Fly-In 2008

Pilots from Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas landed on the Will Rogers Dog Iron Ranch grass strip Sunday. The 46 planes included vintage, warplanes, new models, homemade planes and parachute planes, taxiing up near the door of the house where Will Rogers was born. The day marked the 73rd anniversary of the day Will and Wiley Post perished in an Aug. 15, 1935 Alaskan plane crash. It included not only showcasing planes and fellowship among pilots, but entertainment by the Gaylord Family of Oologah and unveiling of a monument to Clem Rogers, who founded the ranch before statehood and claimed it as his Cherokee Indian allotment. Will Rogers Down-Cherokee Casino and Will Rogers Heritage sponsored the event.

 

Bill Kendrick of Pryor and Marcus Hall and Barbara Ingram of Wagoner visit at the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Fly-In.

 

Clarence Strance and his wife flew out of Sand Ridge for the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Fly-In.

 

Dale Frakes (right), longtime chairman of the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Fly-In, welcomes a visitor at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch.

 

Carl Snow taxis in on the Will Rogers grass strip in his Top Club. He flies from Jenks.

 

Ethan Lunsford of Claremore gets a close-up look at Clarence Strance’s L-19 Bird Dog.

 

Color Guard from the Civil Air Patrol presented colors at the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Fly-In

 

Kevin Connor flew Barney Peterson’s Fokker DVII from Airman Acres airstrip to the Will Rogers Wiley Post Fly-In.

 

Members of Will Rogers family including Robin McSpadden and his children Michaela and Michael, Jeanne McSpadden, Jimmy Meyer and his mother, Doris “Coke” Meyer, Kem Rogers, Donna McSpadden, Madalyn Captain, Virginia McSpadden Ellick and her daughter, Kaitlyn and Bob Lane participated in the unveiling of a monument to Clem Rogers, an Oklahoma Centennial Project. Funding was obtained through help of State Rep. Tad Jones (back second from left) Robin McSpadden is the son and Jeanne McSpadden and the late Bob McSpadden, who with his brothers, Clem and Trent, was raised on the Rogers’ ranch owned then by their great-uncle. Donna McSpadden is Clem’s widow. Coke Meyer is the eldest surviving great-niece of Will Rogers. Madalyn and Virginia are daughters of Leota and the late Trent McSpadden. Bob Lane is the son of the late Robert Rogers Lane, brother of Coke Meyer.

 

Kem Rogers, grandson of Will Rogers, unveils a monument dedicated to the memory of Clement Vann Rogers, his great-grandfather, who settled in Cooweescoowee District and founded the ranch, later owned by Will Rogers.

 

Michaela and Michael McSpadden, whose grandfather, the late Bob McSpadden, grew up on the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch, just had to touch the new monument unveiled in honor of Clem Rogers’s contribution to the state of Oklahoma.