I just learned that former Osage County Sheriff George Wayman died yesterday. He was a great guy and also a great help to me when I was writing Footprints in the Dew. He was one of the last people still around who worked on the Mullendore murder case and was…
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The Bass Brothers’ Private Island
Welcome back. With lots of ground to cover first up will be the fabulously wealthy Bass family of Fort Worth. In 2020 Forbes Magazine ranked the Bass brothers as the 30th wealthiest people in the United States and provided the following biographic information: The four Bass brothers, Sid, Edward, Robert…
Continue readingThe Value of History
Welcome back. From New York City to Los Angeles, from Alder, Montana to Rockport, Texas, I’m always on the lookout for an interesting story but you my friends don’t have to travel thousands of miles to learn about noteworthy people and places because there’s plenty of stories in your city…
Continue readingMermaids and Magic in Rockport, Texas
Welcome back Continuing from last week’s column, I hope you are keeping up with the ongoing story of my siting of two mermaids which took place two weeks ago along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico near Rockport, Texas. Friends I have been researching these mythical creatures and I’ve…
Continue readingMillionaires to Mermaids
Welcome back. Millionaires to mermaids, you’ll find it all in Rockport, Texas and friends there’s a tie to the Bartlesville area that this week I thought you might find interesting. Water Street in Rockport is only a mile long and runs right along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico….
Continue readingLeave A Legacy
Welcome back. Traveling the country in search of interesting stories for almost 18 years I have had the opportunity to meet many fascinating people. I was recently in the company of one such person, an eighty-year-old friend of mine who thanked me for being part of his legacy. After looking…
Continue readingTravel in the COVID 19 Era
Welcome back. Recreational vehicles or RVs as they are commonly called, over the years I’ve owned about a dozen of them and camped out in RV parks across the country. On the west coast Mugu State Park was my home for two weeks while I was investigating the Whitey Bulger…
Continue readingA Unique Venue for PBR Event
Welcome back. Over the years I’ve brought you readers many stories I hope you’ve found interesting from Whitey Bulger’s trial in Boston, the American Sniper trial in Stephenville, Texas and even the heartbreaking trial in Aurora, Colorado where a deranged kid killed dozens of people in a movie theater. I’ve…
Continue readingHurricanes on the Texas Coast
Welcome back. With hundreds of ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 employees in the Houston area and many more located along the Gulf of Mexico down to the big shipping center of Port Aransas, the impact of Hurricane Harvey has had is in many ways still reaching all the way to Bartlesville….
Continue readingSan Jose Island-A Retreat for the Rich and Powerful
Welcome back. You may not know their names but down in Rockport, Texas where I’m “chasing a ghost”, Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison and the Bass family represent money, big money and yes there’s a tie to the Bartlesville area. But first I’m taking you back in time to 1937 when…
Continue readingFrederick Drummond, Leader and Patriarch of the Drummond Clan
Welcome back. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County represents mother nature at her finest and back in the 1980s several people had the vision to protect it, one of whom passed away last week. The Tallgrass Prairie is just one small piece of his legacy. Born on July 13,…
Continue readingGhost Writing
Welcome back. Giving Up the Ghost is a book written by my late friend Sanford “Sandy” Doty, a man whose writing career spanned over fifty years. Sandy lived in New York City where he was the ghost writer for the biographies of numerous famous people including Bette Davis, Helen Hayes…
Continue readingJim Halsey, Legendary Music Promoter
Welcome back. One was born and one died, this week it’s the story of two famous men from this area and I hope you enjoy the ride. On October 7, 1930 a male child was born in Independence, Kansas who would go on to establish the largest country music management…
Continue readingJerry Poppenhouse, World Traveler
