Those Entertainment Ads

Truth in advertising has always been something I see on television as an oxymoron. When you know something to be false about what is seen on television as the truth, it makes me wonder. For instance, since the inception of casinos in Oklahoma there has always been a rash of who can outdo the other casino with an ad that will bring the happy gamblers in by the hundreds or thousands. What makes me an expert about this truth in casino advertising? I worked the floor in one of Tulsa's largest casinos as a drop team lead for a year and a half. In that time I seen the type of people casinos draw in and I also got to sit back and watch their television commercials be made. With this I can say that there is no truth in casino advertising in this part of the state. If casinos were to show and tell the truth about what goes on inside the doors, their "guests" would most likely decline in numbers. But then, I can't see that happening either, even if the people going to them knew the truth. Do you think you know what goes on inside a casino? Let me tell you, there is a perception to life inside a casino that each person has. They see it in movies, news clips and reality shows. I can sit back, grin about it and tell you straight up...."it's all crap"! 

Casino commercials to start with are nothing more than a scheme to get you in the doors of their establishment so you will spend your money and make their financial holdings larger than the day before. They will show you good looking people, smiling, joking around and waving their hands in the air, all the while as they smile and deceive those by flashing an array of large bills in their hand after they win a jackpot.

This is what they want you to think happens inside .  

Last time I seen any women dressed like this and waving their arms in a casino it was New Years Eve and the hookers were out in force.

It was a rare sight to see anyone that resembled these ladies of bogus advertisement. If there was one on the floor they were either there escorting a well off John or they came later in the evening looking for one. The casino I worked at was full of "other types" of people. Most of them were the night time special kind. Since my workday started at 4:30 am, I got to see the real guests of the casino world. They included, tweakers, thieves, gang members, prostitutes, homeless people and the poor to average  guests that would spend every dime they got just to get something in return. There was a section in the corner of the casino that I would refer to as "tweakers corner". It was where the meth heads would spend their money playing games. I could always tell when one of the tweakers was coming down from their high. They would get a cup full of ice, fill it with Mountain Dew and fill it with packets of sugar. This was to prolong the high until they could get outside and get more drugs. A "tweakers nest" was an ashtray full of sugar packets. They were a common sight in the casino. Gang member usually came into the casino to launder their money through the machines cashout and bank system. They would come in groups of three or four and  were easy to spot since they stayed in a certain section of the casino and only played certain machines Ticket tramps would walk around the casino looking for cashout tickets hanging from machines or laying on the floor. When they gathered enough tickets they would cash them in at the bank and get money in return.  Prostitutes were common on the weekends. They usually showed up with the high rollers going to the Black Jack tables.The high roller would usually give them money to run around the casino and play the machines till he was ready to leave. This isn't anything like the commercials portray. During my time there I seen lots of money lost and little won. How much you might ask? A slow day at the casino meant they would only bring in about a half million dollars. A good day would be around $800,000. The most I ever seen collected in one day was 4.5 million dollars. I've seen people win up to $24,000 and lose it within hours. I was asked once by one of the new security officers why I wore gloves all the time while I was on the floor working. Here is why.... people are nasty. They don't care about cleanliness or the safety of others when it comes to touching slot machines. Here are some things I've observed while working the floor. 

• Picking their nose and wiping it on the machine screen
• Scratching their butt and crotch inside their clothing and touching or rubbing the machine
• Sick people coughing and sneezing on the machines
• Spitting on the machines
• Peeing in the chairs

These are just a few of the reasons to wear gloves. Casinos can also be an addiction. I got to know guests by first name and know what time they would show up and know what machine they were going to play. There was one instance where I was approached by a young man. He asked me what time it was, I told him the time. he stood there for a second and then asked, what day it was. I told him Saturday. His eyes became huge and a look of fear came over his face. He cried out "OH MAN, I'VE BEEN HERE SINCE THURSDAY, MY WIFE IS GOING TO KILL ME"! This was one of the times that I wish the casino would have made a commercial of a real reaction of a guy screaming and waving his hands around like he won the big jackpot. I never saw him again as long as I worked there. 

As the Steve Miller Band would sing "go on, take the money and run". He did...but he was empty handed.

Cherokee Station

Secluded in a small valley, less than a mile from the Osage County line sets a small group of buildings that have been standing for over one hundred years. They have a history that dates back to when Indian Territory was the name used to describe it's location before Oklahoma became a state. These buildings played an intricate part in the evolution of the oil and gas industries of the area.  In 1904, the Prairie Oil and Gas Company in Kansas, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company built two tank storage facilities in the Cherokee Outlet. The first was located near Copan and consisted of 107 tanks capable of holding 35,000 barrels of crude oil. The second was located near Ramona and was twice the size of the Copan facility with 222 tanks capable of holding 35,000 barrels of oil apiece. With the escalation of drilling and the discovery of huge oil pools in the area it became necessary to build storage facilities and pipelines to get the oil to market. John D. Rockefeller (founder of Standard Oil) funded the building of the two facilities.

John D. Rockefeller

By 1906, the facility near Ramona was finished and a pump station had been built which was given the name "Cherokee Pump Station". The tank storage area consisted of 5.5 square miles with the pump station located at the west side of it near the Osage reservation. By 1914, Prairie Oil and Gas had built an office in Ramona just three years after the Ramona oil pool was found. By 1940, The tanks were drained and dismantled. Some of the materials from the tank farm were used locally for building supplies but the bulk of the steel sheets from the tanks was sent to Japan. Today the only remnants of the storage facility are the dikes which can be seen from old Highway 75, north of Ramona and the pump station which sets on private property about three miles west of Ramona. I got permission to go on the property to take some photos of the pump station recently. The building has some amazing architecture. It's presently used as a storage building for farm equipment.

North entrance. The double doors on the right go into a room
where maintenance was performed. The door on the left goes into a small office.

West side of the building

South entrance.  The doors on the left go into one of the larger rooms
where the electrical panel sat. The doors on the right enter into an open room.

