RAPEA - Day 17 - Glenpool OK - Day of Rest

Aaahhh! A day of rest and recuperation. Just what the doctor ordered. No traveling. No taking pictures. Just a day to stop, reflect and recharge my creative batteries. Today's blog will be about random things. Sights, people and places.

While in Cyrus Avery Centennial Park yesterday I noticed the homeless weren't the only inhabitants living under the overpasses. When I looked up under the bridge I noticed what appeared to be a community of large dirt dauber nests. Upon closer inspection I discovered they were bird's nests. What an odd place to build a nest. The traffic above created immense noise and vibrations. Yet the birds appeared to be drawn to it. Fascinating! When I returned to my room I did some research to identify them. They're called Cliff Swallows.

I'm still kicking myself for missing an opportunity to take a picture of the Arrowood Trading Post , formerly known as the 'Chief Wolf Robe Hunt Trading Post' in Catoosa just across the road from the Blue Whale. It has a story all its own.

Chief Wolf Robe Hunt was the brother-in-law of Hugh Davis who owned the Blue Whale. He was a Native American painter, illustrator, silversmith and sculptor of the Acoma nation. Born at the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico in 1905, his family eventually left the Pueblo to travel with a Wild West show.

After his marriage he settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he owned a shop on 11th Street (Route 66) and sold the silver jewelry he made to tourists and Tulsans alike. After the freeways caused traffic to bypass his shop, he opened a trading Post in Catoosa, Oklahoma across the highway from the Blue Whale water structure. There he continued selling his jewelry until his death in 1977.
After his death the building sat empty for several years. The Arrowood Trading Post opened in 1990 as a gift, novelty and souvenir shop and closed in the late 1990s. In 2011 it was an auto repair shop.

Chief Wolf Robe Hunt illustrated The Dancing Horses of Acoma, and Other Acoma Indian Stories by Helen Rushmore where he created  750 of the 805 illustrations in the books.

In the mid 1950s, in a short lived partnership with Hugh Davis the name was changed to the Catoosa Indian Trading Post and pumps selling Phillips 66 gas were added. A cafe was also added at that time. 

When you're traveling an iconic part of history you're bound to run into like minded individuals traveling the same path at various well publicized stops along the way. Such was the case yesterday when we stopped at the Blue Whale of Catoosa.

I met a lady on a road trip with her daughter who was from Bedford NH. That's only an hour from where I spent nearly 14 years in Dover NH.

The volunteer from the gift shop, Linda, a brave and wonderful lady, was saying she was going to retire next year and devote herself full time to writing. She has several children's books on Amazon under the name of Linda Ross-Hobbs and a detective series for adults under the name of Gale L Rossi. She provided me with a wealth of information on the Blue Whale. She's a strong, beautiful cancer survivor with a wonderful way with words. Show her some love people!

A beautiful antique custom Chevy with TX plates pulled in while we were in the parking lot so of course I had to go snap some photos and talk to the driver. Turns out the driver was even more interesting than the car. Jim Zak is a man who has provided life long service to his community. He has been a County Constable, a Medic, a Firefighter and a minister and now having just retired he has decided to travel Route 66 in his show car. And if that's not enough, his neighbor is Frank Beard, one of the founding members of ZZ Top whose Top 40 Ranch is just down the road.

As we were having our dinner yesterday I happened to be reading a framed news article that was on the wall and discovered the restaurant was owned and operated by the former six year Mayor and Vice Mayor of Glenpool OK whose first name is Momodou but since the English pronounced it Mamadou that's what he named the restaurant. After a Google search I determined his was an immigrant success story well worth mentioning. From Gambia West Africa to OK Politics. Later during our meal he came in and cleared our table. Turns out his wife Mamie was our waitress. Help is hard to find here as well. He said he's had a Now Hiring sign up for 6 months and not a soul has applied.

And of course no travel blog about Oklahoma would be complete without mentioning their favorite native son, Will Rogers. OK's reverence for Will Rogers is evident everywhere you look. There are streets, roads and highways and turnpikes. Libraries, stadiums, museums, schools, event centers, campgrounds, trails, hotels, casinos, etc all have incorporated the Will Rogers name.

