MARCH-APRIL 1985

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A CATCH THE WIND: HANG GLIDING OFF BUFFALO MOUNTAIN =,b * KlNG OF THE BULL RIDERS FRECKLES BROWN OF SOPER. OK

Official Mwine of the State of

March-April '85 George Nigh, (ojl-8 ‘h,vernor i ZVol. 35, No. 2 b. 'Bm COVERS THE BELLES OF TAHLEQUAH At ;he end of their Trail of Tears, the Cherokees built a female seminarv that taught young women chemistry, rhetoric, Latin and mental arithmetic. . .at a time when many American girls were lucky to learn anything at all. Las Vegas may have stolen the National Finals Rodeo, but they'll never take Freckles Brown-and his legendary ride on a bull named Tornadeaway from OKLAHOMA PORTFOLIO Oklahomans. A selection of Oklahoma subjects by Tulsa photographer Phiip Radcliffe. A differe~ltway of seeing the 18 Oklahoma bills, through windows designed by JUMPING OFF THE MOUNTAIN visionary architect Bruce Goff. Just west of Talihina, Buffalo Mountain Photo by Kirk A. Smith. rears its pinecovered topa roost for the Idejvni.Azaleas, birdmen of Oklahoma. Muskogee's Honor Heights Park. Photo by Fred W. Marvel. BacR. Baby birds. 24 Photo by Kym Wilson. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GOFF No one just walks by, or through, a house designed by Bruce Goff. One visitor said DEPARTMENTS FEATURES she hadn't had so much fun since her first ride in an elevator. Another stared at his Today in Oklahoma ...... 4 Bavinger House, with its saucer-shaped BookdLetters ...... 5 THE LAST VALLEY rooms spiralling around a mast made from Uncommon Common Fdk...... 6 Take a walk on the wild side-15 miles oilwell pipe, and said, "I don't like it. But I Oklahoma Omnibus: The First Scouts ...... 23 from Tulsa, next door to a cement factory wish I did." Don't take their word for it- On to Oklahoma...... 45 and 200 donyears back in time. or ours. See for yourself. Entertainment Calendar ...... 46 memories of her school days in Indian Territory. & Some of you may wonder how pho- tographer Jim Argo managed to take that unusual hang-gliding photo on pages 18- 19.Jim mounted a camera with a 16mm, wide-angle lens on the nose of the hang glider so that the camera couldn't move. All the adjustments were predetermined. The camera was fitted with a motordrive and loaded with a 36-frame roll of film. A "sync line" (somewhat like an extension f the photograph of azaleas on the television during March. Selections from cord) with a button on the end was taped Iinside cover takes your breath away, their best shows will be featured during to a support on the glider. This allowed then you are going to want to join the Oklahoma Education Television Author- pilot David Howeth to fire the camera thousands who annually drive to Mus- ity's annual fund-raising telethon, March kogee in April to see the real thing. 9-24. You will also be able to see "The There, visitors can view more than 600 Music Man," "Becket" and Rodgers varieties of azaleas with blooms covering and Hammerstein's "The Sound of 70,000 plants. Scene of one of the South- American Music" during that period. west's largest azalea festivals, Honor Then there are the yacht races, lots of Heights Park has added 3,500 tulip bulbs country music and science shows with this year to another area. Across the way dolphins, sharks and bald eagles. It's my are 3,700 rose bushes. All are expected to favorite two weeks for television viewing. be at their peak during the festival, April The Okhhoma TODAY staff is excited 6-28. about assisting OETA with their tele- "If you haven't seen it, you just can't thon again this year. We are also work- imagine how beautiful it is," Ben Sumer- ing with OETA to develop a series of all, director of Muskogee's Parks and short programs that wdl be called, "Okla- Recreation Department, bragged. More homa Today." To be aired sometime with his right thumb. than 750,000 folks who attended in 1984 soon, these primarily will feature current Following Jim's instructions, Howeth would agree. and past stories in Okhhoma TODAY. glided through several maneuvers, press- Last year's show was somewhat affected We hope you'll find them to be informa- ing his thumb against the button occa- by the extreme winter temperatures, but tive as well as entertaining. sionally until the roll was shot. Sumerall says they are expecting an out- + Occasionally, our readers have re- The result is a head-on look at How- standing display this spring because of quested an index to Okhhoma TODAY eth banking the glider to change direc- the fall rains. articles. An index of the 1984 issues has tions, with a panoramic view of Buffalo ?+ Another sure sign of spring is the just been completed. If you would like a Mountain, where most Oklahoma hang Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts. Held copy, please write and we will be happy gliding takes place, in the background. for the past 18 years in the downtown to send it to you. We expect to have a -Sue Carter Civic Center Park, the festival has com- 5-year index to be available next January. pletely outgrown the area-in exhibit & Some time ago, Polly Nelson Han- space, parking facilities and just plain old cock mailed us her yearbook and some walking space. other long-held treasures from her school So the festival is moving a few blocks days at the Cherokee National Female south to a new, permanent, year-round Seminary. The paper was fragde, but plaza, near Stage Center (formerly the somehow it survived the U.S. postal sys- Midnight and Noonday, or the Inciden- Oklahoma Theatre Center) and the tem. After all, the yearbook was printed tal History of Southern Kansas and the Myriad Gardens. In fact, some of the prior to statehood when the seminary Indian Territory, 1871-1890, by G. D. children's activities and performing closed. It was fascinating to read about Fweman; UniwaSItyof Okhhoma PY~SJ, artists will spill over into the Stage Center young Indian children away from home 1005AspAw., Norman, OK 73019; $24.95. facilities during the festival, April 23-28. at a boarding school studying such things "G. D. Freeman was a blacksmith who W National Geographic Specials will as Latin, rhetoric and logic. Turn to page decided to write a book. He had never mark their 10th anniversary on public 34 to read more about Polly Nelson's heard the axiom that it takes just as much

4 OklahomaTODAY effort to write a bad book as a good one, Revolutionary War to 1980. This is no have been born in the Creek Indian and it never occurred to him that a black- Sundayevening read: Prucha covers com- Nation (near Okemah). smith might more than likely write a bad plex and often cantankerous goings+n I remember traveling from Paden north one. He just rolled up his sleeves and on a national scale, and you have to pay to Route 66 somewhere near Stroud to pitched in--one sentence after another, close attention or be lost in two para- watch and cheer Andy Payne running in one chapter after another, never looking graphs. The reward for attention is an the Bunion Derby in 1928. I lived in back, never blotting a line, dipping his overview of the U.S. government's actions Oklahoma through the Depression. I pen and forging on-until at last he had toward the various tribes at various times- traveled often on Route 66 until they it finished." So says editor Richard L. and the paternalism that has always been changed the name and route. Now I Lane in his introduction to this reprinted at its heart. travel by air. I came to California in 1943 memoir, first published in 1890. Prucha's 1,257 pages of text and append- to work in a defense plant and have lived For all the grand sweep of the title, the ices give swift treatment to the Trail of here since. I keep my ties with Okla- book is mainly about Caldwell, Kansas, Tears, Indian Territory, the Dawes Act homa history partly with my member- in its boom days as a cattle town, rail and allotment, the Oklahoma probate ship in the Oklahoma Historical Society. town and border town-only a few miles court scandal. .. . He also refers readers E. McMullen from the wild lands of the Indian Nations. to books that treat these areas in more Venturn California Freeman's chapter titles alone make detail-Angie Debo's AndSMthe Waters good reading. Here's just one, Chapter Run: The Betrayal of the Fhe CiwXzpd I am enclosing $10 for my '85 subscrip 25: "Indians on the Warpath-The Tribes, Grant Foreman's The Last Trek of tion and $6.95 for an '85 calendar. My Frightened Settlers Flee to Places of Safety the Indhns and Indizn Removal and Roy subscription may be early, but since I -Fortifications Built at Caldwell-Men Gittinger's The Formation of the State of discovered my beautiful home-state mag- Organized into a Force to Protect the Okhhoma. azine, 1 do not want to miss any future Town-Four Freighters Killed-The issues. Finding of Pat Hennessey's Body by I applaud the photography and arti- W. E. Malaley-The Rude Funeral." cles, which do justice to an alwaysremem- Lane says that in many ways this is just bered, beautiful and fun state! (I was born the kind of book a blacksmith wouM in 1922 in Ponca City and graduated write-"rough-hewn and gap-toothed from Ponca City High School in 1940.) and gawky." Sometimes Freeman's syn- For some reason I have found it difficult Marietta Shamn tax and references are downright puz- to get my hands on a copy of Okhhoma Santa Barbara, California zling, though Lane smooths the way TODAY. When I finally did, it seems it with his footnotes. And Freeman bristles was well worth the wait. I was impressed Kathryn Jenson's "Bill Ryan" story (Jan.- with the biases of his day-especially with the entire magazine; however, Feb. '85) is super! My daddy, born in against Native Americans. On the other Michael Wallis' article on Route 66 1855 (now deceased), was a "water- side of the ledger, he vividly writes of (Sept.-Oct. 1984) put the icing on the witcher7'-and this sounds just like it lynchings, trail herds, gunfights and Billy cake. could have been his stoty! the Kid-and settlers trying to build a Although I have no direct line to the E$a (Ah&) Roseboom town on the last wild border in the U.S. highway, the stories and legends have Enid always fascinated me. Thank you for The Great Father: The United States painting an accurate picture of how life As a displaced Oklahoman of many years, Government and the American Indians, was when it wasn't in the "fast lane." I enjoy very much receiving and reading by Frank Paul Prucha; UniwniSl of Ne- Jane Vaughan Okhhma TODAY; it is truly a "classy" brada PRS,902 N. 17th St., Lincoln, NE lk Smith Arkansas magazine. 68588; 2 vols., boxed, $60. Any white There is, however, one complaint that Oklahoman is bound to get occasional needs to be made, and it is about the 1985 glimmers of the history behind the fed- Thank you for mailing the September- calendar, not the magazine. Please, when eral government's involvement with the October, issue of Okhhoma TODAY to you prepare the 1986 calendar, go back Indian tribes-in a newspaper article on me. I greatly enjoyed reading "The Sod to the traditional calendar format (rather the closing of an Indian school, on a his- House" by Kate Jones and "Route 66" than the linear format as with 1985). The torical marker in Tahlequah, by talking by Michael Wallis. Oklahoma is a part of 1984 format was great, and we hope next to an Indian friend. me. I never had the experience of living year's will be also. Here's a chance to educate yourself, in in a sod house but experienced many Thanks for your attention. great detail, on the Byzantine machina- other happenings in her history. If I had Gerald Haywad tions of U.S. Indian policy, from the been born six months earlier, I would St, Louis, Missouri

March-April '85 By Kathryn Jenson White

either, because Genevieve Dromgoole is as sure as she can be that she's in the right place. She loves Oklahoma, as she says, "dust and all." Of course, while most of us love our state in spite of its infamous dust, Genevieve loves Oklahoma in part because of it. She's a broom maker, you see, and who'd need a broom if there were no dust? For the last 50 years, her products have taken up where the wind leaves off and literally gone sweeping down the plain. Before whisking his family off to Geary in the early 1900s, her Grandfather Coppage helped keep the hills of Kentucky swept just as clean with his handcrafted brooms. with corn." As she positions herself at

grade the broomcorn. " to them. But makin' brooms is. . . When her father died in 1934,