Some of the interior walls have been removed .
What remains of the electrical
panel is at the foot of whats left of a wall in the middle of the photo

Part 6: Barnsdall

1908  JOSHUA S. COSDEN

Joshua S. Cosden

  Joshua S. Cosden was a farmer’s son from rural Maryland. When he was older he worked as a streetcar motorman in Baltimore, Maryland. Hearing about the oil boom in Kansas and Oklahoma, Cosden took his small amount of funds along with some capital from his Baltimore backers and set out for Kansas with one of his friends that had a process of making a turpentine substitute from crude oil. When his experiments failed in Kansas, Cosden felt there were products that could be extracted from crude oil. He left Kansas for Oklahoma and ended up in Bigheart, Oklahoma where most of the crude oil exploration and extraction was taking place. It took a while for Cosden to contact his backers in Baltimore and get approval, but he proceeded to get enough funds to buy 6 acres of land and begin building a skimming plant designed to remove the lighter constituents of crude oil such as kerosene and gasoline. On October 5, 1908 James Bigheart dies. He was buried on a shady hill beside Bird Creek that flows through the old homestead.


1910 COSDENS BIGHEART REFINERY
 By 1910, Cosden had finished building his skimming plant in Bigheart and named it the Southwestern Refining Company. Cosden and his wife operated all aspects of the facility while living in a tent on the property. Other larger oil barons would call his small facility a “teapot refinery” due to its small size.


1911 BIGHEART TORNADO

Train cars of oil north of Bigheart

 By early 1911, the Southwest Refining Company was beginning see a profit with crude oil being transported in by rail car and his skimming plant making progress on its attempt to remove the lighter aspects of crude oil. April 12, 1911 changed Cosdens course and many others in Bigheart. Around 5 pm a tornado cut through the refinery from the southwest and proceeded northward into Bigheart destroying most of the town. After the tornado, Cosden went back to Baltimore and laid his case before his backers and tried again. He returned to Oklahoma intent on building back the refinery and making a profit.

Main Street, Bigheart Oklahoma, April 12, 1911

 The tornado that hit Bigheart started on its southwest side near where one hundred camping Indians were. It was reported that several had been killed. The tornado proceeded through the refinery, razing it to the ground and then moved towards the town where it demolished most everything in the central business area before moving into part of the residential area on the north side of the town. Nine people were known to have been killed, William Morrow, Mrs. William Morrow, John Kerns, Fred Hammond,  T.S. Hann, a person named Brown and one unknown
child.

Bigheart school after tornado hit on April 12 1911

  J.S. Harris, superintendent of the Midland Valley Railroad was traveling in his private coach car near Bigheart when the tornado struck. He organized a relief train to be dispatched from Pawhuska with physicians and nurses. Afterwards, Harris took his train to Avant to organize a work detail to remove the dead and wounded to a Tulsa hospital. Close to one thousand people were homeless and the rescue efforts went into the night being carried out by lantern light. Some bodies were carried beyond the scene of destruction and were being searched for in the fields. Timbers from demolished buildings were said to be found half a mile away. A train of empty boxcars was sent to Bigheart for the homeless people to sleep in. Mr. Harris wired to the general office of the Midland Valley road that the new brick depot, the stone schoolhouse and the oil refinery were totally destroyed by the tornado.  The wires are down and only meager details could be secured. It was feared the Midland Valley station agent and telegraph operator were killed.  The depot building and section house were blown away.

Midland Valley Station at Bigheart Oklahoma
after the tornado

  A Midland Valley passenger train had passed Big Heart just ten minutes before the tornado came.  The dipping plant and stock pens were wiped out and all the horses used by the cattlemen in dipping train loads of Texas cattle were killed.  A passenger coach was sent to Bigheart the next day to be used as a depot. The valuable oil field surrounding the town was a complete ruin, every derrick and rig having been leveled to the ground.  The property loss in the town of Big Heart is place at half million dollars and the loss in the oil field is almost equally as great.

1913 FIRE AT THE COSDEN REFINERY
 Early on June 4, 1913 a fire destroyed the boiler house and stills of the Southwestern Refining Company in Bigheart. The loss was totaled at $16,000. Only a small portion was covered by insurance. The cause of the fire was unknown. Cosden rebuilt the boiler house and stills. He borrowed $1000 on his life insurance and paid it down on an option for an abandoned refinery in west Tulsa.

1914 INDIAN TERRITORY ILLUMINATING OIL COMPANY  OIL WELL

City oil well #1, Bigheart Oklahoma

 On March 16 1914, the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company strikes oil at 1771 feet into the Bartlesville sand formation on the edge of Bigheart, Oklahoma. Later the well will become famous in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not as the worlds only Main Street oil well.

1915 BIGHEART FLOOD
 Not much is known about the flood that happened in 1915 but its been told that the waters from Bird Creek reached up to where 6th Street and Main Street are today.

1916 BARNSDALL OIL COMPANY
 The Barnsdall Oil Company discovers the Bigheart (later known as the Barnsdall Oil Field) oil field.

1917 COSDEN SELLS REFINERY
 Joshua Cosden sells the Southwestern Refining Company refinery in Bigheart Oklahoma to Stone and Webster of Boston, Mass. which owns nearby oil production around Bigheart. The sale changes the name of the refinery to the Bigheart Oil and Refining Company. The price was said to be $650,000, which Cosden took to help his west Tulsa refinery. With the sale of the Bigheart refinery is a rumor that the Standard Oil Company has obtained control or is seeking to get control of stock ownership of the west Tulsa refinery. T. N. Barnsdall was a close associate with the Standard Oil Company and some of its operators, giving in to the conclusion that Barnsdall and the Standard Oil Company were trying to buy in on the Cosden refinery. Theodore N. Barnsdall dies on February 27 1917 at his home in Pennsylvania, he was 67 years old.

