48 Hours in Atoka: Oklahoma's Own Woodstock
A Look Back in History….. 48 Hours in Atoka: Oklahoma's Own Woodstock ATOKA, OK — In a quiet corner of Atoka County, a legend was born and quickly buried. Labor Day weekend of 1975, a little-known music festival called 48 Hours in Atoka brought an estimated 20,000 to 150,000 people to a remote valley on the west side of Atoka Lake. What was pitched as Oklahoma's answer to the legendary Woodstock festival of 1969 became a pivotal, if controversial, event and many credit with launching the outlaw country music movement.
The festival was the brainchild of Dallas attorney Jerry Bob Nix, who saw an opportunity to use a piece of unsellable land in Atoka County for a music festival. He connected with promoter Ray Clevinger and ad man Al Shore to book talent through the Jim Halsey Company Talent Agency in Tulsa. The vision was grand—1,500 acres of rocky, pine-covered hills were bulldozed, irrigation pipes were laid, and a 68-foot stage was built. Promoters even had an official program printed that advertised the festival as a 'newly carved tree laden glen outside Atoka.'
