America’s character - and future: Oklahoma City
Sunday, October 23, 2011
By Christine Tibbetts
OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok. — America ought to duplicate Oklahoma City; budgets balance, exciting sports and arts events expand, transportation flows, flowers bloom, citizens and government agree on ideas for change, restaurants flourish, creativity explodes and cultures share their heritage.
All that fueled a fine three-day visit for me in September, and keeps me musing today about how they do it when bickering and distrust have become national past-times.
Come here to learn about America’s character: That’s what they believe in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, a fascinating collection of galleries with multiple personalities.
Go if you love art, as in Remington, Russell, Bierstadt, Grandee. Not your cup of tea? Then go for the remarkable collection of rodeo regalia, photography, saddles and barbed wire. Really — world’s largest collection.
Go if you watch western movies because John Wayne is only one of many memorabilia headliners here.
Native American personal possessions fill a low-light gallery, embellished with symbols of individual tribe beliefs and histories.
Beautiful, meticulous bead and quillwork. Worth the visit for their elegance. Really worth it for absorbing the vast influence of a city with 67 tribes, 39 of whom maintain headquarters here.
So much art because each tribal culture reflects its heritage uniquely. Won’t find that elsewhere I suspect.
And that’s why I want to go to Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, June 8-10, 2012, or some year. All those cultures in one place: 1,200 American Indians dancing, drumming, talking, sharing, cooking, eating, remembering and believing.
No way for visitor me to understand if this city is vibrant today because it was settled with the energy Red Earth maintains, but I liked wondering as I enjoyed.
In 1889 this was considered “unassigned land” and 50,000 homesteaders gathered at the boundary to stake a claim on the frontier. By nightfall, 10,000 succeeded and declared themselves a community.
Perhaps their passion inspires today’s residents who keep approving one-cent sales taxes to create major community lifestyle projects.
The most recent will add a 70-acre downtown park, six miles of street car lines, 57 miles of new biking and walking trails and more boathouse facilities on the Oklahoma River so everyone can row, kayak and canoe.
This river flowing through downtown already has the stylish Chesapeake Boathouse, three river cruisers with guided narration and rowing teams with Olympic goals. Seven miles this is — a series of river and lakes, landscaped borders and 13 miles of trails already.
Now the city wants more access on the water for citizens and visitors. Seems to me like a place that doesn’t say “Been there, done that.”
They already have the Myriad Botanical Gardens downtown including a crystal bridge to the tropical conservatory, all of which this year received a $38 million transformation.
Amazes me the voters said “Yes” to funding for a new 70-acre park but certainly adds to pleasures in an easy-to-walk-around city center.
Bricktown is another walkable Oklahoma City neighborhood filled with shops and eateries.
Used to be an Army post during the 1890s settling times, now an entertainment district.
Red bricks were used for almost all of the two-story buildings, consistently designed with arched windows and decorative doorways.
The RedHawks Triple-A baseball team has their stadium in Bricktown, and one of many restaurant choices is the Mickey Mantle Steakhouse.
I had a fine fish dinner but admired meat-lover plates around me. Nonna’s Euro-American Ristorante also caught my attention.
Three floors of a 90-year-old warehouse: rooftop patio, Purple Bar with LED lighting from the ceiling and along the bar, a bakery, art gallery throughout and of course the dining room.
Ask to chat with Avis Scaramucci when you go; she opened the restaurant in 2005, and Nonna was her husband’s Italian grandmother.
Ellis Island was the entry point for her in-law grandparents and Scaramucci tells family stories of admiration and Bricktown stories with enthusiasm.
Try the water taxi along the mile-long Bricktown Canal with tour guide commentary and boarding options every 10 minutes or so.
Quite a contrast to Bricktown’s celebratory mood just a dozen blocks away is the National Memorial & Museum.
This stirring indoor and outside memorial is Oklahoma City’s response to the bombing of the federal building April 19, 1995.
I found this a forward- thinking place, certainly honoring the 168 people who died but also sharing stories of those who survived and suggesting insight for the rest of us who cared from afar.
Considerations to draw through exhibits, videos, audio testimonies, photographs? The senselessness of violence as a means to change government.
Acts of profound decency: what might some be? What to say, or not, to people suffering extreme loss or worry.
The Memorial calls for a night visit as well as the day because 168 chairs representing those killed are lined up on the lawn —lighted, and heart-stirring. Nineteen are child-size.
I recommend setting up a visit to the art museum and gardens for comfort, or maybe the philharmonic or ballet after absorbing the messages of the Memorial.
Save the Stockyards for a different day and a different kind of energy. This is the world’s largest cattle market with auctions at 8 a.m. every Monday and Tuesday.
I could see trained Longhorn cattle walking in some kind of synchronization if I returned Dec. 10 for the Cowboy Christmas Parade.
Being quite clueless about most things cowboy, I enjoyed the Stockyard shops, filled, of course, with western wear, chaps, bull ropes, spurs, chinks, bits and shanks.
Rows and rows of handsome saddles for sale, many with detailed leather and metal work. John Rule, I learned, is a legendary saddle maker and one of his hand-tooled works of art is behind glass.
Learning about America’s character, as I was invited to do at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, kept on happening in the Stockyards district.
And I suspect if I could have explored more Oklahoma City diversity I might have determined how this community of 600,000 people agrees to agree, directs money to happily shared projects, keeps its western frontier pioneering spirit alive and sets a tone for the future.
