Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 14

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

Actor and director Ron Howard, who won an Oscar in 2002 for directing the movie A Beautiful Mind, was born March 1, 1954, in Duncan (pop. 22,505). Known for his acting roles as Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, Howard also has directed movies such as Willow, Cocoon, Backdraft, and Apollo 13.

first appeared: 7/27/2003

In the late 1940s, Ed Malzahn developed the Ditch Witch, a compact trenching machine, in his father’s blacksmith shop in Perry (pop. 5,230). Today, the Ditch Witch line of trenching machines (which bury utility and irrigation lines) is sold worldwide, and the town is still home to its parent company, Charles Machine Works Inc.

first appeared: 7/20/2003

The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) is based in Oklahoma City, but has a nationwide membership of more than 250,000 amateur softball teams, which represent more than 4 million people. Founded in 1933 to organize fair and consistent competition across the country, the ASA adopted the sport’s first universally accepted rules.

first appeared: 7/13/2003

With an annual cargo capacity of more than 35 million tons, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System gives Oklahoma year-round access to international waters. The waterway stretches 445 miles from Catoosa (pop. 5,449) to the Mississippi River 500 miles north of New Orleans, through 17 locks and dams built and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The system is named for Sen. John McClellan of Arkansas and Sen. Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, who worked to obtain federal funding for its construction.

first appeared: 7/6/2003

The Cheyenne Cultural Center in Clinton (pop. 8,833) was established in 1977 to help preserve the Cheyenne Indians’ way of life. Today, the center is a regional interpretive center for the tribe’s history, culture, and language. It’s located on the Cheyenne Heritage Trail along historic U.S. Route 66.

first appeared: 6/29/2003

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, who earned three Super Bowl rings during his career, was a fullback and quarterback for the Fighting Hens of Henryetta High School in Henryetta (pop. 6,096). He also played football for Oklahoma University before transferring to UCLA. Aikman established the Troy Aikman Foundation in 1992 to support the needs of children, and has since developed the End Zones, football-themed recreation areas in three children’s hospitals, including the Oklahoma City Children’s Hospital.

first appeared: 6/22/2003

The annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival in Oklahoma City is considered the world’s largest American Indian festival. The event brings together members of more than 100 tribes for three days of art, drumming, dance, and song, to showcase the diversity of native cultures.

first appeared: 6/15/2003

Bozena’s Polish Restaurant in Fort Gibson (pop. 4,054) is reportedly the only restaurant in the state specializing in authentic Polish dishes. Menu choices at the 11-year-old restaurant include pierogis (potato and cheese dumplings), potato pancakes, and cabbage rolls.

first appeared: 6/15/2003

The state’s first Land Run, on April 22, 1889, opened the 2-million-acre region called the Unassigned Lands for settlement. Each legal settler could claim 160 acres of public land, receiving title to their claim if they lived on it and improved it for five years. Some 50,000 people were gathered at noon on April 22, to find and stake their claims.

first appeared: 6/8/2003

The Poteau River is the only river in the state that flows north. It begins in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and flows westward into Oklahoma, where it turns north through Poteau (pop. 7,939) and eventually joins the Arkansas River. The river is known for its gamefish, including channel and flathead catfish, crappie, largemouth bass, and sunfish.

first appeared: 6/1/2003

The first Boy Scout troop in America was formed in 1909 in Pawhuska (pop. 3,629). It was organized under the rules of England’s Boy Scouts by the Anglican Rev. John F. Mitchell, who had worked in England. The Pawhuska troop was officially Troop No. 1 in the Boy Scouts of America, and is commemorated by a bronze statue outside the Osage County Historical Museum.

first appeared: 5/25/2003

Fort Sill was founded in 1869, and still serves as the home of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center. Of all the forts built on the Southern Plains during the Indian Wars, Fort Sill is the only active Army installation remaining. It also serves as a National Historic Landmark, and contains the gravesite of the Apache leader Geronimo, who died of pneumonia there in 1909.

first appeared: 5/18/2003

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History was founded at the University of Oklahama in Norman in 1899. Today it contains more than 6 million artifacts and specimens spanning 300 million years of Oklahoma’s history—including the largest known example of an apatosaurus (commonly known as a brontosaurus). The skeleton was found in the Oklahoma panhandle between 1931 and 1938, and measures 92 feet long. When the dinosaur was alive during the Jurassic period, it would have weighed 45 tons.

first appeared: 5/11/2003

Sylvan Nathan Goldman, who was born in Ardmore (pop. 23,711) and owned a chain of grocery stores, invented the first shopping cart in 1936 when he attached wheels and two wire baskets to a folding chair.

first appeared: 5/4/2003

Since 1970, Bartlesville (pop. 34,748) has been home to Keepsake Candles, one of the nation’s leading candle manufacturers. With more than 500 styles of candles, the company’s designs are based on antique glassware dating between 1820 and 1940.

first appeared: 4/27/2003

Singer Garth Brooks was born in Tulsa, and grew up in the Oklahoma City suburb of Yukon (pop. 21,043), where a boulevard is named after him. He attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater (pop. 39,065), where he began his music career in a local club called Tumbleweeds.

first appeared: 4/20/2003

The state’s lowest elevation is east of Idabel (pop. 6,952) in southeastern Oklahoma, where it’s just 287 feet above sea level.

first appeared: 4/20/2003

Astronaut John Herrington became the first American Indian in space when the space shuttle Endeavour was launched Nov. 23, 2002. Herrington, who was born in 1958 in Wetumka (pop. 1,451), honored his heritage by taking aloft a flag of the Chickasaw Nation.

first appeared: 4/13/2003

In 1954, Troy Smith rigged up intercoms at his Top Hat Drive-in root beer stand in Shawnee (pop. 28.692) so customers could order from their cars. The name was changed to Sonic Drive-in in 1959 to reflect the “service with the speed of sound.” As of February 2002, the nation’s largest chain of drive-in restaurants had 2,432 Sonic Drive-ins in 30 states.

first appeared: 4/6/2003

Gene Autry, John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan are some of the steak eaters who’ve stopped in at the Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, opened in 1910 in Oklahoma City at the world’s largest stock and feeder cattle market. Colorful stories abound about the state’s oldest continuously operating restaurant. In 1945, owner Hank Fry got down on his luck in a dice game against wealthy rancher Gene Wade and wagered the Cattlemen’s if Wade could roll a “hard six” or two 3’s. One lucky roll later, Wade was in the restaurant business. A “33” brand on the Hereford Room wall commemorates his good luck.

first appeared: 3/30/2003

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