2009
30th Annual
International Festival
September 25, 26, 27
Elmer Thomas Park
Lawton, Oklahoma
More information here.

Established on August 6, 1901, Lawton, Oklahoma will turn 108 this year.
Click here to find out more about the August 1st ceremony and free concert in Elmer Thomas Park featuring Tim Tate Nevaquuaya and the Bobby Dale Band.

Bobby Dale Band

Our newest member Aaron  Brummitt, will attend our next GSCOAS meeting at noon on Saturday May 23. He is employed by the Tennessee Valley authority to assist Fort Sill in maintaining compliance with the federal cultural resources regulations. Mr. Brummitt received his baccalaureate degree from the University of Tennessee and his Master's Degree from the University of South Carolina .

As a means of introducing himself to the group, Aaron will lead a discussion about some of the previous projects he has worked on, and describe his current role assisting in cultural resource consultation and conducting archaeological surveys at Fort Sill.

Aaron will have handouts with some photos to assist with the discussion.

The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information call Debra Baker at 580-581-3460.

Schedule
8:30 – 9:30 OAS Board Meeting
9:30 – 10:00 Registration and Refreshments (Registration is $5.00)
10:00 – 11:00 Towana Spivey, “Military Forts on the Red River”
11:00 – 12:00 K.C Kraft, “Fort (Camp) Nichols, No Man’s Land: Kit Carson
and the Santa Fe Trail”
12:00 – 1:15 Lunch on your own. Pick up a list of recommendations at the registration table. Comanche National Museum is open in case you want to make time to see it.
1:30 – 2:15 Charles Wallis, Jr., “An Introduction to Fort Reno: Past and Future”
2:15 – 3:00 Business Meeting, Awards and Election of OAS Officers and Directors
3:00 – 3:30 Mike McKay, “Archaeology at Fort Gibson: Summary and Surprises”
3:30 – 4:30 Tim Poteete, “Coffee’s Station”
4:30 – 5:00 Tour the Museum
5:00 – 5:45 GSCOAS Podcast Recording for Debitage – guest, K.C. Kraft
6:00 Dinner - Reservations at Bianco’s Italian Restaurant

Sunday Sightseeing Schedule
9:30 Meet at the Museum Parking Lot/Drive to Fort Sill Museum
9:45 – 11:45 Fort Sill – Cannon Walk and Museum Tour
11:45 – 12:00 Travel to Medicine Park
12:00 – 1:15 Lunch at the Plantation in Medicine Park
1:15 – 2:15 Touring Medicine Park/River Walk
2:15 – 3:00 Drive over to the Visitor Center
3:00 – 3:30 Visitor Center at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge
3:30 – 4:30 Sightseeing at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge

Chapter Meeting
October 25

On Saturday October 25 we'll meet to go over our Bylaws. We'll meet at our usual time 2 p.m., at the Museum.
Also, we'd like to talk about what we want to do next year.
And finally, we're hoping you have some good ideas on how to increase our membership.
If there's anything you'd like to add to our agenda, please send it to gscoas@gmail.com

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
at the Museum of the Great Plains
601 NW Ferris Avenue
Lawton, Oklahoma

Events include International Sports Day and Free Concerts with Featured Performers

The 2008 International Festival in Lawton, OK will be held September 26, 27, and 28. The hours are Friday, 5-10 pm, Saturday, 11 am-10 pm, and Sunday, 12-5 pm.

It continues to celebrate and highlight our area’s diverse cultures.  The festival is a project of the Lawton Arts and Humanities Council’s International Festival Committee and the City of Lawton.

The festival opens 5 pm, Friday and the Opening Ceremony follows at 6 pm on the 2nd Street Stage.  The highlight of this event is the Naturalization Oath Ceremony where many will take the Oath of Allegiance to become US citizens receiving their Certificates of Naturalization.

What is new this year?
The festival will be held in Elmer Thomas Park located at 3rd and Ferris Avenue.  We are so excited to launch the festival in this new location.  Some of the added amenities for the festival include, room for more attractions, parking adjacent to festival grounds, vendor parking on site, additional electrical and water sources, tour bus parking, shuttle bus transportation, completely handicap accessible, restroom facilities, and more!

In addition to our traditional events, International Sports Festival Day is set for Saturday, September 27 at Lawton High School and in Elmer Thomas Park.  Events include NFL Punt, Pass, & Kick, Disc Golf, Tennis, Fishing, and Basketball Tournaments, Football Jamboree, and Track & Field. Click here for more information.   

Everyone can participate in this citywide celebration by becoming a volunteer. It is a great way to meet new people in the community, get work experience for your resume, gain visibility for your organization or business, family or group activity, and just have FUN!!                                                                    

Throughout the three-day event, festivalgoers will have an opportunity to see multi-national entertainment, taste cuisine from more than 25 vendors, and browse the markets of the international vendors.

Free Concerts with Featured Performers
Friday Night
Needfire (Celtic Rock) www.needfire.com (Texas & Scottish artists)
Polka Kings (German & Polka) (Oklahoma artist)

Saturday
Arabesque World Music & Puppets (Arabic & Irish) www.ourarabesque.com (Oklahoma artist)

Saturday Evening
Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers (Oklahoma Folk/Rock) www.myspace.com/samanthacrain (Oklahoma artist)

Saturday Night
Beyond the Pale (World Music) www.beyond-the-pale.com (Texas artist)
Under the Influence (Texas country with the Red Dirt flavor) www.undertheinfluenceband.com (Texas artist)

Sunday Afternoon
LAAND (Greek) www.laand.com (Texas artist)
Blood Washed Blues Band (Blues & Southern Rock)
www.myspace.com/bwbb1 (Oklahoma artist)
Mariachi Orgullo de America (Mexico) www.mariachiorgullo.com (Oklahoma artist)

Visit www.cityof.lawton.ok.us/lahc for schedules (Note lineup and schedule may be subject to change beyond our control) or call 580-581-3470 or 581-3471, or email us at lahc@cityof.lawton.ok.us.

