Yearly Archives: 2013

Starting Next Week: Stories from the road as I retrace the steps of early man in New Mexico…

Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.  I first introduced the Fabulous Mid Life Crisis Band to Bartlesville when I hired them for a fund raiser that the local YMCA and I called “The YMCA Rocks Woolaroc.” The band was a huge success that first year and some twelve years later they are still playing at the event every fall.

My relationship with the band goes back way before their first trip to Bartlesville when I saw them at the Nature Conservancy’s Wild Brew fund raiser in Tulsa but even I didn’t know the whole history of how they got started until recently. It was 1995 when the original five Tulsa musicians, all of whom were middle aged, got together for the first time. Back in the ‘60s they had each played in different bands during high school and had continued to play when they went to college. After college things changed when careers and families took center stage and music was pushed to the side. Some thirty years went by before the five self proclaimed “old guys” started playing together and they practiced for three years before their first real gig at American Heat & Air’s 1997 Christmas party. After that they knew they were on to something and soon hundreds of fans knew it too. That something is garage band music and it has made Mid-Life Crisis one of the most popular bands in the area

Nowadays the Fabulous Mid Life Crisis Band is still hot with gigs all over the area, including Utica Square in Tulsa. Every summer different bands play outdoor shows during Summer’s Fifth Night as its called at the square and it is one of my favorite places to see Mid Life Crisis. For the record, here’s the scoop on Utica Square:

The shopping center opened in Tulsa in 1955. At the time the suburban shopping center was a new concept and Utica Square was Tulsa’s first. Miss Jackson’s, which was founded in 1910, moved to the center in 1965 and continues to be an anchor store today.

Although many older readers may remember TG&Y, C.R. Anthony’s and Renberg’s, they are gone now and have been replaced by Banana Republic, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn and many more. Utica Square is always a fun place to shop and hang out but tomorrow night (June 6^th) the place will be a zoo. It happens once a year when Mid Life Crisis plays this gig. Hundreds of people bring chairs, pop-up tents, ice chests and their dancing shoes and they turn the parking lot into Woodstock. Its back to the 1960s with peace & love starting at 7PM and one more thing, it’s all free. The stars line up right for this party and I suggest you get there early.

Back in Bartlesville, next week kicks off OK Mozart and you’ve got to love it when the town fills up with visitors coming for this renowned festival. There’s another reason a hotel room will be hard to find that week and that’s a big family reunion that taking place at the same time. If you live in Wales and your last name is Jones it would be pretty common as that is the most popular last name in that country. In England it is the second most common last name. Well guess what, according to Wikipedia it also the fourth most common last name in the U.S. Wikipedia also tells me that records in England show the use of the name Jones goes back as far as 1279. So if you run into a bunch of Jones you’ll know it’s not an OK Mozart event, it’s a Jones reunion event.

Next week its back on the road with famed photographers Jerry Poppenhouse and Kelly Kerr to the land of enchantment. For me this area is the closest place I know of where all cares drift away, where troubles magically disappear and life is how it should be and I’ll tell you all about it.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road……

I am happy I was able to meet this extraordinary man….

Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.  Howard Choteau Webster was born on January 23, 1925 and his passing last week will be mourned by rodeo fans around the world.  I personally met the man who was considered by many to be the greatest steer and calf roper alive when I interviewed him after the publication of his autobiography Shoat in 2003. A few years later I crossed paths with the rodeo legend once again while I was working on another project.

In the book Shoat is described as having an aura of charisma which he did but he was also a genuinely friendly person, easy to meet and visit with.

During the 1940s and 50s Shoat won every major roping competition in the northern hemisphere.  After he won the bulldogging, steer roping and calf competitions and then also took the all around title three years in a row at the Pendleton, Oregon Rodeo, famed rodeo announcer Clem McSpadden renamed the event the “Shoat Webster Benefit.”

Shoat was born and raised in northeast Oklahoma, the middle child between two older and two younger sisters. He had a typical childhood growing up on a farm in that era with two notable exceptions. Shoat loved to ride anything: pigs, sheep, baby calves, cows and before long horses. He could also rope anything and everything. Before long the young man became well known for his ability with horses and ropes and that ability led him to travel in the world of professional rodeo. On his first trip to Madison Square Garden he won both the calf roping and the steer wrestling, taking home a saddle along with his prize money. In the late 1940s he and his horses were the stars of any event he participated in. Shoat rode in parades with movie stars and other personalities such as Joel McCrea, Ben Johnson, Casey Tibbs and Jim Shoulders. Later in life baseball great George Brent and dozens of other celebrities would visit Shoat’s ranch in Lenapah to swap stories and hunt quail. Reba McIntyre’s father and fellow World Champion steer roper from 1957 to 1961 called Shoat “the one to beat” and added that Shoat was a man he had the deepest respect for.

