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Oklahoma Today Fall 1982 Volume 32 No. 4

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Oklahoma Today Fall 1982 Volume 32 No. 4 .+'4 . TheRomanceof Riding I( , OkSahoma9s River Road -*?;:.-'*;,,&@ "- T-.-ll",-J..' .i**.: .+ / :,.;.E&'- 2 A,,:-4.4. ... ki+ I,-,$,.' Trailing Oklahoma's River Highway by Kathleen Kunz 1 Editor The Chouteau Trail gives riders a rare glimpse of the barges and beauty , Kate Jones, along the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation Channel. 4 ' Assistant Editor Paul Lefebvre, : Art and Production It'll be a Hot Time in Tulsa Town Kev~nNorman, Circulation Development by Susan Everly-Douze Chiliheads from all over will gather in Tulsa this September to find out Tourism and Recreation Commission who cooks up the best bowl of red. 8 Jim Pate, Chairman W.R. "Dick" Stubbs. Pecans: Fall's Rich Brown Treasure Vice Chairman by John Davis Celia Rosenberger, Every autumn Oklahomans go treasure-hunting for those kernals of Secretary Rilla Wilcox goodness called pecans. 14 James Durham Bob Hinton I R.A. "Bob" Hodder Picture Palaces Jarrell L. Jennings by Joye Boulton Dedicated volunteers have rung the curtains up again on two of the , Published quarterly by the Oklahom state's historic movie houses. 1 Tourism and Recreation Depattmen 18 Abe L. Hesser. i Executive Director The Sociable Sport of Volksmarching Eugene Dilbeck, by Sheila Samples Marketing Services Ken Flaming, WhatS a volksmarch?An organized stroll with your family - and a few Lodges thousand friends. 22 Chuck Woolsey, Administration ,Tom Creider, Hunting for "The Great Dog" , Planning & Development by G. Del Hollingsworth 'N. Clay McDermeit, Parks ,. They're called field trials, and they're to hunting dogs what competitive sports are to human athletes. 26 Oklahoma Today subscription prices: $7 per year in the U.S.; $1 1 overseas. $1.75 single copy. i Copyright 1982 by Oklahoma Today rnagazpe. A Quartet of Oklahoma Craftsmen 21 5 N.E.28th Street, P.O. Box 53384, Oklahoma by Kate Jones City, OK 73152 405/521-2496 Second-class stage paidat Oklahoma City USNN0030 18921 The Smithsonian's folk-life fettival is over: But all the talent and tradition that went to Washington have come back home to stay 30 Today in Oklahoma 36 ' COMING IN THE WIWINTER ISSUE Take a ride Books in Review 37 back to theearly days of railroading at Cushing's I' Cimarron Wley Railroad Museum, and learn how Entertainment Calendar 38 1 msny OkWorna mmrnunities haveturnedaban- "oned stations into shawptaces 03 their pasts. Browse through the masure troves of the Unl- COVERS: Front. Horse and rider are dramatically silhouetted against the sheen of ! versity of OklahornaXsWestern History Collections the Verdigris River. Photo by Wes Paz. Inside front. A Blaine County road ambles 1 -then don your boots and Stetson for some past an autumn-burnished maple. Photo by Paul Lefebvre. Back For many Okla- i fancy dancing country and wesfern style. All in homans, fall means fishing time. This angler is trying his luck from the dam of Quanah the Winter issue of Oklahoma Today Parker Lake in the Wichita Mts. Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Fred Marvel. AUTUMN 1982 THREE - - "Let's ride!" conws the is soon strung out, two abreast, riding north from Afton Landing. We're head- ing into an afternoon to remember: sights, sounds and smells guaranteed to pleasurc the senses, beginning with ankle-deep clouds of sweet clover. With an eye toward staging a future saddle club ride there, we are off to explore a stretch of the Jean Pierre ('houteau Hiking Trail. One of the more recent additions to the outdoor recreation scene in Oklahoma, this trail follows the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation Channel. From a starting point near the Port of ('atoosa at Tulsa, it is laid out on the northeast shore of the channel as far as Fort Gibson, a distance of al- most 70 miles. Except for the middle section between Afton Landing south to ('houteau Lock No. 17, it is now open for equestrian use. According to Bob Smith, park ranger in the area, a popular outing BY Kathleen Kunz for horsemen is to ride from the back photosby wespaz of Chouteau Dam down to Fort Gib- Kathleen Kunr is a Norman free lance writer 'On for lunch, then back up the dam Wes Par IS a photographer for the Mu~koyppPI~OPI-IXri,ii( 71n7~-DPI~'i i' before dinner. But it is late of a Satur- nKLAHOMA TODAY Opposite page. Bob and Ann Kuykendall and their champion stallions head up a trail of Tennessee Walkers and their riders along the canal's shore. Right. Sandy Haston (above1 and Shelba James commune with their mounts. Below. At trail's end, a well- deserved