Lodging & Leisure
A time capsule experience in Guthrie, Oklahoma
By KAY GRANT
Like every morning for many millennia, the sun rose on a dusty prairie. But April 22, 1889, would be different. This day ushered in the great Oklahoma Land Run.
Akerman McQueen/Guthrie Chamber of Commerce
It's estimated that 50,000 to 80,000 people waited impatiently along the Kansas border. Sharply at noon, cannons boomed and the westward rush into the Unassigned Lands began. Eight trains rumbled through the Indian Territory, disgorging eager people. Countless wagons, horses, and mules brought fervent homesteaders to stake claims for their very own land. Six hours later, before the sun had set, a tent city of more than 10,000 people had settled in the brand-new town of Guthrie.
Doctors arrived, along with merchants, barbers, newsmen, blacksmiths, and carpenters. Eighty attorneys (for filing claims) were attracted to the new town named for John Guthrie, an attorney with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. Ironically, he visited the town only once and never stayed the night. The town became the capital of the Oklahoma Territory. Fleet-footed pioneers who hastily snatched their claims in 1889 prepared Guthrie to be the center of government and commerce for a future new state.
In 1907 statehood became a reality, and the "Queen of the Prairie" settled in as Oklahoma's capital. But political shenanigans in June 1910 resulted in Guthrie's losing the legislature to Oklahoma City.
The loss of governmental power was a blow to the town's economy, and the population dwindled. But Guthrie's loss was our gain: When other Oklahoma cities prospered and eventually replaced their early architecture, Guthrie retained its rich collection of original turn-of-the-century buildings.
Akerman McQueen/Guthrie Chamber of Commerce
The town's population today is about the same as it was on its very first day, and it looks essentially the same as it did after the tent city gave way to buildings in red brick.
A trolley tour through downtown — the largest urban historic district on the National Register of Historic Places — is the best way to get an overview of Guthrie.
Made up of 1,400 acres (400 city blocks), the Victorian neighborhood embraces more than 2,000 buildings. The stately architecture so proudly built a century ago is preserved today with the same pioneer pride.
You may have seen Guthrie's impressive time capsule of a downtown in films such as Rain Man, Twister, and My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, among others. While the notable architecture attracts both Hollywood and everyday visitors, there's much more to the town.
The world's largest Scottish Rite Masonic temple sits on the site where the first state legislative session was held, and the original Oklahoma statehouse remains intact within the 300,000-square-foot temple.
Corbis
Tom Mix, Hollywood's first Western megastar, once tended bar at Guthrie's Blue Belle Saloon.
Built between 1920 and 1929, the temple holds Czech-Bohemian crystal chandeliers, marble floors, notable furnishings, hundreds of stained glass windows, a 45-foot-high atrium, and camel hair carpets hand-woven in Ireland. The Kimball Piano and Organ Company built a 5,375-pipe organ specifically for the acoustically perfect auditorium.
The State Capital Publishing Museum relates the story of Guthrie's founding and turn-of-the-century printing industry. The Oklahoma Territorial Museum explains the transition from wild territorial days to statehood. Next to the outdoor Apothecary Garden of native medicinal plants is the Oklahoma Frontier Drugstore Museum, displaying vintage bottles, medicines, and a period soda fountain in a fully restored turn-of-the-century pharmacy.
The Owens Arts Place Museum is the only fine arts museum in Logan County. And the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame Museum-Guthrie acknowledges athletes with ties to the Sooner State. Located in the old Santa Fe railroad depot, the International Model Train and Automobile Museum features multiple model train layouts and close proximity to the active Bur-lington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) line — friendly engineers and conductors might stop for a conversation about trains on their way into the nearby R&R Restaurant, which once was an old Harvey House cafe.
Jarrett George/Guthrie Chamber of Commerce
The Land Rush of 1889 unleashed 50,000-80,000 people at high noon on April 22 for their piece of 2 million acres; at day's end, the brand-new town of Guthrie had 10,000 residents.
The richness of its museums aside, Guthrie isn't only its history. There are galleries and shops, and the town hosts a popular international bluegrass festival the first weekend in October. And what frontier town would be worth its dust without a storied saloon? In the early 1900s, cowboy star Tom Mix mixed and served drinks at the Blue Belle Saloon, which is still operating and serving up home cooking and bragging rights as the oldest bar in the state.
Mix isn't the only famous name associated with Guthrie. Lon Chaney, who made a name for himself — and his grotesque makeup — in silent films like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was a not-so-scary stagehand at the Brooks Opera House (now gone).
The infamous Carrie Nation once lived in Guthrie, too. Her intemperate temperance campaign made her mark on the Oklahoma Territory — Oklahoma was the first to enter the Union as a dry state — and on at least one local watering hole. After she had whipped out her hatchet and damaged the place, the owner posted a sign: "All nations welcome except Carrie."
Leave your hatchet at home and you, too, will be welcomed in Guthrie. Chances are you won't be racing there with a two-horse buckboard determined to get yourself some Oklahoma acres, but you can sure get yourself a nice long weekend in turn-of-the-century style.
• Guthrie, Oklahoma: A half-hour north of Oklahoma City off Interstate 35. For more information visit www.guthrieok.com.
Issue: June 2009
