Woolaroc
Encyclopedia
Woolaroc is located in the Osage Hills
of Northeastern Oklahoma on Oklahoma State Highway 123 about 19 km (11.8 mi) southwest of Bartlesville, Oklahoma
and 72 km (44.7 mi) north of Tulsa, Oklahoma
. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips. The ranch is a 1500 hectare (3700 acre) wildlife preserve, home to many species of native and exotic wildlife, such as buffalo
, elk
and longhorn cattle
. Woolaroc is also a museum with a collection of western art and artifacts, American Indian material, and one of the largest collections of Colt
firearms in the world. Also on display is Woolaroc
, the aircraft that won the ill-fated Dole Air Race
in 1927. Woolaroc features a nature trail and two living history areas inviting you to experience the natural environment of Woolaroc, the life in a pre-Civil War 1840’s mountain man
camp and an early-day oil lease.
) and their families.
on December 5, 2008. It is significant as a reflection of the time period and for its role in the petroleum industry of the time. It is also significant for its landscape architecture. Contributing resources include 18 buildings, 22 sites, 115 structures an 17 objects. It was listed as a featured property of the week in a program of the National Park Service that began in July, 2008.
In 1928, E. W. Marland
, founder of Marland Oil Company (later to become Conoco) and at that time one of the wealthiest men in the world, commissioned twelve miniature 3-foot sculptures that were submitted by US and international sculptors as models for the Pioneer Woman
statue. The commission that Marland paid each sculptor has been variously cited as $10,000 and as $2,000 for each submission. The miniatures traveled to twelve cities where they were viewed by 750,000 people who cast votes for their favorite.
The twelve submissions included "Protective" by John Gregory
; "Determined" by Maurice Sterne; "Challenging" by Hermon Atkins MacNeil
; "Affectionate" by James E. Fraser; "Self-Reliant" by Alexander Stirling Calder
; "Fearless" by Wheeler Williams
; "Heroic" by Mario Korbel
; "Adventurous" by F. Lynn Jenkins; "Sturdy" by Mahonri Young
and "Faithful" by Arthur Lee
; "Trusting" by Jo Davidson
; and "Confident" by Bryant Baker
. The New York Times reported on March 27, 1927 that the exhibition had arrived in New York City and that it had attracted "more interest than any exhibition of sculpture New York has known in a long while." The twelve models were exhibited for three weeks in the Reinhardt Galleries and Bryant Baker's model was the winner of the first place in the New York balloting. The Times Reported that "Baker not only won first honors, but was the last man to enter the contest having no more than a month to prepare his model and obtain a casting." Marland pronounced himself pleased with the models. "I believe all of the sculptors have done well," said Marland. "We could select any one of the twelve figures and get an excellent interpretation of the frontier woman. the decision will be a hard one to make. I expect to be guided largely by public taste, but the final decision will be my own. This national vote is going to show exactly what the American people think about one of the greatest of their women," Marland added.
The exhibition touched a popular chord in American culture of the time. The New York Times reported on March 27, 1927 that among those who visited the exhibition at the Reinhardt Galleries was 91 year old Betty Wollman who as a young bride had journeyed from St. Louis to Leavenworth Kansas in 1855 and had once entertained Abraham Lincoln as a dinner guest in the Wollman household in Leavenworth long before Lincoln was a candidate for President. Wollman spoke about women's role during pioneer days in the old west and congratulated Marland for his proposal to erect a statue to the Pioneer Woman. "Mr. Marland is to be congratulated for doing this in commemoration of these early women of the West," said Wollman. "The hardships were many, and the courage and self-denial of the women who worked side by side with their husbands and sons and brothers in those primitive days are largely responsible for the development of the Middle Western States, now so rich in everything that goes to make life worth living."
The winning statue nationwide was "Confident," produced by British-born American sculptor Bryant Baker
. It is believed that Marland's personal favorite was "Trusting" by Jo Davidson who had also sculpted statues of Marland, his wife Lydie, and his brother George. Time Magazine ran a story about the competition and compared the competing designs.
Baker's sculpture was unveiled in Ponca City in a public ceremony on April 22, 1930 when forty thousand guests came to hear Will Rogers
pay tribute to Oklahoma's pioneers. President Hoover addressed the nation over a nation-wide radio network for the commemoration of the statue. "It was those women who carried the refinement, the moral character and spiritual force into the West," said Hoover. "Not only they bore great burdens of daily toil and the rearing of families, but there were intent that their children should have a chance, that the doors of opportunity," added Hoover. The finished statue of the Pioneer Woman Statue was 27 feet high and weighed 12,000 pounds.
