BARTLESVILLE — Addilyn Wacker’s favorite part of the day kept changing. At first, it was the Mountain Man station, where she practiced throwing a tomahawk. Then, inevitably, it was lunch. Then the museum. No wait — it had to be the animal barn. Each new chapter was her favorite.
Wacker, age 10, was one of approximately 138 students and adults who traveled with SAFE BASE Thursday to Woolaroc, a museum and wildlife preserve based outside of Bartlesville, Okla. It was SAFE BASE’s second trip of its summer program, and Wacker’s inability to pick a favorite moment from it shows just how special trips like these are.
Sending three buses full of grade-schoolers, adult chaperones and staff all the way to Bartlesville is no small feat. The logistics for SAFE BASE director Angela Henry and her team resemble a military operation. The agenda was scheduled down to the quarter of an hour. All travelers were said and accounted for at 7 a.m. in Jefferson Elementary’s gym. Each was provided with three frozen bottles of water. Morning and afternoon restroom breaks at Independence’s Wal-Mart were punctual.
Henry and her team’s experience shows. It’s also quite clear that they love what they do. Over the course of a long and exceptionally hot and humid day, no adult ever raised his or her voice in anger. Laughter was plentiful, and adults seemed to enjoy the trip out of town as much as anyone else.
The bus ride began as a cacophony of noise, with kids swapping sugary snacks with each other in the morning heat. Wacker came prepared, a backpack full of Takis tortilla chips, fizzy candy, fidget toys and lunch by her side. She and her friends, Sophia Doty, Bayleigh Scheibmeir, and Kinzley Fountain, all 10 years old, shared seats and screamed out their demands for the next song that had to be played. The playlist advanced from Olivia Rodrigo to Luke Combs to Nelly, a primer in the musical tastes of 10-year-old girls that was dizzying in its tone and genres. Javin Franklin has volunteered with SAFE BASE before, but this is his first summer working as a counselor. “I like having fun with the kids,” he said. “But I have no plans to be a teacher. I don’t know if I could do this.” It was almost 8 in the morning.
Javin Franklin, age 16, was seated nearby and glanced over at the girls. He shook his head and smiled. Franklin has volunteered with SAFE BASE before, but this is his first summer working as a counselor. “I like having fun with the kids,” he said. “But I have no plans to be a teacher. I don’t know if I could do this.” It was almost 8 in the morning.
FOR MANY students, the trip to Woolaroc was the farthest they plan to travel this summer. For all but a handful, this was their first time to Woolaroc. Upon arriving, Wacker and her group were shuttled to the Mountain Man Camp, a reenactment of a fur trade camp from the 1840s. Students learned about the harsh life on the frontier, how teepees were constructed, and yes, how to throw a tomahawk.
A humorous anecdote here may help provide an idea of Woolaroc’s size. This Register reporter had accompanied a group of students to the Mountain Man camp but was pulled away by a previously scheduled Zoom call. When the call was over, the bus had already left, so he took to walking the road to the museum. Fifteen minutes later, a Woolaroc vehicle stopped, and the driver politely asked why exactly he was walking in a nature preserve and if he would please climb aboard. He gratefully did so, only to discover the driver was Bob Fraser, Woolaroc’s CEO. 
With such luck he was able to inquire more about the 3,700-acre reserve while Fraser drove, for another 10 minutes or so, to the museum. “You may not have made it here in time before the buses left if you had walked,” Fraser laughed. He was only halfway joking. They had passed buffalo, longhorn cattle, deer and a zebra or two along the ride.
Woolaroc began as the ranch retreat of Frank Phillips, who, along with his brother, founded Phillips Petroleum. In 1944, Phillips and his wife Jane Gibson donated the land, facilities, art and more to the The Frank Phillips Foundation in order to create the museum and preserve. The museum, which began as a hangar for the Woolaroc, a single-engine, single-wing Cessna, features an extraordinary collection of Western art, Native American poetry, and one of the most complete collections of Colt firearms. You’ll also discover, peculiarly, the only privately-owned dinosaur egg in the world.
The museum, which began as a hangar for the Woolaroc, a single-engine, single-wing Cessna, features an extraordinary collection of Western art, Native American poetry, and one of the most complete collections of Colt firearms. You’ll also discover, peculiarly, the only privately-owned dinosaur egg in the world.
Students moved quickly from room to room, glancing at objects thousands of years old. Predictably, many were drawn to a taxidermy collection that included an elephant, elk, bison and more. It’s a wonderful museum that likely demanded more time than the trip allowed for.
After the museum, Wacker and her crew moved to the animal barn, which provided students a chance to ooh and aah at the admittedly cute collection of rabbits, goats, and rheas, a large, flightless bird that most visitors would confuse for an ostrich.