Copan, Oklahoma based roper and horse trainer Lon Chaney worked for Shoat in the early 1960s and recalls that he “had more good horses than anyone else in the business.” After retiring from rodeo, Shoat dedicated himself to raising quality horses and bird dogs, gaining additional fame as a breeder and trainer.

Shoat died on Monday, May 20th. For additional information about this fine man you can find his biography in the Bartlesville Public Library.

Along with Shoat’s passing this week came a transition of another type, the graduation of Bartlesville High School’s class of 2013 which included my daughter and traveling partner Loretta Lewis. The list of National Honor Society students is way too long to include here and there were also dozens of kids who graduated with honors. One program that was not mentioned in the commencement festivities is Darla Tresner’s journalism class which has consistently won top statewide awards for the production of the high school newspaper, including recognition for writing, editing and photography. This is a great program which has had an important influence on many of “Miss T’s” students and is one more thing that our high school can be proud of.

Add to that the National Merit finalists and the many other awards garnered by this class and it all adds up to a great bunch of young men and women going out into the world to make their own history. Loretta for one has been accepted into the Photography Program at OSUIT. As for me, look for more coverage of OSU sports in the upcoming years.

A last note from Elder Care’s The Good, The Bad and The Barbeque which was held on May 11th.  During the evening it was announced that a special fund has been established at Elder Care in honor of Katherine Boren Mullendore to assist folks who need help attending Elder Care’s programs. For more information about supporting this fund please contact Deirdre McArdle, Director of Development, at (918) 336-8500.

Till next week I’ll see ya down the road……

When I was growing up I never had much exposure to classical music and now I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful festival in my backyard.

                        Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.  The date was January 15, 1897 when Bartlesville Indian Territory was incorporated with a population of just 200 folks. Just 87 years later Washington Park Mall opened and according to the Bartlesville Centennial Magazine the population of the city had already grown to 40,000. 1984 was also the year that the George Miksch Sutton opened in Bartlesville and that T. Boone Pickens tried unsuccessfully to take over Phillips Petroleum Company.

The mid’ 80s were a prosperous time here but there were both highs and lows for the community. One of the highs was in June 1985 when the OK Mozart Festival had its first season in Bartlesville. The first year was considered a great success and the festival offered three concerts! Twenty-eight years later the festival has grown to include 150 individual shows featuring performers from around the world. One of those performers is Principal Cello Roger Shell who was in the orchestra that first year and will be back again this year. There are plenty of other returning musicians including violinist Louise Owen who says she brags about Dink’s barbeque to all her friends in New York and trombonist Richard Clark who has said that he would come back to Bartlesville every year just to be able to go to Woolaroc.

Another man who all of you will get to know this year is the festival’s new artistic director, Constantine Kitsopoulos. Kitsopoulos is in demand as a conductor from New York to Hong Kong.  I recently met him at the mountain retreat of OK mozart’s treasurer, Roger Box.  According to what he told me his experience ranges from leading classical orchestras to conducting operas and musicals such as A Catered Affair, Dracula and a recent Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess. Now once again Bartlesville is in the enviable position of having a world class talent in our midst. This fellow along with the orchestra is a must see act and the shows run June 9^th-June 15^th. Ticket sales are going well so I wouldn’t wait long to get my tickets.

With that said here’s this week’s scoop: I predict that Hot Club of Cow Town and a special presentation of the Wizard of Oz with the Amici Orchestra playing the music are both going to sell out so be sure to buy those tickets soon. Of course the big outdoor concert at Woolaroc featuring Hollywood movie music is also sure to be packed. Throughout the week of the festival there will be many free gigs around town which will keep things hopping. One more scoop about the festival:  Elder Care will be hosting a free concert this Thursday afternoon with a string quartet from the Amici Orchestra. For more information about that concert call (918) 336-8500. For tickets and more information about other OK Mozart shows call (918) 336-9800 or just go by the festival office at 415 S. Dewey.

Before leaving I want to remind you that SUNFEST, which some consider to be Oklahoma’s largest outdoor party, is coming up on May 31^st so for the next few weeks it will be party time in Bartlesville.

Till next week I’ll see ya down the road……

History continues to be made on the Cross Bell Ranch….

