September-October'85

.THE OKLAHOMA STATE MEAL: CHICKEN FRIED STEAK I, A BOTr "'ST'S PICK OF THE FALL WlLDFLOWERS

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September-October '85 Vol. 35, No. 5

COVER 16 38 ARTIST ON AROUND THE WORLD MAIN STREET IN A SINQLE DAY Charles Banks Wilson has given us Travel to Seoul, Guatemala City, portraits of Sequoyah, Will Rogers, Jim Cairo, Phnom Penh, Stuttgart, Thorpe.. . He's painted monumental Guadalajara, all without leaving murals of Oklahoma's history. ..He's Oklahoma-at Lawton's International known worldwide as a painter, an Festival. illustrator, a lithographer. And he's done it all from the same home base he's had OKLAHOMA since 193ehis "catbird seat" studio - above his farher's paint store in Miami. PORTFOLIO Vignettes of the Sooner State by photographer Larry D. Brown of A Woodward. h Robbers Cave State Park, near Wilburton. Photo by Howard Robson. Inside front Autumn trees, Red Rock Canyon State Park. Photo by Larry D. Brown. Back. Gaillardia, Woodward HEAVEN ON THE County. Photo by Larry D. BLUESUTE SPECIAL Brown. Oklahoma has a state flower, state mammal, state rock...even a state reptile. If we ever get around to naming a state FEATURES enuee, it will have to be chicken fried steak, hands down. I DEPARTMENTS Today in Oklahoma ...... 4 8 31 Books/Letters ...... 4-5 MISTER WILDFLOWER WAV OUT WIST Unoommon Common Folk ...... 6 Oklahoma has more than 2,500 species (35 Minutes hwn Tulsa) De6tinations: Lake Murray ...... 14 of wildflowers. And Dr. Doyle McCoy Fern and Ted Allen run a cow-country Oklahoma Omnlbuo ...... 36 can tell you about each and every one dude ranch that caters to weekend range On to Oklahoma...... 49 of them. riders and leisure-time cowboys. . Entertainment Calendar...... 50

September-October '85 3 gins on page 16. Now 95, Miss Debo wrote the follow- ing letter last June. With artist Wilson's permission, it is shared with you. Dear Charles, I am so grateful to you-for the genius plus integfliy hat wenr into the painting of dat portrait. It k not beautqul. nat k correct. I have ntwer been beaunfid. It does not conceal my age. I am 95. But it shows ~e daractetictic drat I now know dominated my l$e. I don't know how you dkcwmd it, for I did not re// you. I did not even realw its importance, but it was he Okldoma TODAY staff is still do- calendars are out, and we think this alwqs dwe. In fact my moder saw it in ing a little cloud-walking over the year's selection of phorography is the T my infancy, and it appeats in my earliest two national awards that the magazine best ever. The cover features the lake at memories. Somehow jgou captured the won in less than a week last summer. Greenleaf State Park, taken at dawn by whole 95 yeats. And that is what a por- First, the Society of American Travel David Fitzgerald. trait shouM mord. Tm/y I am grateful. Writers named Oklh-homa TODAY runner- And you will be pleased to note that up to National Geographic Traveler in the the 1986 calendar has squares for you to nanhng you, Magazine Issue category. write in each day's appointments-just Angie "Coming in second to National Geo- as many of you requested. P.S. I see I failed to mention dis domi- graphic is phenomenal," Robert Fisher, All of the photos are frameable, and nant characte&ic. It was Drive. It car- SAWfoundation president, said. "The taken by some of the state's best photog- ried me throu$ de whole li$time. editors and staff of Oklahoma TODAY raphers. The price hasn't changed in have every reason to be proud of the years-still just $5.95 with another dollar * To our sorrow, the Aerlex Corp. award." for postage. featured on the cover of the JulyIAugust Then the Regional Publishers Associ- You'll find an order form for the calen- issue is the same fireworks manufactur- ation, made up of magazines like Arizona dar and gift subscriptions, along with ing company that exploded June 25. Hi$ways and VmontLife that focus on a some of the newest books on Oklahoma, With 21 people killed, this was one of specific geographic region, announced in the center of the magazine. the industry's worst disasters. Oklahoma TODAY as Most Improved $w At the turn of the century, two of Owner Alan Johnson, who was also Magazine during its annual conference in the state's most remarkable churches injured during the explosion, says he Killarney, Ireland. were established. First Presbyterian does not plan to rebuild the plant. W More important to the staff than Church of Tulsa is celebrating its 100th I am sure our sympathy for the Hal- either of these awards, however, is what anniversary with a number of events Oc- lett, Terlton, Jennings and Cleveland our readers think of Oklahoma TODAY. tober 4-6. The oldest and largest Presby- communities is shared by all Oklahoma Last spring you responded in large num- terian church in the state, it was TODAY readers. -Sue Carter bers to our reader survey. organized soon after the railroad to Tul- Our respondents were evenly divided sey Town was completed and the arrival between men and women, with the ma- of the area's first settlers from the East. jority between the ages of 45 and 64. Another early church, this one of the Most are Oklahoma residents with one or Russian Orthodox faith and begun by more college degrees, and most are pro- coal-mining immigrants near Hartshorne, fessionally employed or retired. is featured in Oklahoma Omnibus, Below Devil's Gap: The Story of It was fun reading all your comments which begins on page 36. Woodward County, by Louise Boyd about where you had lived in Oklahoma, W Young Angie Debo moved with James; Evans Publications, P.O. Box how you pass your magazines along to her family into Indian Territory in 1899. 520, Pdim, OK 74057; $20.50, post- your relatives and friends, your story One of the state's most loved historians, paid. Here's a county history that's more ideas, to whom you send gift subscrip- her portrait, painted by Charles Banks than family photos and random-sample tions and how much you enjoy our scenic Wilson, now hangs in the Capitol. The reminiscences. Louise Boyd James, photography. story of Wilson and his paintings of Miss eight-year resident of the sand-and-sage t+ t+ The new 1986 Okldoma TODAY Debo and other famous Oklahomans be- country around Woodward, is also the

4 Oklahoma TODAY former director of the Plains Indian and Oklahoma City University, give the 1 certain people who were opposed to pre- Pioneer Museum. She takes the country same treatment to another world-east- paredness by this country. that now makes up Woodward County em Oklahoma, to the land of the Chero- I think of Hal Muldrow, newscaster from the days when it belonged to the kee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and ' Frank McGee, Dan Blocker ("Hoss" of Kiowas and Comanches, through Fort Seminole nations, once proposed as a the Bonanza TV show) and the thou- Supply's days as a frontier military post, state of their own, Sequoyah. sands of others, famous and not so fam- past the era of the Cherokee Strip Live- Walker's ancestors migrated to "sur- ous, who were the Thunderbirds. This stock Association, up to the opening of plus" land in the Creek Nation near Bro- afternoon, I'm attending a funeral for an the Cherokee Outlet to settlement, ken Arrow after the Civil War. He ex-Thunderbird. He was only a private, through statehood, the Dirty Thirties, provides short essays with titles like but as your article stated, we are all the stunning tornado of April 9, 1947, "The State of Sequoyah Convention," brothers-irregardless of rank. the days of the oil boom-to today. "Indian Removal," "The New State" Our wartime accomplishments are his- Along the way, she introduces readers and "A Complex Area of Great Pro- tory, but our post-wartime activities are to denizens like "Miss Dolly Kizer," mise." Decazes provides color photo- amazing and unsurpassed by any other who has to be one of the state's best- graphs (80 in 106 pages) that range from division. We are goodwill ambassadors loved madams; Billy Bolton, the 350- portraits of Indian dancers, bullriders and for the state of Oklahoma, as evidenced pound editor of the WoohardNtws; and domino players to views along lakes and by attendance to the 45th Reunion, his buddy, lawyer Temple Houston, back roads, from Tulsa skylines and along with various unit reunions. Sam Houston's youngest, who enlivened street scenes in Nowata, Boley and Stil- We are proud of the 45th and our state. Woodward considerably from the Run well to early morning along the Illinois Warren G. Myers till his death in 1905. (Houston, noted and autumn cypress near Beavers Bend. Norman for his flamboyant dress and equally flamboyant drinking habits, was once In his letter in the MayJune 1985 tried for manslaughter after a shootout issue, Dr. James R. Estes states that a with a brother of bank-robber-to-be A1 "careful perusal" of the Red River did Jennings.) not discover a community named James also discusses some of the more Fulton. arcane aspects of Woodward County's You do have the most interesting A state map of Arkansas (a highway history, from the fuller's earth mines and articles. I have just finished reading "On its (very) short-lived gold rush to a brief Two Wheels" (May-June 1985). The in- map) and one other I happen to have both show Fulton, population about 385, chronology of the county seat's early sert on Quinton, Oklahoma, was very about halfwav between Hope and Texar- saloons. interesting. We really need more articles The book's main title, by the way, is on small towns. kana, and on the river, where it makes taken from what the jacket copy calls "a My husband, Jack Kelley, was born almost a 90-degree turn to the south after running east. distinctive break in the rough canyons and raised in those beautiful mountains above the valley of the Beaver River and surrounding Quinton. We truly enjoyed My Rand-McNally highway atlas does not show Fulton, but I feel sure the Wolf Creek. . . a landmark along the mil- the article. larger Rand-McNally atlas would. itary mad between Fort Dodge, Kansas, Being a subscriber to your magazine and Camp Supply in northwestern Indi- since 1950, I can't recall one article that W. L. Winham an Territory." wasn't very enlightening. Bethany Faye Kellq My cousin, who lives in Sayre, my Midwest City home town, kindly gave me a subscrip- The State of Sequoyah: An Impres- tion to OkIahoma TODAY last Christmas. sionistic Look at Eastern Oklahoma, I have just (again) read the "These Scott Carlberg's article "The First tact by Jdd C. Walk, photograph by Colors Don't Run" article in your Janu- Scouts" (March-April 1985) brought Day Decam; Die Lowel Pras, P.0. Box ary-February 1985 issue. This portrayal back fond memories of a man I was 1877, KamCig, MO 64141; $25. A few of the finest organization ever to fight for proud to call my "second father," years back, photographer Daisy De- this country is commendable. My con- George Ed Tinker. He, with his brother cazes teamed up with William Ba- gratulations and thanks to Michael Wallis Alec, was also a member of the first Boy nowsky, then president of the University for this fine piece of writing. Scout troop in the United States. The of Oklahoma, for a book of color photo- As I read this article, my thoughts Tinkers were one-eighth Osage. graphs and laudatory text on western drifted back to those pre-war years when Oklahoma. Now Decazes and another we were called "nasty guards" and in Geneva Staples Bowlin college president, Jerald C. Walker of some ways were looked down upon by Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

September-October '85 5

tional Scandinavian costumes. Will Oklahoma soon see Czech Mouskin munching kolache in Prague and Ital- ian Mouskin slurping spaghetti in Krebs? It's not as far-fetched as it may sound. Wanda laughingly refers to her home as a Social Security Office for the Mouskin, since she's got card files full of data and photographs of all of them. It's also about to become a surgical hospital. Recently, Wanda recounts, her face sobering, "I had to check on three mice who had been in a house fire: Emily, Ollie and Patience. They were badly damaged, and the family wanted to know what they could do. The didn't want new mice, even though they had been paid for them by their insurance company. They wanted Ikr mice. Isn't that great? I had to figure MARGO WRIGHT out what to do about their condition. We phenomenon, "because in 1980, I didn't owners in the military have moved have integrity here and all sorts of know anything about them. My con- out of state. I've had some from Wichita feelings that would not enter into a pure- cept is not about adoption and adoption Falls and all over Oklahoma, but no ly commercial transaction. I felt that papers. It's about the fact that we are one from too far away." Since members the mice could either die, and we would a family of man, and that for one evening of the various family branches now have to say they died, or be repaired of the year when the host families live in 25 states and four countries, get- as much as possible. They decided come together we are one big family. ting even such a close-knit family all against death. So they're taking them People get together who would not together seems unlikely. to a cleaners in Oklahoma City as a start. ordinarily be together, and they meet When she planted this family tree, Then I'll have to amputate some legs, people outside their own little circles. Wanda took full responsibility for de- particularly Emily's. They'll also get It's about becoming part of an extended sign, construction, marketing and some new outfits, but they'll come to family." sales. All that, however, quickly became the reunions with their burnt noses be- This "get-together" to which Wan- a bit much. So when the owner of a cause a family has to learn to deal da refers is the annual reunion where gift shop in Lawton approached her with and accept tragedy." members of the Mece, Mouser and about selling the Mouskin in her The Mouskins are charming, with Mouskin families meet in Lawton. This shop, Wanda agreed: "I offered what their carefully crafted garments of fine event, the fifth of which will be in Mouskins I had to her for the Christ- fabrics (all with cunningly hidden October 1985, came into being when mas season and told her I'd pick them up cheese pockets) and their individualized Wanda found herself thinking that if after the holidays. When I saw how expressions and postures. They've all these creatures were actually a family, fast they sold and what a relief it was for certainly charmed their maker, who has they ought to have a reunion. At the me, I just never brought them back." retired a few years early to devote first, held late in 1980, Wanda remem- That shopkeeper had only a vague more of her time to her ever-growing bers, "We had about 40 or so people idea of what she was taking on when she family. She says, "I'd like to try some and about 25 mice. I had it at my home opened her doors to let the Mouskin writing about them. I've never written, in the garden. Each owner came march in. Along with supplying a tempo- so I don't know if I can, but I'd like dressed as the lifestyle clothing of his or rary lodging, she had to accept re- to. I could see that we're at a place at her animal, since if they liked the sponsibility for matching mice to owners Cameron where five years won't mouse enough to buy it, they must have and keeping a registry for Wanda's make much difference, but five years liked the idea of the lifestyle, and records. From Mouskin #1, their creator from now in my life and things could each brought a cheese dish. knows who is where and with whom, be much different." Given the look of "The second year, I had to move it and that's the way it will be as long as her workroom, five free years in Wan- from the house to the town hall. We had this family tree continues to grow. da's life and Oklahoma may need to call about 150 people and half as many It's already branched out in direc- in the Pied Piper. RE mice. The reunion hasn't grown a lot tions she never planned on. Wanda has since then. Last year we had about placed a large group of Mouskin in Hove a nominee for "Uncommon 200 people. Some who come satisfy their Lindsborg, Kansas, where the inhabit- Common Fo/k"P Write to Kahlyn c/o curiosity and don't come again. New ants of this Scandinavian community Oklahoma TODAY, P.O. Box 53384, owners wouldn't miss it. Many of the can purchase Mouskin dressed in tradi- OR/a/loma Cig, OK 73152.