machine. With each push of a rung, she

of cattle. She explains why she has singlehandedly taken on the work of

Oklahoma TODAY handle and, as their name suggests, never tires of it. pound. You don't make too much on turns over to make the broom's Using as a cane a broom handle she your brooms, I'll guarantee you." "shoulders." Her last steps wire on the culled because it wasn't straight enough, She chronicles the same problem with "short hurl," which covers up the Genevieve moves spryly about the the handles as with the broomcorn: hand1e.com and turnover, and the "long factory, pushing aside a chair here and "When we started in makin' brooms hurl," which finishes up the broom. shoving away an obstructing pile of during the '30s, in the Depression, these After attaching each bunch, she whacks brooms there. She apologizes for the handles cost two cents. Now thev cost off the extra ends above the wire with a appeahg clutter, which she laughingly 48 and 53 cents apiece, and there's a lot 1 nasty-looking broadknife. When all the calls a "heterogeneous conglomeration," of crooked ones, too." None of the corn is firmly attached, Genevieve and declares, "I've got everydung back crooked ones make it to broomhood; completes the winding with the here but money." Her energy, strength they start out temporarily serving as "rundown," about 30 rounds of wire and stamina are remarkable, but she Genevieve's walking sticks, and end up above the straw. claims they're nothing compared to permanently sticking in her fences to Although modern technology has what thev used to be: "I don't kick 'em take UD the slack in the wire. produced machines that can make out like i used to. I used to come out In a'ddition to making brooms, brooms, they don't play a large part in here and with this here kind, a Kitchen Genevieve sells and delivers them to Genevieve's life. She makes a variety of Maid, I'd get at it at 5 o'clock and by stores in Geary and several surrounding models, including the Warehouse, Gold noon I'd have five dozen of 'em. Now it towns. She's never learned to drive. so a Parlor, Green Parlor, Kitchen Maid, nephew takes her around in her old Streamliner, Whisk and Toy Broom. pickup. She also calls on family She says, "They've got winders now members to transport her to garage that are motorized, but the one I've got sales, where she can indulge her passion won't pull for this kind of broom, a for bargain hunting and trading. She Warehouse. It'll only work for whisks says of herself, "I'm kind of like Scipio and toys." and Scattergood Baines in the old In addition to winding most of her Saturh Evening Post. They was always brooms by foot, Genevieve sews all but swappin', and that's the way with me." the heavy Warehouse by hand. Since One swap got her an old wringer she's iust 5 foot nothin' tall. Genevieve machine. which she uses for her wash. has stacks of Montgomery Ward and takes me two days to get that many." It sits in H back room of her home Sears catalogs in front of most of her She excuses her reduced output by surrounded by at least 15 buckets of rain equipment .& she can reach her work. mentioning her cattle, which reminds water. Since her well doesn't produce Donning leather "hand cuffs" with her to check the clock on the wall enough for an automatic machine and metal inserts in the palms to help her behind her and explain, "You might be its water is too hard for "good push a needle big as a #2 pencil through wondering about that clock. It's what I cleaning," she collects the rain water to the straw, she steps up on the catalogs call mv 'chore clock.' The one in the use instead. piled in front of the stitcher so she can house$ set right,... but I keep this one on Genevieve Dromgoole upgrades by use its clamp to hold a Gold Parlor she'll regular time." Her cattle obviously don't several notches the standard notions sew without the machine's mechanical adjust their schedules to Daylight surrounding women with brooms in aid. Her son uses the machine to sew Savings Tie. Neither does Genevieve. their hands. Images of the happy the Warehouse models for her because She has had to make adjustments, homemaker with broom as tool, the she can't push her needle through their however, during the last 30 years of domineering shrew with broom as heavy straw. broom making. With each year, it weapon and the witch with broom as Winding and stitching are just two of seems, her materials go down in quality vehicle fade away in Genevieve's broom the many steps in the process. Before and UD. in .rice. She shakes her head factory. In her hands, the broom placing the handles in the winder, with minor dismay as she claims, "They becomes, quite simply, art, and the Genevieve must lacquer each one by used to raise the best broomcorn you woman behind it becomes artisan. She's filling long metal cylinders called ever saw down here to Lindsav. But serious about her art, but not too serious. "tanks" with the appropriate color and they can't produce it if they can't get Of her tendency to punctuate her inserting one handle at a time. After their money when they make it. The conversation with frequent bursts of winding and before stitching, she older men who bought corn from the laughter, she says, "I'm just that way. threshes each broom on an electric farmers were real good about paying for As long as you can laugh at yourself, "seeder" that beats anv seeds or loose it. But the younger generation kind of you're going to be all right." bits out of the straw. As a last step, she cheated 'em, you know. They wouldn't uses a clipper, one that belonged to her pay 'em for two or three years, and it's Have a nomiwefor "Uncommon Common father, to trim the broom's straw evenly. all hand labor. Now all the corn comes FolR "? WritP to Kathryn c/o Oklahoma From start to finish, it's a "long hurl," if from Old Mexico. It used to be cheap, TODAY, P. 0. Box 53384, OORhoma you'll forgive the pun, but Genevieve but now it's a dollar and something a Cia, OK 73152.

March-April '85 THE

By Jon Mark

next door to a cement factory. Redbud Valley, 15 miles east of downtown Tulsa, is a window on the past. A limestone bluff divides the prairie from the woodland. Snakes, lizards and spiders bask in the prairie sun above; elm, maple and hickory hide in the woodland below. All is natural, virtually undisturbed. You can wander eight miles of trails and that take you back 200 million years. "There were five 'Redbud Valleys1once," says Dr. Harriet Barclay, the University of Tulsa professor emeritus of botany who began studying Redbud Valley in 1929. At 82 a retired distinguished teacher, ecologist and member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, she still does plant research and finds time to lead study groups to the Galapa- gos Islands and elsewhere. Three of the five valleys are gone. "The cement factory dug out the limestone, and the fourth valley may be next," Dr. Barclay says. "The fifth, what we call Redbud Valley today, is protected from development." In 1972, Dr. Barclay led an alliance of naturalists, newspapermen, government officials and university administrators to save the fifth valley. For sale by its owners, it was drawing interest from developers. Dr. Barclay inspired the TuLra Ttibune to run a series of stories about its special traits, and a fund drive began. Money came in- $58,000, much in small change from children. "It's not the thing we usually raise money for," says Frank Tenney, executive assistant to Tulsa University's president, Paschal Twyman. "But it was unique and in danger." Nature Conservancy, a Washington, D.C.-based group dedicated to keeping rare

The naturepm~prwknown as Redbud Ya& is a dramatic mktum ofscenery--andphnts. The uphnd, known as Garnett Prain'e, is hot, dry and stereotpka& "Okhhoma. "(That 5 a cement phnt in the dictame.)Drnem in the wf&,&tors canf?ndpIentyofwater andshade-loving qetatioon. TAPf/owws shown at nght are ga&rdt;Z--anddeta& ofmmac andpn'ck4pear cactur 6fWrnr-pr~'rrhnatz'ws.

.- - Oklahoma TODAY ULSA

March-April '85 9 habitats in their natural state, stepped in they tend to run from people." Security is another problem. In 1978, and bought Redbud Valley. Title was "We've had the Sierra Club, the graffiti began turning up on rocks, and passed to TU on condition that it remain Audubons and the Tulsa Camera Club, initials were carved in trees. "We spent natural indefinitely. the Oklahoma Ornithological Society, thousands repairing the gates and fences Tall, lanky Tenney, a TU student in the Girl Scouts and kids from the public and to pick up trash," says Tenney. the 1930s, remembers going to Redbud schools. We get about 40 groups a year "People crashed through, not to see the Valley with Dr. Barclay on field trips. plus uncounted individuals. A couple wild flowers, but to have a wild party." "We went to catch snakes for biology wants to be married out there this spring Vandalism trailed off in 1981. "Maybe study," he smiles. "In those days I'd use when everydung's in bloom." they grew up or just moved away," says any excuse to get back to nature. Folks Tours of Redbud Valley are self-guided Tenney. used to skinnydip in Bird Creek!" by group leaders. No admission fee is "Maybe the 'in' thing was a beer bust "I didn't know that," laughs Dr. Bar- charged, but visitors find no telephone, in Redbud Valley and now the in thing is clay. "It wsa closed area-intimate and water fountains or restrooms. something else," says Dr. Buck. serene. It rtzllis. People are amazed it's so "We'd like to have more,'' says TU's No lasting damage was done, but close to downtown Tulsa." Tenney. "It's a matter of cost. During administrative and security costs still Two hundred million years ago, Okla- the 1972 campaign, we met with county burden TU. "It's not our job to do the homa was the bottom of an inland sea. commissioners and people from the Generations of marine life died, fell to Martin-Marietta Company, owners of the ocean floor and turned into chalky the cement factory. We made plans for mud. When the ocean receded, lime- parking lot, a picnic area and a buffer stone formed, and Bird Creek cut valleys zone between the quarry and the pre- from the rock, creating a small, steep serve. We got some parking and the world with some unexpected plant life. buffer, but not much else has happened." "The north-facing slopes have plants "We haven't abandoned it," says Tulsa found north and east of Tulsa, plants county commissioner Lewis Harris, "but such as Dutchman's Breeches," Dr. there's been no county funding for sev- Barclay says. "They are rare enough in eral years. Federal revenue sharing funds the Ozarks, but absolutely amazing to used to go to Redbud Valley. Maybe phi- find here." lanthropy is the answer now." "The bottom has maple, elm and cot- tonwood trees, and the redbuds that give the valley its name. They all were proba- bly common in Oklahoma years ago, but they persisted in the valley because of the soil, the moisture and the protection from dry, southerly winds. The top is upland Getting prairie-very flat, dry and hot in the There summertime. You find yuccas-very western-and prickly pear cactus." Redbud Yalq, Natum Conmn~3 m5 There are 260 species of plants and a prqkct in Okhhm, 2j located east of Tuha variety of animals in Redbud Valley, in Rogm County, about far mih no& of according to TU botany professor Dr. Interstate M, on 161st EaJt Amue. Paul Buck. The why 2j open year-round, 9a.m. M "I was out one day at dawn, and rest- &rk, wathp~miitting.On weeRPnds, the ing by the pond when a turtle came out gates are @en; during the wek, vvrjitors can of the water," Dr. Buck says. "She dug a obtain the kg to thef;wtt gate at the TU hole in the bank, laid eggs for an hour Security Office in the HohStulknt Center, 5th Phce at Flomce, in Tuha. Cal(918) and slid back into the pond. You see pic- 592-6000, ext. 2571for detaih.. tures and hear descriptions, but you never For more informafton about the why 5 think it'll happen before your eyes. fhra adfauna, contact the UnI;wrnb of "There are deer, beaver, woodchucks, Tuha, Llqkzrtment of Natural S&ces, OL- fox and bobcats in Redbud Valley. Groups phant Ha4 609s. Co&ge Aw.,Tula, OK going through rarely see them. You have 74104, or call (918) 592-6090, ext. 2%. to be quiet and usually alone because

10 Oklahoma TODAY whole thing," says Tenney. "The uni- "How do you fund a park that isn't a icebox. We keep it closed till we need it.' versity would like to form a partnership park?," asks Jenkin Lloyd Jones, syndi- I feel the same about Redbud Valley." with interested groups: the Audubon cated columnist and publisher of the Harriet Barclay has watched over Red- Society,the Boy Scouts, the publicschools, Tuba Tribune. Tribune stories about the bud Valley for 50 years. Can it survive the Tulsa Garden Center. . . . Our pur- beauty of RedbudValley generated funds another 30? pose would be to control and upgrade the to buy it and make it a nature preserve. "This must not be developed," she says area. Redbud Valley is not realistic as a "I'm pretty relaxed about the whole firmly. "That's the whole point of nature communityresource without greater com- thing," Jones says. "If people aren't encour- conservancy and why Redbud Valley munity involvement." aged to visit Redbud Valley, so what? should always be the same." Ann Long is president of the Tulsa You really don't want a lot of people in Garden Center and a longtime backer of there-As the city of Tulsa grows, people In ti, w&, trailr wind below kmestune bhffs Redbud Valley. "It's a big job," she says, are going to start looking for clean places past a &ng thatfeeda sh'Upad. The w'HIr> ' "and there's only so much a volunteer to fill their lungs. I think we're going to J&J ~WYfrom hum, but rare W~HPWJ can do. The problem is mainly money. If start appreciating it in about 30 years. &e Dutchman 5 Breeches stand their pnd. Redbud Valley were a football stadium, "Herbert Hoover said, 'Alaska's an i or park,fundswould probably materialize." Jon Mark ti a TuLFa-basedfie~hncewriter. FRED W MARVEL

March-April '85 11 By Michael Wallis Photographs by Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis

'DAWN IS SOFTLY BREAKING OVER THE KELLY BEND RANCH near Soper in southeastern Oklahoma. The new day comes with slow steps, and stillness blankets the pastures. Except for an occasional snort from a slumbering cow pony everything is as peaceful as a cat asleep on a chair. The moon drowses between the trees, and clusters of ancient stars still wink brightly. But out of the night shadows long pink and lavender fingers of light streak the sky. A tame wind is beginning to stir and barely moves the long winter weeds hunkered along the fence line. The Kelly Bend got its name from an Indian family who settled here long ago and from the bend in the Muddy Boggy River, which flows nearby on its way to join the Red River, that legendary stream the color of tea that keeps Oklahoma and Texas worlds

apart.

