El Reno Main Street & Visitor Information

Main Street organizations are part of a national downtown-revitalization movement — the National Main Street program and its local affiliates work to revitalize historic downtown commercial districts through a combination of historic preservation, economic development, marketing, and community organization. El Reno Main Street applies this approach to downtown El Reno.

The Main Street work and the visitor-information function are connected. A revitalized historic downtown is both a better place for residents and a more attractive destination for visitors; the visitor-information services help bring Route 66 travelers and other tourists into the downtown that the Main Street work is improving.

For El Reno specifically, the downtown revitalization work supports the town's Route 66 tourism. The intact downtown El Reno corridor — with its onion-burger restaurants, historic architecture, and Route 66 character — is one of the town's genuine assets, and the Main Street work helps preserve and promote that asset.

Free printed materials available through the El Reno visitor-information services include Route 66 driving guides, El Reno maps, brochures for Fort Reno and the Canadian County Historical Museum and the various other attractions, lodging and dining guides, and current event calendars.

The onion-burger guides are a distinctive El Reno visitor resource. Because the town's onion-burger tradition is a genuine culinary draw — with Johnnie's Grill, Sid's Diner, Robert's Grill, Jobe's Drive-In, and other establishments all serving the genuine El Reno fried onion burger — the visitor-information services help travelers navigate the onion-burger options and plan their culinary exploration of the town.

The Fried Onion Burger Day Festival timing — the first Saturday of May — is important visitor information. Travelers wanting to experience the festival need to plan their Route 66 trip timing accordingly, and the visitor-information services provide the festival details and the broader El Reno event calendar.

The visitor-information services operate during standard weekday business hours, typically Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, closed weekends. Weekend Route 66 travelers should plan to acquire materials in advance or rely on alternative information sources including hotel front desks and the various attraction visitor services.

The visitor-information stop works best as the first stop of a weekday El Reno exploration — acquiring the onion-burger guides, the Fort Reno information, the Route 66 maps, and the various other materials that improve an El Reno visit. The subsequent stops at Fort Reno, the Canadian County Historical Museum, the onion-burger restaurants, and the downtown Route 66 corridor build on that informed start.

For Route 66 enthusiasts, El Reno is one of the more substantive Oklahoma Route 66 destinations — the combination of the famous onion-burger culinary tradition, the layered Fort Reno military history, the railroad and Carnegie-library heritage, and the Route 66 corridor makes the town worth a substantial stop. The visitor-information services help travelers make the most of that El Reno visit.