Volume 8 , Issue 52

Looking Back At 2006

Last year Mike Rosebery posted a few photos to Mike Rosebery Flickr account that were taken in or near Alva in the 1920s. The negatives were processed at Ellis Studio in the Monfort building. The name on the account is Dr. Juchli. They're pretty swell photos (so stylish!). Does anything look familiar to you?

We learned about the H. M. Bickel family and the Bickel Bus line in downtown Alva. The Bickel family made the Run of 1893 when Cherokee Strip opened -- locating on East side of square in Alva. H. M. was the US Land Commissioner, Alva before statehood. he owned the land in the center of Alva (2-block area where the courthouse and city hall are today. Bickel donated the 2-blocks in the center of Alva for the courthouse and city hall.) besides land east of square, 1-block on Barnes Avenue, northeast corner.

NWOSU college campus... Oklahoma Hall was being demolished after 30 years of service. Northwestern Oklahoma State University dorm (Oklahoma Hall, built over 30-years ago) gets demolished?

We were also remembering the passing of JACK EUGENE LENHART when Woods County, in Northwest Oklahoma lost another special, great icon last year. I particularly remember the time that Lenhart's bought sod grass from our dad (Gene McGill) and we helped the Lenhart's plug it in to their yard back in the 1960's. Besides that... Jack and Gene shared the same middle name, Eugene, until Gene changed his name to Gene M. McGill. Funeral services for Jack Lenhart, age 77, were held 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, January 3, 2006, at the Marshall Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Sean Evans, pastor of the Alva First Christian Church officiating. Interment was in the Alva Municipal Cemetery under the direction of Marshall Funeral Home of Alva.

Let us not forget Alva's Runnymede Restoration ... the local NW Oklahoma newspaper reported the Runnymede Project was having their Open House Sunday, January 22, 2006, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., in downtown Alva, Oklahoma after the old Runnymede Hotel had undergone major restoration by a group of northwestern Oklahoma citizens.

Waynoka Historical Society was also having it's open this last summer with the restoration of the pioneer log cabin at Waynoka Station has been completed! The Waynoka Historical Society invites everyone interested in seeing the beautifully and meticulously restored three room cabin to attend the Ribbon Cutting and OPEN HOUSE - Thursday, July 27, 2006, at 10 a.m.

AND... What were they talking about in the coffee shops in northwest Oklahoma and Southern Kansas beginning in May and continuing until September, or so? It was the "Old Opera House Mystery of 1910" that made it's debute in the May edition of the "Prairie Connection."

Do you remember what was your favorite OkieLegacy story for 2006? What would you like to see more of for 2007?
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