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Posts tagged ‘Oklahoma’

The Santa in the Window

Santa in the WindowChristmas is all about tradition.  Every year you get out the decorations that you’ve had forever and you get together with family.  The Farley family is all about tradition- we’ve done the same thing for Christmas since before I was here.  The whole family would gather at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Tipton on Christmas Eve, they would eat fried oysters and chocolate cake, then open the presents piled around the tree.

This is the environment I was born into, as long as I can remember my dad would load up the car with luggage and presents for the two hour drive from Oklahoma City to Tipton.  As much as my dad loved Christmas, he never started shopping until December 24th.  He thought that’s when you got the best deals, so that whole day he would be gone, not coming back home until almost 6p.  My mother hated that, all the last minute rushing around, hoping that we had everything.  Truthfully, it really was kind of annoying but that’s just how the old man was- cheap.  After he was home we would drive down H.E. Bailey to Lawton.  It was in Lawton that the K-Mart would still be open- he would stop and run around the store chasing the blue light specials, no matter what it was that was just put on sale.  Somehow my mom would drag him out and we would continue the journey on Highway 62.  It was always the darkest here, just south of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  This is when I would lay with my head against the window, looking out for the flashing red nose of Rudolph, hoping that Santa would remember that we would be back home the next night for him to visit us.

Once we got to Tipton, we would slowly drive through town until we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house where we would park in the circle drive.  As we got out of the car I would always see the little plastic light up Santa Claus that Grandpa put in the front window.  Don’t know when or where Grandpa got it but as far back as I can remember seeing that Santa meant Christmas was here and that after we were filled up on Grandma’s fried oysters, the fun was going to begin.  Once we were inside, everyone was running around putting the final presents around the tree.  For some reason, my uncle Joe was always last to wrap his gifts, so he would be in a bedroom, shouting for my aunts to come help him.  Present opening would begin around 11p.  My Grandpa and dad had a running joke about dust busters, everyone would laugh at uncle Joe because he bought Hanukkah paper again (he liked it because it was blue, he ignored the Menorah’s on it) and there would always be a wrapping paper ball fight.

This is how every Christmas was for the first 16 years of my life, then the tradition changed.  Grandpa was sick, so they moved to Oklahoma City into apartments.  Some things stayed the same but there was no long drive to Tipton, no looking out for Rudolph and no Santa sitting in the window.  After Grandpa was gone, Christmas changed again- no more fried oysters, now we enjoyed barbeque that my dad picked up from some restaurant.  We were also now in Norman at my aunts’ house and the family was changing- adding more members, first spouses, then kids.  So we had some new traditions, but still kept some of the old.  We were still waiting for uncle Joe to wrap presents, there was still chocolate cake but there was also something missing.  Not just being in Tipton and Grandpa but my mother stopped coming after divorcing my dad, then last year after losing both Grandma and my dad, I knew that Christmas would never be the same.  You just can’t lose two members of the family and act like nothing happened.  Now not only were the traditions mostly gone but so were three members of my family.  I almost didn’t even want to go be with the rest of the Farley’s.  It’s really just not the same at all but I still have my memories of how it used to be.

So what happened to the little plastic light up Santa Claus- after Grandpa died, Grandma sold the house in Tipton and my dad went down to help clean it out.  He stopped at my house with a pickup truck full of stuff that he had taken, wanted to know if there was anything I wanted.  Thrown into the back to the truck was that Santa Claus, I grabbed it with the declaration, “This is mine”.  I cleaned Santa up, now every Christmas I carry on my Grandpa’s tradition and that little plastic light up Santa Claus sits in my front window to remind me that no matter what has changed, it’s Christmas.

 

 

Category:

Christmas in Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Tipton

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Kingfisher in Lights- Back Again

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UPDATE-  Great news for those of us who loved the lights in Kingfisher, they are back on!  A group of Kingfisher residents have gotten together to restore this tradition, now under the name Kingfisher Winter Nights.  I haven’t been yet to see how many of the old displays are still there but hope to make it soon.  Hopefully they have enough visitors to keep the lights on for years to come.

