Volume 9 , Issue 39

OkieLegacy Centennial Moment

This week's Okielegacy Centennial Moment finds us researching The Oklahoman archives concerning Waynoka & Little Sahara Camels. It was back on March 9, 1958, The Oklahoman, pg. 92, headlines read: Alva Woman Goes On a Camel Hunt, by Nora B. Oringderff .

Alva, March 8, 1958 -- "Anybody got a camel? Not the kind you'd walk a mile for, but the real, live hump-backed kind."

That is how the 1958 article started out. Grace Ward Smith was depicted as an attractive secretary-manager of the Alva Chamber of Commerce and wanted one or two camels back in March, 1958 to help with tourism to northwest Oklahoma. It was reported back in March, 1958, "Everybody knows usually "What Grace wants, Grace gets."

From reading the article in The Oklahoman, it appeared that Grace was running out of time and had to have the camels by May 10 & 11, 1958. That was the date for the Santa Fe tour of Oklahoma City school children to western Oklahoma. Some 900 elementary and junior high students were making the sight seeing trip on a day long train ride. This NW Okie was 10-years of age back in 1958 and may have been one of those elementary students. Were You?

The article mentioned, "The camels are more than just an attraction for school children on the tour. They have become a symbol of 'Grace's dream for Northwest Oklahoma'."

The animals were going to grace the sand dunes near Waynoka, marking the spot where the Little Sahara was taking shape back about that time. Back in 1958 Waynoka got a swanky ultra-modern motel, with bellhops dressed as sheiks, pretty waitresses dressed in harem costumes. Surrounding the swimming pool were those mysterious little hideaway tents you might see on the desert.

Grace Ward Smith was known as a positive thinking promoter and proud of it and believed there was no room for this "maybe stuff" in her line of work.

Grace Ward Smith had been working feverishly writing letters, making phone calls, corraling anybody who might just know anything about the whereabouts of camels. Back then, Grace could be heard telling others, "I'll beg, borrow, steal or buy 'em on time, but camels I've got to have."

It was widely known in these parts that, "Once Grace has those camels, there'll be no stopping her. Mrs. Smith thought western Oklahoma with it's colorful history, had no reason why tourist trade couldn't be a major industry. Grace's vision was a daily air-conditioned bus trip from Alva -- the starter city -- to points of interest to include a trip to a dude ranch where the Dalton gang and Belle Starr will live again. A trip to the Alabaster Caverns near Freedom, Chimney Rock; near Waynoka, the Little Sahara; the Great Salt Plains lake, the Old Cowhands Memorial and probably a lot of other things Grace hadn't thought up yet."

What about this 'dude ranch' where the Dalton gang and Belle Starr would allegedly live again? Did the dude ranch ever materialize? I believe that Chimney Rock has long since fallen and deteriorated into the red, clay dust of its foundation.
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