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OKLAHOMA 


A  Guide  to  The  Sooner  State 


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OKLAHOMA 

A  GUIDE  TO  THE  SOONER  STATE 

Compiled  by  Workers  of  the  Writers  Program 

of  the  Work^  Projects  Administration 

in  the  State  of  Oklahoma 


AMERICAN  GUIDE  SERIES 
ILLUSTRATED 


Sponsored  by  the  University  of  Oklahoma 

NORMAN 

UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA  PRESS 

MCMXLI 


^<\/ll 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA 


STATE-WIDE  SPONSOR  OF   THE  OKLAHOMA  WRITERS     PROGRAM 


FEDERAL  WORKS  AGENCY 


WORK  PROJECTS  ADMINISTRATION 

Howard  O.  Hunter,  Commissioner 

Florence  Kerr,  Assistant  Commissioner 

Ron  Stephens,  State  Administrator 


COPYRIGHT,  1941,  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA 

PRINTED    IN   THE    U.S.A.    BY   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    OKLAHO.MA    PRESS 
ALL    RIGHTS    ARE    RESERVED,    INCLUDING    THE    RIGHT    TO 
REPRODUCE  THIS  BOOK  OR  PARTS  THEREOF  IN  ANY   FORM 


Foreword 


OKLAHOMA  is  a  land  of  timbered  mountains,  treeless  plains, 
]  mesquite  and  sage  brush,  cypress  and  pine,  massive  build- 
ings and  small  homes,  of  pioneer  newness  and  old  tradition. 
Within  its  boundaries  is  found  nearly  everything  that  w^e  think  of 
as  genuinely  American. 

Here  are  clear  fishing  streams,  beautiful  lakes,  and  rugged 
mountain  scenery.  Level  plains,  where  fields  of  grain  bear  witness 
to  the  rich  soil ;  remote  ranch  houses  and  great  herds  of  cattle  graz- 
ing on  the  prairies;  oil-field  derricks  symbolizing  the  state's  rich 
resources  in  petroleum;  cities  with  skyscrapers,  interesting  towns 
— all  these  reveal  the  widespread  enterprise,  contentment,  and  hos- 
pitality of  the  men  and  women  whose  achievements  constitute  the 
substance  of  this  Guide. 

There  are  people  now  living  in  Oklahoma  whose  memories 
encompass  the  whole  history  of  the  state.  Some  of  the  pioneers  who 
drove  the  first  stakes  in  the  prairies  to  plat  the  sites  of  our  cities, 
farms,  and  ranches  have  watched  the  remarkable  progress  of  Okla- 
homa since  they  first  arrived.  Many  men  who  sat  in  the  constitu- 
tional convention  and  created  the  state's  educational  and  welfare 
institutions  are  still  living,  as  are  members  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  who  helped  to  govern  small  Indian  republics  as  distinct  and 
individual  as  city  states  of  ancient  Greece.  In  many  communities 
are  children  of  prairie  Indians  who  hunted  the  buffalo  and  moved 
their  tepee  villages  across  the  plains.  United  States  marshals,  cow- 
boys, missionaries,  and  pioneer  educators  have  been  a  part  of  Okla- 
homa life  through  the  years.  Fortunately,  some  of  them  survive  to 


VI  FOREWORD 

recount  the  story  of  territorial  days  as  well  as  the  moving  events 
that  have  occurred  since  statehood. 

In  one  sense,  Oklahoma  is  new,  but  in  another  real  sense  it  is 
old.  The  first  church  was  organized  in  1830,  the  first  public  school 
law  was  enacted  in  1832,  the  first  printing  press  was  set  up  in 
1835,  and  the  first  newspaper  began  publication  in  1844.  All  these 
agencies  of  civilization  and  culture  were  established  by  and  for 
the  Indian  population;  and  the  state's  present  economic,  social, 
political,  and  religious  structures  were  based  on  these  early  foun- 
dations. 

This  volume  is  a  serious  attempt  to  present  a  rounded  story  of 
Oklahoma;  in  its  pages  both  Oklahomans  and  visitors  in  the  state 
will  find  much  that  is  useful  and  interesting. 

W.  B.  BiZZELL 

May  15, 1941 


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Preface 


WHILE  WORKING  OVER  the  material  compiled  and  written  by  the  Okla- 
homa Writers'  Program  for  Oklahoma:  A  Guide  to  the  Sooner 
State,  the  staff  has  at  times  suspected  that  it  was  putting  together 
the  most  comprehensive  history  of  Oklahoma  thus  far  published.  Even  though 
the  suspicion  is  probably  not  justified,  it  is  hoped  that  the  persevering  reader 
will  lay  down  the  book  convinced  that  he  knows  and  understands  the  back- 
grounds of  this  interesting  state  and  has  at  least  a  speaking  acquaintance  with 
its  present. 

The  obvious  purpose  of  a  state  guide,  of  course,  is  to  direct.  The  tours  and 
the  section  on  the  principal  cities,  especially,  try  to  tell  accurately  what  every 
nook  and  corner  of  Oklahoma  has  of  interest  to  its  citizens  and  to  visitors. 
From  almost  innumerable  sources — books,  newspaper  files,  and  above  all 
Oklahomans  themselves — the  Oklahoma  Writers'  Program  has  recorded  the 
state's  history,  pictured  its  varied  topogtaphy,  summarized  its  natural  re- 
sources and  its  cultural  and  industrial  development.  Beyond  the  search  for 
facts,  however,  the  staff  has  sought  such  material  as  would  add  color  to  Okla- 
homa's story.  It  has  also  kept  in  mind  the  need  to  make  clear  the  complicated 
and  significant  story  of  the  close  human  and  political  contacts  between  the 
Indians  and  the  whites  in  the  century  and  a  quarter  since  the  two  races  first 
met  in  Oklahoma. 

It  is  not  possible  to  list  by  name  the  many  organizations  and  persons  who 
helped  in  the  preparation  of  this  book.  To  all  of  them  we  make  grateful 
acknowledgment. 

