July-August '85

CXlMMQ FARMS: OKLAHOMA'S LANDMARK FARMER'S MARK€T DAUGHTERS OF THE EARTH: WORKS BY NATIVE AMERICAN. WOMEN

+,. "4% July-August '85 George Nigh, Governor Vol. 35, No. 4 k, 2 ;@lam COVERS

MAKING CRAZY CIRCLES IN THE SKY There's a lot more to a Fourth of July fireworks show than meets your eyes.

DAUGHTERS OF THE EARTH Works by eight gdted Native American ADVENTURES IN THE FUR Fireworks light up the night artists, who also just happen to be TRADE at Edmond's July 4th Oklahomansand women. About the time Jim Bridger and Jedediah celebration. Photo by Jim Smith were making legends of themselves Argo. InrtaeJ;ont. Along the in the Rocky Mountain fur trade, a band North Canadian. Photo by 24 of equally stalwart men were trapping and Ivan L. McCartney. Back TRUCK FARMING'S FIRST trading along Red River. Now you can Sailboat at sunset, Lake FAMILY make a trek to Lawton and see their life for Hefner. Photo by Ivan L. They're the Conrads, and they farm 1,000 yourself. McCartney. acres of Bixby bottomland. They've also put Oklahoma on the cover of the FEATURES GuinmssBook of WorBRecord by growing DEPARTMENTS 11 the biggest watermelon anyone's ever seen. Today In Oklahoma ...... 4 ALFALFA BILL MURRAY BodcdLeltenr...... 4-5 There's never been anyone else like Alfalfa Uncommon Common Folk ...... 6 Bill Murray. He nearly declared war on Dcrtinations: Osage Hills ...... 8 Texas, planted potatoes on the lawn of the Oklahoma Omnibus ...... 10 governor's mansion-and swore by prairie On to Oklahoma ...... 45 populism till the day he died. Entertainment Calendar ...... 46

July-August '85 ing and can actually hear worms (a main meal) crawling beneath the ground. When the soil is frozen, no subterranean movement takes place. Therefore the armadillos don't know where to dig- and starve to death. Lots more facts on the armadillo, fea- tured in this issue's Oklahoma Omnibus, begin on page 10. Whenever Oklahoma historians or politicians get together, frequently the conversation turns to ''Alfalfa BW Mur- ray, the state's most colorful governor. A collection of the choicest Murray anec- ack in 1968, some of the country's cement blocks in her garage. This allowed dotes are included in our article on Gov- Bbest-known Native American artists the children to play beneath her and kept ernor Murray, which begins on page 11. were crowded into the Five Civilized them from bumping their heads on the For those who want more, an excel- Tribes Museum at Muskogee. All were table. "I added cement blocks until my lent biography is Keith Bryant's Awfa waiting for the judge to name the winners stool was as high as it would go," she Bill Muray, published by OU Press. of its prestigious annual art competition. laughs. Several bound volumes of Murray's per- Virginia Stroud says she will never Another artist in the show, Joan Brown, sonal memoirs are also available in the forget the moment when the judge painted by setting up her art table on top library of the Western History Collec- announced "J. FifeH-and Jimmie Carol of packing boxes while her children were tions at the University of Oklahoma-as Fife walked to the front to receive her small. That way she could watch them is a large collection of manuscripts related medallion. "Everyone gasped, 'It's a play and keep them out of the paints. to his term as governor, personal papers woman!,"' Ms. Stroud recalls. "The Daughters of the Earth exhibit and the tracts he published. That's when the idea for the Daugh- should help people see that you don't tjv ORkzhmrz TODAY will be celebrat- ters of the Earth art exhibit was born. have to miss out doing what you want to ing its 30th Anniversary with a special Although the group is just getting orga- do by having children. You just have to January-February issue on bests, firsts nized, eight women are exhibiting in the juggle your time. It's quality time with and favorites in Oklahoma. Please write current show. Examples of their work children that counts," Ms. Stroud says. us about your favorite picnic spot, scenic begin on page 16. Ms. Stroud estimates "These are all fun women to work drive, festival or place to go fishing or that only about 40 Native American with," Ms. Stroud says about the Daugh- birdwatching. When guests come to visit, women are artists. ters of the Earth members. "We're com- what do you show off in your town? A "All of us started painting in a garage petitive in our field, but we've known historical home or perhaps a statue? Do or on a kitchen table," Ms. Stroud says. each other a long time, and we work well you have a favorite hiking path or trail "We painted after our children went to together. This is pretty exciting for all of ride? The best place to view wildflowers bed and then got up early the next mom- US." and wildlife? Write us a page or two ing to go to our regular jobs." W If it is unconventional for Indian about your favorite things, and be sure to Her babies were both raised on cradle- women to become artists, it is perhaps include your name and address. Mail it bards. She remembers taking her daugh- even less traditional for an Indian man to by August 1, and we'll include as many ter, now 12, to art shows in Tulsa and teach sewing. But Andy Harjo has be- as we have space for.-Sue Carter. Oklahoma City. When she arrived, she come an expert on Seminole patchwork. would place the baby in the cradleboard He's teaching others the craft before it is under the reception table. Hidden by a forgotten. His story begins on page 6. long white tablecloth, the baby would W Most years, automobiles seem to be sleep for hours, while Ms. Stroud talked the armadillo's Public Enemy No. 1. But to customers and sold her paintings. for the last two years, the weather has At home, she painted on the floor or tumed against the critters as well. Herpe- on TV trays with the babies nearby in tologist Bob Jenni reports that the several their cradleboards so she could talk to weeks of bitter weather during the win- Your article "TheBelles of Tahlequah"in them while she worked. ters of 1983 and 1984 have decimated the the March-April 1985 issue brought back As the children grew, and she began Oklahoma 'dillo population. many memories for my friend Sophia Gott larger works, she set up an art table on Armadillos, Jenni says, have acute hear- Kerr. The older sisters and cousins of the

Oklahoma TODAY Gott family of Ft. Gibson attended the My check is enclosed for one year's sub- farm during the depression of the early seminary. An uncle, Joe French, was the scription to Okhhoma TODAY. Please '90s; hunting coyotes and living the life superintendent at one time, and several begin with the March-April 1985 issue. of a cowboy on the plains; teaching in relatives in the Vann family worked in This is very important to me, as this issue one-room schools like Clabber Flat near the kitchen and other areas of the school. contains articles about Bruce Goff, with Navajoe for $25 a month; earning his BA My friend also remembers many tales whom I worked when he was just a at OU in 1909; studying with Turner at of Florence Wilson, the headmistress, skinny boy designing that beautiful Harvard. The book, second volume in told by her sister Laura and cousins Boston Avenue Methodist Church in his autobiography, also covers his long Gypsy French and Helen Vann, who Tulsa, and about Red Bud Valley. Dr. career as college professor, from instruc- attended the seminary before it burned. Harriet Barclay is a personal friend of tor to George Lynn Cross Research Pro- Thanks for a great article and excel- long standing and I am a member of a fessor at OU. lent pictures. We enjoyed it. club that worked hard and raised several As Dr. Gibson says in his introduc- Mrs. Gloria Warner hundred dollars toward the purchase of tion, the greatest value of Dale's work is Amarillo, Texas the valley. that he had lived the life he wrote about: So you can understand that this issue is "Edward Everett Dale was a bridge. . . one which I want to keep. Friends have connecting the simplistic frontier past I just want to say my renewal for Okh- offered to lend me their copies, but they with the complex technological present. homa TODAY was mainly influenced by all want them returned, and I definitely With splendid poise, disarming inno- the writer, Kathryn Jenson. She has a want a copy which I can keep. cence, and sensitive response he provided way of bringing the "good old people," Betty N&h exciting, living connective tissue between the common but "uncommon folks," to Tulsa these two eras." real life for me. You can almost see them and hear them, as they talk to you about A Field Guide to American Windmills, by their lives in Oklahoma. I get a little T. Linday Baker; Univetaity of Okhtioma nostalgic when I reminisce with them. Pm,21005 Asp Ave., Norman, OK 73029; Kathryn has a way of making each life $65. T. Lindsay Baker has undoubtedly seem so important, but her sense of humor done the ultimate study on the quintes- with her "Okie dialect'' makes me "belly- sential machine of the Great Plains: the laugh," for we do have our own particu- The West Wind Blows: The Autobiog- windmill. To those of us who are familiar lar style of talking, like no one else in the raphy of Edward Everett Dale, edited w'th with windmills only at a distance, as world. an intrwuctton by Arrell Mom Gibson; slowly revolving wheels in the air, sur- Okhhoma Hbtoricd Sonety, 2210 0.Lh- rounded by a little mud and some cattle- Juanita R Lucas coln, Okhhoma Cig, OK 73205; $29.95, or as lone skeletons slowly losing the bat- Okmu&ee plu $I partage. When Edward Everett tle with trumpet vine-his field guide is a Dale died in Norman in 1972 at 93, he revelation. was professor emeritus of history at the Crammed with data and more than My mother and I have just received the University of Oklahoma, a revered writ- 350 illustrations, Baker's book traces the March-April 1985 issue of Oklahoma er and lecturer on the frontier, with struggle to build and market a better TODAY. We were very pleased and books to his credit like The Range Cattie windmill-and reminds us that the open- proud to find the article "The Belles of Industry, Cow Country and Fmntier Ways. ing of much of the drylands of America, Tahlequah" featuring Polly Nelson Yet this scholar, who had studied with including large sections of western Okla- Hancock. no less a name in the history of the homa, would have been impossible with- Polly Nelson Hancock is my aunt and American frontier than Frederick Jack- out it. He also describes the 112 most my mother's sister. My mother, Effie son Turner, didn't have more than a common models, which still dot the John Nelson Shields, also attended the year's worth of schooling until he was 13. Western landscape. Cherokee Female Seminary but after He grew to manhood on the last of the With Baker's book in hand, a devotee Aunt Polly had been there. Some of continental frontiers-Old Greer County of the sport of windmill spotting can tell a Mother's favorite memories of her child- in the 1880s and 1890s. Baker Run in Oil from a Double Geared hood are all about her time at the semi- This book, written in his usual reada- Ideal, a Perkins Solid Wheel from a nary, and she has often entertained her ble, colloquial style, gives a first-person Maud S. And the text is dotted with children, grandchildren and great-grand- narrative of his life in Oklahoma. We see enough facts and trivia to make it a good children with stories about those days. Dale attending dances at Navajoe, a little read even for those to whom a windmill Bonnie A. Samuels town that once stood northeast of Altus; has always been a windmill, nothing Redondo Beach, C1 struggling with his family to ranch and more. El! By Kathryn Jenson White