1919 NITRO EXPLOSION
 A wagon loaded with high explosives for use in the nearby oil fields struck a rut in the street as it was being driven through the residence section of Bigheart, Oklahoma, as a result nine people are dead, and a score of others were injured. The residence of Lath Harris, in front of which the explosion occurred, was leveled to the ground. Harris and his wife were fatally wounded and their three-year-old baby boy was killed. The explosion rocked the entire town. Eight houses were demolished and some of the dead were killed by the falling debris. Not a building in town escaped damage. A hole big enough to bury a half dozen wagons, was torn in the street. Telephone wires were torn down and except for a single railroad wire, the town was cut off from communication. The wagon was driven by W. R. English, an experienced man in the handling of explosives and a rider, Bob Kinda. No trace of their bodies, wagon or the horses had been found. Only two quarts of nitroglycerin were in the wagon. This explosion was said to have taken place at the present intersection of Second Street and Cedar Street.

1920 WILLIAM GABLE ARRIVES IN BIGHEART

William "Bill" Gable and his son Clark 

 By the summer of 1920, William Gable sold his farm in Ohio and moved to an oilfield near Tulsa. By August, Gable was prospecting and working in the Bigheart oil fields and living in Bigheart, Oklahoma. He contacted his son Clark to come join him in Oklahoma. William even went as far as to tell Clark there was a drama group in Bigheart willing to take him on. When Clark arrived in Bigheart he found there was no group and his father had boozed away most of the money from the sale of the farm. Clark worked as a bit sharpener and for a while and as an accountant at a haberdashery. He even worked at the local refinery cleaning stills. Cark spent some of his time singing with a quartet in Bigheart. By January 1922, Clark received an inheritance from his grandfather and left Barnsdall (formerly Bigheart). Clark Gable later becomes a leading movie actor in Hollywood.

1921 BIGHEART TO BARNSDALL
 Early in 1921 The Barnsdall Oil Company acquires the Bigheart Producing and Refining Company in Bigheart Oklahoma. By order of the post office department on November 21, 1921 the town of Bigheart, Oklahoma was changed to Barnsdall. Located in Barnsdall is the refinery of the Barnsdall Refining Company and also the machine shops and boiler works of the Barnsdall Oil Company. The town had great growth over its last four years due to its activities of the Barnsdall Companies. The people of the community desired to perpetuate the oil baron and filed a petition at Pawhuska, Oklahoma asking the county commissioners to change the name to Barnsdall. This petition was unanimously granted and afterwards all papers were sent to Washington requesting the post office department to change the name.

Bigheart Main Street around 1915

Barnsdall Main Street around 1922

An interesting story as to how a town named Barnsdall rose from the grass and woodlands of a land built by many people and backgrounds.

Part 5: Barnsdall

1896 FOSTER BROTHERS GAIN OIL LEASE ON OSAGE RESERVATION
 On March 16, 1896, James Bigheart, Principal Chief of the Osage tribe on behalf of the tribe, under and pursuant to the action of the council, signed a lease agreement with Henry Foster for the purpose of prospecting and drilling wells, for mining and producing petroleum and natural gas on the entire reservation for a period of ten years.  The lease provided a royalty to be paid the Osages of one-tenth of all petroleum procured and fifty dollars per annum for each gas well discovered and utilized. Henry Foster unexpectedly died after a short illness in New York City before the lease was approved by the Secretary of the Interior. The Osage council then granted Edwin B. Foster permission to substitute his name as representative of Henry Foster and his heirs. The lease was approved by the Hon. John M. Reynolds, Acting Secretary, under date of April 8, 1896, making Edwin B. Foster, the lessee of the great blanket lease on the entire Osage reservation covering 1,470, 559 acres, an area twice as large as his native state of Rhode Island. The Phoenix Oil Company was immediately formed and incorporated under the laws of West Virginia to which Edwin B. Foster assigned all his interest in the lease in consideration of 30,000 shares, with par value of $1 per share, of the capital stock of the company. During the later part of 1896, two wells were drilled near the Kansas line. One produced but not enough to make a profit. The other was a complete failure. Operations were discontinued through the winter and in early 1897 oil was struck near Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which revived the hopes of the Phoenix Oil Company. By the fall of that year, the Phoenix Oil Company brought in its first producing well in the Osage reservation on Butler Creek. To raise funds in order to continue operations, the Phoenix Oil Company assigned a large block of leases to Samuel C. Sheffield, which he in turn assigned to the Osage Oil Company. After drilling seven dry holes and four producing wells, the drilling came to a standstill. Though the company could produce oil it had no way to get it to market without a railroad or pipeline to transport the oil from the Osage fields to the refinery in Neodesha, Kansas. In 1899, the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad built into Bartlesville, Oklahoma and started service which provided a means for the produced oil to get to market.

1901 INDIAN TERRITORY ILLUMINATING OIL COMPANY FORMS

Theodore N. Barnsdall

 So far the operation of the blanket lease on the Osage reservation had been a losing venture. John N. Florer, not wanting the company to fail spent a large amount of time traveling between New York and his home gathering support and making argument to try a new venture. In December of 1901, his hard work paid off and the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company was formed in New Jersey from the remnants of the Phoenix Oil Company. With a capital stock of 3,000,000 shares of a par value of $1 per share, to which the Phoenix and Osage Oil Companies assigned all their rights, title and interest. Soon after the company was organized, Edwin B. Foster died, and William Hoxey was made trustee of the Foster estate. It was during this time that Theodore N. Barnsdall of the Barnsdall Oil Company in Titusville, Pennsylvania, bought 51% of the stock in the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company.  The new company started out in adverse and unfortunate circumstances. In the process of reorganization some outside parties, other than the original stockholders, made an attempt to get control of the company and there was dissention and trouble within its ranks. For over a year it drifted in disorder until litigation brought receivership. The receivership came about from a suit brought by the Mechanic Savings Bank of Westerly, Rhode Island, against the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company and its stock holders for a debt owed the bank. The case was heard at Newkirk, Oklahoma Territory, before Judge Buford in 1903, and the company was thrown into receivership. Mortimer F. Stilwell, a nephew of John N. Florer, was made receiver. A sub-lease to satisfy the debt with the Mechanic Savings Bank was made to J. M. Guffy and J. H. Galey of the Standard Oil Company, on a block of 113,730 acres in the southeastern part of the reservation in the vicinity of Tulsa and a block of 41,000 acres west of Bartlesville.  During this time the Barnsdall Oil Company opens an office in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