Angie  Debo  "j 

>    Editors 
John  M.  Oskison       J 


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Contents 


FOREWORD,  by  W.  B.  Bizzell  V 

PREFACE  vii 

GENERAL  INFORMATION  xix 

CALENDAR  OF  ANNUAL  EVENTS  xxiii 

PART  I.  The  General  Background 

The  Spirit  of  Oklahoma,  by  Edward  Everett  Dale  3 

Natural  Setting  7 

Early  Oklahomans  14 

History  20 

Industry  and  Labor  37 

Transportation  50 

Agriculture  54 

Sports  and  Recreation  61 

Education  65 

Newspapers  74 

Literature,  by  Kenneth  C.  Kaufman  83 

Architecture  and  Art  '            94 

Music  104 

Folklore  and  Folkways  114 


PART  II.  Principal  Cities 


Ardmore  125 

Bartlesville  131 

Enid  136 

Lawton  142 

Muskogee  148 

Norman  156 


x        contents 

Oklahoma  City 

Okmulgee 

PoNCA  City 

Shawnee 

Stillwater 

Tulsa 


164 
181 
187 
192 
198 
204 


PART  III.  Tours 

Tour   1  (Baxter  Springs,   Kans.) — Tulsa  —  Oklahoma   City — 

El  Reno — Clinton  —  Sayre — (Shamrock,  Tex.)  [US  66] 
Section  a.  Kansas  Line  to  Tulsa 
Section  b.  Tulsa  to  Oklahoma  City 
Section  c.  Oklahoma  City  to  Texas  Line 

Tour  2  (Fort  Smith,  Ark.) — Gore — Muskogee — Tulsa  —  Enid  — 

Alva — Guymon — Kenton — (Raton,    N.   M.)    [US    64] 
Section  a.  Arkansas  Line  to  Tulsa 
Section  b.  Tulsa  to  Enid 
Section  c.  Enid  to  New  Mexico  Line 

Tour  2  A       Keystone  —  Cushing — Langston  —  Guthrie  [State  S5] 

Tour  3  (Fayetteville,  Ark.) — Muskogee  —  Oklahoma  City — 

Chickasha  —  Anadarko  —  Hollis — (Childress,  Tex.)  [US  62] 
Section  a.  Arkansas  Line  to  Oklahoma  City 
Section  b.  Oklahoma  City  to  Texas  Line 

Tour  3   A       Junction  US  62  — Fort  Sill  — Junction  US  62 
[Fort  Sill  Road] 

Tour  3  B  junction  US  62  —  Medicine  Park — Wichita  Mountains 
Wildlife  Refuge  —  Indiahoma  [State  49,  Meers  Highway, 
Scenic  Highway] 

Tour  4  (Seneca,  Mo.) — Bardesville — Ponca  City —  . 

Enid— (Canadian,  Tex.)   [US  60] 

Section  a.  Missouri  Line  to  Bartlesville 
Section  b.  Bartlesville  to  Enid 
Section  c.  Enid  to  Texas  Line 

Tour   5  McAlester— Oklahoma  City — Watonga — Seiling  [US  270] 

Section  a.  Junction  US  271  to  McAlester 
Section  b.  McAlester  to  Harrah 
Section  c.  Harrah  to  Seiling 

Tour  6  (DcQucen,  .Ark.)  —  Hugo  —  Durant — Ardmorc — 

(Burkburnttt,  Tex.)  [US  70] 


219 
219 
224 
227 

233 
234 
239 
243 

253 


256 
257 
265 


273 


279 


285 
286 
288 
295 

298 
299 
304 
310 


314 


CONTENTS  XI 

Tour  7  (Ft.  Smith,  Ark.) — Poteau — Talihina — Antlers— Hugo — 

(Paris,  Tex.)  [US  271]  323 

Tour  8  (Columbus,  Kans.) — Vinita — Muskogee — McAlester — Atoka — 

Durant— (Denison,  Tex.)  [US  69]  330 

Section  a.  Kansas  Line  to  Muskogee  330 

Section  b.  Muskogee  to  Texas  Line  338 

Tour  9  (Independence,  Kans.) — Bartlesville — Tulsa — Okmulgee — 

Calvin— Atoka  [US  75]  344 

Tour  9  A       (Cofifcyville,  Kans.)— Collinsville— Tulsa  [US  169]  350 

Tour   10  (Arkansas  City,  Kans.) — Ponca  City  —  Oklahoma  City  — 

Ardmore— (Gainesville,  Tex.)   [US  77]  353 

Section  a.  Kansas  Line  to  Oklahoma  City  354 

Section  b.  Oklahoma  City  to  Texas  Line  361 

Tour   10  A     Davis— Sulphur— Piatt  National  Park  — Junction  US  70 

[State  22,  State  18,  Perimeter  Blvd.]  365 

Tour   U  (Caldwell,  Kans.)— Enid— El  Reno— Chickasha— 

(Ringgold,  Tex.)  [US  81]  368 

Tour   12  (Ashland,  Kans.) — Woodward  —  Seiling  —  Frederick — 

(Vernon,  Tex.)  [US  183]  lid 

Tour   13  (Englewood,  Kans.) — Arnett — Sayre — Altus — 

(Vernon,  Tex.)   [US  283]  383 

Tour   14  (Sedan,  Kans.) — Hominy — Drumright — Ada — 

Tishomingo — (Denison,  Tex.)  [State  99]  387 

Tour   15  Junction  US  66-69 — Jay — Westville — Sallisaw — 

Heavener— (Mena,  Ark.)  [US  59]  397 

Tour   15  A     junction  US  59— Big  Cedar— Bethel— Broken  Bow- 
Junction  US  70  [Unnumbered  road,  State  21]  404 

Tour   16  Lake  Francis  Dam  (Watts) — Tahlequah — Cookson — 

Junction  with  US  64  [Illinois  River]  407 


VAKT  IV.  Appendices 


Chronology 
Selected  Reading  List 
Index 


415 
422 
427 


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Illustrations 


THE  SETTING  between  pages  36  and  37 

Eldon  Valley,  near  Tahlequah 

Glass  Mountain,  near  Fairview 

Quartz  Mountain  State  Park,  near  Mangum 

Sand  Dunes,  near  Waynoka 

Lake  Buford,  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge 

Natural  Bridge  at  Cedar  Canyon  Park,  near  Freedom 

"He"  Mountain,  McCurtain  County 

Lake  Clayton,  Pushmataha  County 

Drive  to  Osage  Hills  State  Park,  near  Pawhuska 

"Tombstone"  Weathering  of  Tilted  Rock  Strata,  Arbuckle  Mountains 

Buffalo  Herd  in  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge 

Black  Mesa  Valley,  near  Kenton 

Arkansas  River  Valley,  Muskogee  County 

Wildcat  Curve,  North  of  Guthrie 

Kiamichi  Mountains,  Southeastern  Oklahoma 

Turner  Falls,  Arbuckle  Mountains 

LAND  OF  THE  INDIANS  between  pages  82  and  83 

Choctaw  Indian  Ball  Player  :  Cadin 

Choctaw  Boys  Playing  Ball  at  Tuskahoma 

Ponca  Indians  (about  1900) 

Cheyenne  Camp  (about  1900) 

Geronimo,  Apache  Chief 

Sequoyah,  Inventor  of  the  Cherokee  Syllabary 

Choctaw  Indian  Farm  Woman 

An  Indian  Matron,  Cheyenne-Arapaho  Agency 

Fred  Lookout,  Chief  of  the  Osage,  with  Wife  and  Grandchild 

Cheyenne-Arapaho  School  Children  in  Christmas  Play 


XIV  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Indian  Dancers  at  Anadarko 