From the time I was a little girl, one of our family Christmas traditions was driving around neighborhoods looking at the Christmas decorations people had put on display.  We did this every year, I remember going around Brookhaven in Norman, when almost every house was lit up.  We were some of the first to drive around Ski Island, before the crowds got too big that the residents shut it down.  Now that I’m older I love the light parks that different cities in the metro have for everyone to drive through.  I’ve been going to Midwest City since the first year the lights were turned on, we’ve gone to Yukon so many times they should at least name a light bulb after me, Chickasha is a long drive but a special treat but one that I really liked the best was the one that was the least popular, Kingfisher in Lights.

Not many knew about the Christmas display that the city put on every year in the park since 1996.  Everything was east of downtown right off of Highway 33 at the Kingfisher Park.  You could park your car, walk to the train station and for a dollar get a ticket to ride the small train through the displays.  It was almost always too cold and the lines really long but it was worth the 20 minute ride.  Most of the time you would get a seat in the enclosed cars but once we got to sit in the coal tender.  Yeah, it was cold but fun.  After the train ride, we would then get in the car and idle through the display, seeing everything from a different angle.  From the car you could talk to the fire-breathing dragon or watch the angels climb into the air.  You could get a better view of the baseball game being played in lights or just count the candy canes along the trails.  There was a cute display of a frog eating a fly and another with firemen putting out a fire.  Sometimes Santa would be out there, handing out candy to all the kids.  After you drove through you could then go back on another road to the the west side of the park and walk across the one hundred year old suspension foot bridge.  The bridge was lit with over 1000 white Christmas lights and you could see the creek very clearly from the deck.  One year while walking across, I saw something swimming in the water twenty feet below, it was a very large beaver that was making his home in the branches piled up along the small concrete dam.  I had seen lots of beavers dead along the side of the road but never out in the water, doing beaver stuff.

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The fire-breathing dragon, 2010.  (Sorry, didn’t have a good camera at the time.)

Sadly this has all come to an end- in 2014 the lights were canceled because of road construction on Highway 33.  You just couldn’t get to the park.  I could understand that, I was disappointed but was hoping it would be up again this year.  Unfortunately, the display now been closed down for good.  Many of the residents of Kingfisher just didn’t have the time to volunteer and put the lights up.  So now it’s just a memory just as the one year Guthrie had a display (east of Cottonwood Creek, best I can remember is late 1990’s or very early 2000’s) and Duncan’s display (also in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s).  Maybe someday the town will realize they miss it and bring it back.

Christmas lights on bridge in Kingfisher 2001

Uncle John’s Creek bridge in lights, 2001.

Category:

Christmas light displays in Oklahoma, Kingfisher Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

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Many don’t realize that we have three National Parks in the state of Oklahoma.  All three are beautiful places to visit and each unique.  Unfortunately two are places where great tragedy and loss have occurred.  The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site in one of the oldest and most tragic.  So on a nice fall day a few weeks ago we made a trip to the far western part of the state to visit this historic location.

Near the current town of Cheyenne, Chief Black Kettle and his tribe of Southern Cheyenne had made winter camp on the Washita River in early November 1868.  There had been an uneasy peace with the Cheyenne after the Medicine Lodge Treaty signed in October 1867.  In the summer afterward, that peace was broken when groups of Cheyenne, along with other tribes, started attacking white settlers in Colorado, Texas, and Kansas.  This marked the tribes as “hostile” according to the United States Army.

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Along the banks of the Washita River, 2015.

With winter coming, many of the tribes settled along the banks of the Washita River (or Lodgepole River, as named by the tribes because of the numerous trees) Black Kettle’s village of around 250 was the western most settlement.  The Army had been stationed near Fort Cobb in western Indian Territory.  General Philip Sheridan decided on a “winter campaign” against the tribes to try and get them to surrender.  So in late November 1868, the general ordered Colonel George Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry to attack Black Kettle’s village.  Early on the morning of November 27, 1868 Custer’s forces converged on the village and in no time had taken control.  Black Kettle and his wife were amongst the first killed.  The exact death toll isn’t known but it is believed that around 50 Cheyenne were killed along with 21 soldiers.  To keep any of the Cheyenne from escaping, Custer also ordered over 700 horses to be slaughtered and dumped in a ravine.  He then took the surviving women and children as prisoners and burned he camp.

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Site of Black Kettle’s Southern Cheyenne 1868 winter camp, 2015.