1903 MIDLAND VALLEY RAILROAD
Charles Edward Ingersoll, an industrialist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania needed to find a way to transport his coal ventures in western Arkansas and in northeastern Indian Territory to the west. Ingersoll and his business associates formed the Cherokee Construction Company, financed by notes and mortgages to begin the project it later issued stocks and bonds when the rail line became operable. The Cherokee Constuction Company soon began construction of a railway from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Wichita, Kansas, calling it the Midland Valley Railroad. Named after the coal mining town Midland, Arkansas, in which the railroad would serve. During the beginning of the construction, representatives of the railroad come to James Bigheart’s ranch seeking right of way through the Osage reservation. Bigheart approves construction of the railroad through the Osage reservation.

1904 OSAGE ALLOTMENT ACT
In the early part of 1904, a bill providing for the allotment of the Osage Reservation and the pro rata distribution of the funds held in trust by the United States was introduced in the House of Representatives by Delegate Bird McGuire.  This bill provided that each Osage receive 160 acres of land, inalienable for twenty-five years. The surplus land was divided  among  the  members  of  the tribe, and after satisfying the Secretary of Interior  that they were capable of  managing  their own affairs, they  were permitted  to sell the same. The trust funds were apportioned among the Osages and drew interest while retained in the United States Treasury. This money was not paid out until full disposition had been made of their surplus lands. The school fund of $1,500,000 was preserved as a separate fund in the Treasury. The Osage rolls were  kept open for three months after  the passage of the Act for Osages not  then included,  and  an opportunity  given  to  present  proof  wherever fraud was charged  in connection with the enrollment. A commission  of  four  had  charge of  the  allotment  work: one commissioner  named  by  the  president served as the chairman; one was named by the tribe, one by the Osage Council, and one by  the Interior  Department. Bigheart,  aware that  white men  waited impatiently to seize any Osage  property interests by fair means or foul, the moment they were left without  Federal  government protection, was still bitterly opposed  to the Allotment  bill, and shrewdly and persistently fought its  passage. As the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company's Osage lease would expire by limitation March 16, 1906, the Company in the latter pa r t of 1904 applied to the Secretary of the Interior for an extension of the lease.  This was referred to Congress and the Indian Appropriation bill was passed and approved March 3,1905 renewing the lease for a period of  ten years to the extent of 680,000 acres  and with an  increase of royalty from one-tenth t o one-eighth fixed by order of the  President of  the United States.

1905  BARNSDALL ACQUIRES OSAGE LEASES, MIDLAND VALLEY ARRIVES AT BIGHEART
  During  January, 1905, H.H. Brenner, a banker, real estate owner and a partaker in the oil and gas business from Pawhuska, Oklahoma travels to Washington and negotiates for two months with congress for the setting aside of town sites in the Osage reservation. As a result of his efforts, in March 1905, 640 acres were set aside for the town site of Pawhuska; 160 acres for Bigheart; and similar amounts set aside for Hominy, Fairfax and Foraker. It was noted that the setting aside of these town sites was a necessary preliminary to real development of towns that are now among the most important in the Osage reservation. Two years prior, James M. Guffy and J.H. Galey of the Standard Oil Company construct a 2” natural gas pipeline from the most southeastern part of the Osage reservation to a brick factory north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Another line was laid from their other developing Glenn Pool. The success of these ventures paved the way for Guffy and Galey to receive a franchise to distribute natural gas in Tulsa. Later in 1905, Guffy and Galey sell their gas company to Glenn T. Braden and Theodore N. Barnsdall along with more than 150, 000 acres of leases in the Osage reservation which includes the Bigheart Trading post, James Bighearts ranch and Roaslie Chouteau's indian settlement. Surveying for the townsite of Bigheart  began at the Bigheart trading post but it was found out that the land the trading post sat on was susceptible to flood. The surveyers had to stay within the limitations of having the railway near so they settled for an area two miles north of the Bigheart trading post along the west side of Bird Creek near the Chouteau indian settlement. The new Bigheart townsite would set on a 160 acre tract which was on the land used by the Red Eagle family. By September of 1905, the Midland Valley’s railroad station at Bigheart opens on the 160 acre town site set aside by congress earlier in the year.

1906 BIGHEART BECOMES A TOWN
In January of 1906, a post office was established at the Bigheart town site. It was located at the Midland Valley Station like most of the developing communities. The station would have an agent or telegrapher with a ticket counter, baggage office and express office. In most towns the train station was a place that served as a center for news, transportation and commerce. In February 1906, when the allotment bill came up before Congress again and Bigheart learned that Chief 0-lo-ho-wal-la's delegates planned  to  pass the bill as introduced  in 1904, he took Fred Lookout (later Principal Chief of the   Osages) with him to Washington and succeeded in having the rider clause introduced  that  saved  all  minerals  below the surface lands  ("top  fifteen inches of  the soil")  for the tribe. In February Chief 0-lo-ho-wal-la and Assistant Chief Bacon Rind, James Bigheart, Ne-Kah-Wah-She-Tan-Kah,Black Dog, W.  T. Mosier, Frank Corndropper, C.  N.  Prudom, W. T. Leahy,  Peter Bigheart, J. F. Palmer, and  Two-ah-hee selected by  the  chief, promoted  the final of  the  bill  that  was passed  as Act  of  Congress, on June 28,  1906.  This is known in history as the "Osage allotment Act."  It provided for a division of the lands and moneys held in common by the tribe. It provided for a final roll to be closed July, 1907, with membership that   totaled 2,229.  Each enrolled member received about 655 acres of the surface land and $3,819 in cash out of the tribal funds in the Treasury. In March, James Bigheart suffered a stroke of paralysis while in Washington from which he never fully recovered.  The town of Bigheart was one of five town sites exempted from Osage allotment. The town site was surveyed and platted. Lots were then auctioned in May of 1906. Businesses and residences began being constructed along the railroad right of way. The Bigheart Star was the first newspaper to be published in the town.

