Catoosa, Oklahoma: The Blue Whale

Big Blue Whale On-The-Air will be Saturday September 20, 2008 from about 10 AM to 4 PM CST. K5NOW and a few friends will be operating a temporary amateur radio station from the "belly of the whale," making radio contacts from all over the USA, and possibly farther if band conditions permit. It is a fun project coinciding with Route 66 OTA, which is a national event where 18 special event stations will be operating from California to Illinois, September 13th to the 21st, commemorating Route 66 the Mother Road.

I just visited the Blue Whale last week in the small town of Catoosa. The place felt like there were many happy fun filled days at this location. There were a few maps, a Route 66 marker and a sign that showed "Pins for sale - just knock on the trailer only if the truck is there." Unfortunately, the truck was gone.

Two local kids there and told us it was the 2nd largest attraction in Catoosa, the first being the casino. There is an old trading post across the street too, but it looked to have been converted to a garage.

The Blue Whale was in good condition in 2007. There is a bit of a picnic area and tables, and what appeared to be a snack bar, but it was closed at the time we were there.

I grew up in Catoosa OK from 1965 to 1983. This chronology places me right in the glory days of "The Alligator Farm" and "Blue Whale" and "Noah's Ark." My parents still live just east of Catoosa. As a 6 year old child in Catoosa Elementary Kindergarten, the highlight of our school year was a field trip to what was then known as "The Alligator Farm." Mr. Davis personally served as tour guide to groups of young children through his facility. I recall that it seemed perfectly normal for Catoosa to have a facility with live alligators and all manner of reptiles.

Now, the very strange thing about this tour was the fact that the alligators were not caged in any way. I look back now and realize how dangerous this actually was, especially with such young children playing about. I recall walking across a flat wooden bridge (without rails) raised inches above the surface of the alligator pond. The alligator was actually lurking just below our feet with his eyes directed at us. Apparently, Mr. Davis had extraordinary faith in the predictability of this animal's behavior. It seems he posessed an unimaginable trust in these animals, or they were extremely well fed. In today's world one could only classify this scenario as an accident waiting to happen. However, to my knowledge, no accident ever took place in the park.

We finished off our field trip with lunch in Noah's Ark. I could not accurately tell you the dimensions of the structure as I was considerably smaller then. It was a cartoon-like animal-themed wooden structure large enough to hold at least 50 children.

As I recall, The Blue Whale was added later in my childhood. I swam there a couple of times when I was 11 or 12 years old. It was great fun jumping off the tail, which seemed quite tall at the time. My guess is that the deck on the top of the tail was about 8 feet off the water. As children, we just didn't seem to mind that we were swimming in stale pond water. Again, it seemed perfectly normal that we had a giant blue whale structure built in a pond off of highway 66. I look back now thinking, "How could I have possibly thought that was normal?"

It's a shame that the park deteriorated over the years, but thankfully the whale survives. Hopefully the city of Catoosa will see fit to invest a few thousand dollars in the past and restore "Noah's Ark" to it's original state. I think the pay off for the community would be immense.

Updated pic of Giant Blue Whale in Catoosa, OK. Admission is free. Bathrooms are clean. Tables for eating. The Ark next door is still there, but falling apart.