Oklahoma Today Volume 41 Issue 3

52 Pages·1991·11.6 MB·English

by  Oklahoma Today

T H E W I L Q F l Q W F R c
W H E R E A R L

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
OKLAHOMA

r n D N

May-June 1991 Vnl dl, Nn -4
I F E A T U R E S I
WILDFLOWER REDUX 8
After decades as targets of sprayers, mowers, and bad-mouthers, Oklahoma's
native plants are the new stars of garden and roadside. A look at a wildflower
renaissance in full bloom. By BurkhardBilger
HAVE PICNIC BASKET, WILL TRAVEL 19
Swing by for lunch on your way somewhere else or spend the afternoon under a
shade tree. These four city parks are top picks for picnics. By Susan Wittand
Barbara Palmer, photographs by Fred W.Marvel
PORTFOLIO: OKLAHOMA TRIBESMEN 22
The regalia worn by Oklahoma tribes links the past and the present and is a source
of identity for both young and old. Photographs by David Fitzgerald
ZEN AND THE ART OF BICYCLE TOURING 28
Toiling up a brutal hill and sailing down the ocher side. Broiling at high noon and
floating on an evening breeze. All are part of the cycle of life, one learns along the
course of the Freewheel bike tour. By Joel Everett, photographs by Scott Andenen
RIDING WITH RED 36
There are plenty of laurels for
Red is still up at dawn, out
training for yet another bicycle
endurance tour. By Teq
Phe/ps, photographs by Scott
Andem
TODAY IN OKLAHOMA 4
IN SHORT 5
LETTERS 6
OMNIBUS Chautauqua 'Til You Drop, by Douz Bentin 7
FOOD TheO nion-Fried Burger, by Bar(iara Palmer 39
WEEKENDER Red Earth, by Jeanne M. Dtwlin 41
ARTS Best of the West, by Marcia Preston 44
ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR A guide to what's happening 49
COVER: Kiowa storyteller Evalu Ware Russell of Anadarko at Red Earth. Photograph by
David Fitzgerald. Inside front cover: A lone yucca and Lone Mountain in the Gloss
Mountains in northwest Oklahoma. Photograph by David Vinyard. Back cover:A country
road near Tom in McCurtain County. Photograph by David ~itz~erhd.
May-June 1991 3
0
ne day last February, time to explore the places other writers
Oklahoma Today staff have described in the magazine, and I
members met together for have only read about.
lunch. This was an unusual Even though most stories and pho-
event for this busy group, but we had tographs in Oklahoma Today are travel
much to celebrate. The mag-azine had related, they also bring out what is
-
won two new awards and circulation unique or special about Oklahoma,
and revenue were inching forward to what makes this state different from
meet our goals. the rest. Sometimes the magazine's
The Oklahoma City Advertising focus has shown the ordinary, like the
Club named Oklahoma Today winner of top chicken-fried steak restaurants, to
its annual Addy and Addy Merit awards actually be extraordinary.
for editorial excellence. These presti- We believe that our readers want to
gious awards will be added to our office know more about Oklahoma-its
display of others received during the heritage, geology, wildlife, the arts-to
past six years in national and interna- pique their interest in travel and pride
tional competition from the Regional in the state. We have tried to make
~ublisherskssociationa nd the Society them aware of the great lifestyle we
of American Travel Writers. have here. The first test for each story
Our circulation has increased 36 idea is, can our readers go see or do this?
percent since 1987. This is important During my tenure, Oklahoma Today
since research shows that 79.7 percent has grown from 40 to 52 editorial pages
of our subscribers have attended an per issue and from four to six issues per
event or visited a place afi year. Our color photo~g raphy has in-
about it in Oklahoma Today. creased and now illust: rates each story.
an important source of income for The magazine has undergone several
Oklahoma. And that is our purpose- major changes in design and added
to increase travel in the state and to regular departments in each issue. We
make it more interesting. have produced a scenic appointment
Our 35th anniversary year is reason calendar annually and have begun
enough for celebration. 1 r many selling gift products. These not only
- -
ma"ga zines last long enough 1 debrate I promote the state but assist with gen- I 1
this milestone? For that matter, how grating sufficient revenue to fundour
many businesses? operating expenses.
And, as I told our lunch1e on group, We have also produc: ed special issues
with everything going so we11, this on the horse industry, the state's 75th
seemed the ideal time for me to retire. anniversary, the 1889 land run cen-
Yes, there are still unfinished projects tennial and Indian art. You have shown
and many more stories to write, but this your appreciation by giving gift sub-
is my final issue. I look forward to scriptions and renewing your own. Our
spending more time with a new circulation has grown from 10,000
grandson and traveling at a more lei- to 45,000 as a result.
surely pace. The real secret to our success has to
For 12years as editor-in-chief, I have be a corps of freelance writers and
had the opportunity to meet wonder- photographers willing to drive across
ful, interesting people across the state. the state and make that extra effort to
I've learned more about unusual places tell Oklahoma's story. David Fitz-
to visit in Oklahoma and its heritage gerald, for example, spent the last three
than you can imagine. Now I will have continued on page 6
4 Oklahoma TODAY
In Bartlesville,200 Years of Mozart A Sign of Summer:

