Winganon Space Capsule

Any out of town-ers driving along the dull stretch of road between Talala and Winganon, Oklahoma would believe they’d stumbled upon the wreckage of some mysterious Cold War-era space mission. But in fact, they’d just be looking at a disused cement mixer. 

During the mid-20th-century, a construction vehicle got into a wreck while transporting cement to a bridge being built across nearby Oologah Lake. The mixer rolled onto the side of the road, where the cement inside it quickly began to harden into a solid block. Crews decided it was too heavy to move the mixer and it had to be buried right there on the side of East 300 Road. However, this effort fell by the wayside and locals became attached to the object as something of a landmark.

In 2011, local artists Barry and Heather Thomas decided to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary by transforming the cement mixer into an object of wonder. They noticed its shape resembled that of a space capsule and began painting it to push the resemblance as far as possible. They covered it in silver paint and added NASA logos, an American flag, and thrusters on the bottom. Today, anyone driving by would mistake it for the real thing, adding a bit of space-age intrigue to an otherwise unremarkable farm road.