Once upon a time, Dana Boutwell couldn’t wait to leave Kingfisher.

Newly married, the 1990 Kingfisher High School graduate and her then husband, the late Donovan Boutwell, hot-footed it to Oklahoma City with the classic too-hip-for-our-hometown attitude adopted by many young people.

“In Kingfisher, you can’t go anywhere without running into someone you know,” she said. “That’s something I thought I hated as a teenager, but in Oklahoma City when you go to the grocery store and not only is everyone a stranger, but no one even makes eye contact, you realize you’re missing something.”

Later, when the Boutwells moved back to Kingfisher but were spending large chunks of time out of state doing insurance appraisal work, “driving under the underpass and back into town was always the best feeling in the world.”

Now it’s hard to imagine Boutwell ever living anywhere else.

Without really trying, the Kingfisher native has become one of the city’s most visible promoters, both in person and online.

Money Where Her Mouth Is

Boutwell’s vested interest in Kingfisher started with a financial investment – the purchase of Main Street’s historic Bracken Building more than 20 years ago.

Completed in 1909 by used furniture store owner and undertaker Arthur Ellsworth Bracken, the two-story building was home to a doctor-owned hospital on the second floor and Jones Drug Store and other business tenants on the ground floor.

Under Boutwell’s ownership, the massive building at the corner of Main Street and Miles, is home to a vibrant collection of commercial tenants, including a restaurant, realtor’s office, clothing and gift store, a coffee shop and more.

Since the Bracken Building purchase, Boutwell has picked up 15 other properties downtown, including one directly across the street at 123 N. Main St., where she and her aunt Joanne Rother operated Sweet Impressions, a successful candy bouquet business for five years.

When her travel-heavy stint in insurance appraisal made the hands-on operation of a brick-and-mortar retail location too difficult, Boutwell shifted to her current role as landlord only over a large swath of downtown properties.

She said she has no idea how much she’s invested so far in the renovation of the old buildings, including efforts to undo the 1970s era fad of “modernizing” buildings to hide the historic features that give them character.

With a work ethic instilled at an early age (she held her first full-time job at age 12), Boutwell continues to do much of the work herself, enlisting the help of family members, including her son Jesse and daughter Remington and their friends as they are available.

Accidental Historian

Boutwell stumbled into her role as digital archivist of Kingfisher’s colorful history during the process of renovating the buildings she’s purchased.

“I found so many interesting historical items in those buildings, from photos to old equipment to ledgers,” she said.

“A lot of it is a hundred years old or more.”

Boutwell wanted to share the items she’d found and at first did so through photos and posts on her own personal Facebook page.

“That got a little cluttered, so I decided to set up a separate Kingfisher History group page, which I figured would be just for me and four or five other people who might be interested,” she said with a laugh.

No one was more shocked than Dana when interest in the group exploded. Now more than 3,000 people are members in what has become an active discussion and photo sharing group.

“What I love so much about it is that it’s no longer just about the historical items that I’ve uncovered from a hundred years ago,” she said.

Current and former Kingfisher residents from all over the country share their own photos and memories from all eras of the city’s history.

Posts starting with “does anyone remember...” usually trigger dozens of responses, many of which include historical photos of the event or location discussed.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia being shared from people’s high school years and older photos from family collections,” she said.

Started in the midst of the pandemic and the racial turmoil that swept the nation last year, the Facebook group also became a safe place for conversations about current events.

“Everyone with local ties has kept it courteous and kind” she said. “The only people I’ve had to block for inappropriate posts were outsiders who didn’t really have a connection here,” she said.

“I love what that group has turned into and I can’t take credit for any of it.

“Everyone who has contributed and who continues to contribute have really made it fun and interesting.”

The group page also caught the attention of Chisholm Trail Museum Curator Jason Harris, who urged Boutwell to bring her love of Kingfisher history as a member of the museum’s board of directors.

“I love learning about Kingfisher history but I’m really not a historian and my first thought was ‘do I really want to add one more thing to my plate?’” she said.

“But the museum is another one of Kingfisher’s treasures that I love and I just couldn’t say no to the opportunity to help promote it.”

New Kid on the Block

Speaking of promotions, Boutwell’s latest venture, started as an effort to provide more parking to her downtown tenants.

Commercial tenants on the east side of Main Street, including Accentra Home Health, Redrock Behavioral Health and Physical Therapy Central, have larger staffs and less access to parking than the retail tenants on the west side.

Boutwell decided to alleviate that issue by paving the former lot that housed 89er Theater to create an extra parking lot.

But, since none of those service businesses are open on the weekends, that left an available lot for other uses.

“My brother is the one that suggested creating an outdoor weekend event venue,” she said.

And that’s how Block 35 was born.

But Boutwell, who admits to having a definite “go big or go home” attitude, was not content with just making the space available.

Largely at her own expense, she planned several weekend events in early summer, including a pop up shopping venue, a cornhole tournament, athletic competition and more.

She was aided by Kingfisher Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shauna Rupp and secretary Tiffany Jones and sponsors who “came out of the woodwork.”

“I really was surprised at how popular those events were,” she said. “We had a really great turn out for every one of them.”

She’s taking a break during August and September to support other events planned during that time.

But she’s already looking forward to cooler temps in October, when Block 35 will be the perfect spot for fall and winter festivals.

“I’m open to anything we can do on the weekend that will leave the parking spaces available during the week,” she said.

And she fits all of that around her full-time job as a marketing representative for Accentra Home Health and the management of all her commercial and residential properties (35 in total) which she handles herself.

“It makes it easy when I have such great tenants,” she said.

“Plus, anything that involves promoting this awesome town, I’m going to be there for it.”