History

Oklahoma native Gayla Peevey is the famous voice behind the 1953 hit song, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

Peevey was born in 1943 in Oklahoma City and began singing at church during preschool. In fourth grade, Peevey appeared regularly on TV stations WKY and Channel 4 in Oklahoma City. At the age of 10, she caught the eye of Columbia Records.

Peevey and her mom traveled from Oklahoma to New York to meet with Mitch Miller, a well-known record company executive and producer. Together, they created the catchy, classic song that we play on repeat during the holidays.

– Jake Pasdach, Jones PR

When people think of Oklahoma and its natural resources, it’s likely that oil comes to mind. However, it was a different black gold that fueled Indian Territory and present-day Oklahoma’s early economic growth — coal.

Rich deposits of coal in southeastern Oklahoma helped develop the railroad and with it came immigration and industry.

French explorer Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe is credited with the first written account of the discovery of coal in Oklahoma in 1719, though it is known that the Plains Indians used coal in southeastern Oklahoma for hundreds of years prior to La Harpe’s account.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center

In 1909, oilman Bill Skirvin thought Oklahoma City needed a grand hotel.

He hired the architect Solomon Layton and built two wings of the ten-story Skirvin Hotel on lots south of the Frisco Depot on 2nd Street. In the 1920s, he added a third wing and topped it with more floors, including the Venetian Room. Then came the Great Depression, urban renewal and a banking crisis. The Skirvin closed in 1986.

In 1999, Mayor Kirk Humphreys thought Oklahoma City needed another grand hotel. With city support and historic tax credits, the restored Skirvin opened to national acclaim in 2007.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center

Tulsa’s Hex House was inspired by one of Oklahoma spookiest, true stories.

A 1944 investigation found two women had been under “hypnotic control” for seven years. They claimed that Carolann Smith was leading them to the good life in heaven. While the women lived in rags in an unheated basement and slept on orange crates, she lived in luxury.

Smith was convicted of suborning perjury, released a year later and never seen again.

The house was demolished in 1975, but was recreated in 2008 as an immersive walk-through attraction that has been called one of America’s best haunted attractions.

– Emily Long, Jones PR

As a teenager, Jack Zink built his first race car from leftover spare car parts. He quickly stepped up to stock and midget cars while earning a degree in engineering at Oklahoma State University. Before his racing career ended, Jack’s teams won the Indy 500 twice, in 1955 and 1956, created Pontiac NASCAR, and put the first turbine-powered race car on the track at Indy.

Zink’s other racing feats also included sailing championships and Baja 500 titles. As a day job, he built an international company called Zeeco.

Yes, Jack “liked to go fast.” He also liked to win.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center

S&H Green Stamps were highly popular U.S. trading stamps from 1930s to the late 1980s. The stamps were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry & Hutchison company. The rewards catalog was the largest publication in America with the company distributing three times more stamps as the U.S. Postal Service.

Customers would receive stamps during checkout at department stores, gas stations and supermarkets, which were redeemable for products in the catalog. Additionally, it’s widely unknown that the highly sought-after stamps were printed in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, to be distributed all around the nation.

– Jake Pasdach, Jones PR

In history, few achievements happen by accident. Most are accomplished by leaders, such as Cyrus Avery.

Cyrus’ family moved to Cherokee Nation in 1883 when he was 12 years old. He became an entrepreneur in Oklahoma City, Vinita and Tulsa, where he was elected as county commissioner and grew into an advocate for good roads. In 1925, after Congress funded the first interstate highway system, Cyrus was named chairman of a committee to select the first transcontinental highway.

Through no accident, the route came south from Chicago to Cyrus’ hometown, Tulsa. He called it Route 66, the Will Rogers Highway.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center

Robert Jeremiah Love was a Chickasaw cowboy who created a family tradition of overcoming challenges and seizing opportunities.

Challenges early in his life included the destruction from the Civil War and death of his parents. His first big opportunity was the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885, when Robert secured a contract to provide beef to construction crews. With cash and connections, he later founded the town of Purcell, chartered a bank and built the Love Hotel.

Seven decades later, his great-grandson, Tom Love, would overcome his own challenges to create Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores.

– Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

In the mid-nineteenth century, Mazeppa Thomas Turner, born to Scottish parents in Virginia, married a Chickasaw woman named Laura J. Johnson.

Mazeppa became a farmer in Murray County and in 1878, he and Laura moved into a cabin on the edge of Honey Creek, where Turner discovered a stunning 77-foot waterfall pouring into a natural pool below.

Today, this waterfall, located six miles south of Davis, Oklahoma, is reportedly the largest in the state of Oklahoma, as well as a feature of a 1500-acre popular recreational area. It’s known as Turner Falls, appropriately named after Mazeppa Thomas Turner.

– Jake Pasdach, Jones PR

In 1953 WWII veteran Troy Smith converted an old log home into an upscale restaurant in Shawnee. In front was a little root beer stand called Top Hat.

By the end of the first year, Troy noticed that the net profit of the steak house was less than five percent of gross, while the net profit at the root beer stand was 20 percent. To increase the gross revenue, he added carhops, awnings, music and two-way speakers.

When he tried to franchise the concept in 1959, Top Hat was already taken. Therefore, the new name he selected was Sonic.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Center

From 1898 to 1900, Anton Classen purchased several hundred acres of farmland north of 10th Street in Oklahoma City.

To add value to the land, Classen and his business partners built the territory’s first streetcar system in the winter of 1902-03. It ran east and west on Main Street and north on Broadway and Walker. Not surprisingly, it ended in the middle of the farmland Classen had been buying for $100 an acre. With access to town via streetcars, lots then sold for $1,000.

