Published: December 01, 2008 10:13 pm      

Durant tries out ice skating rink this season

EDMOND — In his recent history of London Michael Ackroyd wrote about how the Thames River would freeze during the winter months years ago and the people of London would hold what were known as “Frost Fairs” on that frozen waterway.

Ackroyd details how some of those fairs were truly festive events, with people skating over the ice and merchants setting up stalls that sold food and other goods. King Charles II attended one of the fairs, and ate beef that was being sold from a stand where it had been cooked on the frozen river.

A somewhat similar event is planned for the southeastern Oklahoma community of Durant, where later this month an ice skating rink will be constructed in a square in its downtown area that will be surrounded by food vendors. It is anticipated that downtown Durant will be filled by skaters and shoppers during the holiday season, since it will have the only skating rink that will be in operation during the holiday season between Oklahoma City and Dallas.

The downtown area of Durant has been revitalized in recent years as a result of its membership in the Main Street Program that is operated by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, and Durant Main Street manager Dona Dow believes that the skating rink will showcase that revitalization. Dow reports that her office has received inquiries about the skating rink from as far away as Louisiana, and that the facility will be leased to businesses and individuals who will have private parties there on designated dates. It is anticipated that the skating rink will become an annual holiday event in Durant.

When the Tutankhamun Exhibit arrived in New Orleans three decades ago several local radio stations would advise their listeners when there was no line for admission to the museum that housed the exhibit, and many New Orleanians managed to see the wonders of that Pharaoh’s tomb without having to wait in lines for hours as a result.

Durant may have to utilize a similar strategy to ensure that local residents have access to the ice. The rink will be open Saturday and will remain in operation until Jan. 5. While most residents of Durant have not had much experience with ice skating, Dow says that the area also is host to some residents who originally were from the East Coast who claim to have glided over frozen waterways on metal blades in the past.

Historian Will Durant, who along with his wife Ariel wrote the multi-volume “The Story of Civilization,” was the son of French Canadian immigrants to the U.S. In his autobiography, Durant recalled writing a letter to his wife from Durant where he was giving a lecture on philosophy in which he mentioned the irony of giving a presentation in a community that bore his name.

And the community of Durant bears the name of a French-Choctaw family that settled there after the Choctaws were forcibly moved to what is now Oklahoma by the federal government in the “Trail of Tears.” They could conceivably have been related to the historian. It is the headquarters of the Choctaw Nation. The town began to grow in 1872 when the Missouri, Texas and Kansas Railroad developed a stop there, and it was designated as the county seat for Bryan County shortly after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Durant has been designated “The Magnolia capital of Oklahoma” in recognition of the large number of magnolia trees that grace its narrow thoroughfares, and hosts a magnolia festival every spring. And in time Durant also may become known as the ice skating capital of North Texas and Southern Oklahoman during the holiday season.



WILLIAM F. O’BRIEN is an Oklahoma City attorney.