OKC & Route 66

We moved Westward and spent a few days in Oklahoma City.  We have been here before and here are our blog entries about the National Cowboy and Heritage Museum and the OKC National Memorial and Museum.  This stay we toured the capitol and enjoyed the Bricktown area. 

On both visits we stayed at the Midwest City Elks lodge that is a great location with one exception, as you can see above.  The lodge is directly under the flight path for Tinker Air Force Base and when the wind is right there are planes landing for a good part of the day.  This is a KC 135 refueling plane that I got to fly in when I was teaching.  Very neat.  There were also AWAC, fighters and even a B-52 zooming overhead.  It was not really to bad as we were gone for most of the day and they do not fly very late into the night.

We did travel a bit of Route 66 in Oklahoma.  Here are a few old sights we saw along the way.  Most of these places don't have good spots to park an RV so we did not stop very often.

The Gold Dome Building in OKC on Route 66 was built in 1958 as a bank building.  It was designed by Buckminister Fuller whose work we have seen at other places on the road.  The geodesic dome creates a wide open interior where walls can be built without worrying about structural supports. Very neat and very innovative for the times.

Another old Route 66 icon is the Milk Bottle Building.  It was originally a small grocery.  Unfortunately both of these building are now empty.

This statue in the Bricktown area depicts the 1889 land rush when "unassigned land" in Indian Territory was opened to settlement.  Not only was the land supposed to belong to the Native Americans, but many people cheated and snuck into the area sooner then allowed to get the best land, thus the origin of the Oklahoma Sooners.

Some of the public art in the Bricktown area.  There is a short canal that has water taxis.  This is a very nice urban renewal area with restaurants, hotels, convention center, arena and ball park.

The ball park has statues of Oklahoma natives who played Major League Baseball including Mickey Mantle (left), Johnny Bench (right) and brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner who played on the 1927 Pirates World Series Champions team.  No I did not see the Waners play.

Unlike Branson there was free entertainment in Bricktown.

We did not start touring state capitol buildings when we went on the road, but we now try to do that anytime we are in a capital city.  The Oklahoma capitol was completed in 1917 without the planned dome because they ran out of money.  The dome was added in 2002 in time for the states 2007 centennial celebration. 

  The artwork in capitol complexes usually tells a lot about the state's history and that is true here.  Top are the flags of the Indian Nations, left is a cowboy breaking a horse, right is a Native American and center is an oil well.  There are still working wells pumping oil on the capitol grounds.

Portraits of a few famous Oklahomans that are in the capitol.  Left to right are Wiley Post, Jim Thorpe, Woody Guthrie and of course Will Rogers.  Visiting a capitol building is a great way to learn a bit of the state's history.  We are glad we returned to OKC to see a bit more of this city's history.

Route 66 & Wright, Mix, of Storms

We left OKC planning to drive a portion of Route 66 on our way to a stop in Bartlesville for a short stay at the Riverside RV Resort. We ended up extending our stay to let a line of threatening storms pass before moving into Kansas. In hindsight, this may not have been the best choice as we were surrounded by several tornadoes that were not as bad at our planned destination. We did weather the storm, but it did turn fatal east of us. We discovered that while you see tornado watches covering large areas the tornados are usually small, less than a mile wide, and short lived events.

We did "Get Our Kicks" on Route 66. Oklahoma has more drivable miles of the Mother Road than any other state and we passed several old landmarks. Left is the only wooden round barn in the state and an old Phillips 66 station. The pop bottle is at a store called Pops where they had a huge selection of pop. Bottom is one of the historical signs under a picture of the original pavement paralleling the newer road and right is an old motel sign. This was a great drive even though there were a few sections of the old road that were quite narrow in the motorhome. We came to Bartlesville to tour the Price Tower, the only skyscraper built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Over the years we have been to several Wright buildings including the Marin County Civic Center in California, Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, Taliesin West in Arizona, and Fallingwater, and Kentuck Knob in Pennsylvania. The tower was built in 1956 as a mixed use retail, office and apartment building by H.C. Price Pipeline Company. As with most Wright buildings everything from the building, to the furniture, to the trash cans were designed by Wright. The 19 story building was built with each floor being cantilevered from the center tower that held four very small elevators. There is no skeletal superstructure holding up the outside walls. Today it houses the Price Tower Arts Center, the Inn at Price Tower and a restaurant and bar on the 16th floor. There was a very good exhibit of the work of artist and architect Bruce Goff at the arts center. Goff was the person who recommended H. C. Price pursue Frank Lloyd Wright as architect for his new office building.