All that fueled a fine three-day visit for me in September, and keeps me musing today about how they do it when bickering and distrust have become national past-times.
Come here to learn about America’s character: That’s what they believe in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, a fascinating collection of galleries with multiple personalities.
Go if you love art, as in Remington, Russell, Bierstadt, Grandee. Not your cup of tea? Then go for the remarkable collection of rodeo regalia, photography, saddles and barbed wire. Really — world’s largest collection.
Go if you watch western movies because John Wayne is only one of many memorabilia headliners here.
Native American personal possessions fill a low-light gallery, embellished with symbols of individual tribe beliefs and histories.
Beautiful, meticulous bead and quillwork. Worth the visit for their elegance. Really worth it for absorbing the vast influence of a city with 67 tribes, 39 of whom maintain headquarters here.
So much art because each tribal culture reflects its heritage uniquely. Won’t find that elsewhere I suspect.
And that’s why I want to go to Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, June 8-10, 2012, or some year. All those cultures in one place: 1,200 American Indians dancing, drumming, talking, sharing, cooking, eating, remembering and believing.
No way for visitor me to understand if this city is vibrant today because it was settled with the energy Red Earth maintains, but I liked wondering as I enjoyed.
In 1889 this was considered “unassigned land” and 50,000 homesteaders gathered at the boundary to stake a claim on the frontier. By nightfall, 10,000 succeeded and declared themselves a community.
Perhaps their passion inspires today’s residents who keep approving one-cent sales taxes to create major community lifestyle projects.
The most recent will add a 70-acre downtown park, six miles of street car lines, 57 miles of new biking and walking trails and more boathouse facilities on the Oklahoma River so everyone can row, kayak and canoe.
This river flowing through downtown already has the stylish Chesapeake Boathouse, three river cruisers with guided narration and rowing teams with Olympic goals. Seven miles this is — a series of river and lakes, landscaped borders and 13 miles of trails already.
Now the city wants more access on the water for citizens and visitors. Seems to me like a place that doesn’t say “Been there, done that.”
They already have the Myriad Botanical Gardens downtown including a crystal bridge to the tropical conservatory, all of which this year received a $38 million transformation.
Amazes me the voters said “Yes” to funding for a new 70-acre park but certainly adds to pleasures in an easy-to-walk-around city center.
Bricktown is another walkable Oklahoma City neighborhood filled with shops and eateries.
Used to be an Army post during the 1890s settling times, now an entertainment district.
Red bricks were used for almost all of the two-story buildings, consistently designed with arched windows and decorative doorways.
The RedHawks Triple-A baseball team has their stadium in Bricktown, and one of many restaurant choices is the Mickey Mantle Steakhouse.
I had a fine fish dinner but admired meat-lover plates around me. Nonna’s Euro-American Ristorante also caught my attention.
Three floors of a 90-year-old warehouse: rooftop patio, Purple Bar with LED lighting from the ceiling and along the bar, a bakery, art gallery throughout and of course the dining room.
Ask to chat with Avis Scaramucci when you go; she opened the restaurant in 2005, and Nonna was her husband’s Italian grandmother.
Ellis Island was the entry point for her in-law grandparents and Scaramucci tells family stories of admiration and Bricktown stories with enthusiasm.
Try the water taxi along the mile-long Bricktown Canal with tour guide commentary and boarding options every 10 minutes or so.
Quite a contrast to Bricktown’s celebratory mood just a dozen blocks away is the National Memorial & Museum.
This stirring indoor and outside memorial is Oklahoma City’s response to the bombing of the federal building April 19, 1995.
I found this a forward- thinking place, certainly honoring the 168 people who died but also sharing stories of those who survived and suggesting insight for the rest of us who cared from afar.
Considerations to draw through exhibits, videos, audio testimonies, photographs? The senselessness of violence as a means to change government.
Acts of profound decency: what might some be? What to say, or not, to people suffering extreme loss or worry.
The Memorial calls for a night visit as well as the day because 168 chairs representing those killed are lined up on the lawn —lighted, and heart-stirring. Nineteen are child-size.
I recommend setting up a visit to the art museum and gardens for comfort, or maybe the philharmonic or ballet after absorbing the messages of the Memorial.
Save the Stockyards for a different day and a different kind of energy. This is the world’s largest cattle market with auctions at 8 a.m. every Monday and Tuesday.
I could see trained Longhorn cattle walking in some kind of synchronization if I returned Dec. 10 for the Cowboy Christmas Parade.
Being quite clueless about most things cowboy, I enjoyed the Stockyard shops, filled, of course, with western wear, chaps, bull ropes, spurs, chinks, bits and shanks.
Rows and rows of handsome saddles for sale, many with detailed leather and metal work. John Rule, I learned, is a legendary saddle maker and one of his hand-tooled works of art is behind glass.
Learning about America’s character, as I was invited to do at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, kept on happening in the Stockyards district.
And I suspect if I could have explored more Oklahoma City diversity I might have determined how this community of 600,000 people agrees to agree, directs money to happily shared projects, keeps its western frontier pioneering spirit alive and sets a tone for the future.
Tibbetts Communications
1705 Regent Rd
Tifton, GA 31793
@TibsTravel | 229-339-0388
When you go:
Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau
800 255-5652
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
405-478-2250
Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum
405-235-3313
Red Earth Museum and Festival
405-427-5528
