Volume 12 , Issue 21

Duchess & Sadie's Spring Domain

It has been a beautiful mountain week and weekend here in the Southwest Rockies. This Monday morning we awoke to an inch of snow on the cars and rooftops. The temperatures this past week during the day were anywhere from the sixties to the mid seventies.

The weekend before this last weekend, we took this photo on the left and right of the "Taste of Durango" that took over a few blocked off blocks on Main Avenue, in Durango, Colorado. This was the biggest crowd that NW Okie has seen in the last the few years. Durango's Manna Soup Kitchen uses the Taste of Durango to raise funds for their soup kitchen.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

May Is Railroad Preservation Month

Sandie sent this from Trains magazine newsletter, "This is good to know."

Trains Magazine states how the U.S. Preserves Railroad History, "The National Trust for Historic Preservation declared May National Preservation Month. Read a free, illustrated story about how the US preserves its railroads, including equipment and landmarks, for Americans to enjoy and learn from.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Oklahoma Opera Singers

Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma History & Culture states the following about this African-American opera singer from Enid, Oklahoma, "Opera singer Leona Mitchell was born October 13, 1949, in Enid, Oklahoma, to Rev. Hulon and Pearl Olive Leatherman Mitchell. Tenth of fifteen children, Leona Mitchell began her musical journey by singing in her father's church choir. She received a scholarship from Oklahoma City University, where in 1971 she obtained a bachelor's degree in music. Her alma mater later conferred upon her an honorary doctorate in music." Leona debuted with the San Francisco Spring Opera Theater in 1972 and received an Opera America Grant.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

PBS - Surviving the Dust Bowl

PBS - American Experience Surviving the Dust BowlThe Dust Bowl brought drought, dust, disease and death to the Midwest for nearly a decade. The story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease and even death for nearly a decade.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Council Grove, Oklahoma

"During the run of 1889 there was a 9 section area of land held back from homesteading, bordered by what is now Melrose Lane on the south; the canadian river on the west. To 174 mile North of NW 36th and going East to present Ann Arbor Street.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

No Mans Land

According to The Panhandle History - Northwest Flats Heritage, 1890-1990, published in 1990, the panhandle is a little more than 34 miles wide and a fraction longer than 168 miles. It contains 5738 square miles and is larger than Connecticut and 4-1/2 times the size of Rhode Island.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Foraker, Osage County, Oklahoma

Foraker is located in Osage county, in Sections. 28/29, T28N, R7E, 13 miles north, 12 miles west of Pawhuska; 6 miles north, 5 miles east of Shidler.

It was located in the northwestern part of the Osage Nation (now Osage County) in an area of rolling plains. It was settled in 1905 and was a government townsite platted under the supervision of the Department of the Interior. The Post Office was established February 13, 1903.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Avard, Oklahoma

1975, Avard, the Santa Fe & Frisco tracks interlock a short distance from the elevator. Avard, Woods County, Sections 26 & 35, Township 26N, Range 15W, 7 miles south, 6 miles west of Alva.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Alva High Class of 1960 Reunion - 4 June 2010

Bill Beeler, (email: brbeeler@swbell.net) says, "NESCATUNGA ARTS FESTIVAL is Saturday, June 4 on the downtown square of Alva, Oklahoma. The Class of 1960 will be having their class reunion that weekend.

Would like to invite all to stop by our canopy and say hello and visit awhile. Should be fun for all.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Horse Thieves - 1933 by T. H. Dyer

Horse Thieves - written by Judge T. H. Dyer, Jan. 31, 1933. This is another of Tom Dyer's articles, in which he reminisces about various horse thieving incidents that he was aware of.

Horse thieves have become almost obsolete, but the time was when even the thoughts, or hearing the word horse thieves would send a chill coursing up and down one's spinal column.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

March Wind - by Scott Cummins

This poem was found on page. 13 & 14 of the Musings of the Pilgrim Bard, by Scott Cummins, the Pilgrim Bard

When the old house keeps a rockin',
Like as if 'twas goin' to fall;
And the pebbles keep a knockin' --
[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

History of McKeever School

The History of McKeever School, written and researched by Milt Lehr, Professor Emeritus, NWOSU. The Cherokee Outlet of the territory of Oklahoma was opened to settlement by the Land Run of 1893. After securing a homestead, the pioneers' immediate concern was the education of their children. The first schools were often a soddie or log building and later schools were built using clapboard, stucco, of wood and plaster construction.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

A History of the Run by Mrs. Fred King

This article was written by Clara Louise Renfrew King for the 50th Anniversary Edition, Alva Review-Courier, September 12, 1943, (Mrs. Fred King, former Clara Louise Renfrew).

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Wiley H. Cowan Obituary by Tom Dyer

Another obituary penned by Tom Dyer. Opal Nighswonger is listed as one of Wiley's daughters and was the principal at Longfellow School in Alva during 1947-1951. Thanks to Joy Sherman for sharing these Tom Dyer writings with the Okie Legacy.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Woods County Sheriffs (Oklahoma)

This information was gathered from "The First 100 Years of Alva, Oklahoma" (1886-1986)

At the opening of the Cherokee Strip, W. P. Kendal was appointed to serve as the Sheriff of Old "M" County. Kendall served from 1893 to 1894 until the first duly elected Sheriff took office.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Waynoka, Oklahoma

If you travel twenty-five (25) miles southwest of Alva, you will run into a quaint, Santa Fe railroad town of Waynoka (Indian origin is "Winneoka" meaning good water).

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

LeFlore County, Oklahoma

LeFore County was once a part of Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. It has the rugged hills, narrow valleys and productive farmland. They also have a gentle blending of modern days and old ways. Many towns were established as a result of railroad expansion. The Carl Albert State Junior College offers courses to more than 2,000 full and part-time students annually.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---

Kingfisher, OK Murals

These Kingfisher Murals were found on the Main Street of Kingfisher, Oklahoma.

Main & Broadway, NE Corner -- If you drive north on Main Street through Kingfisher, Oklahoma, you can get a good view of the NE Corner of Main Street & Broadway Avenue Mural. It depicts a covered wagon a few cowboys on horses and is painted on top of the side of the third building on the east side of the street from the corner of Broadway Avenue and Main Street.

[more]...   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---