Tag Archives: Claremore

Return of the Big Boy

This past midmorning Monday my friend, Tom, and I ventured up to nearby Claremore, Oklahoma to see Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” steam powered locomotive roll into town on the homebound leg of the “Heartland of America” tour where it went through 23 states. Tom and I saw it in Vinita, Oklahoma three years ago and we wanted to watch it again.

This is the train entering town. I was taking video with my cell phone and had my “good camera” in the other hand. I wished I had stuck with the video a little longer but oh well.

They are massive machines. The drive wheels are 58 inches in diameter. The engine and it’s tender weigh 1.2 million pounds and stretches 132 feet long. It’s so long the engine is articulated because it can’t negotiate some of the track curves otherwise.

Union Pacific ordered twenty five of these monsters in 1941 for service between Logan, Utah and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Big Boy, engine number 2014 was delivered in 1941 and was retired in 1961. UP reacquired it from a museum in 2013 and refurbished it and it re-entered service in 2019 in time to celebrate UP’s 150’th anniversary. It is the only engine of its type still in service. Seven others are on view at museums around the country. Get the deets here. Presently the Big Boy is the biggest Steam Locomotive in the world.

The engine is on its way back to Cheyenne, Wyoming on October 23, and will be available for viewing at several spots, including Denver. Check out the schedule here.

Fore some reason I didn’t think there would be that many people interested. Boy was I wrong. We had to park and walk a long ways. The designated viewing was kind of cramped so we were kind of crammed into a small space and it was hard to get a view without a lot of people.

This makes it look like the train is tearing through a bunch of Okies, but it wasn’t. UP had a ton of their Railroad Police going up and down the track telling people “Get off the tracks, there is a train coming.” Lots of people put coins down on the track and when the train stopped, they asked the RR Cops if they could reach under the train to retrieve their coins and were asked if their lives were worth a penny.

But hey, almost everyone had big smiles on their faces. Something about a monster locomotive makes people happy.

Tom and I decided to leave cuz it didn’t seem that the train crew was in any hurry.

Here is my post from seeing Big Boy in 2021.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World.

A Visit to the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma

Will Rogers Statue HDR

My brother Bob and I drove to Tulsa suburb of Claremore to visit the Will Rogers Museum. Will Rogers may be the most popular Okie ever. Even more revered than Garth Brooks. Will Rogers was a humorist, author, actor (both film and broadway), radio personality, author, and columnist. He was known for his folksy ways and friendly demeanor. His most popular saying was that he “Never met a man he didn’t like.” He was born on November 4, 1879 on a ranch near Oolagah, Oklahoma and died in an airplane crash in Alaska on August 15, 1935.

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He grew up ranching of and worked his way into wild west shows and later vaudeville doing roping tricks. Later he was in Broadway plays and movies.

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The museum is chock full of Will Rogers information and art. Their are statues of him, art of him. They have film clips of him. And all sorts of information about him and many of his possessions are on display including a large collection of saddles.

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I loved all the movie posters. They have mock ups of the various rooms in his house in California where he lived when his film career blossomed. The museum is very nice and you can tell that it is a labor of love for the staff and volunteers that work there. You get a very good sense of the man. Talented yet humble and a very understated manner of speaking. I left there wondering, “Who is our Will Rogers today.”

Will Rogers riding horse hdr

Will  Rogers is buried on the grounds there on a site overlooking the beautiful hills of Oklahoma. I love this statue that they have near the grave.

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Here is a carboard cutout of Will along with my brother. Sorry about the dark shot.

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Soon, I will have a post about Rogers’ birthplace in nearby Oolagah. Brother Bob and I ventured up there after our visit to the museum.

If you want to visit the Will Rogers Museum click on the link. They have lots and lots of information including the basics such as where they are and when they are open.