Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2019.001.015 |
Object Name |
Clipping, Newspaper |
Title |
Alaskans Remember Oklahomans |
Collection |
Wiley Post Collection |
Creator |
James Johnson |
Scope & Content |
Article discussing Oklahoma Rep. Robert H. Henry and others' trip to Point Barrow, Alaska, where they visited the site of Wiley Post and Will Rogers' fatal plane crash, and spoke with descendants of those who witnessed the crash first hand. |
Date |
08/17/1985 |
Transcription |
[Top] 28 August 17, 1985 Saturday Oklahoman & Times [Top right] A picture of Will Rogers; left, visits with Wiley Post in San Francisco in 1935. [Left] Alaskans Remember Oklahomans By James Johnson Staff Writer Barrow, Alaska --Oklahoma state Rep. Robert H. Henry lost most traces of his case of the Arctic blues Friday as he left the world’s largest Eskimo village here to return to the Sooner State. A bright blue Henry emerged from the waves of the Arctic Ocean Thursday. He had agreed to try a "polar bear dip." The water stood at 27 ½ degrees Fahrenheit, and but for its salt content, would have frozen! Henry’s dip in the Arctic Ocean was part of the Point Barrow observation of the crash which 50 years ago claimed the lives of Oklahomans Will Rogers and Wiley Post. An early effort to reach the isolated cove where the crash occurred was abandoned because of cold rainy weather and a choppy sea. Later Thursday, about 70 people, most of them young locals, paid $10 entry fees, like Henry, to plunge under the waves briefly and win the title "polar bear" on a certificate. About twice that many bystanders stood on the beach in over- coats and hoods watching the swimmers. Swimmers in August in the Arctic Ocean are the stuff that news is made from in Alaska. When Henry emerged from the icy sea, attired only in jogging shorts, a friend threw a blanket around him and got him into a waiting car for a fast drive back to his hotel to thaw. "It wasn’t so bad in the water," the young Lawmaker reflected later at a beef and fish banquet which capped the Post/Rogers anniversary observance. "The rough part was coming out into that wind. And the rocks on the beach were so cold that my feet still haven’t warmed up." he said. Henry, D-Shawnee, and state Sen. Stratton Taylor, D-Claremore, regaled the crowd of Eskimo Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club’s members with some of Will Rogers’ funny sayings. They praised the exploits of aviator Wiley Post and compared the frontier spirit of early Oklahoma to the attitude of modern residents of Barrow. None of the witnesses to the Aug. 15, 1935, aircraft tragedy are living. But their descendents all had stories about how they received the news of the crash and what their fathers and uncles did during the period when they recovered the bodies. As part of the observance, Barrow organized a long-distance run to commemorate the 15 miles run by Claire Oakpeka, who witnessed the crash. Oakpeka ran to Barrow to inform Charles Brauer that two other White men -- "a big man with boots and a man with a rag tied over a sore eye" --had just been killed. Brauer, whom Rogers and Post were on route to visit, recognized the descriptions of his intended guests. Thursday, after the laughter at the pointed sayings of Rogers died, Came a benediction from Able Akpik, Barrow’s Chamber of Commerce president. "I want you folks from Oklahoma to know that Will Rogers was close to us, too." |
People |
James Johnson Robert Henry Wiley Post Will Rogers |
Search Terms |
Alaska Arctic Article Crash Ocean Plane Point Barrow Saturday Oklahoman & Times James Johnson Robert Henry Wiley Post Will Rogers |