The Tulsa Model A Ford Club is planning a memorable Regional Meet for 2014.  We hope to see everyone in Tulsa for a romping good time. The greater Tulsa area offers a multitude of interesting things to see.  Oil and aviation developed the early Tulsa area.  Did you know that Tulsa was once both the oil capital and the aviation capital of America?  Right in the middle of the Model A Ford era, in 1930, the Tulsa Municipal Airport was the busiest airport in the world!! Unbelievable but true!!  The Tulsa Air and Space Museum is the perfect spot for enjoying this rich history.  Still active in the aviation scene, the Museum was one of the ten recent finalists for consideration for one of NASA’s shuttles.  

 

The discovery of oil made many a man, even some Indian tribes, very wealthy here in Oklahoma.  Home of Phillips 66, Conoco, Skelly and numerous others, the history of oil in this area is fascinating.  The Tulsa area is full of magnificent, stately mansions and estates built by the oil barons.  These architectural wonders are always fun to see while driving through the neighborhoods in our Model A Fords.

 

One day we plan a drive to Bartlesville, the home of Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum, to visit some historical sites and the amazing ranch at Woolaroc that Frank loved so much.  Also in Bartlesville stands the only skyscraper designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It is quite an interesting feature.

 

Waite Phillips, a younger brother of Frank, was also successful in the oil business and settled in Tulsa.  His estate, Philbrook, is now one of two incredible art museums in Tulsa.  Gilcrease is the other and has an enormous collection of western and Indian art.  

 

We plan visits to Claremore, where Will Rogers is buried, and Will’s birth place in Oolagah.  Will Rogers, who was proud to be part Indian, will always be the favorite statesman of Oklahoma.  He led a very interesting and entertaining life but, even when a star in Hollywood, he called Oklahoma his home.  Come learn all about this multi-talented folk hero.

 

Many might not be aware that Tulsa is a port city to the world’s numerous ocean shipping lanes.  With work done on the Arkansas River which flows through downtown Tulsa, huge barges now can transit from the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River and into the Arkansas River to the Port of Catoosa, located on the outskirts of Tulsa.

 

Cyrus Avery, known as the “Father of Route 66,” was living in Oklahoma when, as a member of the federal board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, he pushed for the establishment of the US Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway.  Nowhere was Route 66 more at home than in Oklahoma, where the West and East collided and the pavement followed the contours of the land as though it had always been there.  We’ll be sure to have our Model A’s feel that old road under their tires again.

 

We look forward to seeing you in Tulsa in 2014.  Come experience Tulsa Model A Territory!

 

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