History of the Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association
Our early records have been lost to time, however, in an interview with Mr. J. M. Goin, of Rattan, he recalls he began work in the Entomology Division of the Department of Agriculture in 1938 and the Association was formed shortly afterwards. He also recalls that Mr. Bob Blackwell of Oklahoma City was the first president and meetings were held at the Skirvin Hotel.
OSBA continued to grow as did the numbers of beekeepers around the State who started forming affiliated local associations. The first of these were the Northeastern Oklahoma Beekeepers Association (NEOBA, Claremore in 1967), East Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association (ECOBA, Ada in 3/1968), and Northwestern Oklahoma Beekeepers Association (NWOBA, Enid in 10/1968).
In 1969, OSBA voted to have their Spring Meeting be educational in nature and be hosted by one of the affiliated chapters. In June of that year, the Spring Meeting was hosted by ECOBA at the Ada Fairgrounds. The keynote speaker was the now famous allergist, Dr. William G. Peterson. In his speech, he told of curing allergy and hay fever symptoms in his patients using pure raw honey. Dr. Peterson's speech was picked up by the Associated Press and was printed in newspapers and medical journals across the country and is still cited to this day.
Today, the Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association has grown to eleven chapters across our great State.