Honor Roll

Foster

The answer to the May/June “Off the Map” question is the Council Oak Tree located at West 18th Street and South Carson Avenue in Tulsa.

Christie

Olde-Fashioned Fun

Morehead Tulsa

I got my May/June copy of Oklahoma Today magazine and really like the creative context to mention the thirtysecond annual Dewey Antique Show (“Out There”)!

Pat

Q&A

Oklahoma Dreamin’

How to have your best summer ever? Start at a

state park.

Middleton Dewey

Oklahoma! was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and it was based on a 1931 play called Green Grow the Lilacs. The setting was a town outside Claremore in 1906.

Tammi Bear Oklahoma City

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tammi’s letter was a response to a Tuesday Trivia question, posted at oklahomatoday.com each week. If we pick your answer to publish in print, you’ll get a free one-year subscription!

At the 2023 Great Plains Journalism awards, Oklahoma Today magazine took home six honors including Photographer of the Year for Shane Bevel and Best Magazine Page Design. The 2023 International Regional Magazine Awards garnered OKT half a dozen accolades as well, among them silver for Nathan Gunter’s Welcome column and silver for single photo for David Joshua Jennings’ “Bull House.” Finally, our cover of the September/October 2022 Animal Issue by John Paul Brammer won the American Society of Magazine Editors Reader’s Choice Award for Best Illustrated Cover.

We love hearing from readers. Letters are subject to editing and must include name, address, and a daytime phone number. Send correspondence to Oklahoma Today, Attn: Editor, P.O. Box 248937, Oklahoma City, OK 73124. Address email to Letters@TravelOK.com.

ON PAGE 49 of this issue of Oklahoma Today, you’ll find a travel itinerary through Oklahoma’s seven original state parks. Exploring these public lands is a great way to spend a summer. And though each of our parks is a treasure, I have a particular fondness for one of them: Sequoyah State Park. This summer, my extended family and I will gather at this breathtaking property on Fort Gibson Lake for our reunion. We’ll take boats out on the lake, check out Harry and Bixby, and play Bingo! (I’m a bit competitive). We’ll also eat lots of great food and catch up on memories. We have family coming from both coasts and everywhere in between, and there’s no place like an Oklahoma state park. My anticipation for our gathering has me thinking about the “Best Summer Ever” campaign we launched recently. For me, summer in Oklahoma means my daughter is home from school, long days packing in the fun, fireflies, swimming when it’s a hundred-plus degrees, travel with my family, and my favorite sound: the chorus of crickets and cicadas that reminds me of going to the lake when I was a kid. We hope no matter how you spend yours—whether touring our gorgeous state parks, hanging out at Pastures of Plenty during the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (see Ben Luschen’s feature on page 58), or following one of the Oklahoma Today staff’s travel itineraries for history buffs (check out all ten starting on page 47), we hope you also have your best summer ever.

—SHELLEY ZUMWALT, Executive Director, Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department

Twitter: @oklahomatoday

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“I’m walking on sunshine, whoa, and don’t it feel good!” —KATRINA AND THE WAVES

Do Go Chasing Waterfalls

Though the 77-foot waterfall at TURNER FALLS PARK in Davis is a stunning attraction on its own, the beautiful views are but one of many reasons for the area’s magnetism. This scenic spot on Honey Creek cools visitors down with plenty of opportunities for aquatic fun. Nestled in the ancient Arbuckle Mountains, it also features three caves and nature trails to explore.

Turner Falls Park is located at Interstate 35 and U.S. Highway 77 in Davis. (580) 369-2988 or turnerfallspark.com

Rural Retreat

Though it’s only minutes from the city, 3J Farms offers a bounty of bucolic delights.

BY WHITNEY BRYEN

ONCE STUFFED WITH cow feed, two grain silos at a family-run farm near Blanchard now are filled with peacock- and chickenthemed decor. At least twenty-five chickens don the pillows, wall art, and dishes in a bedroom known affectionately as the chicken coop, which looks nothing like the actual chicken coop outside. Dozens of peacock feathers spray the walls of the abutting silo outside where Dwayne, the resident peacock and inspiration for the room, can often be found flashing his vibrant eyespots.

About an hour south of Oklahoma City, these graindominiums are one family’s effort to bring the best of farm life to city folks and suburbanites, weary travelers and students, the curious and the exhausted.

New Releases

Extra Sensory

Inundate your eyes and ears with colorful music and writing by Okie artists.

