Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 11

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

Journalist Bill Moyers, who hosts Now with Bill Moyers on PBS, was born in 1934 in Hugo (pop. 5,536). He is known for his role in producing television series such as Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (1988) and Healing and the Mind (1992). Moyers served as an associate director and then deputy director of the Peace Corps from 1961 to 1963, and as press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson from 1965 to 1967.

first appeared: 8/8/2004

The reconstructed early-1900s Har-Ber Village near Grove (pop. 5,131) contains more than 100 historic buildings, making it one of the nation’s largest antique museums. It was established by Harvey and Bernice Jones in 1968, when Harvey built Bernice a church on the banks of the Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees out of bricks that were handmade before the Civil War. Bernice named the village using the first three letters of each of their names.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

Singer-songwriter-actor Hoyt Axton, born in Duncan (pop. 22,505) on March 25, 1938, attended Oklahoma State University on a football scholarship. Axton, who died in 1999, penned hits such as Three Dog Night’s Joy To The World. His mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote Elvis Presley’s 1956 hit song Heartbreak Hotel.

first appeared: 7/25/2004

The state chose Port silt loam—named for the community of Port in Washita County (pop. 11,508)—as its official soil in 1987. The dark brown, often reddish, soil covers about 1 million acres in 33 of the state’s 77 counties, and suits a wide range of crops, including alfalfa, cotton and small grains, as well as rangelands, pasture and woodland.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

Hannah Diggs Atkins of Oklahoma City was the first African-American woman elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives, serving from 1968 to 1980. Her career includes appointments to the General Assembly of the United Nations and to various university teaching and state government positions, largely focusing on social and economic issues. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1982.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

Dr. Francine Ringold of Tulsa is Oklahoma’s poet laureate for 2003-2005. Ringold has taught literature, creative writing and theater at institutions such as the University of Tulsa, and is editor-in-chief of the Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry. She received the Oklahoma Book Award in 1996 for her poetry volume The Trouble with Voices.

first appeared: 6/27/2004

Scientist-astronaut Owen K. Garriott, who joined NASA in 1965, was born in November 1930 in Enid (pop. 47,045). He flew two missions—Skylab 3 in 1973 and STS (Space Shuttle) 9 in 1983—totaling almost 70 days in space. He also made three spacewalks while on Skylab 3, spending more than 13 hours outside the spaceship.

first appeared: 6/20/2004

Mystery author Tony Hillerman—respected for his portrayals of Navajo ways—was born in May 1925 in Sacred Heart, near Asher (pop. 419), where he attended a boarding school for American Indians. Hillerman was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart, after being wounded in World War II. His first novel, The Blessing Way, was published in 1970.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

Oklahoma’s official state meal was adopted in 1988, and includes fried okra, squash, cornbread, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, black-eyed peas, chicken fried steak, barbecued pork, strawberries and pecan pie. Each item reflects the state’s historic, cultural or agricultural background.

first appeared: 6/6/2004

In 1999, the state officially recognized Durant (pop. 13,549) as the Magnolia Capital of Oklahoma. Magnolia seedlings brought by a faculty member to the Southeastern Normal School in 1911 flourished, and the school—now Southeastern Oklahoma State University—became known as “The Campus of a Thousand Magnolias.” Magnolias can now be found throughout Durant.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

Used as a recreational area as early as 1868, Turner Falls Park in Davis (pop. 2,610), in the heart of the Arbuckle Mountains, is reported to be the state’s oldest park. It’s named after the park’s waterfall, which results when Honey Creek tumbles over a 77-foot drop to form a natural swimming pool.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

When the state adopted milk as an official beverage in 2002, it was partially due to 11-year-old Daniel Howard. As a 4-H-member from Guthrie (pop. 9,925) who owned dairy cattle, Howard noticed there was no state beverage and lobbied successfully for milk’s official status.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

The redbud, or Cercis canadensis, was adopted as the state’s official tree in 1971. Used extensively as an ornamental tree, the redbud grows naturally in Oklahoma’s valleys and ravines, and is particularly noticeable between March and May, when clusters of pink blossoms appear before the tree leafs out.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

Wiley Post, who grew up in Garvin County (pop. 27,210), made aviation history in the early 1930s when he set two records for flying around the world. The first, in 1931, took 8 days, 16 hours with navigator Harold Gatty; the second, a solo flight in 1933, took 7 days, 19 hours. Post also designed the first space suit, which he wore on the high-altitude flights that enabled him to discover the jet stream.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

At $24.5 million, the 2000-2001 replacement of Sailboat Bridge, between Grove (pop. 5,131) and Fairland (pop. 1,025) over Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, was one of the state’s most expensive bridge projects. Officially called Grove Highway Bridge when it was built in 1938, the original bridge gained its nickname from its high central arch that allowed sailboats to safely pass under it.

first appeared: 4/25/2004

The state’s oldest cheese factory is in Watonga (pop. 4,658). The Watonga Cheese Factory, a single-story facility, was built in 1940 as a way for farmers to use their excess milk. Refrigerated trucks have since made local cheese factories unnecessary in most communities.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

Oklahoma’s four mountain ranges include the Ouachitas, Arbuckles, Wichitas and the Kiamichis.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

A rough replica of the city of Jerusalem, built to accommodate a local priest’s passion play, can be found near Lawton. Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees created the Holy City of the Wichitas in the 1930s. The WPA workers mined area granite to build the more than 20 structures surrounding a stone amphitheater.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

Six flags have flown over the area of northeastern Oklahoma now known as Sapulpa (pop. 19,166): the flags of Spain, France, England, Mexico, the Choctaw Nation, and the United States.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

A statue titled Hopes and Dreams in downtown Perry (pop. 5,230) was created by local sculptor Bill Bennett and placed there on a large granite pedestal as a Cherokee Strip Centennial memorial. The statue portrays an early-day couple coming to the newly opened Western frontier in the greatest land rush in U.S. history, when an estimated 50,000 people staked claims in the so-called Cherokee Strip of northern Oklahoma in 1893.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

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