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Fifty years ago, a man decided to surprise his wife with a little blue whale as an anniversary gift. Now, the Blue Whale of Catoosa is having its own anniversary -- 50 years.

Hugh Davis started the Blue Whale back in 1970 but it would take two years to complete it. Davis mad-crafted every inch of it out of concrete and rebar. The project grew from a little to a large structure -- big enough for a tall man to walk into its mouth and out of its tail. The tail was fashioned over a dock where the family could keep a dinghy boat for fishing in their pond. Although it was on private property, it quickly became a site for travelers along Route 66. In 1988, it fell into disrepair but by the early 2000s, the Davis descendents had brought it back to its original glory and added more safety features to it for visiters. They also set up a little park next to it for picnickers.

In 2020, the City of Catoosa purchased the property, including the Blue Whale and the lake on which it sits, for $1.5 million and set it up as a tourist attraction. It has been listed in several travel magazines and talked about widely on social media sites. Now that it has turned 50 years old, the Blue Whale is eligible for being designated as a historic icon on the National Register of Historic Places. The city and Route 66 News, the premier online travel site for all there is to see in Oklahoma, are both submitting applications as part of the preservation activities of Route 66 locations.

Whether or not it is designated a national treasure, the Blue Whale has certainly been a state treasure for decades.