After financial reverses that included the loss of his company Marland Oil Company
, E. W. Marland wrote a letter to his friend Frank Phillips on March 11, 1940. "My financial condition compells [sic] me to sell objects of art, tapestries, bronzes, rugs, and paintings acquired by me in more prosperous years," wrote Marland. "I will sell at a price approximately 25 per cent of their cost to me... And will consider it a kindness if you will come yourself or send someone to look them over with the object of buying anything you fancy."
Phillips sent art expert Gordon Matzene to inspect the bronzes and began bargaining with Marland for their purchase. In the end Phillips offered Marland $500 for each of the twelve miniatures. Matzene declared that the purchase was a wonderful bargain and the miniatures were removed from Ponca City along with other statues and artwork to became part of Phillips' collection at Woolaroc where they are on display.
through Labor Day
), it is also open on Tuesdays. Bicycles are prohibited from entering the preserve.
Osage Hills
The Osage Hills are a small range of hills in Oklahoma, commonly known as The Osage, refers to the broad rolling hills and rolling tallgrass prairie and Cross Timbers encompassing Osage County and surrounding areas, including portions of Mayes, Tulsa and Washington Counties.-The Osage:The Osage...
of Northeastern Oklahoma on Oklahoma State Highway 123 about 19 km (11.8 mi) southwest of Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Bartlesville is a city in Osage and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 43,070 at the 2010 census. Bartlesville is located forty-seven miles north of Tulsa and very close to Oklahoma's northern border with Kansas. It is the county seat of Washington County, in...
and 72 km (44.7 mi) north of Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips. The ranch is a 1500 hectare (3700 acre) wildlife preserve, home to many species of native and exotic wildlife, such as buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
, elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
and longhorn cattle
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
. Woolaroc is also a museum with a collection of western art and artifacts, American Indian material, and one of the largest collections of Colt
Colt's Manufacturing Company
Colt's Manufacturing Company is a United States firearms manufacturer, whose first predecessor corporation was founded in 1836 by Sam Colt. Colt is best known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms over the later half of the 19th and the 20th century...
firearms in the world. Also on display is Woolaroc
Travel Air 5000
-External links:*...
, the aircraft that won the ill-fated Dole Air Race
Dole Air Race
The Dole Air Race, also known as the Dole Derby, was a tragic air race to cross the Pacific Ocean from northern California to the Territory of Hawaii in August 1927. Of the 15-18 entrant airplanes, 11 were certified to compete but three crashed before the race, resulting in three deaths...
in 1927. Woolaroc features a nature trail and two living history areas inviting you to experience the natural environment of Woolaroc, the life in a pre-Civil War 1840’s mountain man
Mountain man
Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through the 1880s where they were instrumental in opening up the various Emigrant Trails allowing Americans in the east to settle the new territories of the far west by organized wagon trains...
camp and an early-day oil lease.
Name
The name Woolaroc is a portmanteau of the words woods, lakes, rocks, features of the beautiful Osage Hills of northeast Oklahoma where Woolaroc is located. The name was originally intended for the rustic Lodge ranch house, but it was so unique that it soon became the name for the entire Frank Phillips ranch.History
Woolaroc Museum is owned and operated by The Frank Phillips Foundation, Inc. that was founded in 1937 by oilman Frank Phillips and his wife Jane Phillips with the primary purpose of providing educational support for the employees of Phillips Petroleum Company (now ConocoPhillipsConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States...
) and their families.
Woolaroc Ranch Historic District
Woolaroc Ranch Historic District, also known as Rock Creek Game Preserve, Frank Phillips Ranch, Phillips Osage Park and Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve, was listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on December 5, 2008. It is significant as a reflection of the time period and for its role in the petroleum industry of the time. It is also significant for its landscape architecture. Contributing resources include 18 buildings, 22 sites, 115 structures an 17 objects. It was listed as a featured property of the week in a program of the National Park Service that began in July, 2008.
The Pioneer Woman Models
E. W. Marland
Ernest Whitworth Marland was an American lawyer, oil businessman, and politician who served as the tenth Governor of Oklahoma.-Career as an Oilman:...
