Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 18

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

An Oklahoma City museum commemorates a U.S. Army division made up largely of Oklahoma residents. The 45th Infantry Division Museum salutes the members of a military unit Gen. George Patton called “one of the best, if not the best divisions in the history of American arms.”

first appeared: 5/12/2002

The Choctaw Nation had no jails in the first half of the 1800s. The elite Choctaw Lighthorsemen captured, tried, and judged wrongdoers. If execution was warranted for a crime, the arrested man was released and told to appear at a certain time and place for the sentence to be carried out. Written accounts say it was virtually unknown for a condemned man to fail to appear for his execution.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

The oldest incorporated town on the famous Route 66 is Vinita. Vinita (pop. 6,472) was established in 1871 as Downingville, but the name was later changed to Vinita in honor of the sculptress Vinnie Ream.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge helped save two animals that were disappearing in the early 1900s—the bison and the Texas longhorn. In 1907, 15 bison from a New York zoo were released in the refuge. In 1927, 30 pureblood longhorn cattle were taken there from Texas. Today, the refuge maintains a herd of about 500 bison and 280 longhorn.

first appeared: 4/21/2002

An international brick-throwing contest started in 1959 when residents of Stroud (pop. 2,758)—home to a brick factory—discovered that an English town with the same name also made bricks. Teams of six contestants throw a 5-pound brick, scoring points for distance. Stroud, Australia, and Stroud, Canada, joined the contest later. The Canadian town has since dropped out, but a rolling pin-throwing competition was added because the Australians make rolling pins.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

Best Western Tradewinds Motel in Clinton (pop. 8,833) was a favorite stopping place for Elvis Presley and his entourage as they drove from Memphis, Tenn., to Las Vegas. Hotel management says Presley stayed in room 215 at least four times.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

Har-Ber Village offers a glimpse of homesteading life. The reconstructed frontier town covers 10 acres near Grove (pop. 5,131), with more than 100 historic buildings. Buildings are outfitted to look like a lawyer’s offices, a medical office, and even a newspaper editor’s quarters.

first appeared: 3/31/2002

A life-size sculpture of a cattle drive, complete with cattle, cowboys on horses, a chuck wagon, and even a dog, is located near the Chisholm Trail Museum in Duncan (pop. 22,505). The sculpture, On the Chisholm Trail, was erected in 1998.

first appeared: 3/24/2002

Prairie Song is a 20-building frontier town built by Kenneth and Marilyn Tate near Dewey (pop. 3,179). When Kenneth rebuilt an old log cabin on his ranch, he liked the work and kept going. Today, the tourist attraction features a blacksmith shop, chapel, frontier barn, trading post, church, and other buildings.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

Oklahoma’s oil industry got its start in Bartlesville (pop. 34,748) more than 100 years ago. The well, named “Nellie Johnstone No. 1,” began producing oil April 15, 1897, and became the state’s first commercial oil well. A reproduction of the well marks where the rig stood.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

The country’s first airborne military unit—the Army’s 1st Aero Squadron—was started in 1914 in San Diego, then transferred to Fort Sill near Medicine Park (pop. 373). In the fall of 1915, the squadron moved to Texas to help with Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s pursuit of outlaw Pancho Villa.

first appeared: 3/10/2002

The earliest people to leave significant traces of their presence in Oklahoma were the Clovis mammoth hunters. Near what is now Cooperton, scientists dug up mammoth bones about 17,000 years old. They believe the Clovis people killed the animal and then crushed its bones with stones.

first appeared: 3/3/2002

The great cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail began in 1867 when Joseph McCoy persuaded Texas ranchers to herd their cattle north through Oklahoma to his stockyards in Abilene, Kan. McCoy saw promise in a shorter, more direct route through Indian Territory to the new railheads slowly moving west through Kansas Territory. He distributed handbills throughout southern Texas inviting cattlemen to bring their herds to Abilene. McCoy then bought the cattle and shipped them east by rail to sell at a profit. The trail was named for Jesse Chisholm whose trading post was on the route.

first appeared: 3/3/2002

One of the world’s largest oil drilling rigs stands outside the Anadarko Basin Museum of Natural History in Elk City (pop. 10,510). Parker Drilling Co. Rig No. 114 is 181 feet high.

first appeared: 2/24/2002

Tulsa gets its name from the American Indians who settled there in the 1800s. Creek Indians moved into the area in 1836 and named it Tallahassee, a contraction of Creek words meaning “town” and “old.” By the late 1800s, settlers had shortened the name to “Tulsey Town” and, finally, Tulsa.

first appeared: 2/17/2002

A 17-foot version of Bryant Baker’s Pioneer Woman Statue has been on display in Ponca City (pop. 25,919) since 1930, commemorating the spirit of pioneer women who helped settle the West. Oil magnate E.W. Marland commissioned the work after 12 artists submitted miniature statues, which were taken by train to 12 Oklahoma cities for review by voters who picked the model submitted by Baker.

first appeared: 2/10/2002

Tulsa is home to the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, which honors jazz musicians who were Oklahoma natives and those who just came to play. Legendary musicians such as Nat “King” Cole, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington all played Tulsa’s clubs at one time or another.

first appeared: 2/3/2002

About 40 murals of American Indian scenes painted by local artist Cha Tullis cover many of the buildings in downtown Hominy (pop. 2,584). He also erected a sculpture called New Territory in which sheet metal silhouettes of American Indians are astride horses and armed with lances. It stretches for about 200 feet on a hill near town.

first appeared: 1/27/2002

Ripley (pop. 444) claims to be the birthplace of commercial country western music because it was home to the Oklahoma Cowboys, whose songs of cowboy life and Western lore were considered the first country tunes to be played on the radio. The group played live on more than 140 radio stations across the country between 1928 and 1932 and spent more than a decade on the road.

first appeared: 1/27/2002

The world history of fire-arms is on display at the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum. The 40,000-square foot museum in Claremore (pop. 15,873) contains Davis’ collection of 20,000 firearms and related items. The collection includes an ancient Chinese hand cannon, the smallest handgun ever manufactured, and a display of an 1840s gunsmith shop.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

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