Ponca City, We Love You

Ponca City, We Love You

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Ponca City History
Mother of US President Grew Up in Ponca City
Barack Obama's mother Stanley Ann Dunham lived in Ponca City for three years starting in 1948 when she was six years old. Stanley Ann attended first and second grades at old Jefferson Elementary School. The family purchased a home in Ponca City on North 13th Street in May 1950 and Stanley Ann attended third grade at Roosevelt Elementary School. Stanley Ann's father worked in Ponca City as a furniture salesman at Jay Paris Furniture. A number of people still living in Ponca City remember the Dunhams.

Stanley Dunham and his family in Ponca City, Oklahoma

Stanley Dunham and his family in Ponca City, Oklahoma

President Barack Obama's grandfather Stanley Dunham, grandmother Madelyn Dunham, and mother Stanley Ann Dunham soon after Stanley came back after serving with the US Army in Europe in WWII. The Dunham family lived in Ponca City for three years while Stanley Dunham worked at Jay Paris Furniture store and Stanley Ann attended elementary school at Jefferson and Roosevelt schools.

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A Ponca Icon
The Pioneer Woman Models Should Return to Ponca City
As a nine year old child, I thought Woolaroc was exciting and wonderful. The most fascinating items were the dioramas of the Native American tribes, the dinosaur egg from the Gobi Desert, the shrunken heads from the Amazon jungle, and a miniature of the Pioneer Woman Statue. What perplexed me was that in addition to a three foot model of the real "Pioneer Woman" statue I had seen all my life in Ponca City, there were eleven more models of "Pioneer Women" that looked nothing like the one I was so familiar with. I asked my father why the Pioneer Woman Statue was in Ponca City and these models were 75 miles away in Woolaroc. He wouldn't tell me and I forgot about it for forty years. The visit to Woolaroc made me remember my questions and do some research.

Ponca Tourism
What to See in Ponca City
Standing Bear was a Ponca Native American chief who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in 1879 that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" and have the right of habeas corpus. Standing Bear spent many of his later years traveling the country to tell of his ordeal and to speak out for American Indians. In 1993 a twenty two foot statue of Standing Bear designed by Oreland C. Joe was commissioned and stands just south of Ponca City gazing over the Arkansas River Valley. Standing Bear ended his testimony in the landmark civil rights case with these words, "My hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both."

A Map of Ponca Attractions
Where to Find What to See in Ponca

In 1908 E. W. Marland came to Ponca City after losing his fortune in the Pennsylvania oil fields in the panic of 1907 and by 1920 had reestablished himself and started the Marland Oil Company in Ponca City with a fortune estimated at $85 million (roughly $910 million in modern dollars). Marland was a visionary and not only pioneered the use of geophysical techniques in the oil industry but was years ahead of his time as an employer providing housing, loans, medical care, and other benefits for the thousands of employees who worked at his refineries and pipelines.

The Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit
Why I Enjoy Writing for Wikipedia
On November 1, Marie Daulne came to Baltimore and appeared at the 8x10 club, so my wife and I attended the show, had a great time, and took some great photos of her and the group to use with the Wikipedia article about her. After the show we went backstage and introduced ourselves to Daulne. I told her that I was at least partially her biographer. "How so," she asked. I asked her if she ever surfed the internet and she said yes. I asked her if she knew what Wikipedia was and she said yes. "Well, I am the person who has written a lot of your biography on Wikipedia," I said.

News for Nerds
Why I Enjoy Writing for Slashdot
I grew up in Ponca City, Oklahoma, a very unusual city in America's heartland which in the 1950's happened to be both the corporate headquarters for Continental Oil Company (Conoco) and also the center for all of Conoco's Research and Development .[9] With over 600 Ph.d's. living in a city of 25,000, Ponca City was more like a university town where knowledge and learning was revered by highly educated parents who insisted on a first class educational system for their children.

Tales from the 1950s
My Father and Bobwhite Quail
My father always had one or two hunting dogs when we lived at the house he bought in 1949 at 437 Fairview right next to Speck's trailer court and I loved to play with our weirmeraner Ajax and our brittany Ginger but what I remember best of all is my father getting up early on Saturday mornings back in the mid-1950's and going out with his hunting buddies to spend a day in the fields around Ponca City hunting quail while I would stay at home and watch my favorite tv shows with my neighborhood buddies, Mike Eaton, Jay Holmes, Greg Lukehart, and Tom and Bob Monger. We were the first family on Fairview Street to own a television set and everyone would come over to watch Sky King, Roy Rodgers, and 3-D Danny on "Satellite 4."