September-October '85 7 By Eve Sandstrom

Dr. McCoy's been fascinated ly Ok/ahoma's roaa'side p/ants since the days when he'd rest his father's mu/a at the end of a furrow-and dissect some ironweed or a sunflower. Here he's shou/der-deq in vwbena. Fall can be prime time for Oklahoma wildflower fans. Meet Dr. Dr. Doyle McCoy, a botanist who specializes in Oklahoma's wild , plants, says the climate and geography of the state encourage a long season with a lot of variety in blooms. "Our freezes don't come early, and we usually get some rain in a living the fall that helps bring out the flowers. Some flowers will even put out a second crop," he says. On State The differences in soil and rainfall from the southeastern corner, with its deciduous trees and pines, to the northwestern corner, with its prairies, mean that the state has a wide variety of flowers-about

8 Oklahoma TODAY 2,500 species from border to border. ers, Cameron University." 1978. Books on wild fruits and on Fall wildflowers tend to share the Now 68, McCoy is a tall, spare man trees and shrubs followed. golden colors that mark much of Oklaho- with iron-gray hair and sparkling eyes Roadsides are the best place to find ma during the autumn, but when Mc- behind wire-rimmed glasses. As he wildflowers, McCoy says. Coy listed his own favorite fall talks, his long, slender hands mime the "You'll find the most diversity in wildflowers, purples and reds ap- flowers' movements, illustrate their types of wildflowers along the highways, peared among the gold. sizes and sketch their structure. between the road and the fence. This McCoy has studied wildflowers McCoy's scientific specialty is tax- is because the soil in that area is fre- since he was a Grady County farmboy 60 onomy, or the classification of plants. He quently disturbed, by graders, for ex- years ago. early became a walking reference ample. The grader may destroy the "When I was plowing, I would use book for friends, acquaintances and even native grasses and allow the wild- the excuse that the mules needed rest to strangers who brought flowers back flowers to get a start." stop at the end of a row. Then I from hikes or found them growing in Even traffic can help spread flow- I would get after the flowers, tearing them their lawns. Many asked him to rec- ers, as seeds cling to bumpers, then drop apart to see just how they were made. ommend a book on wildflowers. off down the road. I remember doing that to the ironweed. No guidebook aimed at Oklahoma "Abandoned pastures are another It grew about 2 feet high and had real amateurs existed. So McCoy got busy, good spot," McCoy says. "Overgrazing thick purple flowers at the top. And I took 7,000 or so color slides of wild- may help wildflowers, too, since ani- worked the sunflowers over." flowers and wrote one. Roadside Fimm mals won't eat many of them. Other McCoy's interest in plants contin- of OkIadoma appeared in 1976, con- wildflowers-violets, for example- ued through undergraduate and graduate taining color pictures of 300 common are restricted to shaded areas. They may work and a 45-year teaching career. wildflowers, along with their scientific be found along creeks or under trees His four "roadside" guides to Oklaho- names and descriptions of their habitat, back a little farther from the road." ma's wild plants have earned him size and color. Volume Two, with 150 Wildflowers are often hard to grow mail addressed only to "Roadside Flow- additional flowers, was published in continued on pg. I2

September-October '85 9 DR. McCOY'S FALL BOUQUET

GaiLiardiapulchella. From 6 to 15 inches tall. The heads are few and are from 1 to 3 inches

flowers are purplish-brown and are found in all parts of the state. "It blooms from April through September, if the moisture holds up. It grows in numerous INDIAN BLANKET. soils, but it does like a little sand."

2 to 3 inches broad. The 15 to 30 August through October. they'll be just thick for 200 or 300 /'re a little more abundant in the I SUNFLOWER. western part."

Aster exilis. From 6 to 24 inches tall. The flowers, at the ends of branches, have purple rays about 1/6 inch long and yellow central disks. Found in pastures and lawns from August through October. 1 "It's nice and tall, and the stems are almost like wire, very slender-that's where it gets its SLIM ASTER. name. The purplish rays really stand out in the fall, when so many of the flowers are golden."

RFterpaludosus. From 1 to 1% feet tall. The flowers are 1 to 2 inches broad with brown or yellow central disks and 20 to 30 deep violet rays. Found in southeastern counties. - "You just don't find it except where the soil is real moist-along bar ditches where water ,MP ASTER. has a tendency to collect, for example. Its blue or purple makes it stand out."

Carduus niltans. From 2 to 4 feet tall, with spiny wings on stems. The heads are 1 to 3 inches broad and are purple to white. Found in open woodlands or low meadows of northeastern counties from June through October. QUEEN ANN'S "These are fairly rare. When you see them, there will be a little group for about a mile, and THISTLE. if you counted all of them, it wouldn't be more than two or three dozen."

Etyngium Leavenwodii. Also known as "false thistle," these stand 1 to 2 feet high and are found in the eastern half of the state from June through October. The flowers are purplish to -pink, about % inch long and 3/4 inch thick. LEAVENWORTH'S "It's self drying. Just put it in a vase or basket-it doesn't need any water-and in January ERYNGO. or February it will be more colorful than ever."

Si/phium Asteriscus. From 2 to 4 feet tall. The heads are 1 to 2 inches broad, with 12 to 15 yellow rays and yellow centers. These are widely distributed in the southeastern half of oklahomi, blooming from June through ~e~tember. ,.,RRY Rc ,.... 1. "These are typically fall, but not as showy a flower." ?oli&go spen'osa, var. augystta. From 3 to 7 feet tall. The %- to %-inch flowers cluster at the I ipper stem tips. They are mostly seen in the northeastern fourth of the state from August hrough October. '%is flower lasts until frost. It stands up real tall, and with all the yellow flowers on it, it's ..,,,, ..,,,, ,,---... .--. :asy to spot. 9,

Palafoxia caha. From 1 to 2 feet tall. Flowers are purple to pink and their heads are about a half inch broad. Blooms June to October over much of the state. RAY LESS "This flower likes open spaces, a prairie habitat. It likes sand, but it needs a good bit of PALAFOXIA. ~noisture, too. The color really makes it stand out."

Chrysopsispi/osa. From 1 to 2 feet tall. The rays and central disk flowers are yellow, and the l~lossomsare about an inch broad. Widely distributed, they grow in sandy waste lands from July through September. 'The flower is about the size of a silver dollar, and it glistens almost as if it had been GOLDEN ASTER. polished."

Lobelia cardinalis. From 2 to 5 feet tall. Each plant has numerous flowers, scarlet red and Itubular, with five lobes, and about 1 inch long. Infrequent, but found over most of state from July through September. "This grows in low places and is found in association with woods. They're real showy CA..-...-- .'LOWER. because they're so red. It's really a well-named flower." I I

Wenfieha oligospma. From 1 to 1% feet tall. The %-inch flowers are a bright yellow, with nany stamens and five yellow petals. They bloom from June through- Septembee. ROUGH "The leaves have short stiff hairs. It grows in rocky, well-drained soils and is widely PRAIRIE LILY, distributed through the state. It is most abundant, however, in the Wichita Mountains."

Heliandus annuus. From 3 to 6 feet tall. The flowers cluster in large heads, with numerous rays and yellow or brown central disks. They bloom from July until October. "Kansas, of course, is the Sunflower State, and just about all that state is good sunflower --....AON country, but it's widespread in Oklahoma, too. Unlike most of the wildflowers, it's an annual, SUNFLOWER. and must reseed itself each year."

Euphodia rnaarg'fiata.From 1 to 4 feet tall. The tiny flowers have white petal-like appen- dages and striking leaves. It blooms from May through October, and, despite its name, usually grows on prairies. "This flower is related to the poinsettia, and you can see the relationship in the way the SNOW ON leaves are arranged. They have white margins, andwhen a big plot is standing waist or shoulder- THE MOUNTAIN. high, it almost does look as if it were snow." c in gardens or flowerbeds, he says. "Some seeds might need to be kept in the refrigerator for awhile. And some won't germinate until the second year." Transplanting wildflowers is often unsuccessful as well, he finds, perhaps because the gardener treats the flow- I ers too nicely. I "So often you find wildflowers growing in old rocky soil, with almost no topsoil-right up between the rocks. They seem to say 'I'm faring very well here, thank you.' "The Lord has provided them with the necessary structures for growth. It's " S just up to us botanists to find them in their natural locations." To photograph flowers McCoy uses a 35mm camera with a close-up lens, a 20-gallon plastic garbage can and a homemade gadget of spring clothespins mounted on a wooden base. To take a picture, he usually stretches out on the ground, using the garbage can to cast a big shadow which becomes a black background for the colorful flowers. The clothespins hold the blooms in natural positions. "I've never known a single high- way patrolman to pass me by without stopping," he says cheerfully. McCoy holds a BS in botany from I - East Central State University, Ada; an A A CI RI II LR II 'I.4'"" MS in botany from the University of Oklahoma; and a PhD from Oklahoma State University. He taught for 45 years, first in rural schools and later in secondary schools in Ada. He began I college teaching at East Central and also taught at Hardin-Simmons University before going to Cameron University in Lawton as head of its biology depan- ment in 1968. He retired from teaching in 1982 and moved to Oklahoma City with his wife, Pearl. Now he lectures and trav- els the state to take slides for yet another book on his favorite subject- wildflowers. En

A Eve Sandrtmrn works as an &or for he Gm.~uvarrnmfi Lawton Constitution.

