Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

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

Justin McBride of Elk City (pop. 10,510) won his second world championship at the Professional Bull Riders World Finals last November. In doing so, he also broke the record for single-season bull-riding wins, with eight. McBride captured his first PBR World Title in 2005.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—Billed as “the world’s coolest gas station,” Pops in Arcadia (pop. 279) beckons travelers on Route 66 with a 66-foot-tall soda pop bottle that is illuminated at night. Inside, the convenience store and restaurant stock more than 400 varieties and 12,000 bottles of pop.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

Troy Ruttman, born in Mooreland (pop. 1,226), made racing history in 1952 when he became the youngest driver at age 22 to win the Indianapolis 500. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—The official state poem is Howdy Folks, written by David Randolph Milsten of Tulsa. The poem is about humorist Will Rogers and describes the 1938 dedication of the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore (pop. 15,873).

first appeared: 6/29/2008

Cimarron County (pop. 3,148) at the tip of the Panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four states—Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas—other than its own. It’s also Oklahoma’s least populated county.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—Stargazers take a shine to Kenton, where each fall astronomers attend the Okie-Tex Star Party in nearby Camp Billy Joe. Located in the sparsely populated Black Mesa area of the Oklahoma Panhandle in Cimarron County (pop. 3,148), the town is billed as having some of the darkest skies in North America.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

Jesse Chisholm, for whom the Chisholm Trail was named, is buried near Geary (pop. 1,258). Chisholm, a guide, interpreter and peacemaker, operated several trading posts and his freighting route also was used as a cattle trail. He died in 1868 from food poisoning after eating bear meat cooked in a copper kettle.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—Folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, whose compositions include “The Last Thing on My Mind,” “The Marvelous Toy” and “Ramblin’ Boy,” was born in 1937 in Chicago and raised in Bristow (pop. 4,325).

first appeared: 6/1/2008

OK County 66 in Arcadia is (pop. 279) an indoor-outdoor museum that mimics historic Route 66 icons. Included in the Mother Road museum are a 25-foot replica of Catoosa’s (pop. 5,449) famed blue whale, a Volkswagen buried nose-down into the ground and aping Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, and, inside, a diner. The attraction is the brainchild of John Hargrove, a retired airplane and school bus mechanic.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—A Marlow (pop. 4,592) city employee in 2004 stumbled upon a cave that had gone unnoticed for 100 years. The cave, in the town’s Redbud Park, is believed to have been the hideout of the legendary Marlow brothers, who in the late 1800s were accused of cattle rustling on the Chisholm Trail. The state has proclaimed the cave a centennial landmark. The 1965 movie The Sons of Katie Elder, starring John Wayne and Dean Martin, is based in part on the story of the Marlow brothers.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

Reptile breeder Bob Clark of Oklahoma City sold Fluffy, his 24-foot-long python, to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Powell, Ohio, earlier this year. Clark raised the 300-pound python, billed as the world’s largest in captivity, from a hatchling and sold it to the zoo for $35,000.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—Arthur A. Jones, inventor of the Nautilus exercise machine, was raised in Seminole (pop. 6,899). The exercise equipment was the first to use variable resistance to build muscles. Jones died last year at age 80 at his home in Ocala, Fla. (pop. 45,943).

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—Five famous American Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma are honored in the “The Five Moons,” a quintet of larger-than-life-size bronze statues in Tulsa. The sculptures depict Maria Tallchief, Marjorie Tallchief, Rosella Hightower, Yvonne Chouteau and Moscelyne Larkin in the costume and pose of one of their signature ballet roles.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—Sheri Glasgow, 40, of Muskogee (pop. 38,310) is the 2007 Toyota Women’s Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year. The honor landed her a 2008 Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Jeane Kirkpatrick was the first female U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1981 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan, who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was born in 1926 in Duncan (pop. 22,505) and died in 2006.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

—At the Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City, visitors can explore the state’s railway history on 3.1 acres filled with locomotives, passenger cars and cabooses, and a 19th-century depot. Seasonal train rides are offered.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

Beavers Bend Depot in Broken Bow (pop. 4,230) operates a one-third-size replica of the C.P. Huntington S.P. train that was built in 1863. Riders can see deer, turkey and other wildlife when the train passes through the Beavers Bend Resort Park game preserve.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

––Singer, songwriter and producer Jimmy Webb, who wrote chart-topping hits including “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “MacArthur Park,” “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston,” was born in 1946 in Elk City (pop. 10,510). The first Sam’s Club, the members-only warehouse store, was opened in Midwest City (pop. 54,088) in 1983. Today, the chain, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has nearly 600 stores throughout the United States.

first appeared: 1/27/2008

—Capt. Robert Hawley, a 2003 graduate of Oklahoma State University’s veterinary school in Stillwater (pop. 39,065), was honored last year as the top veterinarian in the U.S. Army with the Army Veterinary Corps Above and Beyond Award. Hawley is stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where he operates a clinic for military dogs and pets of military members, and inspects food and water for troops in the Middle East.

first appeared: 1/13/2008

—The Atherton Hotel on the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater (pop. 39,065) is staffed by students enrolled in the university’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration. Built in 1950 as the Student Union Hotel, it recently was named The Atherton Hotel after Bill Atherton, an alumnus who spearheaded a $6-million renovation.

first appeared: 12/30/2007

Convicts can bust loose at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo in McAlester (pop. 17,783), an annual event since 1940. Billed as the world’s only “behind-the-walls” prison rodeo, the competition lets convicts test their skills in events such as bull riding and steer wrestling in an arena filled with cheering spectators.

first appeared: 12/30/2007

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