A Christmas Story
My Favorite Christmas
"My great-grandfather William Pickens came to Oklahoma before the turn of the century and put down roots near Boswell, Oklahoma – a small town of a couple of hundred people in Southeast Oklahoma about half way between Hugo and Durant. William Pickens was a veterinarian or horse doctor as he called himself and he would buy mustangs in Texas and bring them across the the river to Oklahoma and raise them and sell them. I met my great grandfather William in 1955 when I was five years old and I remember being taken to his house about a mile West of Boswell and going into a dark room where he lay in bed, waiting to die."

The Maryland Returned Volunteers
Thanks for the Memories

After four years as an officer of the Maryland Returned Volunteers, this will be my last newsletter to you as President of the group. As many of you know, over a year ago Sunday and I scheduled a cruise to celebrate our 20th anniversary that leaves next week and we may not be back in time for the annual Christmas party so we thought that it would be nice to look back on the past four years and put together a personal scrapbook of some of the highlights of events sponsored by the Maryland Returned Volunteers that we will keep in our memories forever. Look at the photos below and see how many of these you remember. Thanks everybody for four years of wonderful friends, activities, and memories.

Reservoir Hill
A Victorian Mansion in Baltimore's Reservoir Hill
The Victorians gave each floor a distinctive use. The first floor was the public area where guests were received and entertained. Once you go up the staircase to the second floor, you were in a private area only accessible to family and the closest friends. The third floor was servant's quarters and the attic was for storage of household goods. You will see one set of stairs on the right and a second set of stairs through the door. The stairs in the background are service stairs that lead from the kitchen and pantry to the second and third floors. These were used by the maid and butler and allowed them to go about their business while the owners were entertaining guests in the "public area" of the house. Life in a Victorian household was definitely "Upstairs, Downstairs."

A Photo Essay
I heard the Silence on Christmas Day
Once a year the shopping stops, the stores empty, parking lots are vacated, the streets clear. Time stops and all is silent as everyone retires to their homes and churches to observe the day of Christmas.

America Inaugurates a President
The Peace Corps Community marches in Obama's Inaugural Parade
President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden's Inaugural Committee officially extended an offer to the Peace Corps Community and AmeriCorps Alums to march in the 56th Inaugural Parade. Members of these service organizations will join representatives from across the country and our Armed Forces in the historic parade down Pennsylvania Avenue following President-elect Obama's swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the Capitol. "These organizations embody the best of our nation's history, diversity and commitment to service," said President-elect Obama. "Vice President-elect Biden and I are proud to have them join us in the parade."

Ponca Photos

Hugh Pickens writes:

The Oil Heritage of Our Community
Honor the Legacy of EW Marland
In 1908 E. W. Marland came to Ponca City after losing his fortune in the Pennsylvania oil fields in the panic of 1907.

"The Ponca City News" recently announced that with the split of ConocoPhillips into two companies, the ConocoPhillips operation in Ponca City, Oklahoma will soon be renamed Phillips 66. Frank Phillips, the founder of the Phillips 66 Oil company, was a man who knew how to use his courage and initiative and great administrative ability to create industry and wealth in Oklahoma leaving a legacy in the oil company that bears his name that will always be a monument to his memory. But there is another Oklahoma oil pioneer who was equally important in developing the oil industry and bringing prosperity and advancement to Northern Oklahoma and that man was EW Marland. Read more.

A Joyous Homecoming
The Pioneer Woman Models Come Home to Ponca City
“To me it was an easy answer” says Bob Fraser, Executive Director of Woolaroc Museum. “It was like ‘these statues used to belong to Ponca City’ now they belong to Woolaroc. Why don’t we have reproductions made of these statues and get them over to Ponca City. If people look at these statues and say ‘this is a nice gesture by Woolaroc or by Bartlesville’ that would be even better. The statues belong in Ponca City.”

What Does the Future Hold?
What are ConocoPhillips Plans for Ponca City?
There has been a lot of talk around Ponca City that ConocoPhillips is interested in selling its Ponca refinery to another oil company and getting out of Ponca City especially after ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Jim Mulva met with corporate analysts in October 2009 for the ConocoPhillips Q3 2009 Earnings Call and announced that the company's capital budget would decrease by about 12 percent in 2010 and that ConocoPhillips planned to divest $10 billion in refining, exploration, and production assets in a bid to improve its financial position.

