In Search Of: Lockheed F5-E Lightning

It's been just over a year since my last entry of the Lockheed F-5E lightning  that crashed into the side of a hill southwest of Barnsdall on July 2 1945. With the prop blade I received last year, I was able to make contact with the Smithsonian Air and Space Research Group and verify the prop blade as belonging to 2nd Lt. Charles R. Schliefer's Lockheed F-5E, a photo recon aircraft stationed in Coffeyville Kansas. Since this time, I've done more research on the possible location of the crashed aircraft. Through eye witness reports and the Army's crash report and photos from 1945 and talking to others that have been passed the information by those that lived in the area of the reported crash, I proceeded with tracing the air route from it's beginning in Coffeyville to it's proposed destination which was Oklahoma City. Of the four possible routes taken that day, two routes stood out among the others. One, which made a direct pass over Barnsdall and one that made a pass to the northwest. The direct pass coincided with reports from eyewitnesses and passed down information while the northwest pass coincided with the Army report. Taking into account the information on hand I was able to ascertain a possible crash site which reports state are spread over a two acre area on the side of, and near the top of a hill within sight of Barnsdall. Google Earth and local topography maps were a big help in spotting what I think may be the crash site location. I contacted the land owner this past May about doing a search on his property and he agreed to give me access to the area. With it being springtime, I opted to hold off till after the first hard freeze in November to begin my search. I'm not fond of tromping around on the side of a hill covered with trees and brush in the summer. There are too many critters out there that have a poisonous bite or sting. But the time has passed, I've talked again with the land owner and all is set. Hopefully the next story I write on this subject will be one of finding some small piece of aviation history to go along with the large hunk of aluminum I have stashed away as of now.

Lockheed F-5E Photo Recon aircraft

Lou Rawls, the Bee Gee's and Jolene... What If?

As I travel to and from work every day I have the chance to listen to the radio a lot. In the mornings I listen to 93.5 FM. It's a station that plays hits from the late 60's, 70's and early 80's. I listen to this station because I don't like to listen to the morning shows on my regular radio station. Most morning shows these days if they are on any rock station have become eccentrically complacent to the lewd trash they spew on a daily basis. But that's a story for another time.  Today I want to talk about the "what if"?

Like I said earlier, I listen to a lot of radio while driving and this past week I came across one of those "what if" moments. As I drove along, a song by Lou Rawls came on the radio. I remembered that Lou had at one time done  a few  Budweiser commercials in the late 70's where he would sing the Budweiser song. This came after his hit song "You''l Never Find Another Love Like Mine" made it to the #2 spot on the top 100 billboard songs of 1976 which was now playing on the radio. After the song was over, the next song to play on the radio was "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gee's. It was at this moment I had the thought of Lou Rawls singing the Bee Gee's song. The fact is that Lou Rawls has a low, crisp voice somewhat like Barry White, so the irony in this was jacking up Lou's voice to match that of the Bee Gee's. A hard thing to imagine unless your brain thinks like mine.

Lou Rawls 1978 Budweiser commercial

The Bee Gee's had the monumental hit "You Should Be Dancing" in 1979. If you're not familiar with it , here is a sample of the song.

Bee Gee's 1979 hit, You Should Be Dancing

It only seems fitting in my mind that Lou Rawls should sing like the Bee Gee's. So I took Lou's hit song from 1976 and pumped it up a few octaves. He came out sounding like a Disney cartoon character but it gets my message across as to what I was trying to achieve.

A while back my wife had me listen to the Dolly Parton song Jolene. It was slowed down 17% to where it sounded like a man singing. I thought it sounded rather well.  Much better than Lou Rawls and the Bee Gee's.

