While most people would rather be tucked inside under the A/C on any given day in June, Howard Dickman was up for a short jaunt around town. It was one of those days that prompted caution from meteorologists and electricity bills to rise.
However, Dickman wasn’t deterred from giving an impromptu tour of Oklahoma National Guard sites in Chandler built in 1909. It started with the firing range wall by Park Road Elementary and ended at the old stairs next to Tilghman Park.
“If you walk over there, you can see the wall,” he said, pointing out what was left of the old bathhouse.
To say that Dickman is passionate about the Oklahoma National Guard’s history in the area would be an incredible understatement.
He can rattle off facts faster than an auctioneer, with a smile on his face and a spark of joy in his eyes. Through tedious work over the last roughly 20 years, Howard has gathered historical documents and photos, working to prove that Chandler is the hometown of the state National Guard.
It all finally paid off when he presented an official citation from the Oklahoma National Guard saying that very thing to the Chandler City Council on June 11.
And it all started when he said off the cuff that Chandler was the birthplace in an article for The Daily Oklahoma in January 2000.
“People called me and said I was incorrect. So I started putting things together,” he said.
Dickman has compiled a 105-page book documenting everything he found since then. He said he utilized the Museum of Pioneer History in Chandler, the 45th Museum in Oklahoma City, the Ferrell family and the Hoffman family. Roy Hoffman is considered the grandfather of the National Guard.
“They had a wealth of information. I mean, this scrapbook - Peter Hoffman, the youngest child, was still alive, and he gave me his scrapbook that his mother gave him, and it’s where I got a whole bunch of information,” Dickman said.
But what does it mean to be the hometown of the Oklahoma National Guard?
While the official birthplace is in Guthrie, it’s Chandler where everything happened, Dickman said.
Chandler was where the Guard had its first permanent structures with a 1,200-yard firing range, stat house, bathhouse, warehouse and encampment.
To explain the importance of the designation, Dickman spoke about his own upbringing. He was born in Victoria, Texas, and lived in a few different places in Wisconsin until his family settled in Oak Creek, where he lived from kindergarten to graduation.
“So, when I think ‘hometown,’ I don’t think of Victoria, Texas. I think of Oak Creek because that’s where I grew up,” he said.
In the same vein, even though the National Guard was started somewhere else, it’s in Chandler where the first big things happened.
Though his mission to get the designation is over, Dickman said his work is not. Many of the monuments at these sites have incorrect dates.
He is working to replace them with new plaques, as well as renovate some that are damaged, but it’s expensive. He’s raised $1,200 so far and has managed to replace a plaque marking the stairs next to the stat house - something he did himself after work one Saturday in 100-degree weather. But the pillar it’s on needs to be repaired or replaced.
Dickman also wants to put up a trail marker in front of where the old bathhouse used to sit with historical photos and information, as well as replace the monument by the firing range wall.
“I can’t pay for everything, so I’ve been begging people to give me a little bit of money once in a while,” he said. “I’ll get it done eventually.
“It just takes time because I’ve got to take care of my own business at the same time.”