Indian  Drummers 

Sequoyah  Shrine,  enclosing  his  old  cabin,  North  of  Sallisaw 

Log  Water  Pipe,  laid  by  Indians  more  than  a  century  ago 

Choctaw  Ball  Play  Dance  :  Catlin 

Indian  Artists  of  Today 

A  Native  Schoolboy  grasps  an  opportunity  to  learn  by  doing 

EARLY  SETTLEMENT  between  pages  128  and  129 

Pioneer  Woman,  by  Bryant  Ba\er:  Ponca  City 

Waiting  for  the  Run,  Cherokee  Strip,  1893 

The  Run,  Cherokee  Strip,  1893 

Guthrie,  April  22,  1889 

Oklahoma  City,  April  24,  1889 

Sod  House,  Cherokee  Strip 

Sam  Houston  Home,  Wagoner  County 

Spring  House  at  Salina;  oldest  white  settlement  building  still  standing 

Old  Millstones  at  Dwight  Mission,  near  Sallisaw 

Seminole  Council  House,  Wewoka,  1870 

Creek  Capitol,  Okmulgee,  Today 

Chickasaw  Capitol  at  Tishomingo 

Female  Seminary  for  Cherokee  Indians;  now  part  of  Northeastern  State 

College,  Tahlequah 
Old  Corral,  Fort  Sill 
Old  Cannon  at  Fort  Gibson 
Fort  Gibson,  Restored 

IN  THE  CITIES  between  pages  174  and  175 

Entrance  to  State  Capitol,  Oklahoma  City 
Oklahoma  City  Civic  Center 
Downtown  Oklahoma  City 
Tulsa:    The  Skyline 

Boston  Avenue  Methodist  Church 

Woodward  Park 
Old  Union  Agency  Building,  Muskogee 
Senior  High-Junior  College,  Bartlesville 
Guthrie;  Architecture  of  1889-90 
Ponca  City  Municipal  Building 
Administration  Building,  University  of  Oklahoma,  Norman 


ILLUSTRATIONS  XV 

"Old  Central,"  Oklahoma  A.  &  M.  College,  Stillwater 
Osage  Tribal  Museum,  Pawhuska 
Carter  Academy  (Female  Indian  School)  Ardmore 
Wheat  Elevators  and  Flour  Mill  at  Enid 

OIL  between  pages  236  and  237 

Oil  Wells  in  front  of  State  Capitol,  Oklahoma  City 

Papoose  Oil  Field,  Showing  Old  Style  Rigs,  near  Okemah 

Well  Blowing  In,  Showing  Modern  Rotary  Rig 

Old  Style  "Standard"  Wooden  Drilling  Rig 

Old  Style  Pump  Jack  and  Star  Rig  Drill  for  Shallow  Wells 

A  Roustabout,  Bone  and  Blood  and  Sinew  of  the  Oil  Industry 

Painting  the  Derrick 

Oil  Refinery  Equipment 

Oil  Industry  Chemist 

Oil  Refining  Stills 

Tank  for  Natural  Gasoline 

Oil  Field  Machinist 

Rock  Bits  for  Rotary  Drill,  Before  and  After 

ALONG  THE  HIGHWAY  between  pages  282  and  283 

Monument  to  Gen.  Stand  Watie 

Highest  Point  in  Oklahoma,  4,778  feet 

The  Santa  Fe  Trail,  as  seen  from  U  S  Highway  64 

Beavers  Bend  State  Park,  near  Broken  Bow 

Buffalo  in  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge 

On  the  Way  to  Beavers  Bend  State  Park 

Scene  on  Mountain  Fork 

Oil  and  Wheat,  near  Edmond 

State  Fish  Hatchery,  near  Durant 

Will  Rogers  Memorial,  Claremore 

Custer's  Battlefield,  two  miles  west  of  Cheyenne 

Zinc  Mine  at  Picher 

Gypsum  Plant,  near  Southard 

Coal  Mine  at  Henryetta 

Grand  River  Dam,  looking  north 

Tucker  Tower,  Lake  Murray 

Quartz  Mountain  State  Park,  near  Mangum 


XVI  ILLUSTRATIONS 

AGRICULTURE  between  pages  328  and  329 

Oklahoma  Farm  Lands  near  Muskogee 

Wheat  Farm  near  Hennessey 

Beef  Cattle  on  the  Range 

Cornfield,  Oklahoma  County 

Cotton  Field,  Hughes  County 

Picking  String  Beans,  Muskogee  County 

Starting  a  Shelter  Belt 

A  Shelter  Belt  in  Service 

Contour  Furrowing  for  Pasture  Land 

Contour  Plowing 

Conservation  Dam,  near  Kenton;  at  low  water 

Broom  Corn  Harvest,  Lindsay 

4-H  Club  Girl 

4-H  Club  Boys 

Farm  Women  Registering  for  Farmers'  Week  at  Oklahoma  A.  &  M.  College 

Weighing  and  Loading 

SOME  OKLAHOMANS  between  pages  374  and  375 

At  Ease 

Oil  Field  Ditch  Digger 

A  Religious  Rally 

An  Oil  Field  Worker  at  Home 

Behind  the  Ebb  of  the  Frontier 

Play  After  Work 

A  Pie  Supper;  Cook  and  Guest 

Farm  Boys  at  a  Play  Party 

Farm  Families  at  a  Community  Gathering 

Indian  Tribal  Meeting 

Will  Rogers  and  Wiley  Post 

A  Pioneer  of  "Terracing":  }.  J.  Brown 

"A  Woman's  Place" 

"A  Man's  World" 


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Maps 


State  Map 

Tour  Key  Map 

States  Formed  from  the  Louisiana 
Purchase 

Position  of  the  Indian  Territory 
Between  1830  and  1848 

Territory  of  the  Southern  Indians 
Before  1855 

The  Indian  Territory,  1855-1866 

The  Indian  Territory  in  1889 

Map  of  Early  Forts  and  Missions 

Oklahoma  City 

Tulsa 


bac^  pocket 
front  end  paper 

bac\  of  state  map 

bac\  of  state  map 

bacl{  of  state  map 

bac\  of  state  map 

bac\  of  state  map 

22 

176-7 

212-3 


xvu 


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General  Information 


Railroads:  The  Rock  Island  System  (Rock  Island);  St.  Louis-San  Francisco 
Ry.  (Frisco);  The  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry.  (Santa  Fe);  Missouri- 
Kansas-Texas  R.R.  (Katy);  Kansas,  Oklahoma  &  Gulf  Ry.  (KO&G);  Mid- 
land Valley  R.R.  (MV);  Missouri  Pacific  R.R.  (MP  or  MOP);  The  Kansas 
City  Southern  Ry.  (KCS);  Oklahoma  City-Ada-Atoka  Ry.  (OCAA);  Texas, 
Oklahoma  &  Eastern  R.R.  (TO&E);  Gulf,  Colorado  &  Santa  Fe  Ry. 
(GC&SF);  Beaver,  Meade  &  Englewood  R.R.  (BM&E);  Panhandle  &  Santa 
Fe  Ry.  (PH&SF);  Oklahoma  &  Rich  Mountain  R.R.  (O&RM);  Arkansas 
Western  Ry.  (KAW);  Wichita  Valley  Ry.  (WV);  Wichita  Falls  &  Southern 
Ry.  (WF&S);  Ft.  Smith  &  Van  Buren  Ry.  (FT.S&VB);  Osage  Ry.  (OR); 
Okmulgee  Northern  Ry.  (ON).  Many  of  these  lines  were  organized  and  con- 
structed under  other  names  but  are  now  (1941)  operated  under  the  names 
given  above. 

