a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

Dear Henry, While I was growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to see Temple Square's Christmas lights in Salt Lake City, but it has been years since I've seen another place that compares with the number of lights that the Mormon church puts together.  At least until we came to Tulsa and saw the Rhema Bible Training College Christmas lights. The Rhema Bible Training College is a Charismatic Christian school founded by Kenneth Erwin Hagin in 1974.  Kenneth Hagin had been a long-time evangelical preacher who had discovered his calling after being miraculously healed of a heart defect and blood disease while a teenager. However, he would remain paralyzed throughout his life. Finally, inspired by Mark 11:23-24, he began preaching in the late 1930s and eventually joined the Voice of Healing Revival with other Christian ministers such as Oral Roberts and Gordon Linsey.  Mr. Hagin was further inspired to create a Christmas event to "show that Jesus is the light of the w...

Dear Henry, It's amazing what you can find on the side of the road.   Recently, we stopped by Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park located in Foyil, Oklahoma, and it was definitely worth pulling over for. After US Army veteran Nathan Edward Galloway  (full biography here ) retired from teaching in 1937, he moved to Foyil and pursued his first love, art. A self-taught sculptor, he built a workshop on his farm and began carving trinkets, wall art, and violins. He also began building totem poles for "something to do." The site's central, largest, and most well-known totem pole was constructed on a large sandstone that sat next to his home. He carved the stone into a turtle and built a 90-foot cement and wood tower. Next, taking inspiration from Native American imagery, he cut nine levels of birds in bas-relief style, which he then brightly painted. The construction of this totem pole took 11 years, and the inside is painted with landscapes.  Other intricately carved and bri...

Dear Henry, It's not a secret that I have struggled to find a "place" here in Tulsa. Not that there is anything wrong with the city, it has a fantastic history and architecture, it's just that it's loud, with a lot of traffic and I haven't been able to get comfortable here. I have been amazed by how disconnected I have felt with the area and, as I came from a small parish in Northwest Arkansas to the larger parishes of the Broken Arrow/Tulsa area, I felt adrift disjoined at church.   Even finding peace at St. Scholastica's, my closest adoration chapel (think a mediation room with the Divine Presence), has been challenging and awkward. The first time I came to the chapel, I set off the building's alarm. I managed to return to St Scholastica's after the alarm incident,  and, after several visits that were plagued by always finding a wobbly kneeler that clatters on the floor of the sanctuary every time I take a breath, I was reminded of one of my life...

Dear Henry, It isn't a secret that I look at the world a little darkly and that I love "scary" fairy tale shows such as the Addams family and Pan's Labyrinth. In fact, I think I've had The Nightmare Before Christmas on repeat since October 1. I'm usually able to keep my inner Lily Munster suppressed but not this year. The Oklahoma (and really any of the plains) landscape can be austere, particularly in the winter and much of the beauty of the place comes from the colors of the sky, the pastoral nature of the landscape, and the isolation of individual subjects. The landscape outside of Tulsa, near Osage Hills, has a very stark and gothic beauty and I felt like some of the isolated ranches that one finds peppered throughout the hills, semi-hidden behind wrought iron fences, would be the perfect winter home for Morticia Addams. My goal when I took this photo was to capture the perfect "Oklahoma Winter" picture and I did, really.  This is a photo of Osag...

Dear Henry, Do you have any off-the-wall superstitions?   One of mine is the inability to walk away from coins on the side of the road. Even if that coin is only a penny. I am convinced that to leave the pennies where they lie is to affront the universe's powers that put opportunities for wealth and abundance in our path. Of course, my children think I'm weird, and I suspect that this superstition may make its way into a committee hearing later.  Despite their mockery, since we've moved to Tulsa, it's become quite the lucrative side gig. Because of the move and the restricted space in our apartment, I've spent more time walking the dog than ever before. Because we are no longer walking along isolated paths within rural Northwest Arkansas but rather city streets, I've been picking up several coins daily. My daily haul has turned into a running joke with Fish, and I'm currently earning, on average, about .05 a day.  Of course, that is just a typical day. There...

Dear Henry, During our recent outing to Osage Hills State Park , I noticed that we were near the Osage Nation and the town of Pawhuska, where a shrine to St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be canonized, was located at the Immaculate Conception Church. This shrine is on my list of  "places I wanted to see," and I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the shrine was outside and always open. So, since we were close, we decided to head over. I should probably clarify right away - While the St. Kateri Tekakwitha shrine is outside, it is not always open, and, as I stood outside, trying to peer through the window into the shrine, one of the parishioners Mr. Lynn, who just happened to be at the parish hall, asked if we wanted to see "their windows" at the church.    Like the Tulsa Cathedral , the windows are Munich Glass from the Royal Bavarian Stained Glass Manufactory, and while they are all stunning, it was this window in particular that Mr. Lynn wante...

Dear Henry, Saturday began as a rainy, dreary day and we just couldn't sit in this apartment any longer. Fish had heard about a waterfall located in the Osage Hills State Park and, because waterfall photography favors rainy days, we headed out. Osage Hills State Park is one of the original seven Civilian Conservation Corps parks created during the Great Depression.  Work began on the park in 1935.  Throughout the 1,100 acres are many remnants of the worker's stone housing. The guest cabins, although renovated, are the originals.  There is also an outdoor pool. The park contains plenty of hiking trails, a well-stocked lake (Lookout Lake), and Sand Creek Falls, which was the highlight of our trip (Fish didn't bring his pole). We spent a couple of hours wandering around and dodging raindrops. We will definitely be returning for a longer stay, although I suspect the park is quite popular during the Summer months. xoxo a.d. elliott **************************************** a.d....

