A true pair: Snake Creek and the CCO
Get to know both at an Oct. 25 sporting clays event to boost conservation
In sporting clays, most targets come in pairs, each from different angles or directions.
Occasionally, beginners can call “pull” for each (essentially two singles). Most often, gunners are presented with a report pair. That’s where the second clay flies at the report of the first shot.
True pairs are the most challenging and fun; both fly simultaneously and demand a determined response.
I’ve had a pair of entities like that on my mind recently. Both are relatively unsung but have an impact today and the potential for more significant influence on Oklahoma’s conservation and shotgunning future.
Heckuva pair, indeed.
Next Friday, Oct. 25, the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma will hold its first Clays for Conservation fundraiser in Beggs at Snake Creek Shooting Sports Club. Many people will have a chance to get to know both a little better and decide just how determined their response will be.
Those already in the know will celebrate both from start to finish.
Snake Creek (not to be confused with another Snake Creek often featured in these columns) would surprise most Oklahomans who think they know what a “public” gun range is like. Memberships are offered for greater access and reduced fees, but public day use is welcomed.
I met owner Stephen Todd in the bright, airy hilltop clubhouse at Snake Creek last weekend and plopped my frame into a matching oversized leather chair next to him for a chat.
This place was bright and spotless. I know it seems odd, but a breath of fresh air describes my first impression. Todd seemed to appreciate the fact that I noticed.
“I didn’t want any dirt,” he said. “I wanted everything gravel, period. We have four miles of gravel trails here.”
White gravel, that is.
No mud, no dirty boots, hardly any dust in the air, which is odd for Oklahoma. The clubhouse, modeled after a California Casino called Stones, with a massive longhorn on the wall near the vaulted ceiling, looks upscale but friendly. I’ve been a guest at golf courses I’d never be able to afford that had less impressive clubhouses.
“I was going for a Bass Pro kind of vibe,” Todd said.
Nailed it.
The former commercial airline pilot said he and his former business partner, a doctor, spent years investing in salons as a side business. They would invest, turn a place around until it was profitable, and sell it to salon companies.
“Then we started to think about what we wanted to do to make a lasting impression. Something important in people’s lives,” he said.
Both men enjoyed shooting and sporting clays and recognized that Tulsa lacked nearby facilities, especially south of town. Todd said that shotgun sports, and shooting in general, are healthy outdoor activities for families. He wants Snake Creek to remain a comfortable and affordable place for families and an upscale place with amenities to accommodate corporate events and large community fundraisers.
They recruited Heyward Cunningham, one of the best course designers in the country and President of Promatic Inc., to design their three sporting clay courses—outfitted with sound-activated Promatic throwers, of course.
The 13-station red course is public, while the 10-station white and 14-station blue courses are for members. Blue is the woodsy course with more of a hunting-scenario feel, while white, with increasingly tricky targets, is for serious shooters. Red fits the gap with a design that complements the shooter’s skills.
I’m focused on sporting clays in this column, but the site includes a trap house, wobble trap, five-stand archery range, excellent, covered pistol range, and rifle range with targets out to 300 yards and backstops prepared for the heaviest loads.
Todd said they completed purchases and began construction on the 150 acres a stone’s throw west of U.S. Highway 75 at State Highway 16 in 2018. The club opened in August 2020, during the COVID-19 epidemic. That setback put a dent in group events, but they quickly recovered. In September, the club hosted 300 people for the 3rd Annual Wobbles for Wishes Sporting Clays Challenge with Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The range is a 30-minute drive south of Tulsa’s BOK Center and an equal drive north of the I-40 intersection at Henryetta. Four years later, the club is thriving and has plans to expand. But Todd said he still meets Tulsa shooters who have never been to or heard of nearby Snake Creek.
Shotgunners, not unlike golfers, form communities around various facilities. The more facilities a city offers, the more shot shells and golf balls fly. The more adults who get involved, the more younger gunners who come up. Tulsa has been short on facilities, and the shotgunning community dwindled as a result, he said.
He said he believes Snake Creek can help turn that around.
“We still do everything we can to let people know we’re here,” Todd said.
Get to know the CCO
The need to let more people know you’re around also applies to the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma, which represents a consortium of groups better recognized individually than the CCO.
The National Wildlife Federation affiliate includes member organizations with members of diverse political leanings, such as Tulsa Bird Dog Association, Tulsa Audubon Society, Land Legacy, Spring Creek Coalition, The Nature Conservancy, Save The Illinois River, All Souls Green Team, and the Dave Whitlock Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Founded ten years ago, its initial big challenge was the drive against Ballot Measure 777, the so-called Right to Farm initiative. Ballot Measure 777 failed by a wide margin, largely due to the combined non-partisan efforts of conservation interests who approached the issue with a common concern for wildlife, habitat, and water quality.
The group created an affiliate non-profit, Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma Foundation, to fund the first iteration of the Okies for Monarchs public education outreach program. “Okies” has grown into the wildly successful program of the Oklahoma Monarch and Pollinator Collaborative, a group of 60 private, Native, and government entities. The CCOF turned that program over to The Nature Conservancy in 2019, and early this year, Okies found new footing under a new standalone nonprofit, the Oklahoma Monarch Society.
Some necessary transparency on my part: When “Okies” moved to the Nature Conservancy and I was laid off at the Tulsa World, the Foundation channeled some of its education funding into a test run at a dedicated non-profit environmental journalism effort.
The CCO Foundation board contracted with me as an independent journalist. The Coalition’s affiliate Foundation arm has since dissolved. However, it provided the test model for a new effort, the Oklahoma Ecology Project, launched two years ago. I now write news stories for that completely separate non-profit.
I’m not as close to the CCO board as I was two years ago, but I knew the people in these groups well before the Foundation, the OEP, or the Coalition, for that matter. When I arrived as an outdoor writer and reporter for the Tulsa World in 2008, the outdoor enthusiasts and experts among these groups continually figured into my columns and news stories—and still do.
When I saw a mass email invitation to the Clays for Conservation fundraiser, I thought it was an excellent excuse to visit Snake Creek, and also to catch up with Matt Wright, president of the CCO Board.
Wright said the Coalition is laser-focused on its advocacy role. It is increasing its fundraising efforts with growing environmental challenges and legislative plusses and minuses heavily in the mix year after year. The need for that combined voice representing diverse individuals dedicated to sustainable, scientific, biology-based wildlife and environmental policy is ever-growing, he said.
Snake Creek and the Coalition are a pretty sweet pair, indeed.
I provided links to both in the preceding paragraphs if you want to rise to the challenge.
If you didn’t catch those links, here they are as a pair of singles:
“Pull!”
Sign up for the Clays for Conservation fundraiser.
“Pull!”
Learn more about Snake Creek Shooting Sports Club.