ootball player Rosey Grier After he graduated from Oklahoma shattered one of the gender City University in 1952 with a double Fbarriers when he hurled his major in music and elementary mammoth body through the air and on education, Andy accepted his first to our television screens clutching not teaching job in New Mexico. It was the pigskin, but his latest needlework there that he began to appreciate the creation. Andy Harjo, a much smaller beauty of Indian tradition and to hunger man and a full-blood Seminole, is doing to learn more of his own. He the same non-traditional thing in Maud. remembers, "I said to myself, 'I'm an With his gentle voice and expressive Indian. Surely I must have some colors hands, he explains why and what he or designs or insignia that are mine. ' It sews as he oversees the activities of the kind of floored me. I knew I should senior citizens of the Potawatomi Tribal know about these things, but I didn't. I Complex in Shawnee. Since March didn't know any native songs; the little 1984, a short while after he retired from children did, but not me." 3 1 years of elementary school teaching, To satisfy this growing need, Andy Andy has been the seniors' arts and began writing and calling friends and crafts director. relatives in Oklahoma to ask questions. "You see," he begins softly, "when I He says his response was rni&nal, that was teaching in New Mexico in 1952 or people would say they believed such '53, I began to realize that each tribe things did exist, but they couldn't there had its own colors and fashions remember exactlv what thev were. He and lore. There I was, someone who still looks upset ;hen he rehs what he had never associated with his fellow reahzed: "It was fading away. The Seminoles, who didn't know that there Western tribes were not letting their forced them to move to Indian Territory were such things to exist. 1went to traditions fade, but we were. They were in the 1830s. He and a cousin took off public school all my life, and I was kind hanging on, but we were thinking for a two-week vacation, but, he says, of resented because I spoke English. nothing of these things. So I said to "The two weeks came and went over, The Indian boys, they said, 'Well, myself, 'Listen here. I may be the last and I turned in my resignation at New hmmph, you're trying to be like a white Seminole who cares. I must wake up Mexico. I applied for a teaching position man.' They frowned on me. So I and do something. I must research and at Okeechobee, got hired, dug in and decided, OK, if that's the way they want trv to reserve.' " started working." to be, I'll stay on my own side, the way I '~n&saved UD his annual leave until His classroom assignment was think is the best for me. I never he hada month; then he returned to kindergarten, which was perfect. Andy associated with my own people." Oklahoma to begin to explore the one needed to learn the Creek dialect the Although Andy recalls that his family tribal tradition he had learned a bit women on the reservation spoke if he spoke both their native language and about: Seminole patchwork. He found was to learn from them about the English in the home, "It was kind of little information about this brightly traditional patterns of the patchwork art forbidden not to speak English because colored and intricate cloth mosaic of form. He learned the dialect, which he they had difficult times when they went hundreds of tiny, tiny scraps that his now speaks fluently, by showing the to school themselves, before they learned ancestors used to decorate their clothine- children pictures and asking them for to speak English. They were sent to and identify their clans. Since the name of the thing in their language boarder schools, and they didn't want Oklahoma wasn't providing much help, as he taught them English. Andy their children to have a hard time, too. Andy decided to go to Florida, home of worked at Brighton, one of four That's why they pushed English." the Seminoles before the government Seminole reservations in Florida.

6 Oklahoma TODAY UNCOMMON COMMON FOLK

Once he began to master the width of the strip isn't important, but pattern "Drunkard's Path," which by language, Andy approached the women two must be there." the way is also the name of a traditional of the reservation and began to listen. He learned that some of the beautiful AngleAmerican quilt pattern, was his He remembers with a smile that he designs are specific to a clan; that others, own clan's design. He tells the story began "with construction paper because like "Everlasting Fire" and "Many with glee: "My full name is Harjock, at first I didn't know how to sew. .. Fish," are svmbolic of natural events; and how it originated was that this little! Anyway, I learned first that the only and that oth'ers are just pretty, with no short man lived with his three sisters in important thing is the design. The name or symbolic significance. He also the village and he hunted to trade colors vou use are not immrtant." The learned that some of the designs are only deerskin for liquor or wine from the only eiception to this, ~nd~says, is that for women and some onlv for men. Spaniards. The friends and neighbors black is not a good choice because it although most of them can be used' by would ask the sisters, 'Where's brings bad luck. The brighter the either gender. htjochee?'which means 'Where's the colors, the better. Librarv research didn't contribute little drunk?' That became his first After three months, Andy had much towthislearning process, although name. When he migrated to Oklahoma captured the original 202 traditional he spent time at the universities of North and had children, it became their last designs in constkction-pper mosaics Carolina and Georgia looking. name. I took the che, which means and bound them in a book for reference. However, while he was in Georgia, the 'little,' off, so I guess I want to be a big Then he began to attempt cotton home of the Creek Indians from whom drunk." broadcloth versions. He mints with the Seminoles split off in the late 18th As Andy worked the women at the laughter at his early effok with their centurv. he discovered an old man who reservation told him the stories that crooked seams or irregularitiesin the told hik that the designs originated accompany each design, and he's got pattern. He's kept all the products of his when the Indians tried to copy the them all in his memory. The one that learning process as mementos and as bright brocades of the Spaniardsand that explains the "Three Tear Drops" teaching aids in the present. Andy now the clan designs were used to signal off- pattern, for example, tells of a young lectures on the art of patchwork and limits to men or women who might mother whose two children drown; teaches it to others. He also makes become romantically interested in these are her tears of mourning for her beautiful iackets and vests for sale. If someone of the same clan. lost children. Another pattern, called you'll exiuse the pun, he's really putting One of his most interesting discoveries "Community Path,'' counters this sad all the pieces of his talent together. was a personal one. He found the pattern by portraying the reassuring His first efforts with cloth amuse him safety of the clearing that runs through now; at the time, they were a source of the village and reminding all to stay on laughter among the skilled women it instead of wandering off into danger. teaching this young man their secrets. Andy worries a bit that the young When Andy began to explore the Seminoles have, figuratively, wandered patchwork, no other men were off the community path. He says, "The interested in it. Today, thanks to his younger people do not want to learn the ground-breaking work, many of those patchwork. Only the older folks. The on the reservation make and sell their children say they don't have the wares for high prices all over the U.S. patience. We tried to start a class for the As he fumbled with the treadle younger ones, but they didn't show up. sewing machine and the ever-moving That was our answer, I'm afraid." He and escaping slender slivers of cloth, Grnmuni@Path continues to teach and to make, though, Andy kept asking questions. He found because he believes strongly that the out that, traditionally, the patterns traditions must not die out. He explains occupy designated places to some of his kaleidoscopic art form, "The only degree. For example, the wearer's thing is the beauty. That's the thing. father's clan design should be on top More pieces add more colors and make and his or her mother's clan design it more difficult. Each one can be should be on the bottom of the garment. different when there are so many pieces The wearer's choice of design should to work with, so we never do any two occupy the middle section of the skirt, exactly the same. But we always try to jacket or vest. The women also taught make perfect what the Almighty has him that each design must have two given us." strips of solid cloth acting as borders on both to^ and bottom. "The one on the Havp a nomineefor "Uncommon Common outsidesisthe protector and the second Foh"? Write to ICztAryn c/o Oklahoma one is to stop the evil from coming in," TODAY, I?0. Box 53384, OORhoma he explains. "Extras are OK, and the I Ewh~tingFire Cig, OK 73252 1- DESTINATLOYS OsageHills StatePark By Kim Edwards Williams Photographs by Fred W. Marvel

sage Hills State Park seems to a.m. and 2 p.m. The trail is about four have always been one of the miles long and takes a little over an hour state's best-kept secrets. Until it to travel. Cost for the ride, including use 0became part of the Chreokee Outlet in of one of the stable's horses, is $5. the mid-1800s, the area was practically The park has eight rental cabins avail- unknown to anyone but a handful of able at reasonable rates; each is air-condi- Indian hunters. Later, outlaws and horse tioned and has a kitchen and fireplace. thieves capitalized on the seclusion of the For reservations or more information, area by using it as a hide-out. contact Osage Hills at (918) 3361141. Today, you still may not hear much Or, in Oklahoma City and out-of-state, about Osage Hills-and the people who call (405) 521-2464. In Arkansas, Cob visit the park would like to keep it that rado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico way. Frequent visitors come not in search and Texas (except area code 5 12) call toll- of crowds and boisterous activity, but to free 1-800-654-8240. Other areas in escap. The serenity and seclusion of the Oklahoma, call toll-free 1-800-522-8565. former Osage reservation is what keeps them coming back. (Osage County- Oklahoma's largest-was fonned directly Kim woried ar the magazne i internfm from the Osage's tribal lands, given to Guded trail ~ P hawJ the lstabk~for afour-mtk td fall 84 to spnjtg '85.Fred MamlL the them in 1870.) through hills, W/&J adta//-grm~ prairiPJ. Tourirm Department istaffphotographpr. The park lies northeast of Pawhuska on State Highway 99 (or west of Bartles- ville on U.S. 60) in the midst of rich oil and cattle lands. Sand Creek meanders Museum, with an outstndii callection of through its rolling hills, tripping over Western art, a 3,600-acre wildlife refuge and SIDE TRIPS several small falls before reaching 18acre the National Y-Indian Guide Center, which Lake Lookout. Only trolling motors are Justesstof~Hitlsin~~features a multi-media presentation about allowed on the lake, so skiing is out, but visit the restored mansion of Fmnk Phillips, Indian culture. A replica of Fmnk Phillip' fishing on both the lake and creek are founder of PupPe~a,ktq a.The 26- home in Iowa ahcontains a wllection of mom mamion i8 open 9 5 pi%. arrimal m&i& and Iadian bkhTb $2 good, with perch, bass and crappie all Turn.-Fri.; 2 p.m. to 5 pa&BBa.. Fot admissionf& ali m.(&&en waiting to be caught. more informdon, call (918)33a491. under 16areadmimd* l%uwdayisa Lake Lookout is also off-limits to swim- WhileinBahvikEakeinaquefity "free" day for senior cirizem)Hours are 19 mers, but allowed in Sand Creek and the thcater production at the epatcbing a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day but Monday. park's swimming pool. Other activities Bartlde Community Cen-, the center For more information, call (918)336-0307. include hiking, camping, boating and d@ by a protege of Frank Lloyd The Osa&? Tribal Museum in Pawhwka picnicking. Tennis courts are also ht is worth a tour. For a list of houses Osage artifacts, oil paintings and the available. information or tour largest collectio~of Osage photographs in Horseback riding through Oklahoma's the world. The museum ;Jso sells homemade Green Country is another popular activ- on Osage finger-weaving and ribbon-work. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. ity. Guided trail rides leave the stables every Wednesday through Saturday at 10

9 Oklahoma TODAY Osage Hih, wtA its ded&no&, sttvam and Ppace~hke,is me of th statP 5 best-Rept smts.

July-August '85 THE

E3y Kathryn JemmWhite

homelands, it's a c11~Rsi.m~M a However, to us QkEgh~t~lns,it aid nothin' more than a pkol' mndllq or 'dill0 for short. DBJ3981En-is the fancy scientific name for rhh myding but fancy critter more O~mm bye probably seen dead by the side 1tk road than alive mywhere dm h ' * ~ g k a Swedish bota&t, laid thjs M an the little armored one when he co~'t figure out howtolatinize the hseic name,Azat~AtQwhich meaas "tortoise- rabbit." He translated the mme into Greek and came up with dqpdb, meaning hare or rabbit. Our OWoma species, which is the only one that lives anywhere in the U.S., gets its specific name from a mrnmof the hdn fiouem(nine) and &(banded).

