Courtesy Claremore CVB
If Jeopardy had a category called “America’s small cities and towns,” I would ace it.
After 12 years as editor of Small Market Meetings, I know a lot about places that are unfamiliar to a lot of Americans.
A good example is Claremore, Okla., this month’s Small Town Scene feature. I admit that I knew nothing about Claremore, a town of 18,500 not far from Tulsa, until I started my research for this story.
What a great history it has. The hometown of Will Rogers, it’s located on Route 66 to boot. Claremore’s also home to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, where a tour is sort of like looking into a well-organized closet of Rogers’ life. Smart planners choose the museum for off-site events, knowing their guests will have a ball watching Rogers’ old movies and admiring a collection of saddles that made America’s best-known cowboy proud.
Most people know Rogers more for the things he said than the memorabilia he collected. “I never met a man I didn’t like,” is perhaps his most quoted quote.
In writing about Claremore, I came across another remark made by Rogers that sums up what Small Market Meetings is all about.
We’ve used it to help illustrate the story, on page 22 so I won’t repeat it here.
Suffice to say that Will Rogers, wise man that he was, had an abiding appreciation for the value of America’s small cities and towns. And, so do we.
I hope you enjoy this issue. Let us know what you think.