12 Oklahoma TODAY BIG AND ORDER FORM My name (Fain men if only sending gifts) BEAUTIFUL AS Address City ALL OKLAHOMA ' ~ State zip Day Phone #

Please send me 1986 scenic calendars to me at above address GIFT ORDERS Please send 1986 scenic calendars to the following people with gift cards en- closed:

Name Address City State Zip - Sign gift card from:

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Q~Y Price 1986 scenic wall calendars @ $5.95 Add $1.00 each for shipping & handling Total payment due 1986 Oklahoma TODAY Check or money order enclosed Visa Scenic Calendar Mastercard, Interbank # 13 outstanding full color photographs show Oklahoma's Card # scenic beauty, all around the state Exp. date Signature x calendar features large boxes for writing in 9 12 Mail to: OKLAHOMA TODAY, appointments and memos P.O. Box 53384 Oklahoma City, OK 73152 Printed on heavy weight paper with durable plastic binding Or call 1-800-652-6552to11 free A beautiful way to keep track of all your days in 1986! with credit card order t might seem a little ironic, but Ok- lahoma's first state park-and one of I its prettiest lakes-is a direct de- scendant of the Depression era. In order to put jobless Oklahomans back to work, Gov. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray decided in 1931 to use part of the state's Federal Emergency Relief Funds to construct Lake Murray. This project, the state's most ambi- tious during the 1930s, employed be- tween 900 and 1,500 men during an average week. They had a hand in exca- vating the valleys, building the earthen dam and filling the lake. Some of these men still recall working in the hollows of the earth, or "hell holes" as they called them, where temperatures were so high they had to douse each other with cold water to keep from passing out. That history is lost below the spring- fed waters of Lake Murray, but those men and their descendants make up some of the lake's most loyal visitors. With its sprawling 5,700-acre lake and 12,4%-acre park, Lake Murray is Okla- homa's largest state park and resort. De- spite its size, all of its fqcilities are within lking distance of the ranch-style lodge on the lake's west shore. A winding road appropriately named "Scenic 77" will take visitors either by foot or by car to the resort's surrounding sights and facili- ties. The little-naveled road is especially nice to drive down as the sun sets behind trees and low, gwsy hills. Scenic 77 leads all the way to the other side of the lake, where the famous Tucker Tower stands. (Boat rides to the tower are also available.) A climb to the top of the 100-foot-high castle-like struc- ture, originally planned as a retreat for OMgho~na'sgovernors, is rewarded with a brearhtaking view of the lake. History abounds around Tucker Tow- er. The area used to be called the "De- site. The robbers hid in the caves until guests even prefer it to the park's pool. vil's When" because of the strange they were finally caught, but the stolen Out-of-the-water sports include hiking, iI haze left by moonshiners' fires. Another gold was never found. camping and horseback riding. tale tells that the tower stands above Guided tours of the tower and its nat- The Indian-summer months of Sep ' sealed caves that hold a legendary "lost ural-science museum are available 9 tember and October are a perfect time to treasure." During territory days, a group a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through spendatLakeMurray.Thecrowdshave of uain robbers took $50,000 worth of Sunday. thinned, the weather has cooled off and gold from the Santa Fe, which passed on Just as famous as Tucker Tower is the the water is still warm. Planned activities the railroad tracks west of the tower's Lake Murray water, so clear that some include a Mexico fiesta on the recreation Park

MIAMI I

'Y have a/ways felr that if an arrist is I imdortant. then he records his own tihe.... ~kisstudio has been my rut- bird seat. And anything I saa9going on out on the corner, I could paint. "

ne day John Steinbeck stood gazing out :he window of Charles Banks Wilson's

studio in Miami, Oklahoma, and

L flwished aloud that he "had a studio on a corner of a little town like this."

If he had, Steinbeck might have painted a fairer

* portrait of Oklahomans. But if anyone's work has set about

State Capitol rotunda show us 400 years of our history. His

w - v m - - -- -.""-*.". M portraits of outstanding Oklahomans-Will Rogers, Se- --.-- quoyah, Jim Thorpe, Sen. Robert S. Kerr, Speaker of the ---- House Carl Alb

ings of our best. In more than 90 watercolors for Ford

Times he depicted the lakes, the restaurants, the creeks, the farms of our state. His ongoing project "Search for the

Purebloods" documents the faces of the remaining pure-

September-October '85 17 blood descendants of native American tribes. To understand Wilson, the artist, you must see the place he works. His studio has been here on the comer of Main Street, Miami, since 1939, when he established a "nest" for himself over his father's paint store. This World of Wilson is populated with art paraphernalia, opera posters, clay trade pipes, piles of sketch- es, his lithography equipment-even a stuffed eagle. It's a hive of high-ceilinged rooms, some with faded wallpaper and rectangular islands of linoleum scattered across the floor. Did the studio always cover this much space? "No," says Wilson. "Like the plague, it just spread." The wide entrance hall at the top of the stairs is a well-furnished, homey museum. There's the glass case with the beadwork and moccasins, the pottery, the baskets. The walls Wilson's nmest Capita/ portrait is o are covered with framed paintings and lithographs, the Dr. Angie Debo. He visited the 95-year- floor with Navajo rugs. The eagle, wings arched and eyes old historian some eight times at her fixed on the studio as if looking for prey, dangles high home in Marshall. 'welt a great obligation to her /$e and work to get her above the stairs. Antique chairs flank an equally vintage just right," he says. table. There's Wilson's bronze sculpture of Sequoyah and his oil of American Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Ben- 8 ton. In the midst of it all stands the man himself. Charles Banks Wilson. With his artist's sense of color he's worn a watermel- on-red shirt. It's impossible not to be aware of the heavy brows above the intense black eyes, the gray-sprinkled hair and swashbuckling mustache. He has the suave charm of a Southern gentleman, the voice of a storyteller. Wilson wi'il tell you right at the beginning that he thinks his area of Oklahoma is special. "I've always liked this comer of the world," he says, "because it reflects the rest of America-the miners, the farmers, the Indians, the cowboy~rdinarypioneer folks. It also reflects the land- scape of America. Except for the high mountains, a painter can find almost every landscape right here. And if you want the effect of a high mountain, you just climb a chat pile." A what? "A chat pile." To explain, he points to one of his watercolors. "Now here's a chat pile which reflects, for all the world, New Mexico. But it's the erosion of the wind and gravel that created this kind of landscape outside TWOOsage trappen, a Miami in 50 years. It took millions of years out in New detail from the mural Mexico." "Frontier Trade. " Beneath the many paintings hanging on the studio's The mode/ for the man on the right was Joe walls are numerous Indian artifacts displayed on shelves Benny Mason, a pure- and tables. Where did Wilson collect them? blood Osage, pro foot- "I've illustrated 28 books, including an Oklahoma ball p/ayer and well- history text that was used for a decade in Oklahoma known go&. schools," he explains. "The research for the books drew

18 Oklahoma TODAY I 1 me into areas where these things were available. And I have always liked Indian things, not be- cause of their historical connotations, but because I enjoyed the design." I Does Wilson have Indian heritage? He says he doesn't. But his wife is a Quapaw princess. What is it like, a non-Indian artist in a state with so many prominent Indian artists? Wilson doesn't think he's a good one to be asked that question. "Most people don't think of me as an Indian, but they don't think of me as non-Indian either, because of my subject matter." Since the late '30s Wilson has been drawing Okla- homa Indians. Why did he start? i-r riiii "When I was attending the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1930s, people would want to know about the Indians. And it made me interest- ed. Also, when you go away to school, you need a subject. Indians were a unique one. I came back and started going out to the powwows." It was on one of these sketching trips that he met his wife, Edna. Early in his career he lived and worked for two and a half years in New York, then returned to Miami. Did he think his art would be better back in A panoramic view of two of Wilson's four epic Oklahoma? murals for the ~tate-Capito/:~etttemint," iefr, and ''Indian Immigration. " The murals took Wilson's answer is emphatically yes. "I think, by far, mo reseafChandplan, paint. my work has been better than if I had stayed in New York or-chicago. I think a lot of artists have felt that. Just like Thomas Hart Benton, who went home to Missouri." Nicholas Calcagno, now head of Northeastern A & M's art department, which Wilson founded in the late '40s, is also a friend. He describes the artist as "an ex- tremely competent, but very complex person. Charles is a man of his times and his environment, and he understands that." When Calcagno put together the Oklahoma Hu- manities Foundation slide show on Wilson's career, he titled it "The Artist Who Never Left Home." Previous articles and slide shows concentrated on a 1 particular project or type of artwork Wilson was doing. Because of the narrow focus of most of the publicity he has had, Wilson thinks there are similarities between the way i many people perceive his career and the way the Hindu blind men perceived the elephant in Kipling's poem. i "Some people don't know I've done anything but a I watercolors," he says. "Then there are other people who B don't know I've done anything but book illustrations. A lot 1 I of people don't know anything but the prints. Others, the This "Plains Madonna" is portraits." He shrugs. "That's all right. As long as they from the Capitol mural "Indian Immigration. " know I've done someding." Wilson found the Kiowa ( Most Oklahomans know the Capitol murals best. cradleboard and dress in "Well, I hope so!" Wilson says. "I think, without Chicago's Field Museum of question, my art experience culminated in the murals. I Natural History.

September-October '85 19 had learned how to research from the books. I had learned the technical aspects of the acrylic from the portraits." So, the murals are the high point of his

"I think so, when it's all said and done." 1 Wilson likes to talk about the murals. "The Capitol murals are intended to be seen from the ground. You see it at an angle from about 75 feet. The difference between an easel painting and a mural is the mural is part of the architecture. You paint it for where it goes." The four "Roots of Oklahoma" murals are Inot true rectangles. Were those upper comers a problem? "They were. But the big problem was the height. All other murals are painted as if the per- son is standing on the ground looking up at the painting. I conceived these shapes as an opening to a stage." Another problem was the murals' size. Wil- son had to use scaffolding to work on the upper sections. Once he fell off. How far did he fall? "About 15 feet right on my head," Wilson ~notherfigukfrom ''Indian Immigration" is a Comanche says. "I was sitting in a chair and painting. Now, if you are on his "wadonnet horn," specially trained for battle. standing and lose your balance, you can catch yourself. Seated, you're dead. "I was putting the highlight on a Spanish soldier. I wasn't over far enough, so I picked up the chair and set it right over air. As I was coming down, I hit a ladder. The ladder flipped me over onto my head." Did he have to be hospitalized? No. "The doctor said, 'If it were Monday, I'd take you to the hospital, but it's Saturday, and it will heal."' These days Charles Banks Wilson is careful to avoid heights when he works. The room where he paints seated before his easel is open to downtown Miami on two sides, with old-fashioned high and wide windows. Tables hold the paints and brushes, a stray snapshot or two-and piles of sketches. There's Thomas Gilcrease, J. M. Davis, Chief W. W. Keeler. The oil painting of Will Rogers Wilson did when he was 15 hangs on the wall. It's the cover of a new book called WiL.Rogers in Hollywood. A new Wilson lithograph of Rogers is on the back. One of the most recent works to be created at Wil- son's easel is his portrait of Oklahoma historian and hu- manitarian Dr. Angie Deb of Marshall, Oklahoma. This oil painting, dedicated in ceremonies in the capitol last April, is the first Wilson has painted of a woman promi- nent in Oklahoma history. - C. This sketch of Osage re/igious leader Wilson made the same painstaking preparation for Char/a Whitehorn was a pnliminaq Dr. Debo's portrait as for all his other projects. He made stub for a painting, 'Usage Orator." four trips to Miss Deb's home in Marshall for the prelimi-

20 Oklahoma TODAY MIAMI

nary sketches because the 95-year-old historian's health limited the amount of time she could pose. Then he made one small painting, a preparation for the larger, final one. But the little oil, which Dr. Debo liked, displeased Wilson because he thought it made her look like "a little old lady who picked beans in summer." "That's not good enough for this First Lady of Oklahoma History," Wilson said. "I have an obligation to do Angie as true as I can." Wilson feels the same obligation to paint as truly as he can in all his work. "A lot of people judge a painting's worth by the details. But, really, the details are kind of inconsequential. It's the essential you want in a painting." Before Wilson ever began to sketch Dr. Debo he read every word of her 13 books on Oklahoma's history-"because I didn't feel '.I I would know what she was all about unless I read all of them." Her works are extremely readable, but also very long. During one sitting Wilson told Dr. Debo, "Thank God you didn't write 20!" Though he is now very enthusiastic about painting Angie Debo's portrait, initially Wilson

thoughtrights, shouldthat Kate be paintedBarnard, first. who Heworked was forsurprised Indian to..I learn The centra/penon in thefitst murai, '"Discov-

that Angie felt the same way; Kate Barnard had been her ery and Ex~/oration," which coven de yean 1541-1820*is Fra I idol. As he commented later, Wilson felt from the begin- !

ning that he and Dr. Debo were kindred spirits. He S decided to paint her portrait. In the '70s Wilson painted two portraits of Carl Albert, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representa- tives. He was also hesitant when first approached about tinis project. He was up on the mural scaffolding ("I had something up there Michelangelo didn't when he painted the Sistine Chapel: a telephone") when he was first of- fered the commission. "I hemmed and hawed," Wilson says, "because I was feeling pretty important up there painting on a canvas 27 feet long and 15 feet high. And it wasn't too difficult to turn down a speaker of the house. 1 said I didn't like portraits and I didn't do them very well." Wilson insists, "I really don't care to do portraits. I like to do people, but generally portraits have a certain connotation that is offensive to me. Portrait painting as I knew it in New York was where they set the subject up on an Oriental carpeted stand and the artist painted in a smock and tam." But what about Will Rogers, Jim Thorpe, Sequoyah, Joe Benny Mason has been a Kerr? Did he paint portraits, or did he just paint people? frequent model of Wilson's. This "I just painted people." sketch, which shows the character- And the Carl Albert portraits? istic flattening of the back of the head caused by an Osage trade- The one in Washington that hangs in the Capitol board, is part of the 'Seamh for Speakers' Gallery Wilson says is a portrait, but the one the Pureb/oods" show that is cur- hanging in the Oklahoma State Capitol, which has the rently touring the country.