Hidden Treasures

In today's fast paced busy world, it's not often someone would get the chance to step back in time and look at the way things were decades ago. This chance came my way this past week when  my dad left me a message on my phone to stop by his home and see him. Always curious about any phone message from my dad gets me to thinking, since it's not often he sends me a message on my phone, it had to be of some importance. On my way home from work I pulled into his drive and parked. As I got out of the truck, there he sat on the bench by the front door and saying, "go get a Pepsi and come on back, I need to tell you something". My mind was thinking of a few different things it might be but there no clue to what it may have been. Arriving back outside I sat on the bench, popped open a Pepsi, as he proceeded to tell me about a project that was about to take shape in town. I had heard rumor that the old Texaco station was about to be restored but didn't known of anything certain till my dad told me he had just spent a couple hours with Gene Taylor. Gene and Clifford Taylor were in the process of restoring the Texaco station and they were looking for old photos of the station. This is where I come into the picture. Since I have numerous historical photos of Bigheart/Barnsdall and many of the businesses, I was asked if I could help with any photos  and information on the old establishment so that it could be restored to what it looked like in it's earlier years. I knew I had the photos to help out but there was also a little extra with this as I found out from my dad. Clifford Taylor had just purchased the Ingersoll -Dunham building, better known to most as the Barnsdall State Bank building at the southwest corner of Main and 5th. He would be in the process of giving the building a make over, replacing the old plywood window coverings with actual windows and doing some maintenance on the building overall. It was at this point my dad told me that Clifford wanted me to go help him look through some boxes that were on the second floor of the building and if anything of historical importance was to be found that I would be able to remove it. All I had to do was give him a call to set it up.

After a visit with Gene and Clifford to exchange some photos, a time was set up for two days later to go upstairs into the old building and look for anything that might be of importance.

1912 photo of the Ingersoll - Dunham building.

As Saturday morning began, Clifford and myself gathered up lighting to illuminate the upstairs since all the windows had been covered over with plywood. As I stood there at the threshold, I looked up gazing at the stonework above the doorway and thinking about the history of the building. As a boy, I remember the building as the Barnsdall State Bank and had only entered into the lower east side of the building where the bank was located. Over the years I had been through all parts of the first floor of the building but never the second floor. After 51 years of living in Barnsdall this would be my first trip to the second floor. I don't have an exact date as for the closing of the second floor but it may have been in the mid 1970's. Documents found indicate it may have been around 1974. Since then it has been closed to the public except for the rare occasion the owner would go inside to check things out. As the door opened, years of pent up odors came rushing out. The smell of old musty dirty wood filled my nose as I walked inside. Standing there at the foot of the stairway I looked up as three flights of stairs led their way to the second floor. Looking at the banisters and steps, I could tell many trips had been made up and down the stairs. The steps had been worn so much that the edge of each step seemed to have been wittled away and sanded smooth with each footstep that had hit them. Making my ascension, each step on the stairway let out a creaking sound like the greeting of two old friends that had not seen each other in years. Making my way to the top landing, I stopped once more to look down the hallway that once bustled with people. After 102 years of standing, looking over the traffic of town, I could feel the building as being tired but vibrant. No more were the sounds of laughter or footsteps of people coming from the rooms as I walk slowly down the hallway. As I made my way to the last doorway on the right, I passed through it into the meeting room where many lodge meetings of the I.O.O.F. and Rebekah's would take place, I could feel an energy in the room that the rest of the second floor didn't permeate.

This photo from around 1915-16 shows the I.O.O.F and Rebekah members and their families  as they settle in for a feast in the meeting room  on the second floor.

I could see in the back of the room near the small stage that jut out from the wall sat boxes of papers, ledgers and old books. I would guess close to thirty boxes filled with unknown pieces of history. I was looking for any pre 1920 pieces that may have been stored by chance or anything that may have any historical significance to the building. After hours of searching there were a few items gathered. Only one piece from when the town was named Bigheart and  some artifacts from the 1960's. The rest of it looked like a dumping ground of old reciepts and paperwork for the city when it operated City Hall on the first floor of the building. I won't comment on some of the articles found until the owner and the museum get together and sort things out but I can say that they are significant to the history of the building. I feel good about the find that was on the second floor and what is to become of the restoration. It would be nice to see the old building get a face lift in the center of town. Something everyone could be proud of.

BHS Senior Panels

This past January, I took a tour of the renovated High School. It was an amazing sight to see but as I was looking over the years of Senior panels hanging in the lobby I thought to myself... these panels are in poor shape, if something isn't done to preserve what is left of them, they may become so deteriorated that they could not be saved. After some conversation with the Superintendent, It was agreed that the panels should be preserved somehow and with the large size of the panels it would be a costly or close to an impossible task to scan each panel. The next best thing came to mind and that was to digitally photograph each panel and correct or retouch anything that was missing or torn up.

