Thunderbird Lake State Park, Norman, Oklahoma
“No!” he said to them. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” But they replied, “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.” Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you. You are spies! And this is how you will be tested… ~ Genesis 42:12-15a And now Joseph knows his family remains whole. That his father still lives, and his younger brother, Benjamin also. He knows that these older brothers didn’t do anything to Benjamin out of jealousy or hatred, as they did with him. I wondered at his harshness, being as how he’s a man of God. Here is what the great commentator Matthew Henry says of it: “Now why was Joseph thus hard upon his brethren? We may be sure it was not from a spirit of revenge, that he might now trample upon those who had formerly trampled upon him; he was not a man of that temper. But,
1. It was to enrich his own dreams, and complete the accomplishment of them.
2. It was to bring them to repentance.
3. It was to get out of them an account of the state of their family, which he longed to know: they would have discovered him if he had asked as a friend, therefore he asks as a judge. Not seeing his brother Benjamin with them, perhaps he began to suspect that they had made away with him too, and therefore gives them occasion to speak of their father and brother. Note, God in His providence sometimes seems harsh with those He loves, and speaks roughly to those for whom yet he has great mercy in store.”
Those of you who really know Blaine, know that he can be quite the prankster if he so chooses. This April Fool’s Day, he got me good. Even setting it up with a short comment yesterday. “I read that there’s quite a few bald eagles around this lake.” “Yeah?” “Um hm” And that was the extent of yesterday’s conversation.
Early this morning, he went out to take a picture of the sunrise. Suddenly, he flung the door open and in an excited, whisper voice, proclaimed, “Terri! Quick! There’s an eagle in the tree out here!” “What?” “An eagle!” So I trotted over to the door, and he proceeds to point towards the nearby trees, “Do you see it?!?” “No! Where?” And he points again, “Right there! Can’t you see it?!?” “No!” “April Fool’s!” Oh for heaven’s sake!
Good job, hon!
Every morning!
Since Oklahoma City is a forty minute drive from us, we attempted to cover as much as possible so we’d only have to drive into town once. It was a great day, full of new experiences – everything from the building of their capitol to pigeon racing. Yes, it’s a thing. . .
I called yesterday and made a sorta-kinda appointment with Bill to tour the capitol building at 10:00am, so that’s where we began. I say, sorta-kinda because he didn’t ask for a name or anything.
Isn’t it gorgeous?!?
The Indian is a replica of the statue they put on the top of the dome.
Bill turned out to be a wonderful guide, and at first, we were the only ones on the tour, but shortly another couple from San Diego joined us.
Aren’t these hallways painted exquisitely?!?!?
They broke ground on the building in July of 1914, and completed it in June of 1917. It did not have a dome . . . .
. . . . but they built it with all the support it would need to add one in the future. That future didn’t happen until 1998 when they created the Oklahoma Centennial Act. The commission immediately began efforts to raise the money for the $20.8 million project. All but $2M was raised through private contributions. The rest they attributed to “The people of Oklahoma”. Construction was begun in 2001 and dome was dedicated in November 2002. It’s topped with a 22’ bronze sculpture called The Guardian which was created by artist and State Senator Enoch Kelly Haney who is a Seminole.
Then, in 2015, they began a $260 million dollar building renovation project, paid for by the people of Oklahoma via bond issues. After eight years, it’s almost finished. We were privileged to see the results, and it’s gorgeous! I tried to find before and after pictures, but was unsuccessful. I did however run across the following from the original building. 😊
Sure doesn’t look like that around there now!
I believe Bill told us that it’s the only State Capitol that has an oil well on the property.
He used several local’s faces, as well as a couple of his family members in the paintings.
Bill told of a school tour he did one time and a child said, “That’s my grandpa!” And it was! Pretty cool!
What makes them special?
They are all Native American! And I believe they’re all from Oklahoma.
The first Native American to achieve that title was Maria Tallchief,
who was also the first American to dance in the Paris Ballet. She also danced for JFK.
I’m sure the others are equally impressive, but I don’t have time to look into them. : )
The lights weren’t on and nobody was home. : )
I think I remember Bill saying they were damaged by a storm at some point and had to be replaced.
We were all wondering where you find craftsmen to restore buildings like this.
Once our tour was finished, we were allowed to walk around anywhere we chose.
If you zoom way in, you can just make out a few of the names engraved there.
These are the names of those who contributed to the cost of the new dome.
As we wandered, another docent came up and told us we could walk up a spiral staircase to walk around the upper echelons of the dome, and asked if we were interested. Of course!! Unfortunately, it didn’t happen because he couldn’t locate either of the two men responsible for taking tourists on that excursion. Drat!
there’s a door where you come out and can then walk all the way around where that railing is!
Our next stop was much more sobering, as we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. Being a National Historic Park, we were hoping they’d take our National Park pass, but we didn’t really expect them to. They didn’t. So we decided we’d skip the museum and just walked around the grounds.
As with most of these kinds of memorials (think Pearl Harbor, New York and UA Flight 93 in Pennsylvania for example), it’s a very sobering place. You can feel the tragedy tugging at your heart as you walk around.
