Week 60
With our students still gone for the break, we took a little break this week, too.  We worked on things at the institute Monday and Friday, but Tuesday through Thursday we explored more of OK.  We made the two-hour drive (to the northeast) to Bartlesville on Tuesday (we stayed overnight and spent Wednesday there, too), and started our "tour" with a stop at Murphy's--a steakhouse started in the late '40s.  It's a hole-in-the-wall type place that is famous for the "gravy over all" burger.  That's a piece of toast under a hamburger patty under a pile of french fries with gravy over all; lots of gravy!  We shared one and it was still a lot of food, and now we've had the experience and don't need to have it again.

We went to the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum (we went to the Conoco Museum in Ponca City in the spring; the oil and gas industry is a huge part of Oklahoma, and since we use those products every day of our lives, pretty interesting to learn about).

A couple of early delivery trucks

The company was started by brothers Frank and L. E. Phillips.  They had drilled three dry wells in about 1904, and then tried one more--it was a gusher and they had over 80 successful wells after that.  The company soon went from just crude oil to refineries and opened its first gas station in 1927 in Witchita, KS. The 66 was added to the name in 1927 when the company lawyer was out with a driver testing a new fuel on Route 66 and the car got up to 66 miles an hour.  The corporate headquarters are now in Texas, but the service center and research arm are still located in Bartlesville.

The first commercial oil well in Oklahoma was called the Nellie Johnstone, dug in 1897.  We saw this fun replica on the exact site of the original well:

 Bartlesville has the only skyscraper in the world designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Called Price Tower (Price was a pipeline construction firm), it has 19 stories and now has some hotel rooms, some preserved rooms to tour, some offices, and some art exhibits.  It was very interesting to tour.

The olive and martini glass on the lower right are for the "Olive Drop" on New Year's Eve

Near downtown is the railway depot with a fabulous steam engine, oil tanker, and caboose that have been beautifully restored. The steam engine was built in 1903 for the Santa Fe Railroad, and is the only survivor of 332 engines just like it.

The Frank Phillips Home, replica of the first Phillips 66 gas station, and the steam engine

The Frank Phillips Home is a 26-room beauty built in 1918 and expanded in 1930.  It had running water and electricity from the beginning, and he had enough influence to get the city to agree that any house built within a certain distance had to have running water, as well.  No outhouses in sight! 95% of the furnishings and artwork are original.

 Frank was a very generous man, and over a couple of years during the depression, he anonymously went to banks and paid off the mortgage of every church in Bartlesville.  He also had huge Christmas shows for the children in town, bringing in entertainers the kids would know of and enjoy.  Each child received a bag with candy, nuts, an orange, and an apple.  Then he shook each child's hand and gave each a silver dollar.

An unexpected stop was the Keepsake Candle Factory and store.  This all started with a woman and her family making 60 candles for the Methodist church Christmas Bazaar in 1969.  They made molds from antique cut glass (circa 1820-1940) to form the hard wax outer shell, then filled them with softer, scented wax to burn.  Pretty soon there was a demand and now they sell in gift and specialty shops nationwide.  It was fun to see the original glass pieces used for the molds.  The website is: http://keepsakecandles.com/classics_collection.aspx (click on the Victorian collection to see even more candles made from antique glass).

Many cities have decorated animals all around town--individuals, businesses, etc. put one near their site and decorate away.  (Moose in Park City, UT, camels in Dubai, butterflies in Stillwater, etc, etc.) In Bartlesville it's buffalo, and here are just four of the dozen or so we saw.

Bartlesville Buffalo

About 12 miles west of Bartlesville is the Phillips family country estate.  It's called Woolaroc (that's for the woods, lakes, and rocks found in the area).  It has been open to the public for a long time, and houses an incredible western art collection and many natural history exhibits in a huge museum.  It is also a wildlife refuge for native animals but also several exotic creatures that Frank Phillips had brought in (a zebra, llamas, water buffalo, ostrich).  We had to wait a while for a group of bison to cross the road right in front of our car.  Really a great place to visit.

Sighted at Woolaroc

On Thursday we drove about 1 1/2 hours southwest to Tuttle, the headquarters of Braum's.  Braum's is our favorite burger/fry/shake place, and they have a little fresh market at each store selling all the things they make plus produce and a few meat items.  Braum's maintains their own dairy herd to make all of their milk, ice cream, and other dairy products.  Forty calves are born every day, and they raise them until the females are ready to join the milking crew or the males are ready to be sold.  There is also farmland on which they grow much of the feed for the herd.  They also have their own bakery facility in Tuttle that makes all of the buns, bread, cookies, sugar and cake cones, and cinnamon rolls.  There are 300 Braum's stores, but all within a 300 mile radius of Tuttle, because everything is shipped from the central processing area, and all the drivers can go out and be back every night to be with their families.

Braum's products really are superior (the milk is just amazing), and we're going to miss them when we go home.  Another fun tour (especially since it ended with a free ice cream bar and sugar cookie).

The tour bus moos

Our ward didn't meet again today because of the break, so we attended one of the family wards and had very nice meetings.  However, because the YSAs are our reason for being here, we will certainly be glad to see them come back to town!