Up to early March of 2026, only one tornado had ever struck tiny Wakita, Ok – the fictional storm in the 1996 movie Twister. Folks in those parts said a more than century old Indian blessing was the reason. In the late night hours of that March night, Wakita’s first (non-lethal, thank heavens!) tornado touched down. In this episode we re-listen to the story of Wakita.
Wiley Post made headlines. He crushed the record for circumnavigating the globe and then broke his own record a year later with the first solo trip around the world. He reached unheard of heights in his plane, the Winnie Mae, verifying the existence of the jet stream. His final flight ended in headlines reporting his death and that of his traveling companion, Will Rogers. A short but spectacular public life that began with its own head line “Bandit Caught, Lodged in Jail.”
It took years to get the ball rolling but the Texas County landscape would soon have a good sized body of water provided by the Corps of Engineers. It was to provide all the usual things a lake would, especially high-paying government jobs and money flowing through local businesses. As the construction wore on, conditions kept getting dryer and dryer. Just as dollars were not flowing into the local economy, water wasn’t flowing into the Lake…
A milestone – a marker on a real or figurative trail that allows you to know how far you’ve come and how far you’ve got to go. Here on our 150th episode, I take a moment to consider this particular milestone.
Episodes featured :
From Kansas to the Keiper Belt
The Music of Clearviews:
For this episode, we will depart from the usual back road or mountain trail, far from where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide for the cobble stone street of London, 1854. This story has all the elements of a good Within The Realm tale: A significant event in an overlooked place, this time just with an English accent! Our story involves a doctor on the cutting edge, a neighborhood facing an overwhelming problem and a pump handle.
Within the Realm 