Grand Lake Business Journal starts for Grove , OK area

Saturday, February 21, 2009

by Dave wagenblatt

Here is a sampling some articles you can find there.

Grove
Real Estate... At a Glance Article from the Grand Lake Business Journal.

As with other areas around Grand Lake, the Grove area was up and down through the early part of the millennium, but has seen a significant surge in the average and median sales prices of the past couple of years. Overall the average sales price of a single family home in Grove (all inclusive, lakefront and non lakefront) has increased 38% from 2000 through November of 2007 to its current level of $174,622. The median sales price has reached its current level of $127,000. The significant difference between the average sales price and the median sales price at 2005 levels is the introduction of several newer lakefront and upper end developments which are selling for significantly more than was seen in the early part of the decade.

Grove continues to maintain its most affordable nature while being the commercial hub of the Grand Lake area. Average and median sales prices continue to be significantly lower than those found in competitive markets and nationally.

The largest city on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees is Grove, a former watering hole before the Civil War and now one of Oklahoma’s fastest growing cities.

Situated at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains just a short drive from Joplin, Missouri and Springdale, Arkansas. Originally named Grove Springs, Grove has moved from a sleepy little fishing village of decades past into the limelight as the premier location in the Grand Lake area for many services.
As a result of its many attributes, people from around the country have chosen Grove as their retirement destination, which has reflected positively in the demographics of this area of “The Four States” (Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas & Missouri).

Ever since Rand McNally and The Wall Street Journal rated Grand Lake as one of the nation’s top retirement places, Grove has attracted an increasing number of retirees looking for the serenity and investment potential Grand Lake provides.

Rand McNally says that with a median age of 49.9, Grand Lake is one of the nation’s five best retirement areas based on the cost of living, state and local taxes, climate and typical household earnings.
Anchored by six industries, the Grove area’s economy includes tourism, retail, service, health, manufacturing and senior services. Grove itself is the center of commerce along the more than 1300 miles of Grand Lake’s shore line. In fact, with its seven banks, numerous shops and large operations of Wal-Mart and Lowes, Grove generates the majority of Grand Lake’s retail sales.
New businesses open daily in Grove. Major retailers like Wal-Mart Supercenter, Lowe’s and Walgreen Drug Stores have joined the growing list of quality developments. Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, a new public library, six-screen movie theater, specialty gift stores and riverboat tours complete the list. New businesses open daily in Grove.
Aviation enthusiasts gather at Grove Municipal Airport, just 1.5 miles east of the city. It has a 5,250 foot by 75 foot runway, a full-length parallel taxiway and available hangars.
Har-Ber Village Museum and a nationally-recognized botanical garden, Lendonwood Gardens, along with craft shops, antique merchants and an ever-growing selection of new and established commercial, medical, industrial and educational enterprises continue to flourish in Grove. Try Tiramisu’s Italian menu or coffee at Java Dave’s, both in downtown Grove. Both restaurants have wi-fi service as has most of downtown.
When arriving in Grove, consider some of these activities to get you tuned into the community:
Join the Playmakers Theatre Group where you can participate in live comedy, music, drama, readers theatre and youth theatre performances throughout the year. For information, call (918) 786-8950 or email playmakers@ gcinet.net.

Visit the new YMCA (918) 786-5774 or drop by the Grove Chamber of Commerce or Grand Lake Visitors Center, where you can find lots of area and event information.
If you’re home shopping, we’ve provided you with in depth information on 10 prestigious home developments in the New Homes & Remodeling Guide on page 39. Use this handy guide to help you find that beautiful home with waterfalls and docks for your new boat.