dab in the middle of the shortest route to Oklahoma. The first written mention of an armadilloin Texaswas at the Rio Grande in 1854; the first recorded sightingin Oklahoma was in 1936. Obviously, they had to rest awhile somewhere, and Texas was handy. The northward expansion of the nine banded armadillois a zoulogid wonder. Sincethat first Texas mghtiag, they've been spotted in 13 other states, which

10 QkkbmTODAY 4 ! 1 By Robert H. Henry v

OUR MOST FLAMBOYANT I FOUNDING FATHER

overnor Murray, at least in Oklahoma, to ask uhow would you ] the now-famous rhetorical describe your term as gover- question "Why are there so nor?" "Well, son, it was just 5 many more horses asses than onedamn dung afteranother." horses in the world?" To the To tell the truth, it was I question "Governor, to what more like the same damn do you ascribe your brilliant thing over and over again for 3 political success in Okla- the man who is easily the homa?", Murray fired back, most colorful character in Ok- "Never say anydung good lahoma's sometimes bizarre about the State of Texas." political history. William It was Alfalfa Bill who, Henry Murray, christened when told that an apartment "Alfalfa Bill" because of his without a bathtub would not agricultural exhortations on be suitablefor the first speaker behalf of the legume, planted of the House, replied, "That's an indelible mark on his all right. We won't be here adopted state. His amazing over six months." Later, career encompassed more sig- when the Supreme Court of nificant political positions Oklahoma sent word that than any other Sooner: a Murray did not have the leader in the Sequoyah Con- authority to set the territorial vention, the president of election contraryto President Oklahoma's Constitutional Teddy Roosevelt's desire, hw- convention, first speaker of WUhm H. Murray, "A&dfa lfatojkkiandfw dke,w7.1u&bted& yer Murrayfrankly wired this themaricol~gowmwtheco/mful($pitolhewrs~~n. the Oklahoma House of response: "My compliments Representatives, a member of Congress, the governor of to the Court. Tell them to go to Hell." Oklahoma during the Great Depression and a candidate for Murray was born, oddly enough in light of his later president of the United States in 1932. remarks about his birth state, in the small Texas town of Any discussion of political wit in Oklahomamust start with Toadsuck on Nov. 21, 1869. His mother died when he was Murray. Many of the things he said have become almost not quite 2, and he ran away from home when he was 11. He axiomatic. Murray, for example,is said to have been the first, studied hard at the small schools he was able to attend for brief periods. A voracious reader, oped rapport with the jury. Mumy studied debate, ora- Here it is: "Gentlemen of tory and finally law. He was the Jury, it is all right for any admitted to the bar in Texas, friend who has another who then moved to Indian Terri- don't object, to call him a tory, settling in Tihorningo. 'son of a bitch.' It is all right Perhaps he had some trep for a 'son of a bitch' like that idation about his move to and that and that [here Mur- rugged Indian Territory. In ray pointed to each of the his Mern0li.s of A& BJI Hollands] to caU thmehs Murray and the TmHhtoty and their families and one of Okhhoma, he tells about a another a son of a bitch, but family who also made the when four sons-of-bitches like decision to move to the rough these [again pointing at the new land. As the small girl in Hollands] call a Christian the family got down on her gentleman in the presence of knees to say her last prayer his wife and daughter, a son- before the journey, she prayed: of-a-bitch, Iinsist that thed- "Good-bye, God. We are bitches ought to have the limit going to Indian Territory." of the law." They got it. Whatever his feelings about But Murray was destined moving, Murray did very well for more than local fame. His indeed in what would later leadership in the "Sequoyah become (largely through his Convention," an early effort efforts) the state of Okla- promoting statehood for homa. He set up his law Indian Territory, led to his practice and attracted the election as president of Okla- attention of the entire com- homa's Constitutional Con- munity with his innovative vention-later described by techniques. Perhaps his most recalcitrant national Repub famous effort was known local- lican leaders Teddy Roosevelt In 193,Arfada Bill made a Mfir thepm-, runnzng a mce notedfw it$rat& ly as the "sonof a ~i~~h" and ~~~~~d ~~f~ as Qaimtic bknd ash-mhp, eccentnk& and mmtna sense. case. a "Zoological Garden of It seems that a tenant of one of Mur- In the resulting trial, Holland's lawyer Cranks." It was Murray who marshaled ray's farmer friends was traveling to minimized the epithet, urging, incredi- the national dry forces, always anxious to church with his wife and young daughter bly, that the term was really an endear- gain a dry state, to inundate President when a local bully, appropriately ment among friends. Murray knew that Roosevelt with letters urging Oklahe named "Wild Bill Holland," and his any word relevant to the alleged crime ma's admission. And Murray, with three sons assaulted the poor family. and in the record of the lawsuit could be assistance from William Jennings Bryan, Slamming the gate the man had just discussed freely and fully by the parties. led the electoral forces of the statehood opened, and terrorizing everyone, the Replying to the opposing counsel's movement to win a landslide victory for Hollands called him a "woolly-headed, argument, he devised a tactic that bril- "his" new constitution, the lengthiest yet bull-headed, son of a bitch." liantly ridiculed the Hollands and devel- seen on the globe.

I

12 Oklahoma TODAY Although Mumy would serve as the the remarks that probably guaranteed Murray's election were her disingenuous charges that the candidate "habitually appears in a dirty shirt" and that he 66wore two pairs of trousers," referring to after his colonizing the often-expwd long underwear. Murray carefully and masterfully orchestrated his response. Distributing flyers all over Oklahoma City, he adver- a Bill, munching donated cheese tised that he would give a major speech. Then, capitalizing on Miss Johnson's marital status or, rather, the lack of it, he had supporters spread an old joke through- In me cam~irn in South Wk,he caUed fw out the town. They were told to ask every- "bread,-&ter>nd beam in pn'wte He end m- hark and backtune inpubkc kfe. " one they could find "What is the difference between a bachelor-woman and as a man who "never wears a coat unless an old maid?" The answer, gleefully told, the weather chills him." He had a family was "A bachelor-woman has never been who "lived contentedly for years in a married, and an old maid has never been house with a sod floor." She charged that married nor nothin'." Murray ate one of his favorite dishes, hot The night of the speech, by conserva- cakes, in a socially unaccepted fashion: tive estimates, 15,000 people waited to "He picks up a cake with his right hand, hear their hero. With the atmosphere slops it onto his lefi hand, reaches for the tense with expeaation, Murray rose to butter, picks it up with his right hand and speak: "A bachelor-woman," he said, smears it over the cake, his hand dripping then paused to let the words sink in and with the melted butter." She charged that the twitters spread, "a bachelor-woman of his long underwear would give rise to Murray would "live like a hired hand.'' writing in TlrP Dai4 Okhhoman, "pausing perhaps the most effective use of wit in Referring to remarks Murray had made again for effect, "has taken a fall out with the history of Oklahoma political cam- at least partly in jest about renting out the my underwear. Now I wonder where she paigns. Alarmed at Murray's large lead governor's mansion, living in the garage learned that. I gave my clothes to a porter going into the runoff with Butuan, Th and planting potatoes on the lawn, she at the hotel, thinking he sent them to a Dai4 Okbhman deaded that Murray's charged that he would "turn the place steam laundry. Anyway, ladies and gentle- unkempt appearance, especially his long into a potato patch." men, I want to assure you that I do not underwear, would be his undoing. The Siccing a society-page editor on Mur- know so much about her underwear, and ray's down-home ways proved to be a if I did, I would be too much of a catastrophic blunder. In those poverty- gendeman to tefl it." stricken times, many Oklahoma voters Like a general aware that his shelling didn't have bathtub or fine coats, many is destroying his target, Murray relent- egan her lurid columns lived or had lived on dirt floors, and a lessly waved the dirty shirt. Restating and 1 by describing Murray as a man "who large number thought it would be a good refining his invective, he would 1 despises soap and water, who lived for idea to plant potatoes at the mansion. repeat to delighted audiences across the ,years in a house without a bathtub" and (This, by the way, Murray later did.) But state: "Sister Edith says I got dirty draw- I !July-August '85 13 I ers! I'm surprised at Sister Edith showing popular in Oklahoma, gave Murray somj such an unseemly interest in my drawers. of his own. Murray had hoped to retu4 Imagine a magen lady like her doin' such as governor in 1938, since Oklahoma la a thing. What the Hell does Sister Edith had not allowed him to succeed himse know about my drawers? Nothin' that's in 1934. But when FDR stumped th what. Not one damn thing. I'll tell you state that election year, he wryly observ somethin' else; she ain't ever gonna know to 75,000 Oklahomans gathered at th nothin' about my drawers. Sister Edith state fairgrounds three days before th ain't my type.'' July 12 primary, "One of the candidate!i Reminding voters that "Sister Edith" for a place on the Democratic state tickel had said that he wore "two pairs of this year is mtiom@ known ar a Rppub6 pants" and "dirty underwear," he'd roar, can. " In deeply partisan Oklahoma, thq "How'd she know? I stay in Oklahoma president had just completed Murray'r City once in a while-but I sleep alone. political execution. Murray would nevel Maybe she works in a hotel laundry." be elected to another office, and would The effect was devastating. The rural never understand how the state he hac areas gave Murray a landslide, Murray molded could desert him. In his declin. defeated his Republican challenger, and ing years, Alfalfa Bill would rant and rave he went on, in characteristic Murray and peddle books that were, by and large style, to make his mark. Frequently a a disgrace to his intellect. Laden with shrewd barometer of public opinion, faulty logic, overgeneralizations and Governor Murray began his administra- racism, these writings showed his bi tion by calling off the inaugural ball and substituting a square dance with himself The as the caller. greeting to his Alfalfa in "A&aya Biil"cam from hb tartrng often the hgume. He ahMa new $train of m. office with a gruff but satisfying "What the Hell do you want?," he chained the Federal Court than the Court can be in 1869 chairs in the governor's office to the contempt of me." The headlines read Born Nov. 21, Toadsuck, Texas. radiators "to keep folks from putting "Horatio at the Bridge." 1890 Delegate to Texas State Democratic their faces plumb into mine." With the successful resolution of the Convention. He challenged state senatorial power bridge war, ending toll bridges to the joy 1892,1896 and won, admonishing the impeachment- of both Texans and Oklahomans, and Ran for Texas State Senate. Lost. prone Senate to go after him, if they with his closing of the oil fields succeed- 1898 dared, as it would be "like a bunch of ing in raising oil prices, Murray's great- Moved to Indian Territory. jack rabbits trying to get a coyote out of a est hours were over. Although he had 1899 hole.'' He successfully called out the some national following, he failed to get Married Mary Alice Hearrell, a Choctaw. National Guard to close toll bridges from anywhere in his 1932 effort to get the 1902 Texas to Oklahoma, and to close the oil presidential nomination from Franklin Basically retired from law to manage farmland; conducted agricultural fields to conserve oil and bring prices up. D. Roosevelt. Murray despised FDR experiments. When accused of being in contempt of a until his death, and even went so far as to 1907 federal court order to open the toll support the Republican candidate for Convened state's first legislature as bridges, Murray, gun on his hip, was president in 1936. speaker of the House of Representatives. heard to respond at the "war zone" with, This would prove to be a fatal mistake. I