By most standards, the Kelly Bend is a pads back to the leather couch, pulls on in the fireplace. The fire pops and crack- modest 540-acre spread with plenty of his boots and with two long sips finishes les and shadows dance off the furniture. sweet water and lush grass. More than the coffee. For a moment, there in the There are familiar sounds coming from 100springs percolate on the ranch creeks dark room, he gazes at the logs burning the kitchen where Edith faces breakfast and, where cattle now graze, Choctaws dishes and a pail of juicy pears waiting to stalked game and planted their crops. It's be canned. Suddenly, in one smooth a fit place for raising beef cattle and kids. motion, Freckles grabs up his Stetson, There are good swimming holes, plenty tosses a smile over his shoulder to Edith of forage for turkeys and deer, and every and slips outside into the cool air. His October wild hog plums can be harvested face catches the full strength of the rising and made into a superior jam that makes i wind, and he smells the river-fed earth, even the most grizzled cowpoke's mouth fresh manure and wood smoke curling water. The Kelly Bend is a complete from the chimney. working ranch. It's also the home of Pete, an Australian Shepherd dog who Freckles Brown-a living cowboy legend. can cut cattle with the best of them, Inside the snug ranch house he built of appears at Freckles' side for his daily native stone and pine for his wife, Edith, ration of scratches behind the ears. the legend himself--Freckles Brown- Together, Freckles and Pete make their parts the curtains with a mug of steaming rounds. Behind the ranch house a dozen C cats, coffee and checks in with the dawn. He Manx who earn their keep by hunt-

12 Oklahoma TODAY March-April '85 13 Oklahoma TODAY ing gophers, nest on the woodpile. Before ad a bunch of freckles back then. I a bull during the rodeo so after I won I had the bobtailed cats have time to stretch guess by the time I got to be 18 or to ride back to the ranch the next day with awake, Freckles has fired up the trusty 19, they started dimming out. But I had my hurt foot outside of the stirrup. Rode pickup and, with his pal Pete riding plenty when I was a youngster. Anyhow, all the way back like that, but I didn't care shotgun, he heads off to feed the Kelly when this fella hired me on my first cowboy 'cause I had me a fine trophy. I was a real job, it was on a ranch near Wilcox, Ari- honest-tegoodness bull rider." Bend's herd of mixed-breed cattle. zona, and he asked me my name. I said As the truck bounces and creaks down Warren Granger Brown and he said 'Any- the dirt road, Freckles' mind wanders thing you say, Freckles.' Well, that name From his first wild and woolly rodeo back to when he was a young man learn- sure did stick even if my freckles didn't. ride in 1937 until he hung up his chaps ing to ride and rope and holler like a You could hurt your eyes trying to find any and spurs in 1974, Freckles Brown gave banshee in the great American West. He of those freckles on me now. I reckon all his all to the sport of rodeo. He was the recalls when he was a smooth-faced kid those bulls I've been riding over the years professional's professional; the cowboy's earning his spurs as a cowboy. But most just shook those freckles off." cowboy. A consistent big winner in rodeo of all, he remembers dazzling those audi- for an incredible 37-year span, Freckles ences, from Calgary to Houston, from It wasn't too long after folks started rode bareback broncs, bulldogged and New York City to Mexico City, and the calling him Freckles that the fledgling did his share of team roping before he capitals of Europe, as a GI in China, and wrangler decided to commit his life to decided to concentrate on bull riding, the in the countless arenas and stadiums cowboying. In the years that followed, most exciting and dangerous of all rodeo around the world as he rode bucking Freckles Brown would cowboy through- events. He paid his dues. Brahma bulls and made rodeo history. out the West-from the high pastures of The litany of injuries includes 10 broken the Rockies to the Oklahoma plains. legs, two broken collar bones, countless He'd feel the sting of blizzard snows and broken ribs and shoulder and knee injur- F37tr always wanted to be a cowboy. That d& was my main desire ever since I was the scorching Panhandle sun. He'd ride ies. His neck was broken twice, and in a little boy. I used to dream of working on a endless miles in wind and rain, mending one 13-month period he broke his leg ranch. I used to dream about breaking fences and searching for lost calves. He'd three times. A piece of his hip bone was horses and tending cattle. All I ever wanted break ice in the thick of winter so his used to replace a bone removed from his was to be a good cowboy. I never even cattle could survive. He'd become accus neck. There is a metal pin in his shoulder thought of being good enough to rodeo. tomed to herding mother cows and and a screw in one of his ankles. Freckles Never entered my head." branding doggies and spitting trail dust. laughs off the scars and bruises and calls He learned to enjoy bunkhouse break- himself "a walking hardware store.'' Warren Granger Brown was born in fasts and look forward to warming his Besides all the hurt and pain, Freckles Wheatland, Wyoming, on Jan. 18, 1921. frozen feet by a mesquite cook fire. Years managed to earn an honest living along He was the youngest of 10 brothers and of tending stock would make Freckles with a ranch house full of trophies and sisters, all raised on the family homestead Brown a man with a gift of silence, and honors including engraved saddles, lov- between Fort Laramie and ~in~le.There he would also be filled with that unmis- ing cups, belt buckles, certificates and the Brown family grew potatoes, alfalfa takable pride that comes with being a plaques. and sugar beets. Despite the rich North cowboy-the genuine article-part of a In 1962, at the ripe old age of 41, he Platte River soil, young Freckles realized vanishing breed. And, early on, even was declared "World Champion Bull he wasn't cut out to be a farmer. When when he was a rookie cowpuncher green rider." Freckles' riding boots, bull-riding he was still a boy, he learned to ride as new mistletoe, he'd come to find his spurs, rope and chaps, and some of his horses and herd cattle. By the time he greatest love of all-the rodeo. trophies are prominently displayed in the was 14, the family left Wyoming for Pro Rodeo Hall of Champions and Mu- Arizona so the desert climate could help seum of the American Cowboy. There 8rode my first bull at the age of I 6 at a soothe his mother's arthritis. And it was &rodeo in Wilcox. But I vkn my first has been a song written about his rodeo on a dusty Arizona ranch where Warren bull-riding trophy in 1941. I was back up exploits, and plans are underway to make G. Brown would become a fully breveted in Wyoming working on a ranch in the cowboy and get the nickname he'd carry Starlight Basin near Yellowstone National for the rest of his life. Park. I rode an 01' bronc horse 50 miles into Cody to go to the stampede. I left at 8 in the morning and got to town about 6 o'clock, in time for supper. I got kicked by

March-April '85 I

-- I a motion picture about his life and times. loved it when she could actually feel the outfit, Freckles was assigned to duty in He's been the official spokesman for a movement of the crowd in the wooden China with the Office of Strategic Service largeWestern-wear manufadmr for many bleachers as they cheered and stomped (OSS). It was in China where Freckles years, and there's even a line of cowboy their boots and clapped for the cowboys. would start building on his rodeo legend boots bearing his name for sale in the She never grew weary of the travel, and when he helped produce the country's better Western stores. Not bad for a dirt to this day when she's asked which of first "rodeo" using Army mules and farmer's kid. Brownie's rides gave her the biggest native cattle. To this day, Freckles believes thrill, she never wavers: "Every single he was the Orient's first, and probably 've sure had a good life as a cow- one of them." only, all-round champion cowboy. boy, and I had a good rodeo career too. It was a swell time. I stopped rodeoing t was the first rodeo ever held in in 1974.That's when I quit. I was in Tulsa met Edith when I was in the Army and I climbed on my last bull. I had been down at Lawton during the war. She China. I bet they ain't never had drawing pretty fair that I recall I was working as a cashier in the dimestore another. I went into this cafe run by the drawed a fine bull at ~~d~~~~ and then and I saw her. She was a pretty, black- Red Cross and spotted a hand-lettered I drew a good one in ~ ~~h~~ lwas my~ ~ haired. gal, and we got fixed up on a date. rode0 Poster. Well, I got into it and Corn- peted. I won first in saddle mule riding and last bull ride. I was 53 years old." Never forget it. Edith had laryngitis and couldn't talk. So we went to a dance and f"st in bareback mule riding. Boy, those Edith Brown, a slender woman with had a high 01' time. We've never quit." Chinese didn't know what to make of it. At first, half of them were just dumbfounded. classic ranch-wife looks, has been Freck- And the other half were laughing so hard I Freckles enlisted in the Army in Feb la' biggest fan ever since they met when thought we.d need ambulances for them. It he was stationed at Ft. Sill during World ruary, 1942, completed his basic training wa fun and, heck, how many other cow- War 11. A native of Purcell, the McClain at Ft. Sill, met and married Edith the boys can say they were l~areback~~l~ County seat nestled on the banks of the following year, and in 1944 their only Riding Champion of China?'" South Canadian River, Edith often served child-a daughter named Donna-was as a rodeo timekeeper in order to be near born. That same year, after completing Nobody, not even Freckles, knows her bull-riding man. She traveled all over both horseshoeing and jump school and just how many bulls and broncs he rode the globe watching "Brownie," as she servinga hitch with a horsedrawnartillery during his long and colorful career. In calls her husband of more than four one two-day period, Freckles climbed on decades, ride humpback Brahma bulls. 41 bucking horses, and on more than For Edith, the best rodeos of all were the ones held in smalltown America. She

16 Oklahoma TODAY I one occasion he rode as many as 20 bulls stepped on anybody. Many a cowboy said beat insurmountableodds. They say when in a single day. By his own best estimate, he couldn't be rode. A lot of guys ~ould he finallyleft the arena that night, hat in Freckles reckons he took on somewhere dmw him and not even try to ride him. hand and tears in his eye, Frecklessaid to between 4,000 and 5,000 bulls. Many of They away. But I had give no one in particular: "He was overdue." them were highly ranked. Some were as him a go. I knew he was due to be rode. I ~h~~~are many memo*es for ~ ~ ~ ~ k - thought I could do it. I had to give it a les to consider these days, as he feeds his famous as the cowboys they bucked. try." Among the "biggies" that Freckles rode cattle and watches Pete, his good cow- were: "19" (also called "Very Seldom"), ~,ddid he ever try. ~ ~B~~~~~ dog,~ move throughk lthe meadows.~ Some~ "Tex M," "Black Smoke," "Snowman," kt~ ~T~this~ day, the~ ~ ~ memories~d are~ ~ bitter, k but. mostl are ~sweet. I I Iceman," "Troubleshooter," "Eight B ~ ~ match-up~ is ~considered - TA few, ~maybe even~ sacred.~ ~ ~ ~ Ball" and "Big Bad John." But there is by many rodeo aficionados to be one of Life's good at the Kelly Bend Ranch. no doubt the bull most rodeo fans remem- the finest eventsin modern rodeo history. Freckles' daughter and her husband and ber Freckles riding and the one animal clem ~ ~ ~the rodeo~ announcer~ d dtheir ~two growing~ , boys ranch the adjoin- that Mr. Brown will never forget is the that stormy ~~~~~b~~evening, declared ing 160acrespread,and more thanenough great snorting beast still regarded as the the ride greatest legend-makinginti- visitors come to the Kelly Bend to see toughest rodeo bull that ever came out of dent in rodeo.u H~gets few arguments. Freckles. Pete gives everybody a friendly a chute-Tornado. bark, and out back the platoon of Manx He was a true bovine champion-a n the chutes just before we went for some and a few bull supreme, as quick, violent and lethal )I(it, I laid my mp on hirn,and he was the color of honey-stay on their gopher as his name. With eyes as dark as pitch, just like any other bull. He was standing patrol. Edith gives all comers plenty of this hissing, snorting beast had been to there relaxed. His muscles were soft. When coffeeand makes sure they sign the guest every National Finals Rodw (NFR)since I pushed against him there was a lot of give book on the kitchen table. 1961when he finally met up with Freck- to him- But when we were ready to go, he And, every once in a while, Edith and les Brown in 1967 in Oklahoma City. a completely different bull. He was 01' her Brownie get in the pickup and take Tornado had been picked the "NFR Tornado-hard as a His off for a rodeo. They see old friends and Bull of the YearJ' in all but his rookie were tensed like a runner in the It recall the days when rodeos may not have was then and there that it dawned on me. I season' and the big Owner' Jim been bigger but in many ways were sure knew what made Tornado different. He a former ahound was an athlete. He loved the contest. He better. A lot of his rodeo mates are gone. cowboy champion, considered Tornado was tense with anticipation-ready for the Tornado is gone, too. The old fighting his pride and joy. When the 1967 NFR gate to crash ~,,dthen he came out bull is buried at the Cowboy Hall of opened, Freckles drewTornado, his first with a big leap, made a sharp turn and went Fame in Oklahoma City. encounter with the infamous critter. The to kicking and bucking. I held on. I But sometimes, in the eveningafter all 1l-yearald Brahma was a mean and lean couldn't hear nothing. But then I saw the the chores are done and he's taking one 1,800pounder at the timeand had defeat- cbwns move in and I knew I made the last look at the day, Freckles probably ed more than 220 cowboys. No one ever whistle. I got off Tornado real good- lets himself hear that chute bang open made the eternal eight-second ride on landed On my feet-The and he sees the arena dirt fly high. And let up. I stood out there in the middle of there in the twilight, heps *ding ~~~~~d~ Tornado's back' The day he drew the arena with my hat off for the longest nado' Freckles was a month shy of his again. Freckles holds on tight to the time. The applause didn't die-it just kept 47th birthday. going. Even the cowboys were clapping braided manila rope looped around the and yelling. I finally walked off, but it big bull's and he waves his hat in t was the greatest experience of my didn't let up any. I looked up at clem the air to a chorus of hoots from cowboy life. I had never drawn Tornado McSpadden, and he motioned to me to go ghosts. It's an eight-second dream for a before. I knew him, though. I'd watched on back out. So I did. And it started UP champion. It all belongs to the man him. Saw h~mfor the first time in Mem- louder than ever. Never heard anything called Freckles. phis and I knew I had to ride him. It took like it." me seven years. But every rodeo where I 11 I ever wanted was to be a good had the chance to see him go, I'd sit up in Freckles Brown could have been elected cowboy;* mi front of his chute and watch. I studied A governor of 0klahoma that evening. H~ Tornado. Sometimes he was just impossi- had ridden the unrideable. He had con- ble, and on those days there wasn't a bull quered Tornado. Forever, this 5-foot-7- Michael and Suzanne Wald~due in Tuha. rider alive who could have ridden him. I MichlS grandfather a working inch, 150-p0und as had never seen Tornado have a bad day. m&; /u Jppn;l/izeJin w&ing ahut t/le the of the human ability to But he was an honest bull. He always Sout,$wJtt.Suzanne.re~s andra&edin fought the clowns real good and he hardly El P~SO.