So with this kind of history it’s obviously a sad place to visit.  The location was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and in 2007 the state built a new visitor center and museum.  After you walk through the museum, you can go out to the site and walk the 1.5 mile marked trail.  It wasn’t a long walk but it can give you the creeps especially near the reported location of the horse grave.  You can see where the army scouted out the village and get an idea of what the land would have looked like around the time of the massacre.  This is a place to take older kids to help them learn about Oklahoma history and since it is part of the park service they do offer a Junior Ranger badge for completing a booklet geared toward different ages.  I would recommend going but make sure you have some walking shoes on.

Hours: Visitor Center open 7 days a week 8am-5pm except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and January 1st.  Overlook and trail open from dawn to dusk daily.

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Sunflower on the trail to Black Kettle’s village on the Washita River, 2015.

Category:

National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Museum of the Western Prairie

Museum of the Western Prairie in Altus

Windmill at the Museum of the Western Prairie, Altus, OK, 2015.

A few months ago I went on a road trip to the southwestern part of the state.  It was August and 104 degrees out but I didn’t care, there were places I wanted to go and see.  I went looking for the Cross S Ranch Headquarters south of Olustee and couldn’t find it.  Eventually later that day I ended up in Altus and had time to visit the Museum of the Western Prairie.

It’s back off the road in a park, a low building with dirt up around it to make it look like an old dugout home from the late 1800’s.  I had been there before many years ago and saw a picture of downtown Eldorado, Oklahoma, that showed the Farley blacksmith shop.  This was the shop that my great-great grandfather Jeff Farley ran in the 1890’s.  So on this visit I wanted to find that picture again and show it to Mae, just to emphasize our family history here in Oklahoma.

The building had been remodeled a few years ago, so things had changed and the picture was no longer on display, but there were still plenty of other exhibits to show her just how our family lived in that time period.  They had the usual covered wagon and other household items from the time of settlement in Jackson County.  But one of the more interesting items on display was a console from the Atlas missile silos that surrounded Altus and it’s air force base from 1962-1965.

Control board for Atlas rocket in Altus

There is more outside in the courtyard that showcases the history of southwestern Oklahoma.  Windmill, farm equipment, a buggy, and the Criswell half-dugout.  Davis and Sarah Criswell built the half-dugout in old Greer County (now part of Jackson County) around 1900.  This dugout is a great example of what a family home looked like out on the western prairie.  But also in this courtyard is where I finally found the Cross S Ranch Headquarters building.  It’s still in the process of being restored (for more info read my previous post about the history of this building).

The museum was started in 1966 when the Western Trail Historical Society started raising money to build a museum in Altus.  The building was completed in 1970 and officially became a Oklahoma Historical Society field museum in 1973.  The Criswell half-dugout was placed there in 1976 and the Cross S Ranch Headquarters was rebuilt there in 2009.

So if you’re a history nerd like me or just want to get an idea of what life was like on the western prairie around the turn of the century, stop and check this museum out.  Takes about an hour to see everything.  Older kids might like it but younger kids would probably be bored, not a lot of kid type stuff to do.  I do hope the next time I visit they have that Eldorado picture back out.

Address: 1100 Memorial Drive, Altus, OK.  From Main Street (or State Highway 6), turn east on Falcon Road, then go less than a quarter of a mile to Memorial Drive.  The museum sits at the end of the road.

Hours: Tuesday- Saturday 10am-5pm.

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Category:

Altus Oklahoma, National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Haunted Fort Washita

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The west and south barracks at Fort Washita, OK, 2015.

Hey, it’s the week of Halloween so let’s have some fun and talk about one of the most haunted places in Oklahoma- Fort Washita.  I had heard the stories for years, ghosts wandering the property, strange experiences, weird feelings.  So back in 2002, we decided to visit (this was before children) and yeah, the place definitely had a creepy vibe.  We never actually saw a ghost or had anything unexplained happen to us, but we both felt like someone was watching us the whole time we were there.  After that visit we have talked about the place just giving us the creeps and that we never wanted to go back.  So like morons, we went back a couple of weeks ago, taking Mae with us this time just to see if a pre-teen girl could get the spirits worked up.