Oklahoma TODA\r * * * * * -- LA-

I

ness at losing the prominence he loved. Murmyism is the only word that can describe Alfalfa Bill's policies. As a lead- ing political historian observes, it was "less a program than a personality." Much of Mu~my'sadministration was brilliant, and much was ridiculous. In spite of the dramaticshifts, one character- istic was always present. Murray always spoke his thoughts and did what he believed was right. This was his greatest asset and his greatest weakness. The glaring defects of this brilliant man were magnified by what his percep tive biographer terms "mental deteriora- tion during his twilight years." In a tragic recountingof his last pilgrimage, to Though niyppers mmkd his earthy on*, A&ufa BrZ thegvwrnor~h$in a backnnai campatgn, munch& kt&chme and mbi-andfhnnitg hghandks. present an award to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, this biographerdescribesthe meager belongings in a brown paste This eulogy is not quite enough. Mur- shock of the hotel management when board box tied with a hemp rope. That ray's genetic research in agriculture and Alfalfa Bill, deaf and almost blind, fallhe voted for MacArthur for President his effortsto have Oklahoma admitted as "shuffled across the lobby, carrying his by pasting a picture of the Generalon his a state entitle him to the term "great." ballot." Although his errors were also great, Regardlessof his faults, this fascinating especially his racial prejudice, his life and man died in poverty still refusing to contributionsto Oklahoma deserve study, admit the decline of the rural way of life. for as Melven Cornish wrote in his intro- -1914 His dedication to politics and agrarianism duction to Murray's Mem01i.s. "he record Re-electedto the House. had cost him his fortune. In fact, not of the life and public service of this 'First 1923.29 until 1978 did the Oklahoma legislature Citizen of Oklahoma', make up a pre- Organized a colonial expedition to Bolivia and left Oklahoma, vowing he'd symbolicallyrepay the money that Alfalfa cious chapter of the history of our state, quit politics forever. Bill had loaned the Constitutional Con- which 'he loves so well and has served so 1930 vention in 1906to enableit to continue its faithfully;' and that chapteris worthy of a Elected governor of Oklahoma. work. Murray's will had taken a finaljab: careful reading,and an impartialanalysis, 1931 "If there ever comes a time that the by its thoughtful Citizens." Won his "bridge war" with Texas; politicians of the State of Oklahoma shall The Sageof Tishomingohimself wrote declared martial law in the oil fields. have reformed their minds and conscien- what can stand as the last words on the 1932 ces. ..it is then my will that they pay this subject when, in his memoirs about Announced his candidacy for U.S. president. claim. ..to my wife or heirs." Oklahoma, he paraphrased his fellow 1956 Murray died after a stroke and pneu- agrarian, Virgd: "Some of these things Died of a stroke and pneumonia, monia on Oct. 15, 1956. His old foe, the I saw, and much of them I was." KI Oct. 15. TuLa Tribune, observed the next day: "May Alfalfa Bill find peace in the red ~~hHemypra&'ceJ &ins/la-. I soil of his Oklahoma. He was almost a This artick Lpzrt ofa book-ifipupess on great man." O&hpohtical hamor.

I July-August '85 15 Photographs by Steve Sisney 1n Oklahoma City last Februq, a new bred of art exhibit was born. Called bbI>aughtersof the Earth," it highlights (and offers for sale) works by eight Satkc .tnerican artists who also happen to be Oklahomans-and women. "It's sotnething I've thou&t about for the last seven years," says show coordinator Virginia Stroud. ",hd when I talked to the others. it turned out that they'd been thinking about it, too." "1)aughters" has traveled to ,ltlanta and Durango and \\ill t\ind up its 1985 run at Tulsa's Art Jlarket, 1660-P E. 71st St.. July 113-1 7. (The artists \\ill be prcscnt July 13, 5-10 p.m., and again the 14th. 2-5 p.m.) The diversit\. of the show is reflected in its name, takcn from one of Stroud's paintings. "It sho~vstwo women in different tribal dresses. one Sious, one Kiowra. To me, that's the exhibit. \Ye're from a bunch of different tribes, with different traditions, finances, education. ...But one thing we have in cornrnorl is wanting to kwp our cultures." "Buffalo Babes" Sharron Ahtone Harjo

DAUGHTERS ' Vdjean Hessi* aChoctaw,was1 born in Tulsa. She began cre- atingher brand of traditional, two-dimensio&l paint- ings 22 years ago, when her four children were in school. Since then she's won more than 75 major awards and been named a "master" by Muskogee's Five Civilized Tribes Museum. Her hallmark has, become sweeping, earthtone figures, often Indian women, bounded by fields of white space.

Oklahoma TODAYi Jean Bales, born in Pawnee, is ShanonAhbMleHmjoisaKhnva an Iovra; her mother is one of C - now living in Oklahoma City. the tribe's 24 full-blooded members Wes be&m Her m..+t mattef and style are traditionally Indian. making a living with her art in 1970 and first In the Oklahoma City show, the pieces ranged from became known as a sculptor. She's now noted for her the rounded shapes of "Buffalo Babesmto works in small-scale paintin&, often done on ex& papers the style of ~~. "In myart Itrytobring like rim and mulbeny. Indian Arts and Crafts the past into the present and record the present for orgdzdion's artist of the year for 1984,Bales lives the future. Painting is never tedious to me. I paint- outside Anactarko. indeed I must paint-when I am happy." "Delaware Girl" Ruthe Blalock Jones

"Good Day's Wor-k" Vlrg~n~aStro~rd ( Opposite page J

IhrtheBhc&~anes,auehnurace/' hera award-m-hmbeendonein borh the tmadItiOnal style and a "mdi&ks style. "WhileI~noab~ntothetermCIRdian~ I pkr to think of ss an artist who pain@ IdhaThemamnIparinE thewayIdoisbecauseit iswhatIkmwandwhoI am."Agradutrteofkne and Trdsa U-, Jones Is BaDone's art directot.

B , ,,e Spirit Goes On" "Stomp Dance" Jane McCarty Mauldin Ruthe Blalock Jones (Opposite page)

"Cherokee Basketmaker" Mary Adair

"To Salt or Not to Salt" Joan Brown i (Below)

Mary Adair, a Cherokee, lives Joan Brown, a Cherokee, ti- in Mudrogee. She studied at in Muskogee. Mother of six, hut;LUIU A ma University and at Northeastem she IB KIIVWI~IV~hw humorous, fine-drawn depic- State University, where she earned two degrees. tions of Native American women-Creek "sofki Formerly the dire- of Mtmmv Indian Children's women" and Cherokee "konuche women" who glory Home in Muskogee, Adair says she enjays painting in their strong role8 in tradtional society. 4 studied Indian people doing everyday things or taking part at Bacone, and I origidy did the flat style, but I was in ceremonies-and especially painting children. unable to get in the humor and .dramathatwere part Her own four are aIso awrurd-winning artists. ofwhatIwan&dtosay.SoIhdas~eofmyown."

July-August '85 23 Truck- - Farming's First Fa=J;ly By Susan Everly-Daze Photcgraphs by Phillip Radcliffe n the cover of the 1983 Guinmsss Bed of Reari, a cherrycheeked toddler striped overalls straddled a 255- pound watermelon, certified the earth's biggest. The tiny boy was Kellen Rae Conrad. The ~4whopping watermelon was pampered to its gar- .gantuan bulk by his dad, granddad, geat-granddad and a grand uncle or two in a ~atchof Arkansas River bottomland on Conrad Fanrrs of Bixby. ~0th'boy and melon are the pride of the Conrad clan. They also could be a composite symbol of family ties that not only bind but have created a big business in peas and parsley, corn and cantaloupes-and watermelons-that's still very much down to earth. Conrad Farms is the biggest truck farm in Bixby, a community favored with soil so fertile that it's attracted a concentration of produce farms that have made the community synonymous with good things to eat. Conrad Farms ships semi-trailer truck loads of canteloupes, toma- toes and cabbages across the nation. They've been written up in the country's largest-circulation newspaper, the WaUStmt Joumd and in other national media. At certain times each year, they supply the entire Sooner State with parsley. But it's not just the 50 varieties of crops-including at last four types of watermelons-that make the place so special to Th-area residents and travelers who detour by to view the colorful seasonal displays and sample the wares. The specialness can be traced directly back to the boy and the melon. The Conrads have been farming that riverbottom soil for three

What makes for this intermarry- in charge of the growing. While If a customer needs an extra pound of ing of big business with the down- snow's stillon the ground, he's in the okra, he'll send it in from the field. home is the Conrad clan. Ask the hot houses fussing with seedlings. That may not be a profitable sale, but boy on the watermelon his name and Come summer he sees that the ferti- you've pleased a customer, a theory he'll proudly pronounce, "I'm Kellen lizing is done just right. Vernon Lee that's served Conrad Farms for sev- Rae Conrad Farms." For his elders, handles those semi-loads of wholesale eral decades. Eugene runs that retail that's simply an unspoken attitude. produce the field store, fleshing it out with produce The farm is a litany to generations. crews. from around the nation. His partner There's Melvin, is his son, Stanley, the father of "the real Kellen Rae. Then there's Stanley's farmer," wife, Helen, who does the book- keeping, and sisters and their mother, who help in the store. "And I'm the boss. I L may not always be right. But I am the boss." That's Chester Conrad, patriarch of the clan, talking. Pic- ture the archetypical truck farmer. Cap, overalls and well-faded plaid shirt. Dusty pick- up. An escort of bark- The Gmmd'~&store offerr 50 IZYI~~&J of mtabherr-iflcludi~at kt

Tne same nan pave been coming back to Conrad Fanns sd long that

ing dogs. Chester fits perfectly. But don't be fooled by that good-ole-boy veneer. Chester's cagey. He's turned a small truck farm into big business. And he's kept succeeding generations down on the farm. Chester Conrad, truck farmer, is son of a truck farmer. His father moved from Kansas to Nowata in 1895 in what was still Indian Terri- tory. Chester moved himself to Bixby in 1939 to what he calls "13 acres and a shack." Today he farms up to 1,000 acres. And today bragging comes easy to Chester Conrad. He figures he's got the right. "We do it better," he says simply. Take those "Oklahoma Giant" watermelons. Back in the '30s, he recalls, he was raising 90-pounders. "And I knew nothing about fertiliz- ing," he chuckles. Today the giant melons are a fam- Just as them hm~bePn gmrann~of Conma? on thek riwrbottom Ihnd, gmenak ofwkms haw mIbd to Bkbyfmm Tp~ssemn after season, to wrk and d;ve a the kznd. (Ah,and opparitP page, belm.) ily hobby. Stands of corn are grown Oppdte pa&. aboue. You may be abk to '%dig ngAt fppt d~qpandget a dninR,"mChester Conradcbm, to protect the vines from the wind. but irngan'm eqtu*t isn'la bigpart ofthe opprarbn.