Highways:  21  Federal  highways,  9  of  them  transcontinental  or  with  trans- 
continental connections.  State  covered  by  a  network  of  state  and  county  roads. 

Traffic  Regulations  (digest):  Maximum  speed  determined  by  safety.  Driver's 
license  required  after  residence  is  established.  Drivers  from  states  that  have  no 
drivers'  license  law  (Louisiana  and  North  Dakota,  1941)  must  secure  drivers' 
licenses  in  Oklahoma  within  30  days.  Each  town  and  city  has  own  trafiBc 
regulations.  State  has  a  uniformed  highway  patrol  of  155  officers.  Filling 
stations  every  few  miles  on  state  and  Federal  highways;  gasoline  tax  (includ- 
ing Federal)  7  cents.  No  inspection  of  passenger  cars.  Prohibited:  Operat- 
ing without  headlights  and  taillights  at  night.  Stopping  any  part  of  car  on 
pavement.  Using  spotlight.  Driving  while  under  influence  of  liquor.  Rules 
of  the  Road:  Uniform  with  those  of  all  other  states. 

Air  Lines:  Branifl  Airways  (Chicago  to  Brownsville,  Texas),  stop  at  Ponca 
City  and  Oklahoma  City;  Mid-Continent  Airlines  (Minneapolis  to  Tulsa)  has 

xix 


XX  GENERAL    INFORMATION 

its  southern  terminus  at  Tulsa;  American  Airlines  (Transcontinental)  stops 
at  Tulsa  and  Oklahoma  City.  State  has  53  airports  and  landing  fields. 

Climate  and  Travel  Equipment:  Temperature  ranges  from  zero  to  85°  F., 
Sept.  15  to  July  1.  Heaviest  annual  rainfall  (42  in.)  in  southeastern  section. 
Changes  occur  suddenly;  occasional  dust  storms  in  western  half  of  state  in 
spring  and  summer.  Topcoats  seldom  necessary  before  October  or  after 
April  1. 

Prohibition:  Illegal  to  sell  or  possess  spirituous  liquors,  or  to  sell  malt  liquors 
containing  more  than  3.2  per  cent  alcohol. 

Poisonous  Snakes  and  Plants:  Ratdesnakes  found  in  all  sections  of  the  state; 
cottonmouth  moccasins  along  streams  in  swamp  areas;  copperheads  in  eastern 
part  of  state.  Poison  ivy  common  in  all  wooded  areas;  can  be  distinguished  by 
its  cluster  of  three  leaves,  all  other  ivy  vines  having  five-leaf  clusters.  Poison  ivy 
is  not  always  a  vine  but  may  grow  as  a  weed  in  meadows  or  among  rocks. 

Recreational  Areas:  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge,  61,480  acres  {see 
Tour  3A);  Osage  Hills  State  Park,  740  acres  (see  Tour  4) ;  Roman  Nose  State 
Park,  520  acres  (see  Tour  5) ;  Robbers  Cave  State  Park,  8,400  acres  (see  Tour 
5);  Boiling  Springs  State  Park,  820  acres  (see  Tour  12);  Ouachita  Mountains 
(see  Tours  7-15-15A);  Grand  River  Dam,  54,000  acres  (see  Tour  1);  Piatt 
National  Park,  848  acres  (see  Tour  10 A);  Turner  Falls  Park,  848  acres  (see 
Tour  10);  Lake  Murray  State  Park,  18,350  acres  (see  Tour  10);  Quartz 
Mountain  State  Park,  3,000  acres  (see  Tour  13);  Spavinaw  Hills  Park,  1,600 
acres  (see  Tour  15);  Beavers  Bend  State  Park,  1,300  acres  (see  Tour  15A); 
Salt  Plains,  20,480  acres  (now  a  reservoir),  made  a  Federal  Wildlife  Refuge 
in  1930  (see  Tour  2);  Cookson  Hills  Playground  (soil  conservation  project); 
Greenleaf  Lake,  950  acres,  playground  of  27,000  acres. 

Fish  and  Game  Laws  (digest):  Licenses  issued  in  drug  and  sporting  goods 

stores,  and  by  fish  and  game  wardens. 

Fishing:  All  nonresidents  over  16  years  of  age  must  have  a  license  to  fish  in 

Oklahoma  with  any  kind  of  bait;  seasonal  license,  $5;  a  10-day  permit,  $1.25. 

Resident  fishing  license,  $1.25;  60  days  residence  necessary  for  resident  license. 

Hunting:  Season  for  migrating  birds  determined  by  Federal  government  and 

changed  from  year  to  year.  Quail,  Nov.  20-Jan.  2,  on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays, 

and  Saturdays.  Squirrel,  May  15  to  Dec.  31.  Other  game  animals  may  not  be 

hunted  except  on  specified  dates. 

Limits:  Ten  bass  or  channel  catfish,  or  25  game  fish  of  all  kinds,  in  one  day. 


GENERAL    INFORMATION  XXI 

Bass  and  channel  cat  must  be  8  inches  or  longer,  trout  7  inches,  and  crappie  5 
inches.  Ten  quail  in  one  day,  or  50  in  one  season;  10  squirrels  in  one  day;  10 
wild  ducks  in  one  day,  or  50  in  one  season;  4  wild  geese  in  a  day,  or  12  in  a 
season. 

Prohibited:  To  dynamite,  poison,  or  capture  fish  in  any  manner  except  with 
baited  hook  or  artificial  lures,  either  on  line  and  rod  or  trotline  containing  not 
more  than  100  hooks.  To  sell  plumes,  skins,  or  feathers  of  wild  birds  enu- 
merated in  the  Oklahoma  statutes.  To  hunt  between  a  half -hour  after  sunset  to 
a  half-hour  before  sunrise.  To  use  guns  of  larger  bore  than  10-gauge,  To  hunt, 
fish,  or  trap  on  land  of  another  without  consent  of  owner.  To  disturb  meetings 
at  churches  or  schoolhouses  by  shooting  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  To  shoot 
at  animals  or  birds  from,  or  across,  a  public  highway.  It  is  unlawful  to  sell  or 
ofifer  for  sale  any  game  animal,  bird,  or  fish.  Possession  of  any  game  animals, 
birds,  or  parts  thereof,  during  closed  season  shall  be  evidence  that  they  were 
taken  or  killed  during  such  closed  season. 


s^O/^i. 


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£50/?i. 


