The Crossroads of America—Vinita, OK

The city of Vinita is a crossroads. It’s known as the Crossroads to the Green Country, as it sits at a location where the forests of the Ozarks gradually fade into prairie. 

It’s also called the Crossroads of America, as this is where three significant cross-country roads meet. Those roads were US 60 and 69—and Route 66.

Vinita was founded in 1870, making it the second-oldest city in Oklahoma. It is also the oldest incorporated town on the state’s Route 66 portion.

The town was originally a mostly Native American community in the Cherokee Nation, known as Downingville. It was later renamed to Vinita after the founder Elias Cornelius Boudinot’s sculptor friend Vinnie Ream.