Editor Pick
Woolaroc
- November 17, 2005
- Rated 5 of 5 by
BijanBayne from Washington, District of Columbia
At its best, travel combines the most pleasant features of escapist reading and window shopping. Any bookworm or clothes horse would be excited by a trip to Woolaroc, the 3,700-acre combination wildlife preserve, Western museum, and camp lodge built by Phillips Petroleum tycoon Frank Phillips. Named for its woods, lakes, and rocks, this hidden treasure sprawls less than an hour from Tulsa. Is it history you crave? The lodge hosted the likes of President Truman, Rudy Vallee, Cardinal Spellman and Will Rogers. Circus owner John Ringling won and lost high stakes poker games here--legend has it that he and Frank lost their companies to each other and won 'em back the same night.
Nature lover? Bison, wapiti elk, longhorn steer, and prarie dogs roam the preserve. More the artsy type? The musuem here ranks with any in the Southwest, featuring vivid paintings by Remington and Russell, navtive artifacts that predate white settlement, and the promotional Phillips airplane that won a race from San Francisco to Hawaii only months after Lindbergh's leap. Witness the handiwork of Phillips' impressive Colt revolver and Remington rifle collections.
The hours one could spend here--take it slowly and wind up in the collector's haven of a gift shop. There are other sites to take in as well: browse the Tom Mix Museum and old guest hotel in nearby Dewey, a town straight out of a Zane Grey dime novel. The Bartlesville Community Center is more than its name implies as home to some of the finest theatre and orchestra in the plains. At night the mod edifice resembles a huge grounded flying saucer sitting in the shadow of Bartlesville's Inn at Price Tower, the tallest structure built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Bear in mind it was the vision of another designing that sparked the growth of this Okie boomtown.
The locals are amenable, the barbecue is tasty, and the Phillips 66 museum tucked behind Frank Phillips' former city home is another unsung gem. The sooner you can make this trip, the better.
From journal Oilman's Paradise is Best Kept Secret