The fort was placed on top of a hill not far from where the Washita River joins the Red River in 1842.  It was built by the military to protect the Chickasaws and Choctaws from other Indian tribes.  The original fort was spread out over an area of seven square miles and contained almost 100 buildings constructed from locally quarried limestone.  By 1861, the fort was abandoned and taken over by confederate troops as a supply post.  Although no battles were ever fought here, near the end of the war the confederates burned the buildings and abandoned the post.  The United States military turned over the property in 1870 to the Chickasaws who then allotted the land to the Colbert family.  The state of Oklahoma took over ownership of the land in 1962, this is when the historical society added the front entrance and started work on the reconstruction of the south barracks.  In 1965 the fort was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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The south and west barracks in background with remains of the commissary in front, Fort Washita, OK, 2015.

As I said earlier, my first trip was in 2002, you can walk or drive around the ruins.  The south barracks weren’t open to tour but you could go in the rebuilt chaplains’ quarters and the D.H. Cooper cabin.  On this recent visit we discovered that the rebuilt south barracks had burned down in 2010 but everything else was the same as before.  I didn’t get that same strange feeling I had the first time and neither did my husband, even though he told me later at one point near the old post road he heard “thundering hooves”.  I didn’t hear or see anything and neither did Mae even though she kept her guard up.  I was hoping that at least one ghost would come and scare her.  It’s an interesting place to visit and if you see a ghost or hear something unusual don’t be surprised.  The fort is in far southern Oklahoma near Durant and Tishomingo off state highway 199.

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South barracks at Fort Washita before they burned in 2010, Fort Washita, OK, 2002.

Fort Washita

Map of Fort Washita, 2015.

Category:

National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Oklahoma history

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Olustee Public Library and Park

Olustee library

If you ever find your self having to go down Oklahoma Highway 6 in the far southwestern part of the state, you will go through the tiny town of Olustee.  As you enter the town you will go right past the library and park and except for a small sign you might not know it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

The park itself is interesting enough- a full block with old style playground equipment, you know, the stuff most people my age played on before the safety nazis took over.  You have the big old metal slide, teeter-totter, and swings.  There is an old Frisco caboose sitting in the northwest corner of the park and a sidewalk trail that leads around the whole park.  The park came into existence in 1920 when the New State Womens Club developed the property to help improve the quality of life in Olustee.  The Womens Club had been formed in 1907 to help establish a library and park in the small town.

Throughout the 1920’s members of the club took care of the park by planting trees and in 1925 the club turned over ownership of the property to the town of Olustee. Plans were made in 1921 for a small building to be placed in the middle of the park to be used as a library.  But the depression slowed the development of that plan.  In 1936, two members of the Womens Club met with representatives from the Works Progress Administration to see if they could get help with the library project.  It was approved quickly and work started on the building in April 1936 with the stone quarried from a local farm.  Since 1907 there had been temporary locations for a library in Olustee and by August 1936 a permanent building was done and filled with books donated not only by the Womens club but other residents of the community.  The New State Womens Club maintained not only the library but the park from the opening until the 1990’s.  At that point the library closed, with all the books and town records still inside.  The library and park were placed on the National Register in March of 2008.

I would love to go in the building, just to see the records and journals left behind.  The park is just a normal park.  I tried to get Mae to go down the slide, but it was 106 degrees out and she had a dress on, so it wasn’t happening.  It’s an interesting stop if you happen to be in that area.

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Olustee Public Library, Olustee, Oklahoma, 2015.

Olustee park

Olustee Park, Olustee, Oklahoma, 2015.

Category:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma history, Olustee

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Food Friday: Hunan Wok

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I have been eating at Hunan Wok for about twenty years.  My first visit was a lunch date with my soon-to-be husband back in the fall of 1995.  At that time there were two locations, one in Memorial Square at Penn & Memorial (the old shopping center where the AMC theater was), the second was in the Rockwell Plaza on the southwest corner of Rockwell and NW Expressway.  Since we both worked near Memorial Road, we met at that location.  While I had never eaten Chinese buffet, my husband had been going there for years.  After that first visit, it quickly became one of my favorite places to eat.  We usually only visited the Memorial Road location until we bought a house near NW Expressway, then we visited that one more.  The staff had gotten used to seeing us all the time.

The location in Memorial Square closed back in the early 2000’s but the Rockwell Plaza location had moved to its own building east of Rockwell on NW Expressway in 1997.  So we are very familiar with this restaurant.  Service is always good and most of the time the food is excellent.

