25OklahomaToday.com

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A Hoagy Carmichael tune and Medicine Park’s atmo-spheric setting inspired this southwestern Oklahoma bed and breakfast.By Sheilah Bright

UnTil lAST yeAr, Pegi Brown didn’t know all the reasons why she settled on the name Stardust Inn Bed & Breakfast when

she and her husband, Clark, a graphic designer, decided in 2000 to become innkeepers in Medicine Park.

After moving to the Oklahoma City area from California, the couple discov-ered the historic cobblestone commu-nity, Oklahoma’s first resort. They came on weekends and summers for fifteen years until one day, they decided it was a treasure worth sharing with more than their grandchildren.

Every time they would turn off State Highway 49 onto Granite Ridge Road to check on construction of the inn’s four-bedroom sanctuary, Pegi’s mind track would play Hoagy Carmichael’s “Star-dust” melody, as sung by Nat King Cole: You wander down the lane and far awayLeaving me a song that will not dieLove is now the stardust of yesterdayThe music of the years gone by

“The name always felt right for some reason,” she says. “It felt soothing, like the healing spirit the Native American Indians believed was here in the waters of Medicine Creek.”

Back inside, it’s easy to see, hear, and feel the spirit of Medicine Creek while settling into a rocking chair on the inn’s wraparound porch and tak-ing in all the creature comforts dot-ting the bed-and-breakfast’s landscape. Each room includes a two-person whirlpool tub, private entrance, and access to the porch, where guests can spend hours rocking the time away and watching more birds than they can likely name.

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Continued on page 26Stardust Inn Bed & Breakfast provides ample porch space for sunset views.

26 July/August 2011 27OklahomaToday.com

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O v e r n i g h tHit the road

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It’s easy to get in touch with the inner cowgirl in the Prairie Rose room, named after a 1900s-era rodeo star, or discover rustic luxury in the nature-inspired Elk Song or Buffalo Spirit rooms. As for the Good Medicine room, the innkeepers say it will fix what ails you. The inn includes artwork that is 99 percent Oklahoman, including pieces by a local artist, the late Robert Dean, and innkeeper Clark Brown’s hip graphic prints of vintage western photographs.

Morning can dawn as early as guests wish, and the Browns suggest they grab a cup of coffee and start the day watching the songbirds and hummingbirds dining deck-side. Meanwhile, the innkeepers will serve their famous quiche and bread baked by Big Sky Bakery in Oklahoma City.

Breakfast is served family-style in the western-themed downstairs dining

room overlooking the small lake gon-dola. If the weather inspires a notion to grab a book, leather sofas await in the living room.

Guests have access to much of the downstairs, and because they live on the upper floor, the Browns are almost al-ways on-site. Avid community support-ers, they know everything there is to do and see in Medicine Park, as well as the best wildlife-spotting areas at the nearby Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

Although Medicine Park boasts a popu-lation of only 375 residents, some 1.5 mil-lion visitors a year pass along the nearby highway on their way to the reserve. The Browns and other community supporters are busy working on establishing an en-tertainment complex—complete with an aquarium, museum, botanical garden, and zoo—along the highway that is hoped to boost tourism even more in the tiny town.

“When people visit us, they always say, ‘Why didn’t we know about this place sooner?’” says Pegi.

As it happens, word is getting out.

“Whenever there is a festival or anything going on in town, Clark and Pegi will always be the ones selling the T-shirts or spreading the word,” says Chad Thomp-son, general manager of the Old Planta-tion Restaurant. “They are great support-ers of our town.”

These days, the Browns have a story of their own to tell about this little B&B with what turns out to be a signature song.

Last year, Pegi received a phone call from her eighty-seven and ninety-year-old aunts, who had been searching for her for fifty years after the family lost touch when Pegi’s father died in an airplane accident. It turns out “Stardust” was her father’s favorite

dance song. If you drop by the

Stardust Inn just as dusk is settling in and the geese begin their easy glide back across the creek, it’s possible to hear the old, famil-iar tune.

Of course, it might simply be, as Nat King Cole crooned, “the music of the years gone by.”

get there: rates for an overnight stay at

the Stardust Inn Bed & Breakfast are $155 to $175

a night. (580) 529-3270 or stardustinn.com.An inviting common area at Stardust Inn Bed & Breakfast

A cozy bed in Stardust Inn’s Buffalo Spirit room offers the promise of rest and relaxation, Medicine Park-style. Pegi and Clark are

great supporters of our town.”

—chad thompson

“Most of my treasured memories of travel are recollections of sitting.”

—robert thomas allen

bravo, Krebs! Oklahoma’s Little Italy

Roseanna’sITALIAN FOOD

205 East WashingtonKrebs, OK

(918) 423-2055 www.roseannas.com

95 West 6th StreetKrebs, OK

(800) 854-1417 www.loverasmarket.com

120 SW 8thKrebs, OK

(918) 423-2042 www.petes.org

Visit Krebs for a taste of the old country!