September-October '85 Bugtussle school's bell tower and the motley kids, is just a television about the brain. It said the primary visual cortex painting of a person4ne he admires very much. "They prefers to see line. It sees line before mass or color or are almost two different people," Wilson says. shape. Line, the edge of form, aids in people's enjoyment "At first I was kind of disenchanted with doing Carl of drawings. Color never makes a picture. It can supple- Albert because he didn't look like Abraham Lincoln. But ment it, but it's made with the form and the line." Which then again, I thought, 'Abraham Lincoln doesn't look like is what lithographs are all about. Carl Albert, either.' And Carl Albert is just as unique in his Wilson put his new stone on the lithograph appara- way as Lincoln was in his." tus. It's "Rabbit Tracks," a snow scene in a wooded area And Angie Debo-is that a portrait, or did he paint outside Miami done the previous winter. A part of the her as a person? machine has recently broken, so he has to simulate pulling "Angie and the Oklahoma portraits verge on being the print. Is the machine repairable? portraits. I think when I painted The Old Man with the "Oh, Lord, yes!" Wilson says. "I'd feel like the Saddle and Henry Turkeyfoot, I just painted people." doctor in that old poem whose one-horse shay collapsed Wilson expands on this idea: "When you do a por- the day he died if something happened to this thing. trait, you get over into the flattery aspect. And a portrait is That's what I wony about, that my roller might no longer one thing, a public portrait another. In a public portrait as be usable." in a public mural, you have a certain responsibility to the He's been using this particular roller since 1950, and people who are getting to see it, as well as to the person or he's been told it may be the oldest lithography roller in use people you are painting." in America. He keeps it from wearing out by treating it The largest portrait hanging in Wilson's studio is his with mutton tallow, which is "damn hard to get these oil of Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton of Missou- days," he says. ri. Was Benton a mentor? Back out in the wide entrance hall, his own private "No, oh no," Wilson answers quickly and emphati- museum, he shows us a framed Sequoyah lithograph. cally. "We were just friends. But I think Tom maybe "That's the drawing the government paid me to use on a learned as much from me as I've learned from him, in that postage stamp, and then messed it up," Wilson says. I know how to draw and he respected that. And I think Wilson's drawing was redrawn by a Boston artist who made when he drew around me, he had to do his best work changes, changes radical enough that Wilson's wife, Edna, because he knew that I knew if he made it wrong. said the final version looked more like Custer than an "I think his drawing changed quite a bit after we Indian. started working together. There was a principle of design Nick Calcagno has sculpted a bust of Charles Banks that was common to both Tom and I from the beginning Wilson. It's a good likeness. Calcagno has caught that of our career. I think both of us got that from the region, studying, far-seeing look in Wilson's eyes. the kind of country we lived in, the kind of atmosphere How does he feel seeing himself captured in clay? we have, the light. They contribute as much to an artist as Does he think that's "him"? anything else." "I don't know," Wilson says. "It isn't the way I Wilson admired Benton greatly. "The last time I was would have done it." at his house he was in his 80s. He was conjugating French How does it make him feel to see himself like that?" verbs in order to read Delacroix in the original. He really "In some lights, it's pretty effective," he admits. "I had a brilliant mind." think really Nick's done a better job than these life Benton was known as a Regionalist. Sometimes that masks." label has been applied to Wilson. He's also been called an Wilson settles back in one of the antique chairs to "artist-historian." Someone else has called him a painter talk about art and his career. "I have always felt that if an and printmaker. How does he see himself? artist is important, then he records his own time. Notj "I would prefer just being called an artist," Wilson entirely in his subject matter, but in his approach to art. says. But in a few minutes he is urging us toward his Everything is fair game to me. This studio has been my 1 lithograph room and saying, "I think of myself as a print- catbird seat. And anything I saw going on out on the maker. I love to do prints because I love to draw." comer, I could paint." The machine on which Wilson pulls his prints looks But hasn't there been a price to pay being "the artist I like some medieval torture device. He's going to show us who never left home?" Hasn't it cost him some national how the print is made, and he lugs one of the slabs of recognition? Bavarian limestone with the grease crayon drawing over to "A number of people have expressed surprise-no the machine, reaches for paper and the inky roller. that I've made some kind of success, but that I've bee Seated with the stone before him and the roller in his able to do it in Miami, Oklahoma." Wilson is proud of his1 hand, he says, "You know, I was watching a show on popularity with the people of Miami and the immediate

22 Oklahoma TODAY area. "Today almost every artist of some age can say 'I'm owned by the Metropolitan, the Library of Congress, the L Smithsonian.' Well, I'm owned by all of those-but what I'm proud of is that there are few homes in Miami that don't own something of mine. They identify with what I do." But if he had to choose between the admiration of the local people and the admiration of the "art establish- ment," which would he choose? "Oh, I think I would be dishonest if I settled for what the local people thought, because any artist respects his profession. And I can't say that it isn't a disappoint- ment my work isn't appreciated by my confreres. But surely he realizes that many, many artists were not lauded in their own lifetime? "Yes," Wilson admits, "but artists are like Holly- " wood stars. Nothing is quite as satisfying as being given an award by your fellows in the profession. I've won awards, but nothing of importance. Library of Congress award, things like that. But I can't honestly say that I wouldn't have preferred to have some national appreciation." Wilson's priority today is to continue his "Search for the Purebloods." A pureblood is a fullblood Indian of only one tribal heritage. For more than 40 years Wilson has been sketching this fast-vanishing group of native Americans. In 1981 the Kerr Foundation and OU's Stovall Muse- um sponsored a tour of 40 pureblood drawings that trav- eled throughout Oklahoma. The exhibit was to give small towns an opportunity to see original art. The tour was so popular that now it's being exhibited as drawings of 70 tribes, which began touring nationally in 1985, to places like Dallas, Albuquerque, Washington, D.C. Wilson has written a catalog to accompany the exhib- it explaining the history of his project and telling the stories behind the pureblood drawings. Wilson believes many people do not realize the effort he has expended to draw the purebloods. He travels, sketching them anyplace he can find them. Sometimes this can be a bar or jail-or at a kitchen table or in church. He thinks that as a result of the Pureblood project, "I doubt there is anyone other than a politician that has been in more little towns in Oklahoma than I have." t He's done more than a hundred tribes, and now the ' project is requiring him to travel out of state. "Some tribes," Wilson points out, "don't have any purebloods left. And some have only one person left. You just draw I whatever's left. And sometimes it's a disappointment. And 1 sometimes the tribe will say this is our pureblood, this is the one we want you to do." It may not always be the one Wilson feels will be the most representative. But he will keep drawing the faces as long as he can find Yet another Jane Bdman /iva in Wa/tm. David Fitzgenaalas most mcmt pureblood representative of yet another tribe. It is a race book ofphotograph, Ozarks, wm mkmd by Graphic Am Centw against time. Pub/is/ring ti& summer.

September-October '85 23 mmmm 3BLL-EPMEA SPEC 11111 11.)- 111111 1111 mamm 11111 umms 111-1 1.111 mmmm 1111 1111 mnsm msmm m! 11 a r mmm mama Pllr am111 [.A . llllllyss mmmm mg wmms 1's still out fh bmewhb, waiting. mrsraa " ' i mmmm tender, flavorlul piece of meat pibraced bp 11-1 11111111 1111 Ia crispy, beautifully browned mmmm rmra 1115 ti,& individual flavors uniting to I a m mi mmm1 The Perfect Chicken Fried Steak. .I m m m mmmm mmmm I've come close to finding it, I know, but the !;-Fa 1111 11 mmmm 1-11 ideal, the Platonic chicken fried steak, still l l l s p l mmmm eludes me. perhaps 1'11 never find it, but I must mmmm % I I W 1.11111 keep trying because I really need chicken fry. For 81111 ' wmmm shameful spell in my youth, I strove to hide lmlu a 1111 111m my Oklahoma mob by erasing any drop of a 111111 ' mmmm .1( 11111111 drawl, any trace of a twang and by talking only m11m 'd rnrnrnllli vaguely about being from "the South west. " Even I * 1111111 amurn mmmm then, though, I still begged Mama to cook mmmml I D IR c m mmum chicken fried steak. Like the little girt with me s mmim mmmm sram 11.1111 mmmlbll 1[ 111 1 emmr 1111 11111 1111% lllls mmmm 11111 lR1I

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The Grand Emporium, on Shawnee's Main Street, started as a genera/ ston; old-timers recalled lunching on crackenfmm a bare/, with cannedpeaches for dessert. Today the Grand has three main dining rooms-and is famous for its chicken fry and homemade pies. It's always been a family-run business, and today S owners are, left to right, Bob Mdowan, Brad Snider, Bi// Hemin and George Snider. (Our opening spread of dirken fry was shot in the Grand's 'Saloonw-filed with antiques, inc/udin~tab/es made from the u!hee/sof water wa.gons used to bui/d the rai/road throu.gh Shawnee.) holds true: When it is bad it is horrid. success of the whole. Ideally, the steak, One step below the ideal in the cow- Oklahoma eating places serve both ex- part one, is cow-made meat, top or in- made meat category is what the great tremes. Some of it is so good it makes side round, slightly improved upon by majority of eating places in Oklahoma you want to slap your granny, but a great man with his wonderful tenderizing ma- use for chicken fried steak: cube steak deal of. it is house shingle material. chine. Although this tasty meat may con- from a food service company. This cube Chicken fried steak is as Oklahoman tain some fat and gristle and must be cut steak is a piece of solid muscle cut from a as apple pie is American-a menu staple with a knife, it isn't tough. cow's lifter muscles. Like the much at our small-town cafes and big-city res- As a close second, the steak can be more expensive round, it's been run taurants alike. Even the most ethnic of man-made meat. That is, it can be a through a tenderizing machine, so it's no eateries usually serve it along with their single piece composed of many smaller less tender; however, it's usually quite a tacos, couscous or what have yous. Un- pieces of high-grade steak like sirloin, T- bit less flavorful. fortunately, what you may think of as bone and rib eye. The whole is formed Many, many steps below the ideal in chicken fried steak and what you get on from the parts in a tenderizer, the long the man-made category are flaked and your plate may be radically different at needles of which kind of knit them to- formed meat patties, recognizable by these different places. gether. You can cut this meat with a fork their unnaturally perfect oval shape. All chicken fry is divided into two because it has no fat or gristle, and it These much less expensive substitutes parts, the steak and the chicken fried, often tastes very good, depending on the are to real steak what particle board is to and the sum of both parts is equal to the kind of meat trimmings used. fine oak lumber. Any place that breads

Oklahoma TODAY 26 these and calls them chicken fried steak is committing a crime that should be punishable by imprisonment or fine or both. There's worse, though, and that moves us to part two, the coating that makes the chicken fry dicken fry. Some restaurants don't even bread the meat themselves; instead, they buy pre-bread- ed cube steaks or, horror of horrors, pre- breaded flaked and formed patties. Those who serve the latter as chicken frys ought to be shot at dawn, by a firing squad of lousy shots. Of course, each restaurant has its own special recipe, but basically the coating results from the meat's being dipped in a liquid, usually milk, and a dry ingredi- ent, usually flour. Some places double dip: dry, liquid, dry, while some dip just once: liquid, dry; some add egg to the milk, while some substitute buttermilk or, in the case of one purist, just water; some add texture to the flour with corn- meal, cracker crumbs or bread crumbs, then flavor with "secret seasonings." A very few use a batter, mixing the dry ingredients and the liquids before dip- ping the meat. In addition to the meat and the coat- ing, in what andlor on what the meat is cooked figures strongly in how it tastes. Cooks can either grill or deep fry the urant in Eufauia. J.M. and Beq Baiiq have been in meat; a few do both, deep frying long iness 30 yeam; her mother cooked for them for 20; and th enough to set the coating, then grilling waitresses have been on the job for anywherefrom 10 to 13 years apiece. one of theie ladies picked up to finish. Obviously, if deep-fry grease a backe of Sweet & Lo and said, "Oniv thina artificial in this biace is this." has cooked everything from onion rings to shrimp, the flavor of the chicken fry is cake, or, the cream gravy on the chicken gravy varies greatly in quality. Most is going to be badly compromised. If the fry. Unfortunately many places don't average, with only a few standouts. cook slaps anything on the grill any- serve cream gravy widt their chicken fry With that, I give you the best I've where it's handy, ditto. Good chicken so much as are cream gravy on it to hide a found. I can't claim these are the best in fry must be deep fried in grease reserved variety of flaws. To avoid being fooled the state, because I know that in my for it or, the best method, cooked on its by such gambit, I order gravy on the side travels I missed many a fine example of own little comer of the grill. so I could see, touch, taste and smell the art of chicken frying. I can only say Even with good meat, home breading what I was eating. that of the many, many places I tried, and clean grease, however, the CFS can I was often glad I did. If the particle- these were the standouts. I tried more fail if the cook undercooks, overbatters, board patties bothered you, this next places than I care to remember that were overgreases or pre-cooks. The last is the may cause you to lose sleep: Many either too bad or not quite good enough worst, because if even the finest steak places, even those serving decent cube for mention, even though I rarely tried a sits in a steam dish long enough, the steaks they've breaded themselves, use place that someone hadn't recommend- crisp coating becomes a wet, gray mass. gravy mix. Bland and the consistency of ed and nwtried a place that admitted If it sits under a heat lamp long enough, runny pudding, this stuff insults the to having pre-breaded anything. the coating bakes into dried mortar. I meat and the mouth. Only atop flaked ...... I...... had both; I ate neither. and formed patties does it have any re- The Grand Emporium, Shawnee. That brings us to the icing on the deeming social value. Even homemade The CFS plate dinner at $3.35 is a bar-