Today, the neighborhood at the end of the streetcar line is called Heritage Hills.

– Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

Leon Russell, born in Lawton but raised in Tulsa, is a musical genius who influenced artists such as George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Elton John.

Leon had his own band in the 1950s with friends such as J. J. Cale and David Gates. At the age of 19, he went to Hollywood where he earned a place in the famous Wrecking Crew as a keyboardist and arranger. A solo career followed, but he made history as an innovative producer behind the mixing boards.

In addition to the music he gives us, Leon founded The Church Studio recording studio in Tulsa.

– Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

Many people across the United States join to recognize the Mexican celebration known as Cinco de Mayo, which is separate from Independence Day.

However, many fiesta-goers will be surprised to learn that this day actually commemorates the Mexican army’s surprising defeat of French soldiers at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo isn’t celebrated nationwide, but is heavily recognized in the southern town of Puebla, a sister city of Oklahoma City.

Local events include Dancing in the Gardens: Cinco de Mayo Kick off with Salsa Night and the Cinco de Mayo at Calle dos Cinco.

– Jake Pasdach, Jones PR

On July 17, 1863, two Civil War armies met on a battlefield near present-day Checotah.

The Northern army had two advantages. They had 12 pieces of heavy artillery, but more importantly, they had a unit of the First Kansas Colored Infantry composed of African Americans fighting for freedom. The Southern army, consisting primarily of Indian troops, had only four pieces of artillery. With a “rebel yell” the Confederates charged, but the members of the First Kansas held their lines and won the battle.

On one day, in one place, men risked their lives for a cause greater than themselves.

– Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

At a time when women could not vote, Kate Barnard blazed a path of activism and reform.

Kate was 16 years old when she moved to Oklahoma City in 1891. She taught school and trained as a stenographer, but turned to a career in labor organization and charity work by 1906 when she became a champion of reforms such as child labor laws, compulsory education and the eight-hour work day. She was elected one of Oklahoma’s first state officials, but defeated when she spoke up against the exploitation of Indian orphans.

Kate Barnard was the conscience of her generation.

– Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

In the tiny town of Milburn, Oklahoma, stands a wonderful and well-preserved piece of Chickasaw Nation and Oklahoma history.

From the outside, the white Victorian house is framed with towering crepe myrtles and a wrap-around veranda. The residence, built in 1895, became a place for official tribal and state business in the late 19th century and the setting of lavish social functions.

The residence, known as the Chickasaw White House, was also where Oklahoma’s ninth governor, William “Alfalfa Bill” Murray, married his sweetheart Alice in 1899 and was the birthplace of Murray’s son, Johnston Murray, Oklahoma’s 14th governor.

– Linda Miller, ionOK.com

Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom was initially built as a car dealership in 1924. The property was later leased to Madison “Daddy” Cain, who added a neon sign with animated dancers and charged 10 cents per dance lesson. He called the place Cain’s Dance Academy.

Cain’s was made famous by fiddle-playing Bob Wills, a big band leader who blended folk, country, jazz and popular music to create a new hot sound called Western swing. Each day over the noon hour, Bob and his Playboys would fill the airwaves on KVOO radio.

Today, the legend of Cain’s Ballroom continues to live on.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center

During the summer of 1920, more than 200 Kiowa and Comanche American Indians gathered in the Wichita Mountains to shoot an 87-minute silent film called The Daughter of Dawn.

The story was based on an Indian love story that involved the daughter of the tribe’s chief and two suitors, one a good guy and the other a bad one. The good guy was played by the son of the famous Comanche war leader, Quanah Parker. All clothing and equipment were supplied by the Indians.

The teepee featured in every village scene is now on exhibit at Oklahoma History Center.

– Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

The state of Oklahoma’s first legal beer was brewed in 1934 by a Czechoslovakian immigrant in Yukon named John Kroutil.

After starting the Yukon Mill and Grain Company in 1892 and then expanding into banking after statehood, Kroutil saw an opportunity when the federal government repealed the prohibition on alcoholic beverages. He incorporated the Progress Brewing Company and opened a plant in Oklahoma City to produce beer with a 3.2 percent alcoholic content, the maximum allowed under Oklahoma law.

After dropping the name of Progress, the beer was distributed under the brand of Lone Star from 1959 to 1974.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society

The Oklahoma oil booms (1905-1929) attracted immigrants from around the world. After World War I, Lithuanian Jewish immigrants Sam, Maurice and Herman Sanditen moved to Okmulgee with business aspirations and in pursuit of the American Dream.

In 1918, the brothers opened Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company (OTASCO) to sell automobile supplies and later sold products including radios, appliances and toys. By 1959 the family operated 86 stores and supplied 167 franchised stores.

Though Oklahoma has a diverse history, the Sanditens and thousands of others have proven Oklahoma remains rich with opportunity for success through labor, which conquers all things.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center

In 1928, Oklahoma City native Paul Braniff created Oklahoma’s first regularly scheduled air service – Braniff Airlines.

Braniff bought his first airplane, a Stinson Detroiter, with $11,000 borrowed money. It made three round trips daily from Oklahoma City to Tulsa; one-way tickets cost $12.50. A year later, Braniff expanded routes to Dallas and Fort Worth and purchased two six-passenger Lockheed Vegas – the same plane Wiley Post used to fly around the world in 1931.

Thanks to early leaders like Braniff, aerospace is now a prominent state industry employing over 120,000 Oklahomans.

– Dr. Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma History Center