Oklahoma TODAY And pampered vines they are. When the melons are jelly-bean size, all but one are removed to allow the sprawl- ing plants to concentrate on one fruit. Each year the results are more impres- sive. And in 1983 no one in the world grew a bigger melon than Chester Conrad and his boys. Chester's cham- pion weighed in at 255 pounds. What's more, nine others in the field also bested anybody else's best. The watermelon had put Bixby on the map. What's more, Conrad likes to remind you, his Guinness record still stands. Not that others haven't tried. A favorite Conrad story concerns the oil tycoon-gentleman farmer from Louisiana who flew in by private jet to have a look at the Bixby water- melon patch, by then a regular tourist attraction. Impressed, he returned a second time and plunked down $200 for 20 seeds. Then he ~roceededto grow the biggest watermelon in Louisiana. Chester, however, was not real impressed. "With that length of growing season," he reasons, "I could go to Louisiana and raise a bigger one.'' But it's his own Bixby bottomland that Conrad still cottons to. Bump with him through the fields on a cool summer's morning (he's out in the pick-up at 7 a.m. after an hour's office work), and he'll show off acres of perfect canteloupes that literally perfume the air. They benefit hand- somely, he says, from what he's learned about "vining" those giant watermelons. He'll scowl at the blue sky that's not yet produced enough rain to put in a late turnip crop when the melons are harvested. But again he swears by the soil. "Just dig eight feet," he says, "and get yourself a drink." Each field is a source of pride, so Conrad mutters when he plucks a random ear of corn, shucks

July-August '85 31 tt Everyone inthe family has a job and that's important because you're proud of what that teamwork has accomplished. 99 Stanley says, it's shared by customers. "Just when you're getting burned out by all that citrus from Florida, the first radishes, green onions and leaf lettuce come in from the fields, then the asparagus, the cucumbers and green beans, the tomatoes and sweet corn, then the okra. . . . It's like being one with the seasons."

Su.san Euer&Dacze ti a wtiterfor the Tulsa World;Phihp Raklize ir a Tuba photographer whose w k wfeatured m our "okhhoma Portfo/io"~ediaht March-ApnZ

Getting There

Fmm Chester dmto Keh Rae (who introduces himreIfbysaying 'Tin Keh Rae Carad Famu'% the mtim Topdup your ownfiu-&sh fmis and family feeding Conmd seenu to get in a the Swner State. wgetabks, stop by the market at Carad it and uncovers a worm. But there's a to college. But they all came back. Farms, 45 mih wst ofMmwiaIDnire a natural sense of humor that launches The eldest recall their youth, when l5lst Street in Bkby. Dunkg the summ months, the market L 7a.rn to 7p.m., him into the tale of a regular custo- their father worked with the field + pwtyhy of the wed. mer who groused that the corn she hands from sun-up, then hauled pro- Conrad Farms hapwsts th+ purchased one day "had enough duce to market and was back in the Nouember, but the rr0p.s tht are mart n* worms to catch 10 pounds of catfish." tractor seat at 5 a.m. The impression andphtrfulnght now inch2met cm, Showing off his fields, Conrad stuck. But Stanley, third-generation tomatwsand cantebupp. waves to men harvesting okra, pod by Conrad truck farmer in Bixby, ex- Ifyouha n~s/ickerwho'Jtlp~rhadthe pod. "I pay them so well, they can't plains it best. "It getsintoyour blood," tqk+ncecfpikingyur own dinner tight afford not to come back." He says the he says. "Everyone in the family has art ofthefit44 then stop by the market and same thing about his sons and grand- a job and that's important because ask them to dird you toajXwhere you can son. That's not the way they see it. you're proud of what that teamwork pik yur own tomatwo, &g&h p~asor Melvin tried a stint of refinery work. has accomplished." mustard and turnipgreens. Eugene was produce manager of a For mminfmh'on, cal(918) And if Conrad Farms is a credit to 366-8942. local supermarket. Vernon Lee was generations, it's also a litany to the in the armed forces. Stanley went off seasons. The Conrads feel it, and

32 Oklahoma TODAY YES! Enter my subscriptiontoday! I enclw my check for $- Please charge -S- to my: , ONew Renewal UVISA Mastew,Interbank # MAKING 'WYA CIRCLES IN THE SKY By Kate Lester Jones Photographs by Jim Argo

h very Independence Day evening, like celestial clock- work, the she\\. begin. As-night comes on, "rhe Star Spangled Banner" s6unds and new constellations rise in the sky Technicolor flowers and fountains of light, punc- tuated by manmade thunderclaps. The citizens watching below call the giant lights by the same name they do bottle rockets and Black Cats. Fimorks. People like Jim Burnett of Enid and Alan Johnson of Jennings know them by names as various as the stars they briefly outshine-common tenns like "3-inch yellow?' and "4-inch blue to red to flash," grandiose ones like "varie- gated peony," "glittering silver chqrnnthemum," "thunder and rainbow," "screamin' meany," "serpents and stars." That's because the two Oklahoma natives share a common livelihood and its special language: pyrotechnics. Johnson's Aerlex Corp. makes display shells for public fireworks shows across the country, Burnett's family busi- ness bids on, books and often shoots fireworks displays in 10 states. They also share a common mania. Get the two of them in one room and they fill the air with pyrotechnic trivia: Explaining which chemicals make what colors, what different nations like in their fireworks. . . . (Ameri- cans are partial to music. Italians love multiple-breaking shells-and noise. The Japanese are, by comparison,

(Hrkrlronlrctrs ccccr,trtitjbr mom that~their slucne oftlzejlplnm tlutt explodes in Sooner skies.

Adrrphy~heI'~heartisits'>tar~,"d fmmiour chemicak. The mii bals bum greq' the bLlcR caonng ir~"~m.

inscrutable.) They discuss plans to break the world record for the biggest display shell ever fired--401/z inches in diameter, detonated by the Grucci family of Bell- port, Long Island, one of several Italian fireworks dynasties in the U.S. And be- moan the cost of insurance-and amme nium perchlorate. The two pyrotechnists first met in 1972. It seems that Alan, a former air- craft electrician, had entered the business as both manufacturer and booker of shows. He soon learned he'd be better off leaving shows to those with years in the business. And so he called Jim Burnett. In 1972, Jim was one year out of col- lege and already involved in the family vaganzas, you alsofollow the trajectory of drical, American-style shells. Though business, Enid's Western Enterprises, the pyrotechnics industry, from gun- there are major differences in the pack- which had its beginnings back in 1945. powder to bombs bursting in air. ing and performance of the two, their Jim's father, Norman Bumett, had started It starts on some isolated acres north of basic components are the same. out selling Class C (firecracker)fireworks Jennings, 35 miles east of Tulsa. Aerlex, Consider, for example, what Alan calls to grocery stores, expanded to retail and which Alan founded in '72, looks like his "bread and butter" shell, the 3-inch- then into Class B fireworks, which is nothing so much as a bunch of buildings indiameter cylinder. A simple cylinder what the Burnetts deal in and Alan sidling toward each other to talk about shell begins with a Kraft paper container, manufactures. Jim recalls his first meet- becoming a factory. The open spaces are which is filled with a mixture of "stars" ing with Alan: no accident, of course, but a way to con- and "hot rice." Sounds a little like a new "He said, 'I still want to maintain the tain accidents, since explosions are every kids' cereal, but to a pyrotechnist, the manufacturing end of things-that's my pyrotechnist's nightmare. (In 1979, words are precise. fort&.I'm ready to talk with you if we can Aerlex's main building blew up; Alan "Stars" are the components that give help supply some merchandise.' Fine. and his crew had 30 seconds' warning shells their colors and patterns. Aerlex's I'm willing to do that. So I came over and escaped unhurt). stars are round as marbles, covered with and brought some other shells that I small wonder that Alan is moving the black primer. But a crowsection shows supplied from various manufacturers. most volatile process, the making of gun- that they're layered like a flavor- And Allan brought some other shells, powder and its offspring, bursting and changing jawbreaker: bands of the spe- and we had a kind of trial shooting. I'd lifting powder, clean away from the rest cial chemical compounds that dictate the shoot one of these shells, and he'd go out of the compound. (Another reason: firework's color changes. and shoot one of his. Aerlex simply must increase its output to "Hot rice" in Aerlex parlance means "Of course, the thing is, fireworks try to keep up with demand. Sales rock- rice hulls that have been coated with people always have outrageous egos. They eted 95 percent in 1984, and almost that bursting powder. A timed fuse (black honestly do. They always think, 'My much in 1982 and 1983.) powder in a thin tube of jute and tar) fireworks are better than yours,' and this It's the powders that put the fire in runs down through the shell; it's this that and that. It's the truth. But I have to say "fireworks"-and cause 95 percent of the will bum at the proper speed to ignite the that I've always been impressed with the dangerin their manufacture. Lifting pow- hot rice when the shell attains altitude. quality of Alan's shells." der does just that: lifts the shell into the The rice in turn sets off the stars. That impromptu fireworks show was air. Bursting powder is used to ignite the Stuck to the bottom of the shell, and the beginning of a long association. And light-andcolor-making components inside connected to the main fuse by a quick- if you follow the line of business from Aerlex makes two shell types-ball- burning fuse called a "side latch," is the Alan to Jim to July 4th fireworks extra- shaped, Japanese-style shells and cylin- lifting charge, which launches the shell.

