

Photo(s): 2015