Recently in Oklahoma::History Category
Revealed after 26 years, judge was source of scoop for the ages
John Amick, the district judge who sealed the 1993 multicounty grand jury felony indictment of Gov. David Walters and later received his misdemeanor guilty plea, leaked the indictment to the press. "He had seen the governor's indictment, signed an arrest warrant and set bail at $16,500. Then, at the request of prosecutors, he sealed the indictment from the public while the investigation continued. What was bothering the amiable judge that September in 1993, he explained later, was what he witnessed by chance shortly afterward. At an event, he saw a sweet older lady make a donation to Walters' reelection effort. He thought to himself she wouldn't have done that if she knew the governor was under indictment, he explained. So, the judge told the secret to the state's largest newspaper, then known as The Daily Oklahoman."
U.S. Congressional District Shapefiles
Shapefiles of historical congressional district boundaries for the 1st through the 114th Congresses (1789-2015)
"'If the tales told by the old-timers are correct, Oklahoma may once have contained dozens of runestones. Five of these have been found,' Farley wrote on her website not long after the internet became widely available in America. 'The study of epigraphy, which has dominated my adult life, was to have as its seed a childhood visit to a local site... it would take thirty-five years of research to determine that the Heavener Runestone on Poteau Mountain in eastern Oklahoma is most likely a boundary marker.'"
Fort Gibson: A Brief History, by Grant and Carolyn Thomas Foreman
Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, marked its bicentennial last month.
"It was on the twenty-first day of April 1824, that two long flatboats were to be seen ascending Grand River, manned by bearded young men in the uniform of the United States Army. As they worked the boats up the river they scanned the shore for a landing place, and about three miles from the river's mouth they were successful in discovering a wide ledge of shelving rock on the east bank, which made a natural boat landing. They tied up their boats at this ledge, and unloaded axes, adzes, froes, saws, food supplies, tents, baggage, and a miscellaneous assortment of camp equipment. On the bank they met other uniformed young men, unshaved and long of hair, who had come by land to the place from 5 Fort Smith with their horses and oxen. They were, in all, 122 officers and privates of companies B, C, G, and K of the Seventh Infantry.
"The river bottom land near their landing place was low and fertile, and covered by an immense canebrake, great forest trees, and a jungle of vines and undergrowth. The soldiers were soon engaged in clearing sufficient space in which to set up their tents. Then began the weeks and months of labor necessary to remove the cane, vines, and brambles from an area large enough for an army post; the ring of the ax and the crash of the huge falling trees were heard, and roaring fires consumed the prodigality of nature. Logs were fashioned by axes and cross-cut saws into lengths and shapes suitable to form the walls of houses; other logs were split into puncheons for floors, or rived into clapboards to roof the structures to be built."
Fascinating to read the names of long-lost school districts and schools. This was just after the peak of Tulsa Public Schools enrollment, before round after round of closures, with 10 high schools (including Mason), all accredited by the North Central Association, 21 junior high schools (including Carver Middle School, the only school in the district to carry the middle school designation), and 76 elementary schools. Dependent districts Mingo (4 teachers) and Leonard (12 teachers) still existed, as did Red Bird (3 teachers) in Wagoner County. I see Verl A. Teeter listed among the publishers and publishers' representatives; I remember him as a consultant at Catoosa Public Schools who tested me when I was in kindergarten.
From a front page editorial in a newspaper urging black settlement in and around Boley, Indian Territory. "In the states today where the affairs are controlled by Democratic legislatures the hand of tyranny is felt by the Negro. In the states where the Republicans are in authority the Negro has a full exercise of his political rights. The old Republican party has ever been faithful and true to its principals taught.... The great Republican party, with President Theodore Roosevelt at its head, has ever been for the protection of the Afro-American. There has been no discrimination. They have, when expedient, appointed Negroes to positions of honor and trust."
Related, from the same day's Muskogee Cimeter, a black-owned newspaper:
"Negroes who worked for the democrat ticket are not worth their room in hell and the sooner these cusses get home to their Master, the devil, the better it will be for the race."
And from page 4, "Muskogee is a republican town that elects democrat officials because the republicans are such d--n fools they cannot get together. The Negroes were loyal to the ticket in the main but the great majority of white republicans refused to vote the ticket because there were Negroes on it...."
Conversation Catoosa | Oscar Hammerstein's map of Rogers County | Facebook
While in NYC for vacation, Tim Brown spotted Oscar Hammerstein II's hand-drawn map of Rogers County in a New York City museum, showing railroads, towns, and creeks, a reference for Hammerstein as he wrote the libretto for Oklahoma!
(339) Haskell State School of Agriculture | lost-colleges
One of six agricultural junior colleges authorized by the first Oklahoma legislature, but defunded in 1917, the campus sat at the east end of College Ave. in Broken Arrow, and the main building was used by the school district until demolition in 1989. The home of college president J. S. Esslinger, which also served as a girls' dormitory, stood on the SE corner of 5th and College until 2018. LostColleges.com covers 11 schools in Oklahoma and hundreds nationwide, describing the history of each school and the status of any brick and mortar remaining. Essays on the site describe the ripples of loss to a community emanating from the closure of a small college and the stages of decay of a campus's physical remnants. The site is curated by Paul Batesel, an emeritus professor of English at Mayville State University in North Dakota. His introductory essay describes his motivation and where he searches for information.
Before satellites, TV networks used coax cables and microwave links to relay programming from station to station across the country. This map shows lists TV stations in 1955 and shows the routes that programming followed. A trunk line snaked its way west, roughly parallel to I-70 to Kansas City, then followed the Kansas Turnpike to Wichita and I-35 to OKC and Dallas, with a branch from near Stillwater to Tulsa. At this time, Tulsa had two stations (KOTV 6, KVOO 2), while Muskogee's KTVX 8 would later move to Tulsa as KTUL, while Enid's KGEO 5 would move to Oklahoma City to become KOCO. But stations in Ada (KTEN) and Lawton (KSWO) would remain independent. The number of UHF stations (channels 14 and higher) are surprising.
Scoping Out The Future Home of Reba McEntire's "Reba's Place" | Saving Country Music
"To be called Reba's Place, it will include a restaurant, bar, music venue, and retail store. It will be the home of all things Reba, including many pieces of personal memorabilia from her career. Though Atoka is a town of only 3,000 people and may seem like a strange place to build such an establishment, the town is situated right at the confluence of Federal Highway 75 coming up from Dallas and down from Tulsa, and Federal Highway 69 coming down from Muskogee, which receives a good bit of traffic.
"But the old three-story brick Masonic Temple Reba McEntire has purchased is just a couple of blocks from Federal Highway 75, and will certainly attract folks back to downtown, where there are already multiple businesses trying to bring the area back."