The Blessing of the Fleet

It has been two-hundred years since on "Performance Today" each season.
In coastal fishing villages it was once
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart put pen to This year, the festival got an unex-
the custom to usher the local priest
paper and composed his final master- pected endorsement, when Time
down to the wharf to bless the fishing
piece, the "Requiem," only to die, magazine named Bartlesville a bicenten-
boats before they inched out to sea.
December 5, 1791, at the nial destination of choice
"People involved with fishing felt, and
age of 35. for Mozart fans in search
I justifiably so, the need for some divine
Given the world's of unusual places in
help to get home," explains Leffen
fascination with anniver- which to revel in the
Pflug of Gore.
saries divisible by five, music of their maestro.
Five years ago, Pflug and friends
it's no surprise that there "It's going to be a very
decided a little divine intervention
will be a Mozart bicen- exciting summer,"
might be nice for their sailing club. The
tennial in 1991. What has I predicts Ransom Wilson,
appeal was twofold: "I think we liked
to impress, however, in a renowned flutist and
the idea of thanking the creator who
year when rap is king, is conductor of the
made all this beauty," says Pflug, "and
the international hullaba- chamber orchestra Solisti
the idea of asking for his protection on
loo that has marked New York, as well as one
the water."
Mozart's jubilee year, and hi^ M~~~ bust of the masterminds
The Grand Lake Sailing Club timed
Itlhleo zfaarctt's t hhaotm ethoaws nm oafd e ecn trance tjoty thcee Bnartte/erm. i//e fbeeshtiivnadl . t(hTeh Bea fretlsetisvvailll eis its "blessing of the fleet" with the arrival
of the summer sailing season.
Salzburg, Austria, and inked in Wilson's
It's now a local tradition.
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, bed fellows. personal calendar and he's yet to miss
Come hlay, skippers "heave to with
Both of these small towns will be sites a season.)
brushes and mops" to ready dinghies,
of major jubilee events this summer. OK Mozart, set for June 7-16, will
power cruisers, and yachts for what has
For the last seven years, Bartlesville include nine concerts, chamber and
become a parade of some thirty boats.
music lovers have tried to tell Oklahoma lecture series, art exhibits, Austrian cafes,
Skippers decorate their crafts with signal
and the world that their OK Mozart and non-concert diversions ranging from
flags or Mardi Gras frills. then outfit
International Festival has become a parades and fireworks to laser light shows
themselves as Thurston Howell I11 or
world-class event. Lending credence to and picnics. Concert tickets are $10 to
Captain Hook. Spectators watch from
the claim: NBC's "Sunday Today" $20, and can be ordered by calling (918)
shore or nearby boat decks.
filmed the festival in 1989 and National 336-9800 or writing Box 2344,
The local Episcopal priest, Father
Public Radio airs the concert recordings Bartlesville, OK 74005.
Howard Wilson. himself a sailor. becins
the ritual with a brief shoreside service
Cruising Route 66 (complete with hymns and prayers).
That done, hc moves to the lakc and a
30-foot Catalina, equipped with holy
From Quapaw to Texola, through detoured for barbe- water. As boats putter by single file,
Vinita, El Reno, Canute, and points in cue in Arcadia or to Father Wilson administers names, holy
between, Route 66 jitterbugs across drive through water, and the sign of the cross. "Once
Oklahoma for 400 miles. And the state Davenport's round concrete tuGel. they pass Father's boat." says Pflug,"the
Route 66 Association plans to use every The cruise brings out scores of vintage sailboats break out their sails and take
bit of the old highway for its second autos, says association member Don off down the lake, and that concludes
annual Route 66 Cruise, June 8-9. Mullinex who operates an auto detail the day."
Registered participants receive a shop in Clinton. Most folks, though, drive The ceremony has been refined
"passport" to be stamped at any seven their family cars, what Mullinex calls through the years-a nod to the nature
I
specified checkpoints across the state. "grocery getters." Which is just fine. of sailors. "We used to do the service
Drawings of completed passports on Everybody should have a chance, he after the blessing," says Pflug, sheep-
Sunday will award prizes such as a hot air says in his loping drawl, "to get off the ishly, "but we found once people got on
balloon ride over Elk City or a trip to wild highways and onto a nice, slow- the water they wanted to stay."