March-April'85 17

heding pages. &David Hmth of OkLzhoma Ci2y &the wtnd at Buffdo Mountain (The shot taktn by Hmth, kgan automatic system nkdby photographer Jim Atgo; it imMeda motordriwn Nihmounted on the nase of Hmth5. hang gMer.) A h and right, Any wn-ekendwhen the wath5. right, the Ouachda ait-fihdhg&s.

TexasfLers driwfor hours to reach Okhhoma 5. hang-glding territory. Thehged ~22trig can remnabij m-d:perhaps 50 mh-at 8,500fpet. Mod end much mmtv-on a Lznaing stnp, or in a tree.

long ridge overlooking the Potato Hills of LeFlore County. Rising to an altitude of 1,250 feet near the town of Talihina, Buffalo Mountain is the home field of a dedicated core of glider pilots from Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. They gather at every opportunity to ride the excellent thermals found in the vicinity of Buffalo Mountain. Something about the slope of the mountainside makes these warm rising winds exceptionally buoyant, capable of boosting a glider thousands of feet above ground and keeping it there for hours at a time. Weekend travelers on State Highway 1, which turns into the Skyline Drive at Talihina, often stop to marvel at the small dots of color dancing on the wind overhead. Those blobs of red and yellow and

Oklahoma TODAY orange against the sky are hang gliders. weekend during the summer," he says. A solitary flier, harnessed horizontally in "Everybody brings their girlfriends or a facedown position, is clinging to a their wives and kids. We all camp out control bar, guiding the fraglle craft in and have a great time, even if we can't gentle, ever-higher turns and loops in a fly at all." lofty silence broken only by the sound of The weather dictates whether a hang the breeze in the wings. glider leaves the ground. To venture up "It's unlike anything I've ever done," under less than ideal conditions is to put says Mike New of Oklahoma City, a one's person in some peril. glider pilot for seven years. "Everything Every pilot is an amateur weather is quiet and beautiful up there. I made forecaster, although their methods maybe 400 flights of two or three would give a meteorologist apoplexy. seconds off a little hill in Will Rogers "We watch the birds, the hawks, the Park, but the sport really never captured buzzards, the occasional eagle," New me until I made my first flight off says. "If they are flying, we can fly." Buffalo Mountain. I just lasted about New points out the turbulence of a five minutes, but I was hooked." sudden storm may make it impossible New is one of several city dwellers for a hang glider to land, leaving the I who have bought property near the pilot helpless before the elements. "The qort never raptumi me until I madP mountain, creating a mini-community Strong winds are also a hazard. "We've my fit fhght off Buffaio Mountain. It just of hang-glider enthusiasts. had storms come in so fast people were lasted about f;w minutes, but I wa~hooked. " "Fifteen or 20 of us are there every caught in the air," New says. "You -Mike New,ORhAoma City.

March-April'85 can't come down and you can't stay up. times a day carrying a 50-pound glider, The danger of hang gliding is, At best, you travel 30 to 40 miles and and to be a really good pilot, you've got perhaps, overemphasized, but it is wind up with a demolished glider. High to know meteorology, mechanics and always present. winds are a definite problem. You can the conditions of each pamcular "It's pretty easy to kill yourself if you drop a thousand feet in two seconds. mountain." put your mind to it," Greenawalt says, "It's a dangerous sport," he adds. "If Running east and west, Buffalo laughing. "It's like anything else; it's as you make a mistake, you pay for it." Mountain allows hang gliders to take safe as you make it. If you do aerobatics Once they've mastered the art, many advantageof the prevailing southerly beyond your ability, it's going to get glider pilots are no longer content winds, which build against the you, but now you have a second chance merely to stay aloft. They strive to go as mountainside and are warmed as the with your parachute. high and fly as far as they dare. In afternoon sunshine heats the earth. The pioneers of the sport flew Oklahoma, that means an altitude of "All of a sudden," New says, "there's without a parachute, and more than a perhaps 8,500 feet or a distance of a rush of warm air shootingstraight up few paid the price, but a special quick- perhaps 50 miles. just like it's coming out of a teapot." deploying 'chute is now standard Elsewhere, in the higher mountains Hang gliders take to those updrafts equipment. of the western U.S., gliders have risen to like fish to water. A few pilots use them "When hang gliding first started, 23,000 feet and remained aloft more to perform spectacular aerobatics, flips people had the idea it was a bunch of than seven hours. and similar maneuvers, which place beach bums out on the coast trying to "The thrill of simply flying is pretty unusual stress on the flimsy aircraft. defy death," Officer says. "Now you see fleeting," says Oklahoma City's Scott "That is very seldom done in the a lot of responsible people in it. It's Greenawalt, at 24 already a veteran U.S.," says New. "There's not a glider about the most diverse crowd of any glider pilot. "You start racking up in the U.S. made for it, although some sport I know." hundreds of hours, and it's not the rush people do it anyway. It's too much for More responsible participants made it once was. At first it was really on aluminum and Dacron." for more safety considerations. "For the emotional experience, but even now I first few years, they did it without any still have my high points." instruction or professional help," says Greenawalt, an auditor for the New, whose first instructor was killed in OklahomaTax Commission, has a glider accident. "They learned in the achieved 8,200 feet and flown for four school of hard knocks. A lot of them got and a half hours after a Buffalo broken arms and legs." Mountain takeoff. The U.S. Hang Gliding Association "That's a long time to stay in the reported 43 fatalities as a result of the air," he says. "It can be pretty sport in 1976. A year later, the figure strenuous." Diehard hang glzhs fly year-round, fair- had dropped to eight. Few fliers, Kent Officer, an Edmond pharmacist, weatherpilois, who warm up wiih the however, have gained their experience weather,fmm about Apd to October. The without mishap. once completed six hours of continuous be.rtphcefor earthbound Okhhmns to Jpot flight. "When I came down," he says, glders is Buffalo Mountain, wkch rises "If you haven't landed in a tree, you "my legs felt like they weren't there. along state Highwy 1 west of Takkna. rob ably haven't flown very long," says They weren't hurting; they were just (Any wekendfmm noon to Ark is a goad Officer. numb." time to wtch, e@&lly fmm July to And if you're going to practice the The physical demands of hang September.) Other JPO~Jare near Hem sport safely, a considerable investment is gliding are indeed high. Officer says he and-in winter-Long Horn Mountain, six required. Greenawalt estimates a basic made 300 flights off a 20-foot rise in mih south of Mountain Vim,and Three glider will cost $1,800; a variometer, Oklahoma City before advancing to a Sticks Monument, about two miks south of which measures vertical speed, costs 150-foot hill, then gradually to the Big Ceahr. $200; an altimeter is $80; the harness Tofind out more about hang gIding, and summit of Buffalo Mountain. can cost up to $300; and the about the upcoming Re@ 6 National indispensable parachute is another $300. "If you start with little hills, by the Qwhtyng Meet (to be hehi at Buffah time you get to a mountain you know Mountain in early summer), calAmy Pmin "I've never had to use mine," he says, exactly how to fly that glider," Officer at the US. Hang Glr;erAm., (213) "but that's one of the things you can't points out. 390-3065, or any one of three Okhhoma Cia do without." After all, he does make a "It takes quite a bit of dedication just pilots: Stew Greenawalt,(405) 751-3460; habit of jumping off mountains. to learn to fly," Greenawalt adds. Stme Michakk, (405) 525-5481;or Kent "You've got to go out there and run up off;^, (405)340-1735. Both couq,Bean and& Argo are~0umaht.r and down that mountain a hundred wz2h the Daily Oklahoman.

Oklahoma TODAY THE ,FITST SCOUTS I By Scott Carlberg I I A brigade of hardy Oklahoma boys showmen, not just outdoorsmen. and an English clergyman with an The Pawhuska boys made a industrious philosophy of life pioneered handsome impression on Bartlesville, a national youth movement in our own and a new troop formed there. The hike backyard. By Scouting has its American back wasn't so successful, though. A roots some 35 miles northwest of Tulsa, massive cold front met them at Okesa, in Pawhuska, a village folded in the halfway to Pawhuska, and many Scouts creases of land between the Osage Hills were forced to make an impromptu and what's now the Burbank oilfield. overnight camp. As McGuire The Boy Scouts of America mark remembered it, "None of us nor the their diamond anniversary this year. On horses had more than half enough for Feb. 8,1910, the Scouts were legally either supper or breakfast, but what we incorporated in the District of Oklahoma troop was chartered by the had was divided equally between all- Columbia. But almost a year before the Boy Scouts of England. horses, boys and men." Boy Scouts of America "officially" The crates of khaki wool uniforms, On a typical campout, boys hiked five existed, the Scout troop often called the round ranger hats and handbooks took or six miles to the campsite, ate a pork- first in the United States was founded in three months to find frontier Pawhuska. and-bean supper, then wrapped northeast Oklahoma. All that time, Mitchell assembled the themselves in blankets to sleep through In 1909, Episcopal priest John Forbes troop weekly to practice pioneering a starry Oklahoma night. Occasionally Mitchell left England for New York, skills and military drills. When Mitchell the troop borrowed the broad canvas where a bishop assigned Mitchell an thought these rustic boys were suitably tent from a Pawhuska funeral home for American church. Mitchell became the outfitted in mind and body, Pawhuska shelter. Daytimes were punctuated with rector of the Episcopal Mission Church had a parade. drills, dips in the creek, knot- tying and in Pawhuska, then a town of almost The late Joe McGuire, a lifelong games of "outlaw and marshal." 1,500 people in what had been the Pawhuskan, was the last surviving Other American towns claim the Osage Nation only three years earlier. member of the original Scout troop. He "first" Scout troop simply because they Mitchell was a rare breed. He was the recalled the moment when the troop assembled a group of boys at the same first chaplain of the world's first Scout was unveiled to Pawhuska's time that Scouting officially began. No troop. Mitchell studied under British townspeople: "We paraded down Main city but Pawhuska can trace such an military hero Sir Robert Baden-Powell, Street, led by the Pawhuska Band. I will early and direct link with Baden-Powell who recorded his mastery of the never forget that line of boys marching and his Scouts. And Pawhuskans are outdoors in a 1907 book, Scouting for so much like little soldiers, nor the proud of that. Pawhuska's Osage &rys, a manual of skills, morals and square turns they made when they came County Historical Museum, on U.S. 60: common sense. Baden-Powell organized to a comer." has a statue of a 1909 Scout standing in troops of British boys to study his book The pride of Pawhuska spilled into a never-ending bronze salute to and learn about nature. neighboring towns. The boys attacked everyone who enters the museum. One Less than a year after Baden-Powell Scouting with the zeal of missionaries. room of the archives is devoted entirely created the world's first Scout troop, The first weekend in March, 1910, was to Boy Scout memorabilia. (The Mitchell was in Pawhuska with an spent hiking 24 miles east to Bartlesville museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. armload of Scout registration forms. to begin another troop. Most of the boys Monday through Friday .) Mitchell intended to mold frontier boys, rode ponies, while others walked and Oklahomans have a lot to be proud of as logcabin timbers, into a teeming troop hitched an occasional ride on the supply in their Scouting heritage: The of wise outdoorsmen. wagon. Joe McGuire made that journey. descendants of Reverend Mitchell's Though Mitchell's troop was "It was a long trip in those days," he single handbook have sold more than 30 American, it had a decidedly British recalled. "The roads, well, there just and a half million American copies. flare. Young voices singing "God Save weren't any roads, just a hard, rocky Pawhuska's lone troop is now 1,862 the King" (to the tune "America") trail uphill and down." The boys Scout groups across the Sooner State. IJl wafted through Pawhuska during troop assembled on the outskirts of Bartlesville meetings. The Scout handbooks were to march in triumphantly "with drums Scott CarIbetg L on the executive board of British. A Kansas City department store beating and a flag flying, 'First Boy the Cherokee Area Counil ofthe By scout^ even imported Baden-Powell uniforms Scout Troop in America."' Reverend of Arnica-and one ofthe kadns of for the American Scouts. In fact, this Mitchell had trained a troop of BartkmXe ? brgest By scout tit@.