Grove's Downtown Revitalization Moves Ahead
As you stroll through downtown Grove, you’ll undoubtedly notice its charming streetscape reminiscent of an era gone by. But what you won’t see is the hard work and dedication of a community committed to rejuvenating its downtown.
Phase I of Grove’s Downtown Revitalization Project was celebrated in November 2007. At a cost of nearly one million dollars, enhancements included new sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, utilities and public parking improvements.
The revitalization project targets the two blocks in each direction from the corner of Third and Main and is a joint effort of the Grove Area Chamber of Commerce, City of Grove and downtown businesses. Phase II is scheduled for completion in 2009.
The project’s mission is clear: To revitalize historic downtown Grove’s economy. Since 1817 Grove has been a well-known trading center. Today it is one of Oklahoma’s fastest growing cities.
So, be our guest. Take a stroll downtown and enjoy Grove’s shopping and dining. Take time to wander through the art galleries or attend the latest production at the local Playmakers community theatre. We guarantee your spirits will be lifted and you’ll begin to discover our Grand Lifestyle.

FESTIVALS & FESTIVITIES
Several festivals are featured throughout the year in Grove including music-based events like the American Heritage Music Festival (Ricky Skaggs was a recent featured artist.) Grovefest in May lends excitement to the coming summer fun around the lake and features a 50’s Cruise Night, arts & crafts events, a carnival and many other fun-filled activities.

Grove
Real Estate... At a Glance
As with other areas around Grand Lake, the Grove area was up and down through the early part of the millennium, but has seen a significant surge in the average and median sales prices of the past couple of years. Overall the average sales price of a single family home in Grove (all inclusive, lakefront and non lakefront) has increased 38% from 2000 through November of 2007 to its current level of $174,622. The median sales price has reached its current level of $127,000. The significant difference between the average sales price and the median sales price at 2005 levels is the introduction of several newer lakefront and upper end developments which are selling for significantly more than was seen in the early part of the decade.

Grove continues to maintain its most affordable nature while being the commercial hub of the Grand Lake area. Average and median sales prices continue to be significantly lower than those found in competitive markets and nationally.

The largest city on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees is Grove, a former watering hole before the Civil War and now one of Oklahoma’s fastest growing cities.

TeraMiranda Harbor is kicking off a multi-year plan to significantly upgrade the marina and develop an integrated residential/commercial complex themed “Living the Nautical Life” Monkey Island boasts some of the lake’s best dining to enhance your weekend or lifetime resort-style living. You’ll also find great golf, boating, para-sailing and fishing guides. And if you’re coming in by air, touch down on Grand Lake Regional Airport’s 3400 x 60 foot runway.

Attractions
Darryl Starbird’s National Custom Car Museum features custom cars by this world renowned car designer. At this nationally recognized tribute to leading street rod and custom car builders throughout the country, you’ll find over 50 world-famous exotic vehicles by Starbird and other renowned car designers. Located on Hwy. 85-A in Bernice. Admission is $6 for adults; $3 ages 8 to 12; under seven is free; groups of 10+ receive $1 off adult admission.

Shopping, Dinning & Fun
Monkey Island is known for many things: Great golf, boating, wonderful accommodations and also for partying New Orleans-style, and we mean partying. Check out marvelous restaurants while you're visiting the island. Big Shots, Rhythm & Booze, and The Shebang provide entertainment to enhance your weekend or lifetime resort-style living.
For some exciting fun, try Sail Grand Para-Sailing, located near Shangri-La’s marina with every type of watercraft available to rent. All this and fishing guides are readily available to take you to the best fishing spots around. The annual Monkey Island Pub-Crawl is sold out weeks in advance and make sure you don’t miss The Monkey Island Egret Festival as well as many other events throughout the year.
Check with the Grand Lake Association 1-866-LUV-GRAND for dates.
From horseback riding to shopping on Monkey Island’s Main Street, to fishing or parking your RV right near the water, the West Grand Lake/Monkey Island area offers guests many choices for a relaxing get-away. Some of the lake’s best fishing is enjoyed near Horse Creek Bridge, as evidenced by the number of fishing buffs on the new fishing dock constructed by the Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation for the safety of anglers who consider this area a “hot spot.” Just across the bridge and on your right is Bernice State Park with camping, fishing, boating and swimming. An added attraction is its nature trails with two observation towers. Nearby is Grand Country RV Park, where you can camp overnight near the lake, enjoy water sports and look for that lake property you’ve dreamed about.
Population Demographics Households
1990 1435
2000 1961
2003 1994
2008 2045 (projected)
Population
1990 53270
2000 4558
2003 4621
2008 4714 (projected)
Median Age
1990 47.1
2000 44.9
2003 45.6
2008 46.5 (projected)

South Grand - Where the Action is!
This slogan aptly describes the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce and the business community as it promotes more events than any other part of Grand Lake.

