I’m a
native Oklahoman born and raised among the waving wheat (which really does
smell sweet) and acres and acres of cotton fields and alfalfa. My Grandpa Clay
was a cotton farmer in western Oklahoma, near Anadarko, where every year since
1930 a huge Indian Pow-Wow is held. The American Indian Exposition at Anadarko
in Caddo County features the arts, crafts, and traditions of fourteen Plains
Indian Tribes. The dance competitions with the Indians dressed in buckskin and
feathers, their feet pounding the earth in time to the throbbing drumbeat is
mesmerizing.
I grew
up in Ardmore, which is in southern Oklahoma, just south of the Arbuckle
Mountains. Rock formations within these mountains lay curiously sideways. Another
attraction of the Arbuckle Mountains is Turner Falls. This picturesque 77-foot
waterfall cascades down a mountainside to form a natural swimming pool at its
base, where nearly everyone in the southern part of the state has been swimming
at one time or another. This area is also famous for its natural caves and even
an abandoned rock castle, complete with a ghost!
Turner
Falls is also home to the Falls Creek Baptist Camp ground, the state’s oldest
church camp and also the largest youth encampment in the United States. For
many summers during my childhood, I attended church camp at Falls Creek. At the
end of the week I carried away enough memories of fun and fellowship to last
until summer camp rolled around the following year.
Most
everyone knows that Oklahoma is famous for its quick-changing and oftentimes
treacherous weather, tornadoes in the spring, flooding and scorching heat in
the summer and blizzards and ice storms in the winter. Yet, when the weather
turns nice, we all emerge from our homes to enjoy thousands of acres of
Oklahoma State and National Parks plus ten mountain ranges. In addition to the
Arbuckle Mountains, we have the Wichita Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains, the
Kiamichi Mountains, the Quartz Mountains, and the Oklahoma Ozarks. All our
mountain ranges are home to a variety of animals such as river otters, red
foxes and even black bears! Who knew Oklahoma had bears? Oklahoma also boasts
over 200 lakes that create over 55,646 miles of shoreline. So, Oklahoma
definitely offers plenty in the way of fishing, boating, and water sports, not
to mention hiking and camping.
Lake
Murray State Park is the park I’m most familiar with as it is only nine miles
(through gorgeous forest-land) south of Ardmore. I spent many pleasant summer
afternoons on Lake Murray swimming and water skiing with my friends. My high
school prom (and several high school reunions since then) have been held in the
spacious ballroom at Lake Murray Lodge. Lake Murray also offers scores of
quaint redwood cabins and multiple campsites. My Dad fished on Lake Murray and
I caught my first catfish there. I still love eating fried catfish! Hmmm, now
that’s good eatin’.
Here are
a couple of other fun facts about my state that other folks might not be aware
of. The first shopping cart used in grocery stores around the nation was
invented and patented in 1937 by an Oklahoman named Sylvan Goldman, who was
born in my hometown of Ardmore. Goldman introduced his innovative device in a
Humpty Dumpty supermarket in Oklahoma City on June 4, 1937. (FYI: I wasn’t yet
born.)
And, the
first parking meter in use in the nation
was installed in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935. It was called the Black Maria
(don’t ask me why) and was designed by a professor at Oklahoma State University
named Holger Thuessen and a student
named Gerald Hale, as part of an engineering project requested
by Oklahoma newsman Carl Magee. Magee is the one who applied for and received a
patent for the parking meter on May 24, 1938.
The
following “fact” is not a first, but Oklahoma’s State Rock is certainly
unusual. Known as a Rose Rock, these crystallized barium sulfate formations
were created 250 million years ago during the Permian Age (although some say
rose rocks are still forming today). These unusual rose rock formations are
found in only a few rare places on the planet, among them Oklahoma and Egypt.
However, it’s Oklahoma’s red sand that gives our Oklahoma rose rocks their
reddish hue. Rose rocks found in other places are lighter in color. An Oklahoman
named Tom Redwine is said to have used a butter knife to cut a small sandstone
formation out of a hole in the ground. After crumbling away the grit, he
exposed a rock formation that looked like a rose.
Geologists
aren’t sure why rose rocks are common in Oklahoma. But the legend surrounding
Oklahoma’s rose rocks says that when gold was found in Georgia in the 1830s,
the US Government forgot its treaties with the Indians and drove those living
east of the Mississippi to a stretch of land in Oklahoma that had been designated
Indian Territory. The Cherokee Tribe made the 1200-mile long journey on foot.
Because they were being forced against their will to move away from their own
land, and one fourth of them died on their journey west, the arduous trek
became known as the Trail of Tears. Legend says that God, looking down from
Heaven, turned the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens that fell
to the ground into stones shaped like a rose. And, because The Trail of Tears
ended in Oklahoma, rose rocks are common here.
My most
recent home in Ardmore, Oklahoma was built in the late 1880s before Oklahoma
became a state in 1907. Today that house and many other Victorian gingerbread
houses in the southern part of Oklahoma are known as Indian Territory houses.
While living there, I found numerous rose rocks in my back yard. Sometimes only
a single rose rock is found, sometimes a cluster. The largest cluster of rose
rocks found to date by Tom Redwine weighs 788 pounds! He named it “Redwine and
Roses.” The last I heard, that rose rock cluster is still on display in
Ardmore.
Famous
people born in Oklahoma include singers Blake Shelton, Garth Brooks, Carrie
Underwood, Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Vince Gill, Kristin Chenoweth, Woody
Guthrie, and Gene Autry, who has an Oklahoma town named after him; plus movie
stars James Garner, Ron Howard, Rue McClanahan, Brad Pitt and even Dr. Phil and
baseball player Mickey Mantle. Who knew?
I hope
you’ve enjoyed my presentation of little-known facts about Oklahoma and I also
hope you will enjoy reading some of my novels. Two of them feature the Powhatan
Indians who lived alongside the early Jamestown settlers in Virginia. Both of
these novels were originally published in hardcover and are titled: Deceptions, A Colonial Jamestown Novel;
and Secrets and Lies, which follows
the lives of four young English girls who travel to the New World in search of
love and the adventure of a lifetime.
Seven of
my earlier novels are set during the English Regency Period and were all
originally published in paperback. My most recent novels are Regency-set
Mysteries. Their titles are: Murder At
Morland Manor, Murder In Mayfair, and the recently released Book 3 in my Juliette Abbott Regency Mystery Series:
Murder In Margate. Many of my fiction and non-fiction titles have attained
Best Seller status on Amazon. Most all of my books are available in both print
and Ebook formats from major online retailers. Happy Reading!
Before
becoming a full-time writer, MARILYN CLAY enjoyed a career as a fashion
illustrator and graphic designer in Dallas Texas, where she owned her own
graphics design studio. In the early 90s, after joining Romance Writers of
America and winning their contest to design RWA’s new RITA award, Marilyn went
on to write seven Regency Romance novels, all published in the late 90s by
Kensington Books. Since then, she has written and had over two dozen books
published. To learn more about Marilyn Clay’s novels, visit her Amazon Author Central Page
or her Marilyn Clay
Author website.
Be sure to leave a comment below for a chance to win a
paperback edition of Marilyn Clay’s Jamestown novel Secrets and Lies.
(All info provided by author)