A Native American Tradition
Standing Bear Looks to the Future

Standing Bear was a Ponca Native American chief who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in 1879 that Native Americans are

Standing Bear was a Ponca Native American chief who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in 1879 that Native Americans are

"The Standing Bear Foundation was born to bring the two cultures together" says TL Walker, the Executive Director of the Standing Bear Foundation. "Having the Pow Wow is a way for the two cultures to come together in a social setting." Held in late September and hosted by the Kaw Nation, Osage Nation, Otoe-Missouria Nation, Pawnee Nation, Ponca Nation, and Tonkawa Nation, thousands of tribal members and citizens of Ponca City come together for two days to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American Indian culture. "The community of Ponca City and the community of all six tribes need to use the Pow Wow to celebrate together and embrace each other's culture with understanding," says Oliver Littlecook , member of the Ponca Nation.

Lest We Forget
We Remember
I first learned about Uncle Donald when I was visiting my grandparents in Minnesota in the 1950's and saw Uncle Donald's purple heart in my grandparents' bedroom. I asked who the medal belonged to and my mother and grandparents told me about my Uncle and what had happened to him. Donald Cress was the older brother of my mother Deloris Pickens. He graduated from high school in Geneva, Minnesota in 1941 and after Pearl Harbor he volunteered to join the US Navy. When Donald volunteered, he asked to join the submarine service. "I want to come back from the war whole or not at all," Don told his family.

Ponca Supports Our Men Overseas
"Operation Pioneer Spirit" serves Oklahomans in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan
In 2006 Megan Potter went to Iraq and after she had been in country about a week she sent a letter to her mother in Ponca City that said "The PX has hardly anything for the girls, so I'm going to send you a list of things that you can send to me because me and my friends are all in the same boat." Megan's mother, Mary Ann Potter, was reading the letter at the Farmer's Market in the the Pioneer Woman parking lot and Normal Erner came by and said let me see that letter. "Norma pulled seven dollars out of her pocket and said - here you go start something and I'll be right there with you and that's how the whole thing began, " says Potter. "We started in July 2006 and by August 3 had packed our first shipment of 19 boxes."

Theatre in Oklahoma
"Rent" in Guthrie and an Academy Award Winner in Ponca City
Philip Seymour Hoffman who went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Truman Capote in the film "Capote" had a substantial role in "Twister" and if you go back and watch the movie you will see his over-the-top performance as a member of the tornado chase team. Hoffman called "Twister" the weirdest movie he ever made and says "That's not to slight Twister. But it is a weird movie. They're chasing tornados." Hoffman adds that he gained a lot of weight during the filming of "Twister" because he had just discovered "that the blockbuster budget extended to the on-set catering, which was free and plentiful."

Boogie Woogie Piano Man
A Surprise Announcement from Silvan Zingg
Another wonderful performance tonight at the Poncan Theater this time by Silvan Zingg, the internatationally famous boogie woogie piano player who appeared at the theater only because one of his childhood friends, Martin Stucki, has made his home in Ponca City where he raises A1 Savannahs, the largest pet cat in the world. Silvan is godfather to one of Martin's children and used to play with Martin in concerts in Europe.

The Greatest Generation
Deloris Pickens writes: Remembering the Great Depression

We are now in a downturn in our economy that is being compared to the Great Depression which started with the stock market crash in 1929 and didn't really end until World War Two. We of that generation were not able or did not prepare our children and grandchildren for this event. The bankers and credit card companies were extending credit to people that did not have the ability to pay their bills and a lot of manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. We are now in the process of trying to get our economy and our lives back to what we have perceived as normal. This is a strong country and we can put our minds to our problems and come out of this with a better knowledge of how to take care of ourselves. But we have to get back to helping each other and getting our priorities right.

Red Dirt Road
Red Dirt Rangers Appear at the Poncan Theater
The Red Dirt Rangers appeared in a free concert this evening at the Poncan Theater courtesy of the Ponca City Arts and Humanities Council and there was a good audience - probably 500 people - and the band was well known to the audience. As an interesting side note the band said that they had played in Ponca City in their second public appearance twenty years ago so to them playing again in Ponca was like a homecoming for them.

A Ponca Author
Ponca City Native Joyce Carol Thomas honored by Writers Hall of Fame
Award winning writer Joyce Carol Thomas, the author and illustrator of more than 50 children's books and winner of the National Book Award for Children's Fiction in 1983, was born in 1938 in Ponca City and was the fifth of nine children born into a family of cotton pickers. Although Thomas was about 10 when her family moved from Ponca City to California, she has always considered herself an Oklahoman and her memories of life in Ponca City and the surrounding areas have inspired much of Thomas' award-winning fiction, poetry and plays. Four of Thomas' novels are set in Ponca City: Marked by Fire (1982), Bright Shadow (1983), The Golden Pasture (1986) and The House of Light (2001).