shower. day and some of us are tired from a field equipment. A total of horse show at Bixby; we simply want 1,851,220 tons was carried to relax and appreciate all the trail on the waterway in 1981 alone. has to offer. Guessing at the barges' contents- Leaving our vans behind in the des- and waving at the men who man ignated area north of the campground, them-are two of the pleasures of the we move under towering pecan trees, trail. (For those who would like to some of them more than 200 years learn more about the workings and old. In the fall, Smith notes, all the history of the waterway, a visit to the nuts on public lands are free for the recently opened Arkansas Waterway taking so long as patrons don't resort Museum at the Port of Ca- to frailing (tying a rope around a toosa is an enjoyable finale tree to shake its branches). Reason to a hike.) enough for a trip, but he adds that the For now, the sole activ- autumn colors along the waterway ity at water's edge is an ob- are an even better reason for coming. vious father-and-son team For us, shade is all we need from of fishermen who, like the them before the path narrows as we bargemen, wave back in skirt fenced farmland. Cattle grazing greeting. The Verdigris is across the field ignore us but not the popular with catfish wild rabbits; we have disturbed their anglers, and local restau- siesta and they scatter through the rants have come to rely on fence, seeming to know they are safe the steady supply yielded ' on the other side. up from its waters. Coming around a headland on our Like fishing, a ride in , left, we catch our first glimpse of warm sunshine is heady water. Tamed and channeled by the wine for imaginations, and soon the Corps of Engineers, the Verdigris grain elevator ahead, one of several River here still bends gracefully dotting the banks, is transformed into through the rolling hills. Because to- a castle on the Rhine. But when we day's quota of barges either is already reach the shade of its tall shafts, their downstream or has reached Catoosa, down-to-earth function comforts us it is hard to imagine that placid curve more than romantic visions. I of water as part of eastern Oklahoma's Resting the horses here, we have giant step toward world commerce. time to admire the spider- But on any given day, from three wort and other wildflowers , to four barges will pass through the growing nearby and to locks on the channel, each process trade horse stories. Trail taking about half an hour, providing riders are a comradely the hiker or rider with an intriguing bunch, and this group is show. Sometimes the cargo is even no exception. more fascinating, ranging as it does Bob Kuykendall, our from a 780-ton nuclear reactor bound trail leader today, and his for Kansas to a giant staircase perched wife, Ann, rein up their on the flat deck, destined to grace a champion stallions, Good Saudi Arabian civic center. More like- Friday K and Friday's Ma- ly the football-field-sized barges con- rauder K, to detail our tain wheat or soybeans, fuel oil for course for the rest of the Eastern Seaboard factories or oil- ride. Our Tennessee Walk- AUTUMN 1982 Opposrte page Dayle James of Okmulgee leads the group across a dry streambed. ing Horses, for the most part offspring ment property as the easement along Another mile or two of broad bot- of these two studs, make ideal trail a navigation channel is often useless tomlands and breezy hilltops-it's a horses because of their easy gait and for regular parklands," Jeter explains, totally different perspective, seeing quick obedience. Bob also wants to "but the trail rescued a potentially the countryside from seven feet up in- know our opinions of the trail. useless corridor and transformed it stead of hunched beneath a backpack Dr. Ann Kent, a physician from into recreation area which almost -and we reluctantly turn our horses Muskogee, and her daughter, Sue, are everyone can enjoy." for home. Like kids on a ferris wheel, both enthusiastic. Other recognition came with the we would like to ride forever, but the "We've had to travel as far as Cedar 1980 Hike-A-Nation, a coast-to-coast horses have had a long day. Imme- Lake in the Ouachitas for a decent trip to promote backpacking, trailrid- diately, they quicken their pace slight- day's ride," Dr. Kent says. "This is ing and wilderness hiking. The plan- ly, seeming to know that home-and certainly a lot more convenient." ners completely revised their route, dinner--are thataway. Sandy Haston, new to this trail, is making a large detour so that partic- Low in the sky, the sun still glints unequivocal: "It's fantastic-I can't ipants could hike the Chouteau Trail.
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