Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

Looking for Oklahoma trivia? Try our list Oklahoma little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The Oklahoma Aquarium also houses the National Fishing Tackle Museum, which features more than 20,000 pieces of fishing gear, collected by Karl and Beverly White over a 55-year period and valued at more than $4 million. Focusing on the history of sport fishing, the museum includes lures made by American Indians, plus plugs, flies, poppers, hooks, harnesses, fly reels, spinning reels, hand reels, minnow buckets, boats and motors.

first appeared: 1/30/2005

In 1925, Pete Prichard opened Pete’s Place, an Italian restaurant in Krebs (pop. 2,051). Prichard worked in the local coal mines before starting the business, but when a cave-in crushed his leg, he began brewing and selling "Choc" beer—made from a Choctaw Indian recipe—from his home. He opened the restaurant to better serve his growing clientele, and today his family operates the business.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

Guthrie (pop. 9,925) has no shortage of museums. The city is home to the National Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum, the Oklahoma Sports Museum, the Oklahoma Frontier Drug Store Museum, the State Capital Publishing Museum and the International Model Railroad and Automobile Museum.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

Guthrie's Oklahoma Territorial Museum tells the story of the territorial period, 1890-1907, including the Oklahoma land rush. Students visiting the museum can visit with "Old Codger," a role-player who tells the story of the 1889 rush.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

The National Lighter Museum, also in Guthrie, claims to be the only one of its kind. The museum is dedicated to collecting and preserving lighter history and has 20,000 lighters and other fire starters.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

Steve Owens, who was born in Gore (pop. 850) and grew up in Miami (pop. 13,704), won the 1969 Heisman Memorial Trophy, given to the nation’s outstanding college football player. He began playing for the University of Oklahoma Sooners in 1966 and ran for more than 100 yards in 17 consecutive games. The Detroit Lions drafted him in 1970. He retired five years later after a knee-injury.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857-1900) lived among the Zuni Indians in New Mexico for five years beginning in 1879, becoming one of the first professional anthropologists to live among his subjects. Initially spurned but eventually accepted by the native people, he studied their daily lives, culture and religion and by 1881 was allowed to join their secret society, the Priesthood of the Bow. Cushing wrote Zuni Creation Myths, Zuni Folk Tales and My Adventures in Zuni based on his experiences.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

Actor Brad Pitt was born in Shawnee (pop. 28,692) on Dec. 18, 1963. He appeared on the TV show Dallas in the late 1980s and went on to win a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for his supporting-role performance in the 1995 movie Twelve Monkeys.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

Robert Ragozzino of Norman flew solo around the world in an open-cockpit 1942 Stearman biplane in 2000. He took off from Oklahoma City and returned there 170 days later to break a record set in 1924 for a similar feat. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame in 2001.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

When Medicine Park (pop. 373) was founded on July 4, 1908, as a private resort, its facilities consisted of a swimming hole and an Army surplus tent with a wooden floor. By the 1920s and 1930s, however, it was one of the state’s premier tourist spots, offering a sanitarium, petting zoo, bathhouse and two inns among its amenities.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

Many of Medicine Park’s buildings were constructed from local cobblestones, granite rocks the size of grapefruit that have been rounded and smoothed over 500 million years by the action of freezing, thawing and tumbling.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

Louis Dearborn LaMoore (1908-1988) began trying to sell his poetry and short stories at age 19, while living at his family’s farm in Choctaw (pop. 9,377). He soon had success, changed his name to Louis L’Amour, and went on to write more than 100 novels, many of which were made into Western movies.

first appeared: 10/24/2004

Born near Emet and raised in Tishomingo (pop. 3,162), Te Ata (1895-1995)—whose name means “bearer of the morning”—spent much of her life sharing the culture and folklore of her Chickasaw Indian heritage through storytelling and dramatic performances. During her life, she performed across North America and Europe to audiences that included Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

During the filming of the 1996 movie Twister, Wakita (pop. 420) was transformed into a tornado-devastated area so real that a helicopter video crew flying nearby reportedly landed to investigate. The filmmakers used the community extensively, as a number of its buildings were already scheduled to be demolished.

first appeared: 10/3/2004

One of the nation’s largest milking parlors is located in Tuttle (pop. 4,294), on the Braum farm, where some 10,000 cows are milked three times a day, every day of the year. The milk is used to make ice cream and other treats for the 280 Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Stores in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas.

first appeared: 9/19/2004

Adopted in 1925, the Oklahoma state flag is sky blue, with an American Indian warrior’s shield at its center. A calumet—the ceremonial peace pipe—and an olive branch placed over the shield represent peace, while the small white crosses on the shield are stars, representing high ideals. The word “Oklahoma” was added to the flag in 1941.

first appeared: 9/12/2004

Each summer night near Freedom (pop. 271), 1 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from the Selman Bat Cave to eat 10 tons of insects, moths and beetles. Half a million female bats migrate from Mexico and Central America to give birth to one pup each at Selman in late June before returning to Mexico in the fall.

first appeared: 9/5/2004

In 1994, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Shebester donated 20.3 acres of land to the city of Wynnewood (pop. 2,367), to be used as athletic fields for the community’s youth. Today, Shebester Field features four playing fields, and hosts baseball and softball tournaments, games and practices throughout the summer.

first appeared: 8/29/2004

In 1996, NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid set an international record for time spent orbiting the Earth by a non-Russian, when her mission to space station Mir lasted for 188 days and spanned 75.2 million miles. Lucid, who grew up in Bethany (pop. 20,307), is a mission specialist who has logged 223 days in space since joining NASA in 1978.

first appeared: 8/22/2004

A 20-year-old Cherokee Indian named Andy Payne from Foyil (pop. 234) outran 275 contestants to win the 84-day, 3,422-mile Transcontinental Footrace between Los Angeles and New York City in 1928. He used part of his $25,000 prize to pay off his family’s farm. Payne served as clerk of the Oklahoma Supreme Court almost continuously from 1934 to 1973.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

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