Only a 45 minute drive from Tulsa, South Grand is a large and integral part of the lake’s dynamic growth. This trend began with the construction of Pensacola Dam in the 1930’s when its construction workers established homes nearby. In the 70’s the area became a weekend resort for Tulsa families and businesses.

Since the Dam was built creating Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, home sites purchased in 1940 have now passed through three generations.

Original one-room cabins have undergone numerous changes becoming charming and unique second homes and full-time residences. With just an hour drive from Tulsa, homes began to spring up at a steady pace during the oil boom of the 70’s and have continued to blossom to an unheralded pace from 2000-2006. South Grand has become home to the Yacht Club set from Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Kansas City. A lakeside lot costing $15-20,000 years ago now brings $45,000-$400,000. But don’t let that discourage you. There are still excellent buys if you find the right realtor and don’t insist on living a short drive to Duck Creek.

The Grand Lake ‘experience’ frequently begins with a vacation visit that becomes so irresistible that a second home purchase becomes a weekend escape from the city and finally a peaceful and serene retirement home. It’s easy to understand why Rand McNally consistently places Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees among the top five retirement communities in the United States, and why The Wall Street Journal lists Grand Lake for 10 years as the number one place in the country to retire.

Real Estate
With lake front property in such high demand, real estate on or near Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees is a great investment. The amenities of the cities surrounding Grand positively affect real estate values in the entire vicinity and real estate varies from one end of the scale to the other.
There are areas consisting of one-room cabins and those with palatial estates fit for a king. As of the 2000 census, the Cleora, or Duck Creek Area, was second only to Nichols Hills in Oklahoma City for homes in the top price range. Because of this, and also because the lake encompasses such a vast area, real estate and its related businesses are major industries.
The landscape of Grand lends itself to every want and need. There are gentle slopes to beautiful cliffs. There is deep water for boating and shallows for wading and swimming. There are dense forests and there are pristine shorelines.
Vintage, an exclusive development east of Duck Creek, is a new, gated community offering a wide range of home styles and plans. Colony Cove is the newest development in the area, where sales of two and three bedroom town houses right on the water have been brisk. Butler Real Estate continues to grow in an ever-expanding market.

Marinas East of the Dam
Cruising the Dripping Springs area is like dragging Main Street in the ‘50s, as boats navigate in and out of Gray's Hollow on the south end of Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees.
    Folks of all ages drag Dripping Springs as crowds wait for the next fearless cliff-jumper. Everyone cheers, applauds and honks for the courageous thrill-seekers who jump from cliffs 60 feet high into 50-foot deep water. Then they buy the “I Survived the Jump” t-shirt at Dripping Springs Yacht Club & Marina. Dripping Springs —definitely a not-to-miss fun place during your stay on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees.
    Sam & Miranda Luke, the new owners of Marina have opened "The Drip",the new get to go pizza and cheese burger spot. AND, they will deliver to your boat.
    Clearwater Bay Marina provides a quality home for your boat or RV on Raper Hollow Cove and High Lift Marina offers complete service six miles east of Disney.
This area is also home to Pictures In Scripture Outdoor Amphitheater between Disney and Jay, featuring elaborately costumed theatrical biblical productions.

Folks of all ages drag Dripping Springs as crowds wait for the next fearless cliff-jumper. Everyone cheers, applauds and honks for the courageous thrill-seekers who jump from cliffs 60 feet high into 50-foot deep water. Then they buy the “I Survived the Jump” t-shirt at Dripping Springs Yacht Club & Marina. Dripping Springs —definitely a not-to-miss fun place during your stay on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees.
Clearwater Bay Marina provides a quality home for your boat or RV on Raper Hollow Cove and High Lift Marina offers complete service six miles east of Disney.
This area is also home to Pictures In Scripture Outdoor Amphitheater between Disney and Jay, featuring elaborately costumed theatrical biblical productions.

