Oklahoma. I must admit that I’d never stepped foot in the state
and really never planned to. But when the Garden Writers
Association, a group of nearly 2,000 garden columnists and related
horticultural professionals, decided to hold its annual symposium
in Oklahoma City, I decided to take a chance and attend. I’m glad I
did.
Oklahoma. I must admit that I’d never stepped foot in the state and really never planned to. But when the Garden Writers Association, a group of nearly 2,000 garden columnists and related horticultural professionals, decided to hold its annual symposium in Oklahoma City, I decided to take a chance and attend. I’m glad I did.
Did you know that Oklahoma City and its surrounding suburbs have a population of more than a million people? Or that Route 66, the venerable historic highway that runs from California to Illinois, has 410 miles (more than any other state) in Oklahoma? Or that Oklahoma City is home to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum? Or that the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, which honors the 168 lost on that fateful day in 1995 when Timothy McVeigh detonated the truck bomb in front of a federal building, is as impressive as any memorial you would find in Washington, D.C.?
Today and next week I’m going to take you to Oklahoma, which is celebrating its centennial this year as our 46th state. This column will highlight the National Cowboy Museum and its surrounding gardens. Next week’s column will cover the Oklahoma City National Memorial, featuring the 80-year-old American elm tree that is known as the Survivor Tree. It was nearly cut down in order to recover pieces of evidence that hung from its branches after the bombing on April 19, 1995.
The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum really blew me away. Like the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the museum rivals any of the better known museums in our nation’s capitol. Besides having 200,000 square feet of exhibit space, it is the first museum I’ve been to that includes four gardens and outdoor sculptures. The sculptures range from a 33-foot-high William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, to massive marble headstones of famous rodeo horses and bulls, who happen to be buried right there in the garden. It’s definitely the first garden I’ve ever been to that included grave sites of horses and bulls. Midnight, a bucking bronco that died in 1936, lies under a headstone that declares, in part: “There never lived a cowboy he couldn’t toss.”
The Western States Plaza and Gardens features fountains surrounded by flower beds, flags of 17 Western states and a massive stature of Frederick Remington’s Coming Through the Rye. Beyond the Plaza is the Hambrick Garden with yucca plants, cacti and sun-loving perennials. A little further along sits the Cooke Garden with streams and ponds shaded by towering oaks, pines and cypress. Leonard McMurry’s Buffalo Bill statue is located there, along with the graves of rodeo bulls, horses and the museum’s original ambassador, a Longhorn steer named Abilene.
The Sutherland Garden is dominated by a 25-foot rock formation. A waterfall flows from these rocks to a reflecting pool full of catfish and water lilies. Masses of columbines, black-eyed Susans and other wildflowers bloom there. The Atherton Garden is a secluded garden filled with native flowers and greenery.
The museum itself offers the most extensive exhibition of American cowboys and rodeos, as well as western art, western performers and three Hall of Fames for great westerners, western performers and rodeo stars. I particularly enjoyed the western performer exhibits that featured the likes of John Wayne, Gene Autry, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck and Ronald Reagan, to name a few.
For more information, the Web site is: www.nationalcowboymuseum.org, or call (405) 478-2250. Next week: the Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