36 Oklahoma TODAY The entire shell weighs perhaps a quarter there's stuff underneath it: a bunch of You've got all the basic ingredients, and of a pound, and the factory's final assem- smaller shells going off. Then we have the rest of it is left up to your imagina- bly room (alsocalled the "lift room") can what we call a 'kicker,' a big shell on the tion, like making a chef's salad that's polish off 1,500 3-inchers in a day's time. bottom. Actually, it's a show in itself." never been made before. And I would The stars, the coated rice, the bursting Obviously, this is not just another fire- say probably, when you get away from powder and the lifting powder are all cracker. For one thing, its wholesale the basic shell, anything that's of a special manufactured by Alan and his people, price is $42 for a version 6 inches in nature comes from the imagination. ... using some ingenious homemade equip diameter, plus 10 percent for packing. It's just a matter of putting all these com- ment. "When I started, I'd never seen a Then there's the artistry behind it. "This ponents into a shell and breaking the firecracker in my life. I thought I was the is where the ego comes in," Alan says. thing the way you want it to break." smartest man in the world," Alan says, "It's just like a cook-a good cook. Jim breaks in: "Anybody can buy grinning. "Really, though, I think that's one reason we've got a jump on the industry out here in the boondocks-not knowing how they did it the old way. I had my own way, and it just so happened that it turned out to be a pretty good way, and a less expensive way. And we've been able to compete and have a good Ahn Johnmn, the guiding &ht product." ofAer&xCorp. OfJmninggs, dijpkygs an 8-inch Japnepse- Not all Aerlex shells are simple 3- typp baUsheL A& jfortunes inchers. In fact, the company's price list am shooting ar hih as its is some eight pages long. "The first cou- prrducts: &&I climbed 95 pprrent in 1984. ple of pages would cover what most fire- works companies actually make them- selves," Alan says. It's the last page that's the show stopper, listing everydung from dery report shells to multiple-breaking shells (basically, shells within shells) to exotically named specialty shells like "Psycho" and "Golden Octopus." But none of them can hold a Roman candle to the "Extra Special Shell of Shells." "It's something I cooked up," Alan says. "When I have a new shell to show off, I've got preferred customers, people that I would want to have these shells. (Jim's number one on the list. I can prove that because it's writ- ten down someplace.) We do sell more than we can make, but Jim was the first one to get one.'' He goes on to deacribe what Jim got: "It breaks into an octopus-multiple- tentacled arms, each arm then again exploding into multiple tentacles. Then what we've done is we've added stuff to this shell, so when this is going on, component parts. You can buy stars, you says. "I love them both, because ground can buy the black powder and the burst- pieces are one of our strengths. We have ing charge and the fuse and make a shell. special ground pieces we'll make a lot of But when you get to the creative part, the times for the event or, say, for the 100th artistry of a special shell, that takes some- anniversary of such and such. Or if you thing way above and beyond. ..." have a logo, or a cartouche of a country Alan returns the compliments: "Grant- club, we can make that for you." ed, the manufacturing is important and "Jim probably does as much ground you've got to have good merchandise, but work as the rest of my customers put it's all wasted if you have someone who together," Alan says. "This is where takes it out of here and puts it together in some of his real creativity comes in." such a way that people don't enjoy it. It's Then there's the creative act of actu- like buying a pink Cadillac and then ally shooting a show, the timing and the running it over these country roads and sheer energy it takes to build it literally never washing it. It's the same situation. from the ground up. It's obviously a mat- That's where Jim's talent comes in." ter of personal style. Alan, for instance, The Burnett family is in the business tends to start with a high shell, then build of bidding on fireworks shows. What down from it. Jim works from the opp that means is that they contact, or are site direction. Here's his description of contacted by, a group or a town that the method and touch of madness that wants a show. They agree on a basic goes into a fireworks show: budget; a "normal-sized" show should "My concept of a standard fireworks cost around 83,000-and last around 25 display, and I think Alan would concur, minutes. Then the company either simply is I like to get people's attention right at supplies the shells and detailed instruc- A h St11/rye w5h ry& ~heb.Below. Gmg the first-in other words, a massive fusil- tions on how to handle and shoot them, Fa&, Npzpxmth, digJ for mortar$, the steeIp$e~ lade of cannon reports, heavy aerial or supplies a turnkey operation, complete UJpd tojreshb; thy rem7about fie a bazwh. bomb salutes [he supplies appropriate with the shooting crew, insurance-and sound effects] to shock everybody into music, if it's in the budget. Sometimes 'Hey, the fireworks have started. All Jim shoots a show; Alan shoots for him right. ..attention!' occasionally; so does Jim's brother, the "Then you go into the normal pattern Garfield County sheriff. Jim also hires a or routine flow of the display, and I like number of subconvactors who put to- to build a fireworks display from the gether their own crews, ofteq &$-school ground up-a graduation in size and boys who soon vow they'll never blow effect of the shells. I like all the small money on firecrackers again. shells fired at the first of the program. The company shoots about 150 shows . . .The shells are getting much larger, each year, not counting the ones they more spectacular. And then, right at the simply supply. These cluster heavily end, then's when you knock the sky out. around the 4th of July, though they've And I don't want a dry pair of britches in also shot for bank openings, winter the house. ...I want to knock their socks shows at ski lodges, New Year's Eve off. In essence, that's what people remem- parties. .. . ber in a fireworks display-the finale." Though the mass of any show is in the It sounds a little like being a sym- air, because that's what the crowds phony conductor-and Jim likes the expect, Jim specializes in what the indus- analogy: "You have to feel it, especially try calls "ground pieces "-offering more in a musically choreographed produc- than 100 different designs to choose tion, a pyro-musical, or whatever you from, including cartoon characters and want to call it." the ever-popular American flag and "You want to take a bow when it's Statue of Liberty. over," Alan adds. "Alan, of course, loves aerials," Jim "You do," Jim says. "Alan, I don't

Oklahoma TODAY know if you've ever noticed me, but I go Inxwtm LmtodFw MAndftRqf crazy at the finale, because I build myself &&W,Fort M Lsrarl'a St* #JS up at the same time I build the crowd fiL~atrroon.miiA'3 *; . because of all the adrenalin that's pushed fidat &ti& &+ $1.36 cii&b into my system. I know when the show's u&JOfiw. going off well. I can feel the crowd, and I MW* 16th AndBean SuP9pr. can hear them screaming. And when Cud ParR, % M north of8H 152 o# that finale goes off, oh Lord. . . .I scream Mua~aagM J44. Su&er at 5:s at the top of my lungs. It's just a charge. jiz&wd$f;...M.k..Ga&*ara^ I can't help it. It's great." A ck~-lira baKnR Q Opm W& sncp &sI $954 cMrtrt $250, 'i&oibPrt+Ks this w~y:‘*That^ & lbtra 4th ofJ.3, Cpbbrah'on, Ew Alan shakes his head, laughing. "You theAurom~,wujmucAmotp~tard Pa~L.Opeffsat2p.nr,c~5a~s wouldn't be in this business if you didn't &~krrJ ahays a&a$mcm FirpsewRr at &rRRT/rebest Ipftfk.them my& wyeu ' love it; we're alla little crazy over it." Jim Rnorpr whtJlgr um@g to -r,"W~ea"J FextidP-ar.4, nod &tk23d adds: add#&-*~s# 1 "Once it gets into your system, it's OkLh5q$4!& %tsded. PaP.RatfB&dW* &&&. hard to get out. And if you have any ELkm Ju& &rth F&-* J.3, 44. clkrmdhk C- Ywht CIU6, .child or youth in you at all, 1think fire- Pard, dm,c&--andM on Lkk Ctrel,July 6. Cowte by boat or stay works are bound to bring it out.'' tj~ tk 4th at GYUS WatrpLdShzdipn, on ahon,; thh o+wt-thm&rshuw zi .Em Boctviett dsAat

Jim Atgo haphotogrphfw the Okhhoma PubIrShing Co.; GteLester JOM is Oklahoma TODAY'S mnagritg edioc Jim Burnett /ite&grpre, up around thff;RtWrh~U&~JJ. T+ Aisfamily 5 m~nyshoots abut I50 sha I yar-and+d. in '~pk~"dked).rg&w+ OY Oby. Adventures in Story and photographs by Steve Wilson

he young boys, looking for adventure, anxiously I ' approached the log fort rising from the bald prairie. Unaccustomed to frontier life, they thought it was unlike anythmg they had seen. Pointed logs 12 feet high formed a fortification 100 feet square. Two-story blockhouses rose from each comer. Old Glory waved from a flagpole. It had not 50, but 26 stars. The boys walked through the huge half-log gates I mounted with massive hinges and ambled into the trader's cabin, goods piled in one end and a living area in the other. Wood smoke and the scent of animal furs hung in the air. I "How ye do, boys," greeted the trader. "Ye lookin' to do some swappin', are ye?" Clad in fringed buckskin britches and jacket, red flannel shirt, black silk neck scarf and moccasins, the trader had long auburn hair that hung beneath his bow-crowned black fur felt hat with clay pipe stuck in its broad brim. His luxuriant, drooping mustache and sideburns showed he had not seen civilizahn in many months. A mite fearsome looking, the boys thought as they eyed his flintlock belt pistol tucked in his trousers, ready for drawing. A sheathed six-inch Green River butchering knife hugged his back. A long quirt hung from his wrist, a shooting bag and powder horn at his side. A beaded poke bag hung from his belt, carrying his flint and steel. I He looked at the boys through his oval, iron-rimmed glasses. "I'll give ye $2 fer a buffler robe," he said. "See them beaver scent glands hangin' from the rafter? You'll need those to trap beaver in the winter. Can't do it in the summer, you know. You skin 'em and stretch 'em out. I'll give ye a dollar fer 'em.How many critters you got? None! Ain't that amazin'." Wide-eyed, the boys looked around the dimly lit cabin. Spread over the wooden plank counter were the trader's wares: a woolly buffalo robe, beaver skins, bright red English blanket, St. Louis bar lead, beaver trap and small wooden barrel of drinking water. A colorful array of trade beads hung from a rafter above the trader's head. Behind him glowed red embers in a stone fireplace,keeping a blackened tin coffee pot sizzling. Roughat shelves sported more trade goods looking glasses or small mirrors, flint strikers (for making fire), red, blue and green heavy woolen cloth, gaudy flowered calico, tin cup and plates, beeswax, horn combs and hardtack. There were 10-pound canvas sacks of salt from Philadelphia, five-gallon hls

The Mmrn of the &at PLiirr'he~tunture is an authentk dgpart,&&wd to ~uminatea hhhb fronth of ORBhhir-the SouthPlhrirr fur wad ofthe 26% and VOI.

