Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

Above: Pauls Valley Water Park.
Below: The 1907 Centennial Steamer.
Nestled in the heart of Wacker Park, is
the Pauls Valley Water Park. This one-ofa-kind,
family aquatic facility features lap
lanes, a diving board, lazy river, zero entry
children’s arena, open and closed flume
slides, and south-central Oklahoma’s only
giant bowl slide.
Pauls Valley remains one of the few
Oklahoma stops for Amtrak’s passenger train,
the Heartland Flyer. Many train passengers
make Pauls Valley their destination for unique
festivals and special events such as Brickfest,
Okie Noodling Tournament,
Heritage Days Rodeo and a
Fourth of July Spectacular featuring
a championship watermelon
seed spitting contest,
along with fireworks and patriotic
music. Perhaps what Pauls
Valley is best known for is the
world famous Okie Noodling
Tournament and the world’s
only museum devoted to toy
and action figures.
In 2001, then OU student,
now Austin-based film director
Brad Beasley, partnered with
local hand fishermen to document
the sport of noodling via
a noodling tournament. The
original tournament was hosted
at the historic Bob’s Pig Shop, and just a few
hundred people turned out for that evening’s
weigh-in of the fish. The tournament exceeded
expectations over the past fifteen years
and moved to Pauls Valley’s Wacker Park to
accommodate the 10,000 spectators that
attend each year. This all day event features
live music, food and craft vendors and the
Ms. Okie Noodling Pageant. In 2012, it won
a Redbud Award for Outstanding Event in the
state at the Oklahoma Governor’s Conference
on Tourism.
O K L A H O M A : A S t o r y T h r o u g h H e r P e o p l e
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