Santa Monica, California-the I aced road. Take it nice and slow and feel This year's service begins at 1:30p.m.,
westernmost end of Route 66. followed by the rendezvous of boats at
Eight hundred people registered for last 2:30 p.m. near Honey Creek Bridge. The
year's cruise, but hundreds more came out closest viewing from shore is at Fifth and
just for the chance to join a caravan across I
6434 NW Expressway, Bethany, OK Boston Point: a water-logged street sign
America's favorite highway. Drivers 73008. marks the spot.
May-June 1991 5
LETTERS
Your magazine has helped my chil- continued from page 4
dren put facts and pictures to many of years photographing contemporary
the stories told by their great-grand- Indians in their traditional tribal cos-
parents. For my husband and myself, tumes along with their elders shown in
As a transplanted Nebraskan, I re- Oklahoma Today keeps us informed on this issue's Portfolio. Last year Jim
ally enjoy Oklahoma Today. All the current issues and takes us back to our Argo and Fitzgerald drove to the ex-
wonderful pictures and articles help childhood. What a wonderful combi- treme limits of the state to photograph
me to learn more about the state. nation. Thank you so much. the contrasting scenery of the Pan-
I've been sending my copies to my Sherry Kilgore handle and the southeast.
son, who is serving with the 1st Cavalry Kailua, Hawaii Major credit has to be given to past
in Desert Storm. I received a letter and present staff members. Perhaps the
from him and he said, "Keep sending Your magazine is always a pleasure to most dedicated are current managing
me all the things you've been sending, receive but you surpassed yourself with editor Jeanne Devlin and assistant
especially the Oklahoma Today. I really the September-October 1990 issue. editor Barbara Palmer, who work with
enjoy that magazine." The myth and photography proved the writers and photographers. They
Dorothy Malcolm a wonderful blend and such a tribute to have given up countless weekends to
Jenks the beauty of our state and its diversity. make sure stories and photos meet
Thanks for all the time and effort this Oklahoma Today standards as well as
In response to your offer to send a free must have taken-it was delightful. printing deadlines. Art director Felton
subscription to a loved one on military Sandra K. Bobzien Stroud pulls all the bits and pieces to-
assignment in the Middle East, I am Oklahoma City gether in the most attractive design.
sending my son-in-law's address. He is Together, they will continue to pro-
a native of Pryor and a graduate of I am an Oklahoma woman living in duce one of the nation's best maga-
Pryor High School. I know receiving Colorado. I have asked for years that zines.
your magazine would be a real treat for someone in my family or a friend send Your letters frequently tell me how
him. me a copy of Oklahoma Today. Finally, much you appreciate the Oklahoma
Thank you for your kind offer. this past week a copy came to my Today office staff who conscientiously
Peggy Sue LaPorte hands. Needless to say, I was thrilled fill a variety of reader requests, organize
Spring, Texas to, at last, have it in my possession. the Entertainment Calendar and pro-
For subscribers who would like to send I am sending in a subscription notice cess subscriptions, among a myriad of
a little Oklahoma to a loved one stationed today as well as this letter to you. The other tasks. Melanie Mayberry, Lisa
in the Middle East, we ask that you send photography and articles were out- Breckenridge, and Pam Poston have
us his or her name and mailing address, standing. been more than supportive. They run
along with your name and address, and Annawyn DeBenning Shamas the place.
we'N forward them a subscription to Littleton, Colorado Will I miss being a part of the Okla-
Oklahoma Todayf ree. P.S. I am a former president of the homa Today team? You bet. The
Oklahoma Community Theatre Asso- magazine has occupied my thoughts
Oklahoma Today magazine has been ciation, so found the article on com- almost every waking moment for the
one of the greatest gifts given to my munity theater very interesting. past 12 years. But I look forward to
family. My husband and I are both na- becoming a subscriber and reading
tive Oklahomans, now living in Ha- Richard Day's photographs in the each new issue from cover to cover in
waii. Through your publication we January-February 1991 issue were my retirement.
-Sue Carter
have been able to teach our children wonderfully nostalgic. I grew up in
more about their birthplace and heri- Cyril, a small town near the Wichita 1 1