40 Oklahoma TOG the Fur Trade of molasses and superfine flour, 25- skinner," the trader replied. "Pay grounds of the Museum of the Great pund crates of hard water crackers and generally averages 25 cents a day. They Plains in Lawton's Elmer Thomas fivepound sacks of coffee from New do all the skinnin' and cookin'. You got Park. The stockade of 1,000 hand- Orleans and sugar from Havana. And a good rifle? Nope! There's your first peeled pine logs was built much like brass, iron and tin nesting kettles, horn year wages. Got a saddle mule? Nopel those that stood on Red River 150 years cups and twist, plug or carrot tobacco. There goes two year's wages. Looks like ago, when that stream and its tributaries There were powder horns, shooting you're workin' for free for the next teemed with beaver, otter and black bags and skinning, ripping and three years, pardner!" bear, deer and buffalo roamed the butchering knives. Northwest muzzle- "Can't you make any more than prairies by the millions and nomadic loading trade guns lined a rack. Gun that?" the boys pleaded. Indians came to bar. flints, 25-pound bags of lead shot, red "Well now, a trader The trader here is Dan clay and kaolin pipes, pipe tomahawks, gits $500. He does all the Muldoon, who looks, acts grosgrain ribbons, wool felt hats, huntin', trappin' and and lives the part of those hickory ramrods, wooden and horn tradin'. A trader and enterprising young men spoons, bone tooth brushes, tallow interpreter might git nigh who penetrated the candle lanterns, brass tobacco boxes on to $1,000 a year, but uncharted headwaters of complete with burning lenses to light ye got to be right smart Red River seeking their your pipe, even vermilion from China. fer that." fortune in the fur trade, A small faded calendar nailed to a log bore the month of February 1837. "The Indians bring me these buffler robes," the trader went on. "I give $2 me out here," the trader q apiece fer 'em. Ye can roll up in one of the closest town be Ft. Smith. Takes these and be powerful warm. I'd trade two weeks and 200 miles two or three buffler robes fer a blanket. think ye want to hire on? I don't give no credit. Ye got gold? Ye boys, look your mom square in the eye, At the museum's fort, Muldoon re- know if we ain't got it, ye don't need it. And if we ain't got it, ye ain't gonna git it." "How much you pay for help out here?" queried one youngster. typical of what visitors "Out here, ye git $100 a year as a at the Red River Tra

The part >jiui'-timtrader, anMuhim (nght),LWJ, traaii, Rick Bauman, who eam~his fix h2n~kngto in the spring of 1833 to establish a trading post on upper Red River. A native Tennessean, Coffee at 26 was bound where few white men had gone before. Near the confluence of the North Fork of Red River and the mainstream in what is now southwestern Tillman County, Coffee's men built a fortified trading post, oddly r enough near the ruins of a former cabin

42 Oklahoma TODAY The pftj stork ad^, fa~hionedfrom /,MIhad-pekdpiw /qp,is rnodekd on the ombuilt by "CoL "Ho/kzd C4f.e and 0thint~ppd tradm.

May 1835 a Waco chief arrived in and agreed to parley at Ft. Gibson. opportunity to move upstream to Nacogdoches, Texas, to report that the In March 1836-the month the Walnut Bayou, where he spent the next Wichitas, Comanches and other tribes Alamo fell-the Arkamas Gazttte nine years as a trader among the wild had been assembled by an American on reported that Coffee and several of his tribes. W. J. Weaver of Ft. Smith Red River to make war against the men were murdered by the Comanches. visited Warren's Trading Post in 1842 Mexicans. The American possessed a The Indians insisted Coffee remove his , and described it as a "fortification of large supply of ammunition and was trading establishment, the story ran, and high palisades with a tower at each considered a witch doctor. when he and his men rode out to meet corner surmounted with a field gun." None other than the famous James them, the traders were killed. The story Life at the post was consumed in Bowie confirmed the story and reported proved to be false. Coffee wrote that he trade with the Kiowas, Wichitas, that the Wacos, Tawakonis, Wichitas also had a trading camp Tonkawas, Caddoes and and Comanches had assembled near 50 miles west (perhaps on Delawares. At that time Coffee's Trading House and that Coffee Cache Creek). eight white men and four had urged them to kill the Mexicans In 1837 Coffee moved Delawares lived in the and bring him their horses and mules. to the south side of Red garrison. Great hordes of Such is the mystery hovering over River, and opposite the buffalo often passed the Coffee's early trading activities. He built mouth of the Washita fort, and on one occasion other fortified posts on Red River, and River at Preston Bend, it required three days in 1835 he moved downstream to the he built a stockade. That before they were gone. mouth of Walnut Bayou in present year, too, he served as the first elected Weaver described trading with the Love County. representative from Fannin County in Comanches. Several hundred arrived Paul Liquest Chouteau, brother of the the Republic of Texas. Coffee's Walnut and camped with their buffalo-skin famous trader Auguste Pierre Chouteau, Bayou post was probably sold to Abel lodges nearby. The fort's gates were was commissioned to find the Kiowas to Warren, who left his Massachusetts closed, and three or four warriors at a offer them a treaty. Chouteau visited home in 1835 at the age of 21 to make time were admitted after leaving their Coffee's post in December 1835 and his fortune in the Southwest. The next weapons outside. The Comanches learned that Coffee had just returned year Warren built his stockade near the brought dressed buffalo robes, dressed from his own search for them. mouth of Choctaw Bayou in present and raw deerskins, buffalo tongues, Chouteau traveled upstream to Cache northwest Fannin County. beeswax, even Mexican silver dollars Creek, where Comanche chiefs visited When Coffee moved to Preston obtained from raids southward. him. Finally, the Kiowa chiefs came Bend, it no doubt afforded Warren the In turn, the Indians bartered for rea

July-August '85 43 Warren and his bride later settled near

Coffee and Warren and the trappers new trails up the Red River hinterlands, serving as meditators between encroaching whites and

For the most part, the fur trade along the Red River-unlike that of the Rockies-is an untold story. Today, a

adventure lives on in the recreation of the fur trapper and trader and the roles they played in the exploration and settlement of both sides of the Red gI)]

Stew Wihis the curator of the Mwrn ofthe Great Pbim in Lawton.

Riw teemed mth bem, otter and and blue blankets, cloth, colorful a ten-foot-square clapboard house gingham handkerchiefs, hoop iron (to surrounded by a stockade 100 feet make arrowpoints), glass- beads, brass square. wire, vermilion, calico and wampum In 1840 the Texas Road was blazed to AdvPntures in thefur trade abound at the Preston Bend from central Texas. In beads. After the Comanches left, the new Red Riw Trading Post a the ground traders learned they had three white five years the town of Preston grew up of lawton jMuseum ofthe Great Pbim. captives. Weaver remembered they were nearby. In 1842 Ft. Washita was Living hi~totyprograms at the tfue-tO-h$' later rescued. established 15 miles north in Indian post, located in Elmer Thomas Park, 601 No one knows just how many white Territory. Coffee prospered, amassed a Ferns, are peopkd wzth interpmters who fill captives Coffee, who spoke seven native 6,000-acre plantation and numerous the roles of the tradprs, ebbs, huntm and dialects, and his men ransomed from the slaves and built a two-story mansion rraftmn who mad the hohdsettkments Indians. In 1837 Silas Colville wrote called Glen Eden. But disputes brought th& homes. that he and Coffee had ransomed a untimelv ends. In adaitibn to the regubr denizpfu, +rial white woman, child and two boys taken ~ohnHart was killed by Silas Colville re-enartment groups wit'/ portray qone on a raid in Texas. The Texian congress in 1841. Colville was killed in 1844 by from buffalo hunters and drag- to a read /iw rendmwus ofthe Southern Pbins fur an unknown assailant. In May 1846 twice reimbursed Coffee for expenses in traa'e ofthe 1830s and 1840s. ransoming white captives, paying him Coffee was killed in a knife fight with The Red fir Trading Post rj open $691 in 1837 and $661 in 1839. Charles Galloway. That year, too, Abel thmughout the year, Wednesaby through In February 1839 Coffee married the Warren left his post at Walnut Bayou to Sudy. For &te~and times of @ria/ beautiful Sophia Suttenfield, 23, at return to Massachusetts to marry his program, contart the museum, P. 0. Box 68, Washington, Texas, and they rode 600 childhood sweetheart. There a letter lawton, OK 73502; (405) 353-5675. miles to Nacogdoches and "Coffee's reached him that the fellow he had left Fort" at Preston Bend. Their home was in charge had sold out and disappeared.

44 Oklahoma TODAY ITS I

choice. The judges, on the other hand, are Today, the three towns, and on occasion hidden away backstage, where they see Stroud, Canada, are still at it. "Our" Stroud Just when you think you can't possibly nothing, and hear only the strains of the holds its preliminaries on July 4th; anyone endure an Oklahoma heatwave one more piped-in music. On Saturday, the judges pick living within a SO-mile radius of Stroud is minute, someone sets a watermelon cooling the top 10 in the World Series to compete in eligible to compete. The top competitors in a tub of slushy ice water, and you the finals on Sunday afternoon. make UD the international team that wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Several Prize money starts at $1,000 for the competes with the other Strouds, at 7 p.m., Oklahoma towns pay homage to this winner of the World Series. Even spectators July 20, at the Stroud High School Football summertime tradition with hometown are eligible for a prize-a drawing will be Field. watermelon festivals. held for a complete outfit, including There is no admission fee for spectators. The Rush Springs Watermelon Festival is Hungarian fiddle, bow and case. For more information, contact the Stroud scheduled for August- 10th. Events will Tickets for the event are $6 a day, or $20 Chamber of Commerce at (918) 968-3321. include watermelon judging, with the for a fourday ticket. There is no fee for biggest melon of each variety being auctioned off, and the crowning of a festival queen. A carnival will be in town, music will "Would you like to fly in my beautiful be played all day, and at 7 p.m. more than balloon?" will be the theme song in Norman 40,000 pounds of the juicy fruit will be given August 24-25 when the great Oklahoma away. Balloon Race and Air Show takes to the The Rush Springs festival will take place skies. in Jeff Davis Park on the east edge of town, The balloons will take off in a mass and will run from 10 a.m. to around 9 or 10 ascension Friday evening, August 23. p.m. For more information, contact Mr. Saturday morning, the real competition gets Bernard at (405) 476-391 1. underway around 7 a.m. Events will include Bixby's Watermelon Festival will be a key grab, where balloonists try to pluck a August 24th at the Riverside Community set of car keys from the top of a 20-foot pole, Park. The world's largest watermelon will and a target drop, where balloonists attempt be displayed, and live country music will be to drop a beanbag onto a target marked on played throughout the day. Contests will the field. range from the Little Miss Bixby pageant to Another event is the hare and hound race, an "ugly grandpa" contest-and a where a designated "lead" balloon sets a watermelon-seed-spitting contest, a pattern, and the other balloonists do their watermelon toss and a watermelon eating best to follow. Sunday morning there will be contest. Events will begin at 10 a.m. and end another mass ascension; an air show will around 5 p.m. For more information, take place both afternoons. contact the Bixby Chamber of Commerce at The admission fee is $10 per car until (918) 366-9445. noon, $15 per car from noon until night. The tiny town of Terral, just a few miles camping in the park, but there is a small Tents will be set up to provide some shade, north of the Texas border, will host a charge for electricity. For more information, but you might want to bring along a lawn Watermelon Jubilee on July 27th. For more contact Philip Slowey at Slowey Violin in chair. Westheimer Field is located on information, contac? Frank Martin at Midwest City, (405) 732-3964. Robinson about a mile east of 1-35. For more (405)437-2391. information, contact the Norman Chamber