March-April '85 23 THE WORLDACCORL

By Bob Bonebrake Fhotcgrcphs by Krk 0Smith

Oklahoma TODAY he first glimpse of a Bruce Goff build- ing can sometimes be downright star- tling, especially for those accustomed to living in L-shaped tract houses and working in high-rise glass boxes. TGoff hated the straight line. As Oklahoma's most internationally respectid gift to the world of architec- ture, he treated the conventional sizes, shapes and i building materials of his profession like despised enemies. Instead, he left houses and buildings sprinkled all over the state, and nation, guaranteed to surprise the first-time viewer. For instance, there is the Riverside Studio, built in Tulsa in the late 1920s, with its multi-story round window and ancillary windows that call to mind musical notes-and its built-in auditorium, with stage. And the otherworldly Price Studio near Bar- tlesville, complete with peaked roofs, feathered ceil- ing and exterior walls studded with chunks of blue- green glass. Then there is the Dace House in Beaver, built in 1964, with its strange angles and futuristic revolving closets. And the low-slung Frank House in Sapulpa, built for John and Grace Lee Frank, founders of Frankoma Pottery, which incorporates glazed bricks and tiles, fired in Frankoma's kilns. In 1947, Goff built the Ledbetter-Taylor House in Norman-out of materials that included dime-store ashtrays set into the exterior walls. In the same area he designed the Bavinger House around a logarith- mic spiral. The whole structure is suspended from a center mast, with rooms clinging to the center brace along the home's soaring interior. It was completed between 1950 and 1955. These buildings, some four dozen in Oklahoma and another 100 scattered across the country, (many in the heartland), are as individual as the people Goff designed them for-an oil millionaire, a turkey farmer, an art professor, a teacher, a businessman. As the architect himself once put it, "There has never been a building built before, by anyone else or myself, that my client should have; we must work it out together. If I give the client only what he asks for, he may be temporarily satisfied with it for a while, but eventually, he will just get used to it." Grace Lee Frank has never "just gotten used" to the Goff house that she and her late husband, John, built in the late '50s. "I love it," she says. "It's like my child. . . .John and I worked very closely with Mr. Goff. Since we were ceramists, we wanted a The Pni~HOUSP nies from iispramp, nrur BurtLe~vih.With the Oric*ntu/ tilt oj'its anot/izda/uminum roofs, its wu/h ojunthrurite (.oafanti turquoise- b/ue R/~JS('u//P~s, it seems u house new& imL9;ntd,from the ground up.

March-April '85 25 John and Grare Lxe Frank, founden of Frankoma Pottery, wanteda house that wouMrpf/~ctth Izndsrape and their work as reramir denign~rs.Bmce G romp/ied the extenor >ghdderks and the tihfor the hving-mom firepb~e were fired in th~Frankoma kilns. The house warfinisAPd in 1954.

26 Oklahoma TODAY house that would reflect that. We spent long hours talking with him. I can remember, he came and sat on the site hill. I wanted the house to grow out of the hill, to fit the landscape, and that is what it does. It's the opposite of French formal, but very livable. Mr. Goff always did the unusual, never the plain block." The architect of the unusual has had his share of acclaim. The Bavinger House and another building he is widely credited with, Tulsa's Boston Avenue Methodist Church, were selected in 1983 as two of the "10 Best Buildings of Oklahoma, from Early Days to the Present" by the American Institute of Architects. Without his ever having acquired a college degree, he was made a full professor at the Univeristy of Oklahoma. He became head of the school's de~artmentof architecture in 1947. holding the post until 1955 when he left Norman-first for Bartlesville, where he lived and worked in the Price Tower (designed by his early hero, Frank Lloyd Wright), then in Kansas City. In 1970, he moved to Paris, Texas. Shortly before his death, from liver failure, in August, 1982, the Japanese trade magazineA&U("Architeaureand Urban Design") ran a long and laudatory article on Goff's design style and his teaching style. A number of his students have become highly respected designers. And, on the first anniversary of his death, some 500 people participated in a "celebration'' of his life and works. Participants came to Oklahoma from 29 states and five foreign countries. I The Bavinger House, set In a ravine However, his refusal to design to the same cadence as near Norman, was built by art professor most of his peers did bring him detractors. He's been Eugene Bavinger, family and friends called a geniuebut also the "Michelangelo of Kitsch." over a five-year period. It featured In the 1950s, a Goffdesigned house was drawing "found" objects like ollwell pipe, biplane such huge crowds of critical onlookers that the owner struts and rocks from neighbors' fields-- apd "pods" hung from a central cable put a large sign out front: "We don't like your house, instead of traditional rooms. either." The Aurora, Illinois, home was constructed of

March-April'85 28 Oklahoma TODAY Opposite.The PkeHouse I.,&. Jw Price? study, at wm mated in three stages. the top of the tmrthat The living mm, wt'th its msthefiml stage in the deqi white catpet cowring house ?ewlution. The wtn- flows and shnted d, abzwmp 'W&'L itsfeathered c&g and its patterns ~andwichedbe- celophane "rain, " is part tween pbtes of ghs; the of the origrgrmlhw, de cklng is made up of alter- nhdfor Jw Price wh mtrng trhngks of mimrs he wm stil a bachelor. and andiked aluminum.

glass and chunks of coal, and according to national news reports Goff had drawn in a number of heavy safety-glass windows, which were hit with a hammer for effect. In his 1981 best-seller, From Bauhms to Our House, journalist Tom Wolfe traced the change in the American architecture from the easy, artistic style of the 1920s and 1930s to the stiff, no-frills style of the late 1940s. The result of this change was the straight, simple glass-box buildings that now dominate most American cities. "Architects who insisted on going their own way stood no chance of being hailed as a pioneer of some important new direction," Wolfe wrote. "At best, they could hope to be regarded as an eccentric, like [Eero] Saar- inen or the Oklahoma architects Bruce Goff and Her- bert Greene. Oklahoma wasn't too terrific a vantage point in the first place. At worst they would be the apostate, covered in anathema, like [Edward Durell] Stone. Stone and Saarinen, like Frank Lloyd Wright and Goff and Greene, were too American, which meant both too parochial, not part of the International Style, and too bourgeois." Stone, Saarinen and the much-loved Wright were some of the most famous names in the so-called Prairie School of architectural thought, which Goff became associated with. Greene was one of Goff's earlv students at OU. The entire group designed structuresbnly after Ledbetter (Taylor) House, "the largest taking the land it was to be built on and the person it nonathletic event in Norman's history." (Uk it.plne on the own was to be built for into consideration. The resulting MConsternation and Bewilderment in structures were marked by smooth lines and unconven- Oklahoma" and mwed that Martians tional andes.- I had landed on Brooks Street.) The Since he never designed the same building (or even its second cousin) twice, there is no such thing as a "typi- cal" Goff design. But perhaps the most striking example of his work is hidden away in a hilly, wooded area just

March-April '85 29 Right The first addition hohh a museumfor Pni-e 5 mowned cdkdim of Jap a?me art (now in storage, awaiting its new Goff- designed home in Los Angeles). The hexagonal goh!!sh pool regukztes hu- midity-and overlooks a JP~~MIPbath bplm it. 1 south of Bartlesville. The almost surrealistic Price Studio was built for one of the architect's closest friends, Joe Price, son of the pipeline magnate H. C. Price. The younger Price once admitted that he had made a conscious effort over the years to keep the house out of the public eye. Part of the reason for the secrecy might have been the almost priceless collection of Japanese art he kept there at one time. He recently agreed to donate a major portion of that collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Price's studio was begun in the late 1950s, but was expanded as Price's needs changed. In fact, the house wasn't completed until the early 1970s. A huge door, just inside the main entry, opens into an enormous thickly carpeted living room, with a sunken seating area and almost no other furniture. The door itself is hinged in the middle to revolve. In the art- display area there is a star-shaped pool, which, oddly enough, has a glass bottom visitors can see through- into one of the home's bathrooms. The house has all this. along with thousands of blue glass cullets, a byproduct 'of inchustrial glassmaking, dec- orating the exterior walls. During the day the house can The Dace House, built in 1964 at the give the impression of being a pile of bright blue dia- l edge of a subdivision in Beaver, is an I monds, as the glass chunks. about the size of softballs. elementary composition in ge0metiic catch the solids-designed to mirror wide-open Panhandle spaces. Its exterior colors During the 1983 Goff "celebration," Price allowed are deep red and lightpink; its three the public into the home for the first time. He admitted level interior holds a two-story dining that his busy schedule kept him away from the house so area, with skylight and 8-foot mirrored much he was considering getting rid of it. Since then a taMe, and a second-story living area group of former students and present admirers of Goff with panOnmic mas- sive cylinders on the sides contain revolv- and his work have banded together to take over the ing dosets for the bedrooms.) house, with plans to make it into a Bruce Goff museum. - The effort is being aided by the OU school of architec-

Oklahoma TODAY ture. Their goal is to raise $750,000 to cover upkeep. collection. Price donated $5 million to make sure the Price has expressed his support for the effort, and his wing is completed. work to help start the museum isn't all he is doing to keep As Goff's final work nears groundbrealung, his first Goff's work alive. In fact, he is currently working to major solo work can still be viewed in Tulsa. At the make sure one of Goff's final designs becomes reality. intersection of 1lth Street and Owasso, near a tiny public Just before he died, Goff began work on a $6 don park, sits the Adah Robinson House. wing for the Los Angels museum, to house Price's art Goff completed the design for his high-school art

