Tag: 2

The drive to Eureka Springs from Oklahoma is a harbinger of what’s to come: The elimination of the word ‘hurry’ from your vocabulary. You really have no choice. As anyone who has driven the hilly, twisty-turny roads leading into northwest Arkansas will tell you, at some point, you come to grips with the fact that you’re just not going to...

In his career as an architect, Cecil E. Ricks, president of MATRIX Architects, Engineers, Planners, Inc., has designed a variety of renovation and remodeling projects. But a venture for First National Bank Broken Arrow ranks as “one of the most fun” he’s been involved with over the years.  The challenge of renovating the bank, located in the popular Rose District,...

What does the engaging new autobiography of top rock music record producer Ted Templeman, famed for his work with the likes of Van Halen, the Doobie Brothers, and Little Feat, have to do with Oklahoma?  As it turns out, quite a lot.  First of all, Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music (ECW Press) is an as-told-to tome written by...

While the word glamping sounds like a mistake, many Oklahomans might argue with that assessment. A portmanteau from “glamorous camping,” this luxurious form of getting into nature is an amped-up version of tents and sleeping bags. Many glamping destinations, from France to Colombia, promote beautiful sunsets and lakes in exotic locations … while not really roughing it at all. If you...

El Reno native Harvey Pratt, honored by his tribe and law-enforcement agencies across the country, didn’t think his work as a display and forensic artist was worthy of something as hallowed as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. Cheyenne and Arapaho artist Harvey Pratt's law enforcement career spans over five decades. A top U.S. forensic artist, he...

All signs point to vacations closer to home this summer. Oklahoma and its neighboring states offer scenic beauty, culture, history and even some quirky attractions just a few mini-van hours away. We explore some high points in Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Kansas, as well as gems along Route 66 and some tourist spots to hit right here at home....

An increase in the prevalence of bugs during the spring and summer is a reality in Oklahoma. While encounters with insects and arachnids are usually harmless, one sting or bite can bring pain or long-term health problems to some. Wasps, bees, mosquitoes, spiders and ticks are the most common bugs Oklahomans encounter. The mosquito is perhaps the most irritating of...

Three Oklahoma submariners, who died with their shipmates during World War II, have been formally recognized for their ultimate sacrifices. The full honors and memorial came after their submarine, the USS Grayback, was finally found last year off the coast of Okinawa, where it sank in the East China Sea after being struck by a Japanese plane and several ships...

From Nofire to Nowhere, Oklahoma-born Wes Studi has a career that is anything but inconsequential. Studi, who received a Governors Award in October for lifetime achievement in film, is the first Native American actor to win an Academy Award. For more than three decades, he has portrayed strong, complex characters and helped break stereotypes common in the days when anglos...

Arnell Dean made his career choice as a teenager, thanks to Emergency, which ran on NBC for six seasons in the 1970s. The show’s paramedics, Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage with Los Angeles County’s fictonalized Squad 51, were Dean’s heroes. “I watched it religiously,” says Dean, a 40-year emergency medical technician with EMSA in Oklahoma City. “Every episode, they saved...