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^d/ii 


^tj/i'i 


£?!0/H 


Calendar  of  Annual  Events 


JANUARY 

Third  or  fourth  week  at  Oklahoma  City  State  Bowling  Tournament 

No  fixed  date  at  McAlester  Calico  Ball 


FEBRUARY 


Second  week 
No  fixed  date 


at  Oklahoma  City 

at  Edmond,  Central 
State  College 


MARCH 
Third  or  fourth  week  Vicinity  of  Norman 


Fourth  week 
No  fixed  date 
No  fixed  date 


Easter  Morning 


Second  week 
Third  week 
Third  week 
Twenty-second 
Twenty-second 

No  fixed  date 


at  Oklahoma  City 
at  Enid 
at  Tulsa 


Golden  Gloves  Boxing 

Tournament 
Invitation  High  School 

Basketball  Tournament 


Cornbread  Dance  of  the 
Big  Jim  Band  of 
Absentee  Shawnees 

Livestock  (Fat  Stock)  Show 

Industrial  Exposition 

Magic  Empire 

Junior  Livestock  Show 


MARCH  OR  APRIL 
at  Lawton  Easter  Pageant 


APRIL 


at  Sulphur 
at  Enid 
at  Watonga 
at  Guthrie 
at  El  Reno 

at  Marshall 


Redbud  Pilgrimage 
Tri-State  Band  Festival 
Rattlesnake  Hunt 
Eighty-Niners'  Celebration 
Chisholm  Trail  and  Pioneer 

Day  Celebration 
Little  Town  High  School 

Band  Festival 


xxui 


XXIV  CALENDAR    OF    ANNUAL    EVENTS 

MAY 


Second 
First  week 

Second  week 
(even  years  only) 
Decoration  Day 

No  fixed  date 


First  week 

Second  week 

Second  week 
Twenty-seventh 
No  fixed  date 

Second-fourth 

Third-fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 

Thirteenth 

Nineteenth 

Twenty-sixth- 
twenty-eighth 
Fourth  week 

No  fixed  date 

No  fixed  date 


at  Guymon  Pioneer  Day  Celebration 

at  Norman,  University  High  School 

of  Oklahoma  Intcrscholastic  Meet 

at  Tulsa  International  Petroleum 

Exposition 
at  Barber  Cherokee  Indian  Decoration 

Day  Ceremony 
at  Chickasha  Horse  Show 


JUNE 


at  Stilwell 


at  Edmond,  Central 

State  College 
at  Seminole 
at  Broken  Bow 


Green  Corn  Shoot  of  the 

Cherokees 
Annual  Folk  Festival 

Rodeo 
Tomato  Festival 


Vicinity  of  Drumright   "Busks"  of  the  Creek  Indians 


JULY 

at  Cache, 

Craterville  Park 
at  Drumright 
at  Lake  Holdenville 
at  Anadarko 

at  Sulphur,  Piatt 
National  Park 
Vicinity  of  Quapaw 
Vicinity  of  Kellyville 
Vicinity  of  Gore 

at  Atoka 


Indian  Fair  and  Rodeo 

American  Legion  Rodeo 
Free  Buffalo  Meat  Barbecue 
Old  Settlers'  Reunion 

Boy  Scout  Jamboree; 

July  Fourth  Celebration 
Quapaw  Indian  Powwow 
Indian  Stick  Ball  Game 

Sacred  Fire  Ceremony  of  the 
Kee-Too-Wah  Society  of  the 
Cherokee  Indians 

Rodeo 


Vicinity  of  Holdenville  Green  Corn  Feasts  and  Stomp 
Dances  of  the  Creek  Indians 

Vicinity  of  Kellyville      Green  Corn  Dances  of  the 
Creeks  and  Euchees 

Vicinity  of  Hcnryetta     Green  Corn  Dances  of  the 
Creeks 


CALENDAR   OF   ANNUAL   EVENTS 


AUGUST 


First  Thursday 

Sixth 

First  week 
Second  week 


at  Blackburn 

at  Lawton 
at  Hinton 
at  Quapaw 


Second  week  at  Boley 

Twentieth  (usually)  Vicinity  of  Norman 

Third  week  at  Seminole 

Third  week  at  Anadarko 

Fifteenth-nineteenth  at  Ponca  City 


Twenty-Fourth- 

Twenty-fifth 
Fourth  week 
No  fixed  date 

No  fixed  date 


No  fixed  date 
No  fixed  date 


at  Okmulgee 

at  Covington 
Vicinity  of  Canton 

Vicinity  of  Shawnee 


at  Sperry 

at  Stillwater, 

Agricultural  and 
Mechanical  College 


Reunion  of  Drought  Survivors 

of  1901 
Pioneer  Day 
Kiwanis  Rodeo 
Seneca-Cayuga  Green  Corn 

Feasts  and  Dances 
Negro  Masonic  Grand  Lodge 

Celebration 
War  Dance  of  the 

Big  Jim  Band  of 

Absentee  Shawnees 
Rodeo 

All-Indian  Fair  and  Exposition 
Annual  Powwow  of  the 

Ponca  Indians 
Pioneer  Powwow  and 

Indian  Festival 
Knox-Mulhall  Rodeo 
Dances  of  the 

Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes 
Grand  Medicine  Lodge  Gath- 
ering and  Dance  of  the  Sac 

and  Fox  Indians 
War  Dance  of  the 

Creeks  and  Euchees 
Farmers'  Week  and 

4-H  Club  Roundup 


First  week 
Labor  Day 
Sixteenth 

Second  week 
Twenty-first- 
twenty-fifth 
Third  week 
Fourth  week 
Fourth  week 
Fourth  week 
Fourth  week 


SEPTEMBER 

at  Vinita 

at  Guymon 

at  Enid;  Ponca  City; 

Perry 
at  Ardmore 
at  Perkins 

at  Tulsa 
at  Lamont 
at  Pawhuska 
at  Woodward 
at  Oklahoma  City 


Will  Rogers  Memorial  Rodeo 
Old  Setders'  Reunion 
Cherokee  Strip  Opening 

Celebration 
Southern  Oklahoma  Free  Fair 
Old  Settlers'  Celebration 

and  Iowa  Indian  Dances 
Tulsa  State  Fair 
Watermelon  Festival 
Osage  Indian  Removal  Dances 
Rodeo 
Oklahoma  State  Fair 


CALENDAR    OF    ANNUAL    EVENTS 


First  week 
First  week 
Twelfth 

Second  week 
(usually) 
No  fixed  date 


OCTOBER 

at  Muskogee 

at  Oklahoma  City 

at  Pawhuska 

at  Tulsa 

at  Wynona 


Oklahoma  Free  State  Fair 
State-wide  Flower  Show 
Feast  of  Peace  Dance  of  the 

