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The site is the grave of David Lewis Payne, a cousin of frontier pioneer Davy Crockett, a fighter with U. S. General George Armstrong Custer and the namesake of Payne County.
cousin of frontier pioneer Davy Crockett, a fighter with U. S. General George Armstrong Custer and the namesake of Payne County. But his most enduring moniker has been the“ Father of Oklahoma.”
Payne was a force behind the Boomer Movement of the late 19th Century which insisted that Indian Territory, once pledged to forcibly relocated tribes, should be free to white settlers. His defiance led some to brand him a scoundrel and others a visionary, but he did not live to see his idea prevail.
Just as the Boomer Movement was gaining momentum, Payne, in 1884, died of a heart attack while rallying support in Wellington, Kan. There, he was buried, but a century later, some felt it was not fitting that the eternal home of the so-called Father of Oklahoma should be in, heaven forbid, Kansas. So in 1995, his body was exhumed and reburied with fanfare about 100 miles to the south in Stillwater.( Dale Ingram)
STILLWATER“ TRANSFORMERS”
When the McCubbin family, who owns and operates G & M Body Shop, first installed their giant metal robot sculptures inspired by the movie“ Transformers” 10 years ago, they stopped traffic.
Both 22-feet tall, the sculptures are two of five Transformers statues in the United States. Optimus Prime is located on the south side of Highway 51 on the east side of Stillwater, and Bumblebee is on the north side of Highway 51 on the west side of Stillwater.
Matt McCubbin and his dad, Mikal, got the idea to buy the Transformers when they saw a giant figure of the Transformers character Optimus Prime made from used vehicle parts and scrap metal on display at Ripley’ s Believe it or Not in Branson, Missouri. They negotiated with the firm in Thailand who makes the sculptures and had them shipped to Stillwater, then refurbished the robots themselves.
The robots attracted throngs of people the day they first went up, and they continue to draw people to town.
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The full‘ A Christmas Carol’ cast after dress rehearsal in December 2024
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