Read about this on the Roadside America page, and since we were planning to steer our Cadillac through Oklahoma anyway, I vowed to seek it out:
Catoosa: Last year, on a pilgrimage to the Glore Psychiatric Museum, Precious Moments Chapel and the Oral Roberts Prayer Tower, we ended up on Route 66 -- which took us through a small town in Oklahoma called Catoosa. While hauling ass towards Tulsa in my Dad's pickup, we saw a giant blue whale whiz by. We had to stop, and we found one of THE most creepy roadside attractions ever. Of course, it's closed, and there are signs posted everywhere saying trespassers would be shot, but the temptation was too great and we risked our lives to check it out. In the middle of this slimy little pond was a giant, rotting, wooden blue whale. The mouth was attached to the shore and it was open and you could go inside. A ladder led to the top and the fins were sliding boards into the pond. The inside of the whale was covered with Satanic graffiti, but we don't think it was REALLY the Devil's work. Inside an adjacent building were large plaster disks with animals, two of each, on them. Of course, we figured out it was supposed to be Noah's Ark! And the whale was of the Jonah Bible story type. We dubbed the place "Bible Story Land." It was EXTREMELY creepy and we couldn't get any info out of the Native Americans who ran the store across the street because of a "death in the family." When we got back we found some documentation of this place in a Route 66 video. Turns out some guy built it for his kids. Definitely almost as much fun as "Holy Land USA."
[Chuck Taylor, Ron Bozman 8/29/97]
SOMEONE has given the whale a facelift since that report. Feast your eyes:
On the tail
In the gut
Out in the yard
