Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 19

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

Zbigniew Niebieszczanski, who moved to Oklahoma with his family in 1984 from Poland, uses 19th-century book repair techniques to restore ancient texts. His store, Artur’s Bookbinding International, is near Fort Gibson (pop. 4,054). Niebieszczanski focuses on repairing family heirlooms such as antique Bibles with engraved covers.

first appeared: 1/13/2002

Woolaroc, a museum created by Phillips Petroleum founder Frank Phillips in 1925, is filled with artifacts from early inhabitants of the West, works by artists such as Charles M. Russell, and examples of gear used on Western ranches—such as saddles, wagons and firearms. The museum near Bartlesville (pop. 34,748) also has a 3,600-acre wildlife preserve with more than 700 species of animals.

first appeared: 1/6/2002

A Chrysler automobile is buried beneath the Tulsa County Courthouse lawn—and one lucky person will claim it in June 2007. Organizers of Tulsa’s 1957 “Golden Jubilee” buried a new Chrysler Belvedere Sports Coupe in a cement bunker. Residents’ guesses for Tulsa’s 2007 population were recorded on microfilm and buried with the car. The car goes to the person—or their heirs—whose guess was closest to the actual population. The 2000 Census put the population at 393,049.

first appeared: 12/30/2001

A 106-year-old ranch near Poteau (pop. 7,939) still teaches people about farming and ranching techniques. The Overstreet-Kerr Living Historical Farm shows how T.G. and Margaret Overstreet once worked their successful farm. Visitors to the 15-room home can learn about household skills such as making lye soap, and the ranch also has several rare species of farm animals, including Pineywoods cattle and Spanish goats.

first appeared: 12/23/2001

The home of Oklahoma’s first Legislature is now considered one of the top Masonic buildings in the country. The Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Guthrie (pop. 9,925), built in the 1920s, features rooms designed to reflect different periods of history. The Egyptian Room, for instance, is patterned after the “Court of the Dead” found in Egypt, while the Pompeiian Room was inspired by the ancient city of Pompeii.

first appeared: 12/23/2001

Children can try their hand at careers that interest them—fireman, judge, television anchor—at the Jasmine Morgan Children’s Museum in Seminole (pop. 6,899). The museum features a small “town” where kids can learn about many different professions by filling the jobs for a while.

first appeared: 12/16/2001

One of the nation’s premier collections of four-string banjos can be found at the National Four String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum in Guthrie (pop. 9,925). The museum features antique and unique banjos and an archive of four-string banjo recordings.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

Residents of Erick (pop. 1,023) are so proud of the 100th Meridian Line, which passes through their community, that they built the 100th Meridian Museum. The museum contains displays regarding the many surveys conducted on the line that now forms the boundary between Oklahoma and Arkansas. Museum curators call the line the “most perfect exact line” in the country.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

“Pawnee Bill,” a Western showman whose real name was Gordon Lillie, went to the Pawnee Indian Nation to teach school. Buffalo Bill Cody asked him to perform in his show with some tribal members. Lillie later started his own show, Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Circus, touring the country from the 1880s until the 1930s. A re-enactment of the show is held every summer in Pawnee (pop. 2,230).

first appeared: 12/2/2001

A lucky farmer with a love for vaudeville created an opulent theater in Miami (pop. 13,704) that still operates today. George Coleman, who discovered lead and zinc deposits while digging a well on his land, built the four-story Coleman Theatre Beautiful in the 1920s. It featured vaudeville performers such as Tom Mix, Will Rogers, and fan dancer Sally Rand. It was restored by residents in the 1980s and now shows first-run movies.

first appeared: 12/2/2001

Tucker Tower, a 75-foot limestone castle with walls 3 feet thick, was built in the 1930s as a summer home for Oklahoma governors. Now a museum, the tower overlooking Lake Murray State Park near Ardmore (pop. 23,711) is filled with plants, dinosaur bones, and geological samples—including half of a meteorite.

first appeared: 11/25/2001

Many art experts trace the beginnings of contemporary American Indian art to the work of the Kiowa Five—five Kiowa students whose work impressed Susan Peters, an Anadarko Indian Agency employee. She provided art supplies and instruction for the students shortly after World War I. Their work then attracted the attention of University of Oklahoma professor Oscar Jacobson, who promoted it to the general art world.

first appeared: 11/18/2001

A 76-foot oilman graces the grounds of Tulsa Expo Square in recognition of oil’s importance to Oklahoma. “The Golden Driller” was built in 1996 of concrete and plaster for the International Petroleum Exposition.

first appeared: 11/18/2001

Oklahoma’s Capitol in Oklahoma City has the only capitol grounds in the nation decorated with an oil well. Petunia Number One, named for the flower bed in which it was drilled, is no longer operational.

first appeared: 11/11/2001

Guthrie (pop. 9,925) has the largest urban district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district covers 400 blocks—about 1,400 acres—and contains 2,169 buildings, most of them Victorian cottages built prior to 1910.

first appeared: 11/11/2001

The tallest skyscraper designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright is the Price Tower in Bartlesville (pop. 34,748). The 19-story glass and copper tower, built in 1956 for the H.C. Price International Pipeline Co., is based on a design that Wright developed in the 1920s for a New York apartment building.

first appeared: 11/4/2001

The Oklahoma home of Sequoyah, the man who created the first written alphabet for an American Indian language, is now a museum in his honor. Sequoyah’s 86-letter alphabet, adopted by the Cherokee Indian Nation in 1821, allowed thousands of Cherokees to learn to read and led to the creation of the first American Indian newspaper. The cabin near Sallisaw (pop. 7,989) holds artifacts from Sequoyah’s life.

first appeared: 10/28/2001

Robbers Cave State Park gets its name from a sandstone cavern believed to have served as refuge for outlaws. The 20-foot square cave is now the centerpiece to a recreational area featuring boating, hiking, fishing, and swimming.

first appeared: 10/21/2001

Tahlequah (pop. 14,458) has served as the capital of the Cherokee Nation for the last 161 years. The community was established at the end of the “Trail of Tears,” the path taken to relocate the Cherokee from the Southeastern states to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. Buildings downtown include the Cherokee Supreme Court building and the Old Cherokee National Capitol Building.

first appeared: 10/14/2001

An unusual round barn built more than 100 years ago is still a landmark on Route 66. “The Old Round Barn” was built near Arcadia (pop. 279) by a German farmer who believed its design would make it more resistant to tornado damage. Volunteers refurbished the barn in the 1980s and 1990s, and today it is a tourist attraction.

first appeared: 10/7/2001

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