Ruby Grant Park

My current project is site analysis of the Ruby Grant farm. A quarter section, 160 acres, farm probably owned by the same family since the shots were fired in the air on the land run. The property was donated to OU, who has sold it to the city with the stipulation it become a park. I think it is an absolute treasure. It appears that the eastern red cedar has been kept under control. The property has two creeks, beaver dams and the little river flowing through it. It has remarkable topography considering the surrounding flat prairie. The upland prairies just up out of the lower riparian corridor are shoulder height with grass and Forbes. Black willow, hackberry, cottonwood dominate the canopy while dogwood and coral berry thrive in the understory. Plum and persimmon thickets thrive in the open savanna and sumac and soap berry cling to the edges of the forest in dense colonies. I also suspect native ash and hawthorn to be numbered. I saw a few lone pecans, but no oak or hickory.

The grasses are abundant, and even the farmed fields have native grass creeping into them. I don't know my prairie grasses very well, but I did see little and big bluestem, sedge in the wetlands and large communities of panicum. My wording tonight is hodgepodge and I'm not sticking to common or Latin. I'm tired, and if I don't write it, it won't get recorded.

Birds: hawks, big and small, bluebird with rosy bellies, crowned sparrow, larks, cardinal, wax wing, ducks of a couple species, blue heron, robin, wren?, fly catcher or mockingbird?. Numerous nests.

Beaver, turtle, coyote, grazing deer, rabbit, mice trails.


The Ruby Grant property is a treasure. It has historic farm value, mix grass prairie, savanna prairie views and communities, wetlands, bogs or marshes, ponds, creeks and waterfall. I hope to write more on Ruby Grant, but tonight I'm just going to get up yesterday's pictures. It was really bright at mid-day when I went out, so the pictures are a little bit washed out.

More to come...

our strongest prairie feature

The "Prairie School" and "Prairie Style" need more investigation. They were on a quest to identify the great features of the prairie and accentuate them through landscape and architecture.

Olmsted Sr. wrote:

“There is but one object of scenery near Chicago of special grandeur or sublimity, and that, the Lake, can be made by artificial means no more grand or sublime. By no practical elevation or artificial hills…would the impression of the observer in overlooking it be made greatly more profound. The Lake may, indeed, be accepted as fully compensating for the absence of sublime or picturesque elevations of land.”

Tippens, William W. "The Olmsted Brothers in the Midwest, Naturalism, Formalism, and the City Beautiful Movement." Midwestern Landscape Architecture. Ed. William H. Tishler. Usa: University of Illinois, 2000. 160.

When I think about the strong features of Oklahoma I think of wide open sky. Not the wide open sky's of Montana, but dynamic and ever changing skys.

Wilhelm Miller:

“a new mode of design and planting, which aims to fit the Prairie style as “a new mode of design and planting, which aims to fit the peculiar scenery, climate, soil, labor, and other conditions of the prairies, instead of copying literally the manners and materials of other regions…[which is] based upon the practical needs of the middle-western people and is characterized by preservation of typical western scenery, by restoration of local color, and by repetition of the horizontal line of land or sky which is the strongest feature of prairie scenery.”

Vernon, Christopher. "Wilhelm Miller, Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening." Midwestern Landscape Architecture. Ed. William H. Tishler. Usa: University of Illinois, 2000. 184.

Miller is talking about regional identity, the shape and feel of the land, and what is its important features.

Miller again:

Miller contended ‘all prairie scenery’ could be ‘reduced to two units, the broad view and the long view.’ By this definition the broad view suggests ‘infinity and power’ and is ‘more inspiring for occasional visits.’ The long view, on the other hand, is ‘more human and intimate, and often more satisfactory to live with.’.

Vernon, Christopher. "Wilhelm Miller, Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening." Midwestern Landscape Architecture. Ed. William H. Tishler. Usa: University of Illinois, 2000. 186.

Is the sky Oklahoma's strongest and most universal feature? Should it play a more integral part in design?