Rogers’ California Ranch ranger, docents visit Claremore, Oologah
Different view
California Park Ranger Tim Hayden is accustomed to looking out over the Will Rogers Santa Monica Mountain range and the California ranch that was the Rogers’ home when Will Rogers died in 1935. In Claremore, he stood on the hilltop at Will Rogers Memorial and looked out at the statue of Will on Soapsuds and the city of Claremore
Solemn moment
It was a solemn moment for California Park Ranger Tim Hayden when he walked into the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore and caught site of the Jo Davidson statue. Hayden, a ranger at the Will Rogers State Park in California, made his first visit to Claremore.
Oklahoma ranch home
California Park Ranger Tim Hayden, who oversees the Will Rogers State Park and Ranch in California, along with docents Leo Melzer and Barry Ruben visited the Oklahoma ranch, where Will was born.
A California park ranger brought a little bit of Will Rogers’ California history to his Oklahoma heritage when he visited the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore and Birthplace Ranch near Oologah.
Timothy Hayden solemnly and privately spread soil from the Santa Monica Ranch, where Will lived at the time of his death, on the hillside below the museum and at the ranch where longhorn cattle still roam the range.
Everyday Claremore residents can look to the west and see the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, a hilltop edifice on a site where Will Rogers may have retired but for his untimely death Aug. 15, 1935 in an Alaskan plane crash.
Betty Rogers, Will’s widow, gave the 20-acre site to the state of Oklahoma for a museum to honor her husband’s memory. Not long after his death, she gave their California ranch and home to the state of California for a state park.
“Our mission is to keep the ranch like it was when Will Rogers lived there,” said Hayden, who calls the Will Rogers State Park and Ranch his home. As supervising ranger, he lives at the entry to the Santa Monica Ranch where the Topanga Sector of the California state park system is headquartered.
Ranger Tim was in Claremore with two of the ranch docents — their first time in Oklahoma — to learn more about the man they talk about every day to California ranch visitors.
“It was time for me to do a pilgrimage. I felt I needed to visit the Memorial. I had heard things from people who visited, especially the family. It was important for me to come here,” he said. His voice breaking, he told about bringing dirt from the California ranch to spread near the burial site in Claremore and at the birthplace ranch at Oologah.
Familiar with all things “Will” in California, he said he was going away with a new perspective and a love of the Claremore museum
“I am just in awe at how well everything is presented … very interested in the Children’s Museum. The diorama display makes Will’s life accessible. The edifice is magnificent.
“And of course I had to touch his shoe.”
He first visited the California ranch as a fourth grader with his school group. “For us. his life is a sort of microcosm of history of LA, the growth of LA, a good way to teach California history, especially about LA history.”
Ranger Tim emphasized the house in California is “more of a shrine. Our mission is to maintain it like it was when the family was there. The house interprets itself.”
The house features a 1929 state of the art kitchen, filled with new appliances, an all-electric kitchen … Will liked all gadgets.”
“It’s amazing to find out what a great man he was, the people he knew. He was the No. 1 movie star, the most popular man in the world. It’s like putting Tom Hanks, Larry King, Oprah and Jon Stewart all together. He was a huge cultural figure.”
Rangers are sworn police officers who graduate their own academy and undergo field training before assignment He was been a ranger since 2002 and wears the ranger hat made famous by early day park and forest rangers.
“My picture is in scrapbooks all over the world,” he said laughing, “but it’s not about me, it’s about the hat.”
Six rangers, supervising ranger and Lynette Hernandez, Topanga Sector superintendent, are headquartered at the Will Rogers Ranch.
The 186-acre Will Rogers State Historical Park connects to Topanga State Park. At 15,000 acres, Topanga is the largest wilderness area within boundaries of a major city in the United States. The parks are located entirely within the Los Angeles city limits and are bound by such exclusive neighborhoods as Pacific Palisades and Brentwood (a neighborhood identified during the infamous O.J. Simpson trial) and canyons.
Will Rogers Park is the gateway to Santa Monica Mountains — entry to the Backbone Trail System, which runs the entire length of the Santa Monica Mountains to Oxnard in Ventura County, according to Ranger Tim.
When he decided to come to Claremore he told the docents of his plans and invited them to join him. Two longtime docents did – Barry Ruben and Leo Melzer.
“I think you can judge park by he level and qualify of its docent program, real stakeholders that make a difference. Volunteers are essential to the State Park.”
Melzer, a retired journalist worked for the Los Angeles Mirror and United Press International as well as other news agencies.
Visiting the Claremore museum and birthplace ranch, he said, “I’m a bit overwhelmed at things you can see compared to our ranch … the fantastic exhibits and getting stronger. And the hospitality is great.”
Ruben is a retired economist and spent the last years of his career as a consultant starting 140 new banks and savings institutions during the banking boom. For the past five or six years, he has been a ranch docent, often giving tours.
“I learned a good of good information,” he said, to use in his tours. “The displays are so beautiful. I learned a lot about Will.”
Ranger Tim and the docents are interested in initiating a visit exchange between the California Ranch and the Claremore Memorial and Oologah Birthplace Ranch