BY BECKY CARMAN

“The goal is to offer something unique, fun, and peaceful,” says Jennifer Hernandez, who grew up at 3J Farms and now runs it with her husband Luis. “It’s not about luxury. That’s not what farm life is about. It’s about getting your hands dirty and taking in the fresh air, and that’s what we’re offering people.”

The farm’s large metal bins offer cozy beds, heat and air conditioning, and a wet room complete with a shower and toilet in the former dairy barn next door, which also boasts a community kitchen.

Hernandez is one of the three Js—along with her younger brother Jesse and sister Jillian—who grew up working on the dairy farm. Hernandez’s father left in 1988, leaving her mom in charge. A womanrun agricultural operation was almost unheard-of back then, Hernandez says. Her mom struggled to find workers willing to take her direction. She began hiring women who turned out to be gentler with the cows, which led to increased milk production.

That progress wasn’t enough to sustain the single mom of three. In 1992, she sold the milk cows and took up ranching and truck driving and rented land to local farmers to make ends meet.

But that pivot would set the tone for the farm’s future ingenuity. Hernandez took over the farm in 2016 shortly after Jesse died suddenly in a car crash.

“My brother and I, we made plans for this utopian version of the farm that would sustain us when Mom was gone, and I realized if I was going to get any of that done, I’d better start now,” Hernandez says.

She grows seedlings in greenhouses where patrons shop each spring, tends to nearly a hundred head of cattle, and sells grassfed ground beef at farmers’ markets. During the pandemic, Hernandez brought community to her neighbors and fellow farmers who gathered at 3J Farms for themed dinners, miniature farmers’ markets that were more like trading booths, and holiday celebrations. Change became the new normal, and creative solutions became the sustenance on which the family would survive. So when her sister suggested turning the old grain silos into overnight rentals, Hernandez didn’t think twice. They cleaned and insulated the metal cylinders,

Heavy Petal Music

Heavy Petal Music, the new album from Norman rock band Rainbows Are Free, came out digitally, on CD, and on limited-edition vinyl June 9. The songs were recorded live at a Summer Breeze concert in 2021—the band’s first post-pandemic show— and feature a selection of songs from RAF’s fifteenyear history.

THE RADCLIFFE LADIES’ READING CLUB

Tulsa novelist Julia Bryan Thomas released The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club June 6. The book follows protagonist Alice Campbell’s 1950s bookshop-opening journey and explores feminism and friendship. Thomas’ last book, the historical fiction novel For Those Who Are Lost, was released last year.

furnished them with antiques inherited from their grandparents and mom, and opened the first room to guests in September 2021.

Hernandez’s mom Rita Estes, the farm’s matriarch, lives on the hill near where guests arrive at the silos. She can be found driving an all-terrain vehicle checking up on things when the weather’s nice. Hernandez’s sister Jillian Estes visits often, usually leaving a colorfully painted gnome sign or other artful contribution to her former home. Hernandez and her husband are at the farm most days and love greeting guests between chores.

“I like growing food, but I love growing people,” Hernandez says.

All of them occasionally can be found talking to Jesse in a phone booth placed along the main drive, just a short walk from the silos. It’s dedicated to the grieving and the lost—a place where the two can reunite for a few minutes, overlooking 3J Farms. A binder under the nonworking rotary phone includes handwritten messages to loved ones from guests of the farm.

“Grieving people seem to be drawn here for some reason, drawn to me, or to this place, or I don’t know what,” Hernandez says. “It’s amazing what people tell me when they see the booth and hear about my brother. I think we’re all looking for calm, for peace, and that’s what draws us together, this peaceful place.”

> (405) 596-0492

> 3jfarmsok.com

Chroma Crawl

Norman psych rock band Helen Kelter Skelter recently released a new EP called Chroma Crawl in June via Tulsabased label Horton Records. The songs were recorded in 2019 in Oklahoma City with engineer Joe Bello and feature the band’s signature intricate, reverb-drenched songwriting. The EP is available digitally and on CD. helenkelterskelter. bandcamp.com

Patchwork Perfection

Prairie Quilt in Hennessey has thousands of fabrics to create a classic quilt, a modern dress, or anything else you can dream up.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LORI DUCKWORTH

Quilts long have been relegated to Grandma culture along with hard candy and couches covered in plastic. While Prairie Quilt sells everything to make a gorgeous traditional quilt, the shop in Hennessey also has modern patterns—like the Tula Pink collection seen here—for crafting pieces that are contemporary and cozy. The shelves also are stocked with all the notions sewists could possibly need.

PRAIRIE QUILT

> 101 South Main Street in Hennessey

> (405) 853-6801

> prairiequilt.com