tage. Mountains. Professional travels have NEXT ISSUE: Oklahoma is said to
Living in Hawaii they have not ex- since taken me around the world, but have more horses per capita than
perienced some of the pleasures so my love of Oklahoma's natural beauty any state in the union. It's also one
common to children growing up in has not waned. The Wichita Mountains of only two states to house a Wild
Oklahoma-visiting the Cowboy Hall remain a magical place. Thank you, Mr. Mustang Preserve. Come July, we
of Fame or Pawnee Bill's Ranch, be- Day, for your exquisite shots of the visit the mustangs at their home
longing to a round-up club, attending scenic delights of southwestern Okla- near Bartlesville. We'll also explore
one of the many Indian festivals, or homa. summer's night skies in the July-
even spending a simple day of nature James River August issue of Oklahoma Today.
in one of Oklahoma's great parks. Topeka, Kansas
6 Oklahoma TODAY
Chautauqua 'Til You Drop

N m lifefor an old-time tradition.
B
orn in 1874 and named for D'Alessandro of the Arts and Hu-
the town in New York manities Council of Tulsa says
where the idea originated, plans are to watch and learn this year
the traveling Chautauqua was from the North Dakota troupe, then
part college, part concert, part seminary, establish Tulsa's own annual urban
part craft show, part medicine show, Chautauqua.
part debating society, and part vaude- Unlike the original shows, which
ville. actually featured U.S. Grant, Theodore
Chautauquas offered something for Roosevelt, James Whitcomb Riley, and
everyone: the brilliant oratory of Wil- Jane Addams, D'Alessandro says the
liam Jennings Bryan to the Mississippi North Dakota version (and thus the
riverboat tall tales of Mark Twain. In modern version) stars scholars who
fact, that magical, but odd-looking, dress up, lecture, and answer questions
word promised what would have been (on taxes to the vote) from the audience
the best show in town-even if it hadn't as famous people from our country's
also been the only show in town. past might have.
The tent crew arrived first to pitch It's funny-no one seems to have
the open air canvas hall as near the rail- anything critical to say about
road tracks as possible. A day later, the r rom wan vihitman to Frederick Douglass, Chautauquas. Teddy Roosevelt called
the Great Plains Chautauqua literaty line-up.
first group of performers arrived by rail. them "the most American thing in
Each troupe was dedicated to a par- America." But perhaps writer Gary H.
ticular type of program. Singers and John Barleycorn in a tent to enlighten Holthaus summed up their appeal best:
musicians might perform on Monday. our war-blooded boulevardiers. Susan "From the ranches and from the town,
Tuesday morning, they would move to B. Anthony's earnestness was out- folks have come long distances to share
the next stop on the circuit-leaving on Clara Bow's "It" was in. The in a community of inquiry, to discover
the same train that delivered the next Chautauquas folded their tents. again the pleasure of learning and the
literary speakers. Wednesday would see But Americans have a passion for re- stimulation of ideas, discussed, de-
that troupe decamp in favor of actors discovering what was best and most bated, and mulled over during the drive
who would perform two or three plays. unique in our heritage, and Chau- home. Tomorrow, they'll reopen the
Reaching more rural Americans than tauquas are on the way back. In Okla- debate at the local coffee shop and
the circus did, because they were will- homa, they're already here. Chau- general store, and in the weeks that
ing to play smaller towns than the cir- tauqua '90 was held in Frederick last follow, they'll read a few books on the
