My First Real Visit to Tulsa
I didn’t know what to expect of Tulsa on my recent trip to the 2024 Bassmaster Classic. I’d been there for past Classics in 2013 and 2016, but both times I stayed in Grove out at Grand Lake. I flew into the city, went straight to the lake, and returned in near darkness for the final weigh-in.
This time around, due to some initial lodging miscommunication, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express rather than at the Doubletree where most of my in-town colleagues stayed. That proved to be a blessing, because while it took longer to get to the Convention Center and the BOK Center, it put me in the middle of history and a lot of the city’s cultural highlights.
Indeed, it was in the Greenwood District, referred to as “Black Wall Street” in the early 20th century, and unfortunately the site of a horrible massacre. While I didn’t have time to visit the Greenwood Cultural Center, on my way to Bassmaster’s Night of Champions, I walked through John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park.
The Night of Champions banquet was held at Cain’s Ballroom, a still-thriving historic music venue established in 1946 that has hosted acts including Leon Russell and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Per Wikipedia, “It is also notable as one of only seven venues played by the Sex Pistols in 1978 during their only North American tour. The band appeared 11 January 1978. After the show, a frustrated Sid Vicious punched a hole in the drywall of the green room. The wall section with the hole has since been removed and is preserved and on display at Cain’s”
On the way to Cain’s I also passed the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa’s Art District, which houses his archives and hosts all sorts of social and educational programs.
Right next door was the Bob Dylan Center, which has everything from handwritten lyrics to all sorts of other memorabilia and recordings. Both the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center® operate under auspices of the American Song Archives, a project of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF).
On our final day in town, before heading to the airport, Hanna and I drove by the house from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 movie The Outsiders that helped to launch the careers of actors including C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane.
There was a lot more that I wanted to see. In 2013, my friends and I made a late night jaunt to Mercury Lounge for some music.
This time around, I wished I’d had more moments to delve into Oklahoma’s literature at Magic City Books.
Fortunately, I expect we’ll be back at some point, maybe in 2027 or 2028, at which point I’ll have much more time to explore.