A cooperative effort to install high-quality, full color, interpretive bird signs along Pathfinder Parkway in Bartlesville has become a reality. Funding, labor, and/or expertise were supplied by Phillips Petroleum Company, Service and Technology Corporation, Bartlesville Independent School District Number 30, OSU-Okmulgee Visual Communications Department, Bartlesville Service League, City of Bartlesville, and the Sutton Research Center. Artist Mark Waller created the 40 full color bird paintings that are featured on a total of 12 signs.
An entry sign (pictured left) graces each end of the selected 2.5-mile stretch of the 11-mile Pathfinder Parkway. In between these entry signs are 10 smaller signs, each depicting four species of birds which may be observed along the trail. Descriptions of habitat preferences, nesting habits, diet, and voice are included for each species, along with a range map.
Award Winner!
The installation of these signs earned the Sutton Center first place in the Nonprofit Education and Promotion category of the 2003 Keep Oklahoma Beautiful competition.
The entrance to the trail is also a memorial to Rodney Keith Bogan of Phillips Petroleum Company who was killed in a tragic plane crash in 1996. His love of flight and birds’ mastery of the air made the association of the memorial and the bird trail seem fitting.