September-October '85 27 the steak and I I

Jim and Coraletha Turner say that thq've tried to retire, but the town of Loyal just won't /et them. Theircafe' is the /oca/ meetingp/ace, and about hafthe /oca/s seem to hme keys to thefront door. One Loyalite with insomnia mutine/y comes in around 4:30 a.m. to stafl the coffee. gain. My steak, prepared from a recipe regular or $4.45 for the plate special, this I cafe since 1956, has prepared more developed 37 years ago, was thick and place serves up a fine piece of real round chicken fried steaks than Rhode Island tender, its coating divine. It displayed steak that J. M. and Betty Bailey buy could hold. He buys his tenderized just the right balance of tender and crisp. fresh from Frank's Meat Market in town. round from the grocery store, and he The cream gravy was so good that my Cook Anthony Perkins explains that he "saves the south side of the grill for the stepson, Jason, and I put the bowl be- double dips in seasoned flour (salt, pep- chicken frys." For $3.50 cash money, or tween us and ate it like fondue. Dinner per, baking powder) and a milk and egg credit if he knows you, he'll give you includes a salad, two vegetables and batter, then grills or deep fries as the four ounces of meat with three vegeta- good rolls. I can't tell you anything about customer wishes. Dinner comes with bles, a drink and bread. For $4.50 he'll how they do this magic, because they do three vegetables and bread. One waitress make it eight ounces with a salad and not discuss the CFS procedure. Period. summed up why the Baileys have been homemade french fries. The operation is run by three broth- in business for 30 years when she picked Jim's a purist. The only thing he puts ers-in-law, three wives and two sons. up a packet of Sweet & Lo and said, on his chicken fry is "plain 01' flour." One cook retired recently after 26 years. "Only thing artificial in this place is Actually, Jim's retired now, but he's at Granny Palmer, a relative newcomer at this." the cafk every day, and if he doesn't like mmmmm B mmmmmm it the grill, has been there just 17. amam' , I how your food looks, he'll send back mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Turners Cafe, Loyal, Jim Turner, who for you. That might explain the custom- J. M.'s Restaurant,Eufaula. For $4.95 with his wife, Coraletha, has had this er who, sitting on the same counter

28 Oklahoma TODAY stool, has had dinner there almost every day for the last 15 years. Occasionally this Loyalist will try some fried ham or other dinner meat, but for the most part he sticks with the chicken fried steak. Wise man.

8.0.8.B.88g.m..88m.m.m.8.g.m.m.' Lee and Tamara's, Tulsa. Lee Abo- Chedid proves that a convert to some- thing can often surpass those born to it. Lee came from Lebanon when he was 17, and is now an American Chefs Asso- ciation certified Executive Chef. Lee treats his CFS as if it were a gourmet dish; therefore, it is. For $3.99 you get five ounces of inside round that Lee has had cut and tender- ized, two vegetables, the best home- made roll you'll ever taste and super, pepper-flaked gravy good enough to eat with a spoon. Lee double dips the meat in seasoned flour and milk and egg. What elevates this CFS is that he cooks it on a reserved part of the grill and uses only butter. His gravy, too, is made from butter and, believe it or not, pre-heated milk..B'.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~...~.~. Tia Juana's, Enid. This place makes A- one man-made meat with trim from their deficious rib eyes and T-bones. The $3.95 dinner has Texas toast, potatoes Don't let dte name fool vou-a sim on the door of Tia Juana's reads "No Shoes. No Shirt. No and a good salad. (Hint: substitute Smice, No ~e~cicai~obd. " The Enid cap, run b; Kenneth and Glenna ~uchgnan',smes upA-I chicken fm* d e fif ttim from rib qes and T-b-ns. homemade onion rings for potatoes; Ber- - - muda bliss.) Kenneth Buchanan, cook and owner with his wife, Glenna, salts the meat ("no pepper, no way") and single dips it in a milk and egg mixture, then flour. He deep fries it a minute, then finishes it on the grill. Don't let the restaurant's name fool you: A sign on the door reads "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service, No Mexi- can Food." They're particularly proud that when the Oklahoma State Society honored Gov. Nigh with a dinner in Washington, D.C., they called all the way to Enid for the Buchanans' CFS recipe. 8~B~'8g~m~8~8~8~B8'~m~m~~8m~g8g~8~ Cal's Caf6, Erick. It's worth the drive. Cal has owned and cooked at the cafk since 1946. It's not fancy. You order your meal your own self at a window, pick it

September-October '85 29 Hub & Lil's Restaurant & Hardware Store, west of Blanchard on U.S. 62. Hub and Lil Wilmeth have been chick- en frying for 30 years. He's a stickler for quality. Jolleyville Restaurant, Jolleyville. Crispy with flour and cornmeal, this cube steak is good. They deep fry first, then grill. A touch of seasoned salt works well. The Little Gem, Sapulpa. Andy and Jean Maroutsos add a touch of foreign intrigue to their coating with a dash of paprika. He's spent his whole life in this cafk, since his father opened it in 1922. I Just follow directzons on the monumental signs that dot I~I/L'/~./LL/O-/L) ~u~t~ing up on the EricR exit. tried it because a man in town told me They'Npoint you to Cafs Cafi, where Cal willjx you up with a styrofoam plate loaded with good food-chicken fry, of course, or the country ham the modest caf8s been famous for since 1946. he'd eaten there for 60 years and not been disappointed yet. I certainly up the same way at the place, and sit I saw Motor Inn, Sulphur. Very flavorful I wasn't. down with plastic silverware and a styro- meat, fresh, tender and thick. The foam plate. It makes no never mind, Chickasaw Nation has owned the restau- Nelson's Buffeteria, Tulsa. Nelson however, for what covers the styro is rant for about 10 years. Rogers opened this place in 1949; today, heavenly. his family runs it. Recently, their cook of Cal takes a nice piece of tenderized Baker's Catfish, 10 miles north of 39 years, Elgin Smith, moved to their round, dips it in milk, then flour, bread Muskogee on U.S. 69. They cut their Sand Springs location. Our cook, Charles crumbs, salt and pepper, and deep fries own rib eye steaks and make chicken fry Freeman, started as a busboy in 1956. it until it's brown, crispy and delicious. out of the trimmings. It has an excellent He learned his lessons well; the CFS is The gravy is also a standout, with a tinge coating, thick but not doughy or heavy. good. It's pre-cooked and kept warm on of brown and a peppery, meaty flavor. V. N. Baker has owned the place since the buffet line, but it doesn't get mushy The meal costs $4.25 and includes 1948; Larry Gates, manager, says the or too hard. As a sidelight, the all-time- choice of potato, two vegetables and only change has been a move one mile best coconut cream pie I've ever homemade bread. Celebrity photos and down the road about 12 years ago. wrapped a lip around is here. accolades line the walls; one sums up the food here: "Lordy, Lordy, Lordy." Crossroads Cafe, Dibble. James and The Patio, Oklahoma City. This place, mmgggmmmmmmmmmgmmmmmmm~mmmmmgmgmgm Helen Townsend are adament about us- in business since 1954, has a very devot- Those are the best; here are the rest. ing only "fresh stuff' and experimenting ed group of regulars after whom many of They, let me hasten to tell you, ain't until they get things right. She's there the dishes are named. The CFS is shabby. All the places listed below have with CFS; it's good meat and a tasty, "Clyde Riggs' Favorite." Clyde knows good CFS. And if you happen to know crumbly coating resulting from a "mys- his stuff. of or hear of one that is PIP (Platonic, tery batter" Helen plans to keep a Territorial House, Guthrie. Man-made Ideal, Perfect), let me know. mystery. meat made on the premises with trim- Ann's Chicken Fry House, Oklaho- Harvey's Steak House, Guthrie. Prob- mings from the best cuts of beef. Rea- ma City. Good man-made meat that A1 ably the best-tasting meat (cow-made) I sons for special taste include "secret Burchett, owner for about 15 years, buys had, although $7.95 is a bit high for ingredient" mixed with flour and grilling from a local meat company. He esti- chicken fry. Mary Jane Hardy has had in butter-flavor Crisco. mates that he serves between 400 and the place for eight years; she had it in 450 dinners a day. another location for 15 before that. Kathlyn Jenson White spent k$t monh The Arrow Cafe, Tecumseh. Manager Hensley's Truck Stop, El Reno. As eatinz her way across OkIhioma- 'Yvinz to and cook Joe Rah says the steak is fresh you get out of your car here, the mouth- keep an open-mind to go along wid-my every day. flooding smells of frying meat and bak- open moudr." In all, she vkited near4 60 ing bread overpower even 1-40 exhaust rzstaurants and traue/td moe dan 1,500 Artesian Restaurant, inside Chicka- fumes. Meat very thick and tender. mil6 to get to th.

30 Oklahoma TODAY 45 ~vu~VUTESFROM TULSA 7

ZQk The AUen Ranc is a little bit of for suburban buckarws: 'I C close to a thousand times that today, Allen says. But it's just about that hard to maintain, he adds. When he packed the family and fumi- ture in a flatbed truck in 1%0, he leased his farmland and set out in search of fame and fortune-first, in real estate, then in insurance. He returned in the late '60s with sav- ings and a renewed desire to begin de- veloping what has now become the Allen Ranch. "When I was a kid, I didn't have the opportunity to ride horses like some of my friends did. So I made it a point that when I could get some of my own horses, I'd let anyone ride who wanted to." Allen now cares for close to 300 hors- es, 100 of which are among his riding string. He began renting horses for riding in 1980, the same year he initiated the hayrides. "We started boarding horses, and of course those horses needed to be ridden. So we started trail rides and camping and pack-horse trips on the ranch. We'd get the chuckwagon out and serve real Western-style grubbig ri- beyes and bs. "It got to the point where we now have a group of regulars, seasoned horse- I men we call our 'desperados.* They're - just a bunch of businessmen who like to 'Yfthg want it Western, we do it Western,"says owner Ted A/h. Here Ok/ahoma music expert Guy get out and ride and have fun. They Logdon serenades a group of pave/ wn'tm. 0th~menu: trail rids.. .campouts. ..ma20s. help us out at,rodeos and parties to add some color." The assortqd 'dudes" come in all he Allen Ranch, just south of laughing. "I was in the horse business 25 shapes and sizes, young and old, experi- Bixby, is the closest thing to to 30 years, but you can't make any enced equestrians and classic green- a classic dude ranch a city- money at it. I'm sorry to see that things horns. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, Tslicker can find these days in these here have changed. But there are other things clerks, shop managewthey're all part parts. And that's just what the owner, you can do with a place like this, and I'm of the diverse mix of overnight riders and Ted Allen, had in mind. willing to make it work." campers who flock to the Allen Ranch These 160 acres of rolling hills and It all started out very modestly. "We year-round.. bottomland about 45 minutes from Tulsa wanted to build a dairy farm originally," And once you're in the saddle again, is now an urban cowboy's dream-a Allen recalls. "But things didn't work everyone's on equal footing. place to roam the prairies in search of out. One year we lost 35 head of Hol- A typical overnight campout might av- ation and not a little stein milk cows to disease, and that just erage 40 riders and cover a 12-mile trail, about did us in. I moved to Houston to say, from the Allen spread on over to a tired insurance salesman, see if I could make some money. campsite on Concharty Mountain in nd rodeo cowboy who has a "But there never was any doubt in my Muskogee County. Here, the riders are hankering to make a living on the land mind that I'd be back." treated to a country "chuckwagon sup- he has owned and loved for more than 40 Allen and his wife, Fern, bought the per" and, afterwards, a campfire sere- years. ranch in 1946 as a young mamed couple, nade of old counuy and Western tunes. "Or at least give it a try," Allen says, paying about $45 per acre. It's worth Some sleep in tents. Others retire to