1964 BHS Senior Panel

One example of the digital restoration was the 1964 panel. It was damaged by water during the gymnasium fire in the 1990's. The photos were badly damaged, so in order to correct what was damaged, a 1964 yearbook was used to copy Senior photos from. All photos were placed on a new background along with all the names and the school key. It was a mix of original photos along with the newly created ones. Each photo was hand placed on a grid to get the original look and layout. The panel was then optimized for brightness and contrast to give it a fresh look. Although not a perfect copy of the original, I felt it was a vast improvement. The same was done to the 1965 panel which had been damaged in the same manner.

1965 BHS Senior Panel

Although the black and white Senior panels were  sometimes hard to reconstruct, I found the color panels beginning in 1977 to be more challenging. Some photos were faded by sunlight, some were missing or ripped and other had water damage. Taking one panel at a time sometimes took a couple weeks to redo to make presentable. But then came the year 1988. In years past, the panels, though some of them were in bad shape had a professional look to them. The 1988 panel was different. Not only did it look unprofesssional, it looked as if a group of unsupervised pre-schoolers were given scissors,colored pencils and glue to put it together. Then I looked at the 1989 panel and found it the same way. This went through the 1993 panel and then in 1994 the professinal look came back to the panels. It wasn't anything that the school had done to the panels it was the studio that put these panels together that made them look so shabby and unkempt. You could tell the photos were not all the same size and not grid to a background to make them even in rows. There was no imagination to these panels, looking like they all came from the same cookie cutter. It must of been the first attempt by Ruth Kelly Studios to make a Senior panel.

1988 BHS Senior Panel

It may just be me, but I look at the panel on the left and think cheap and not designed well. I felt the photos needed some punch to jump from the panel so I placed each one on a black background and centered them to a certain point. I hope the 1988 class enjoys what I did otherwise they can have their original back along with it's cheap look. Senior panels should be something to be proud to show off. Apparently Ruth Kelly Studios didn't think so at the time but this isn't the last panels done by the studio for BHS.  They were called again in 1996 and have been doing Barnsdall's Senior panels since. All I can say is......the must be in the budget?

Those Annoying Female Celebrities

It's been a year already and once again it's time for my personal list of female annoying celebrities for the past 12 months. This year is different from years past. There will be some new faces to add to my list of loathsome ladies. These choices are based solely on my opinion as to whom it is that creeps me out. With that said, it's on to the list.

Honorable Mention:  Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Talk show host for the View, Elisabeth always has a view on every subject, some of it being obnoxious and rude to the point of being condescending. A former contestant of the reality show Survivor, she placed forth in the competition. A far cry from the original plan her tribe had for her in the beginning. She was to be voted out first by her tribesmen for her annoying and overbearing ways.

        10:  Kim Kardashian

         I'm still working on what made Kim famous. It's clear she has no talent  
         except for trying on new guys that fit her need at the moment and spending
         her fathers money. I'll give a tabloid tiara to this queen of newsstand
         fodder.

           9:  Taylor Swift
         
            Find a boyfriend, break up, write a song. Find a boyfriend, break up,
            write a song. Find a boyfriend, break up, write a song. Is this redundant
            or what. It seems her song writing material comes from her personal
            endeavour to acquire the perfect break up song. Too bad they all sound
            the same. Beware to the next boyfriend, you're only a song in the
            making.  

        8:  Ramona Singer
   
        Real Housewives of New York City. Another reality television
        program diva. To start with, I don't know any housewife that owns and
        operates her  own line of clothing and accessories, plus her line of
        jewelry and cosmetics. Do REAL housewives do this? I also don't
        know any housewives with a net worth of $18 million.    

           7:  Rihanna

           This is the typical Hip Hop singer. I chose Rihanna for her excessive
           amount of reinventing the same style of songs that have perpetuated her
           into stardom. It's my opinion that anyone can get on stage and jump
           around with a bunch of dancers and spew out lyrics to a song
           that repeat themselves to the point of having no artistic value.  Thanks
           to the so called musical geniuses in the recording industry that have
           cloned the Hip Hop singers into the raunchiest stage shows in music.

         6:  Miley Cyrus

         The Disney Channels Hannah Montana has been trying to morph into
          an adult entertainer. Too bad her style is similar to every other young
          entertainer trying to make it in the spotlight. She is a female version of
          Justin Bieber and tries to enhance her stardom by acting a part that is
          not in her persona. Try being an adult and grow out of the adolescent
          farce that you portray.

