Who Knew Oklahoma Was Worth Seeing?

Add this to your list for next trip: See the hills at the far eastern edge of the state in mid-November. Glorious! Drive slow, pull over at one of the many scenic overlooks, and snap away with your camera. It rivals anything I’ve seen of a New England fall.

Duly noted.

I am informed that Okie is considered a slur by some. Well, live and learn. They can all gang up and holler “Yankee” at me. Not that I haven’t heard that before. And damn Yankee.

Sophia,

During the time of the Great Depression and when The Grapes of Wrath was written, “Okie” was used as a slur to describe those poor destitute souls, but no more. It’s as much a part of our history as the red dirt that flows through our veins. Feel free to use it, but hopefully it’s with a positive spirit.

Some thoughts on Touring the Cowboy State (as an OSU alum, I can’t say “Soon*r”)...

Take the Talimena Drive from Talihina, OK to Mena, AR in October. It’s gorgeous.

The Wichita Mountains are about a hour’s drive north of Wichita Falls, TX. There are some wonderful hiking trails, lakes for paddling, and even some mountains. Or at least what us flatlanders consider mountains.

If you want to discover yourself in a unique way, take the hike to the highpoint of Oklahoma at Black Mesa in the panhandle. It’s an 8 mile hike over mostly flat terrain until you suddenly start going vertical for about 3/4 mile. If you are in reasonably good shape and take extra water and sunscreen, it’s a great way to isolate yourself from the rest of the world.

Lots of pictures at my flickr photostream.

Eric C

Thank you Eric! I do hope to be back in OK, um, soon and will try to work some of this in.

And yes, I use Okie with affection. It’s such a nice cuddly word. Not all hard-edged like Texan.

I’ve lived in Norman for many years, after my graduation from OU.  It used to have a pleasant small-town atmosphere in the 60s.  It had less than 50,000 people when I first arrived at OU.  Now it’s twice as large and three times as noisy.  It has been WallMartized, like so many other American towns, and has lost its charm.  Under corrupt president David Boren, OU has descended into an atmosphere of mediocrity and deception. 

Guthrie is an interesting Oklahoma town.  Its central business district looks like the set of a movie about the old west.  I find Norman to be phony and pretentious.

Well, every place has grown a lot since the 1960s. But I live in Dallas, possibly the epicenter of phony and pretentious (though, as I’ve argued before, it has good qualities too) so I may be somewhat inured to the qualities. (To use a pretentious word…)

Guthrie goes on my list, thanks!

Well, every place has its good qualities and bad qualities.  I’ve spent some time in NYC.  My mom was from there.  You can have a great meal in a restaurant there and then get mugged in a subway station on the way home. 

As for OU, have you been following the news about the popular protest in Denver objecting to the large statue of a hideous red-eyed horse at the airport?  Mind you, I’m not coming from a religious right perspective.  It’s just that the thing is ugly and the idea for it is probably rooted in Greek mythology.  Most likely it was inspired by Pegasus, who was believed to carry lightning and thunder for Zeus.  There is a photo of it at the airport, and in the background is a dark ominous sky with lightning.  The parents of Pegasus were Poseidon, who caused drownings and ship wrecks when he was in a bad mood, and Medusa, who had a bad habit of turning people into stone. 

Pseudo-sophisicates, trying to act educated, excuse this trash by saying that “art is supposed to be provocative” etc. ad nauseum.  Well, that’s all well and good.  People who like this ugliness can have replicas made for their living rooms, but when public funds are paying for it, the art should be within the consensus boundaries of public tastes. 

OU president David Boren brought a smaller version of the red-eyed horse to OU in 1995.  Click on my link to see a photo of it and other examples of Boren’s strange sculptures.

I must be the luckiest person in the world—I’ve never been mugged in NYC.

I can’t say I love the horse sculpture, though the others don’t bother me.

Do you mean the others at the Denver airport or at OU?

See my link for another example of a sculpture brought to OU by Boren.

At OU, I mean. I looked at your pix.

There are several ways to consider this matter.  Did you see my video about the Greek sphinx at OU?  It’s a sculpure of a creature which has the head, torso, and breasts of a fat woman but the lower half is that of a lion.  It has a tail and wings.  I find it to be ugly.  The sculptor was from Latin America, so my first idea about it was that it represented some sort of pagan demon goddess from that part of the world.  The plaque names it as “Sphinx.”  Sooner magazine identifies it as Greek in origins.  Sooner does not tell the full story.  See my link.

