A simmering stampede
Stockyards City is ‘on the cusp’
One thing Stockyards City has never been short on is history. But a closer look might reveal some retailers in the commercial district that you didn’t know were there.
Plus, a new attraction expected to open later this year is being built now. Momentum is headed in the right direction, the director of its main street program said.
“The merchants down here, a lot of them have been here a long, long time,” said Kelli Payne, who grew up in the district, since her dad operates a commission company in the Oklahoma National Stockyards.
“Their hearts and souls are in Stockyards City.”
While Payne said property and business owners desire to maintain the heritage the district represents, she added they also are excited because they believe the area is poised “for some really phenomenal growth in the future.
“Merchants and building owners feel like Stockyards City is on the cusp of a really big breakthrough,” Payne said.
Mainstays remain
The commercial district, established in 1910 outside the Oklahoma National Stockyards, still features iconic retailers such as Langston’s Western Wear, which opened in 1913, and Little Joe’s Boots, which opened in 1950.
There’s also National Saddlery, around since 1926, the Exchange Pharmacy, around since the area’s beginning, and more than a dozen other retail operations that are proud to call Stockyards City their home.
Cattlemen’s Steakhouse is another iconic historic attraction, and other venues also draw visitors to the area, including the Rodeo Opry.
Of course, there is the Oklahoma National Stockyards Co. itself, created when city fathers Anton Classen and Charles Colcord began to acquire land to bring a meatpacking business to town.
They were successful enough in their endeavor to attract two such firms, and that prompted the creation of the stockyards company to operate a public livestock market as well.
According to the Stockyards City Main Street program, the stockyards and meat packing plants were Oklahoma City’s first major industrial installations and represented the heaviest concentration of labor in the city.
In the first five years it operated, the volume of livestock handled at the National Stockyards increased by 130 percent, and by 1966, it had become the nation’s sixth-largest market on the basis of livestock handling, representing $125 million in annual business.
When the number of salable cattle soared to 919,280 head in 1973, the National Stockyards took the nation’s lead.
It remains the world’s largest stocker and feeder cattle market, the main street organization says.
Organic growth
McClintock Saloon & Chop House, a project under construction at 2227 Exchange Ave., is bound to be a big draw when it opens later this year.
The effort’s principal partners, Lindsay Ocker, Alan Greene and Michel Buthion, aren’t new to Oklahoma City. Ocker opened his McClintock boot store at the same location 15 years ago.
But when Buthion, who owns La Baguette, approached him a couple of years back with the idea of opening a saloon at the location, Ocker said he and Greene quickly agreed. As plans progressed, they obtained a lease on an adjoining building to include the chop house. The operation, which they hope to open before the end of September, will be able to seat about 200 patrons.
“When I was a kid, everybody in my neighborhood wanted to be a cowboy, but it’s not that way anymore,” Ocker said. “We’ve lost a couple of generations of potential cowboys, and boots are no longer a fashion statement to our youth.
“It is still a good industry, but it is shrinking one,” he said, explaining his desire to convert the space. “More people eat than wear boots.”
Once the partners decided to make that leap, they next researched what makes a good saloon. Its bar, they decided was key, and they chose a style that was popular on the West Coast in the 1890s.
At McClintock Saloon, a main attraction is sure to be its 50-foot-long oaken bar and back bar built by Larry Hall, whom Ocker said is an independent carpenter who works for various homebuilders around town.
The main columns of the back bar feature corbels of Hercules and of Helen of Troy. Ocker said those were hand carved by an artist in Russia.
The back bar also includes two stained-glass windows that Ocker said are at least 100 years old. One, from Boston, is of Samuel Adams. The other, from Ireland, includes verse from “Hamlet.”
Buthion said plans are for the saloon to offer up to 170 types of whiskeys, plus other spirits and beers. The chop house itself will feature cuisine that includes steaks and some specialty items.
“We’ll have two types of food — country and western,” Buthion said.
Ocker and his partners said they want to offer customers an upscale experience while providing an atmosphere where a working cowboy would feel right at home.
“We will even let bankers in here. But attorneys will have to check their briefcases at the door,” Ocker said.
Heritage key
Payne said the district offers a variety of fun retail opportunities for both out-of-town visitors and people who call the Oklahoma City area home.
Oklahoma Native Art & Jewelry, she said, has one-of-akind pottery and handmade jewelry. Prairie Dust Soaps & Stuff caters to both men and women.
Stockyards Sarsaparilla operates out of an old bar, offering nearly 400 different kinds of flavored pops, and candies and gifts. The Mustang Creek Alpaca Co. sells handmade items that include alpaca fiber.
Various other businesses also call the area home.
But Payne said property and business owners love their roots, and are looking forward to the district’s Stockyards Stampede, which will be held first weekend of October.
“We know our identity here. We are the stockyards. We are western. I believe folks are really hungry for that.”