1907 JOHN N. FLORER
John N. Florer, one of the founding members of the Indian Territory Illuminating Company, died on January 10, 1907.  He lived long enough to see his dream come to pass, and was sure that the Osage reservation was under laid with oil, but even this optimistic Indian trader, had he lived long enough, would have been amazed at the immensity of the oil and gas resources which grew from doubtful and uncertain beginnings. On November, 16 1907, the Osage reservation becomes part of the new state of Oklahoma.

Part 4: Barnsdall

1871 OSAGE AGENCY AND THE  96th  MERIDIAN
In 1871 the Osage Indians removed from Kansas to the land in Indian Territory west of the 96th meridian. Their initial choice was a 640,000 acre tract split by the 96th meridian as set by a special survey. The Cherokee tribe objected, but nevertheless perhaps six hundred Osage moved to Silver Lake (near present day Bartlesville) where they established their agency and a school. The Cherokee treaty of 1866 only allowed "civilized" tribes in their reservation, and the Cherokee successfully argued that the Osage were "blanket" indians who lived by the chase and thus could not settle east of the 96th meridian, and further they fought for a new survey that showed the 96th meridian was actually 3.5 miles west of the location set by the earlier survey. To solve the dilemma and mollify the Osages, a meeting was held at the home of Rosalie “Mother” Chouteau, (niece to the Chief of the Osage Beaver Band) near the banks of the Caney River at the Silver Lake agency for the Osages. Commissioners of the government agreed with their chiefs for the Indians to move west of the 96th Meridian, on a tract extending west to the Arkansas River. By the Act of  June 5, 1872, Congress set apart a tract for the Osage tribe,  bounded on the east by the 96th Meridian,  on the south and west  by  the north line of  the Creek country  and the main channel of the Arkansas River, and on the  north by  the south line of  Kansas. This gave the Osages 1,470,559 acres of land.

1872 OSAGES RELOCATE

Rosalie "Mother" Chouteau

In May of 1872, the Osages relocated to their new agency in the middle of the reservation. The site was selected by the chiefs near Bird Creek (originally named Deep Ford but later changed to Pawhuska). A log cabin was built at the foot of a high hill. This would be in the heart of present day Pawhuska where Grand Avenue intersects with Main Street. The Osages did not immediately settle down on their reservation but most of them went to the western plains in search of buffalo meat. No rations were then being issued by the government and they were in need of food.  Upon returning from the hunt the seventeen bands in which they were divided, settled in villages of lodges in different parts of the reservation. The Big Hill, White Hair, Hard Rope and Tall Chief Bands located to the west on the Salt Creek and Arkansas Big Bend region; the Big Chief, Claremore, Black Dog and Wahtiankah bands went south on Hominy Creek; the Beaver band was on Bird Creek; and the Little Osages consisting of Chetopah, Strike Axe and Nopawalla bands located in the north on Big Caney. Rosalie “Mother” Chouteau with a part of the Beaver Band settled on an area of Bird Creek 15 miles southeast of the new Osage Agency (present day Barnsdall). James Bigheart built a log cabin on the hill east of Bird Creek overlooking Rosalie “Mother” Chouteau’s village of lodges. Bigheart also built a two story trading post on the south side of Birch Creek and just west of Bird Creek where the two creeks meet. It was at this spot that Bird Creek was shallow enough for the wagons to cross. Jess Riddle operated the trading post for Bigheart. Riddle and his family lived on the second floor of the building that housed the trading post.

1874 CHIEF OF THE BEAVER BAND
Rosalie “Mother” Chouteau was elected to fill the vacancy as chief of the Osage Beaver Band after the death of her uncle. She had begged to have her name withdrawn in favor of a man, but her protests were ignored. Rosalie was the wife of wealthy fur trader Auguste Pierre Chouteau, son of one of the founders of Saint Louis, Missouri.

1875 PRINCIPAL CHIEF APPOINTED
James Bigheart became principal chief of the Osages through an appointment by the Pawhuska Band. When chief Paw-hiu-skah (White Hair) VI died in 1869, Beaver took his place as chief. Upon Beaver death, his sons were too young to assume the responsibilities of chief, so the band appointed Bigheart as chief.