32 Oklahoma TODAY their campers and trailers, parked back then, but we couldn't do that now Then, over the groaning of a tractor conveniently handy before the trek beco~~&~the great number of people engine, strange sounds prickle the ear- began. and thle"ossibi1ity that they'd get drums; distant laughter drawing near; Riders are allowed to choose their spoked themselves. the buzz of a chainsaw; a scream. horse from the ranch string before setting "We had such a good time that year It's Halloween at the Allen Ranch. out. But Allen keeps a close watch an that Fern said we should try it every The Trail of Fears beckons. the progress of rider and mount. year. hething led to another, and, The tractor slows to creeping as it "I watch to see what type of rider they enters the woods, and a flatbed of are and fit them with the type of horse friends, various volunteers schoolgirls giggles and shrieks in antici- that's best suited for their style of riding offer their acting and di- pation. Suddenly, a nearby shotgun blast or degree of experience." s. The Trail of Fears is rattles their affected cool. And you won't see any boney horses er "spooked," by a crew 'Eeeetveek! I think I'm gonna die!" at the Allen Ranch. "We work them ether. All costumes are howls one. "I don't know if I'm going to hard, but feed them good," Allen says& e "blood," buckets of like this," says another, shuddering. Allen's commercial enterprise includes d painted and literal- "Can we go back?" a complete stable of country and West- aracters and scenes. "If this is real good and scary, we'll em events, including hay rides, IRA- DON SIBLEY sanctioned rodeos, country-music 'II m - I concern and company picnics. "Wekve- catered barn parties for some big eompq- nies like Public Service, Tulsa Cable, Southwestern Bell and Arco, to name a few." "Wild West Days" is a spring event. "If you think you're a cowboy, this is your chance to show your stuff'," &ten says. Just this year, Allen is putting the fin- ishing touches on an $,OW-square-foozi' auditorium and dance hall that he hopea to develop into a mini-"Hee Haw," wit! live music: and entertainment. "We'll .c* ter m just about any request born aay;t group. If they want it Wetern, we da. i% Western." During Halloween, they want 2; &, For the past four yeas, Bixbfs &a Ranch has sponsored a horribly fun hay- " @@ ride called "The Trail of Fears," begin- gtr,~pof regulats, the Alhs' "dRFperados," help out at rodeos and pariies. ning the week before Al1 Hallows' Eve. .- Ever since the event has been open to ~be'*f@l&&l~ ~f~rmulais a mixture of have to do it again next year!" offers a the public (it began in 1981 as a private mgq, hWaZq';a flour, coloring and bug third. party), it has attracted thousands of pay- spm$.."knkegp the critters from swarm- The tractor lurches fonvard, approach- ing customers of a11 ages and descriptions ; hg +;m&ytMag.'" ing the first bonfire. Everyone on the who have one thing in common: a pri- mojrtn,kg scene is right out of a B- flatbed peers into the gloom trying to mordial desire to be frightened out of gradWi&~s&ok as you hop aboard a wtch the first glimpse of something even their gourds (read, "pumpkins"). fl~.&dmamh of adventure. remotely hideous. The flames cast crazy The Trail of Fears was Fern" idea. The eerie glow of bonfires looms shadws into the trees and beyond.

"She thought we ought to have a big , dosn the M, deep in a stand of wildly Without warning, a wolf-like creature Halloween party for some friends and,-g&edia,m+is. Qverhead, the moon is darts from the brush, howling and gal- the boarders at the mnch. Just a Iide d@@~a,&ured by a curtain of gossa- loping strzight for the cart of onlookers. appreciation party. We had a few people ma doads. Below, wagon wheels slosh "Osy0000000! Woof! Woof! dressed like spooks, and they did some and spin &QU& a sludge of rainsoaked Ooooooocwvoooooo!" skits. We pulled the flatbeds by horse- sail. "Don't stop! Keep driving!" scream

September-October '85 33 the schoolgirls, clutching each other for jacks are busy hacking away at every- up and onto the cart. dear life. "I don't want to sit by the edge thing in sight when they eventually An attack of wild Indians ensues, but anymore!" There's a collective scoot to catch a glimpse of the approaching wag- it's more fun than frightful. One warrior the center of the flatbed. "Let's get out on. Menacingly, the chainsaw gang rush- hops onto the flatbed brandishing a of here!" es the group waving their harmless but tomahawk and affecting a fierce expres- Farther along the Trail, the wagon convincingly realistic hardware. Soon it is sion, only to be sweetly patronized by a survives Dracula, an avalanche, an attack difficult determining which is louder- little girl. by a giant killer bat and passes more than chainsaws or schoolgirls, screaming. "Isn't he so cute?" she asks. Duly a dozen vignettes, ranging from the As the trail winds along, the tourists embarrassed, the brave retreats, vanish- merely spooky to the severely gro- are lulled into a false sense of security, ing into the night. tesque -complete with costumes, make- There's a break in the action. But soon Near trail's end, the group chances on up, lighting and sound effects. they're greeted by a motley crew of a close encounter of some kind-an alien Chainsaws are roaring around the next ghastly sailors who've undoubtedly been ship rife with grasshopper-like beings, bend. "We try to keep up with the cur- lost at sea for centuries. one of which (looking remotely similar to rent horror movies and themes that most When the tractor comes to an abrupt an oilfield pump) has skewered a hu- people are familar with," says Allen. halt for no apparent reason, there's a man-like source of protein. "We tried a 'Jaws' scene one year, but palpable shudder among the group-a Is that the Headless Horseman riding discontinued it. The chainsaws have fear of the unknown-and all legs left madly in the distance? "Is he coming our been a real hit." dangling over the side of the flatbed are way!" asks a young lady. "I sure hope A couple of chaps dressed as lumber- immediately, almost instinctively, drawn so!" Or was he some nameless desperado

The Cimarron nce the Daltons, the Doolins, A1 Jennings and Black Yeager hid from the law there-not to mention the more 0numerous, if less renowned, horsethieves, who used the rugged Cimarron canyon country to hide themselves and their ill- gotten horseflesh. Today more likely visitors to Horsethief Canyon, in isolated country south of Perkins, are latter-day dudes out for a ride along wooded trails or a scramble down sandstone bluffs, a picnic at Inspiration Point or a night out under Cimarron stars. Whatever the itinerary, the hosts will be Ben and Teresa Holder, the current owners of all this history. (The Holders themselves are so taken with the heritage that they put out a brochure detailing the colorful goings-on at Horsethief Canyon- visits by Pistol Pete Eaton, Zack Mulhall and Pawnee Bill; the Anti-Horsethief Association and its hanging tree; the reputed mannerliness of the Dalton Boys.. .. You have to read pretty 1 closely to find mention of the Holders' operation.) 1 The canyon's most recent residents originally came to the Stillwater area and ran a restaurant. "I heard about it word of I mouth and came out here to camp like everybody else did," Ben Holder says. "The following Sunday it came up for sale in the Stillwater paper, a sealed-bid type situation. And I bought it, obviously." The sale included 30 acres around Horsethief Can- yon; the Holders lease an additional 80 acres. "Once you're on the river, then you can go anywhere you want-up to Guthrie, 1 down to Perkins or Cushing," Holder says. The couple opened

34 Oklahoma TODAY - searching forever for the lawman who Scpt. 8 in he deo ama. Admission is*. beat him to the draw at high noon a Moto-ova rmhg begm Sum&, Stpt. century ago? 8. Motonych and rhreeaheekrs wiii ako be "C'mon!" squeals the littie one, as all rakng on Sun+, SF. 22. On bod dates apparent danger is past. "I want to be gam open at 8 a.m., pracke begns at 9 a.m. scared again!" and fhe race sum at 10 a.m. Admission is free. And so the Trail winds on. hi@thoneback riding and a camp- "We enjoy the entire cycle of events, out in fhe ntwrby Conchany Mountains am Sjnce t& Mien Ranch Jint opened in the of FeaFs(the biggest sin- dcdukdfor Saturday, Sept. 21. hm- 1981, OR~anshenjbyal honeback bow am nmSary, and th cost is615 a- gle "'one~-making event) 0' do~' '0 d%,h ~mpingin a ,an the single, overnight campouts. . "4rno~d*range, ~roffisionai~rodeos-- At & tad end of October is the '"Trail of "1 guess we're doing all right," says and lrbe infamow Halimeen 'Tdof Ftwn," a n-actor-drmn haydde rhmug4 the Allen, relaKing now in his office over a Feats." IjlC wadition conrinnes his fall at he amof h ramh, whm '@osts cup of steaming coffee. "The main thing md, lo~cdon 196th Sfmt and Memo- and&/inr hang out. ~m heide is we're doing what we want to do, what nir/ Road in Bi*. cosa $5 and begns twery ni@t Oct. 22-31 we've always wanted to do. We're living At 8 p.m. 4 ni& SW. 5-7 7 the ,soon is dad enou&. on the same land we used to dream In~a~ofla~Pfof~~ona~ Rdm Asmiation To make memations for the wemg4r about as kids." @~FXO~i* he ~~ atma of he ranch. honebad tiding and campout, or for mom Admission is $5. i% Women's Baml Fututi- infinnabon, contaa ~edor F~ ~/hat K& SRay~Rb a Tub-baredfm- ry Comption begns at 2 p.m. Sunday, fhe Aih Rand, (918) 366-3010. knce wn'ter.

< their version of a wilderness adventure in 1984. Horses are still at the heart of Horsethief Canyon. 'Ihe Hold- 3 ers rent mounts at $7.50 an hour; if riders bring their own, they're charged $5 a day. Trails wind through the Holder land and along old railway right-of-ways near the river. There are also separate hiking trails. Then there's swimming in the Cimarron. "The water clears I - up in the summer after the rain and flows over large white I sandbars," Holder says. "It's just beautiful. And then they can camp on our campsites. Our picnic and camping sites are on a I I 300-foot bluff overlooking the river. Or I can take them down a back trail with my buckboard. I've trained some mules, and 1 I pull a buckboard with all their gear. I can pull them right down on the river and they can camp there." One campsite features a natural rock chimney, used by outlaws and early-day picnickers alike. A new venture for the Holders is endurance rides; they recent- ly hosted a 50-mile ride, sanctioned by the American Endurance Riding Foundation. "Because of the variety of terrain-the sand, the water and the high bluffs-it's excellent conditioning environment for show horses or just your personal horse. For trail-riding outfits, we offer a lot of trails for them to ride, beautiful scenery, and only an hour away from the city. That's why we're picking up a lot of the trail riders from metropolitan areas; they don't have to go all the way to Robbers Cave." The Holders' mailing address is P.O. Box 772, Perkins, OK 74059; their phone, (405)547-2262. Admission is $2 for an all-day outing; children are free. For that price, visitors can roam from sunrise to sunset, hiking, swimming, picnicking and enjoying the view from the top of the bluffs-the highest point between Guthrie and Cushing. As Ben Holder puts it, "We've got everything a dude can handle, for sure." -Kate Lester Jones

September-October '85 35 36 Oklahoma TODAY OKLAHOMA OMNIBUS

By Michael J. Hightower

oward the end of the 19th and leave the material world behind. A Depression. Bill Zozula, who served century, before the first oil narrow winding staircase leads to the as an altar boy at Saints Cyril and derricks sprouted from belfry and choir loft; the latter isn't really Methodius during the 1920s, TAmerica's heartland, coal was necessary because everyone is remembers it this way: king in southeastern Oklahoma. required to sing in an orthodox service. "When the Depression hit, there Laborers from as far away as Russia, Services are held in the nave, by far was no work in this area. The only thing desperate for work and willing to risk the largest of the church's three sections, you could get to do would be in a the dangers of coal mining, converged on filled with splendid ikons and stained- store, you know, and the stores, they the Indian Territory with high hopes glass windows depicting the Trinity. A didn't hire no clerks, people to clean and often little else. soft blue ceiling represents the sky up or anything of that sort because they Among them were Carpatho- and suggests the infinite mysteries that did that themselves. So what Russians from Galicia. an area that lie beyond our grasp. happened, the biggest part of 'em encompasses Lvov and Cracow in At the east end of the nave is the started driftin' away. ..." present-day Poland. They settled in ikonostas, a partition festooned with ikons Bill joined the exodus, and Hartshorne and Haileyville, thriving that separates the congregation from eventually found work in Ohio. Others communities in the Choctaw Nation that the inner sanctuary where the priest left for California, Chicago, eventually became home for some 26 performs his sacred rituals. Even Pennsylvania, Detroit-anywhere that ethnic groups. "You name it and they today women are forbidden to enter this offered the prospect of decent wages were all workin' together here," holy of holies. and steady employment. The church recalls Bill Zozula, a Hartshorne resident Except for the aged and infirm, was allowed to slide into quiet of Carpatho-Russian descent who worshippers are expected to stand during obscurity. toiled in the mines as a young man. an Orthodox service. Nevertheless, Caretakers did what they could to "And they got along just fine, too," pews have been installed in the nave. maintain the grounds, but it wasn't until he adds with a broad grin. These, together with electricity and the 1950s that parishioners decided to Nowadays, there aren't many left air conditioning, are among the few roll up their sleeves and get to work. By who remember the coal-mining era. innovations. the 1970s, the victims of the Oklahoma slid headlong into the age For many years, this simple but Depression filtered back to the Kiamichi of petroleum, and the men who once majestic church helped hundreds of Mountains to retire, a virtual risked their lives in dimlv lit caverns Slavic immigrants to adjust to a renaissance was underway. Orthodox have been all but forgotien. strange new world and the hazards of priests from as far away as Forgotten, except for a legacy that coal mining. A giant bell summoned Albuquerque and Houston came to still stands in an area of Hartshorne church-goers to Pascha services, and a conduct the Divine Liturgy and join known as "Russian Hill": an "Russian School" was held after parishioners in elaborate Slavic feasts. Orthodox church, complete with onion- regular public-school hours for children Ikon frames were refinished, hanging shaped cupolas and majestic ikons. As whose parents feared the lampadas were installed, and the original early as 1896, those who longed for disappearance of ancient and cherished trim on the ikonostas was restored. traditions from the Old Country were customs. And the all-too-frequent And Bill Zozula, delighted to be home holding services in their homes. A mining accidents were followed by after all these years, has been paring relatively simple wooden structure somber processions to the cemetery, expenses by crafting candles in his sufficed until 1916, when the solid brick often led by members of the Russian garage. church that stands on Russian Hill Orthodox Brotherhood and resided Today, visitors to Russian Hill will today was completed. Named for two over by priests from Pennsylvania and find a proud and dedicated group of Byzantine monks who spread Europe. church-goers. Their hospitality recalls Orthodox teachings among the Slavic "It's a wonder I'm livin'." claims the days when Slavic coal miners shared peoples during the ninth century, Mongo ONesky, an ex-miner whose kettles of-thin soup with anyone who Saints Cyril and Methodius Russian ancestors helped to establish the came knocking. And the faith that they Orthodox Greek Catholic Church was church. Working for a pittance at the have sustained for nearly a century, the scene of sacred pageantry, week-long time of World War I, Mongo escaped nutured in the broad valleys of Galicia, marriage festivities and holy day death in the mines and eventually thrives again in Oklahoma's Kiamichi celebrations. opened a barbershop in the vicinity. country. In keeping with Orthodox Many weren't so fortunate. tradition, the new church was situated so Vibrant though it was, the that the congregation would face the Carpatho-Russian community was Fme-lancer Midael Hidtower lives and east. The main entrance leads to a tiny unable to withstand the advent of works in Tuba; this is his fint article for narthex, where the faithful stop, pray petroleum and the onslaught of the Oklahoma TODAY.