I consulted the Encyclopedia Mythica.  There is only one sphinx in Greek mythology.  It has all the physical characteristics of this sculpture.  It is the demon of death.

Even if you don’ t think the OU sphinx is visually offensive, there is another issue.  A university is supposed to be about education, but OU deceived the public about the origins of this sculpture.  The Sooner article even says that the Sphinx has a “benevolent” expression.

David Boren is a very strange man.  He is a member of Skull and Bones.  Perhaps, by cluttering the OU campus with demonic symbols while concealing their meaning from the public, he is winking to his S&B pals.

Well. don’t know enough about Boren to comment on demons and secret societies and things, but it appears he has had a distinguished political career.

I’m trying to inform you about Boren.  As for his political career, he was elected to the U.S Senate from Oklahoma three times.  He surprised his constituents in 1994, when he resigned his Senate seat with two years remaining on his term.  His excuse for resigning was to claim that there was too much “partisanship” and also that he just “loved” the University of Oklahoma.  He announced his resignation after manipulating the OU regents into naming him president.

The real reason Boren resigned from his powerful and seemingly safe Senate seat was because gay activists had begun to out him in 1993 and they were accusing him of sexually harassing his male staff members.  Click on my link for a review of some of this gay literature.  One of the publications was The Texas Triangle.  Boren has been able to keep this from reaching the mainstream press.

Boren has been trying to maneuver his way back to a Washington job ever since.  He’ll hitch his wagon to any star.  In the mid-90s he became close to Ross Perot.  There was a Reform Party Committee to draft him for 2000, but that went nowhere.  For 2004 he endorsed Lieberman, and that went nowhere.  In January 2008 he was pinning his hopes on an independent candidacy by Michael Bloomberg.  Boren was dreaming of the VP slot.  That went nowhere.  Hoping for a Cabinet post, Boren angered his conservative supporters in Oklahoma by endorsing Obama.  That went somewhere, but Obama wisely did not want to have anything to do with Boren.

That’s it Dembling. Next time you’re in my part of the world, we’re going a-driving around the Garden State. I’m gonna school you right proper in all its glories. And maybe we’ll get some good deals at the mall I worked in when I was 17.

As for Oklahoma, you’ve definitely revved up my desire to check it out. It’s always been on my list but it’s moved up several notches. And thanks to all who added in their take on places to see around the state. 

Also, a while back I interviewed several OKC locals on some of their favorite spots around the city and was really moved by their passion for the place. Here’s the piece:

http://www.americanwaymag.com/oklahoma-city-john-d-williams-northwest-expressway-national-basketball-association

I posted without clicking through to all of Sophie’s links. She’d already given my story a nod. Sorry for the duplicate Ms. D. (But I’m still going to school you on the ways of Jersey—but I’ll go a little less Sopranos on you cause of my mistake.)

I have spent time in Cape May, if that helps…

It’s a start.

Thanks Sophia. As an Oklahoma transplant from K.C. I have to say OKC has come a long way since the 80s. It is much more diverse culturally than the rest of the state. The frontman for the Flaming Lips lives here afterall! It has been interesting to watch the differences between how Okies and Texans promote themselves to the rest of the nation. While Texans are always out there with a major PR machine, Oklahomans are more than satisfied to sit back and enjoy our spoils. We know what we have (and what we don’t) and most people who live here aren’t in any hurry to attract more people.

I’m one of those Okies who got out of there (all the way to England in fact), but as they say you can take the boy out of Oklahoma, but you can’t take the Oklahoma out of the boy. I must come back every couple of years to reconnect.

You’re in Dallas….have you made it the Wichita Mountains yet? This is a truly magical place and one of the oldest, if not the oldest, mountain range in North America. It’s a sacred place for native americans, has an pretty cool outlaw history (Jesse James supposed buried gold there), bison and elk herds and sweet air.  Neighboring Fort Sill is worth a visit too as it was one of the original frontier forts during the Indian Wars - there are great museums there.

http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/oklahoma/wichitamountains/

I have not made it to the Wichita Mountains yet but several people have urged me to make the trip. I see I have some major OK exploring ahead of me.

I have only blown through OKC so far and need to return and take a closer look.

I do like the Oklahoma doesn’t push itself too hard, although Texas did pull itself up from a post-oil-boom nosedive by building up its tourism infrastructure. This is one of the most complex issues surrounding tourism, to me. It’s easy to say “I don’t want things to change,” but the money tourism brings in can do lots of good things. And it can do lots of bad things.