cus, Chautauquas reached their height summer, again supplying this town of subject; for these are questions that
of popularity during the early years of 6,000 with the elements that made the have no simple answers."
the twentieth century. Chautauqua seasons of 1914-24 in -Doug Bentin
Then the movies, with their lowest Frederick so memorable: Entertain-
common denominator approach and ment, intellectual jousting, and a touch
instant visual gratification, crept from of the unusual. This was a marathon for North Dakota's Great Plains Chautauqua
brings its "Ameriratr Renaissa?~ces"r holars,
the big cities into America's rural the mind, and the thrill when it was
portraying authon vath hat riel Haalthorne,
outback and their novelty made any- over was not so unlike that experienced
Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau,
thing that already existed seem tame. at the end of the Boston Marathon.
Frederick Douglass, Hermat1 /I.felville, IValt
The farm boys had seen Paree by the In 1991, AItus is on the circuit of the
Whitman, and Louisa ibfay Alrott to Tulsa
end of the Great War, and it took North Dakota Great Plains Chau- June 14-18. Pirt~idingb egirls at 7p.m.at
something more sophisticated than tauqua, as is Tulsa, a town considerably Veterans Park, lectures at 8p.tr1. For
Carrie Nation railing against the evils of larger than Frederick. Ninette information, mN (918)584-.?3.?.3.
7
May-June 1991
Wildflower

Gardeners and

urban planners are

realizing what a few

visionaries have

preached all along.:

~klahornawas b o k

By Burkhard Bilger to be wild.

I
n the dog days of July and August 1820, along a river that runs from New
hlexico's high plateau to the grasslands of Oklahoma, the myth of the Great
American Desert was born. That summer, Major Stephen Harriman Long
was leading an odd assortment of academics and rough frontiersmen through
the unexplored territories of what would later become Nebraska, Colorado, New
Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Sent by President James Monroe to bring news
of the Louisiana Purchase, much as Lewis and Clark had reported on lands to
the north fifteen years before, Long was at the end of his rope by the time he
came to Oklahoma. Tormented by chiggers, ticks, and the relentless sun and
stuck on what he had thought was the Red River but in actuality was the North
Canadian, he didn't have much to show for three months in the saddle. In his
mind, Long must have written his report to the president a dozen times, trying
to convey just how unpleasant the trip had been. "I do not hesitate in giving the
opinion," he finally wrote, "that (this country) is almost wholly unfit for cultiva-
...
tion, and, of course, uninhabitable It is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent
too great an expansion of our population westward."
Thereafter, the words "Great American Desert" marched in big letters across
maps of lands west of the Mississippi. Military leaders rejoiced that a natural
barrier protected the country against invaders from the west, and restless settlers
turned their attention back to the green fields of New England. It would be 60
years before farmers appeared here in numbers, and though they proved that the
Great Plains didn't quite bear "a manifest resemblance to the deserts of Sibe-
ria," as Long put it, the major's judgment still lay like a faint curse on the coun-
tryside.
Oklahomans have struggled ever since to destroy the myth of an inhospitable
land and to turn their state into a garden. When the Dust Bowl threatened to
make Long's words a reality, Oklahomans dug their heels in and nurtured the

