[Namron] Heavener planning Viking Festival celebrating Runestone State Park & Thor comic book

[Sjonna]

I thought all of Namron and its canton would like to be able to plan for
next year's Viking Festival in Heavener!
Lady Bianca

Small town Heavener plans ‘Viking fair’July 30, 2007 

OKLAHOMA CITY – The curious have come to Heavener for years to see an
ancient rune-stone and wonder about the small Oklahoma town’s mysterious
connection to Vikings. And just weeks ago, Marvel Comics released a new
comic book series with much fanfare in which Thor, the mythic Norse god of
thunder, planted his base of operations right outside of town for reasons
related to the runes.

So it was about time to make the Vikings pay off, city officials said. “It
makes sense for us to try to capitalize on that,” Heavener City Manager
Michael Kennerson said of plans to create an annual town event as a Viking
counterpart to popular medieval and Renaissance fairs. “Tourism would be
very welcome. We’re in the process of updating our comprehensive plan and
that could play an important part.

”Heavener, in Leflore County in far eastern Oklahoma, has a population of
about 3,500 and a city budget of $1.3 million, not counting an $800,000 bond
issue recently passed for infrastructure improvements. The community’s
largest employers are the Kansas City Southern Railway repair depot and OK
Foods poultry processing plant.

But immediately outside the city limits is a 12-by-10-foot slab of stone
with angular figures carved into the surface that attracts more than 120,000
visitors a year. The Heavener Runestone State Park, all 50 acres of it, was
established around the stone itself, a park staff member said. The gift shop
does pretty good business selling miniature copies of the stone and similar
runic artifacts found in the area.

The original stone remains where it was found in the early 1800s, reportedly
by local Choctaw Indians. The slab’s eight engraved letters were first
identified as Norse runes by historians at the Smithsonian Institute in
1923, although since then there has been no majority consensus on their
translation. Only six of the eight characters appear to be true runes used
by old Germanic tribes before the eighth century, historians say. Theories
of the stone’s origin usually involve colonizers from Greenland or Norway
who had wandered into pre-Oklahoma territory via the Mississippi River and
its tributaries, a park spokeswoman said. And if Vikings, then why not Thor
himself?

That’s one of the reasons comic book writer J. Michael Straczynski has said
he chose Heavener as Thor’s new Asgard substitute after more than a year
without a series for the iconic character. Marvel Comics editor Warren
Simons told The Journal Record the Thor stories will be based out of
Heavener “for the foreseeable future. I don’t think we have any plans to set
up in Oklahoma and move soon. … I think it will be fun. I think it’s a great
idea.

”Kennerson said he used to read Thor comic books as a child, “And I hope
they can keep the same tone as it had when I was a kid. … I definitely think
it’s great and it would be an economic booster for here.

”Thor might even be around for next summer’s Mountain Gateway Festival. This
year local organizers delved more deeply into the Viking culture, Chamber of
Commerce Vice President Diana Brand said, by providing a Viking boat, an
arts and crafts village, costuming, and choreographed Viking combat scenes.

“We were very pleased with the interest and turnout we had this year and
plan on building on it and maybe moving it to the spring next year,” Brand
said. “I just wish we’d thought of it sooner.

”The rune-stone has been largely ignored as a potential economic engine, she
said. “We definitely need to highlight that. Because we do get a lot of
people who pass through, and when they find out about the stone, they get
very interested,” Brand said. “We need to utilize it more than we have been.

”Kennerson said the town could capture more visitors passing through if
someone would be willing to risk the investment to build a second hotel. A
greater focus on the region’s natural tourism resources might help lead to
that.

Brand said she doesn’t know why city leaders didn’t realize the stone’s
potential earlier.

“Living here, I’ve always been aware of it. And you assume everyone knows
about the rune-stone. … Sometimes when you take things for granted,” she
said. “You forget that you really need to be highlighting what you have and
jumping up and down.”

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