               5:  Kristen Glover

                There's something about Kristen that annoys the crap out of me. It
                may be her voice or her constant posing for the cameras in her dad's
                car commercials. Whatever it is, I don't see why every time her
                family receives an award or addition to the family, it has to be
                thrown in the face of the viewers. It was great when she was out on
                maternity leave. Her brother did an excellent job of taking her place
                as a spokesperson for the company. The last Tulsa spokesperson that
                was highly annoying was Linda Soundtrack but at least her
                commercials were fun to watch.

                4:  Khloe Kardashian

                The sister to Kim Kardashian, Khloe creeps me out. I watched her on
                the X Factor this past season as a host to the program. I don't know if
                she chose her own wardrobe but it really showed off some of her
                ASSets. Some of which would make some people throw up. Also her
                touchy feely on stage presence was a bit overwhelming. She must of
                had to touch and paw every contestant on the program. At least she
                was trying to work, which is more than I can say for the rest of the
                Kardashians.

               3:  Lindsay Lohan

                Last year Lindsay was #10 on my annoying list. This year she has
                stepped up her game into the #3 spot. Does a person ever learn when
                to stop being a self destructing menace to society? How many
                chances can a person have to get straight in the court system before
                being locked away for all eternity. To make things worse, her mother
                appears on national television in which she tries to help her
                daughters image. Too bad it made her look like a drunken fool.
                Ignorance must be in the genes. Don't appear in public when you're
                under the influence. The paparazzi will be handing out tickets for
                your next trip to the county lock up.

                  2:  Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi

                  Another reality show screw up from the people that bring you Jersey
                  Shore. Snooki is the reason they give remote controls to television
                  sets, so it's easy to turn the channel. What do drinking, tanning
                  beds, vehicle mishaps, disorderly conduct and cops have in common?
                   It's Snooki!
                  What a role model for young people. Now to top everything
                  off, she will be a mother soon. You got to be kidding! If this is what
                  New Jersey is about, no wonder everyone makes fun of the place.
                  This socially inept buffoon can be one reason as to the lack of moral
                  aptitude in young people today.

            1:  Nicki Manaj

            What was Fox thinking when they signed this idiot to American Idol?
            Maybe they thought it would boost their ratings. In fact... it hurt their
            ratings from her lack of social graces and her ability to judge music.
            Nicki was more aware of the fashions that were being worn on stage
            than the artists she was to be judging. Her whining outbursts and lack
            of any knowledge of musical genre showed that she was only another
            puppet of the hip hop musical circus. Someone posted a photo of
            Nicki and Mrs. Potato Head this past season. I think it insulted the
            intelligence of Mrs. Potato Head but the likeness was uncanny. So to
            that, I want to post the photo of them together. Now there can be an air
                                                    head to go along with the potato head.

That should finish out my list of my top 10 annoying female celebrities.  What's strange about this is the fact that Oprah Winfrey didn't make my list. What's up with that?

 

Barnsdall Graduate Centenarian

It's interesting to come across names and photos of people when I search for one thing and come up with another. One of these interesting finds was an East Sacramento resident by the name of Genevieve (Moore) Cobb. Her story was printed in the Valley Community Newspaper in December 2010.  Sadly, Genevieve passed away on December 14, 2011 but I thought her story was worth writing about. Born in Greeley, Colorado on June 27, 1908 to Delbert and Effie (Wotring) Moore, she was the first of five children born to the couple.

1908, Greeley, Clorado. Grandparents with mother and father.

She lived in Colorado for three years until her parents decided to move to Roseburg, Oregon. Her father Delbert, a former railroad worker supported the family by cutting wood in the forest. To help stabilize the finances of the family, Genevieve's mother would can fruit to be sold from the farm they lived on. Hoping to improve their financial situation the family moved to Oklahoma during the oil boom and settled in Skiatook, Oklahoma but relocated when her father obtained work in the oil fields around Bigheart, Oklahoma.

1921 during their time in Bigheart, Ok.
L-R: Meredith, Juanita, Delbert, Genevieve, Effie and Randall. The fifth child, Darrell had not been born yet.

 Genevieve recalled the time in 1922 when the name of the town was changed from Bigheart to Barnsdall cause of the Barnsdall Oil Company that operated the local refinery. Checking the Barnsdall school graduating classes, her name shows up in the class of 1926 as Genevieve Moore. After graduation she attended Oklahoma University and obtained a teaching degree where she moved to Skiatook, OK. and began a teaching career in the Skiatook Elementary School. It was here she turned down the offer of principle of the elementary school. She would meet her future husband Rodney Cobb and later be married.

