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A new tour guide of Tulsa is a must-have book for visitors and locals.
Last Jan. 8, Harm de Blij, noted geographer, lectured at Tulsa Town Hall about the power of place. He said, “From our mother tongue to our father’s faith, from medical risks to natural hazards, where we start and go in our journey has much to do with our chances of overcoming the obstacles in our way.”
The power of place in a literary context is secondary only to character — this is true in real life, too. For example, your living in Tulsa partially determines how you think and act. Take tornadoes. Unless you have survived this explosion of nature, you can’t understand how terrifying and mystifying they can actually be.
When I was working for Gilcrease Museum, a visiting art history professor from Yale lectured local graduate students in the galleries. The noted professor stopped in front of Frederic Remington’s “Stampede,” a cattle drive gone awry in advance of a storm. The professor commented that the sky is never this color of green and Remington was embellishing nature for dramatic effect. A student pointed out that indeed the sky often is chartreuse before a tornado develops.
Which brings me to the newest tour guide of Tulsa, the 2010 “Insiders’ Guide to Tulsa” by Elaine Warner (Morris Book Publishing, $23.95). “Insiders’ Guide” is national and covers every major U.S. city. They are very good at it. In the Tulsa area overview, Warner writes, “Tulsa is located in what is called Tornado Alley.” That recognition alone makes me recommend this tour book.
I like to keep an up-to-date Tulsa guide handy for when I have visitors who want to sightsee, or I can’t remember the name and phone number of a restaurant, or I am seeking amusements for restless children. This book helps with those quandaries and many more.