Osage  Indians 
American  Indian  Exposition 

Southwestern  Fox  and  Wolf 
Hunters'  Association 
Wolf  Hunt 


Eleventh 

Fifteenth 
Second  week 

Second  Saturday 
No  fixed  date 


No  fixed  date 
No  fixed  date 


NOVEMBER 

at  Pawhuska 

at  Vinita 

at  Tahlequah 

at  Boley 

at  Atoka;  Antlers 

DECEMBER 
Vicinity  of  Barber 

at  Oklahoma  City 


Armistice  Day  Celebration 
of  the  Osage  Indians 

Southwestern  Field  Trials 

Eastern  Oklahoma 
Folk  Festival 

Negro  Fair  and  Barbecue 

Fox  Hunts 


Quarterly  Meeting  of  the 
Cherokee  Indians 

All  College  Invitation 
Basketball  Tournament 


PART  I 

The  General  Background 


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The  Spirit  of  Oklahoma 

By  EDWARD  EVERETT  DALE 


THAT  "the  child  is  father  to  the  man"  is  as  true  of  a  state  or  a  nation 
as  it  is  of  an  individual.  Largely,  we  are  what  our  past  has  made 
us.  Behind  ideas  and  ideals,  no  less  than  back  of  institutions  social, 
economic,  and  political,  always  lie  certain  vital  forces  which  have  called 
them  into  life  and  which  shape  their  progress.  Such  being  the  case,  it  is 
clear  that  any  attempt  to  analyze  or  explain  that  intangible  thing  which  we 
call  the  spirit  of  a  state  must  be  made  in  the  light  of  its  history. 

The  most  significant  thing  in  the  romantic  and  colorful  history  of  Okla- 
homa is  the  former  Indian  occupation  of  this  region.  A  century  ago  the 
pressure  of  land-hungry  whites  drove  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  westward 
to  Oklahoma,  and  virtually  all  of  the  present  state  except  the  Panhandle 
was  granted  to  them  for  "as  long  as  grass  grows  and  the  waters  run."  It  was 
as  though  a  wall  has  been  erected  about  Oklahoma  by  governmental  decree. 
It  was  an  intangible  barrier,  of  course,  and  yet  none  the  less  real  because 
of  that.  Denied  entrance  into  this  "Indian  Territory,"  white  settlers  crept 
slowly  westward  occupying  lands  on  either  side  of  it;  but  the  wall  held  firm. 

Because  of  this  long  Indian  occupation,  Oklahoma  presented  for  gen- 
erations the  picture  of  an  area  of  arrested  development.  The  last  American 
frontier,  it  lies  in  point  of  time  very  near  to  pioneer  society,  but  it  has  made 
greater  material  progress  in  a  single  generation  than  has  any  other  area  of 
comparable  size  in  the  United  States. 

That  this  long  Indian  era  has  profoundly  affected  present-day  Okla- 
homa is  readily  apparent.  The  Five  Civilized  Tribes  in  their  old  homes  east 
of  the  Mississippi  occupied  what  might  be  described  as  a  "strategic  region," 
between  Spain  in  Florida,  France  in  Louisiana,  and  England  in  the  Caro- 
linas  and  Georgia.  The  Indians  were  quick  to  realize  the  advantages  of  their 
position  and  with  rare  ability  began  to  play  one  nation  off  against  the  other. 


4     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

This  long  training,  to  which  was  added  the  experience  of  administering 
the  affairs  of  their  tribal  governments  after  reaching  Oklahoma,  gave  the 
Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  a  knowledge  of  diplomacy  and  politics 
equal  to  that  of  any  people  in  the  world.  Oklahoma's  constitutional  conven- 
tion was  largely  dominated  by  that  group  of  Indian  Territory  statesmen 
trained  in  the  hard  school  of  tribal  politics.  Many  of  the  outstanding  political 
figures  of  the  state  have  either  had  Indian  blood  or  been  intermarried  citizens 
of  one  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes.  Among  these  may  be  listed  two  governors, 
a  United  States  senator,  several  members  of  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  at 
least  two  speakers  of  the  Oklahoma  legislature,  and  many  other  prominent 
state  oflficials. 

Indians  have  given  Oklahoma  not  only  able  statesmen  but  soldiers,  art- 
ists, literary  men,  and  civic  leaders  as  well,  while  the  two  men  the  state  has 
honored  with  statues  in  the  national  Capitol,  Sequoyah  and  Will  Rogers, 
were  both  of  Indian  blood.  Perhaps  most  important  of  all,  the  Indian  race  has 
given  to  Oklahoma  many  thousands  of  good  citizens  who  in  a  more  humble 
capacity  have  done  much  for  the  advancement  of  their  own  communities  and 
of  the  state. 

Steadily  there  is  being  woven  into  the  fabric  of  Oklahoma's  citizenship 
this  red  thread  of  the  Indian.  Through  intermarriage,  Indian  blood  in  Okla- 
homa is  becoming  more  widely  diffused.  The  time  may  come  when  an 
Indian  recognizable  as  such  will  be  hard  to  find  within  the  state,  but  perhaps 
through  wider  dissemination  the  influences  of  Indian  blood  may  be  greater 
in  the  future  than  they  have  ever  been  in  the  past. 

Important  as  has  been  the  influence  of  the  Indian  in  the  formation  of 
the  spirit  of  Oklahoma,  that  of  the  pioneer  white  settler  was  no  less  signifi- 
cant. Much  of  western  Oklahoma  was  opened  to  settlement  by  the  so-called 
"Runs."  In  these  it  was  literally  true  that  "the  race  was  to  the  swift,  the  battle 
to  the  strong."  The  first  of  these,  that  of  the  "Unassigned  Lands,"  was  at 
high  noon,  April  22,  1889.  When  the  President's  proclamation,  issued  thirty 
days  earlier,  fixed  the  date  of  this  opening,  it  also  provided  that  anyone  enter- 
ing upon  these  lands  prior  to  that  date  should  forfeit  all  claim  to  any  part 
of  them  as  a  homestead. 

Before  the  day  fixed  for  the  opening  many  thousand  eager  young  men 
had  gathered  along  the  border  of  this  new  Promised  Land  impatiently  wait- 
ing for  the  hour  when  they  would  be  free  to  cross  the  line  and  choose  a  claim. 
Some  of  these  had  for  years  been  urging,  or  "booming,"  the  opening  of  these 
lands  to  settlement  and  were,  in  consequence,  known  as  "Boomers." 

It  is  not  surprising  that  some  of  them  should  grow  weary  of  waiting 
and  under  the  cover  of  darkness  cross  into  the  forbidden  area  too  soon.  Here 


THE    SPIRIT   OF   OKLAHOMA  5 

they  chose  choice  tracts  and  either  occupied  them  or  lay  in  concealment 
near  by  ready  to  dash  out  and  assert  their  claims  when  the  hour  of  opening 
had  come. 

These  men,  known  as  "Sooners"  because  they  had  entered  the  territory 
too  soon,  had  not  technically  committed  any  crime  for  which  they  could  be 
punished  by  law.  Yet  they  could  not  legally  secure  any  of  these  lands  by 
homestead  or  acquire  a  right  to  any  part  of  them.  In  the  language  of  sport, 
they  were  merely  put  out  of  the  game  for  a  violation  of  the  rules. 