Accommodations
Looking for a place to stay? Check out Pine Lodge Resort just east of Ketchum. Swim in the new pool or shoot at the new archery range, and a beautiful spot near the Pensacola Dam is Southern Oaks

Medical Services
Grand Lake Medical Park-Langley     (918) 782-1881
Grand Lake Medical Park-Ketchum     (918) 782-2880
Craig General, Vinita         (918) 256-7551
INTEGRIS Grove General, Grove         (918) 786-2243
Mayes County Medical Ctr., Pryor (918) 825-1600 MESTA          (800) 256-3782 (ambulance)
Med-Tec      (918)782-2772 (ambulance)

Duck Creek
Traveling north on SH 82 and east on SH 85 through Ketchum and Cleora, you’ll glimpse the Duck Creek arm of Grand Lake, home to the biggest cruisers on the Lake, some 95 feet long.
Duck Creek includes several large marine dealers, lakeside restaurants, gracious private homes, gated communities, condominiums, a golf club and a gun club.
Two private yacht clubs feature excellent restaurants: Arrowhead Yacht Club & Marina on the east side of Duck Creek; and Cherokee Yacht Club & Marina on Duck Creek’s west side. Locally owned and operated, these yacht clubs are the heartbeat for those who enjoy the fun and fellowship they bring. The $700 to $800 annual membership brings an opportunity to share excellent dining, dancing and marina life.
The South Grand season begins the first weekend of March with “Welcome Back Weekend.” On Saturday morning, everyone pulls their boats out of storage for a day of craziness with a Poker Run at five major lake locations.
Don’t have a boat? You can still enjoy the Poker Run in your car, motorcycle, PWC or hot air balloon. But don’t stop there. The evening is filled with Las Vegas-style fun at the Cherokee Yacht Club with the Grand Lake Chamber’s Casino Night and silent auction.
South Grand has propelled the Fourth of July Celebration to a new level. Duck Creek fills with boats; jet planes fly above and revelers view the state’s largest display of fireworks. In 2003, more than $100 thousand in fireworks lit up the sky and thrilled celebrants.

Pensacola Dam Construction--A Time Line

Here is a time line for the development and construction of Pensacola Dam:

1896ï¿½Henry Holderman and three others build a boat with surveying equipment and float down Grand River. The site later known as Pensacola seemed the only practical site for a dam.

1911ï¿½Holderman, after completing an engineering course, makes attempts with the Muskogee Chamber of Commerce and the KO&G railroad to finance the dam but WWI intervened.

1913ï¿½Grand River Power & Electric Co. is incorporated in Oklahoma by Holderman and a partner but charter was cancelled in 1934 for non-payment of license.

1917ï¿½Grand River Hydro-Electric Co. is incorporated in Oklahoma by Holderman and others but this charter was also cancelled in 1934. But in 1922 the company gets a permit from the State Engineer to appropriate the entire flow of Grand River at the location of Pensacola Dam for the purpose of generating electric power. This was known as Dam #1.

1923ï¿½Grand River Hydro-Electric Co. gets approval to build dams 2, 3 and 4. Nothing came of this however. Rights of the company were transferred to Holderman and W.B. Collins who in turn transferred them to the Oklahoma Hydro-Electric Co. with a capital stock of $10,000,000.
This group employed Victor Cochrane of Tulsa to make a study and report, and acquired some land below the present site of the Pensacola Dam.

1926ï¿½J.F. Robinson of Miami, OK. Files application with Oklahoma Conservation Commission to construct four dams on Grand River, approved on Oct. 5, 1926. On Oct. 16 on his deathbed, assigns his rights to W.E. Hudson of Tulsa (Lake Hudson later named after him).

