Pawhuska Daily Journal-Capital (Pawhuska, Okla.), Vol. 75, No. 208, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 20, 1985 Page: 10 of 20
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Page 10. Pawhuska Daily Journal-Capital, Sunday, October 20,1985
Prairie:
Outling the details
establishment of a National Prairie the Government had no business
Preserve in the ranch lands north buying more land-it had enough
By Sunny Tiedemann
Editors Note: This is part three of a
four part series on the Tailgrass
Prairie Preserve that the National
Park Service propses to establish
north of Pawhuska, OK.
Bartlesville, OK-“How can you be
for or against something when you
don't even know what we’ve got out
there?”
A lot of people are for the Prairie
Preserve project. Others are not.
Passions are heating up in Osage
County.
Nothing as serious as the range
wars of the Old West, but these
people care-about their community,
their heritage, their future.
As he stepped into the hallway
from the meeting room, the flash of
a camera blinded him, Lee
Holcombe, chairman of the Task
Force studying the proposed Prairie
project, was started. The man
behind the camera was Dick Surber,
leader of the opposition.
Holcombe was irritated, but he is
a wizened and tough cattleman, not
easily intimidated and certainly not
by a flash camera.
Dick Surber is the organizer of
and northwest of Pawhuska,
Oklahoma. Three of the larger
ranchers in the area, the Barnard
heirs and the Adams family, have
Stop the Osage Prairie Project, a
small but vocal group dedicated to expressed willingness to sell
calling attention to objections acreage to the National Park Ser-
concerning the proposed Prairie
Project.
“We would like for all these things
that the Task Force and the Nature
Conservancy advocate to be public
knowledge. We would like for the
paper to print the truth,” Surber
says.
The issue at hand is the proposed
vice for the express purpose of
preserving the almost lost prairie.
now.
“1 agreed to be on the Task Force
because the cattlemen had to have
some representation, regardless of
which way it went. I believe that the
cattle industry will be affected more
than any other.
“I agree that we have a very
Holcombe, a former President of unique natureal resource-unique to
the Osage Cattlemen’s Association the world. There is a reason to
had fought against the establish- preserve a part of the pairie, but
ment of a prairie park ten years ago, there’s no reason for the Govern-
He says this time it is different. ment to own the whole world.”
“When I was asked to serve on this The original estimate was from
Task Force I was opposed to it, very 150,000 acres to way over 300,000
much so. But I suspected that this .acres. “That’s what they felt like
was a different approach than the they had to have, ” says Holcombe,
last time. We have a willing buyer- “Now I’m opposed to that. Dick
willing seller situation, a cattle Surber is opposed to it. We’re not
economy that’s in a wreck, and we going to have that as long as we have
didn’t have the threat of con- a Task Force.”
demnation that we sought the time Holcombe says that the finally
before,” Holcombe says, realized thatwith the interest in the
In November, 1984, Senator Don prairie by various federal con-
Nickles wrote the National Park servation groups, and with the
Service regarding the establishment presence of willing buyers and
of a national prairie preserve in willing sellers, “We’re going to have
Osage County, Oklahoma.
a Preserve, whether we like it or
The Park Service replied in a not.”
letter stamped January 11, 1985, Dick Whetsell agreees, A local
expressing interest in such a rancher who was involved in the
preserve and stating that the tiny opposition to a similar project that
remnant of prairie “located in the was proposed in the Kansas -
Osage Hills of Oklahoma, was rated Oklahoma area 10 years ago,
the most desireable in terms of Whetsell has become an active
ecological, scenic, and cultural supporter of the present preserve,
resources and management He believes that one of the large
STEW OR CHILI was the order of the day at the
Huskies Moms annual fundraiser, held Friday evening,
prior to the Huskies victory over the Skiatook Bulldogs,
13 to 6. The Moms served the fans a great meal and the
Huskies gave their fans a cliff hanger of a ballgame.
The chili supper is traditionally the biggest function put
on by the Huskies Moms during the year leading up to
the All Sports banquet. A computation of the benefit will
be run this week. This fundraising marked the first time
stew was included along with the chili. This year's
dinner was held as always, at the Elementary Cafeteria.
(J C Photo by Nelson Carter.)
PAWHUSKA
Aleritaqe 9
potential..”
In December, 1984, Senator
Nickles had appointed a Task Force
to study the proposed Prairie
Preserve. That committee, com-
posed of five Pawhuska
businessmen, was commissioned to
look into the proposal and report
back to Senator Nickles.
“The people in this area, as far as
government owning of land, have
never had anything to do with the
Park Service,” says Holcombe.
“But we have had experience with
the Corps of Enginerers.” Lee
Holcombe's spurs jingle on his boots
as he shifts in his chair.
“My parents were condemned off
the spillway of Hulah Lake back
toward the end of the war. We had a
bad last ein our mouth from the way
the Corps of Engineers treats
people. I didn’t feel that the Park
Service was qualified to manage a
Tall Grass Prairie. I also felt that
conservation groups like the Audubon
Society or the Nature Conservancy
will buy some land if this proposed
project does not go through. Ac-
cording to Whetsell, the only reason
that they haven’t done so before now
is that they do not have the
resources to manage such a project.
Whetsell says that having area
citizens help to write the legislation
will assure that the Prairie Preserve
will be developed under the best of
circumstances, not only for the
people involved, but for the prairie.
Ralph Adkisson, member of the
Osage TRIBAL Council and avid
opponent to the project, says that the
Task Force and the Park Service are
mistaken when they claim that they
have a willing buyer - willing seller
situation.