ground back until it produced grain enough to feed most of New England. When:
their cities seemed barren and unfriendly, they planted oaks alang the streets,;
sowed snapdragons in their gardens, and brought California poppies to grace their!
parks. Today, even as some Eastern economists, echoing Long once again, claim;
that the prairie states should be abandoned and left to the buffalo, suburbanites
outside of Tulsa are lounging on their patios, gloating over their manicured lawns.
In fact, if a visitorwere plunked down unknowingly in Oklahoma, he might guess
that he was in Connecticut, California, or Virginia. For he would see magnolias
blooming in carefully tended plots, Bermuda grass (improbably green in the blast
of Oklahoma's sun) reaching innocuously into every corner, sprinklers running
continuously...exactly like suburban Charlottesville or Palo Alto.
You might say that we've replaced one myth with another.
For Oklahoma is no green Virginia; it can't compare rose gardens with Cali-
fornia. The beauty of the prairie is a running wind, a crowd of black-eyed Susans
scattered across a hillside like substantial sunlight. It's a meadow of Indian
paintbrush, or a cluster of mistletoe dangling from the twisted arms of an elm-
not geometric hedges and lush English gardens. Long saw this country when its
glory had already gone to seed, when everything, except the sunflowers, had lost
its blossoms and gotten down to the business of reproducing. But if he had come
in May, when the wildflowers were blooming in wave after wave of pure, sun-
struck color, he would have seen a landscape quite unlike a desert. A landscape
that still blooms along secondary roads and in fallow fields, around weathered
fence posts and in the forgotten corners of cattle ranches. A wild native land-
scape-dry, tough, and riotously beautiful-that we have tried our best to deny.
If you ask the average Oklahoman to describe a nice, well-kept neighborhood,
the answer might well remind you of the opening scene from "Leave it to Bea-
ver." But that standardized view of landscaping is slowly changing, as an ap-
preciation for wildflowers and native plants gradually takes root in this state. From
elderly ladies in garden clubs who have fallen in love with their plants' wild, self-
sufficient cousins, to businessmen who hope that flower-lined boulevards and
meridians will lure more investments into the state, to environmentalists who
want to conserve water and limit the use of pesticides, wildflowers have become
the symbol of a return to native landscapes. Promoting wildflowers can mean
helping to stop the invasion of exotics like kudzu or creating more habitat for
indigenous birds and animals. It can mean saving millions of dollars in mowing
costs by planting flowers along roadsides or just sowing a few cowboy roses next
to a chain-link fence. As environmental causes go, it could well be the most
democratic thing around-literally and figuratively, a "grass roots movement"
in the making.
oyle McCoy was obsessed with wildflowers when most people still called
them weeds. Born in 1917on a farm just east of Chickasha, he used to
sit by his family's fields of broom corn and cotton in the evenings, waiting
for the mule team to rest before heading home. There, where wild na-
tive grasses met the neat rows of crops, he would bend down tall stems of Iron-
weed, taking apart the dozens of tiny purple flowers that clustered on top. "I'd
sit there and see how they were constructed and examine those intricate patterns,"
he recalls. "I started to develop a great respect for nature's way of doing things."
While most crops needed to be carefully planted, fertilized, protected from
pests, and watered to grow, these flowers took care of themselves. They even
planted their own seed. Such qualities weren't much appreciated by Oklahoma's
farmers, who once spent a good deal of time ploughing up the prairie and then
beating back recalcitrant wildflowers like Queen Anne's thistle. But for McCoy,
who left his two-room schoolhouse and went on to earn a doctorate in botany