Diane Clay is proud of the fact that the “frontman for the Flaming Lips” lives in OkC.  I’m afraid I don’t share this enthusiasm.  The “Lips” are just another loud group of noise-makers who compensate with high decibels and technological gimmicks for what they lack in musical skill.  Many Americans, unfortunately, are unaware of the fact that hearing impairment is the most prevalent chronic illness in this country and that loud entertainment noise (I don’t call it “music”) accounts for much of it.

As for “frontman” Wayne Coyne, he has been quoted recently in two articles in the Oklahoma Gazette.  The weekly’s final issue of 2008 had an article describing the Lips’ upcoming New Year’s Eve performance.  In this article Coyne admitted, “I never thought I was that great of a singer.”

Coyne frequently used obscenity in the interview. He says, to those who were fans of his band in the 1980s, “You’re an old motherfucker.”

At the end of the article, he says that a New Year’s Eve celebration “should be this great drunken drug-taking fucking freak-out.”

The January 29th issue describes an interview of Coyne by Spin magazine.  Coyne described his earlier occupation as a cook for Long John Silver’s.  He tells of having emptied entire ashtrays into 50-pound tubs of cole slaw whenever he would “get bored.”

The celebrityhood has obviously gone to Coyne’s head. He appears to think that whatever he does, no matter how outrageous, will be applauded.  OU football coach Barry Switzer was the same way.  Due to his bad habit of recruiting thugs to the football team, in January 1989 football players at OU were arrested for rape, drug-dealing, and gunfire.  This was too much, even for Sooner fans, and Switzer resigned.  By the mid-90s all had been forgotten, and OU built a football museum and exercise facility and named it for Switzer.

Why do Okies make heroes out of jerks like Coyne and Switzer?  Okies have a bad habit of looking for glory in all the wrong places.  By the way, I am a life-long Okie.

A few things on this important topic:

* Oklahoma has the best state shape (clearly) BECAUSE Texas wanted slaves. After the Missouri Compromise forbid slavery north of the parallel 36’30’’ north, Texas simply cut off the tip of its panhandle—which lay stranded for years until, samaritanically, the unorganized Indian Territory/Oklahoma signed it on.

* Oklahoma has the best state flag (without doubt). It’s of an Osage battle shield fronted by two signs of peace: an olive branch and peace pipe. Why Oklahoma DIDN’T put this on their official state quarter—instead of the tired use of a state bird—is right their in the same column of mistake-making as naming your first major sports franchise after something that can’t be personified: Thunder.

* Oklahoma has more surviving miles of Route 66 than any other state. The underrated stretch between Tulsa and OKC saves you the unnecessary toll (Oklahoma ranks with New Jersey and Pennsylvania for most tollways) and is the nicest contour-hugging patch in the state.

* Like Kentucky, Oklahoma has no clear region. It’s not south, it’s not southwest, it’s not midwest. I like calling it the Nepal to Texas’ India. Ie it’s part of the ‘Texas subcontinent.’

* Oklahoma is not Jersey to Texas’ Manhattan. It’s more the Queens. Content to not boast its diverse charms—Queens is the most underrated New York borough—like its southerly neighbor does.

* Oklahoma’s football team beat Texas’ by the best football score of all time, back in 1902: the final was 2-0, with a game-ending safety deciding it.

Oh, and Will Rogers once said that when the Okies left for California it improved the IQ of both states.

Robbie Reid is proud of the state flag of Oklahoma.

See my link.  Oklahoma’s first state flag was red with a white star in the center and the number 46, representing the fact that Oklahoma was the 46th state to join the Union.

Oklahoma is called a “red” state these days.  For a few years after statehood was granted in 1907, Oklahoma was “red” in a different sense.  On a per-capita basis Oklahoma had the largest Socialist Party in the country.  In 1916, sixteen percent of the electorate voted for the Socialist Party candidate for President.

The Socialist Party faded away after World War I.  The nation was overtaken by xenophobia and the Party was against the war.  Additionally the “red scare” following the Russian Revolution was a factor.  In the midst of the Palmer raids, the Oklahoma legislature passed an unconstitutional law making it a crime to display a red flag of “emblem of anarchy or rebellion.”

Lots of fun facts, Robbie, thanks! Love the “part of the Texas subcontinent.”

And Jenna will be thrilled to hear your opinion of Queens. I’ve only started getting to know that part of NYC.

While you are looking for fun SE Oklahoma, check out the kayaking on the cypress tree lined and spanish moss garlanded beauty of the Lower Mountain Fork River in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.  Great paddling all summer long, due to the hydro-power generation and trout fishery on the river.

The terrain is vastly different than the rest Oklahoma.