For  a  long  time  the  term  "Sooner"  was  one  of  reproach,  but  with  the 
passing  of  the  years  the  word  began  to  lose  its  original  connotation.  As  its 
origin  was  gradually  forgotten,  it  eventually  came  to  mean  merely  one  who 
is  alert,  ambitious,  and  enterprising,  or  one  who  gets  up  earlier  than  others, 
always  takes  the  lead,  and  strives  to  triumph  over  obstacles. 

The  first  great  Run  was  followed  by  others.  Each  of  these  brought  to 
Oklahoma  a  fresh  influx  of  aggressive,  eager  young  people  to  choose  lands, 
build  homes,  open  up  farms  and  establish  towns  and  cities.  Regions  as  large 
as  one  of  the  smaller  states  of  the  Union  were  settled  within  a  single  day  and 
developed  with  amazing  rapidity.  Then,  about  the  time  that  the  free  lands 
of  western  Oklahoma  were  all  gone,  came  the  beginning  of  the  marvelous 
oil  development  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  state.  Here  the  opening  of  each 
new  oil  field  brought  a  new  "run"  of  youthful,  adventurous  people,  not  for 
homesteads  but  for  leases,  royalties,  concessions,  and  business  opportunities. 
In  this  fashion  Oklahoma  was  peopled  by  a  hardy,  vigorous  population  strong 
in  their  youth  and  often  counting  material  advancement  as  the  true  standard 
of  success. 

In  the  lean  years  before  the  coming  of  oil  the  pioneer  life  of  Oklahoma 
was  hard,  as  many  people  yet  living  can  abundantly  testify.  But  in  spite  of 
hardships  due  to  hot  winds,  crop  failures,  and  lack  of  material  comforts,  the 
pioneer  homesteader  looked  into  the  future  and  saw  there  wonderful  things. 
Like  Christian,  he  had  caught  a  glimpse  far  off  of  a  celestial  city,  and  he 
worked  early  and  late  to  make  his  dreams  come  true. 

If  in  his  eager  seeking  after  the  things  of  the  flesh  he  should  neglect 
somewhat  the  things  of  the  spirit,  that  too  was  inevitable.  With  his  family 
housed  in  a  dugout,  sod  house,  or  rude  cabin,  the  pioneer  would  have  been 
somewhat  more,  or  less,  than  human  to  give  too  much  attention  to  music, 
art,  and  literature  before  he  had  made  better  provisions  for  the  physical 
welfare  of  his  family. 

Yet  even  from  the  first  there  were  always  to  be  found  certain  elements 
who  kept  alive  the  spark  of  cultural  and  intellectual  progress  and  who  strove 
earnestly  to  fan  it  into  flame.  Foremost  among  these  were  the  pioneer  women 


6  OKLAHOMA:    THE    G  K  N  li  RA  L    BACKGROUND 

who  planted  flowers,  beautified  the  simple  home,  and  urged  that  churches, 
schools,  and  Sunday  Schools  be  established  in  order  that  the  children  might 
not  grow  up  in  want  of  the  finer  things  of  life.  Added  to  their  efforts  were 
those  of  frontier  bishops,  the  presidents  and  faculties  of  the  struggling  little 
colleges,  and  those  who  worked  in  a  far  more  humble  capacity,  the  rural 
teachers,  circuit  riders,  and  country  pastors,  to  all  of  whom  Oklahoma  owes 
a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  for  their  contribution  to  the  spirit  of  the  state. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  earnest  efforts  of  these  early  pioneers  began 
to  bear  fruit.  The  dugout  or  sod  house  gave  place  to  an  attractive  farm  home. 
The  trail  over  which  the  covered  wagons  rolled  west  widened  to  a  broad 
highway.  The  tiny  villages  grew  to  thriving  towns.  Churches,  schools,  and 
colleges  multiplied  and  became  comparable  with  those  of  older  states.  Okla- 
homa was  rapidly  coming  of  age. 

It  is  obvious  that  such  a  historical  heritage  should  give  to  Oklahoma  a 
remarkable  and  distinctive  spirit.  It  is  a  spirit  of  youth,  of  optimism,  and 
high  faith  in  the  future.  It  is  a  pioneering  spirit,  eagerly  reaching  out  for 
things  new  in  economic  and  social  experimentation,  or  government.  In  the 
lean  pioneer  years,  Oklahoma  had  to  depend  largely  upon  borrowed  capital 
for  its  economic  advancement  and  upon  borrowed  culture  for  its  intellectual 
and  educational  progress.  More  recently  it  has  developed  not  only  locally 
produced  capital  but  locally  produced  culture  as  well;  strong  financial  figures 
as  well  as  nationally  known  writers,  artists,  and  musicians. 

In  recent  years  Oklahoma,  in  common  with  other  states,  has  felt  keenly 
the  pinch  of  economic  depression.  This  has  brought  to  a  few  people  a  feel- 
ing of  pessimism  and  discouragement,  but  only  to  a  few.  The  pioneer  spirit, 
compounded  of  courage,  optimism,  and  faith,  is  still  strong  among  a  people 
so  close  to  the  frontier  of  yesterday. 


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Natural  Setting 


THE  MAP  of  Oklahoma  suggests  in  its  outline  a  butcher's  cleaver,  the 
Panhandle  of  the  west  representing  the  handle,  the  north  line  its 
straight  back  edge,  the  east  line  its  square-cut  end,  the  Red  River  on 
the  south  its  irregular  cutting  edge.  Lying  slightly  south  of  the  geographic 
center  of  the  United  States,  it  is  a  part  of  the  Great  Plains  region,  and  its 
surface  has  a  gradual  upward  slope  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  lowest 
point,  324  feet,  is  in  the  southeastern  corner;  the  highest  is  in  the  Panhandle, 
4,978  feet.  The  average  elevation  is  1,300  feet. 

Oklahoma  has  an  area  of  70,057  square  miles.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north 
by  Kansas  and  Colorado;  on  the  east  by  Missouri  and  Arkansas;  on  the  south 
by  Texas;  and  on  the  west  by  Texas  and  New  Mexico.  Its  main  rivers  flow 
in  a  southeasterly  direction,  and  the  entire  drainage  is  carried  to  the  Missis- 
sippi by  the  Arkansas  and  Red  rivers.  The  Arkansas  enters  the  state  from 
Kansas  about  the  middle  of  the  northern  border.  The  Salt  Fork  (Neeca- 
tunga),  Cimarron,  Grand,  Verdigris,  and  Canadian  rivers  all  flow  into  the 
Arkansas  within  the  borders  of  Oklahoma.  The  North  Canadian  flows 
nearly  across  the  state  before  joining  its  companion  stream,  the  Canadian. 
The  Washita  and  a  number  of  lesser  streams  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state 
feed  Red  River. 

In  the  northeast,  the  Ozark  Plateau  extends  into  Oklahoma.  It  is  a 
region  of  moderate  hills  with  deep,  narrow  valleys  and  numerous  clear 
streams.  The  base  of  the  plateau  is  a  great  limestone  formation  known  as 
the  Boone  Chert;  and  steep,  picturesque  bluffs  have  been  formed  where  the 
streams  have  cut  it  deeply.  Timbered  with  oak,  ash,  hickory,  elm,  walnut, 
pecan,  hard  maple,  and  sycamore,  this  is  a  region  of  great  beauty,  especially 
in  autumn,  when  the  forests  are  clothed  in  rich  and  varied  colors. 

