Okie Getaway Chapter 7
In Henderson's and Foster's capable hands, the Cantilever jet arced gracefully across the Oklahoma sky, cutting a diagonal path from Lawton to Tulsa. They landed at Riverside Airport where an Enterprise rental car awaited Booth and Brennan.
She was particularly interested in the city's Art Deco heritage, so they drove toward downtown Tulsa crossing the WPA Style Eleventh Street Arkansas River Bridge, a part of the famed Route 66, to follow a self-guided Art Deco tour recommended by their pilot Joe Henderson. He explained that his architect father had particularly admired the Art Deco style and knew Tulsa to be a repository of preserved examples.
The various Art Deco styles; Zigzag, PWA ,Streamline, Deco Moderne, and Art Deco Revival were well-represented within the city. Southwestern Bell's Main Dial Building, Boston Avenue Methodist Church, Frank Lloyd Wright's Westhope and Warehouse Market were each Zigzag masterpieces.
Will Rogers High School and the Union Train Depot exemplified the Depression-era WPA style. City Veterinary Hospital, the Whenthoff and McGay residences designed by Joseph R. Koberling are among the few remaining Streamline style buildings. Booth rolled down the car window to gaze at Boston Avenue's spires. Brennan admired Frank Lloyd Wright's genius, having seen his architectural work in other cities.
Numerous post-war fire stations illustrated the Art Deco Moderne style of construction and survived urban renewal, once city residents became aware of the treasures sitting among them. The couple explored the Philtower Building lobby, marveling at its understated elegance.
They walked around the "Center of the Universe" an obscurely mysterious acoustic phenomenon. If someone stands in the middle of this brick-paved circle and makes a noise, the sound is echoed back several times louder than it was made. Oddly however, no one standing outside of the circle can hear a thing. It's as if you had your own private amplified echo chamber.
Similar to the Lake George Mystery Spot—another acoustical vortex which seems to defy the laws of physics—the Center of the Universe effect is supposedly caused by the sound reflecting off a circular wall, a nearby planter. Experts can't agree on the cause of the odd anomaly of this natural sonic distortion. Booth was fascinated and kept Brennan amused by making all manner of humorous noises. She teased him that their children would think he'd lost his marbles.
Brennan was eager to view the Native American collections at Philbrook Museum, so they ate a quick sandwich in the ornate gardens and headed to the basement to explore Philbrook's enviable collection of Indian pottery, paintings, jewelry and basketry. An avid art collector who had travelled extensively throughout the Western states, Waite Phillips had donated his Italianate villa and its priceless art masterpieces, to the city of Tulsa after living there only ten years.
Booth peered through a magnifying glass mounted over one of the baskets and wondered aloud how the women could have accomplished such tight tiny weaving with the naked eye. As an anthropologist, Brennan was afforded free reign to wander among the cabinets of storage trays, and she took full advantage of the opportunity, opening each and expounding on the contents within: arrow heads, stone implements, feathered ornaments. Booth enjoyed watching her absorbed delight with the extensive collections.
After several hours, the pair headed to Gilcrease Museum one of the foremost institutions for study and preservation of Americana. Its Creek founder Thomas Gilcrease had grown up in Indian Territory and was an oil man like Waite Phillips. He began the world's most comprehensive collection of American West artifacts and art, especially Native American materials.
On the museum grounds, Gilcrease established unique gardens to reflect techniques used in the American West, among them Victorian, Pre-Columbian, Colonial and Pioneer. A fall in 1950's oil prices cut into Gilcrease's cash flow for his extensive art purchases. When he offered his holdings for sale in 1954 to cover his debt, the city of Tulsa passed a bond issue to keep Gilcrease's collection in Oklahoma.
Impressed with the man's dedication to keeping his acquisitions intact, and spending his fortune to preserve Native American history, Brennan read aloud the account of his Indian style funeral, during which arrows shot into the air protected his spirit from evil and sprinkled corn mean gave him food for journeying to the afterlife.
"See, Bones, Native Americans believed in the soul. I'm in good company,' Booth chuckled.
His favorite painting was "Meat's Not Meat Til It's in the Pan" by Charles Marion Russell which portrayed the very irritated consternation of a cowboy at cold snowy twilight finding the longhorn sheep he's shot has fallen onto a rocky ledge below him inconveniently out of reach as his patient horse and pack mule await their dinner. Finding this 1915 painting of life on the Western Plains was a highlight of visiting Gilcrease for Booth. He wasted no time in purchasing a textured print from the gift shop for his man cave back home.
It was here that Brennan also spotted her favorite Thomas Moran painting "Spectres from the North," a frigid scene of the north Atlantic. She had long admired Moran's expansive landscapes which preserved the unspoiled American continent. She purchased two prints, one for her office and a second for Angela and Hodgins.
Hodgins had recommended his friends stay at the Ambassador Hotel, a 1929 ten story Mediterranean themed building with limestone cornices and terra cotta Italian ornamentation which provided fine lodging for oil barons and their families while their mansions were under construction. It was Tulsa's first extended stay hotel and still offered well-appointed accommodations to Oil Capital visitors.
Booth stretched out on the king-sized bed and sighed with satisfaction, "Jack sure knows where travelers are well cared for. This place is well worth the money, like flying first class, Bones!"
"I fully agree, Booth! This soaking tub looks like just what your feet need after all our walking today."
The couple relished a delicious meal, a long hot soak together, a memorable evening of private pleasure, and a sound restful night's sleep.
Early the next morning, the partners left the Sooner State behind and flew back to DC. Grateful for the attentive care the pilots had taken during their trip, Brennan presented Henderson and Foster with gift certificates for a dinner at the restaurant of their choice. The men were reluctant to accept, but Booth assured them Brennan's gesture was meant from the heart and they had certainly earned it.
Both of their inboxes were filled with grateful emails from National Memorial forensic conference attendees. "Perhaps we will have to make this presentation a regular thing, Booth. It appears we made quite an impression," Brennan remarked in surprise.
"Bones, you always deliver a superlative lecture. Take it from me; ever since that first class of yours I heard at American University, I've been your most ardent fan. These people aren't flattering you; they speak only the truth!" Booth declared.
A/N: This completes ecv's Secret Santa stories. Much of this Oklahoma travelog reflects my own experiences in our state. The hotel is where my parents stayed when transferred from west Texas to Oklahoma with the oil business before I was even thought about. It is, like much of 'flyover country' in the U.S., well worth your time to visit and enjoy. Happy New Year!