Cultural exchange
Richard Levin, California Department of Parks and Recreation ranger at Limekiln State Park, learned more about Will Rogers on a recent visit to the Claremore Will Rogers Memorial Museum. He listens to a replay in the radio broadcast gallery of the museum. No stranger to Will, Levin is very familiar with the Will Rogers State Historic Park at Pacific Palisades, Calif. In 1944, Mrs. Rogers deeded the 186-acre ranch, Will Rogers’ home at the time of his death in 1935, to the State of California for public use as a memorial, historical monument and public park. As a park ranger, Levin has spent time at the Will Rogers ranch home and park in the central Santa Monica Mountains. Limekiln is 56 miles south of Carmel, off Highway One; two miles south of Lucia. Levin is the second California park ranger to visit the Claremore museum. Ranger Tim Hayden and docents Leo Melzer and Barry Ruben visited last year. The Claremore museum, overlooking the city of Claremore, is dedicated to sharing the life, wisdom and humor of the Cherokee cowboy, the humorist, philosopher and star of stage and big screen. A scenic drive from the Claremore museum leads to the Oologah birthplace house of Will Rogers and historic 400-acre ranch, where he was born Nov. 4, 1879. (For information about the Claremore Memorial and Oologah Birthplace Ranch visit the website www.willrogers.com. Information about the California ranch is available a www.parks.ca.gov.)