RPCV in the White House
Meet Jon Carson
Jon Carson is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Honduras from 2004 to 2006. Carson later served as national field director for Barack Obama’s campaign in the primaries and general election in 2007 and 2008, on the Obama transition team, as chief of staff at the Council on Environmental Quality in the Obama White House in 2009, and as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Public Engagement in 2011. Read the profile I wrote of Carson and the work he does in the White House.

That'll Be The Day
Buddy Holly Tribute at Poncan Theater
One interesting story McGuigan told the audience was that Holly, born in Lubbuck, Texas, was a big John Wayne fan and that the title for one of Holly's most famous songs was taken from a line Wayne delivered several times in the 1954 classic movie "The Searchers" that many consider John Wayne's best role. John Wayne's line from the movie that became a song for Holly: "That'll be the day."

Fifty Years of Success
Ponca Playhouse Looks to the Future
If necessity is the mother of invention, than the looming deadline of the opening of Ponca Playhouse's first play of the season, "Tuesdays with Morrie," galvanized members of the Playhouse to get the space prepared. The amazing thing is that the work on the seats and risers came together so quickly. "The work got done in one month. Three weeks before opening night you would never have dreamed we could do it," says Brian Hermanson. "We were out in the lobby rehearsing and there were twenty-two people inside the theater working so hard they were sweating.," says JoAnn Muchmore. "The actors said one night 'What is plan B? If the theater isn't ready and there is no place for us, what are we going to do?' I told them it would be ready because I didn't want to upset the actors, but I wasn't so sure myself."

A Rock and Roll Legend
Wanda Jackson and Becky Hobbs Perform at the Poncan Theatre

Walkin' After Midnight
"Patsy Cline" appears at the Poncan Theatre

A Moslem Country Music Star
Ponca City Native Kareem Salama Invited to White House

Swamp Coolers and Horned Toads
Life in Ponca City before Home Air Conditioning

Change You Can Believe In
My Wife and I attend Barack Obama's Inauguration in Washington DC

Boswell Oklahoma, 1960
My Favorite Christmas (1960)

Ask Not
My Interview with the Head of the Peace Corps

Looking to the Future
Ponca City needs to go ahead with two big projects

Two Lane Blacktop
The Long Drive East

Ponca City's Wireless Network
Police Cars to Transmit Real Time Video with new Wireless Mesh

An Oklahoma Icon
Dedication of the Fluke Plaza

Ghost Riders
Les Gilliam performs with Riders in the Sky

Thoughts on the Election
A Dream Renewed

My Neice's Dance Debut
Rachel Barger Dances Lead to "Estória Cega"

The Sound of Music
A Musical Weekend

A Unqiue Oklahoma Sport
Ranch Sorting at the Play Pen Arena

Alexander's Ragtime Band
Rick Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra

Country Music Extravaganza
Poncan Opry was a Big Success

Fifty Years of Memories
50th Anniversary of Ponca Playhouse

Wastin Away in Margaritaville
Fourth of July Fountain Lights/Son of a Sailor

I Want to Hear That Rock and Roll Music
Blackfoot perform at the Poncan Theatre

Three Stages of Ponca History
The History of a Community Defines its Identity

Rubber Soul
1964 the Tribute

An Engineer's Engineer
Death Be Not Proud

America's Got Talent
Terry Fator at the Poncan Theater

Hunting with My Father
My Father and Bobwhite Quail

Ask Not
Jack Vaughn: Peace Corps Legend

Classic Rock
Classic Rock Concerts Announced for Summer

Oklahoma Melting Pot
Muslim Country-Western Singer is from Ponca City

The World's Encyclopedia
Writing for Wikipedia

Route 66 Revisited
A Cross Country Marathon

Mexican Delight
Annual Chili Cookoff at Lake Ponca

Too Much Happening
Three Big Events in Ponca City

Public Art
The Murals of Alva Oklahoma

Marland's Models
The Pioneer Woman Statues at Woolaroc

God Bless America
Independence Day Celebration

The E Street Band
"Bruce in the USA" is coming to Ponca City

Construction Update
The Standing Bear Museum is coming along well

The Snowstorm of the Century
Ponca City digs out

A Photo Essay
I heard the silence on Christmas day

A Ponca Christmas
Joy to the World - Ponca City, 2006

Sent Down from Heaven
The Festival of Angels at Lake Ponca Park

Azure Blue
"Ponca City, we love you"

High Tech Returns to Ponca
Ceremonial Signing for University Multispectral Lab at City Hall

Craigslist Ponca

Ponca Headlines

Ponca City, We Love You