Left is one of the rooms at the inn. They go for $145 or you can stay in a two story suite for $245. The price includes a tour and breakfast so it's really not too steep for a chance to sleep in a museum. Center is the bar, Copper, that takes its name from all the copper Wright used on both the inside and the exterior. We had a drink and a snack at the bar. Right is one of the original apartments that were all two floors with a loft bedroom and a private elevator. As with most Wright designs the bath and kitchen were very small and there was only one closet which was very tiny and the one we saw had a window. Go figure?? Only five of the eight apartments were ever rented as the cost was $325 a month at a time when a house in town could be rented for $75.

This is the penthouse office of Mr. Price. A really small room for someone who had the money to have this unique building constructed. Because the rooms were all built with 30 and 60 degree angles, all the furniture had to be built to fit these unusual shapes. The tower was originally designed to be built in New York City but that project was never constructed. When it was built here Wright called it "The tree that escaped the crowded forest". If you are a Wright fan this building is a must see.

Across the street from the tower is the Bartlesville Community Center, designed by Wesley Peters, former Taliesin West chief architect. The center seats over 17,000 and along with the tower shows the wealth that oil has brought to this little city. Bartlesville was the home of Phillips 66 founder Frank Phillips. In driving around there are many very large expensive homes. There are buffalo statues located all over town painted with different themes. This one, with the famous Wright design, was located in the park between the Price Tower and Community Center.

In April 2009 while traveling in Arizona I saw a sign that marked the spot where cowboy movie star Tom Mix was killed in an automobile accident. Nanc's reaction was, "Who is Tom Mix?" Well, after our visit to Oklahoma, she now knows more about Mix than most people. We saw a display on Tom at the Cowboy Museum, we saw the Blue Belle Bar in Guthrie where he tended bar and here we visited the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey. Tom was once the sheriff here and made a local girl the third of his five wives. This is an excellent and extensive display as his entire collection of pictures and artifacts were acquired by the museum in the 1960's. Above left, his famous horse Tony he road in his movies and one of several saddles and some of his clothes. Center is the 2010 USPS stamp that honored Mix, William S. Hart, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry in the Cowboys of the Silver Screen series. Right is part of his gun collection and the entrance to the small theater where you can watch old Mix movies and watch a film on his very colorful life. The background is a mural on the museum. They even have a copy of the 1940 Dubois, Pennsylvania newspaper with the story of the state's native son's death. If you are into the old cowboy movies this is a worthwhile stop. They even have RV friendly parking. Auntie Em! Auntie Em! Wow, the weather here in Oklahoma sure can be scary. We stayed an extra day so we would not be driving through a line of storms going to Kansas. We then stayed another day because they were calling for west (cross) winds with 50 mph gusts. The t-shirt they sell at the park says it all. We did miss the worst of it and only got some hail and a lot of rain. That said, we did close the sides and when they reported a severe thunderstorm that could produce tornadoes was heading toward Bartlesville we went to the shelter, a block room in the center of the office. We were greeted by four other customers and the staff who showed me where the beer was on tap. Um, not too bad!! We have been under tornado warnings in Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas and now here. We have been luckier than our friends Wallace and Wanda who lost their rig to a storm in Georgia. We have enjoyed our stay in Oklahoma but we will be glad to get away from this crazy weather that seems to be following us.

OKC is A-- OK!