-- Punster, Painter, Educator ruce Alonzo Goff spent 66 years working in the field of my cat for 18 years, who taught me the beauty of relaxation and who architecture. He was apprenticed to the Tulsa firm of Rush, knew 'the secrets of the Egyptians' but never told." BEndacott and Rush in 1916, when he was 12; in 1929 the name But it is as a teacher that most seem to remember him. Take became Rush, Endacott and Goff. On the day he died, Aug. 4, 1982, Takenobu Mohri, who came from Japan to speak at the memorial he had just returned from a site inspection in Japan. service for Goff last June. Today, Mohri is one of Japan's most But it isn't only as an architect that Goff's admirers500 of honored architects. In 1949, he was living in poverty in an underground whom gathered last June to celebrate his life-remember him. They shelter in Tokyo; his family's home had been lost in an air raid. also seem to honor him as a painter, a teacher, a raconteur, even an He had a degree from Tokyo University, but no chance of inspiration. . . . working in an architect's office. Then one day, in an American library He came to the University of Oklahoma as a professor of housed in a barracks, he found the work of Bruce Goff, in a 1947 copy architecture in 1947-without so much as a college degree. The story of ArchitecturalFonrm. "I don't remember how long I was enchanted goes that a wealthy Tulsa couple had offered to send him to MIT and with the world in the book," he said, "but I was awakened by a lady the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. His parents pushed him to accept; saying that the library was going to be closed soon. Next day, I visited Goff balked and wrote to his heroes, Louis there again and copied all articles by hand Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, for sup $and read them one line and another with a port. Sullivan answered promptly: "I have 2dictionary." had precisely that same education you speak Diffidently, he wrote to Goff at OU, of, in Boston and in Paris, and have spent not expecting an answer. But soon an answer my entire lifetime trying to live it down. I came. "Every word in the letter grabbed my can't see what anyone would want with it." heart," Mohri said. (It read, in part, "We Wright replied: "If you want to lose Bruce have the only school of architecture in the Goff, go to school." world which starts with the beginning and The school of architecture that Goff allows individuals the freedom of developing created at OU became a lodestone for stu- themselves creatively. . . .") dents from all over the world. Jerri Hodges Storerooms worth of red tape had to be Bonebrake, for seven years the school's cut before a Japanese national could come to and Goff'ssecretary, has said, "He had the U.S. In the end, Goff had to sign on as truly a God-given gift in the way that he Mohri's official sponsor. He spent three could touch his students and somehow chal- years at OU studying with Bruce Goff. lenge them to compete to be the very best Almost 40 years later, his voice fils with imaginative and creative individuals that emotion when he speaks of his teacher. they could be." "I don't know how to express in Eng- She also recalls his gift as a storyteller: lish-the word 4indw.r.rseems so insufficient "Mr. Goff never learned to drive, and it was for all he had done for me. Three years in a real privilege to drive him somewhere- this school totally determined my career, Dallas, for instance. Then you would have and it's almost impossible to imagine my life him all to yourself." without Mr. Goff. Bill Peavler, another Goff student, "I am the first architect in Japan (I recalls Goff's love of punsand of bright should say 'first boy') who knew the colors and unconventional dress. At OU it was turtlenew swearers, name or aruce borr. G-0-F-F. Mysterious name, Bruce Goff. But cardigan coats and blue-suede shoes. Later, in 1979, he showed up for now, after 35 years, most Japanese architects not only know him but an interview in a green velvet suit and a Zuni bolo tie. admire him very highly as a god. (Listening to Peavler's tapes of that interview gives a taste of what "When I was asked to speak in such a big occasion, I thought it must have been like to be with Bruce Goff. Portions of them-with first, 'English speech! Oh, no, absolutely not!' But later a very strong long Goff quotesappear in "Bruce Goff's Riverside Music Studio," responsibility and duty grew up in my mind. I sincerely wish to share in Of the Earth Oklahoma Architectural Histoty, published by the my thanks to Mr. Goff with my friends here." Oklahoma Historical Society. There you can hear Goff tell tales of OU's College of Architecture is establishing the Bruce Alonzo Czech-Indian artist Olinka Hrdy-and of one Mrs. Robert FOXGoff Professorship of Creative Architecture; an endowment of $300,000 MacArthur's artistic exhortations to a group of Italian plasterers.) is needed to support the chair. All donations are welcome, and the first By all accounts, he was a storyteller, a painter, a lifelong friend of 300 who give $1,000 or more will receive a portfolio of color prints of Frank Lloyd Wright and Duke Ellington, a lover of Debussy's Goff's paintings. For more information, write the College of Architec- music-and cats. (He once dedicated a portfolio of prints, "To Chia, ture, 180 W. Brooks, Norman, OK 73069. -Kate Jones A h The study. Pn'ce wnted 'hamunding whkh catahzes matiw pffbrt by being the mind to mam at d wthout the hr&s ofprmncetixd notions, customs and &&ti. "Goffs re@nse to that vin'on. a fusion of smne space and jpweLdke detail

32 Oklahoma TODAY teacher in 1926, when he was only 22. Miss Robinson you sell me your house?' They said the design of the was something of a legend around Tulsa. As head of art house made it a little uncomfortable for a family. They departments at Tulsa's Central High School and the finally decided to sell, and I have owned it ever since. University of Tulsa, she taught a number of artists and "It is about a 1,400-square-foot house, and more than architects who later became respected professionals. half of the living area is in this one beautiful studio room. About 10 years ago, one of Goff's students at OU, It has almost no kitchen. But it is a super old house. Thomas Thixson, was looking for a house when he Bruce was an unusual guy. He was 100 years ahead of I remembered the old place. everybody else. Today you see some of the stuff he did 20 "I just loved the look of that house," he says now. years ago and you think it's futuristic." "One day I drove up in front of it and walked up to the door. There was no 'For Sale' sign out front or anything Bob Bonebrake iG buJiness editor at the Tulsa World. Kirk Smith like that. As far as I know the people that owned it had no nmLWJ in Tda, but hsp~nta number ofyears klivg and thought of selling. "I just walked up and said, 'Would mrking in Japan. The CJa~elThat Never Was n July 1950 premier architectural photographer Julius Shulman patterns of stone and reflected compositions from the "Gemmeau" visited the school of architecture on the north campus of Okla- sandwich glass panels. Ihoma University. He came to photograph the model of the pre The tri-axial ~lanfor the cha~ellent considerable freedom for posed Crystal Chapel, designed by Bruce Goff, then chairman of the movement in and out of the spacious, airy auditorium. As visitors department. Several students, led by B. Dicastri, Bob Overstreet and entered the chapel through a low vestibule, the illusion of mass and Blaine Imel, all now practicing architects, had constructed the model space should have been enchanting. Strands of silver chain and glass, based on Goff's drawings. The images that Shulman captured pow- suspended from the apex of the chapel, were designed to lend a sense erfully suggested a building already constructed, with outstanding of stability as a counterpoint to the many-angled lanes of the interior. beauty and harmony. Natural wood pews were arranged facing a central speakers' area, The model suffered some damage while it was displayed at the their hues combining warmth with light filtering through rose-tinted original location, and even more during its move to a new site on the glass. main campus. While awaiting repair it was exiled to the "morgue," A support building nestled near the angular and pyramidal where it languished alongside works by former students. At that time chapel. It, too, maintained the crystaltine character of the chapel, but the school of architecture was located under the stadium bleachers at its lines were low and intimate to the terrain, providing a nice con- the football field, so security was not the best. During a break-in, trast. This building was to contain meeting rooms, lounge, offices, intruders climbed over a wall between the bleachers and the storage mechanical and electrical facilities, bathrooms and other areas. Two area and fell onto the model. Destruction was complete, and repairs pyramidal towers of elongated masonry, surmounted with metal were never made. Shulman's famous photographs, published in open-work, punctuated the assembly of structures. The tallest tower, countless architectural magazines and books around the world, along 175 feet above ground level, created the necessary focal point to draw with the architect's archival drawings, are all that remain of the people to the chapel. Crystal Chapel. At different seasons and different times of day, the structures The proposed chapel was created at the request of donors who would assume ever-changing appearances. From the nighttime glow wanted to produce a memorial to relatives. It was to be non- of evening activity to the soft, icy cloak of fresh snow, from spring denominational, of inspirational architecture, ensconced on a conven- twining of nearby flowers and trees to the show of colors of autumn ient part of the campus and available to all students and faculty. trees and mingling football crowds, the Crystal Chapel would have- Materials that were "married" by the design were native Okla- been a delightful sight. As reported in The ArchteraFom of July homa pink granite, rose-tinted "sandwich" glass panels, metal struc- 1950, "based on other wordly wonder-the end result is a crystalline tural members and concrete. Pools of water were to serve as reflective purity of emotion." surfaces, as temperature and humidity control assistance and as divid- After viewing the model, the donor declined to fund the devel- ing elements between the buildings and greenery. Reflections of the opment of the Crystal Chapel and proceeded with construction of a pink triangular granite supports in the adjacent pools created new conventional period building. dimensions of the immediate exterior and interior masses. Glass and -Bill Peavler, AIA, Senior Preserva- granite forms situated in the water were transformed into diamond tion Architect, Oklahoma Historical Society.

EXPENSES ""Boarders are charged seven dollars and fifty cents per month. TVc lodging, fuel, lights, washing, tuition and text-books. Instrumental mus dollars. Vocal music, per month, five dollars.

- was a day that 12-year-old Polly Charlotte Mayes Sanders, 92, and Jack of Cherokee children. Subsequent trea- Nelson would remember forever. Brown 96, all of Tahlequah, and Jane ties set aside more lands. Polly, her sister, Ruby, and the Bailey Robertson, 90, of Wagoner. Of The Trail of Tears brought most of IChaney girls left Nowata that the four, Mrs. Hancock knew only Mrs. the Cherokees to Oklahoma from their early fall morning in 1903. With Polly's Sanders, whom she remembered as hav- ancesual lands in Georgia. In Tahlequah Uncle George Martin, the girls were off ing been "a beautiful Indian girl." on July 12, 1839, they readopted their to the Cherokee National Female Semi- constitution, named John Ross principal nary in Tahlequah. chief and made Tahlequah their capital. They were so excited that Polly doesn't In 1841, the Cherokees established 11 remember if leaving her parents was a public schools, and on Nov. 26,1846, the problem. They traveled by train from National Council voted to establish two Nowata to Fort Gibson, where they had seminaries, one for males and one for a two-hour layover before continuing to females. Tahleguah. Construction began in 1847, and the The girls were in awe of the mam- seminaries opened on May 7, 1850, a moth arched and turreted building that red-letter day in Cherokee history that is would be their home for the next three still celebrated. Plans for the buildings years. And after saying goodbye to Uncle were the same. The female seminary was George in the parlor, they went to their at Park Hill, three miles southeast of room on the second floor and watched as Tahlequah and now the site of the Chere he descended the steps and walked down kee Cultural Center. The male seminary the long path toward the street. was a little closer to town. Then they began to cry. Here they The model for the female seminary were, the four of them, in a brand-new was Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. world, a boarding school with more than Po& Nehon trddby wagon to the sm'mry in The tribe sent two of its leading men, 165 other girls they didn't know. They 1903 and stayed ti/l 1906. EjgAty years hter, David Vann and William P. Ross, had to find their way around the build- the am th &s she'd kke mart to rekw. nephew of the chief, to Mount Holyoke ing, learn the rules and get acquainted to study that institution. As a result, with all the other students and the If you talk to alumni of the Cherokee many of the early teachers were Mount teachers. It was frightening, but before Indian seminaries, you find that all con- Holyoke graduates, and the curriculum long they began to feel at home. It was a sider their time there something very was virtually the same. period in her life that Polly Nelson would special. And the seminaries wm special, It was a classic education with curric- cherish forever. And now, at 94, those unique for the time and the territory. ula for primary, intermediate and aca- three years are the ones she would like No Indian tribe showed more interest demic courses. Emphasis during primary most to relive. in education than the Cherokees. Scots- years was on reading, writing, spelling, On May 7,1984, Polly Nelson Han- men are thought to have been the first to geography and arithmetic. The interme- cock returned to Tahlequah for the an- plant the seeds of white civilization in the diate curriculum added history, Latin, nual reunion of alumni of the male and tribe. Even at the end of the Revolution- rhetoric. The academic curriculum in- female seminaries that were established ary War, the treaty of Hopewell shows cluded bookkeeping, elocution and phy- by the Cherokee Nation in 1850. She considerable advance in the Cherokee siology, English literature, history, logic, hadn't been to the reunion in 15 or 20 civilization. science and mental philosophy, political years, and she wondered if she would see In 1819, a treaty with the United economy, the constitutions of the United anyone she knew. States set apart a valuable tract of their States and the Cherokee Nation. Mrs. Hancock was one of five alums lands. Proceeds from its sale were to be The seminaries closed during the attending the reunion in 1984. The oth- invested, and earnings from the invest- bloody and disruptive Civil War. When ers were Annie Chair Thompson, 89; ments were to be used for the education the female seminary reopened in 1875, its new principal was A. Florence Wilson, "rhythmic exercises" instead. donated by local businessmen. When it who remained for 26 years and became The female seminary at Park Hill reopened in 1889, Miss Wilson returned something of a legend, even in her own burned on April 10, 1887. It was rebuilt as the principal. In 1900, the National time. with a $60,000 appropriation at the Council elected her principal for life, but In their little memorial book, A. Nor- northern edge of Tahlequah on land she retired in 1901.