1929ï¿½Hudson assigns his rights to Grand-Hydro, incorporated in Oklahoma on Nov. 6, 1929, which proceeded to make engineering inquiries, recommend four dam sites, and acquired 2,100 acres of land near the Pensacola site.

1931ï¿½Grand-Hydro files application to construct 50-foot dam at Tynanï¿½s Bluff, about 6 miles above the Pensacola site, but no facilities were ever built by Grand-Hydro.

1935ï¿½Oklahoma legislature passes SB 395, known as the Grand River Dam Authority Act creating a conservation and reclamation district composed of 17 counties in northeast Oklahoma. The Act authorized bonds sufficient only for the Pensacola Dam. (Pensacola was chosen as the name, after the small community of Pensacola, OK, located some 8 miles away). A GRDA board of nine members was appointed, three each by the Governor, Attorney General and Commissioner of Labor. First meeting held May 5, 1935 in Vinita and they discuss sending raising funds to send a delegation to Washington to make application to the Public Works Administration.

1935-1937ï¿½A small group of men from Grove and Vinita worked during this time, visiting Washington D.C. four times, and to Memphis for visits with the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1937 President Rooseveltï¿½s campaign train passed through Vinita where the locals had asked for a 15-minute stop, and a big illuminated sign at the Vinita Depot said he was very near the ï¿½Grand River Damï¿½a $20,000,000 Project.ï¿½ Whether Roosevelt saw the sign or heard the cheering is disputed as it was in the middle of the night and he could have been asleep.

1937ï¿½W.R. Holway is in Washington on behalf of another engineering project when he meets the four-person delegation from Vinita and Grove, by chance, in Congressmanï¿½s Disneyï¿½s office. A bill authorizing construction of Pensacola Dam is passed and Harold Ickes, Secretary of Interior, recommends that $20 million be earmarked for the project. Previous estimates in the 1920ï¿½s ran from $14-$19 million.
On Sept. 18, 1937, President Roosevelt approves allocation of $20 million for the Pensacola Project. Two days later the GRDA Board and Holway make a trip to Lake Buchanan Dam near Austin, TX, a multiple-arch dam. Applicants for engineering work are interviewed in the Vinita Hotel on Oct. 20 and two days later selected Holway & Neuffer of Tulsa as Engineers for the Project.

1938ï¿½First contract let in January for excavation on East Spillway. Contract let in April for construction of dam and power house. Bribe attempts for gravel deposits and contractor on the dam made, rejected by Holway.

1939ï¿½The first GRDA manager, R.V. L. Wright, resigned after much pressure.

1940ï¿½Final gates closed March 21; first of four main generators tested April 15; first power came from House Unit and delivered to town of Disney.

1941ï¿½First major flood occurs in April, 170,000 cfs, brings lake to 755 elevation. Previous floods were in 1895 (215,000 cfs); 1927 (140,000 cfs). On Nov. 21, US Government takes over operation of the project after highway controversy with Gov. Phillips and calling out of National Guard and US Secret Service.

1943ï¿½Largest flood to date occurs in May, 300,000 cfs. Water reaches 7 feet up on Power House. Causes small damage at west end of spillway, contracts let to remedy situation.

1945ï¿½War ends in August 1945. Holway serves as acting general manager for 60 days.

1946ï¿½Project returned to the State of Oklahoma on Aug. 31.

Total cost of project $28 million, or about $550 million in todayï¿½s dollars. Total number of deaths during construction, 13. (112 were killed on the Hoover Dam project). About 130 engineers and staff worked on the Pensacola project, and 3000 men. About 30 of the engineering staff served in WWII.

In 1939, when construction on the Pensacola Dam was proceeding, a new car cost $700; average income was $1729 per year; gasoline was 10 cents a gallon; a postage stamp 3 cents, a loaf of bread 8 cents.
Average wage for the Pensacola Dam construction workers was 44 cents an hour.

Source: A History of the Grand River Dam Authority, State of Oklahoma, 1935-1968 by W.R. Holway, Consulting Engineer. Grove Sun, Grove, OK

Compiled by Jim Mills, GRDA, 2004