We continued to explore the OK City area. We found several good restaurants and brew pubs in the city. Bricktown is an old warehouse district that has been turned into a commercial development of bars, a convention center, restaurants, motels and an arena. This area seems to be doing very well even in today's economy. Bricktown Brewery has a small selection of their own micro beers while the Tapwerks offers an extensive selection of over 100 drafts and even more available in bottles. Both had a nice selection of pub grub.

Near Bricktown is a sculpture depicting the 1889 Oklahoma land rush. The sculpture is not expected to be finished for several years as more pieces are added. The land rush took place on April 22, 1889 when "unassigned land" in Indian Territory was opened to homesteaders who could claim up to 160 acres to farm. More than 50,000 people took part in the rush and the few who hid in the unassigned areas and claimed the best land became known as Sooners, because they left sooner than was allowed. The sculpture and Bricktown are great places to visit. Another day we drove to Guthrie, the first capital of Oklahoma, that has the largest collection of Victorian Buildings on the National Registry in the US. Guthrie was one of the sites where people could register their land rush claim at the government land office and the town grew from nothing to a city of 10,000 overnight. This is where the expression "doing a land office business" came from. Within four months of the rush there were 6 banks, 16 barbers and blacksmiths, 17 carpenters, 15 hotels, 80 restaurants (bars) and 81 lawyers listed in the City Directory. Above is the Pollard Theatre and Inn on the corner of one of several blocks of restored and well preserved buildings.

A few of the buildings in Guthrie. Top is the Rite Masonic Temple which is one of the largest in the world. It cost $2.6 million in the 1920's when it was built during the oil boom. Middle left is the Carnegie Library, the first in Oklahoma. Middle right is the State Capital Publishing Building where the territorial and early statehood printing was done. Bottom left is a city block. Bottom right is the Blue Belle Saloon a bar where actor Tom Mix once worked.

The statue is the marriage of a cowboy and an Indian that represents the union of the two territories to become the state of Oklahoma. Bottom left are a few of the fiddles in the Double Stop Fiddle Shop. Center top is Ray Dorwart a local boot maker. To make a pair of boots Ray takes eight different measurements of each foot and makes a set of lasts for every costumer. Each pair takes forty hours and costs $2800.00. He is so busy he has an eight month waiting list. Bottom right is an 1890's dental office, oh the pain!! Top right is the Frontier Drugstore Museum, an interesting stop that had everything on display from bottles of Wildroot Cream Oil, like my father used, to Hadacol, a "snake oil" made by Dudley J. LeBlanc from Erath, Loiusiana. All of these places are worth a look if you pass through Guthrie.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum offers a great look into life in the West. There are several galleries of Western art with many works by Charles Russell, Frederic Remington and others. (no pics allowed) Above are a few of the Indian artifacts on a map of all the native cultures in North America. The statue, The End of the Trail, at the entrance symbolizes sadness of the Indians as the buffaloes were hunted to near extinction, thus ending their way of life.

This gallery shows the movie cowboys and how the life was depicted in the Western shows. The statue is Marion Morrison, better known as John Wayne, whose home we visited in Winterset, Iowa. The top pictures are William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Gene Autry and Milburn Stone. Bottom are Tom Mix, Will Rogers and Walter Brennan. This room sure brought back memories of watching Saturday morning TV as a kid.

This gallery was about the cattle drives and was what the real cowboy life was all about. The drives brought thousands of cattle from the west to markets where they could be shipped to the consumers in the East. There were saddles, a chuckwagon, branding irons and many other artifacts. There is a huge display of barbed wire that enabled farmers to put up cheap fences ending the way of life of driving the cattle across open land.

Other galleries were about rodeos and the cavalry. There is a small 1900 Western cattle town, Prosperity Junction, that has all the buildings you would have found there including a saloon, school, livery stable, bank and many other buildings. The museum gives a great look into the cowboy life and the Western cattle culture.

