The story
Pelican Festival in Grove
The Pelican Festival celebrates the fall arrival of thousands of American White Pelicans at Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, gathering each October at Wolf Creek Park in Grove, Oklahoma. Organized by the Grand Lake Association since 1983, the multi-day event pairs pelican-viewing boat excursions with a classic car show, arts and crafts vendors, a carnival, food trucks, and live entertainment on the shores of northeastern Oklahoma's largest lake.
Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, formed by the construction of Pensacola Dam on the Grand River in the late 1930s, created a large reservoir in northeastern Oklahoma that, decades later, became an unplanned but reliable waypoint for American White Pelicans migrating each fall from northern breeding grounds toward wintering areas along the Gulf of Mexico.