                 Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.  Elder Care’s The Good, The Bad and The Barbeque drew close to 1,000 people on Saturday night as folks came out to support an organization which we’re all moving closer to needing every day. Once again Dink’s did a stand up job with dinner and Les Gilliam and the Silver Lake Band kept the dance floor full all night long. Gene Autry had a big influence on their western swing sound and if you get a chance to hear them you don’t want to miss it.

As usual local volunteers played a big part in the success of the evening from set-up on Thursday to the tear down on Sunday. You can imagine that with hundreds of folding chairs, dozens of tables and a tent as big as several houses, the volunteers get all the credit for pulling off another wonderful evening.

With that party now behind us this week, there are several other events coming up that you want to put on your calendar.  Here’s the skinny on one of them that you won’t want to miss if you’re a Will Rogers fan. As a young boy Will and his friends had heard of a new social club in Claremore whose members were all Cherokee “Indian Maidens” as they were described in the Claremore Progress newspaper on July 29, 1899. At the time the club held regular dances that were quite popular. After going to several of the dances, Will and his friends were soon made honorary members and Rogers would perform whenever the club met. At first both men and women could be members and then in 1937 it became for women only. Throughout the years the club met in various locations and finally in 1982 Cherokee Chief Ross Swimmer dedicated the Pocahontas Room in the Cherokee complex at 202 Santa Rosa Boulevard in Claremore as their permanent meeting place. The plaque on the wall reads:

Dedicated to the Pocahontas Indian Women’s Club

Founded June 28, 1899

Cooweescoowee District, Cherokee Nation

Presented by Ross O. Swimmer, Principal Chief

Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, September 28, 1982

Why am I writing about this now? Well this Saturday at 10:30 AM the Pocahontas Indian Women’s Club is holding their 7^th annual “Old Fashioned Picnic” at the Dog Iron Ranch in Oolagah which is Will Rogers’ birthplace. There will be music, a hog fry and a big auction as well as all kinds of traditional Cherokee games including stickball, Cherokee marbles and hatchet throwing which I am personally pretty good at.

Several dignitaries plan to attend including Principal Chief of the Cherokees Bill John Baker and renowned artist Gary Henson whose work is known around the world. And here’s one more very important thing: it’s free! That’s right, thanks to the Pocahontas Indian Women’s Club the food, entertainment and games are all free. The ranch house will be open for tours and my good friend Coke Meyer will be on hand to tell stories of her travels with her great-uncle and one of the most beloved men of his era, Will Rogers. I’ll leave you with one more word about this 114 year old club. They have provided support for the education of Cherokee students longer than any other organization on record. If Will Rogers was an active member of this club I’d say this is a party I don’t want to miss.

Another piece of history that is now gone by is the role of Pawnee Bill as played by Wayne Spears of Pawnee who recently died. Many of you have seen him at events in the area, always accompanied by his perfectly trained Leopard Appaloosa and his likeness is on billboards around the state. I worked with Wayne many times over the years and even bought a spotted horse from him. I promise you he will be missed by many of us.

Till next time I’ll see you down the road……

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Some early history of Bartlesville, OK and the Cross Bell Ranch……

                     Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.  Founded in 1917 by Frank and L.E. Phillips, Phillips Petroleum Company wasn’t the only great partnership formed in what was called the “mid-continental oil region.”  Over 8,804,000 barrels of oil would eventually be pumped from its pools and Bartlesville, Oklahoma was smack dab in the middle of the region. By 1920 oil was being pumped everywhere around the city and the Santa Fe depot was shipping trainloads of crude to refineries. Newly discovered fields in Copan, Wann and Hogshooter would soon return huge profits to their lease holders. In Osage County, Henry Foster had signed a lease agreement with the Osage tribe in 1886 and now he was subleasing the mineral rights in this huge county to many new partnerships. In 1922 it wasn’t uncommon for a lease to sell for a million dollars (over 68,000,000 in today’s dollars!). Frank Phillips paid $1,990,000 for a lease in 1924 which at the time was highest amount ever paid. It was also during this period that J. Paul Getty, in partnership with his dad George, formed the Getty Oil Company.

Harry Sinclair also got his start with leases in Osage, Washington and Tulsa counties and became a millionaire in the 1920s. He invested in the historic Glen Pool field, turning Sinclair oil company into a 50 million dollar enterprise which was big, big stuff at the time.

Another great partnership that was established in this era was between H.C. Price and J.F. Lincoln. Price’s pipeline construction company would go on to work on many great projects including the 1,700 mile Continental Divide pipeline in Canada and the construction of a Liberty ship called “The Bartlesville”.  Of course the Frank Lloyd Wright Tower at 6^th and Dewey was built by Price for his offices.