His quiet voice strengthens with
conviction. “The Preserve people
do not have the clear, willing seller
that they’re advocating that they
have unless they get the Tribe to sell
their mineral rights.”
“This is an aspect they are
erroneous about,” he says.
“There will be a visitor’s enter,
parking, maybe an animal habitat,
trails-they will put improvements
on the land to attract people. Theat
means that if an oil-gas lessee wants
to get a lease, he can’t get a lease
there. It will be taken out of the
lease estate. Therefore, if youre
going to take a mineral estate,
you’re going to have to have the
Tribe sell or you are going to have to
condemn.
“The Tribe will not sell, so the only
way you can take it iss by eminent
domain, condemnation.”
The Task Force and the Park
Service say that no lands (other than
roadways) will be acquired by
condemnation, that the Osage In-
dians will still have their mineral
rights, and that drilling will still be
allowed. They go so far as to say
that specific legislation will be
enacted to ensure this protection.
Park Service representative Jack
Linahan, who is in charge of the
Chickasaw Recreation Area in
Sulphur, Oklahoma, says he has
“personalily worked with oil and gas
rights at Padre Island” and does not
anticipate any trouble.
“There’s 31 working wells on
Padre Island right now and there’s a
bunch of them in Big Thicket,”
Linahan said in a telephone in-
terview. “So that’s nothing new,
either. The idea does not preclude
extraction at all. That's become
part of the scene now.”
Task Force members believe that
a prairie park is inevitable. They
prefer to have a say in the
development of the Preserve rather
thatn having it forced on them.
Holcombe says, “We might have a
group or a coalition, such as the
Nature Conservancy and the Sierra
Club or other groups find a sugar
daddy to come in and buy a bunch of
land, close to what they think they
need. If we don’t address this wih
legislation, then they would buy that
and give it to the Park Service. It’s
been done before. That causes real
controversy-everyone will then be
mad.”
The Nature Conservancy is a
conservation organization backed
by funding from private con-
(Continued on Page 11)
CL U3
A M6
H II
| di 0
t/o vember 15th & 16th
(hiyJnnua D
Celebrating with
Saturday, October 26, 1985, 10:00 A.M.
SMITH 7 BAR RANCH 3% MILES N W. OF FAIRFAX, OKI ARONIA ON CITY LAKE ROAD
WATCH FOR COPELIN AUCTION DIRECTION SIGNS. THIS AUC TION DOES NOT HAVE MANY
SMALL ITEMS, so Bt ON TIME THIS Auction IS TO SETTLE THE ESTATE OF GEORGE
B. SMITH.
Bread & Chill Cool-oll
Trophies will be awarded
orseshoePitch
Winner will receive Prize Money
Awa & Calls
Food Booths will be set up
for your enjoyment
to enhance our celebration.
lease submit histo ric at
picture 5 and sto ries
I our
rilaqe
ys highlights.
HORSES SADDLES, & TACK
I Hay Gelding (Kid Broke -
Smooth Mouth)
1 Hay Mare (Smooth Mouth)
I Rlack Gelding (Smooth Mouth)
I Nay Gelding (Smooth Mouth)
I l’aliminn Gelding (Smooth
Mouth)
1 Ray Gelding (11 yrs. old)
1 \ ppalonse Mare (7 yrs. old)
All Horses Well Broke
2 Saddles
Miscellanous Tack
TRICKS & TRACTORS
I 19N1 71 Ton Chevrolet Pick-
up with Standard Bed.
1 1971 3/1 Ton International
l’ickup with Flatbed.
1 1963 1 Ton International Truck
with Cable Dump Bed.
1 1958 1/2 Ton Ford Pickup
1 1966 4 24 Diesel International
Tractor.
1 1962 4010 Diesel John Deere
Tractor with Front End Scoop.
FARM MACHINERY & CATTLE
HANDUNG EQUIPMENT
1 1980 Stidham 14° Stock
Trailor.
1 John Deere, 4 Bottom Plaw.
1 John Deere 14’ Tandum Disc.
1 New Holland Baler (Small
Bales)
1 150 Gal Bean Cattle
1 Side Delivery Rake
1 Roller
I Homemade Drag
1 Brush Hog
Sprayer
1 Tractor Post Hole Digger
I Calf Working Table
1 Silver King Squeeze Chute
3 36 Ton Bulk Feed Tanks (Drive
Under, Gravity Flow)
1 Bulk Cake Feeder, fits Pickup
I Forney Welder
1 Air Compressor
1 500 Gal. Gas Tank (On Stand)
1 Propane Bot»le
45 Railroad Ties
Misc. Fencing Supplies, Posts,
Wire
HAY
Approximately 200 Tons of Al-
falfa Hay in Hay Shed
HOUSEHOLD GOODS
TERMS: CASH
1 Gibson Refrigerator
1 Kenmore Electric 4 Burner
Kitchen Range
NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENTS
Owner: George B. Smith Estate - Cecil Ince, Administor
Sale Conducted by COPELIN AUCTION SERVICE - Blackwell, Okla. . Phone 363-5753
1020 W. Main
1985
Oldsmobile
Regency
Brougham
4-door sedan
287-3100
1985
Buick
LeSabre
4-door sedan
of the full size LeSabre
Last 3 1
1985 models
in stock...
1985
GMC
1 ton
Cab Chassis
454 engine
with air conditioning
STOKENBERRY
MOTORS, INC.
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Gray, Louis. Pawhuska Daily Journal-Capital (Pawhuska, Okla.), Vol. 75, No. 208, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 20, 1985, newspaper, October 20, 1985; Pawhuska, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2286470/m1/10/: accessed July 17, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.