Back on the road tomorrow. Next stop - TX!

RAPEA - Day 16 - Part 2 - The History of the Blue Whale

The following excerpt was written by Hugh's daughter, Dee Dee (Davis) Belt, for the Catoosa Historical Society's "History of Catoosa" book, published in 2003 to celebrate Catoosa centennial:

"The Blue Whale was built by Hugh S. Davis, Boy Scout, photographer, zoologist, lecturer, father of two, grandfather of four, great-grandfather of nine and friend of many. Hugh believed that every day was a beautiful day, that people should use the talents God gave them, that one should keep busy by thinking, planning and creating, that people should love what they do and do what they love, that you should always finish what you start and that you should enjoy life and live it to its fullest.

The pond on the Davis property was always a fun place. Before the whale was built, the kids who were friends of the Davises son Blaine and daughter Dee Dee swam, canoed in dug-out African canoes, played King-of-the-Hill by throwing each other off the large floating rafts and fished for perch and bass. They picnicked in the summer and skated on the ice in winter. Then Hugh's children grew up and the pond was quiet... but not for long. When Blaine had sons John and Paul, their favorite place was "across the road" building and exploring with their Papa

Hugh always had a "project in the making... whether it was building furniture, creating an alligator ranch or constructing an ark, he was always busy After his retirement from the Tulsa Zoo, he devoted all of his time to developing facilities to educate people about nature. First he built the ark with it's cute cut-out wooden animals smiling at the kids who celebrated birthdays there, then the Alligator Ranch and Nature's Acres with its live alligators, snake pit and prairie dog village.

In the late 1960's at the age of 60, Hugh began to doodle pictures of a "fish" that he wanted to build at the pond. From that fish evolved a whate-larger and larger he grew from sketches on napkins to drawings on oversized sheets of paper. He left notes about the materials he used to build the Blue Whale:

Metal lathe-180 sq. ft. per bundle; 14 bundles would go 2,520 sq. ft. at a cost of $215.70

2 pipe-will need 1,179 feet for $451.00

3/4 & 7/8" rods, 2,650 feet for $77.50

100 ft. of 1 pipe

Dry concrete-126 sacks for $228.79

Ready-mix concrete-19 1/2 yds. For $296.08

19,400 pounds of rock

15 tons of sand

20 nails, copper tubing and screening for $40.76

Wood-2,454 linear feet for $473.93

To accomplish his plan, he needed help fashioning the iron framework-the skeleton of the whale. For this task he called on his dear friend, Harold Thomas, a welder, to weld the 20-foot-tall, 80-foot-long structure. Harold worked 100 hours and charged nothing he enjoyed helping out a neighbor and friend. It took two years, 1970-1972, to build the whale. According to Hugh's notes, he worked 2,920 hours applying the cement which he hand mixed and applied one 5-gallon bucket at a time.

In July 1972, the unpainted whale began attracting people who wanted to fling them selves off his tail, slide down his water-coated firs and poke their heads out the holes in the whale's head. So began what became one of the best loved icons on Route 66. From 11:00 a.m. until dark every day (except Monday or when it rained) people swam, picnicked and fished.

Blessings were showered upon the Davises during the time the Blue Whale was in operation. No one was ever seriously injured, no one ever sued and no one was ever bitten by a snake. It was a good time. It was a good place.

Because of Hugh's crippling arthritis, the Blue Whale was closed in 1988. Hugh died January 11th, 1990, and his wife, Zelta, to whom he had given the whale as an anniversary gift, passed away August 1, 2001. The Blue Whale is now owned by Dee Dee (Davis) Belt and her husband, Dick Blaine and his sons, John and Paul, keep the grounds maintained and the gates open so people can continue to enjoy the Blue Whale

Restoration of the Blue Whale has been an ongoing effort in 1997 the Catoosa Chamber of Commerce refurbished the fading landmark Governor Frank Keeting himself painted the pupil of the Blue Whale's eye. Volunteers, private companies, family members and the Hampton Inns have pledged time, money, and energy to maintain the site."