They called this wall the “Survivors Wall”. On that plaque are the names of all the survivors.
The chairs are for the 168 dead – one per person. They sit in nine rows in accordance with the floor the person was occupying at the time.
As with all these tragic occurrences perpetrated by our fellow human beings, we ask an emphatic “Why?!?” While no one seems to know why this particular building was chosen (why not Waco?? or at least Texas??), below explains the date and his reasoning. Timothy McVeigh was a member of the extremely right-wing and militant Patriot group. And former military, if you can believe it. We were surprised to learn that there were others involved, because the only name anyone seems to remember is Timothy McVeigh.
April 19 marked both Patriots’ Day, the anniversary of the American rebellion against British authority at Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1775, and the date on which federal agents brought the Waco siege to a culmination by raiding the compound of the heavily armed Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas, in 1993. McVeigh claimed that the building in Oklahoma City was targeted to avenge the more than 70 deaths at Waco. ~ britannica.com
I considered writing a Special Edition for this, but changed my mind when I found a nice write-up by the FBI. If you click on the address below, it should take you to the article.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/oklahoma-city-bombing
The pink dots are the church and where the church’s memorial now stands on the corner
(You’ll see that as you scroll down)
Red is the white tower building you saw in the reflecting pool picture
Dark blue on the street is where the reflecting pool is (that block of the road is no more)
Orange is the building that now houses the museum
Green is where I believe the elm tree stands
Light Blue is where the chair memorial now stands, and the wall facing you is where the wall remnant is
Besides the Park and Museum, there were other memorials in close proximity to the location – a very moving one dedicated by St Joseph’s church which was also damaged in the explosion in addition to losing their old parish house (that’s where the memorial now stands), and a fence along the outer edge of the Park, where people left memorial items.
Moving on from here, we went in search of the Centennial Land Run Monument. It’s very similar to the steers we saw in Dallas, only these were a bit larger than life, and had many more details! Incredible work of art! And yes. There will be far and away too many pictures. 😊 We thought it kinda strange though that we saw no sign telling who the artist is, so I looked it up.
(It’s) the largest series of sculptures in the world, consisting of 47 statues spread across a distance of 365 feet. All are cast in dark bronze, at one-and-a-half life size… so a standing human would be almost 9 feet tall, and a horse and rider over 12 feet. In all, there are 38 people portrayed, plus 34 horses, three wagons, a cannon, a dog, and a frightened jackrabbit. They are sculpted in an extremely realistic style that anyone can appreciate, with amazing detail clear down to the wood grain on the wagons and the leather designs on boots and saddles. The sculptor is Paul Moore, of Norman, Oklahoma, a fifth generation Oklahoman whose great-grandfather participated in the 1889 Land Run. During his career he has sculpted more than 100 commissions, with works in both the U.S. Capitol and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. ~ landrun.marbleart.us
He began in 2011, and the final piece was installed in January 2020, at a cost of $6.2 million dollars.
There’s a lot of moving and maneuvering to get each piece done. First, Moore sculpts the figure in clay. Then, it’s covered in a rubber coating to make the mold. The molds head to a foundry where the inside is covered in plaster and metal. It takes a small crane to put them into place in Oklahoma City. ~ velocityokc.com
If you look at the next picture, you’ll see that he tripped over a trunk that fell out of the wagon.
See what I mean about details?
Apparently this happened, only more violently . . .
Our next flight of fancy (pun intended) was the America Pigeon Museum.
We knew nothing about it really, just that it sounded unique. This was probably the most surprising place we’ve ever visited. We had no idea they were more than just nuisance birds in cities. Well, we knew about them being used during wartime and other times as what we called homing pigeons to deliver messages, but there’s actually an entire pigeon culture out there! And over 300 types! And besides being eaten (what they call squab) and delivering messages, there’s still a prominent pigeon racing organization! It has a current membership in the US of 10,000. We had no idea! And we were shocked to learn the races run anywhere from 60-600 miles! In a single day! And the birds can travel up to 68 mph! Wow!
We were ready for an early dinner and had previously chosen Cattlemen’s. Wanna know why? Go ahead, ask me! It’s because their website said President Bush enjoyed their T-bone steak when he was in OKC. And the fact that they’ve been open since 1910 and had great reviews. Those are fairly good recommendations, doncha think? (We never found out which President Bush) So we splurged a little.
It was delicious! As was the salad and their house-made cheddar/ranch dressing. The potato was small (thank goodness!) and not the best we’ve ever had, but that didn’t really matter. We were there for the steak. 😊
Filled up, we needed someplace to walk, so we drove over to check out Underground OKC. It ended up being a sort of frustrating time as first, because we couldn’t find it (there were no signs) and then, once we were underground, we had trouble following the map, which Blaine informed me was wrong. And while we were under the impression that these halls would contain art work, it was a different sort than we were expecting. There were some mounted black and white pictures from Oklahoma’s past. One hallway was just bank buildings. We weren’t that interested in most of the pictures. Maybe we were just tired and full . . . .
Seems they were very organized and peaceful – – at least until the cannon went off at the start line.
Well trained horses those firemen had!
Tomorrow we have a bike day planned.