Best thing on the menu is General Tso’s chicken.  I absolutely love the way they cook this, always nice and gooey.  The fried rice and sweet and sour chicken also rank high with me.  Fried shrimp is ok, could be better but the Crab Rangoon is great.  Now they do have things on the menu like crawfish that I just won’t eat, but remember it’s a buffet so you have plenty of choices.  They also have a Mongolian Barbeque, I’ve never tried it so I don’t know anything about it.  The sushi has a lot to be desired (plus need to list the ingredients).  One of my personal favorites for desert is the Chinese cheesecake, a little bite sized cheesecake in a wonton wrapper.  These are just wonderful, much different taste than any cheesecake I’ve tried before.  Like I said earlier, most of the time the food is good but I have been there on off nights, when some selections just aren’t as fresh.  Also there was a change in ownership around 2010 and some items disappeared which has disappointed me.

This is one of my favorite places for Chinese buffet in Oklahoma City.   I give it five strips of bacon and you might even see me there some night.

Address: 6812 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City.  Just east of the Rockwell on the south side of the road, building sits back from the highway between the Rockwell Northwest shopping center (not sure why it’s called that, sits on the southeast corner) and Slick Willie’s.

 

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Category:

Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City

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Food Friday: Cajun King

Cajun King

Update Sept 1st, 2021:  No longer a buffet.

Last week we all wanted something different for dinner.  After shooting down several suggestions, my husband said that he wanted to try Cajun King at NW 63rd and MacArthur.  I’m not a big fan of Cajun food, so I really wasn’t crazy about this idea and even complained about it as we pulled in the parking lot.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, right in the middle of a strip mall but we were greeted by a friendly gentleman with a thick Cajun accent.  The restaurant is set up buffet style, so while my husband paid, me and Mae grabbed some plates and started filling up.  On my first trip I had some fried shrimp, crab balls, potatoes au gratin, and a biscuit.  It was all good, the biscuit was light and buttery, the fried shrimp and crab balls were really good, and the potatoes were so good that I had another big helping on my second trip.  Mae and my husband had some of the same things that I had but they got the macaroni and cheese instead of potatoes.

So while they were raving about that, our Cajun server brought a big plate full of fried catfish almondine to the table and wanted us to try it.  I have no problem telling people that I hate catfish (even if my dad loved it).  My grandmother used to fry it up every so often and even though she could cook anything, I hated that catfish.  So keep it in mind that I haven’t eaten catfish since I was 9 and when he put that plate in front of me, I tried to be nice but knew I wasn’t going to eat it.  My husband, who will eat just about anything, tried the catfish first, “Hey, this is pretty good.  Try some.”  While I was giving him the stink eye for the suggestion, Mae grabbed a piece and started eating.  “Yeah, this is pretty good.  I like it.”  If they both like it I might as well try it, so with that I tried a piece as well and guess what, it was good.  It came with a honey type dipping sauce the chef calls “tiger sauce” and for the first time in my life I liked catfish.  So the three of us catfish haters finished off the plate of it in no time.

After all we ate on the buffet and the big pile of catfish, we were stuffed but still had our beignets.  Every meal comes with the catfish almondine and beignets.  I had never tried these either, but they were good as well.  Deep-fried fritters with lots of powdered sugar on top.  None of us really had any room left but no one was going to leave those wonderful treats sitting.  But just a side note, don’t let your kids wear black when they eat these, the powdered sugar gets everywhere (and yes, Mae had on black).  As we were leaving, our server asked if we had tried the bread pudding.  No, we hadn’t tried it.  Once again I’m not a big fan and I was too full anyway.  He didn’t like that answer, so he went over, got a to-go box and filled it with bread pudding.  He handed it to me and said to try it, I would love it.  So the next day we did and it was just as good as everything else.  Next time I go I’ll try everything because the owners proved me wrong twice.  Food was great and the service was awesome so I give it five strips of bacon.

Address: 5816 NW 63rd Street, Oklahoma City.  Southeast corner just east of MacArthur on NW 63rd.