~ ~ Polly Nelson missed A. Florence Wil- ence..... Wihon Fiendand Teacher., A~ublished in 1951, Lola Garrett Bowers and Kath- son by two years. But Polly remembers leen Garrett recalled Miss Wilson: "There an imposing character, a teacher, Minta in her black tailored dress with its white Foreman. "She was tall, straight, haughty collar and cuffs, she stood each fall at the looking, and when she'd walk down the foot of the stairs or walked with dignity hall, it would scare me to death," she up and down the halls and watched the recalled. Janana Ballard was her first girls gathering under her tutelege." They teacher. "I just loved her," Polly Nelson Aso recalled that early in her tenure at I I Hancock recalled 8 1 years later. the female seminary, Miss Wilson had a And she remembers the walks after daily ritual of preventive health care. She school: "We went every afternoon unless stood at the door of the dining room and it was stormy, walking two and two. administered a daily dose of sulphur and There were so many of us it seems to me molasses for the "general health" of the 2 we stretched for miles when we walked girls. all over Tahlequah. The teachers took Miss Wilson also inaugurated the -s x 3 turnabout going along to keep us in school's legendary walks, which all the line." Like the memories, the habit of girls were required to take right after walking has stuck with Mrs. Hancock.

classes each day. Because local ministers -, - -- She thinks nothing of walking the seven opposed dancing, Miss Wilson's girls did I heart). HHPTkgdry mign kutedfor 26Gars. blocks to the business district of Del City,

36 Oklahoma TODAY ---.- - - - .- .. - - . > --.- - .----.------good health at 94 to exercise, including I only once, three years ago when she hurt her back. For a long time after she first went to the seminary Polly was at the head of her class. She was an especially good speller but not so good in sewing. And when sewing grades were averaged in, Polly fell back in class standing. She's still bit- ter about it: "I don't think that sewing should have been counted in with other subjects." Aside from that, her memories are bright and happy. Take the time four of thegirls decided on a Saturday afternoon to climb the clock tower. "If we'd gotten caught, we'd have been expelled,'' she said. "We got up there and looked down, and it scared me to death. Going up wasn't nearly as bad as coming down." Her most daring infraction of the rules, however, occurred when one of the older girls persuaded Polly to stand guard while L she slipped down the fire escape to meet her boyfriend. It was a risky thing for Polly to do, but even riskier for the girl who slipped out. Neither of them was caught, but she still wonders what would have happened if they had. Polly, one-eighth Indian on her moth- er's side, can still recall a typical day at the seminary. They got up early, dressed and went to the dining room for break- fast, having maybe fried apples, biscuits, butter, bacon and jelly. "They fed us good. We took turns waiting tables. There was a teacher or a matron at the tion creating the seminaries, it said, "Each couldn't pay, according to Mrs. Han- head of each table. We had to be on our of the teachers is requested to be a believer cock. They worked for their board and best behavior." in the Christian religion." lived on the top floor. After breakfast, they'd have to clean Classes began after chapel and went Discipline was maintained through a their rooms or they'd get demerits. Polly's straight through until lunch and took up demerit system. If you broke the rules, sister, Ruby, always kept their room very again. There were no recesses, although you'd get demerits, and 10 meant expul- clean, so that was not a worry. (Charlotte there were chances for the students to sion. Young Polly Nelson never got any Mayes Sanders recalled that sometimes play basketball, tennis or otherwise get demerits, but only because she didn't get teachers would show up wearing white physical activity. When classes ended at caught, she recalls. gloves, and the girls fared a lot better if 3:30 p.m., the daily walk began. They In 1906, the Cherokee National Coun- their gloves were still clean when they'd usually returned to the campus just in cil sold the female seminary to the new finished inspection.) time for the evening meal. After that, state of Oklahoma, and it became the nu- Following room inspection, the stu- there was study hall, and at 9 p.m., it was cleus of Northeastern State Normal School, dents were required to go to chapel, lights out. now Northeastern State University. where there was reading of scriptures, A unique aspect of the seminary was When the Cherokees sold the female prayers and songs. Teachers took turns that it was tuition free; however, the girls seminary to the state, Polly and Ruby readingthe Bible. In fact, when the Chere did have to pay $7.50 per month for Nelson returned to Nowata and con- kee National Council enacted the legisla- board. Even so, there were some who tinued their education in Coffeyville,

March-April '85 37 Kansas. But school was never the same. lented. She attended the co-ed seminary remain. And when the last alum is gone, She remembers that her parents took I until it burned in 1910, almost 23 years their descendants will continue to have a them out of the seminary because the after the female seminary at Park Hill reunion every May 7th to commemorate Cherokees sold it. But the tribe made the was destroyed by fire. a red-letter day in Cherokee history. Ell male seminary co-ed, and some parents When the Cherokee seminaries closed, took their children out for that reason. a very special era of quality education in Charlotte Mayes Sanders recalled that Oklahoma ended. Junetta Davtj teaches magazzZZmat-trkk her parents didn't want her and her sister But for those alumni of the seminaries, wn'ting at tht UnI;wrJi~of ORhAoma going to a co-ed school, but later re- the memories of how special they were ScAooI of JoumliGrn.

Indian Education :AReport Card n 1905, seeing that statehood was inevitable, the Creek Nation reduced absenteeism and dropouts. More Indian students are com- turned over its boarding school at Eufaula to the U.S. Department pleting high school and going on to college than did before these Iof Interior. The DOI's Bureau of Indian Affairs kept the facility assistance programs were inaugurated. as a dormitory and sent the Indian children to Eufaula public Homan said that the retention rate for Indian students statewide schools. has increased by 75 percent and that absenteeism is down to the Now, almost 80 years later, the Creek Nation has reassumed statewide average for all students. operation of the dormitory through the selfdetermination act and These federal programs also provide funding for workshops and the Creeks' contract with the BIA. (The self-determination act of conferences to train paraprofessionals to work in them. These 1974 provided for tribes to take over the operation of programs- workshops may also provide leadership training for Indian students schools, hospitals and other health services-that had been operated or instruction in the sciences, computers or language arts. by the BIA.) The dormitory has around 130 Indian children in A model Title IV program for Indian students has operated in grades one through 12, most of whom are Creek. In the past two the Shawnee public schools since 1973. Chloe Rhoads, Title IV years, the Creek Nation has taken over all BIA programs in director at Shawnee, said that in 1973, there were 433 Indian Okmulgee, including the Indian health service and the operation of students involved in her program, but that one out of every 20 quit the Creek Nation Community Hospital in Okemah. school before the year was out. Worse, only seven Indian students The Creek Nation's assumption of control of the Eufaula graduated in the class of 1974. By 1978, there were 629 Indian dormitory is an example of the changes taking place in a segment of students involved in the program. The Indian dropout rate fell to Indian education in Oklahoma. .004 percent, and 27 Indian students graduated. Graduates increased The Choctaws are in the process of contracting with the BIA to 30 and then to 38. for control of the Jones Academy at Hartshome. The Chickasaws These programs are funded according to assessed need, and have contracted for the Carter Seminary at Ardmore, and the there must be parental involvement. Currently, Rhoads sees the Cherokees have proposed to contract for the Sequoyah School at pendulum swinging back and increased apathy on the part of Tahlequah. students and their parents. She is trying to think of ways to counter The Creek management of the programs formerly handled by this trend. BIA is a model for other tribal governments, Gary Breshears, These programs use Indians as tutors and counselors, and they executive director of the Creek Nation, said. He added that the have been useful in motivating Indian students. In the Norman Title self-determination act has breathed new life into tribal government, IV program, director Mary Alexander employs Indian students at which had been practically nonexistent. the University of Oklahoma as tutors and counselors. These are historic changes for Indian education. They follow by "Their schedules are flexible, and they are excellent role 13 years two laws that brought improvements in the quality of Indian models," she said. There's not much of a dropout problem in education. These were the Indian Education Act, which provided Nonnan, and most who graduate from high school go on to college funds under its Title IV for tutoring and counseling of Indian or take vocational-technical training. In addition to the tutoring, the students in the public schools, and the Johnson-O'Malley Act, which programs in the various schools sometimes offer summer sessions provides educational support funds to parents for school supplies, fees with special courses. For instance, Norman offered a cultural and extracurricular activities. program in the summer, including Indian arts and crafts. The Title IV program currently serves 74,000 students of So the new day that dawned almost 13 years ago for Indian Indian descent in the state, and Johnson-O'Malley funds go to 7,100 education has brought new vitality. And the new day on the horizon students. To get Johnson-O'Malley funds, the student must be at for tribal-run education offers bright promise. Chief Ross Swimmer least onequarter Indian; Title IV programs are for all students of of the Cherokees said his tribe can go one of three ways when it takes Indian descent. over Sequoyah School, probably next fall. It can operate it as a vo- There are 321 school districts in the state that have Title IV tech facility, continue to operate it as a traditional day school, or open programs, and 102 have Johnson-O'Malley funding, according to it as a first-class private boarding school reminiscent of the seminaries Sam Homan, director of Indian education for the Oklahoma Indian that operated in the Indian nations before statehood. Affairs Commission. Homan's agency provides guidance to school If the Cherokees choose the third option, an era of quality districts that want to apply for these programs and helps them education for Indians may yet return to Oklahoma. implement new programs. These tutorial

Oklahoma TODAY YES! Enter my subscription today! I enclose my check for $-. Please charge $ to my: New Renewal OVISA qMastercard, Interbank # Card # Name Exp. date Address Authorized card signature: City, State, Zip Code One year (six issues), $10; two years, $19; three, $28. Over- seas subscriptions, $1 3/year. Donor address: For fastest service, use our toll-free number for credit-card charges. Call 1-800-652-6552 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays, in Oklahoma and surrounding states. Oklahoma TODAY P.O. Box 53384 Oklahoma City, OK 73152 PHILLIP RADCLIFFE Phil]$ Radclzfe was raised in Tulsa andfirst used a camera his senior year in hzgh school. 'Y took a photography course, "he says, 'hnd the instructor used a couple of us to shoot soron'ty parties, at $100 a nkht." ABer several years of free-lancing, in 1973 he moved to Los Angeles and studied flm technique at the Art Center College of Deslgn. He still works in film. 'Y see myselfkind of vacdlating between motion-picture and stdlphotography, " he says. "They 're not similar at aN -totally dzferent. One you collaborate on; in film you 're reponsiblefor your part of it -camera work or whatever -but you don't control the whole product. In photography you 're working for yourse& you 're responsible for the image you 're making.'' He and his wz?, Katie, came home to Tulsa in 1979, mainly because they wanted to rahe a family: "I thought the environment here was much more livable than the West Coast, a goodplace for a chiu to grow up." They have one daughter, Chelsea Lee. Much of his work in Tulsa has been om menial, though he's also shot for Tu/sa magazine and Continental Hen'tage Press, which sent him to Anchorage, Pensacola, Phoenix and Grand Rapidsfor books on those cities. He wants to do more magazine work: 'Y enjoy being on location, going out and creating an essay out of what I see, as opposed to trying to put it aN into one shot, the way you do in commercial work. It's very dzficult to go in one time and capture people's lives. When they see that you 're not going to be there for 15 minutes, then disappear, they get to be at ease with you andgo about their business, instead of being so posed That's when the best shots come."

