Just Thinkin’-
Oklahoma Highways,
I believe we have completed my News Year traditions. We watched the crystal ball descend into the huddled masses assembled in New York City’s Times Square. We watched the pinecone drop from the balcony of the Weatherford Hotel in Flagstaff. The Times Square ball dropped to a professional presentation of John Lennon’s Imagine. The pinecone descended as the strains of Old Ang Syne filled the intersection of Leroux and San Francisco Streets. The traditional melody pleases me.
Lastly, I went to the table and began marking the family birthdays and anniversaries onto our 2026 Arizona Highways calendar. There are few calendars I would judge to be works of art but these are. The landscape photos are truly things of incredible beauty.
Arizona Highways. This magazine for the promotion of tourism and business was founded over 100 years ago. Arizona Highways is that rare undertaking that never lost sight of its mission. Arizona’s western heritage is captured in skillfully crafted stories. The photographs of their diverse landscape are breathtaking. Their writers and photographers are among the best in the world.
Not many magazines arrive in our home any longer. Arizona Highways and Southern Living.
Why don’t we have a subscription to Oklahoma Highways? It’s a trick question. There is no such magazine. I think there should be.
That would require financial support from the State of Oklahoma because to flourish the magazine must be virtually ad-free. Such a magazine is selling only one thing, Oklahoma.
I believe we have it all from unpopulated physical beauty, a frontier heritage and an unequalled Native American culture.
You don’t have to have a Grand Canyon to have beauty. I have a photo taken from the spot where the road tops the hill as you head down toward Lake John Wells that I believe is grand. The road leading to the lake below is framed by native oaks. Beyond the lake, an oak covered hillside rises gently toward a blue, sparsely clouded summer sky.
Do I believe an Arizona Highways model would work for Oklahoma? Yes. But I pray we have the patience to allow it to grow.
Why has Arizona Highways been so successful in promoting Arizona? It is my opinion that it is all about an intense and unrelenting desire to be the best. From the paper on which it is printed to the excellence of photographs to unbelievable writers. From its founding just over 100 years ago to today, brilliance has been identified and then nurtured.
Oh, I agree that as to its landscape, Arizona has a remarkable diversity. The backcountry of eastern Oklahoma has its own diversity. I have written about it and will again. It is too breathtaking to ignore.
I settled into an Adirondack Chair in January. Through the coke fizz a squirrel spoke to me. Choctaw Highways. Cherokee Highways. There is proven patience.
He that can have patience can havc what he will. – Benjamin Franklin
