C-SPAN program to feature Norman highlights

NORMAN — Norman, and its history, will be in the national spotlight next month.

C-SPAN, a national American cable and satellite television, recently stopped in Norman to include the city in its 2018 Cities Tour.

C-SPAN Coordinating Producer Debbie Lamb said the tour project started in 2011 with one goal in mind: allowing a national audience to learn about unique cities across the United States.

“Every city has a story to tell,” Lamb said.

During C-SPAN’s stop in Norman, Lamb and the other tour producers, Scott Hummelsheim and John Farrell, visited some iconic places, including the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the Moore-Lindsay Historical House Museum and the National Weather Center.

The tour also highlighted some local authors, including University of Oklahoma professors Karlos K. Hill, Kyle Harper and R.C. Davis-Undiano. Other Oklahoma authors who were highlighted were Rilla Askew and Sarah Eppler Janda.

“There is such a strong literary culture here (in Norman),” Lamb said. “There’s a lot more here than we could get to, but we hope do the city justice. It’s a treasure trove of information for history and literary culture.”

The Norman program will air April 7 and 8 on Book TV (C-SPAN2 and Cox channel 127) and American History TV (C-SPAN3 and Cox channel 128).

Other landmarks were highlighted on a city tour conducted by former Transcript editor Andy Rieger.

“It kind of reminded me of giving an elevator speech,” Rieger said.

Rieger said it was difficult choosing only a few places to highlight. He said he chose places he thought represented seminal events and places in Norman’s history.

“I tried to pick events and issues that changed the course of Norman,” he said. “Norman is an oasis in Oklahoma. We are a strong community and we view education in very high terms.”

The tour started where Norman began, The Depot. The railroad tracks that run through Norman were completed in 1887. Later, the railroad brought a young surveyor named Abner E. Norman, who the city was later named after.

Rieger said Abner never lived in Norman, but he planned on visiting at some point during the 1920s. However, he died shortly before he was scheduled to visit.

The tour then continued to the Interurban Station.

“It was a pretty big deal because it allowed people to work in Oklahoma City and live in Norman,” Rieger said.

Rieger said the station ceased operations in about 1947, and is now Benvenuti’s Ristorante. The interurban line ran from El Reno into Oklahoma City where it split. The northern leg went to Guthrie and the southern leg went into Norman.

Rieger and the crew then headed east to Griffin Memorial Hospital, which used to be called Central State Hospital.

Rieger said thousands of patients were housed in the hospital during the 1940s and 50s, but as mental health treatment progressed, fewer and fewer people came to stay at the hospital.