12-OKLAHOMA

The last few days we have spent in Oklahoma, a state with great museums and some of the roughest highways we have been on.  OK, I won’t talk any more about the bumpy roads. We will be out of Oklahoma tomorrow and hopefully to smoother roads.


When in Oklahoma City we visited the National Cowboy and Western Art Museum. This is a fantastic place. It is a beautiful and very large building housing tons of amazing art.

This seven foot high original Plaster of Paris casting of “The End of the Trail” greets you as you enter the museum.  

This was found deteriorating in a California park when the museum rescued it. It was then bronzed and the finished bronze is now at the Presidio in San Francisco.

At the other end of the hallway is “The Canyon Princess.” She weights eight tons and is carved out of a single piece of marble. From this angle, she stares right at you.

No, this is not our new RV! Actually the first display we came to was a collection of black and white, somewhat heart-rendering pictures of the Oklahoma dust bowl. Think, “Grapes of Wrath.”

There were many galleries of terrific art that I was not allowed to photograph. I don’t understand the prohibition against photos without flash, but that’s the rules. We have found this in several museums/galleries. Here, when I could take pictures, it had to be without flash. So if I show you some pictures that are a bit fuzzy, you know why.

One of our favorite paintings is, “Emigrants Crossing the Plains,” by Albert Bierstadt, painted in 1867. It is huge, maybe ten by six feet or more. I was not allowed to photograph it.  Again, I’m not sure why. 

If it was for sale, which it wasn’t, it would cost about a gazillion dollars. We bought a print of it in the gift shop, about 16x20 inches, for $25, which we will frame when we get home.

I got this picture of the original off the Internet. So why the prohibition of photography??


There were several collections where I was allowed to take pictures (without flash.)

This was just a small amount of the collection of native clothing. The white spots on the blue dress are elk teeth. 

Milt and Donna, our next door neighbors are leaving this weekend for a hunting trip to Colorado. I wonder if Donna will come home with a new dress covered with elk teeth???

Also rugs, jewelry, and beadwork…

…and feather headdresses.

There was one section on Old Western Movies and the movie actors we all grew up with.

This “theater” showed a movie about old west actors. Don thought they should have served popcorn…

Of course there was Matt Dillon…

And his sidekick, Festus (Ken Curtis). What was really surprising was that Ken Curtis had another career as a vocalist, singing, among other venues, as one of the Sons of the Pioneers. 

He also was married to the director/actor, John Ford’s daughter. If that puzzles you, look at this next picture. He is not always “cock-eyed.”

Lookin’ good, Festus!

This was a life-sized cavalry rider in a collection on the military.

Down at the end of another hallway was a marble statue of Abraham Lincoln.

Don has always been a Lincoln fan. Once in his much younger years, he saw a bronze of Lincoln’s hands. He has talked about it ever since I have known him and continues to look for them.  So I took this next picture for him.

They may not be bronze, but still beautiful.

There was also a life-sized bronze of Ronald Reagan standing in a hallway.

Our friends, Bill and Teri had suggested that when we were in Tulsa, our next stop after Oklahoma City, that we should go to the Gilcrease Museum.

What an incredible place this was!!

This bronze statue was out in front of the museum. This image is also emblazoned on all Oklahoma license plates. 


We went inside to again be confronted with the “No Photography” rule and in both of these museums, guards roam throughout the halls to make sure you don’t lift your camera in a forbidden area.

So this is a picture I took off the web, just to show you the kind of art that is on display at the Gilcrease.

Before we left, we saw a stairway to a lower level that said, “Research Library, 5,000 Artifacts,” so we went downstairs.


We saw a lot of historic pottery, many from Acoma, the same southwest Navajo tribe from which we have gotten most of our personal pottery collection. However, it was only a hundred or so pots that we saw.


Then I noticed that under the shelves of pots, were stacks of pull-out drawers. Pulling out a few of them, we found a treasure trove of artifacts of beaded moccasins, dolls, arrowheads, Mayan pottery and much, much, MUCH more. Here were the 5,000 artifacts and they were amazing.


Then today we went to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum just a few miles north of Tulsa.

This painting is behind the welcome desk. I liked the casual pose of Will Rogers in this picture, as he seemed to approach life in general in a casual manner.

This time, I can take pictures, but without flash. It seems that when they let you take pictures without flash, the things you want most to photograph are in very low light, making sharp pictures a tough thing to accomplish.

In the main hallway, was a life-size statue of Will Rogers.

This painting of Will Rogers roping horses shows his (birth place) home in the background.

This mural shows Will Rogers and the roping he was famous for…as well as acting, wild West shows and other talents.

This was a nice painting of Will Rogers, his wife and children.  Again displayed in low light.

Looking out over the Oklahoma landscape, is the family tomb where, between the walls, is buried Will Rogers, his wife and children.

This picture collage, as we headed out the door, again celebrates Will Rogers amazing roping abilities.

From here we headed 12 miles out of town to the Will Rogers birthplace ranch, Iron Dog Ranch. Will referred to it as, “The White House on the Verdigris River.”

The lady at the museum instructed us that the birthplace ranch was near Oologah Lake. We were told to turn at the Dam Saloon.

Sure enough. There was a Dam Saloon at the corner. There was a sign advertising, “Dam food”, “Dam Beer”, “Dam Dancing,” and goodness knows what else. Oh, well, it’s a landmark that is memorable for it’s name, if nothing else.

The sign, Iron Dog Ranch, let us know we had arrived at the Will Rogers birthplace ranch.

This is a working ranch, so there were goats, donkeys, and horses on the property.

The exterior of the house was very attractive, and considered rather opulent back in the day.

The view from the front of the house was beautiful, overlooking Oologah Lake. However, since I don’t know just when the dam was built filling the lake, there was likely just the Verdigris River or at least a smaller lake, at the time Will Rogers lived at the ranch.

The inside of the house was interesting as it was built one room at a time and the first two rooms were built of log timbers. The lap board siding was added to the house as it was further constructed, covering the timbers.

The house only consisted of two rooms when Will Rogers was born in this room, the family bedroom.

The view out the oval glass in the back door looks across the Oklahoma landscape of valleys and rolling hills.

Tomorrow we head to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, know as the Switzerland of the Ozarks. We are looking forward to seeing the famous Passion Play that performs in an outdoor amphitheater there. 

I saw it there some 30+ years ago. I froze half to death in the cold of the evening back then. This time we will dress warmly. Don is looking to see what they do in the Passion Play that he can incorporate into his monologue performances. However, for some reason, he plans NOT to add any singing into his performances… 

Good plan, Don.