Yukon’s Best History Display & Contest takes place throughout the month of May, Yukon Main Street officials have announced.
Hundreds of dollars in prizes are available for contest participants. Weekly prizes will be awarded in three categories – adult, youth and children.
Grand prizes will be awarded at the end of May from all entries.
On April 19, Yukon Mayor Shelli Selby proclaimed May 2022 as National Preservation Month, urging Yukon citizens to join in the special observance and festivities.
“It is important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of Yukon’s heritage that have shaped us as a people,” Selby said.
Yukon Main Street’s Design Point members, with Selby as the chair, created a series of 11 informational displays about Yukon’s historic structures, along with a cryptogram puzzle that, once solved, reveals a historic message.
The displays are hanging in 11 store and business window fronts on Main Street/Route 66, from 4th to 7th streets.
Those who participate in the contest may do so 24/7 during May. The contest is open to everyone.
Participants stroll the displays and use Smart Phones to scan the QR code, and combined with clues on the displays, solve the cryptogram and enter the contest.
The Yukon’s Best History Contest also is available in paper form on the door of the Yukon Main Street office, 528 W. Main.
PLENTY OF EXCITEMENT
Yukon Main Street Director Vicki Davis said the public is already responding in large numbers through social media, with much excitement about the contest and activities.
“Larger groups and buses are welcome and are encouraged to contact the Main Street office to make arrangements for bus parking,” Davis said.
Groups may request a special greeting by a local author and historian and special character greeters, as available.
Winston Churchill once declared, “We shape our buildings, therefore they shape us.”
Learning about the community’s historic structures, businesses, and people who formed the town provides unique insight to “who we are today”, Yukon Main Street officials said.
Prize donors include the Oklahoma Zoological Society, Castle Falls Restaurant, Grounds for Compassion, Archery Traditions, Farfalla Wines, The Flower Shop Winery & Pizzeria, Gaylord-Pickens Museum, Una Belle Townsend, Two Choctaw Sisters, Vickie Kastl, Express Ranches, Sonic, and McDonald’s.
Yukon is a designated “Oklahoma Main Street Community” and is nationally cccredited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) for 2022.
The NTHP established May as Historic Preservation Month in 1973 as a way to celebrate historic places, promote heritage tourism, and acknowledge the social and economic benefits of historic preservation.
For more information, or to schedule a group or bus visit, call the Main Street office at (405) 350-5999 or e-mail mainstreet@yukonok.gov.
Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