For more information about the International Sports Festival Day, contact Reginald Seaton, at 580-581-3400 or email Rseaton@cityof.lawton.ok.us  For all events and locations, No pets are allowed, only service animals, please.

Poster (pdf)

Synopsis:  Between 12,000 and 10,500 years ago, 33 major species of  mammals became extinct in North America.  Among them such large forms as horses, camels, ground sloths, cave bears, lion, mastodons, and mammoths.  Because the period of extinction overlaps with archaeological evidence for the arrival of humans, particular those carrying the Clovis material culture, it has been argued that Clovis people were responsible for the die-off.  Such an explanation is increasingly in question as new evidence is available about the arrival, and point of arrival, of Clovis groups as well as significant climatic changes occurring around 10,900 years ago. Dr. Wyckoff's talk will delve into these questions and some of the new findings that bear on the interaction of people spreading across the North American continent.

Biography:  Dr. Don Wyckoff's PH.D. is from Washington State University; graduated in 1980 when Mt. St. Helens erupted!  He has worked as an archeologist in Oklahoma for 47 years, first for the Oklahoma River Basin Surveys here at the University of Oklahoma, then as Oklahoma's first State Archaeologist.  From 1968 to 1996 he was Director of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.  From 1996 to present: teaching half time for the Department of Anthropology at OU and half time curator of archaeology for the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at OU.  In April of  2008, O.U. President David Boren announced Dr. Wyckoff as the recipient of a David Ross Boyd Presidential professorship.  Dr. Wyckoff is involved with research on ice-age environments in Oklahoma, with hunter-gatherer societies here between 10,000 and 2,000 years ago, and with the sources of knappable stone favored by hunting and gathering people throughout prehistory on the Southern Plains.

Other interesting links where you'll find out more about Dr. Wycoff and his work include this interview with the History Detectives,  and this one at OU faculty pages.

Gerald Franklin, an artist-blacksmith who works outof Black Bull Forge near Duncan will be our guest this Saturday. Gerald accepts private commissions and has work in homes all over Oklahoma and Texas.  He has studied under several nationally known artist-blacksmiths to include Robert Patrick of Everton, Arkansas, and Tal Harris, of Waxhaw, North Carolina.  Gerald's work includes historic reproductions and contemporary style pieces.

Gerald is a member of the Saltfork Craftsmen Artist-Blacksmith Association and has served on the Board of Directors of that organization since 2004.  He also serves as the Education Coordinator for Saltfork.
 
Gerald does several public demonstrations a year around Oklahoma and North Texas.  He specializes in educational demonstrations for young people and has brought the magic of metal art to numerous school groups across the region.

GSC-OAS Monthly Meeting

Saturday March 22

2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Guest Leland Bement

From Mammoth Hunters to Bison Hunters: Culture Change During The Younger Dryas

As the glaciers began to melt 12,000 years ago an abrupt climate change cast the world back into ice age conditions.  This event is known as the Younger Dryas.  During this time in North America people of the Clovis culture were hunting mammoths and other large animals.  At the start of the Younger Dryas the mammoths went extinct, forcing the hunters to shift to hunting other animals.  Archaeology in Oklahoma adds to this research.  A look at the changing climate and cultures during this period will be presented from the perspective of excavations in Oklahoma. 

Dr. Bement is an archaeologist with the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, OU.  He has been with the Survey for 16 years and specializes in Paleoindian cultures, animal bones, and environmental reconstructions.

 Museum of the Great Plains

601 NW Ferris Avenue

Lawton, Oklahoma 

Randy presently serves as City Manager of Grandfield, and Trustor of the local Historic Preservation Commission, within the Grandfield community and Big Pasture area. He has worked with the Oklahoma Historical Society toward the preservation of local historic properties, and the downtown area, that have recently been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, in an effort to preserve various aspects of the past culture and history of the Big Pasture. As Chairman of the Tillman County Water Development Authority, and appointee as a Stake Holder to the Economic Development of Tillman County, he is a part of the present day effort toward the betterment of communities and organizations within Tillman and western Cotton County. He is a third generation Farmer & Rancher in the Big Pasture Area and a member of the Oklahoma Brangus Breeders Association.

A great, great grandson of John Wesley James, who was a first cousin to Frank and Jessie James, he grew up along the banks of Brush Creek in the Big Pasture area, where he discovered the renowned Brush Creek Flint Cache in1968. He has since discovered other prehistoric and historic era artifacts.
Having an interest in the anthropology and history of the Big Pasture, he was entrusted with the organization of the Big Pasture Centennial Celebration and the historic KCA Powwow that was held in September 2007. Randy said, "It was important that all participants and aspects of the Celebration were tangible links to the history and anthropology of the Big Pasture."

Randy will discuss the history of the Big Pasture, beginning with the days of the Spanish explorer Coronado to the establishment of the Big Pasture. He will also talk about present day culture and economy, as well as the significance of the Centennial Celebration.