Tulsa's Oldest House - Within Tulsa's Oldest Park

I did two runs on Thursday, the first one a four miler at noon at an easy pace. Then in the evening I ran with Larry most of the way. I was going to make it an easy six mile run, but it was Larry that pushed the pace.. I stopped at the bathrooms with a mile and a half to go and let Larry go on ahead. He finished the route averaging close to an 8 minute pace. I think with my walking included that my pace averaged about 8:30.

Saturday I had a fun run with the RunnersWorld group. We did a hilly six mile loop that took us past Tulsa's oldest house still in existence, which now sits within Tulsa's oldest park - Owen Park. I'm sure Ken will have pictures up on the RW blog soon. I enjoyed the hilly run, taking it at a fairly relaxed pace for me, but when we were finished several runners told me I was fired. I tried paying people to say they liked the hills - while Kathy filmed them - but nobody seemed convincing. :)

Tonight I hope to complete a 50 mile training run with Kathy, Ken, Brian, and a few others. If you don't hear from me after this blog entry, it is because I died.

Here is a bit of trivia about Owen Park from the city of Tulsa website:

It could be said that Tulsa Parks began with a bang – literally. On January 23, 1904 at 4:15 p.m., a tremendous explosion rocked west Tulsa and was heard as far away as Claremore. The entire stock of nitroglycerine belonging to the Western Torpedo Company that was used for shooting oil wells was accidentally detonated shortly after a company employee named McDonald entered a wooden structure where the explosives were stored.

Needless to say, Mr. McDonald did not survive the blast. The explosion created a large crater that eventually was used to create what became known as Owen Park Lake and years later was made much smaller and is now known as Owen Park Pond.

Although the City of Tulsa did not purchase Owen Park until 1909, the area was already being used for major citywide events. In September of 1906, a Labor Day celebration, complete with a parade that began in downtown Tulsa, speeches, games, and sports was held.

Thousands of people were reported to have come there to enjoy band concerts, food and fireworks each July 4th for several years prior to 1909. That year, the city bought the land from Chauncey and Mary Owen for $13,500 and Tulsa’s first park became a reality.

Owen Park was a natural beauty spot with its grove of beautiful oak trees and pure well water. Swimming in the lake was very popular from 1913 through the early 1920s.

There was a sand beach with lifeguards as well as a bath house to accommodate swimmers. The lake also was used for ice skating during the winter months.