1 September-October '85 37 I momu- THE WORLD IN A SINGLE DM By Jane Beckman Photographs by Victor Rivas

ast September, Lawton gave some 5,000 people a free trip around the world. The tour stopped in Europe, Africa, Asia and Central, as well as North, America. Weather was beautiful the en- Ltire trip; the only expense was food. Fantasy? Not really. Lawton's annual International Festival is a kind of trip around the world that provides opportuni- ties to see folk dances and fashion shows, sample karate and knockwurst, be entertained and educated-and meet a lot of great people. Even early in the day, when they are still testing the sound systems on both outdoor stages, you know this is an international festival. Three tall Sudanese in flowing white robes and gleaming turbans stroll past a gentle- man wearing gray leather leddosen and jaunty forest- green hat. A Moroccan, red fez in place, watches The Society for Creative Anachronism decked out in their handmade medieval garb stringing banners around the combat field. The aroma of teriyaki shish kabab grilling over charcoal is pungent on the air. But why an Interna- hton residents shoal up in finery from tional Festival in some southwest Oklahoma town? their natieee lands for the cia's International Several years ago, festival director Randy Mayes, Feslical. Above and far right. Danren whose other hat is the city's director of arts and human- from Club Casa Borinquen show off ities, saw that Lawton and this type of festival were dance st@ and costumes from perfect for each other. "This town has something very, Guatemala and ,Uexico. Right. A young very unique about it. It's so unusual for a town like this Korean came in his Fint Birthday suit. to have so many ethnic cultures. We are trying to capital- ize on it." And if you don't believe those groups are there and

38 Oklahoma TODAY strong, you should have heard the cheer- ing section that greeted Club Casa Bor- inquen's first performance of Caribbean songs and dances. At the first strains of the mandolin the crowd went wild. This was music from home, and they were clapping and whooping, singing along and dancing on the sidelines. The International Dancers from Okla- homa City, who specialize in European folk dances, actually asked for audience participation. After they performed Is- raeli, Austrian, Romanian, they offered to teach the audience a Greek dance. As the group twined and grapevine-stepped around the plaza stage, interspersed among the dancers were the audience students; children in running shorts, a man and a woman in medieval finery, more in blue jeans, one of the costumed Kiowa Little Rabbit Dancers learning something new. Perhaps this is what Randy Mayes is talking about when he Pat Ahon and says, "This is a huge cultural festival that other members of lets everyone find out about each other Lawton's Medi- terranean in a very positive way." bring a shimmer of Meanwhile over on the 4th Street Mideastern to stage there's more dancing: a break- Library P/aza. dancer in shiny black suit is spinning around on his head like a perpetual-mo- tor added, "She could go to palace with at a taco and frijoles table has opted for tion top and pulling enthusiastic ap- that dress." (Tiny pause) "If a king in- egg rolls. And the buffalo burger people plause from the crowd. The contest of vite her." swear they got a Saudi Arabian to try the dancers to better one another goes Well, yes. But then, there was an am- one. Then there are those who in the on. bience about the festival, a kind of magic interest of fair-mindedness are trying to The Korean community in Lawton is in the air that made thing~veninvita- work their way from Korean j~ahimando more than 3,000-and organized. The tions from kings-seem possible. Maybe and Rim chie to hot links and ribs, on to Korean Association had a handicraft dis- it had a little bit to do with the hooded the Latin American dishes and still have play and a food booth offering five differ- herald with his staff out on the combat room for bratwurst and sauerkraut and a ent dishes. For entertainment they field calling: "Hear ye, hear ye. For hon- German pastry. provided a karate demonstration and a or and chivalry. Salute the ladies." Then Food and entertainment are outside fashion show. In the karate, they the two combatants having at each other on the Library Plaza. Inside, in the con- chopped at wood blocks, which broke, with their authentic facsimiles of medi- ference area, are special displays, and and stood on eggs, which did not. eval weapons (the lighter variety used by stretching the length of the library is the (Something about concentration, they the common foot soldier). WhonR. festival's diplomatic section. Citizens of explained.) WHONK. WHONK!! A man is down on 17 countries have become ambassadors- In the fashion show, children, like the field. The herald cries: "The archer for-a-day. For their booths they have lifesize dolls, displayed First Birthday has lost his right arm. He will fight left- brought slides and handicrafts, brochures outfits and New Year's dresses. The handed." A wise guy in the crowd yells, and posters-and most of all themselves men showed casual wear (which looked "But he is left-handed." to share with anyone interested in learn- extremely elegant). And gorgeous tradi- Around midday, people begin to wan- ing about their country. Many have worn tional dresses, a number that had been der toward the food. At tables in the special national dress. custom made by a top Korean fashion shade of sycamores it looks as if the On the stage outside, the costumes designer, stretched across the stage. Af- United Nations gave a picnic, and all its that hold all eyes are those of Lawton's ter describing a silk with embroidered members came. Not everyone is sticking Mediterranean Dancers. In veils, sun- medallions, the charming Korean narra- with their national cuisine. One woman sparkled bangles and bare midriffs they

40 Oklahoma TODAY way they do in the cafks of Cairo. that? He called us plain Indians!" And you remember the last Cambodi-

white blouses and pastel flowers tucked enthra//ed. ing. Symbolic in its way of the statement

leaning on bicycles they've ridden to the crowd. There must have been 50 miles festival. of orange ruffles flouncing around on The St. Elmo Choir echoed the tones that stage. And below the ruffles the of rhythms of Africa in their gospel num- black-patent tap shoes were clogging ev- bers. The group, dressed in shades of erything from "Cotton-eyed Joe" to Ros- pearl gray and white, were striking sini overtures. against the special stage backdrop that Jim Brock has served as master of cer- Lawton Community Theater's Bob emonies for all three Lawton internation- In hton on Sept. 21 you can taste

wa Indian dancing and sit down in a Phillt$pine-style living mom, all on the same

ground to the festival as the wide sky a Lawton function." val, which will be held inside the hton

spectators is provided by the pride and The most haunting is the Cambodian

music that brought something to their Four-year-old faces, but caught in the mood of the Donald Tosee, moment, you were no longer in a sunny a member of the Kiowa tribe, shares a plaza in southwest Oklahoma, you c,,t,m t/rot has its were transported to a terrace under the much stars in San Juan, a soft, tangy breeze to home: the whispering from the sea. .. . Eagle Dance. Sharing. But the sharing went both ways. Non-Americans got a look at na- tive American dancers with perfor- mances by both the Comanche Tribe and the Kiowa Little Rabbit Dancers. Inside the library, the Wichita Chroni- cles Readers Theater dramatized area history. Readers theater? Well, it looked like a row of people in cowboy boots sitting in chairs behind music stands, and they kept trading cavalry hats for sun-

I LARRY D. BROW Lacy Brown gmw up in the little town of Delhi (thatkpronounced Dell-high), 10 miles south of Sayre. "The townk not there anymore, "he says. '"I was in the last class that graduated out of the hsgh school" Hzi father taught vocational agrrixlture and famzed 80 acres on the side. APer graduating fi-om Southwestern wih a degree in elementaty education, Lacy spent a year teaching in Aman'Ilo, then fiur years in the Air Force. When he came out, he helped his father fann fir a couple of years. In 1974, he took a job with the State Employment Service, first in Chton, then in Woodward, where he and hzi family still [ive. "Myjob title zi 'local veteran employment representative, 'andmyjob is to he4 veterans find worky" he says. 'hisit employers, qenda lot of time on the mad" Hisphotogxaphy takes him out on the roada lot, tooysince hisgreat love is naturephotogxaphy. In the past, he? shot weddings and a fm senior portraits, but he5 now concentrating on what he calls '%naturein general" "That includes natural landscapes -nothing manmade. I enjoy photographing mountain scenery, wildflowers, insects, birds, mammals. I be even done a fm fi-ogs and snakes. ..just anything that makes a good picture."

ABOVE, OPPOSITE PAGE: Sumac leaves, Autumn co~onwood Bo~lingSprings State Park near Woodward

42 Oklahoma TODAY FA- BELOW American Painted Lady Bufterflly, Woodward County

OPPOSITE PAGE Bear grass and Indian blanket, Woodward County

44 Oklahoma TODAY

- --

BELOW Canoeists watching a great horned owl, Beavers Bend State Park

OPPOSITE PAGE Prickly poppy and bee, Woodward Counfy

46 Oklahoma TODAY

for you andme

mabe sure ynu-rer

YES! Enter my subscription today! I enclose my check for $ . qPlease charge $- to my: New Renewal UVISA Mastercard, Interbank # Card # Name EXD.date Address Authorized card signature: City, State, Zip Code One year (six issues), $10; two years, $19; three, $28. Over- seas subscriptions, $13/year. Donor address: For fastest service, use our toll-free number for credit-card charges. Call 1-800-652-6552 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, in Oklahoma and surrounding states. Oklahoma TODAY P.O. Box 53384 Oklahoma City, OK 73152 CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