Another interesting place in OKC is Stockyard City. Here you can watch the cattle auction on Sunday and Monday (we didn't), buy all the Western clothes you need (we didn't), enjoy the art (we did) or have a great steak (I did). We ate at the Cattleman's Steakhouse, a 100 year old restaurant, where the Double Deuce handcrafted beer and the strip steak were absolutely wonderful. The 33 brand in the restaurant symbolizes the "hard six" double threes rancher Gene Wade rolled at a dice game in 1945 to win the restaurant. The cafe part of the building has looked the same for over fifty years so ask to be seated there if you visit.

We had a great time in Oklahoma City. This is a place we will return to in the future.

OKC National Memorial & Museum

We are staying at the Elks Lodge in Midwest City, Oklahoma while exploring the Oklahoma City area. A must see is the memorial honoring those who were killed, those who survived and those who worked to rescue the injured after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995 at 9:02 AM. The memorial and museum do an excellent job of telling the story of the tragedy of that day, the rescue efforts and the capture and conviction of the terrorists who carried out this terrible act of cowardice against innocent people. While most have a mental image of the destroyed federal building, a total of 312 buildings were damaged in the explosion, including 14 that had to be torn down.

At the entrance to the museum is the Children's Area that is backed with hand-painted tiles sent to Oklahoma City in 1995 by children to illustrate their caring. The surface has slates where visitors are encouraged to leave a message written with chalk. Above is the area with a group of students leaving their thoughts about their visit. The displays begin with a history of the building and surrounding area. You then enter a room where you hear a recording of a meeting that was taking place in a nearby building at the moment of the explosion. At the moment of the loud blast the lights flicker and go out and pictures of the 168 people, including 19 children, who where killed appear on the wall. The pictures above are from the Gallery of Honor which displays all those killed. A personal artifact from each family is also displayed.

The next gallery shows the chaos that followed during the rescue and police investigation that were happening immediately after the explosion. The statue (left) is based on the Pulitzer prize winning photo (right). Top left is the axle from the truck used to deliver the bomb. It was a key piece of evidence that lead to the arrest of the terrorists only two days after their cowardly act. Another area honors the efforts of the rescuers who came from all over the country and worked for weeks until the bodies of the last three victims were found on May 29. The flags displayed were flying on the building and in the plaza on April 19.

Other areas tell the stories of the 650 people who where injured and survived. The American Elm which was in front of the building and took the full force of the explosion has become the symbol of survival and has been named The Survivor Tree. The plaques on the only remaining part of the original building list the names of the survivors. Some of the survivor's stories are unbelievable. One woman was at a table in a meeting with seven others who literally disappeared before her eyes at the moment of the blast. All were killed. Another survivor had just finished her business and was in the back of the building at 9:02. She felt and heard the explosion but hailed a cab that took her to the airport where she got on a plane to Atlanta only to get off the plane to see the news of what had nearly happened to her. Among the stories are those who heroically aided workers until rescuers arrived. One was a blind man who worked in the snack bar who lead others through the blinding dust to safety.

The part of the memorial managed by the park service is on the actual site of the building and the street where the truck was parked. There are 168 chairs honoring the dead that are arranged by the floor they were on that day. There are five chairs on the side for those who were killed in other buildings and on the street. Each bronze and stone chair has a glass base engraved with the name of the victim.

The chairs of the 19 children are smaller than the others. Most of the children were in the day care center located on the second floor at the front of the building. The reflecting pool has a gate on each end. The west gate with 9:03 represents the moment of change and hope that came from the horror of the day and the bombing.

On the east end of the reflecting pool the gate has 9:01 to represent the innocence of the city before the attack. The lights under the chairs are beacons of hope. We returned to see the memorial at dusk and found it to be worth seeing at that time as the lighting helps set the somber mood that is appropriate for this memorial

Shown above is the outside of the west gate with a picture of the fence where people leave mementos of remembrance. All items are kept and catalogued. On the right is the Jesus Wept statue that is across the street. His back is turned on the site and his head is bowed with his hands covering his eyes. This memorial is very well done and is a great reminder that acts of violence against our government are really acts of cowardice against individuals.