Welcome back. First the scoop, and if you’re a rodeo fan you’d better listen up. The BOK Center in Tulsa is going to open up to the general public for the first time since the pandemic started in March to host the Express Ranches PBR bull riding championships on October…
Continue readingCamping in the Time of Covid
Welcome back to my sixteenth Labor Day lake report and weather-wise what a great weekend to be out! Up first, the town was first called Lawton, then changed its name to Weldon and finally when the railroad came through the name Copan stuck. A boom town in 1905, it’s a…
Continue readingWoolaroc
Welcome back. Over the years much has been written about Woolaroc, both as a world class museum and a truly great wildlife preserve, but this week I’m taking you backstage at this terrific place for two reasons. First of all, every year for roughly the past twenty years I have…
Continue readingThe Texas Coast and the King Ranch
Welcome back. Over the past sixteen years you readers have followed me down the road to many of the great ranching empires in our country. Locally, the Drummond family name is well known by many of you and the Land Report ranks the family as one of the twelve largest…
Continue readingThe Big Event 2020
Welcome back. Pawhuska three times, Tulsa twice, Oklahoma City and Edmond once with Nowata, Caney and Barnsdall and there’s is no end in sight for my travels this month so you can count on some interesting stories. Arcadia Lake in Edmond is a place where I often spend the night…
Continue readingThe Nonprofit World During Covid19
Welcome back. Nurses, fire fighters and cops. They all play important roles in our life’s journey and as we age there’s another group of people that is just as important. Can you imagine being a senior citizen still living at home on your own but unable to get out because…
Continue readingRodeo Season
Welcome back. Founded in 1947, the world’s largest amateur rodeo is back in Pawhuska this week and friends if rodeo is your sport the Pawhuska fairgrounds ought to be your destination. The fairgrounds itself sits three miles outside of town and you won’t miss it because there will be hundreds…
Continue readingA Fallen Hero
Welcome back. The good guys and the bad guys. One wants to protect us, the other wants to take advantage of us and a week ago this past Monday one of the good guys paid the ultimate price for protecting us. It was a day that not just the brave…
Continue readingLake Tenkiller, Oklahoma
Welcome back. Over the past several weeks I’ve written about nurses and the fine job they do for mankind with their dedication and love. I know most of you readers have experienced this at least once in your lives. There’s another group of people that is just as dedicated which…
Continue readingAftermath of the Trump Rally in Tulsa
Welcome back. President Trump didn’t show up at the Tulsa Fairgrounds where I was autographing books on Saturday but everyone else did and the well-advertised gun show drew one of the biggest crowds in years. The show was held on the lower level of the big Expo Center and the…
Continue readingOklahoma Coming Back To Life
Welcome back. Brenda Maness from Franklinville, North Carolina got one, so did Katie Craft from Eastlake, Ohio and Lynn Smith in Hamilton, New Jersey got one as well. For me, what was going to be a four-month book signing tour on the east coast starting in May turned into a…
Continue readingComing Back to Life
Welcome back. Trade shows at the Tulsa Fairgrounds are starting up again on June 20th with a big two-day gun show and I’ll be there to give you all a report not only on the size of the crowd but also on all the coronavirus prevention measures being put into…
Continue readingPawhuska, Oklahoma
Welcome back. In 1875 Pawhuska got its first post office and not long after that what had been Indian Territory became the State of Oklahoma. in 1909 one of my favorite organizations, the Boy Scouts of America, established its first troop in Pawhuska. The town is also the capital of…
Continue readingGiveaway for Nurses Extended
To All Nurses: If you haven’t requested your copy of Footprints in the Dew yet I still have 80 books left! Email bestofbooks@sbcglobal.net or call (405) 340-9202.
Continue readingBook Signing In Pawhuska
I had a great weekend in Pawhuska signing books at Lorec Ranch. Even wearing a mask and social distancing it was great to see people out and about again. I plan to be there again next Friday and Saturday.