Dear Henry, We are still squirreled away in this tiny smoke-filled apartment with the animals, and a couple of days ago, I just had to get away, at least for a moment.  Ever since we moved, I've wanted to see the cathedral downtown but hadn't made the time to do it yet. So, since I really needed a bit of peace and because I would be able to make the Noon Mass, I decided to give the dog a piece of bacon and head downtown. The story of the Holy Family cathedral began in the 1890s when the pastors assigned to the Muscogee nation would visit the area to perform Mass for the handful of families that lived there. While Bishop Theophile Meerschaert would receive permission to build a church in the Tulsa area from Muscogee elders, it would take until 1899 before enough money was raised to create a small, wooden Holy Family church, which was dedicated on September 10, 1899.   Then oil was discovered in 1901, and the population of Tulsa boomed. The small church was swamped with par...

Dear Henry, Among the great resources, I have discovered here in the Tulsa area is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. The 300 acres of nature have done wonders to keep Ziggy and me from going crazy in the tiny apartment, and during the week, the trail system is a great urban getaway.  While the development of the wilderness area didn't occur until the late 1970s, the site has long been an attraction and the source of several local legends. First of all, I must say that calling Turkey Mountain a mountain is a bit of a challenge for me. I grew up in the Rockies, and I believe the mountains should be at least 5000 feet (1524 meters) above sea level. Anything less is something I call a hill. Unfortunately, Turkey Mountain tops out at 920 feet (280 meters). There are a few trails rated moderate, but I didn't struggle with them much. One of the area's features is the petroglyphs on what is called the "Gwyn Stone," which contains a few letters in what appear to be Vik...

Dear Henry, One of the coolest things about living in Oklahoma is that I am in a "Route 66 State," and I now have (somewhat) easier access to what is probably the ultimate piece of Americana. I was especially tickled to learn that the apartment is close (20 Minutes!) to one of its most famous landmarks, the Blue Whale of Catoosa.   The Blue Whale of Catoosa was built in the early 1970s by Hugh Davis as an anniversary present for his wife Zelta, who loved whales and collected figures of them.  The pond surrounding the whale was spring-fed, and the whole affair was initially intended to be a private family swimming hole.   Instead, it drew crowds, both local and Route 66 travelers (I suspect it was the giant blue whale).  Rather than shutting it down or building a fence, Mr. Davis turned it into a commercial venture and brought in sand, lifeguards, and picnic tables.  During its heyday, the site also had an A.R.K. (Animal Reptile Kingdom) and an artist's...

Dear Henry, Ziggy and I took advantage of the warm fall weather and we stopped by the OK-KS-MO Tri-State Monument. There, we stretched our legs into three states and got acquainted with all of the complexities it took to establish these boundaries. This area had been surveyed, several times, starting with the Spanish explorations and continuing through New Frances explorations. After the Louisiana Purchase and its acquisition by the new American government, it would be surveyed several times again.  This process would continue throughout the Civil War, until 1907, when Oklahoma finally became a state.  There are several reasons for this.   The boundaries of Missouri was established early, the state was founded in 1821 and the state had long been used as a "dividing line".   Kansas and Oklahoma took longer to establish and the borders were quite fluid. Kansas was a "Free" territory and, like Oklahoma (which wasn't a free territory), contained native peo...

Dear Henry, On December 31, 2019, I had plans. Serious plans. 2020 was going to be *the* year where everything came together. I was sure the year was going to be fabulous and had looked forward to a time that we (as people) recreated the hope and life of the 1920s merged with all of the knowledge we have gleaned over the last 100 years. I was even looking forward to the re-emergence of the flapper sheath dress (a look I can pull off very well) and a neo-Art Deco movement. I'm not sure why I was so sure that the rest of the world was going to go along with these plans, but I was. I also had big personal plans as well. This was supposed to be *my* year. The year my photography and blogs ( www.takethebackroads.com , www.riteoffancy.com , and www.everydaypatriot.com ) were finally *noticed*. Finally, I was going to have regular readers and would be writing for real people (versus writing for the nonbeings in the ether). Perhaps, I would gain enough of a following to get a bit of publi...

Dear Henry, We are still working on our move to Tulsa, and, despite my insistence upon living simply, I am flabbergasted by the amount of "stuff" that has needed to be packed.  Recently though, I decided to take a day off from the move and headed to Prague, Oklahoma to check out the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague at St. Wenceslaus. While images of and devotions to the infant Jesus have existed almost as long as Christianity itself, the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague was created only a mere 500 years ago.   The legend is that a Spanish friar, inspired by an image in a dream, created the wood and wax sculpture of the infant Jesus, with one hand holding a cross-bearing orb (the globus cruciger) and the other raised in a gesture of peace. The statue is generally dressed in royal finery, but the unadorned statue of the Infant Jesus is robed only wearing a simple gown.  The statue also, according to legend, once belonged to St. Teresa of Avila. It was ...