Category:

Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City

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Weekend Fun by Mae

My weekends can go one of three ways.  Some weekends are dull as a rock, sitting on my butt watching cat videos for two days straight.  Other weeks I am a busy bee, running around over fifty miles or more away from home.  Then there’s the weekends I spend doing one of the above with Bubbles.  Considering that, it is no surprise that I have been to many of the recent events going on in our state. This includes; Septemberfest in Oklahoma City, OU vs Tulsa football game in Norman, and of course, the State Fair of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.  They were all super fun in their own unique way, making me more than happy to go again next year.

Septemberfest

In 2007 I went to Septemberfest for the first time.  It was a different kind of experience that I had no intention of forgetting. There was a lot of excitement in the air as I rode the tractor train with other kids my age.  I walked along in front of the Governor’s Mansion, stopping to pet the Governor Brad Henry’s huge dog.  There was free stuff everywhere, and craft tables inside the Oklahoma History Museum.  The only part I didn’t like was the civil war cannon with a blast that shook the ground.  (They could have told me what they were doing!!!)  But even this wasn’t going to ruin my fun.  I went again this year, this time with my friend Bubbles. Just when I expected everything to be the same, Bubbles asked, ” What’s with the fence?”  I looked up to see that nothing was around the Governor’s Mansion.  As it turns out the festivities were moved across NW 23rd Street to the parking lot of the Oklahoma History Center.  They had a petting zoo, where I held a baby duck, pet a donkey, and touched a horses nose. Bubbles had a good time too, as me and her talked to and pet the fur-bearing creatures.  We wandered over to the food company area, getting free samples such as chocolate milk and beef sticks (Which are awesome!!!).  We went into the Oklahoma History Center to try some of the craft stuff, where we made a deer out of cups, and raccoon puppets out of paper bags.  When we were done in there, we went back out the parking lot to the Shape Your Future challenge table. Bubbles decided not to do the challenges, but I dominated them.  We stopped to get some Kona Ice before we left.

The bathrooms were in the Oklahoma History Center, they were clean.  My bathroom review for Septemberfest is five toilets.

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Mae riding in the barrel train at Septemberfest in 2007.

OU vs.Tulsa

I started playing the clarinet for my school band in sixth grade, and ever since then I have wanted to be in the Pride Of Oklahoma at The University of Oklahoma.  So when we got the opportunity to go to the OU vs.Tulsa game in Norman, I jumped to it because I wanted to hear the Pride in person.  Before the game the Pride parades around campus, then gives a brief concert.  There’s nothing better than hearing “Boomer Sooner” being played by over 300 musicians.  Over at the stadium me and my mom found our seats in the south end zone after we stopped and got some lunch.  The hot dogs, also known as Ballpark Dogs or Stadium Dogs, are and always have been the crowning jewel of an OU game.  The Super Pretzels aren’t bad either, despite being extremely salty.  OU scored the first touchdown, and even if we did win, I still think the Tulsa players where slipping fifties to the refs for some of those plays.  Both bands did an amazing job.  For such a small band Tulsa did a very good job.  The game itself was an experience in its own right, and the atmosphere was one of excitement and pride.  I am truly excited to be a part of the Sooner Nation.

I used not one but two bathrooms while I was on campus, the library bathroom and the south end zone stadium bathroom.  The library bathroom was in the newer section but still kind of small.  The bathroom in the south end zone was clean and smelled nice, even being used by so many people.  My rating for both bathrooms is five toilets.

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The Pride of Oklahoma on Owen Field, 2015.

State Fair

I have been going to the fair every year since I was just a few months old.  My parents like to go when the crowds are low, so this year we went on a rainy Sunday morning. The rides weren’t operating because of the lightning, but everything else was open.  I had deep-fried cookie dough for breakfast, which is my new favorite thing.  It is crispy on the outside, but warm and gooey on the inside.  Most of the buildings had fun stuff inside them.  We went into the livestock barns, where a sheep scared me (sorry, I’m a city girl).  We also watched the cows in the show ring and saw the new babies born to the goats and pigs.

I did use the bathroom in the animal barn, it only rates three toilets.  It’s big but was dirty and smelled bad.

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Cute sheep at the fair, 2015.

Mae

Category:

Norman, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City fairgrounds, University of Oklahoma

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The (Used to Be) Great State Fair of Oklahoma

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View from the Space Tower in 2006, at the time I didn’t realize how much of this history would be gone.  You can see the Grandstand in blue on the left, the old Travel and Transportation Building and Clock Tower in the middle, and the B-52 on the right.

