Stockyards City, Bricktown, Mansions and Rt 66 Oddities

Where's Waldo now?  Why, still in Oklahoma City, of course! Yesterday we hit Stockyards City.  Why plural?  I have no idea.  No one in town knows why; even my friend Google can't tell me!  But, there's definitely an S on the sign that stretches over South Agnew, on your way in to Exchange Street.

We were there on a Friday, and they only run the "stampede" and auctions on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we were bummed that we wouldn't see any longhorns this trip.  We did manage to find the candy and pop store, though...what a treat!  Talk about eye candy, check out the bar and hutch!  Just beautiful workmanship.  

In this part of the country they call soda, POP.  It was weird the first time we heard it used that way, but we're getting used to it now.  There were all kinds, that's for sure.  In fact, there was an entire room devoted to dusty bottles of your favorite flavors.

Like bacon.  Who wouldn't want bacon flavored soda?

And some not-so-favorite, like pickles, Ranch dressing and sweet corn.  Weird. Just plain weird.  Nope, we didn't buy or try any!

They had fudge too, lots of it, and penny candy that was $9.99 a pound!  We didn't buy or try any of that, either.  Saving room for ice cream, I suppose.  We asked the young lady behind the counter where all the statues were, and she sent us down the street to the bank on the corner.  So, off we went!  Here are the statues placed in front of the bank.  In 1909, farmers and ranchers invited packing industry leaders to the state to find a location for stock yards and packing houses.  Within a year, Packingtown was born and brought with it saddle makers, boot makers, cafes and hat shops. At one point, the livestock complex featured 2400 jobs in a city of 60000.  But, even though the early 60's saw the demise of many packing houses, the stock yards were still going strong.  The name was changed from Packingtown to Stockyards City.  Auctions replaced individual haggling, and they are still taking place twice a week and the stock yards remain a vital link between Oklahoma's heritage and its future.  In October 2000, town leaders unveiled a 13 foot high monument sculpture to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the stock yards..  "Headin' to Market" features a cowboy on horsebak, corralling a steer toward the stock yard gates.  The statue is dedicated to the sculptor's grandson, who died when he was only 5 days old.  There is no mention of the buffalo at the foot of the granite base; I can only assume it's a part of the series that have been placed, sometimes painted, all over town.  In Lexington, NC, they placed pigs, in Ocala, FL, they placed horses, Norfolk, VA, they put horses, Denton, TX, they put bulls, in Bremer, IN it was cows.  Apparently, here in OKC, it's buffalo.  

As impressive as these statues might be, they weren't as had been described to us by the campground owner.  He had said there were a whole lot of 'em and they were, in his words, huuuuuge.  So, we asked another shop owner, and he knew exactly what we were looking for....but those statues were down in Bricktown.  Down behind Bass Pro Shops.  OK, so I remembered that we had passed a bridge labeled Bricktown when we were down by the Myriad Gardens.  I wrote about them here.  So off we went, in search of Bricktown and the infamous statues!

''

Surprisingly enough, those statues were pretty darned elusive!  We found a little Riverwalk-type park, and in trying to locate a parking place where we could stop and check it out, we found the Bass Pro Shop.  It was then that I remembered what the shop keeper had said about the statues being behind Bass Pro.  So, we drove through the parking lot and found ourselves in another, almost empty lot.  When we looked up on top of the hill, we glimpsed what appeared to be a whole wagon train of sculptures.  This was what we had come to see!!!!  Officially, it's called The Oklahoma Land Run Monument, and if you cannot read the inscription on the stones shown below, you can just click on this little linky to get the full story.  It is really interesting, so do give it a read.  It even explained how the nickname "Sooners" came about.  Truly, that is something I've always wondered!!  