Continue readingOklahoma Memorial Day
Welcome back. Memorial Day weekend 2020 is history now but before it slips away in our memory here’s a few places I went you might find interesting. First, I took a spin down to south central Oklahoma to Tenkiller Lake on Saturday to see if folks were getting out and…
Continue readingBob Funk’s 80th Birthday Parade
Welcome back. The date was May 4, 2020 yes friends this past Thursday, the time was 6PM and the location was on the old Chisholm Trail where Texas cattle were brought to Oklahoma and then shipped by Kansas railroads to folks on the east coast to eat. Sitting just a…
Continue readingMore on Nurses, Woolaroc and the Cowboy Hall of Fame
Welcome back. From Montana to Texas, California to New York nurses have heard about the book Footprints in the Dew and learned that they could order a free copy by emailing bestofbooks@sbcglobal.net or calling the store at (405) 340-9202. Dozens of books have already been mailed out and the giveaway…
Continue readingAnother Drummond
Welcome back to part two of the history of the nursing profession, who started it, when, where and how we should all show our appreciation during National Nurses Week which starts today, May 6th. From your history books you may have learned about Florence Nightingale who established nursing as a…
Continue readingCelebrating National Nurses Week
In recognition of the brave work of nurses across the country during the coronavirus pandemic, I am partnering with Best of Books in Edmond, Oklahoma to give nurses a free copy of my best-selling book during National Nurses Week starting at 12AM on May 6th and ending at 12PM on…
Continue readingNational Nurses Week
Welcome back. It’s a profession that is overlooked by most of us until we need their services and that’s when we learn just how important these people are. This week I am bringing you their story. First let me take you back in time again, back to May 12, 1820…
Continue readingIndian Summer, Woolaroc and Other Highlights from the 1997 Centennial Celebration
Welcome back. I’m continuing last week’s story about the celebration of Bartlesville 100th birthday, hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far. Throughout the year Dee Ketchum, who was another friend of Tom Sears and Bill Creel, played a big role in highlighting the American Indians’ influence on the development of…
Continue readingWelcome back. Breaking news and long overdue is the announcement of a new museum in Pawhuska but friends this time it has little to do with Ree Drummond. Born on June 13, 1918 in Foraker, Oklahoma this man who the museum is dedicated to grew up on what is now the Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve but back then it was the Chapman Barnard Ranch and it was huge! It is said that he could ride and rope by the age of four and in Pawhuska where his dad was well known, most people just called him “son.” Millionaire film maker Howard Hughes first noticed “son’s” skills in 1940 when he hired him to bring a load of horses to Hollywood to make the film Outlaw. Hughes gave “son” more work taking care of the horses and that led to doing stunt work for the stars of Hughes’ films. John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Joel McCrea, James Stewart and Henry Fonda all called on “son” to do their stunts and double for them riding horses. In 1953 this man who often came back to visit the place he called home set the world record for professional calf roping, also winning the world championship in team roping along the way. By this time in his life he was acting as well, co-starring with the biggest box office stars of the day and even starring in his own pictures. His first starring role in Mighty Joe Young was filmed the same year “son” and John Wayne were in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and they went on to make many other movies together. Dozens of film and T.V. roles came his way along with numerous awards and then in 1971 he won the biggest award of all for his performance in The Last Picture Show. This man had done something no other person has accomplished before, winning both an Oskar and a world rodeo championship. Yes, by now I hope most of you know I’m talking about Ben “son” Johnson, Jr. He is in the Western Heritage Center and Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City and he also has a star on the famous “Walk of Fame” in Hollywood. In his later years, in addition to supporting everything he could in Pawhuska, Ben worked to raise money on a national level for many causes including disadvantaged and disabled children, cancer research and the fight against cystic fibrosis. Ben died on April 8, 1996 while visiting his mom and it was a day when family, friends and fans from Pawhuska to Hollywood all cried. Now you know why this museum is long overdue. I hope you are wondering when and where is the Grand Opening so here’s your answer: June 12-15th from 9AM-6PM each day. The museum is located at 201 East 6th Street which is right around the corner from the Pioneer Woamn’s Mercantile. I also heard that the actor Buck Henry of Gunsmoke fame and several other old Hollywood friends will be around town during this period. As for me, I’m bound for Haskell, Texas for the Wild Horse Prairie Days which is a huge sanctioned ranch rodeo and I’m told by the organizers that all the top ranch teams from around the country will there . I’ll tell you all about it next week. Till then, I’ll see ya down the road….
The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Welcome back. Located in Oklahoma’s Osage County, Osage Hills State Park was built in 1937 during the depression era by the Civilian Conservation Corps as were several other parks around the State. The park was created by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who decreed that the land not be…
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