Workshop and James Ragan will teach the tivities begin at 9 a.m. with a biscuit- Screenwriting Workshop. These three eating contest at Tim's Kountry Kitchen, 108 workshops are from 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. N. Wewoka. Also at Tim's Kountry off before crossing the line in the race for 10 to noon Sunday, Oct. 13. Registration Kitchen is the Professional and Amateur Cherokee Strip land in 1893, you were deadline is Oct. 6. Quiltmakers Contest from 9-10 a.m. called a "Boomer." If you already had plants Paul Caponigro, Ted Orland and Don The winning artwork from the Sor- growing about six inches high before the Worth will each teach a section of landscape ghum Day Amateur Art and Photography race even began, you were called a "Sooner." photography 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17 to Contests will be on display 10 a.m.-2 p.m. In celebration of the 92nd anniversary noon Sunday, Oct. 20. Registration deadline For entry forms or more information, contact of the Cherokee Strip Run, offspring of those is Oct. 9. Jacklyn Patterson, Box 591, 221 N. 100,000 "Boomers" and "Sooners" will From 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24 to noon Wewoka, Wewoka OK 74884 (405) 257-5542. gather in September in Enid and Peny, two Sunday, Oct. 27, Kathy Clark will teach the At 10 a.m. in downtown Wewoka the of the towns created during the land run. Papermaking Workshop, Alan E. Cober parade begins. Judging of the Beard-growing Enid's celebration begins with the Contest is at noon at the Seminole County Belles of the Cherokee Strip Pageant at 7 Courthouse; at 1 p.m. is the Old Time Fidd- p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, in the Oakwood lers' Contest. Mall, 4000 W. Garriott Rd. A parade mar- Pottery, leather tooling and sketching shaled by Leslie Patten, Miss Rodeo demonstrations will go on all day at the Semi- America 1985, will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, nole Nation Museum. Indian food, ham- Sept. 14. A street dance at midnight Sat- burgers, hotdogs and, of course, sorghum will urday, Sept. 14, on Randolf Street will close be available to buy and eat on the muse- the celebration. um grounds. For more information, contact Rita Pe- cha at the Enid Chamber of Commerce, (405) 237-2494. Perry kicks off its celebration with a parade at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, in "Native American Games" is the name the downtown square. Country and West- of the game at the Stovall Museum of Sci- em bands, juggling acts and local talent will ence and History from Oct. 22-Dec. 22. provide the entertainment from 1-5 p.m. The exhibit, constructed by the museum's A horseshoe pitching contest, a sack race and staff, will focus on the historic and pre- other games are also scheduled. sent-day games played by Oklahoma Indians. For more information, contact Gene C. One-third of the exhibit will concen- Wood at the Peny Chamber of Commerce, OKIAHOMA trate on stickball, which took the place of war (405) 336-4684. ,- for many tribes. Comparisons will be made between stickball and its non-native American version, lacrosse. will teach the Illustration Workshop, and Other pastimes requiring physical and Robert Gordy will teach the Monoprint mental skills, such as games of chance, will Every summer Quartz Mountain State Workshop. Registration deadline is Oct. 16. also be featured. Park and Resort is taken over by talented Each weekend workshop costs $300. The Stovall Museum, 1335 Asp Ave., teen-agers chosen to attend the Oklahoma This includes a double occupancy room and Norman, is open Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 Summer Arts Institute. This October, meals. The park is located 10 miles south p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 2-5 p.m. grownups get their chance for some of Lone Wolf off State Highway 44. For more information, contact Peter Tirrell, "Quartz Mountain magic" when the lodge To register, or for more information, (405) 325-4712. becomes an adult classroom in the arts. contact Apill Meacham, Oklahoma Arts Insti- By Nicole LeWand Four weekends of workshops in theater, writ- tute Adult Workshops, P.O. Box 18154, ing, photography and visual arts will be Oklahoma City, OK 73154. (405) 424-4321. offered to people 21 and over. Next Issue: Head for Oklahoma's own The Theater Workshops run from 8 Circus World: Hugo, winter home to the p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3 to noon Sunday, Oct. Carson & Barnes Circus-and lions and 6. The ActingIDirecting Workshop will be tigers (no bears). Visit a crossroads smoke- taught by Robert Benedetti and Irene Con- The sorghum mill in Wewoka will be house with small-town flavor and big-city nors, and the Playwriting Workshop will busy making its famous sweet syrup on Satur- ways. Witness the arabesques and pas de be taught by Ernest Thompson. Registration day, Oct. 26. That's Sorghum Day, an dax of Ballet Oklahoma-and the do-si- deadline is Sept. 25. annual event created to promote the town dos of 5,000 square-dancing Sooners at the In the Writing Area of the program, and its more than 100-year-old mill. Oklahoma Squaredance Festival. All in the Marvin Bell will teach the Poetry Workshop, The theme for this year's Sorghum Day November-December issue of Oklahoma David Hickey will teach the non-fiction is "1885-The Way It Was." The day's ac- TODAY.

September-October '85 49 6-7, 13-14, The Joyce Martel Revue, Book Theatre, Tulsa 20-21, 27-28, ART EXHlBl Oct. 4-5 6-15 "The Patrick Pearse Motel," Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa SEPTEMBER 1-2 "Treasures of the Old West," Gilcrease Museum, 6-8,12-15, "Sweeney Todd," Carpenter Square Theatre, Tulsa 19-20, 26-29 OKC 1-14 "Historic Events of the Native American," The 10-15 "42nd Street," Performing Arts Center, Tulsa Galleria, Norman 19-22 "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," Seretean Center, 1-15 "The Watercolors of Alfred Leslie," Philbrook Art OSU, Stillwater Center, Tulsa 21 Second City Touring Co., Carpenter Square 1-30 "J. Don Cook Photography," Kirkpatrick Center, Theatre, OKC OKC 27-Oct. 26 "Busybody," Gaslight Dinner Theatre, Tulsa 1-30 "Prairie Watercolors Art Show," Museum of the OCTOBER 2-6 "Deathtrap," Rupel Jones Theatre, OU, Norman Great Plains, Lawton 4-13 "Where the Lilies Bloom," Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa l-Oct. 6 "Spiro Mounds," Ft. Sill Museum, Lawton 10-13 "Land of the Dragon," Cameron University 1-Nov. 10 "Advancing American Art," Museum of Art, OU, Theatre, Lawton Norman 11-12, 18-19, Cabaret Theatre 11, Carpenter Square 7-Dec. 2 "The Prints of Mary Nimmo Moran," Gilcrease 25-26 Theatre, OKC Museum, Tulsa 16-20 "Fool for Love," OCCC, OKC 7-Jan. 11 "Arapaho Exhibit," OK Historical Society, OKC 17-Nov. 2 "Vanities," Cabaret Supper Theatre, Ft. Sill, 10-Nov. 17 Italian Renaissance Sculpture from the Lawton Metropolitan Museum of Art, OK Museum of Art, 17-Nov. 3 "Greater Tuna," Jewel Box Theatre, OKC OKC 18-20, 25-27 "Wait Until Dark," Community Theatre, Edmond "Artchitecture 4," Arts Signature Gallery, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa "The American Landscapes of Conrad Schwiering," Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa "Masters Art Show," Five Civilized Tribes Museum, Muskogee SEPTEMBER 1-2 Cherokee Nation Holiday, Cherokee Heritage OCTOBER 5-Nov. 17 "Chuckwagons and Cowboys," original Center, Tahlequah lithographs, Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton 1-2 Choctaw Nation Labor Day, Tuskahoma 5-Nov. 25 "Indian Art Talent Search," Kirkpatrick Center, 1-2 Arts Festival OK, OCCC, OKC OKC 2-4 Harvest Festival, Cheyenne 10-Dec. 8 "Spiro Mounds," Museum of the Cherokee Strip, 5-7 Fall Festival, Coweta Enid 6-8 Chili Bluegrass Festival, Main Mall, Tulsa 13-Dec. 8 "Objects of Adornment: Jewelry from the Walters 12-14 Festifall '85, Kerr Park, OKC Art Gallery," Philbrook Museum, Tulsa 12-14 Cherokee Strip Celebration, Enid 15-Nov. 5 "We Drew a Circle," photographic essay, 14 Western Days Celebration, Mustang Kirkpatrick Center, OKC 14 Cherokee Strip Celebration, Perry 19-Nov. 17 Richard Thompson Art Show, Woolaroc Museum, 14 SW Festival of the Arts, Weatherford Bartlesville 19-21 Hispanic Festival, Main Mall, Tulsa 20-Nov. 15 Competitive Art Show, Five Civilized Tribes 20-21 Ft. Sill Apache Festival, Apache Museum, Muskogee 20-29 State Fair of Oklahoma, Fairgrounds, OKC 21 Calf Fry Cookoff Festival, Fairgrounds, Vinita 21 International Festival, Library Plaza, Lawton 21-22 Fall Festival of the Arts, Elk City 27-Oct. 6 Tulsa State Fair, Expo Center, Tulsa 28 Arts & Crafts Festival, Cordell SEPTEMBER 1-21 "Greater Tuna," Gaslight Dinner Theatre, Tulsa 28 Pioneer Day, Skiatook 5-22 "Chicago," Jewel Box Theatre, OKC 28 Arts Festival, Frederick

Oklahoma TODAY OCTOBER 4-6 After Harvest Celebration, Blackwell 26-27 "Birthday Tribute to Handel & Bach," OK 4-6 Arts & Crafts Festival, Drumright Symphony & Ballet OK, Civic Center, OKC 4-6 Fall Fest, Stillwater 5 Fall Festival, Holdenville 5 Czech Festival, Yukon INDlAN EVENTS 5 Octoberfest, Marland Estate, Ponca City 5 Pumpkin Arts Festival, Anadarko 5 Arts & Crafts Show, Wheelock Academy, aZPTEMBER 1-2 Lake Eufaula Labor Day Powwow, Fairgrounds, Millerton Eufaula 5 Fall Fest '85, Fuqua Park East, Duncan 28 Osage Days, Hominy 5 Fall Harvest Days, Nowata OCTOBER 12-14 Black Leggins Ceremonial, Indian City U.S.A., 5-6 Arts & Crafts Festival, Turner Falls Park, Davis Anadarko 5-6 Lake County Arts Festival, SOSU, Durant 19 Cherokee Fall Festival, City Park, Jay 5-6 Butterfield Trail Arts & Crafts Festival, Carl Albert Jr. College, Poteau 11-13 Pelican Festival, Grand Lake, Grove RODEOS L I 17-20 Ocmberfest, West Bank, Arkansas River, Tulsa HORSE EVENTS 19 Peanut Festival, Marlow 19 Octoberfest, Idabel SEPTEMBER 1-2 Rodeo of Champions, Rodeo Arena, Elk City 25-26 CheeseISausage Festival, Fairgrounds, Stillwater 4-5 & 14 Hopes & Dreams Futurity Grade 111, Blue Ribbon 26 Sorghum Day, Wewoka Downs, Sallisaw 26-27 Arts & Crafts Bazaar, Community Center, Broken 5-7 Great Plains Stampede Rodeo, Alms Arrow 5-7 Allen Ranch Rodeo, Allen Ranch, Bixby 6-7 Open Rodeo, Rodeo Arena, Hobart 6 & 15 Hopes & Dreams Derby, Blue Ribbon Downs, Sallisaw 12-14 Roundup Club Rodeo, Mustang 14-15 Jenks Paint Horse Show, Round-up Arena, Jenks SEPTEMBER 1 Chamber Orchestra with Peter Wyrick, cellist, 14-20 OK Western Jr. Livestock Show. Clinton Christ the King Church, OKC 15 & 25 Autumn paint Open Races, ~ossMeadows, Ada 7, 14, 21, 28 Saturday Evening Live Outdoor Concerts, OK OCTOBER 7-13 Grand National & World Championship Morgan Museum of Art, OKC Horse Show, State Fairgrounds, OKC 8 Square Dance Hoedown, South Park, Tulsa 9-10 & 20 Heritage Place Futurity Grade 111, Blue Ribbon 13 Chet Atkins, Brady Theatre, Tulsa Downs, Sallisaw 13 Michael Hedges, guitarist, Performing Arts 11 & 19 Heritage Place Derby, Blue Ribbon Downs, Center, Tulsa Sallisaw 14 Boys of the Lough, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa 18, 25 & 27 APHA National Championship Races Blue 15 & 17 All-Beethoven Concert, OK Symphony, Civic Ribbon Downs, Sallisaw Center, OKC 21-23 APHA World Championship, Fairgrounds, OKC 20-21 "DanceTalk: A Chamber Series," OK Stage Center, OKC 31-Nov. 11 World Championship Appaloosa Hone Show, 20-22 "Broadway Gala," Holmberg Hall, OU, Norman State Fairgrounds, OKC 21 Lawton Philharmonic with William Doppman, pianist, McMahon Aud., Lawmn SPECIAL EVENTS 27 Willie Nelson, Expo Center, Tulsa 28 Chuck Mangione, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa 1 29 & Oct. 1 OK Symphony featuring Michael Ma, SEPTEMBER 1 Labor Day Regatta, Lake Hefner, OKC concertmaster, Civic Center Music Hall, OKC 1-Dec. 2 "Return of Halley's Comet," Kirkpatrick OCTOBER 4-5 Dionne Warwick, OK Symphony POPS Concert, Planetarium, OKC Civic Center, OKC 2 Great Raft Race, West Bank Festival Park, Tulsa 5-6 "Die Fledermaus," Tulsa Ballet Theatre, 7-8 Sooner State Bromeliad Show & Sale, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Tulsa Garden Center, Tulsa 6 New World String Quartet, Performing Arts 14-15 Guthrie Road Show (antique cars), Guthrie Center, Tulsa 19 Texas Longhorn Sale, Wichita Mts. Wildlife 10 Western Opera Theatre, Concert Hall, OSU, Refuge, Cache Stillwater 21-Dec. 31 "Big WarLittle War: OK Indians in the Civil 11 Leo Kottke, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa War," Kirkpatrick Center, OKC 12 Liona Boyd, guitarist, Bartlesville Sympony 22-Dec. 20 "Autumn Nights," Kirkpatrick Planetarium, OKC Orchestra, Community Center, Bartlesville OCTOBER 1-5 Hobie Cat 14 Turbo National Championships, 20 & 22 OK Symphony with Gyorgy Sandor, pianist, Civic Arrowhead Lodge, Lake Eufaula Center, OKC 5-6 Webbcraft Bass Tournament, Shangri-La , Afton 25 OK Symphony Cabaret Concert, Great Hall of the 12-13 Over-the-Log Shoot, Happy Lake, Claremore Myriad. OKC 19-20 Tulsa Gun & Knife Show, Expo Center, Tulsa 26 Sweet Adeline Barbershop Music Show, 26 Tulsa Run, Williams Center Green, Tulsa Community Center, Bartlesville 26-27 Frostbite Regatta, Lake Hefner, OKC

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