Rodney and Genevieve after their wedding.

 Rodney served in the Army in Panama for 13 months and afterward was transferred to Fresno, California. Genevieve moved to Fresno to be with Rodney until he was discharged from the Army. They moved to Colorado Springs where Rodney attended college and obtained a degree in Botany. Rodney's desire to get a Masters degree soon sent the couple to Seattle, Washington where he would get his Masters degree and find employment with the seed supplier Burpee and Company in Lompoc, California. In 1953, the couple moved to East Sacramento where Rodney was hired by the Department of Agriculture. Genevieve also became employed by the state, first working for the Division of Highways and then for the California Public Employees Retirement System. Rodney and Genevieve retired in July 1969. After a long retirement, Rodney passed away in 2000. Genevieve, who is of Irish and Dutch ancestry was related to the second president, John Adams and credits her long life to her family genes.

1926 BHS graduate, Genevieve (Moore) Cobb

Kelley School

Traveling north out of Barnsdall I turn west onto the County Road 2401 in search of three sets of steps located about 4.5 miles north of town which at one time were part of the Kelley School. With information in hand on their location, I travel north along CR 2401 until I reach the top of a hill where the road turns to the east. It was near this point that I was to see the set of steps on the east side of the road about 30 yards into the brush and trees. Moving at what seemed to be a turtles pace with my eyes cutting through the brush, I spot a pile of small sandstones stacked on top of each other. With the vegetation surrounding the area it was hard to say if it was a set of steps or not, let alone three sets of them. Not sure if this was what I looked for, I kept traveling along the road until I turned right onto a lease road where there were foundations jutting up through the tall grass and brush. It was my assumption this was the Barnsdall Oil Company  #285 Lease Camp that  sat north of Barnsdall.

Barnsdall Oil Company Lease Camp #285. Fred Goughler, fifth from the left and his crew at the camp. Fred, like many of the men lived in the company homes around the lease.

Water tower cooling basin. Most likely the one shown in the Barnsdall Oil Co. Lease photo above.

As I parked my vehicle, I scanned the area and with camera in hand and set off through the area snapping off photos. Walking through the foundations, I walked west to the edge of the lease and came upon an old fence which had fell down and small narrow sidewalk.

The sidewalk was near two feet wide went along for about 80 feet until it came to the main sidewalk and steps

At the end of the sidewalk and just to the right stood a set of steps which could clearly be seen as I walked towards them. There was no doubt that this was what I was looking for to begin with. Snapping off a few more photos, I looked for the two other sets of steps and found them north of the main steps.

Main steps to the Kelley School

The sets of two steps was what I was interested in. It was there that a photo was taken in 1933 of the schools students. Walking up to the top of the main steps I surveyed the area to the north and spotted the other steps. It was then that I could see how small the school really was and in that area which I looked over, there sat a two room building that would house around 40 people.

Northwest steps

Northeast steps

Student body of the Kelly School. Photographed on the north side of the school between the set of two steps.

According to Fred Goughler, his dad Lawrence, aunt Ester, Dub Jones and Everett Swalley are in the photo. The school housed the 1st to 6th grade, after which, students would attend the Barnsdall School. 

If others can be identified, contact the Barnsdall Oklahoma History page on Facebook or through a reply message on this blog site.

G. R. Jackson, Bigheart Pioneer

Earlier this week while researching a baseball team for the Barnsdall Zinc Company in Missouri, I came across a link to a blog page by Andrea Dietze. Andrea is a librarian in southern California and writes stories about her ancestors. I was reading through her blog when I came across the name of G. R. Jackson that was living in Bigheart, Oklahoma. To many, the name wouldn't mean much unless your spare time is spent researching old photos of Bigheart, Ok.  In Andrea's blog was a couple photos. One was of G.R. Jackson and the other was of him in his general store in Bigheart, OK. The name quickly had me looking through my files for a photo of a store in Bigheart from 1908 called the Pearson Jackson General Store. It was located at the northwest corner of Main and 5th St.

1908, G. R. Jackson Store on the left.  The Osage Hotel is to the north and the Bank of Bigheart stands on the right.

Andrea had an email posted with the story so I promptly sent her a message with the store photo and one of the store after the tornado demolished it. The next day I received an email from her in which she told me that she had contacted the Oklahoma State Archives a few days before to see if they could track down any information about the store and what happened to it. Thrilled with her new information, she told me there were a few more photos that may be of interest. Looking through more files I found two more photos of the store and sent them to her. Andrea plans to send the photos and information she has to a local library or museum in the future.

