50 years ago, December 2, 1973Tonkawa Is First State Bicentennial Community Want to feel your heart swell with pride? Drive east on Grand Avenue and look at the three flags flying on the pole at Northern Oklahoma College. The American flag, the Oklahoma flag, and the Bicentennial flag!Tonkawa was the first city in Oklahoma to fly the Bicentennial flag, which features the Bicentennial U.S. 200TH birthday symbol of red, white and blue, on a white background. The flag was presented in impressive ceremonies Monday afternoon at Maverick Field, designating the city as the state’s first Bicentennial community! School children, dismissed from classes attended the event, along with many interested cityans.Tonkawa was chosen for the honor after the city’s BC Community submitted plans to implement the building of a Prairie Park and Museum at Chilocco, as part of the 200th birthday celebration.Storm Stops Production At City’s Industries Two of Tonkawa’s primary industries, The Tonkawa Foundry and the south shop of Williams Rock Bit Co. are just now getting back into production following the tornado that struck Tonkawa a week ago Monday night.Power lines and transformers in the south end of the city were knocked out by the storm and as a result the Foundry, Williams and Maassen Tool and Supply all were out of production.Damage estimates are not complete yet but Cliff Salisbury, owner of the Foundry said he thought damage to the firm is not yet back in production. He said partial electric service was completed Wednesday and he doesn’t expect to be back in production casting until next week. Salisbury said the company has about 10 percent of its crew at work today and probably will have half the work force there tomorrow. He said electricity and phones were out at the plant until yesterday when phone service was completed and partial electrical service started.Miss Means Chosen DAR Good CitizenMiss Quana Means, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Means, 118 West Congress, has been selected as the DAR Good Citizen for this year, it has been announced by Mrs. Aden Coyle of Tonkawa DAR chapter.Miss Means, a senior at THS, received the honor after she was one of three girls selected by the Senior Class to qualify for the award, which is based on dependability, service, leadership and patriotism. The girls took a supervised test on American History, and THS faculty members named Miss Means as the recipient. She ...
