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Watonga Republican editor Graham Dudley (right) poses with Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell. Pinnell was at Roman Nose State Park last Wednesday, Sept. 15 for a meeting of state tourism advisors.
WATONGA – Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell was among the Tourism Advisory Commission members who met last week at Roman Nose State Park to discuss tourism around the state.
Pinnell told the Watonga Republican the commission is trying to have more meetings across the state, rather than all in Oklahoma City, to see the tourist attractions they are trying to promote.
“We wanted them to see, physically see, a lot of the parks around the state, see all the upgrades we’ve been making,” Pinnell said. “We really want to get these commissioners out across Oklahoma to see what we have done and what we need to do.”
Pinnell said the tourism office is “very proud” of the recent upgrades to Roman Nose, including the restoration of its Civilian Conservation Corps-built swimming pool and the installation of a Swadley’s Foggy Bottom restaurant at the lodge.
“Roman Nose is one of our anchor state parks. It’s one of the best state parks that we have, and one of our most-trafficked as well,” Pinnell said. “So we want to make sure that we’re not just accepting OK. We expect more, the taxpayers deserve better than just OK, so that’s been a priority of mine as lieutenant governor – to come in and make sure that we’re investing in our state park system.”
He said quality state parks will attract out-of-state visitors and maybe even convince them to relocate to Oklahoma someday. “So our tourism industry really is the front door to economic development inside Oklahoma,” he said.
After the meeting, Pinnell tweeted that he was glad to hear “today that sales revenue at our renovated welcome centers are up 220% over July/Aug 2020 and up 184% over July/Aug 2019.”
“We’re now well on our way to self-sustaining welcome centers,” he wrote.
Roman Nose draws golfers, fishermen and outdoors enthusiasts from across western Oklahoma and the entire state, though its fishing took a hit this summer when Lake Watonga was drained for structural repairs and engineers discovered more extensive damage than expected. The lake was originally scheduled to be refilled and restocked by now, but is still dry.