1905, Granville Roy Jackson

The following is from Andrea Dietze blog:

Granville Roy Jackson (or, G. R. as he was always called) was born  in Calhoun County, West Virginia. My grandmother grew up in neighboring Ritchie County. Both families were farmers with deep roots in western Virginia. There were differences, however. G.R.'s father served in the 19th Virginia Cavalry during the War Between the States, while my grandmother's family was staunchly anti-slavery and pro-Union during the Civil War.  As a boy, my dad witnessed more than one spirited debate about the War at reunions.

Whatever their differences, the families came together and celebrated the young couple's marriage on Oct. 22, 1905. G. R. and Iva lived with his parents in Big Springs, Calhoun County for a short time. The next year, they struck out on their own and settled in the boom town of Bigheart, Osage County, Oklahoma. They opened and ran a general store until at least 1910. A tornado in 1911 and a fire in 1913 devastated downtown Bigheart and may have forced them to close the store. By 1918, G. R.'s occupation was listed as tool dresser for a drilling company when he registered for the WWI draft. In the 1920s, he opened a store in Montana where the family spent a short time. By 1930, they were back in Oklahoma, and he was working as a pumper in the Garber-Covington oil field.

He enjoyed hunting and fishing, once catching a 57-pound catfish. His obituaries describe him as a Methodist, 32nd degree Mason, employee of Sinclair Oil, and officer of the Oil Worker's Union 364.

His last few months were difficult ones as his health deteriorated and he struggled to clear his sinuses and throat. He died of metastatic brain cancer on Dec. 9, 1939 and was buried in the plot he and Iva purchased at Memorial Park in Enid, Oklahoma.

1908, inside the Pearson Jackson General Store in Bigheart OK. G.R. Jackson is standing on the far right. It's possible that the man to the far left could be J.T. Pearson, the second citizen of  Bigheart and a business partner with G. R. Jackson.

I'll post more information when it becomes available.This is for sure one of Bigheart's pioneers along with C.D. Pinney and W. R. Staples.

1928 Stinson Detroiter

On a recent visit with Pat Shaw, I was amazed to find a photo taken by her mother Rexie while she attended college in Montana in 1928. The photo is of an airplane with just enough history that it need be mentioned cause of it's Oklahoma connection.

From 1925 to 1931, the Ford Motor Company sponsored aerial tours across the country featuring planes from builders such as Waco, Curtiss and Travel Air. They would all vie for the Edsel B. Ford Reliability Trophy. These tours, as they were called, were set up to show and interest people about passenger air travel. In time they became known as the National Air Tours. In 1928, the Stinson Aircraft Company entered their Stinson Detroiter. It was built with the express intention of being flown in the air tour and would be piloted by the company's head man, E. A. Stinson.  The plane which was being built, had been bought by the Tulsa Junior Chamber of Commerce before it's completion in June, 1928. The TJCC purchased the plane for $12,500 and was in contact with the Barnsdall Oil Company as a sponsor to fly in the 1928 National Air Tour.

On July 20, 1928, the air tour made a stop at Missoula, Montana. Rexie Shaw, a 1923 graduate of Barnsdall High School was attending college in Montana and ventured out to take in the sights. She took this photo of the Stinson Detroiter while it was on display at the Missoula Municipal Airport.

This is a rare photo of the 1928 Stinson Detroiter at the Missuola Municipal Airport in Montana. Though hard to make out, the nose of the plane has the B Square Barnsdall logo on it and has the Barnsdall Oil Co. name on the fuselage. The can sitting under the plane is Barnsdall oil.

Though the plane did not win the 1928 tour trophy, the plane sitting on the left side of the photo did. It was the "Baby Ruth".  Before making a landing at each stop the plane would fly over the crowd and drop Baby Ruth candy bars from the plane. Each candy bar would have a small parachute attached so the would slowly fall to the ground.

After the tour finished in August 1928 the Stinson was sold to Tulsa oil well drilling contractor, John Mabee for $7000.  The Mabee Center at Oral Roberts University was named in his honor.