Oil wasn’t the only thing that drew people to Washington county. The ranching business was also booming in the area. The grasses here were, and still are, famous for their nutrients and cattlemen brought their stock from other parts of the country to “finish” them here before shipping them to stockyards. Many great ranches in Washington and Osage country were founded during this time and some of them are still going strong today.

One ranch in particular would eventually grow to three hundred and seventy-five thousand acres under one brand, which included property land not only in Washington and Osage counties but also in Wyoming, Montana, Texas and Kansas. The partners only ran Hereford cattle and foundation bred quarter horses, using original stallions descended from their own famous “Little King.”  The partners were Gene and Kathleen Mullendore who had created their life long partnership when they married on December 21, 1926. Kathleen was the grand daughter of Osage Indian Chief Charlie Brown. Her father Buck Boren and Brown had formed their own partnership which was responsible for shipping so many cattle out of Washington County that the Santa Fe railroad named a shipping pen after Brown. This history and much more about the accomplishments of the Mullendore family can be found in Family Histories of Washington County Area, Oklahoma which is available at the Bartlesville Public Library.

And don’t forget Elder Care’s The Good, The Bad & The Barbeque fund raiser which will held out at Gene and Kathleen’s famous Cross Bell ranch on Saturday May 11^th. With the Oklahoma Balladeer Les Gilliam and his Silver Lake Band playing into the night it’s no wonder over 900 people attended last year.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road……………………..

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In my travels I’ve run across many interesting western towns….

            Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

Welcome back. This week I’d like to talk about an area I often visit. It’s just a short drive from Bartlesville and offers many options for entertainment that appeal to all ages. Like to fish? Well the city lake is stocked with over 11,000 pounds of trout each year. For bird watchers, America’s national bird, the Bald Eagle, also calls this lake home. If driving across thousands of acres of pristine prairie looking at buffalo in the wild is exciting to you then the 40,000 acre Tallgrass Prairie Preserve lies right outside of town.

And speaking of town, if history is your thing this place is filled with it. Of course you know by now that I’m talking about Pawhuska, Oklahoma which is also the headquarters of the Osage Nation. Their tribal museum and historical buildings are worth the drive alone. In downtown Pawhuska the old west comes to life with over 70 buildings that were constructed between 1872 and 1930. The renowned Constantine Theater, bronze artworks and unusual cafes and gift shops draw visitors to Main Street.

If you fall in love with the area, local realtor Brenda Pierce tells me that housing costs in Pawhuska are very reasonable and she even has a listing for what every golfer wants for Christmas: his or her own golf course. Founded in 1919, the Buffalo Hills Golf course, like most everything else here, has a great history but that’s another story for another day.

This week I  also want to bring up the volunteer work that Joe Sears has taken on in our community. You may not have noticed but Mr. Sears, in his Broadway stage persona Aunt Pearl, has been popping up at many local fundraisers and other community events. His recent appearance as Aunt Pearl at the Annual Chamber of Commerce dinner in Ramona doubled attendance. At Christmas time he organized the first cookie exchange Benefit for the Lighthouse in Bartlesville and it was a huge success. With the professional success Joe has achieved he could live anywhere but he chooses to be in Bartlesville which is pretty cool.

Here’s this week scoop: if you want to meet Joe or better yet bring all your friends to meet him and get a picture, he will be a guest judge for Family Crisis  & Counseling Center’s 3^rd annual “Kick Up Her Heels” fundraiser on April 16^th. April is Sexual Assault Awareness month and the organizers of this event came up with the cute idea of having men wear women’s shoes and parade through downtown Bartlesville. It’s a great idea and this year City Manager Ed Gordon, Woolaroc CEO Bob Frasier and one of Bartlesville’s big supporters, Rand Berney will all be participating along with many others. It will all be happening in front of Two Sisters Pub and you don’t want to miss it.

I’ve also heard that the planning is in full swing for Elder Care’s The Good, The Bad and The Barbeque which will be held at the historic Mullendore Ranch on May 11^th. The committee is working to make this year as special as always so mark your calendars.

Before you know it June1st will be here and SUNFEST will be setting up in Sooner Park. I understand that their committee has been working hard to get ready and we should all be very grateful to the new members who have stepped up to take on this big project.

This week I’d also like to thank you readers for your comments and also for your support of the Bartlesville Examiner Enterprise. Times have changed a lot but as Will Rogers said “All I know is what I read in the newspaper.”

Till next week I’ll see ya down the road…………..