Published: February 01, 2009 11:13 pm         

Local author writes book about Kingfisher, Kingfisher County past

Glen McIntyre grew up in Kingfisher and although he now is employed in Enid, he still loves the history of the Kingfisher County area as reflected in his book “Images of America: Kingfisher and Kingfisher County”, an illustrated history of the Kingfisher County area.

The book is scheduled for release on Feb. 9. The book is part of Arcadia Publishing “Images of America” series.

McIntyre was director of the Chisholm Trail Museum in Kingfisher for 10 years before coming to Enid and all of his nearly 200 images came from that museum. Some additional images were furnished by the Kingfisher Chamber of Commerce collection.

Arcadia Press hired McIntyre to compile the history, and similar histories are scheduled to be published on Garfield County and Woodward County.

His favorite part of the book are images near the end, showing people in Kingfisher County at play. There is a picture of children on tricycles, people talking on the front porch of a home, two guys pouring beer, a balloon ascension, people riding in the country and former Gov. Seay and family playing poker.

“I was really pleased to do, at the beginning, grandfathers and grandkids, and a little further in the book it shows what it was like for them when they first started west of Kingfisher. It gives a feeling of what hardships those guys had,” he said.

The book is a monument to the people of Kingfisher County and McIntyre portrays what life was like in those days. This is not strictly a history book but a way-of-life book. It is divided into several chapters dealing with various parts of life. The beginnings, with pictures of the land run, towns that sprang up and died, farming, making a living, churches, schools, people and disaster, are all before the play section.

“The history is there, but I wanted a feel for what life was like in the old days. We’ve gained some, but we’ve lost a lot,” he said.

Among the things we’ve lost are neighborliness, where everyone knew everyone else and the ability to be satisfied with simple things, McIntyre said. Among the gains are quality of life and health care.

“I’m talking about being satisfied with simple things, being able to know everybody, that’s what I mean. I realize I look back with rose-colored glasses. Part of the choice for the pictures were deliberate because they emphasize that way of life,” he said. “We do have some disasters in there, tornadoes, fires and floods.”

Among the highlights of the book are some rare picture of the inside of the Kingfisher Hotel; wheat threshing, showing a way of harvesting that was labor intensive; and in the at play chapter there are images of some horse races and a 1907 Oldsmobile.

McIntyre is a native of Kingfisher. He received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in history from the University of Oklahoma and later received a master of liberal studies degree, also from OU. McIntyre plays piano, listens to classical music, collects inexpensive Byzantine and Roman coins and cares for two elderly dogs.

McIntyre said he has not thought of writing this type of book and he left quite a bit out. If he does another one, he will try to include some of the images he left out.