Two more sales brought the plane to Clarence Jones of Lima, Ohio. Mr. Jones was a radio station director in Ecuador and wanted the plane for missionary broadcasting services. In May 1931 the plane received a new covering but was damaged in an accident in June 1931. In September 1932, the plane was sold at a sheriff's sale to John Botkin and Lew Akin in Shawnee Oklahoma for $1009.72. It was sold two more times finally winding up in Fort Worth, Texas in August 1933. In February 1934, the plane suffered another accident and it's registration was cancelled in March 1935. There is no record of what happened to the airframe or engine. Though just a speck in aviation history, the plane was worth mentioning from some of it's Oklahoma connections. A photo copy of the Stinson Detroiter has been sent to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum for their aviation collection.

Another photo of the Stinson Detroiter in San Diego, California. The Barnsdall markings can clearly be seen on it's fuselage.

Barnsdall Oklahoma History

At the crossroads of 11 and 123

It's been near two months since I've made a post. In that time I've been busy sorting through some information and photos of Barnsdall and the surrounding area. Over the last few years of gathering all this information and material, I felt it was time to be put out there to the public. People have said I should put it in a book and with that thought in mind I wanted more to what I had already acquired. So many people have passed through Barnsdall in over the hundred year history of the town. Photos that have been hidden away from view for years about the town should be out there and seen by others. That's why I started a  Facebook page on the history of Barnsdall. As of now, it's been online for a couple weeks with a very good response. What I would like to see is more interaction of those that come to the page and post some of their photos of Barnsdall or any of the small communities close by such as Pershing, Tallant, Nelegoney, Walco, Avant and Okesa. It was in these locations that the early history of Barnsdall was written, most of it by the oil fields that sprang from the Osage soil. The Facebook page is for anyone living in Barnsdall or has lived there in the past. Photos and stories are welcome as long as they pertain to the history of the town and surrounding area. Though I have barely touched the surface of what's out there hidden in a dusty box of memories, I'm hopeful that those that stop and look over the site will add some of their own accounts from their time in Barnsdall. So, enjoy the site, cause there is much more to be posted about our town in the Osage hills.

Was It a Game Or A Beauty Pageant?

This past week Alabama's Crimson Tide rolled the Notre Dame Fighting Irish into a ball of crush shamrocks and sprinkled them across the football field taking the BCS National Championship. Those of you lucky enough to watch the offensive display of A. J. McCarron and his team probably found it a little boring after a while as did the ESPN announcer Brent Musburger as he made comment of one of the camera pans as it made a hasty halt on a screenshot of A.J. McCarrons mother and his girlfriend Katherine Webb, Miss Alabama 2012.

Musburger, who has the natural affinity to open his mouth and spew illogical observations to the viewing masses once again spoke without thinking and this was only in the first quarter of the football game while Alabama was leading 14-0.

Musburgers' video quote.

ESPN took this and ran with it like Alabama was running against Notre Dame. While live Twitter feeds were being made on the game, this was the shot that sent Katherine's Twitter account into the outer reaches of space. Prior to the game her account was around 550 followers. By the end of the game her followers were over 100,000. It was clear that ESPN had more than just a game on their hands as the cameras continually were hovering in Katherine Webb's area. What else could they do to keep the viewers entertained? The BCS Championship was a total blowout and with the prospect of millions of people turning the channel was something ESPN didn't want to happen. Thus, the game turned into the Katherine Webb show.  It was't the fact that Musburger called Katherine a "beautiful woman" that ires me to write this story. It was his comment that followed that could possibly send a message to young boys about the connection of being a star quarterback will get you the beautiful gal. I know it was Musburgers attempt at making sports humor but it was like some of his other on air quotes over the past 40 years he's been announcing. The next day an ESPN spokesman  posted an apology over Musburgers comment.

I've always thought that announcers were a waste of time and their color commentary and background stories were unnecessary. If you really want to be involved in the game, have a live audio feed from the field in which players and coaches are making decisions. As of now this type of involvement is limited, so the announcers can fill in the gaps with any nonsense they feel is applicable to the moment. When people go to games to cheer for their favorite team do they rely on a television announcer to tell them what has just happened? Maybe I don't watch enough sporting events on television to understand the significance of the announcer? But it could be the reason why I don't watch sporting events. Why listen to someone state the obvious. That's why I would rather read about it later in the newspaper to keep the sometimes biased and absurd observations to a minimum.

To end this story, I'll agree with Brent Musburger that Katherine Webb is a beautiful woman....so, does this make me eligible to be an ESPN announcer?