OK, OK, OK, so you don't want to click the link, but you want to know how they came to be known as Sooners, right?  Well, I'm nothing if not agreeable and obliging, so here ya go:

April 22, 1889, was a day of chaos, excitement, and total confusion in Oklahoma.  This was the day of the incredible, and notorious, first Land Run, when 50,000 people rushed into the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma Territory to stake their claim for free land.  Over two million acres in Oklahoma, both farm land and town lots, had previously been measured out by the government.  The vast crowd of hopeful settlers massed all along the border.  All were armed with a flag, to claim their stake -- farmers and scholars, Yankees and southerners, the rich and the poor, black and white, soldiers and laborers, even women riding side-saddle.  At the sound of a cannon shot at noon, the anxious settlers surged forward in a tumultuous avalanche of wagons and horsemen all in one breathtaking instant.  Many did not achieve their dream; in the chaos of the mad dash, people were crushed, horses fell, wagons toppled, and fights ensued.  Besides, hundreds, maybe thousands, of settlers had already snuck in over the border a day or two sooner, to claim the choicest land.  These "sooners", pretending to be exhausted from the mad dash, even having run their horses around in circles to get them all sweaty beforehand, made a show of slamming their flags into their chosen ground just as the first legitimate settlers appeared in the distance.  Dozens of the U.S. surveyors, in spite of it being illegal, had also already staked their claims, prompting years of court cases afterwards, some of which even went to the Supreme Court.

You're welcome.  

If you HAD clicked that link, you would have known that these sculptures are cast at one and a half times lifesize, so you know a 6 foot man would be portrayed as 9 feet tall.  See, I *can* do math!  Haha, no I can't....it was specified in the article.  Y'all know I can't do math, what were you thinking?

This one's a panorama, so be sure to click on the photo to enlarge it and get the full impact.

As we made our way out of town, we came across a sign pointing to the capitol building.  Well, we have nothing but time on our hands, so we turned and followed it!  I knew that most of the interior is undergoing renovations at this time, so it's mostly closed to the public, but the outside renovations are complete.  We happened to be in the left turn lane, when we came upon it, so this was as close as we got, sorry for the blur.  

Next directional sign we saw was to the Overholser Mansion.  Henry Overholser is considered the Father of Oklahoma City, and his was the first real mansion built in the city, in 1903.  It was his wife's (Anna) wishes that it be turned over to the city or state when the time was right.  Their son-in-law sold it & all the furnishings to the OK Historical Society in 1972.  It appears to be truly magnificent. 

Here's another of those painted buffaloes around town:

Mr. Overholser may have had the FIRST mansion in town, but by now, it's certainly not the only one in town.  In this Heritage Block, we found many other examples of beautiful old homes, in various styles.  But all of them, huge, even by today's standards!

It was early afternoon by now, and it was time to begin thinking about heading home.  Always on the lookout for quirky and interesting, we pointed our car towards Route 66, aka, The Mother Road.

  (In his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the "Mother Road" because it beckoned to desperate migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl as they moved west in search of jobs in the 1930s. But in the years after the Depression, the highway took on mythic status as America's main street for adventure.Dec 31, 2014 )

You can read the slightly sordid history of the Tower Theater right here.  Suffice it to say, we did NOT stop in to see the picture show, even though it's probably more family-friendly at this point.

It was sad to see the disrepair of the Geodesic Gold Dome that once housed Citizens State Bank.  It has gone through several iterations and owners, including foreclosure in 2012.  Even though it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, the current owners have not been able to restore it to its former glory.

Down the road just a bit, is the Milk Bottle Grocery.  It is one of the few triangular buildings in the city.  The milk bottle was only placed to advertise the local dairy industry.  

This little pedestal marks an entrance to the city's thriving Asian sector.  Who knew?!

After seeing all this, we were famished!  We saw a poster that advertised CiCi's Pizza runs a Happy Hour from 2 pm to 4 pm Mon thru Fri, so we Googled for the one closest to our camper and headed that way!  We arrived about 20 minutes too early, so we walked the aisles of Sprouts Fresh Market for that time and found blueberries and cherries on sale.  After stuffing ourselves on delicious pizza (one of the few places offering Mozzarella cheese ONLY), we went back to the market and picked up some fresh berries and cherries.  We went home tired, but happy and full as could be.

Stay tuned for Saturday's adventures!