, founder of Marland Oil Company (later to become Conoco) and at that time one of the wealthiest men in the world, commissioned twelve miniature 3-foot sculptures that were submitted by US and international sculptors as models for the Pioneer Woman
Pioneer Woman
The Pioneer Woman monument is a bronze sculpture in Ponca City, Oklahoma, designed by Bryant Baker and dedicated on April 22, 1930. The statue is of a sunbonneted woman leading a child by the hand. It was donated to the State of Oklahoma by millionaire oilman E. W. Marland...
statue. The commission that Marland paid each sculptor has been variously cited as $10,000 and as $2,000 for each submission. The miniatures traveled to twelve cities where they were viewed by 750,000 people who cast votes for their favorite.
The twelve submissions included "Protective" by John Gregory
John Gregory
John Charles Gregory is an English former footballer and currently works as a manager. He has previously managed: Portsmouth, Plymouth Argyle, Wycombe Wanderers, Aston Villa, Derby County, Queens Park Rangers, Maccabi Ahi Nazareth and F.C. Ashdod...
; "Determined" by Maurice Sterne; "Challenging" by Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Hermon Atkins MacNeil was an American sculptor born in Chelsea, Massachusetts.He was an instructor in industrial art at Cornell University from 1886 to 1889, and was then a pupil of Henri M. Chapu and Alexandre Falguière in Paris...
; "Affectionate" by James E. Fraser; "Self-Reliant" by Alexander Stirling Calder
Alexander Stirling Calder
Alexander Stirling Calder was an American sculptor and teacher; son of the sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, and father of the sculptor Alexander Calder...
; "Fearless" by Wheeler Williams
Wheeler Williams
Wheeler Williams was an American sculptor, born in Chicago, Illinois.-Life and career:Williams studied sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He attended Yale where he graduated Magna cum Laude in 1919. He received a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard in 1922...
; "Heroic" by Mario Korbel
Mario Korbel
Mario Joseph Korbel, American sculptor born in Osik, Bohemia on March 22, 1882 to a clergyman, Joseph Korbel and his wife Katherina Dolezal Korbel. He began studying sculpture in his homeland, continuing his studies after moving to the United States at age 18...
; "Adventurous" by F. Lynn Jenkins; "Sturdy" by Mahonri Young
Mahonri Young
Mahonri Macintosh Young was an American sculptor and artist. Although he lived most of his life in New York City, Young is most remembered in Utah as being the grandson of Brigham Young, and who sculpted the This Is The Place Monument and the Seagull Monument in Salt Lake City...
and "Faithful" by Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee may refer to:*Arthur Lee , U.S. envoy to France*Arthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham , British soldier and diplomat*Arthur Lee , American psychedelic-rock musician...
; "Trusting" by Jo Davidson
Jo Davidson
Jo Davidson was an American sculptor of Russian-Jewish descent. Although he specialized in realistic, intense portrait busts, Davidson did not require his subjects to formally pose for him; rather, he observed and spoke with them...
; and "Confident" by Bryant Baker
Bryant Baker
Percy Bryant Baker was a British-born American sculptor.-Life and career:Baker was born on 8 July 1881 in London, England, the son and grandson of sculptors and stone carvers and the brother of sculptor Robert Baker...
. The New York Times reported on March 27, 1927 that the exhibition had arrived in New York City and that it had attracted "more interest than any exhibition of sculpture New York has known in a long while." The twelve models were exhibited for three weeks in the Reinhardt Galleries and Bryant Baker's model was the winner of the first place in the New York balloting. The Times Reported that "Baker not only won first honors, but was the last man to enter the contest having no more than a month to prepare his model and obtain a casting." Marland pronounced himself pleased with the models. "I believe all of the sculptors have done well," said Marland. "We could select any one of the twelve figures and get an excellent interpretation of the frontier woman. the decision will be a hard one to make. I expect to be guided largely by public taste, but the final decision will be my own. This national vote is going to show exactly what the American people think about one of the greatest of their women," Marland added.