SWAh INTHEARKANSAS River Parks, Tulsa

Oklahoma TODAY TULSA RUN NEXT 7WO PAGES. SPRING CREEK DowntownTulsa Locust Grove

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March-April '85 43 OKLAHOMA PORTFOLIO

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44 Oklahoma TODAY and Theatre Tulsa, which won with an camp on the shore of the South Canadian. original work by Oklahoma playwright The next morning, the wagon train Here's a foliage tour with a difference: A James Vance in 1981. Tulsa Little Theatre crosses the river at 24th Street, travels up chance to view blooming dogwood and placed second nationally in 1973, and in 24th Street to Main and meets the rest of the redbud from the back of your own horse in 1979, Shawnee Little Theatre took the '89er Day parade to march east down Main the heart of Oklahoma's southeastern second-place honors. Street. mountains. The Heavener Chamber of A pre-registration fee of $40 for the state In additon to the river crossing- and Commerce is sponsoring a Dogwood Trail festival ($50 at the door) or $45 for the parade, there is also a chili cookoff on the Ride April 19-21 at the Cedar Lake Region VI festival ($50 after April 5) covers 20th, and beard-growing and '89er Day Recreation Area, 13 miles south of Heavener admission to all plays, theater after-parties costume contests the day before at Sooner in the Ouachita National Forest. and the awards brunch. A "blanket" play Fashion Mall The trail ride is free to the public- ticket is available for the Region VI For more information and specific times the Chamber of Commerce and the Cedar festival-it covers admission for the five plays for the events, contact the Norman Chamber Lake Recreation Area provide an equestrian only. Individual tickets to the regional of Commerce, (405) 321-7260. camp with picket lines and camping sites, festival are available at the door for $5 per showers, guides (if you would like one) and play. marked trails through 30,000 acres of For more information, contact the forested mountains. The only things you Oklahoma Community Theatre Association, The Tulsa Convention Center will seem provide are your horse and equipment. (405)235-9508, or the Bartlesville like bowlers' heaven when the American The trail rides usually start around 9 a.m. Community Center, (918) 337-2787. For a Bowling Congress National Championship and go on all day. The Cedar Lake brochure about the Region VI festival in Tournament visits the Sooner State for a 107- Recreation Area is located 13 miles south of Tulsa, contact Actors Theatre, P.O. Box day stay. Heavener on U.S. 59. For more 2116,Tulsa, OK74101 orcall(918) Starting February 9 and continuing information, contact the Heavener Chamber 7494488. through May 26, more than 30,000 bowlers of Commerce, (918) 6531303. will compete day and night in 5-man teams, singles and doubles. The tournament is open to any ABC-sanctioned bowler; the convention center will be converted into a Ordinarily, you would have to travel all 40-lane bowling alley to accommodate almost over the state to see a sampling of 300 bowlers a day. Oklahoma's best community theater Other events taking place during the companies. But March 1-3, Oklahomans tournament include Convention Week, will get a rare opportunity to see some of when 13,000 delegates from around the Oklahoma's best theater wheq the country will meet to vote on bowling Bartlesville Theatre Guild hosts the legislation, and Hall of Fame night, March Oklahoma Festival of American Community 19, when four or five ABC members will be Theatre. inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame- Theater groups from Oklahoma City, right on the tournament lanes. Tulsa, Stillwater, Ponca City, Ardmore, The ABC Masters Tournament will be Shawnee, Durant, Enid and Lawton will held May 7-1 1. Close to 500 bowlers will participate in the festival. Performances start play in qualifying rounds May 7 and 8; the Friday at 2 p.m., and continue Saturday top five bowlers will meet for the televised starting at 10 a.m. The winner will be finals Saturday, May 1lth. announced Sunday at an awards brunch. Spectactors are welcome to the events, but The winner of the state festival will there is a small admission fee. For more advance to the Region VI Festival of information, contact ABC Tournament American Community Theatre, to be held manager Hal Kaminski at (918) 5924363. in Tulsa April 12-14 at the Performing Arts By Kim Edwards Center. There, Oklahoma's best will Norman will be celebrating '89er Day in compete against state winners from Texas, an authentic way April 20 with a Wagon Next Issue: Travel to Nardin, a little town New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana for Train River Crossing that recreates the Run with a big reunion; a powwow in Miami; the honor of traveling to the national festival. of '89 for participants and onlookers alike. and by bicycle across Oklahoma with The Festival of American Community The group of 50 wagons and outriders Freewheel '85. Visit a watery campus at the Theatre has been in existence since 1971 and those who make the trip on horseback rather Biological Research Station at Lake is held every two years. Out of the six than in wagonsmeet in Sulphur about a Texoma-and the state's 0thborder national festivals that have been held, week before the big day. A few break down phenomenon, the Panhandle town of Oklahoma has produced two first-place and or drop out of the train on the 67-mile trip to Texhoma (that's with an Q mind you). two second-place winners. The first-place Norman, but the majority roll into Norman All in the May-June issue of OdhAoma winners were Tulsa Little Theatre in 1971 April 19 to circle the wagons and make TODAY.

March-April '85 "6 Rms Riv Vu," Pott. County Prod. Co., Attic Thea- tre, Shawnee ART EXHIBITS "The Poison Tree," Black Liberated Arts Center, OKC "Bells Are Ringing," Gaslight Dinner Theatre, Tulsa "1,000 AD: Vikings in America," Omniplex, Kirk- "Antigone," Tulsa Alliance for Classical Theatre, patrick Center, OKC Phoenix Theatre, Tulsa "The Artistry of Vanessa Morgan," Southern Plains "The Music Man," Holmburg Hall, OU, Norman Indian Museum, Anadarko "Getting Out," Studio Theatre, OU, Norman "Songs of Glory: Medieval Art from 900-1500," Okla. "A Doll's House," Theatre Guild, Community Cen- Museum of Art, OKC ter, Bartlde Three Valley Cover-Up Quilt Show, Choctaw Nation "The Ransom of Red Chief," Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa Complex, Durant Pueblo Pottery and Hopi Kachina Show, Gilcrease APRIL 2 "Mark Twain on Tour," St. Gregory's College Com- Museum, Tulsa mons, Shawnee Drawings and Paintings by Dean P. Bldgd,Bart- 2-5 "Livin' De Lie," Southeastern Theatre, Durant lett Center, OSU, Stillwater 4-13 "Brighton Beach Memoirs," Little Theatre, Shawnee Sculptors' Drawings, 1910-1980, from the Whitney 11-14 & 17-20 "Working," Mummers Theatre, Stage Center, OKC Museum, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa 11-14 "The Glass Menagerie," Cameron Little Theatre, Lawton Works of Judy Sampter and Jean Ann Whiteman, 11-28 "The Seven-Year Itch," Jewel Box Theatre, OKC Kirkpatrick Center, OKC 12-14 Region VI Festival of American Community Theatre, Featherwork by David Kline, Southern Plains Indian Performing Arts Center, Tulsa Museum, Anadarko 14 Children's Theatre, Sooner Theatre, Norman /-June2 "Spiro Mounds," Student Union, OSU, Stillwater 18-20 "Heaven Can Wait," Little Theatre, Ardmore 12-21 "Quilts, Cars & Trains," Pioneer Museum and Art 18-20 "Agnes of God," Southeastern Theatre, Durant Center, Woodward 18-20 "Romeo & Juliet," Seretean Center, OSU, Stillwater 14-May 12 Edgar Heap of Birds, Museum of Art, OU, Norman 19-21 & 26-28 "Ceremo~esin Dark Old Men," Black Liberated Arts 29-June 7 "Ageless We Dance," Travertine Nature Center, Center, OKC Chickasaw Recreation Area, Sulphur 19-21 & 24-27 "Something's Afoot," Rupel Jones Theatre, OU, Norman 24-28 "When Are You Coming Back, Red Ryder?" Studio DRAMA , ;;",~4~:?5~~ Theatre, OU, Norman >-.- .*<$.=&%LQ L 25-28 "Barefoot in the Park," Town & Gown Theatre, Stillwater MARCH "True West," Seretean Center, OSU, Stillwater 25-28 "Snow White," Theatre Norman, Sooner Theatre, Nor- Oklahoma Festival of American Community Theatre, man Community Center, Bartlesville 26-May 25 "Peter Pan," American Theatre Co., Performing Arts "Bus Stop," Delaware Playhouse, Tulsa Center, Tulsa "Mornings at Seven," Jewel Box Theatre, OKC 26-May 5 "Send Me No Flowers," Theatre Tulsa, Delaware "Our Town," Lawton Community Theatre Playhouse, Tulsa "The Music Man," Ponca Playhouse, Ponca City "Oedipus Rex," American Theatre Co., Brook Thea- tre, Tulsa "Quilters," Mummers Theatre, Stage Center, OKC "An Evening of One Acts," Little Theatre, Muskogee "Troubled Times," American Indian Theatre, Tulsa MARCH 2,7 & 9 "Tosca," Tulsa Opera, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa "All the Way Home," National Theatre of the Deaf, 3 OSU Symphony Orchestra, Seretean Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa OSU, Stillwater "Cactus Flower," Cabaret Supper Theatre, Fort Sill 3 & 5 Okla. Symphony Classics Concert, Civic Center, OKC

46 Oklahoma TODAY St. Louis Brass Quintet, Kirkpatrick Aud., OCU, 23-28 Festival of the Arts, Myriad Gardens, OKC OKC 27 Run For The Arts Festival, Payne Co. Courthouse, Okla. Symphony Orchestra, Ramona Community Stillwater Theatre, Frederick American Spirit Dance Performance, Kirkpatrick Aud., OCU, OKC INDIAN EVENTS Fred Waring Group, Scottish Rite Temple, Guthrie Okla. Symphony POPS Concert, Civic Center, OKC Chamber Concert, Ballet Oklahoma, Stage Center, MARCH 16 Benefit Powwow, Native American Center, OKC OKC 25-29 13th Annual Symposium on the American Indian, New York Chamber Soloists, Performing Arts Center, NSU, Tahlequah Tulsa Tulsa Philharmonic with Alicia Del Larrocha, Per- APRIL 20 Spring Powwow, Lloyd Noble Center, Norman forming Arts Center, Tulsa 20 Benefit Powwow, Native American Center, OKC Okla. Symphony Classics Concert, Civic Center, OKC Robert Merrill & Roberta Peters, Holmburg Hall, RODEOS & OU. Norman HORSE EVENTS Dance Horizons, Rupel Jones Theatre, OU, Norman Okla. Symphony POPS Concert with the Four Aces & Four Freshmen, Civic Center, OKC 8-9 Cameron Aggie Club Open Rodeo, Great Plains Coli- Piano & Voice Festival, Eastern Oklahoma State Col- seum, Lawton lege, Wiburton 16 Blue Ribbon Quarter Horse Futurity Trials, Blue Bach's Bminor Mass, Accademia Filarmonica, Sooner Ribbon Downs, Sallisaw Theatre, Norman 23-24 Wichita Mountains Quarter Hone Show, Great Pla~ns OSU Masterworks Chorus & Okla. Sinfonia Orches- Coliseum, Lawton tra, Seretean Concert Hall, OSU, Stillwater APRIL 13-14 OK Paint Horse Club Show, State Fairgrounds, OKC Okla. Symphony presents National Symphony Orches- 18-20 Azalea Festival Rodeo, Muskogee Co. Fairgrounds, tra, Civic Center, OKC Muskogee Tulsa Philharmonic Special, Performing Arts Center, 19-21 Dogwood Trail Rides, Cedar Lake Recreation Area, Tulsa Heavener OSU Masterworks Chorus & Okla. Sinfonia Orches- 26-28 Indian Nations Hunter-Jumper Horse Show, State tra, Williams Center, Tulsa Fairgrounds, OKC Southcentral Regional Competition of the American College Dance Festival, Rupel Jones Theatre, OU, Norman Bill Gaither Trio, Myriad, OKC Dance Gala, Rupel Jones Theatre, OU, Norman APRIL 5-6 Okla. Symphony POPS Concert with Rich Little, "All Systems Go," Kirkpatrick Planetarium, OKC Civic Center, OKC American Bowling Congress Tournament, Conven- 9 Okla. Symphony Young Artist Competition Winner tion Center, Tulsa Concert, Okla. Christian College Aud., OKC Greater Tulsa Boat and Recreation Show, Expo Square, 13-14 "Le Beau Danube," Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Performing Tulsa Arts Center, Tulsa 1985 NCAA Wrestling Championships (Div. I), 14 Boys Choir of Harlem, Black Liberated Arts Center, Myriad, OKC OKC Akdar Shrine Circus, Expo Square, Tulsa 14 & 16 Okla. Symphony & Canterbury Choral Society, Civic Green Country Trout Fishing Derby, Gore Center, OKC St. Patrick's Day Parade, Downtown Tulsa 20-2 1 "Tribute to Balanchine," Ballet Oklahoma, Civic Cen- Shrine Circus, Civic Assembly Center, Muskogee ter, OKC Midwestern Ice Skating Team Competition, Conven- 26 "The Messiah," Accademia Filarmonica, Sooner Thea- tion Center, Tulsa tre, Norman Ebony Fashion Fair, Civic Center, OKC 27-May 2 & 4 "The Merry Widow," Tulsa Ope?, Performing Arts Rattlesnake Hunt, Waurika Center, Tulsa APRIL 54 49th Annual Easter Pageant, Chandler Park, Tulsa 29 "Cavalleria Rusticana," Westminster Presbyterian 7 Wichita Mountains Easter Sunrise Service, Wichita Church, OKC Wildlife Refuge, Lawton "Grand Tour of the Solar System," Kirkpatrick Plan- etarium, OKC Tulsa Tackle & Recreation Show, Expo Square, Tulsa Western Heritage Awards, National Cowboy Hall of Fame, OKC MARCH 14-16 An of the American West Benefit Show and Sale, Hil- '89er Day River Crossing, S. Canadian River, Norman ton Inn, Tulsa '89er Day Celebration, Main Street, Guthrie APRIL 13-30 Azalea Festival, Honor Heights Park, Muskogee World Championship Cow Chip Throw, Beaver 13-14 Medieval Fair, Duck Pond, OU, Norman Bank of Oklahoma Tennis Classic, Shadow Mountain 22-30 Western Art Show, Territorial Museum, Guthrie Racquet Club, Tulsa

March-April '85