ENID – There were a lot of out-of-town visitors in downtown Enid last week.
Historians from across the state attended the three-day annual meeting of the Oklahoma Historical Society at the Cherokee Strip Conference Center.
Elementary, middle school and high school students from Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas were seen loading and unloading tubas, drums, saxophones and other musical instruments at churches, schools and other venues downtown as they competed in solos and ensembles at the 79th annual Tri-State Music Festival.
Marcy Jarrett, director of the Enid Convention & Visitors Bureau, expects out-of-town visitors to continue to visit Enid this summer for events ranging from a national junior college baseball tournament to Shakespeare in the Park, a weekly farmers market and a historic downtown walking tour.
Ten teams will be in Enid May 28 to June 4 for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Baseball National Championship at David Allen Memorial Ballpark.
“People from all over the country will be in Enid for the tournament,” said Rob Houston, communications coordinator for the Enid Convention & Visitors Bureau.
It will be the third consecutive year the tournament has been in Enid and the end of a three-year contract, he said. But the tournament will be returning to David Allen Memorial Ballpark.
“Enid has just been awarded the tournament for three more years,” Houston said.
Between the baseball games, fans of the junior college teams are expected to venture a couple of blocks south from the baseball park to the newly expanded Cherokee Strip Heritage Center or a few blocks north to Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse & Adventure Quest.
The 24,000-square-foot Cherokee Strip Heritage Center, which opened in April, includes five exhibit galleries, 2,000-square-feet of rotating exhibit space, a theater, a research center, a visitor center and a gift shop featuring regional items, local artisans’ products and Hollywood films about the pioneer experience.
The Cherokee Strip Heritage Center is expected attract tourists to Enid, who will then eat at the local restaurants, stay at motels and visit other attractions, Jarrett said.
Leonardo’s and the Heritage Center are major factors in marketing Enid as a tourism destination.
“In a lot of our ads, we are highlighting the Heritage Center and Leonardo’s,” Jarrett said. “They are our main selling points.”
Jarrett and Houston were hired after the Enid City Commission approved creating the Enid Convention & Visitors Bureau late in 2010 to market the city as a travel destination. Money to operate the new bureau is from the city’s general fund. Enid has an 8-percent room tax for hotel and motel rooms, but that money is already allocated.
In late May, the bureau will start operating a welcome center for Enid at its offices in the Cherokee Strip Conference Center in downtown Enid.
“People can come here for tourism information,” Jarrett said.
The tourist welcome center will have interactive displays.
“It will be more than just brochures,” Jarrett said.
Parking will be available for recreational vehicles at the new welcome center. Access to the current welcome center is limited and there is not adequate parking for recreational vehicles.
They plan to have the new welcome center open before the baseball tournament at the David Allen Memorial Ballpark, which is a couple of block east of the Cherokee Strip Conference Center.
The Enid Convention & Visitors Bureau plans to market a package of downtown area attractions.
In addition to Leonardo’s, the Cherokee Strip Heritage Center and the David Allen Memorial Ballpark, the downtown area also includes the Gaslight Theatre, which produces nine productions annually including Shakespeare in the Park; the Enid Symphony Orchestra, which has a 340-seat performance hall and has five subscription performances yearly and other performances in the community; and the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma.
Smaller supporting efforts include the Enid Farmers Market, which opens it season on Saturday, and the Chisholm Trail Coalition Historic Downtown Walking Tours.
The walking tours started in April and are scheduled at 10 a.m. the third Saturday each month. The tour of 14 historic sites includes re-enactment characters.
After the opening of the Cherokee Strip Heritage Center in April, Enid’s downtown area tourism is expanding again.
In late May, the city of Enid expects to begin construction on a new events center downtown near the ballpark and Convention Hall.
The events center is part of the Enid Renaissance Project, a $20 million effort that also includes renovation of Convention Hall and a pad site for a hotel, which will be privately developed, said Chris Bauer, planning administrator for the city.
“There is a lot happening in Enid,” Jarrett said. “Don’t let anyone say there is nothing happening in Enid.”