The exhibition touched a popular chord in American culture of the time. The New York Times reported on March 27, 1927 that among those who visited the exhibition at the Reinhardt Galleries was 91 year old Betty Wollman who as a young bride had journeyed from St. Louis to Leavenworth Kansas in 1855 and had once entertained Abraham Lincoln as a dinner guest in the Wollman household in Leavenworth long before Lincoln was a candidate for President. Wollman spoke about women's role during pioneer days in the old west and congratulated Marland for his proposal to erect a statue to the Pioneer Woman. "Mr. Marland is to be congratulated for doing this in commemoration of these early women of the West," said Wollman. "The hardships were many, and the courage and self-denial of the women who worked side by side with their husbands and sons and brothers in those primitive days are largely responsible for the development of the Middle Western States, now so rich in everything that goes to make life worth living."
The winning statue nationwide was "Confident," produced by British-born American sculptor Bryant Baker
Bryant Baker
Percy Bryant Baker was a British-born American sculptor.-Life and career:Baker was born on 8 July 1881 in London, England, the son and grandson of sculptors and stone carvers and the brother of sculptor Robert Baker...
. It is believed that Marland's personal favorite was "Trusting" by Jo Davidson who had also sculpted statues of Marland, his wife Lydie, and his brother George. Time Magazine ran a story about the competition and compared the competing designs.
The pioneer woman selected was not the ugly one executed by Mahonri Young; it was not the demure one executed by Jo Davidson; it was not the brawny one of James Earle Fraser, nor the placid one of Arthur Lee, nor the fragile one of F. Lynn Jenkins. Nor was it Maurice Sterne's, Hermon A. MacNeil's, Alexander Stirling Calder's, although these artists too were among those who made models for the competition.It was not John Gregory's sturdy female, snatching a musket from her moribund husband, although this one ran second in the balloting and won first place in three cities. Instead, it was Bryant Baker's striding figure of a woman whose skirts are blown backward in a prairie breeze, who carries a Bible in one hand, leads her scampish belligerent little boy with the other. This had received most votes in eleven cities; by far the largest total out of the 123,000 votes cast.
Baker's sculpture was unveiled in Ponca City in a public ceremony on April 22, 1930 when forty thousand guests came to hear Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
pay tribute to Oklahoma's pioneers. President Hoover addressed the nation over a nation-wide radio network for the commemoration of the statue. "It was those women who carried the refinement, the moral character and spiritual force into the West," said Hoover. "Not only they bore great burdens of daily toil and the rearing of families, but there were intent that their children should have a chance, that the doors of opportunity," added Hoover. The finished statue of the Pioneer Woman Statue was 27 feet high and weighed 12,000 pounds.
After financial reverses that included the loss of his company Marland Oil Company
Marland Oil Company
Marland Oil Company was an American oil company founded in 1917, by Ponca City, Oklahoma oil exploration pioneer E. W. Marland when he assembled his various holdings including the 101 Ranch Oil Company into one unit, forming Marland Oil Company...
, E. W. Marland wrote a letter to his friend Frank Phillips on March 11, 1940. "My financial condition compells [sic] me to sell objects of art, tapestries, bronzes, rugs, and paintings acquired by me in more prosperous years," wrote Marland. "I will sell at a price approximately 25 per cent of their cost to me... And will consider it a kindness if you will come yourself or send someone to look them over with the object of buying anything you fancy."
Phillips sent art expert Gordon Matzene to inspect the bronzes and began bargaining with Marland for their purchase. In the end Phillips offered Marland $500 for each of the twelve miniatures. Matzene declared that the purchase was a wonderful bargain and the miniatures were removed from Ponca City along with other statues and artwork to became part of Phillips' collection at Woolaroc where they are on display.
Admission
The admission fee is $8 for guests from ages 12 through 64, $6 for ages 65 and older, and free for children aged 11 and below. Woolaroc is open year-round from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST Wednesday through Sunday and is closed during Monday and Tuesday. During the summer (Memorial DayMemorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
through Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
), it is also open on Tuesdays. Bicycles are prohibited from entering the preserve.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places featured properties and districtsNational Register of Historic Places featured properties and districtsThis is a list of National Register of Historic Places featured properties and districts. The National Park Service features one new listing on the National Register of Historic Places each week...
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Oklahoma
External links
- Official Site
- Woolaroc Ranch, Museum and Wildlife Preserve information, photos and video on TravelOK.com Official travel and tourism website for the State of Oklahoma
- Marland's Pioneer Woman Statue competition
- Voices of Oklahoma interview with Elliot "Chope" Phillips. First person interview conducted on May 5, 2009 with Elliot "Chope" Phillips, nephew of Frank Phillips. Original audio and transcript archived with Voices of Oklahoma oral history project.