------of Commerce at (405) 321-7260. Fiddling World Series a ~ancl BYKim Williams Many Oklahomans may not realize it, but For a world series of a different sort, head for the last 26 years, Stroud has hosted a out to Powderhorn Park in Langley for the world-class competition. The big event, Next Issue: Stalk the favorite fall 7th Annual World Series of Fiddling, known as the International Brick and wildflowers of Oklahoma's resident expert August 29 to September 1. Rolling Pin Contest, is scheduled this year on roadside flora, Dr. Doyle McCoy. Visit The weekend of fancy fiddling starts off for July 20. the studio of artist Charles Banks Wilson, Thursday around 2 p.m. when the first of The event was started in 1960 when who's managed to become famous eight different bands takes to the stage. The Stroud, USA, and Stroud, England, decided worldwid-without budging from Miami's music goes on into the night, then picks up to engage in a friendly competition. Brick- Main Street. Go along for a Halloween trail again the next day. throwing was chosen as the event, since both ride at the Allen ranch, near Bixby. And hit At noon Saturday, the World Series gets towns had brick companies at the time. Two the Oklahoma road with Kathryn Jenson underway. The audience, which represented years later, in 1962, Stroud, Australia, joined White on a search for the Southwest's 16 states last year, gets to watch each fiddler in, but added the rolling-pin throw for culinary Holy Grail-the perfect chicken- perform three tunes in the competition-a women, since the Aussies have a rolling-pin fried steak. All in the September-October breakdown, a waltz and a tune of his or her factory in "their" Stroud. issue of ORbAoma TODAY. X ART EXHIBITS -- - JULY 1-15 "Religious Ceremonies of North American Indians," 14 "Irene," Lyric Theatre, OCU, OKC Galleria, Norman 1-20 "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," Gaslight Dinne 1-26 "China Images," Photography Hall of Fame, Kirk- Theatre, Tulsa patrick Center, OKC 1-31 Jack Davis (painter), Robert Maker (sculptor), Kirk- AUGUST 1-Aug. 24 "Trail of Tears," Tsa-La-Gi, Tahlequah patrick Center, OKC 1-Aug. 24 "Oklahoma!", Discoveryland!, Tulsa 1-31 "We Too Sing America," Kirkpatrick Center, OKC 4-7, 10-13 "You Can't Take It With You," Stage Center, OK( 1-Aug. 31 Summer Sales Exhibition 111, Southern Plains Indian 5-8 "Yankee Doodle Dandy," SOSU Little Theatre Museum, Anadarko Durant 1-Aug. 31 Exhibition of Permanent Collection, Five Civilized Oklahoma Shakespearan Festival, SOSU, Durant Tribes Museum, Muskogee Tulsa Shakespeare Festival, Philbrook Art Centel 1-Aug. 4 "Spiro Mounds," Travertine Nature Center, Sulphur Tulsa 1Sept. 15 "One Hundred Views Along the Road: The Water- "On the 20th Century," Lyric Theatre, OCU, OK( colors of Alfred Leslie," Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa "Androcles & the Lion" and "Cinderella," Camero~ 44 Americana Showcw,The Bear Gallery, Monkey Island, University Theatre, Lawton Grand Lake "Little Me," Lyric Theatre, OCU, OKC 6-28 Traditional Cherokee Pottery of Anna Mitchell, Chem kee National Museum, Tahlequah 7-Aug. 11 "Artists of the Dustbowl," OK Art Center, OKC 7-Aug. 25 Pioneer Women Exhibit, Museum of the Great Plains, FAIRS P FESTIVALS Lawton 9-Aug. 25 "Theodore Earle Butler: Emergence From Monet's Shadow," OK Museum of Art, OKC JULY Cherokee Square Arts & Crafts Fair, Town Square 12-14 National Woodcarving Show, Southroads Mall, Tulsa Tahlequah (weekends) 16Sept. 1 Art of P. S. Gordon, Philbrook Museum, Tulsa Huckleberry Festival, Jay 27-Aug. 31 "Treasures of the Old West," Gilcrease Museum, Heritage Days, Fairgrounds, El Reno Tulsa Santa Fe Days Celebration, Shawnee Peach Festival & Rodeo, Stratford Cookson Hills Jubi, Cookson AUGUST 1-8 "Spiro Mounds," Ft. Sill Museum, Lawton Striped Bass Festival, Mannford 1Sept. 12 Weavers Association Exhibit, Kirkpatrick Center, Ketchum Days, Ketchum OKC Watermelon Jubilee, Terra1 1Sept. 15 "Historic Events in Tribal Life," Galleria, Norman Summerfest '85, Henryetta 5-23 Outdoor Display of Painted Tipis, Southern Plains Indian Museum, Anadarko AUGUST 2-3 Peach Festival, Porter 10-1 1 Special Masters Show, The Bear Gallery, Monkey 3 Lake Fest, Langley Island, Grand Lake 6-10 84th Birthday Celebration, Lawton 12 Dedication Ceremonies of Portrait of Chief Stand 10 Watermelon Festival, Rush Springs Watie, National Hall of Fame for Famous American 17 Watermelon Festival, Riverside Park, Bixby Indians, Anadarko 22-24 Oilfield Days Celebration, Healdton "Through the Looking Glass," Travertine Nature 23-24 Old Timers Day Celebration, Choctaw Center, Sulphur 23-24 Sapulpa Fest, Downtown Sapulpa American Watercolor Exhibit, Charles B. Goddard 29Sept. 2 The Great Labor Day WeekendIKRMG Raft Race Center, Ardmore River City Park, Sand Springs "Nathan Oliveira, A Survey Exhibition 1957-1983," Choctaw Labor Day Festival, Clayton, Tuskahoma OU Museum of Art, Norman Eastern OK Labor Day Celebration, Henryetta

Oklahoma TODA) 31-Sept. 1 Cherokee National Holiday, Tahlequah Bob Crosby Memorial Rodeo, Chelsea 31Sept. 2 Arts Festivzl nK, OKC Community College, OKC Rodeo, Rodeo Grounds, Waynoka Sac & Fox All-Indian Rodeo, Tribal Arena, Stroud Elks Rodeo, Crystal Beach Park, Woodward Rodeo, Rodeo Arena, Walters OK Paint Horse Show, State Fairgrounds, OKC - IPRA Rodeo, Atoka JULY 3-6 Bluegrass& Gospel Music Festival, Powderhorn Park, Round-up Club Rodeo, Rodeo Grounds, Stigler Langley Prague Open Rodeo, Round-up Club Arena, Prague 4 American Salute featuring OK Synfonia, Boulder Park, Rodeo, Rodeo Arena, Canton Tulsa 5-6,12-13 AUGUST 1-3 IPRA Rodeo, Heavener 19-20,26-27 Eddie and the Ecclectin, Brook Theatre, Tulsa 5-10 American Junior Quarter Horse h.National Cham- 7,14,21,28 Sunday Twilight Concerts, Kerr Park, OKC pionships, Expo Square, Tulsa PRCA Rodeo, Ken Lance Sports Arena, Stonewall AUGUST 3 OK All Night Singing, Veterans' Park, Konawa PRCA Rodeo, Lawton 4,11,18,25 Sunday Twilight Concerts, Mt. St. Mary's School, PRCA Rodeo, Ada OKC 101 Ranch Rodeo, 101 Ranch Rodeo Grounds, Ponca 7-11 Grant's Blue Grass Festival, Salt Creek Park, Hugo City 9-10, 16-17, IPRA Rodeo, Bristow 23-24,30-31 Joyce Martel Revue, Brook Theatre, Tulsa Rodeo, John Rhodes Park, Freedom 16-17 All-Night Gospel Singing, City Park, Seminole OK Paint Horse Club Show, Meeker 29Sept. 1 World Series of Fiddling, Powderhorn Park, Langley Will Rogers Memorial Rodeo, Vinita 31 Up With People, SWOSU, Weatherford IRA Rodeo, Cushing IPRA World Championship Rodeo, Healdton 1985 National Dressage Finals, Fairgrounds, OKC INDIAN EVENTS OK State Prison Rodeo, OK State Penitentiary, McAlester

Quapaw Powwow, Beaver Springs Park, Quapaw Pawnee lndian Homecoming & Powwow, Fair- grounds, Pawnee Tonkawa Tribal Powwow, Tonkawa Sac & Fox Tribal Celebration, Tribal Grounds, Stroud JULY 1-14 U.S. Parachute Finals, Davis Field, Muskogee Otoe-Missouria Powwow. Red Rock 1Sept. 21 "Summer Nights," Kirkpatrick Planetarium, OKC Tulsa Powwow, Mohawk Park, Tulsa I-Dec. 2 "Return of Halley's Comet," Kirkpatrick Planetar- Comanche Homecoming Powwow, Walters ium, OKC Indian Hills Powwow, 8300 N. Sooner Rd., OKC 4 Paseo Regatta Adult Soap Box Derby, OKC 4 Fourth of July Celebrations: Ada, Altus, Bethany, AUGUST 2-3 Choctaw Indian Festival, Talihina, Tuskahorna Chandler, Chelsea, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Collinsville, 24 Kaw Tribal Powwow, Kaw City Edmond, Fort Sill, Guthrie, Lindsay, Marlow, Moore, 9-1 1 Kihekah Steh Powwow, Skiatook Mustang, Nowata, OKC, Pauls Valley, Pryor, Sand 12-17 American Indian Expition, Anadarko Springs, Sentinel, Stillwater, Tulsa, Weatherford & all 23-25 Inter-tribal Indian Club Powwow, Expo Square, Tulsa state resorts. 30Sept. 2 Eufaula Indian Club Powwow, Eufaula 6 Fireworks Display, Cherokee Yacht Club, Grand 30-Sept. 1 Ottawa Indian Powwow, Beaver Springs Park, Lake, Ketchum Quapaw 13 '85 Grand Prix, Lake Draper Park, OKC 13-Aug. 25 "Colors of the Chemist," Kirkpatrick Center, OKC RODEOS & 20 Annual Sandcastle Contest, 56th & Riverside, Tulsa HORSE EVENTS 20 ~nck& Rolling Pin Throwing Contest, Stroud 27 98th Birthday Celebration, Ardmore AUGUST 24 OK Deer Hunters Jamboree, Expo Square, Tulsa Summer Circuit Quarrcr Horse Show, Expo Square, 3 Classic Antique & Street Car Show, Mangum Tulsa 4-11 Yamaha NMA National Championship Moto-Cross 4th of July Rodeo, Fairgrounds, Eufaula Races, Ponca City Kiwanis Club Rodeo, Rodeo Grounds, Hinton 10 '85 Grand Prix, Arrowhead State Park, McAlester Windbreak Charity Horse Show, State Fairgrounds, 13-14 Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, Convention OKC Center, Tulsa Black Gold Futurity, 350 Yard Division, Blue Ribbon 15 Will Rogers Memorial Service, Wi Rogers Memo- Downs, Sallisaw rial, Claremore National Junior Angus Show, Expo Square, Tulsa 18-19 Great OK Balloon Race & Air Show, Westheimer Greater Oklahoma HunterIJumper Horse Show, State Field, Norman Fairgrounds, OKC 23-25 Greater OK Thunderboat Classic, Lake Overholser, IPRA Rodeo, Wynnewood OKC Mounties Rodeo & Pioneer Day, Mangum 31 Chili Cook Off & Frontier Days Rodeo, Eagle Park, Indian Territory Round-up Club Rodeo, Purcell Cache July-August '85