1881-1882 JAMES BIGHEART, THE OSAGE AGENCY AND THE BIGHEART RANCH

James Bigheart with wife Ida and  children

In December of 1881 James Bigheart begins work as an interpreter and clerk at the Osage agency. There he had watched his people cede thousands of acres of valuable land for a small amount of money that never reached the Indian owners; white traders swarmed the agency on payment days to collect huge sums they claimed the Indians owed them and usually managed to take all the Indian's payment and carry over a balance for collection on the next payment day. Grieved with the manner in which his people were being swindled, Bigheart persuaded William Connor, a former school mate, to help organize their tribe so that by staying together they might get the results desired from the government at Washington. Bigheart felt that if the President knew of the truth about the agents that the political wrinkles could be ironed out to advantage and satisfaction of the Osages. The two brought about the organization of two political parties. They encountered much opposition because their theory was to elect a new chief every two years by popular vote, whereas chieftain-ships had always been handed down from father to son. Two political parties were organized; the Mixed Bloods or Progressives and the Full Bloods or Non-Progressives. The Osage Nation was divided into five districts and each district sent three members to the National Council. The National Convention met at Pawhuska, drew up a constitution, and organized a tribal government patterned after the Federal government. Bigheart signed their Constitution as President of the National Council. The constitution provided for elections the first Monday in November, beginning the following year, 1882, and every two years thereafter. Two-thirds of the council could overrule the principal chief, and they must return a bill within five days, Sundays excepted, otherwise it was considered passed. Fiscal years were to run from October 1 to September 30. The qualification of religious belief was a prerequisite to office-holding. Supreme executive power rested in the principal chief, who was to be elected by popular vote of qualified electors on general election day.  He must be a natural born citizen and 35 years old. He was to hold office for two years with a salary of $450 per annum, and was subject to impeachment by the council. The treasurer was to receive ten percent of all moneys passed through his hands. The first Osage election was held in November of 1882, and each district sent representatives to vote for its chosen candidate. James Bigheart was voted in as principal chief of the Osage Nation. 1882 was also a good year for Bigheart. This was the year the government rationed cattle to the Osages. Cattle were driven north from Texas to Pawhuska, where they were delivered to family heads in lots of three to five. At this time all land belonged to the tribe and an Osage could have all that he fenced and used. Knowing that his people didn’t want to be troubled with the care of live stock and would sell cheap, Bigheart set out to buy up the cattle before white swindlers could cross their borders and strike. From this small beginning with allotted cattle, Bigheart built an empire that spread out into the mercantile business in a building on his ranch, a half-interest in Pawhuska’s leading drug store, a director of the Bank of Bartlesville and First National Bank of Cleveland and a stock holder in the Citizens Trading Company of Pawhuska. Bigheart recognized the possibilities for grazing stock on the blue stem grass that covered the reservation and became the wealthiest man in his tribe prior to the discovery of oil on the reservation.


1891 MINERAL LEASING ACT

John N. Florer

Henry V. Foster

The Mineral Leasing Act permitted Indian tribes to lease their lands for mineral purposes. It was through this, John N. Florer, a Kansan and licensed trader among the Osage, believed that the Osage reservation was under laid with oil. The idea came to mind after an Indian guided him to a spot on Sand Creek and pointed to a scum casting rainbows on the surface of the water. The Indian managed to soak up and squeeze out of a blanket enough crude oil to provide Florer with a sample. Florer set to work with the twofold purpose of obtaining the consent of the Osages to grant a mining oil and gas lease on their reservation, and to find interested parties of means and influence in the wildcat scheme. With the help of the mixed bloods, Florer convinced the full bloods that a lease on their land was to their best interest. Florer then proceeded to find someone with influence and backing to put the lease through the Department in Washington. This person was A.C. Stitch, a one time partner to Florer and now a banker in Independence, Kansas. Stitch found Edwin B. Foster of Westerly, Rhode Island and his brother, Henry V. Foster of Independence, Kansas. Through Stitch, a meeting was set up between the Foster brothers and Florer to receive endorsement of the proposition.

Part 3: Barnsdall

1818 TREATY WITH THE OSAGES
  William Clark, governor of the Missouri Territory and the Osage nation agree to terms of the 1818 treaty. Whereas property taken from citizens of the United States by raiding parties of the Osage nation were never returned and a continuing war with the Cherokees, the Osage nation would cede more of it’s land to the United States. The tract of land included, beginning at the Arkansas river, at where the present Osage boundary line strikes the river at Frog Bayou; then up the Arkansas and Verdigris, to the falls of Verdigris river; thence, eastwardly, to the said Osage boundary line, at a point twenty leagues north from the Arkansas river; and, with that line, to the place of beginning.

Chief White Hair signed six treaties
with the government

1825 TREATY WITH THE OSAGES
  William Clark, governor of the Missouri Territory and the Osage nation agree to terms of the 1825 treaty. Whereas, The Great and Little Osage Tribes or Nations do, hereby cede and relinquish to the United States, all their right, title interest and claim, to lands lying within the State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas, and to all lands lying West of the said State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas, north and west of the Red River, south of the Kansas River, and east of a line to be drawn from the head sources of the Kansas, southwardly through the Rock Saline. Land the Osage nation would received would be reserved, beginning at a point due east of White Hair's Village (what is now Oswego, Kansas), and twenty-five miles west of the western boundary line of the state of Missouri, fronting on the north and south line so as to leave ten miles north, and forty miles south of the point of said beginning, and extending west, with the width of fifty miles to the western boundary of the lands hereby ceded. In consideration of the cession, the United States agrees to pay to the Osage nation, yearly, and every year, for twenty years from the date of the treaty, the sum of Seven Thousand Dollars.

1830 INDIAN REMOVAL ACT
The Removal Act paved the way for the reluctant and often forcible emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the West. The tribes included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. Today, known as the Five Civilized Tribes, they were participants in the Trail Of Tears which started in 1831 and last until 1838. The five tribes would be relocated in eastern Indian Territory (eastern Oklahoma).

1834 INDIAN INTERCOURSE ACT
  The formation of Indian Territory was applied to the United States setting aside land for Native Americans. No purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of land or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same was made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant the constitution. In simple terms, nobody could buy or sell Indian land without consent from the government.

 1834 THROUGH THE 1860’s

James Bigheart

 The first Osage reservation was a 50 by 150-mile strip in Kansas. White squatters were a frequent problem for the Osage. Subsequent treaties and laws through the 1860s further reduced the lands of the Osage. By a treaty in 1865 they ceded another 4 million acres and were facing the issue of eventual removal from Kansas to Indian Territory. On May 27, 1868, James Bigheart signs his first treaty with the government, called the Drum Creek Treaty. In the treaty the Osages would agree to sell 8 million acres of their land to the federal government. Unknown to the Osages or to a majority of the settlers in the area, the treaty is controlled by William Sturgis, who has an interest in the Lawrence, Leavenworth and Gulf Railroad. Whether the railroad company had a blatant influence in the treaty remains unknown; however, the railroad would receive the newly acquired Osage land from the Federal Government without opening it to agricultural settlement, as had been done in all prior treaties. By 1869 the treaty was withdrawn under the premise that the white settlers did not have a chance to acquire the Osage land and it was an unjustifiable abuse to those by the railroad.

