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Oklahoma Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

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Scenes in the 1988 Oscar-winning movie Rain Man were filmed in a motel in El Reno (pop. 16,212) and sites in Hinton (pop. 2,175), Guthrie (pop. 9,925), Cogar and areas around Oklahoma City. The film, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, received Academy awards for best picture, director, screenplay and actor (Hoffman).
first appeared: 7/2/2006
Each October, buffalo are rounded up at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Cache (pop. 2,371) and sold at public auction. The 59,000-acre refuge maintains a herd of between 500 and 600 bison, and the surplus is auctioned to breeders and ranchers.
first appeared: 7/2/2006
Brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner, of Harrah (pop. 4,719), both played for the Pittsburgh Pirates during their professional baseball careers and were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952 and 1967, respectively. Nicknamed "Big Poison," Paul (1903-1965) had 3,152 career hits, while Lloyd (1906-1982), who was known as "Little Poison," had 2,459 career hits.
first appeared: 6/25/2006
Comedian Dan Rowan (1922-1987) was born in Beggs (pop. 1,364) and is best known for hosting the television comedy-variety series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, which aired on the NBC network from 1968 to 1973. The show featured many well-known characters, including Ruth Buzzi's little old lady, Goldie Hawn's giggling blonde, Arte Johnson's German soldier and Lily Tomlin's acerbic telephone operator.
first appeared: 6/25/2006
One of the world's largest bronze statues stands at the entrance to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. "Praying Hands," which is 60 feet tall and weighs 30 tons, depicts two hands rising from the ground with their fingertips touched together in a traditional symbol of prayer. Created by Leonard McMurry, the statue was cast in Juarez, Mexico, in 1980.
first appeared: 6/4/2006
In January, Miss Oklahoma Jennifer Berry earned the Miss America crown, along with a $30,000 college scholarship. The Tulsa resident is a highly skilled dancer who has studied with numerous prestigious ballet companies. She has campaigned against impaired driving and earned special recognition for community service with efforts such as the University of Oklahoma's "Think if You Drink" program.
first appeared: 5/21/2006
A new colony of endangered Ozark big-eared bats was discovered recently in eastern Oklahoma. A forestry expert with the Cherokee Nation recognized the rare bats in a cave and called in experts to confirm his find. The Cherokee Nation provided funds for a conservation easement on the land—the location of which is secret—so the bats can remain there undisturbed.
first appeared: 5/14/2006
The Tsa-La-Gi Ancient Village near Tahlequah (pop. 14,457) re-creates the traditional homes and daily life of the Cherokee Indians. Established in 1967, the village features trained interpreters demonstrating activities such as basket weaving and flint knapping, and is now part of the Cherokee Heritage Center.
first appeared: 4/23/2006
The easternmost of the small hills known as Steen's Buttes, near Hydro (pop. 1,060), is named Rock Mary, and was used as a landmark by miners traveling to California during the 1849 gold rush. Established in 1901, Hydro was named for the good water in the area.
first appeared: 4/23/2006
In 1913, a pre-fabricated Sears, Roebuck and Co. house was purchased in Chicago for $1,600 and transported by train to Chelsea (pop. 2,136) for assembly. Known as the Hogue House, the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
first appeared: 4/9/2006
The steel truss Lake Overholser Bridge near Bethany (pop. 20,307) remains an original part of the famed Route 66, America’s "Main Street" that began to emerge in the 1920s linking Chicago and Los Angeles. The bridge was built in the 1930s and still carries traffic across the northern edge of Lake Overholser.
first appeared: 3/26/2006
In the early 1990s, a rich oil and gas reservoir was discovered in a circular meteor crater buried almost 2 miles underground near Ames (pop. 199). Known as the "Ames Hole," the crater was formed millions of years ago and is more than 9 miles wide.
first appeared: 3/12/2006
Sallisaw (pop. 7,989) was home to the family of Charles Arthur Floyd, better known as "Pretty Boy" Floyd. The notorious outlaw, who died of multiple gunshot wounds while fleeing authorities in Ohio, was buried in Sallisaw in 1934 after a funeral attended by some 20,000 people. He was 30 years old.
first appeared: 3/12/2006
Sallisaw (pop. 7,989) appears at the start of John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel of the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath, as the Joad family begins its journey from Oklahoma to California.
first appeared: 2/26/2006
John Frank established a pottery in Norman in 1933, originally using a light tan clay from Ada (pop. 15,691). He moved the operation to Sapulpa (pop. 19,166) in 1938, and began using local red clay in 1954, turning his Frankoma Pottery creations a distinctive terra-cotta color. The pottery’s name comes from his name, plus the last three letters of "Oklahoma."
first appeared: 2/26/2006
Charles Chibitty, the last surviving member of the World War II Comanche code talkers, died last July in Tulsa at age 83. Born near Medicine Park (pop. 373) in 1921, Chibitty and 16 other Comanche Indians enabled the Allied Forces in Europe to communicate in a language that Hitler’s armies could not decipher. Chibitty received the Knowlton Award, for contributions to military intelligence, in 1999.
first appeared: 2/12/2006
After Ann Eliza Worcester (1826-1905) married the Rev. William Robertson in 1850, she joined her husband’s missionary work in Tullahassee (pop. 106). She became a scholar of the Creek Nation’s language, eventually translating much of the Bible into Creek. It’s reported that Wooster University presented her with an honorary doctorate in 1892, making her the nation’s first woman recipient of such a degree.
first appeared: 1/29/2006
Ann Eliza Worcester’s daughter, Alice Mary Robertson, born in Tullahassee in 1854, took charge of a boarding school for girls in the late 1800s. The school developed into Henry Kendall College, a forerunner of the University of Tulsa. Robertson later became the state’s first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving between 1921 and 1923. She died in Muskogee (pop. 38,310) in 1931.
first appeared: 1/29/2006
The state adopted the Oklahoma rose as its official flower in 2004, after Dottie Weissenberger of Oklahoma City—representing 2,000 garden club members—spoke in support of the rose, noting that it had first been planted at the state Capitol 40 years earlier and had flourished since. Oklahoma also has mistletoe as its official floral emblem and the Indian blanket as its official state wildflower.
first appeared: 1/15/2006
MISS OKLAHOMA 2006—At 15, Jennifer Berry lost a friend in an alcohol-related auto accident and found a cause that’s deeply personal—she became a volunteer and spokesperson for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). When she was 18, Berry spoke to DUI offenders as part of their rehabilitation. She also served on the University of Oklahoma’s first student committee board for the Think If You Drink program, addressing hundreds of students on the dangers of drinking and driving. The Tulsa native also is a highly skilled dancer who has studied with numerous prestigious ballet companies, including the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Tulsa Ballet.
first appeared: 1/8/2006
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