BIG BRUTUS

Once in a while we have a really nice day in January. January 29, 2011, was such a day. Beautiful sunshine, temperatures in the seventies and no wind. Nice day for on outing in the show cars. Since the '38 is out of commission right now, we went to the back-up, my Mustang convertible.

The Endless Memories Car Club of Grove,Oklahoma, had called to make arrangements with the Rebels to meet and take a drive to West Mineral, Kansas, to find BIG BRUTUS. We found it. Hard to miss something on the Kansas prairie that stands one-hundred-sixty feet tall and weighs eleven million pounds.

BIG BRUTUS was used in the strip-pit mining of coal in the area. It never dug coal. It removed the "overburden" or soil and rock from the coal. The bucket could remove ninety cubic yards or one-hundred-thirty-five to one-hundred-fifty tons in one bite. That is enough to fill three railroad cars.

BIG BRUTUS operated between the years of 1963 to 1982 owned by the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company (P & M). It is now a museum and memorial to coal mining, donated by

P & M in 1984.

It was totally electric. Two 3,500 HP synchronous AC motors ran the thirteen DC generators. Each generator was responsible for controlling one of the thirteen motors.

Toy Run 2010

On the cool morning on November 6, 2010, about 150 cars left Claremore, OK to make a big circle in Northeast Oklahoma. The propose of this caravan was to gather toys to donate to the Shriner Hospitals. By the time we arrived back in Claremore, the trailer was as stuffed as the toy animals.

First stop was in Chelsa, OK. Coffee, donuts, toys and gossip. Then to Vinita, OK. More toys. Lunch was served by the Shriners of Vinita. Good BBQ. It was a nice drive and a successful toy run for the Shriners.

REBELS CAR SHOW 2010

The twenty-second annual Rebel Car show was on October 17, 2010. With 238 fantastic cars to admire. As usual the vehicles ranged from stock to custom and streetrods.

Our "new" concession trailer made its debut. The ladies say it is a great improvement over the one we had rented in previous years.

The weather co-operated with us this year. A little cool in the morning, but a glorious mid October day with temperatures in the seventies. In a few of the past years we have had some rain and cooler temperatures.

And the winner is: the beautiful 1960 red Lincoln Continental Convertible pictured above. This car is show- room perfect. It has won Peoples Choice the last two years.

JOLLY MILL NEAR PIERCE CITY, MISSOURI

On the cool morning of September 26, 2010, the Rebel Car Club and some friends convoyed over to a park near Pierce City. It was purchased in 1983 by The Jolly Mill Park Foundation and was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in that same year. It was built in 1848 by Thomas and John Isabell. It was known as "Isabell's Distillery". The village of Jollification thrived as a rest stop and resupply point for westward bound wagon trains to Kansas and Indian Territory.

The area was the scene of two clashes during the War Between the States. Bushwhackers terrorized and burned the village but spared the distillery. In 1872, the railroad into Indian Territory ended the need for the wagon trains. When mill owner, George Isabell, refused to pay the new tax on spirits, he closed the distillery but continued to mill flour. The village faded but the name "Jolly Mill" became commonly used by the year 1894. The mill was improved and continued to mill flour until the 1920's. It continued to grind grist until 1973.

Now it is an out of the way park that is a beautiful back drop for pictures and a quite place to picnic and play.

Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas

On May 1, 2010, a group of Rebel Car Club members went on a road trip. We traveled from northeast Oklahoma to northwest Arkansas. The state park is called Devil's Den. The only thing wicked about it is the winding road. Trailers over twenty-eight feet long are prohibited from entering at one entrance because they can not make the curves! But it is a beautiful State Park and free for picnickers.

Of course, when the Rebels take to the road, we take food and lots of it.

The park rangers were in awe of our vehicles.

Later in the afternoon in the main pavilion, a lady gave a lecture on raptors, birds of prey. She is licensed to keep and rehabilitate these birds. If they can not be rehabilitated so they can hunt well enough to feed and protect themselves, she is licensed to keep them. She had with her a barred owl that she has had for twenty-one years. I had no idea they lived that long! She also had a red-tailed hawk. Beautiful birds!

The weather co-operated nicely. We had a cloudy start to the day but abundant sunshine at the park.

First of Spring

According to the calendar, Spring arrives today. In northeast Oklahoma the weather is not cooperating. We have sleet mixed with rain and snow. Enough already!!!
We are looking forward to our first Cruise Night of 2010. That's April 24. YEA! We are also planning a drive over to a state park in Arkansas. I have been there before with my daughter and her family. Nice place. I'll post pictures and information later.
This Winter has been a rough one. We had a blizzard starting on Christmas Eve. About five inches of snow with thirty-five mile an hour winds. Christmas morning dawned bright, beautiful and white. We didn't see the ground again until after the first of February. We are not accustomed to snow being around here that long. We had a few nice days the past two weeks so the daffodils are blooming and the forsythia bushes are showing sighs of yellow.
Hoping you have a nice Spring.

Twenty-First Annual Car Show

These are just a few of the beautiful cars and trucks from our twenty-first annual car show. Twin Bridges State Park at this time of the year makes a spectacular setting for the show. The park rangers do a great job of maintaining the restrooms. They get to look at the cars and choose one for a trophy. I think that's the part that they like.

We had 177 cars and trucks registered. There were street rods, stock, custom and modified. The day started out a bit on the cool side with temps in the mid 30's, but the afternoon turned out to be warm and sunny. We were all draggin' in our tracks by the end of the day since most of us were at the park about five A.M. and earlier