This Place Matters tour earns awards

January 21, 2013

This Place Matters has been named the Main Street Guymon Creative New Event and Premier Special Event for 2012. The event is also being nominated for a statewide Main Street Oklahoma award, competing against other Main Street towns in the state.
This Place Matters is an outreach program of Preservation Oklahoma and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Main Street Guymon decided to take part in the program in an effort to enrich knowledge and interest in our local history and heritage. The first year was 2012.
The volunteer committee chose three local historical residences (two homes in the original plat of Guymon and one that was a farm house outside Guymon  in the early days that now sits smack in town), a public place, and a business. The homes were the Mary Nash home, now owned by Mike and Susan Byers; the Varney farm, now owned by Craig and Jamie Barnes; the Stanfield home, owned at the tour time by Jim and Ann Grocholski. The public building was the old high school and the business was the Hotel Dale, now Southern Office Supply.
Researchers were Phyllis Claycomb for Hotel Dale; Judy Ortiz for the Nash home, Sharon Morgan for the Varney farm, Ann Grocholski for the Stanfield home, Dean Kear for the high school, and Dr. Sara Richter for the lecture.
Under the lead of a design committee member, the No Man’s Land Historical Society, Guymon Chapter, assisted with gathering the historical information on the places. Family members also gathered the information. A historical docent was chosen to be at each site, giving a tour and sharing information. Each docent made up a handout to go with their property. There were also had hosts, generally the home owner, at each site.
The culminating activity, which took place in the historical Hotel Dale lobby, was a lecture by historian Dr. Sara Richter on the Wild Horse Massacre, which took place in No Man’s Land, a fight between two Kansas towns over being named the county seat.  Many lives were lost, causing the future of one town to disappear. Refreshments were served.
“We had so many wonderful people put in lots of time for this event,” says Main Street Director Melyn Johnson. “Almost 300 volunteer hours were reported.”
The researchers for the project have also been nominated by Main Street Guymon for a Citation of Merit from the Oklahoma Preservation Office.
Right now the committee is working to prepare for the 2013 event! Currently there are commitments from Mike and Connie Taylor for their home, once named Danholt by the builder, Anders L. Mordt who founded the Oslo community, the Oslo Lutheran Church, and several others are expected to be in soon.
If you would like to serve on the This Place Matters committee, please call Melyn Johnson at 338-6246 or email Director@MainStreetGuymon.com.