Newsletter title

May 2010

In This Edition

Ranch Clean-up Work Day, A Trip Through Time

—Dennis Bires

Many thanks to the fifteen hard-working docents, led by Preserve Director Bob Hamilton, who spent the day on April 24 clearing out accumulated ranch debris, equipment, and fencing around the Florence Jones homestead on recently acquired Preserve property. Many decades were represented in the metal, rubber, twine, and glass volunteers stacked for later removal by a front-end loader and truck. Even a kitchen sink was recovered from the old barn, where it had been rigged as a feeder. One docent salvaged a 1942 printing of a 1915 volume on judging various breeds of livestock. Docents did not attempt to remove the aging railroad boxcar, which the vacating tenant has committed to taking out on a flatbed truck. Several volunteers saved bulbs from a spreading patch of yellow iris in the ranch house front yard.

Mathews Cabin

Following a balmy picnic lunch in the yard, the work crew took a brief excursion to the nearby John Joseph Mathews cabin and gravesite, situated on land leased by The Nature Conservancy. Mathews, an Osage historian, novelist, and World War I Army Air Corps pilot, spent a decade during the Great Depression and Second World War living in The Blackjacks, where he minutely observed and recorded the flora, fauna, and weather of the Cross Timbers and Tallgrass Prairie for his 1945 memoir, Talking to the Moon, which is available for purchase in the Preserve Visitor’s Center. Latin scholars among the docents translated the inscription above the sandstone cabin’s arched fireplace: To hunt, to swim, to laugh, to ride — that is to live.

Mathews Cabin

Oklahoma State University librarian, graduate student, and work day participant Karen Neurohr, whose husband is docent George Neurohr, kindly distributed a booklet she edited detailing John Joseph Mathews’ biography and literary career. Karen read aloud excerpts from Talking to the Moon both inside and outside the cabin, transporting all of us back three quarters of a century. A few volunteers expressed a fond wish to spend a year, or maybe a decade, living in the cabin in the blackjacks. Everyone seemed to hope the cabin will someday be restored to its original comfort and appeal.

Mathews Cabin

Mathews’ first book, a history of the Osage Nation entitled Wah’kon-tah: The Osage and the White Man’s Road (1929) is also available in the Visitor’s Center.

Mathews Cabin

—Teresa Ediger

On Saturday, April 24, nearly a dozen docent volunteers spent the day cleaning up junk, metal and all sorts of debris from the old Buck farmstead in preparation for demolition and burning by the Tallgrass Prairie Fire Crew. It was sad to see a great place like that go; but good to know we can return that area back to prairie soon. The goal is to leave as little human imprint there as possible. Not all of the day was work however. Bob Hamilton led the group on a private tour of the old John Joseph Mathews cabin located nearby. The cabin (off limits to the public) whispered of a romantic and adventurous era gone by. It was almost as if you could still see the old author, sitting in front of the fireplace with his dog and pipe, or tending the flowers that still grow so fragrantly in his yard. It was a real treat!

Mathews Cabin

Docent History

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

We begin a new column that looks at the history of the Docent Program through the lens of the early Docent newsletters. Iris McPherson has a full collection of back issues that she is scanning for us. She says:

I was in the class of 1995, so that’s when I started receiving the newsletter. There was only one class before mine, and I think Jo Brooks is the only person who still occasionally comes from the first class, 1994. Dick and Sally Baker of Tulsa from the 1994 class were very active docents, and it’s possible that they have copies of any earlier newsletters.

Each month you will have the opportunity see what we were doing fifteen years ago in our new section Voices from the Past, beginning with The Docent News from June 1995.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

There were 735 people from 34 states (708) and 11 countries (27) who signed in during April. There were 467 from Oklahoma with California and Texas tying with 30 each and Kansas followed with 21. The highest number of international visitors came from Germany with 8. We did add 3 new countries in April: El Salvador, Jamaica and Niger.

The history of visitor counts for April is shown below:

Keep up the good work getting people to sign the visitor’s registry.

Garden Bird Feeders on Trial

—New Scientist Editorial

Feeding wild birds has become a near universal pastime in backyards and on balconies around the world. But now comes evidence that this can spread disease among the very creatures it is supposed to benefit.....

Read the article by following this link:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627552.600-garden-bird-feeders-on-trial.html.

Of Ants and Men

—Sam Kean

He’s defined the field of entomology and influenced generations of naturalists. But though his tale is seen through insect eyes, it’s really about us. Why would E. O. Wilson write a novel? He tells Sam Kean that he hopes Anthill — about militant ants and the coupled fate of humans and nature — will spark a conservation revolution.

Read the interview by following this link:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627550.400-e-o-wilson-why-i-wrote-a-novel--about-ants.html?full=true&print=true.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

I use the schedule to compute our coverage. In March we did much better than I thought. John Boxall reports that the Visitor’s Center was closed officially due to snowy weather when he was to have been on duty. He checked with Anita, decided to stay at home instead of making a risky journey and removed his name from the the schedule. I’ve made corrections and now show March with 100-percent coverage. This is a really good start to the year.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

 

Voices from the Past

—Iris McPherson

A docent’s life was more rudementary in 1995, as you will see from Marty Marina’s June Docent Newssssss Letter. The Pawhuska High School Vo-Tech class completed construction of the ladies’ bathroom. Osage Heritage day was on the 17th. — Is this still an event? There was even talk of getting central air conditioning for the shop; meanwhile, docents were making do with a couple of box fans. And Sweet Sue Answers You. Read all about it via this link: Docent Newssssss Letter, June 1995.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

Over time, a matter of several weeks continuous operation, I have noticed that calibration of the touch-screen drifts away from the initial set-point. If you notice that the cursor isn’t under your finger when you touch the screen then restart the kiosk by unplugging it from the wall, waiting a few moments and then re-inserting the power plug. It will restart and recalibrate.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Some printed back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

All back issues are available electronically via the links shown below. All newsletters prior to December 2007 are available in Portable Document Format (PDF), which means that you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these files. All newsletters from December 2007 onwards are in HTML format that is easily read using your web-browser.

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Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.