Every fall in Oklahoma means that not only has football season started but that it will be fair time in Oklahoma City.  I used to love going to the fair, it was like going to a special playground once a year with lights and food.  As I got older I loved going to see those old landmarks that brought back great memories, riding the monorail and the space needle.  Now almost everything is gone; the monorail, the grandstands, several buildings, the waterfall in the flower building, and even though it’s still there, the space tower sits empty and broken.

Let’s start at the beginning, the first “fair” in Oklahoma City was in 1889 a few months after the land run.  A small group of residents, with the names of Charles Jones, Ed Overholser, H. G. Trosper, and D. F. Stiles, organized the first Oklahoma Territorial Fair.  They bought some land on the northeast corner of Santa Fe and Reno Avenues, then built some buildings, such as a racetrack.  This fair was successful for a few years until the economy started to fail and the population dropped, so it was discontinued in 1894.

Every once in a while for the next few years there would be various street fairs but nothing like an official fair with a designated time and location.  This changed in January of 1907 when Jones along with Charles Colcord organized a state fair association.  A new location was chosen for the fairgrounds at the southeast corner of Eastern Avenue and NE 10th Street.  The first fair was held on October 5th of 1907, just a month before statehood.  There were of course the usual farming and agriculture exhibits, carnival attractions, but the biggest draw was the horse racing on a half-mile track.  Even though the racing stopped in 1913 when the state legislature banned it, there was still plenty to do such as watch car races, ride hot air balloons, or enjoy an air show.  Of course there were lean times during the great depression but the fair still went on.  There was talk of moving the fairgrounds, the location was too small, not enough parking, and at times problems with flooding.

OKC from space needle

Another view from the Space Tower in 2006, on the left near the bottom of the pic is the old Goodholm Mansion and behind that the Flowers and Garden Building.

These issues were finally addressed in 1951 when the city acquired land between Reno Avenue and NW 10th Street west of May Avenue, which had been the old Sandlot Baseball Park.  The new location hosted its first fair on September 25, 1954.  This is when the grandstands were built with an oval racing track and just south, a drag strip which hosted the National Championship Drag Races in 1957-1958.   Many other buildings were built around this same time such as the 4-H and FFA buildings, the Made in Oklahoma Building, Women’s and General Exhibits Building (now known as Modern Living and Creative Arts Building), Appliance Building (now known as the Kitchen’s of America or Centennial Building), and some of the agriculture barns.  In 1964 the monorail makes its first trip around the fairgrounds and a year later the State Fair Arena (also known now as Jim Norick Arena or “the big house”).  1968 is the first trip into the air on the Arrows to Atoms Space Tower with the Travel and Transportation building to follow the next year after being built around Santa Fe engine #643.    In 1977 the Clock Tower is built from an old oil derrick, in 1978, the Flowers and Gardens Building opens with its waterfall over the doors.  The Goodholm Mansion is moved to the grounds in 1979 after being saved from the wrecking ball.  In 1984 is when we got the big “balloon top” building called the International Trade Center, leaving us all to go in through doors that helped regulate the pressure inside and make our ears pop.

Fair Train 2

Santa Fe steam engine #643 sitting in the courtyard of the Travel and Transportation Building in 2004.  It was built in 1879, given to Oklahoma City and placed at the fairgrounds in the 1950’s.  It is currently being cleaned by volunteers at the Oklahoma Railway Museum.

So many of these landmarks are now gone- the B-52 is gone, the big slide is as well, the log plaza has disappeared.  Some have been saved and moved, the planes are all over the country, the Goodholm Mansion is out near Choctaw, and just this summer the Oklahoma Railway Museum got the old steam train.  Even the cow barns smell fresh instead of like cow poo mixed with hay.  You can still get a good corn dog or cotton candy, but so many of the foods have just gotten wilder just to see what you can deep fry next.  So I still pay to go to the fair, it’s just not a fun as it once was, back when it really was a Great State Fair.

dr pepper sign 2

Even this cool old Dr Pepper sign on the back of the Made in Oklahoma Building is gone, 2011.

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Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City fairgrounds, Oklahoma history, State Fair of Oklahoma

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