1870 ACT OF CONGRESS
After the failure to ratify the Drum Creek Treaty, a similar agreement between the Osages and the government came in the House of Representatives, Executive Document 131 which was passed by congress on July 15, 1870. Whereas the Osages would agree to sell the remainder of it’s land in Kansas and use the proceeds to relocate the tribe to Indian Territory in the Cherokee Outlet.

Part 2: Barnsdall

1754 –1763 FRENCH and INDIAN WAR

King Louis XV

   In North America, fighting began chiefly because both England and France had claimed the land known as the Ohio River Valley in the hopes of expanding their fur trade and English settlements west across the Appalachians. By 1762, as negotiations begin to settle the war, Louis XV of France secretly proposes to his cousin Charles III of Spain that France gives Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ends the war with a provision in which France cedes all territory east of the Mississippi (including French Canada) to Britain. Spain cedes Florida and land east of the Mississippi (including Baton Rouge, Louisiana) to Britain while Spain held control over New Orleans. Osage land falls under Spain’s control.

1800 FRANCE RECLAIMS LOUISIANA

Napoleon Bonaparte

   Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Treaty of San Ildefonso, after it had been a Spanish colony since 1762. But, the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France in 1803. Osage land falls under France’s control.

 1803 LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY

James Monroe

  Robert Livingston and James Monroe closed on the sweetest real estate deal of the millennium when they signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris on April 30, 1803. They were authorized to pay France up to $10 million for the port of New Orleans and the Floridas. When offered the entire territory of Louisiana–an area larger than Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal combined–the American negotiators swiftly agreed to a price of $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase added 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River to the United States, for roughly 4 cents an acre. Osage land falls under United States control.

Robert Livingston

Pierre Chouteau

1804-1808 OSAGE CEDE THEIR LAND UNDER THE FORT CLARK TREATY
  After the Louisiana Territory was purchased from the French, Lewis and Clark began their explorations of the Missouri River in 1804, Pierre Chouteau of the Chouteau fur trading family in St. Louis, Missouri took Osage chiefs to meet Thomas Jefferson who promised to open a government sanctioned trading post (then called the factory, which the Osage could sell their goods at a government set price (ostensibly to keep them from being exploited by individual traders). The trading post would also have a blacksmith to provide utensils for the Native Americans. In early 1808, Meriwether Lewis led a group to the site of Fort Clark (later called Fort Osage) near Sibley, Missouri where they built the fort on a bluff above the Missouri River. Pierre Chouteau went about 150 miles south to Neosho, Missouri where the Osage had their principal village on the Osage River and brought the chiefs to Fort Osage. There they were presented with the terms of the treaty of what would be called the Treaty of Fort Clark or (the Osage Treaty). In this treaty the Osage would cede their land in Missouri and Arkansas and in return receive $800 to the Great Osage nation and $400 to the Little Osage nation annually. Those Osage that put themselves under the protection of Fort Osage and observe the stipulations of the treaty shall be permitted to live and hunt without molestation, on all that tract of country, west of the north and south boundary line, on which they, the said Great and Little Osage, have usually hunted or resided: Provided, The same be not the hunting grounds of any nation or tribe of Indians in amity with the United States; and on any other lands within the territory of Louisiana, without the limits of the white settlements, until the United States may think proper to assign the same as hunting grounds to other friendly Indians. There were protests from the tribe as there were claims that not all the proper representatives signed the document. The Osage for the most part did not move to Fort Osage staying instead at their home in Neosho. Also during this time the United States promised the land of the Osage to the Cherokee, other Indian tribes displaced from their lands east of the Mississippi and to white settlers moving west. Conflicts with the eastern Indians and misunderstanding of the treaty caused more conflicts over territory.

William Clark                Meriwether Lewis

 

Part 1: Barnsdall

  One of my favorite things to do is look for historical facts to corroborate a story. The search is almost as substantial as the find and when all the pieces come together to make a story, that's when it's most satisfying. Since January of this year I've been looking for an answer to a question that I've asked myself many times. How did the town of Barnsdall emerge from the land near Bird Creek? Anyone that has lived in Barnsdall long enough will know that it got it's name from T. N. Barnsdall but there's more to it than that. Land acquisitions, the search for gold, fur trade, cattle and oil all play a part in this story as well as foreign countries, Native Americans, railroad magnates and oil barons. Put them all together and it makes for some interesting reading.  In my quest to find the answer to my question, I started with the most simple of things. Who was living here before the Osages, fur traders and  wildcatters? My story starts out before recorded history about an area that would become Oklahoma, followed by the beginning of the Osage Nation moving into Indian Territory and ending with the town of Bigheart that was renamed to Barnsdall. To keep the stories from being prolonged, I've kept to only the information that was most relevant.


THE LAND BEFORE 1200 AD
  Between 1000 and 1600 AD, much of the eastern part of the US (including the eastern part of what is now Oklahoma) was part of dynamic cultural communities that are generally known as the Mississippian culture. The Caddoan Mississippian culture appears to have emerged from an earlier Mississippian Culture during the Woodland period (1,000 BC to 1,000 AD) from the western Louisiana area around 800 AD. Up until the year 1200 AD, tribes that inhabited the area were Caddo, Wichita, Pawnee and Kichai. All tribes were closely related since they spoke the Caddoan language.
   The Osage originated at Indian Knoll near the mouth of the Green River in Kentucky. Osage traditions state that the tribe originally called themselves Ni-U-Kon-Ska, which means Little Children (or People) of The Middle Waters. By 1200 AD the Osages were fighting the Iroquois who were invading the Osage land in Kentucky from the northeast. After years of fighting with the Iroquois, the Osage fragmented into three groups, Pahatsi or Great Osage, Utsehta or Little Osage, and Santsukhdhi or Arkansas band. These three bands stretched out into Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma after leaving their home of Kentucky. Over the following 500 years, the Osage would prosper but fight territorial wars to hold their land.


SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATION
  In 1541, Francisco Vasques de Coronado and Hernando De Soto of Spain were documented for entering into Oklahoma. Coronado came from the west and De Soto from the east, both in search of gold. Though neither explorer enter into present day Osage land, Coronado claimed the territory that is now Oklahoma for Spain.
  The word Osage was evolved through mispronunciation and bad spelling on the part of the early French settlers, and equally erratic interpretation by the English of the true name of the tribe—"Wa-Shah-She." The French called them "Wa-Sa-gee," and using the letters Ou to give the sound of W they wrote it Ouasages, which the English and Americans pronounced "Osages."
  In 1682, Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle of France, traveled down the Illinois River to the Mississippi and continued all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed all of the Mississippi River Basin for France. That was an enormous amount of land because it included all the rivers and streams that feed into the Mississippi, and all of the land between. It includes much of the western part of North America. He named this area (La Louisiane) Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.
  In the spring of 1719 Claud Charles Du Tisne started on an expedition with the aim of visiting the Missouri, Osages, Pawnees and the Paducas. His starting place was Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country. He went up the Missouri to the mouth of the Osage, a distance of forty leagues, according to Du Tisne’s reckoning. From the mouth of the Osage, he went eighty leagues to the Osage villages. Eighty leagues from the mouth of the Osage River would place the Osage villages between the ninety-fifth and ninety-sixth meridians. French trappers and traders had made frequent visits to the Osages, but the first official visit to the Osages was that of Du Tisne. Du Tisne was well received by the Osages, but when he told them that he had planned to go on to the Pawnees they were opposed to the idea. Du Tisne, brought goods with him to acquaint the Indians with French merchandise. The Osage did not want Du Tisne to take his goods with him to the Pawnee so they kept the French merchandise and Du Tisne left for Pawnee country to the southwest. The expedition traveled forty leagues, crossing four rivers which put them in a Pawnee village near present day Chelsea, Oklahoma.
  During the entire period of the French occupation of the Mississippi there was a continuous conflict between the Spanish and the French. It was a frequent occurrence for inroads to be made into the Indian country, and this one was especially interesting and important to Oklahoma, because it was principally from such explorations that Oklahoma received so many French names of places. These expeditions, both private and official, continued as long as France controlled Louisiana.

- End Pt. 1-

 In relation to the story about the explorers. When I was a boy, I heard of a story of about a young man hunting along the banks of Birch Creek (where Birch Lake now presides). He was climbing up one of the steep banks when he noticed a piece of metal jutting out from the creek bank. He tried but failed to pull it free and finally had to dig it out. The young man had uncovered a morion (a metal helmet used by European foot soldiers). A story such as this gives some belief to the French and Spanish exploration of Oklahoma. It makes me wonder if it was lost or left behind by a soldier during an exploration or was an object which was traded with one of the Indian tribes that once lived or traveled through the area. 

A morion form the 16th and 17th century. Worn by European foot soldiers.

A Historical Project

For  months I've been researching Barnsdall's past and how it rose from the prairie into a town. Along with it I looked into the history of the Osage Indians. Since I couldn't relate the story without mentioning the other, they go hand in hand with what I am trying to portray. So it's a story from the beginning of where the Osage originate from and the land that was held by different nations and people. I plan on posting the story this week when I gather all the photos and place them through the timeline I've set up. Instead of going into specifics on each and ever person or place, I have tried to stay to the basic facts otherwise the story would be so long it would become boring to most. As for myself, I've read, looked over, studied and learned things that I didn't know before of how we became the town of Barnsdall.

What Sort Of Man Reads Playboy?

The title of this blog asks the question. What sort of man reads Playboy? I'm not going to jump in head first because of the subject matter, I figure it would be safer to jump in feet first and wade around the shallow end. So, what kind of guy REALLY reads Playboy and what is the magazine supposed to say about what kind of person reads the magazine?

Hugh posing with his premier December 1953 issue

Here it is in Playboy's own words, taken from the pages of the magazine:

• The host that provides that extra measure of pleasure, the kind it takes to ignite a party. And when it comes to spreading good cheer, he pours with a lavish hand. 
• A young man sailing through the best years of his life. Constantly seeking the excitingly unusual and the unusually exciting. He's a man of action that's too busy doing, to do much viewing. 
• A city bred guy on the go who enjoys his leisure as fast paced as his livelihood. And having more disposable income than most, he can afford to keep a loose rein on spending. 
• An insider. The kind of guy who knows where to find what he wants, from the loveliest playmates to the liveliest parties. And Playboy is his guide to a good life. 
• In the working world, his present is bright and his future is assured. He's a can-do young guy with an eye on the top job and the training to handle it. 
• A young man who combines acumen and ability to produce a formula for personal success, the Playboy reader advances his career as easily as he promotes a delightful date. 
• He's his own man. An individualist. And he can afford to express himself  with style in everything from the girls he dates to the way he dresses.
• A young man riding the crest of the good life. A traveler whose coarse of  adventure knows no boundaries.
• An on the go guy whose desire for adventure knows no boundaries. He's a jet setter who makes the action, then moves on before the crowd arrives.
• Count on this young man for the essence of good taste. The Playboy reader knows the importance personal appearance plays in achieving success, by business day or social night.
• A man who goes out of his way to find that special place. Perhaps it's a sun splashed cove where the water is always great and having fun isn't a lot of work. Discovery is a pleasure he likes to savor more than once.

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture of what Playboy thinks it's readers are like or should strive to be. To be realistic, who reads the magazine from front to back cover? Here are some demographics to see if Hugh's ideology of the 'Playboy reader" is concurrent with today's male.

• 82.7% of Playboy readers are male.
• The largest percentage of  Playboy readers is 32 years old.
• Income is $50,000. ( Demographics show that the more you make, the less likely you are to read Playboy)
• 45.9% are single. (Larger percentage was married)
• 69% are full time employees. (Not professional or managerial positions)

The demographics say that the average reader is a single male, 32 years old, has a blue collar job making up to $50,000 a year. It's not quite the jet setting, financially secure, man of the party, Hugh had in mind. When I think of Playboy readers, I think of guys like the one below that only care about what Miss whomever of the month looks like.