QT Plans To Preserve Memorial Honoring Catoosa Tornado Victims

A Catoosa truck stop remembered for taking a direct hit from a deadly tornado in 1993 has closed.

A memorial for the seven victims of that tornado stands out front of the old Bruce's Truck Stop off Interstate 44 and 161st, but even with new plans for the property, the monument isn’t going away.

It was most recently a Sinclair Travel Center, but most know it as Bruce's Truck Stop - a business that was crushed by a tornado that swept across I-44 west of Catoosa on April 24, 1993.

4/24/2013 Related Story: 20 Years Later, Catoosa Tornado Survivor Recounts Experience

The truck stop was just mid-way through a six-mile long path of destruction.

Dozens hunkered down inside Bruce's - seven people were killed and hundreds were injured.

A monument honoring the lives lost still stands on a corner outside, but the gas pumps are now gone and the parking lot is empty.

The truck stop closed in early November; QuikTrip said it bought the property and plans to build a new store, according to spokesman Mike Thornbrugh.

“We'll demo the existing buildings there and do all the reconfiguration that we need. We will put in a generation three, which is our new model, travel center,” he said.

Thornbrugh said the travel plaza design will be very similar to QT's new truck stop in Muskogee. It will have stalls for 20 cars and up to eight diesel bays with room to grow.

“If it goes as we expect, at some point, we will expand it, yes,” he said.

And while many changes are in store, one thing will stay close to the same, the small memorial dedicated to the victims of the Catoosa tornado.

Thornbrugh said, “We do remember that and we will restore that honor and integrity. We'll just make it a little bit better.”

QuikTrip said it will remove the monument during construction but will bring it back once everything is complete.

It might not be on the same corner, but QT said it will be on the property, with landscaping, and will be more noticeable.

The landlocked QT just across the interstate will close when the new one opens, which will likely be in the summer of 2016.