Claremore, Ponca tourism sites have common bond

 

David Keithly, Ponca City, Marland Estate executive director, and his wife, Marcia, compare commonalities between the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and the E.W. Marland Mansion in Ponca City.

They were in Claremore for the Green Country Marketing Association annual meeting, which included a tour of the Claremore museum. Marland was Oklahoma governor when President Franklin Roosevelt vetoed a $2 million bill to build the memorial to Will in Claremore with federal funds. Despite the depths of the depression, Marland gained $185,000 to build— and appointed the first Will Rogers Memorial Commission. He spoke at the Memorial opening in 1938.

Today, Oklahoma’s governor still appoints the Commission, which oversees operation of the Will Rogers Memorial and Birthplace Ranch.

John Duncan Forsyth, architect who designed the Marland mansion, designed the Will Rogers Memorial.

Ray Stout, who was working in a stone quarry when the Pioneer Woman statue in Ponca City was built, cut and set stone for the statue base. He was hired as the stonecutter for the archways in the Claremore Memorial. Stout met Will Rogers when Will unveiled the Pioneer Woman statue at Ponca City in 1930.