This year Turkey Mountain is the place to be for Black Friday! Both the Westside YMCA and the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition are hosting events at Various Locations on Turkey Mountain.
The Westside YMCA is hosting a local outdoor shopping experience along with a variety of activities and local musicians for entertainment. These events will take place at the Westside YMCA.
At the Upper Parking lot TUWC is hosting its first Annual Black Friday Photo Scavenger Hunt. Participants will be given a list of locations on at Turkey Mountain to visit and tasks to complete as they explore the outdoors. Our hope is that those attending can focus on meaningful interactions with loved ones and making new memories. Pre-Registration is required to participate!
Plan to spend the morning with the TUWC for adventure and the Westside YMCA where you can participate in local vendors black Friday sales and experience live music will be part of the fun!
We want to invite Tulsa out to our Urban Wilderness to explore our wilderness in a fun environment!
Start time is 9AM and the event will end at Noon.
• Teams of 5-8 people.
• Each team must have one TUWC member. (To become a member click here, membership is $5 each calendar year).
• Teams must pre-register with the TUWC to have your scavenger hunt kit ready for you on Black Friday!
• All teams must have at least one person on the team over the age of 18.
• Preregistration is required.
• To Register click here: https://goo.gl/forms/0N2l9RWETuRbVrum2
Jackie Bubenik, Tulsa’s first River Parks Authority director passed away earlier this week in Wichita, Kansas. Tulsa might look much different today if it were not for his vision and guidance of the RPA through its early years. He was the director for nearly 30 years.
I never met Mr. Bubenik personally but came to know him through his vision for Turkey Mountain when the TUWC was leading the fight against development on the west side of the Turkey Mountain area. I came to appreciate what his vision was for the land. His idea all along had been to acquire all the land from the Arkansas River to Highway 75 which was finally realized as a result of Tulsa’s Vision 2025 extension.
Mr. Bubenik’s lasting legacy will be the miles of trail which now line the Arkansas River as well as many park areas along the river. I can recall a time before the trail system was in place when the area just west of Riverside Drive resembled somewhat of a wasteland.
In addition to the trails, Bubenik, along with former Tulsa County Commissioner Terry Young were the two individuals who can really take credit for the creation of the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness area. It was Bubenik’s dream that Turkey Mountain would be free from development and it would be a place where future generations of Tulsans could go to get a respite from life in a busy city.
The most amazing part of his vision for such a riparian haven was that it would eventually be near the center of the metro area.
Two of my favorite quotes of his were:
“We have a lot of well-manicured parks, but we don’t have one that shows this area before people.”
“Fifty years from now, (Turkey Mountain) will be an oasis. “Everything around it will be conquered by urban growth, but that will be there as a reminder of what Tulsa once looked like.”
(Both originally published in Tulsa World articles)
I relied on relaying this original vision of the land to city leaders to remind them of the original intent of this gift to the citizens of Tulsa. I always felt fortunate there were records of his vision we could draw on to show how unique and important this urban wilderness area is.
Thank you Mr. Bubenik for your vision and your gift to the citizens of Tulsa.
Colin Tawney, former VP and Public Affairs Coordinator of the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition. 