South  of  the  Ozark  region,  occupying  most  of  the  southeastern  corner 
of  the  state,  the  Ouachita  (Wah-she-tah)  Mountain  area,  much  of  which  is 
included  in  a  national  forest,  consists  of  parallel  ridges  formed  by  the  faulting 
of  thick  layers  of  sandstone.  Many  of  the  valleys  are  narrow,  and  each  has  its 


8     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENKKAL  BACKGROUND 

spring-fed  stream.  This  area  contains  the  pine  forests  of  Oklahoma,  as  well 
as  many  hardwoods. 

In  the  south  central  part  of  the  state  are  the  Arbuckle  Mountains,  cover- 
ing an  area  of  about  sixty  by  twenty  miles.  These  old  mountains,  worn  down 
to  a  height  of  only  seven  hundred  feet  above  the  surrounding  plains,  present 
a  remarkable  variety  of  geological  formations — limestone,  sandstone,  shale, 
and  granite.  The  limestone  is  grass-covered,  while  most  of  the  others  are 
timbered.  Many  streams  and  attractive  camping  places  make  this  one  of  the 
popular  recreation  areas  of  the  state. 

South  of  the  Arbuckles  and  Ouachitas  to  the  Red  River,  is  a  strip  of 
sandy  plain  cut  by  streams  flowing  to  the  river.  This  is  classed  as  a  part  of  the 
Gulf  and  Coastal  Plains. 

Seventy  miles  northwest  of  the  Arbuckles,  the  rough  granite  peaks  of 
the  Wichita  Mountains  (See  Tour  3B),  break  abruptly  from  the  surrounding 
plains  and,  with  some  outlying  peaks,  extend  some  sixty  miles  in  a  north- 
westerly direction.  Like  the  Arbuckles,  they  are  the  tops  of  buried  mountains, 
and  part  of  a  range  of  mountains  known  to  geologists  as  the  Amarillo  Range. 
Erosion  has  left  little  except  the  bare  granite  outcroppings,  and  there  are  few 
trees.  The  scenery,  however,  is  interesting,  and  the  region  worth  visiting. 

Most  of  the  eastern  end  of  the  state  not  included  in  the  Ozark,  Oua- 
chita, Arbuckle,  and  Red  River  areas  is  known  to  geologists  as  the  sandstone 
hills  region,  the  rocks  being  hard  sandstones  and  limestones  alternating  with 
softer  shales.  The  hills  are  low  and  flat,  the  fertile  valleys  wide,  accounting 
for  much  of  the  state's  best  farm  land.  Native  oak  and  hickory  have  nearly 
disappeared  before  the  ax,  and  there  remains  little  timber  besides  the  nearly 
worthless  blackjack  oak  on  the  sandy  hills  and  slopes.  In  such  places  erosion 
has  been  severe. 

Interesting,  and  important  in  the  history  of  Oklahoma,  is  a  north-  and 
south-trending  strip  of  rough  country  known  as  the  Cross  Timbers,  varying 
from  five  to  thirty  miles  in  width  across  the  central  part  of  the  state.  From 
Washington  Irving's  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies  on  through  the  accounts  of 
such  trail-makers  as  Randolph  B.  Marcy,  escorting  gold-seekers  to  California 
over  the  southern  route  in  1849,  this  belt  of  matted,  tangled  undergrowth, 
stiff-branched  blackjacks,  shinnery,  briars,  and  scions  of  lire-killed  larger 
trees  made  a  deep  and  unfavorable  impression.  It  was  a  region  of  tumbled 
rocks  and  thin  soil,  gashed  by  ravines,  difficult  to  cross;  and  it  marked 
roughly  the  dividing  line  between  the  bluestem  prairies  of  the  eastern  half 
of  the  state  and  the  bufTalo  grass  plains  of  the  western  section.  On  a  govern- 
ment map  of  1834,  the  Cross  Timbers  is  designated  as  the  "western  boundary 
of  habitable  land." 


NATURAL   SETTING  9 

The  sandstone  hills  region  merges  gradually  on  the  west  with  the  Per- 
mian region,  one  of  the  most  extensive  formations  of  its  type  known.  The 
red  beds  extend  from  the  Kansas  border  to  Red  River,  from  almost  the  center 
of  the  state  to  within  forty  miles  of  the  west  line.  They  are  composed  of 
shales  and  soft  sandstones  twelve  hundred  to  sixteen  hundred  feet  in  thick- 
ness and  get  their  color  from  ferric  (iron)  oxide.  Some  of  the  state's  inost 
fertile  farm  land  lies  within  this  gently  rolling  region. 

The  western  part  of  the  Red  Beds  contains  several  ledges  of  gypsum; 
and  here,  particularly  along  the  Cimarron  River,  the  red  and  white  combi- 
nation makes  striking  scenery.  The  numerous  gypsum  strata  differ  in  thick- 
ness and  composition,  some  being  nearly  pure  and  hard,  others  softer  and 
interbedded  with  shale.  The  hard  layers  topping  the  buttes  of  the  Blaine 
Escarpment  render  these  low  mesas  impressive,  because  of  both  their  color 
and  location  upon  otherwise  flat  plains.  One  form  of  gypsum,  selenite,  is 
crystalline  and  breaks  into  pieces  resembling  fragments  of  glass  or  mica. 
The  Glass,  or  Gloss,  Mountains  {see  Tour  4),  an  outlier  of  the  Blaine  Escarp- 
ment, are  so  called  because  their  sides  are  littered  with  flakes  of  selenite  which 
glisten  in  the  sun.  The  gypsum  area  makes  a  rough  triangle,  its  base  a  wide 
arc  north  of  the  Wichita  Mountains  and  its  apex  at  the  Kansas  border.  Wheat, 
corn,  sorghums,  and  livestock  are  the  principal  farming  products  of  the  "gyp 
hills"  region. 

The  Great  Salt  Plains  near  Cherokee  (see  Tour  2)  and  other  salt  plains 
in  that  region  have  been  formed  by  springs  of  salt  water  that,  saturated  from 
a  deep-lying  stratum,  seeps  through  the  Red  Beds  and  gypsum  formations. 
Of  little  commercial  importance,  these  salt  deposits  are  striking  in  appearance. 
The  northwestern  counties  and  the  Panhandle,  included  in  the  High 
Plains  region,  are  level  grassland,  treeless  except  for  elms,  cottonwoods,  and 
willows  along  the  streams.  They  are  thinly  settled,  and  much  of  the  land  is 
still  in  native  pasture  grass.  During  the  first  World  War,  demand  for  wheat 
caused  the  development  of  great  wheat  farms  in  the  Panhandle,  and  for 
several  years  Texas  County  was  the  banner  wheat-producing  county  of  the 
nation.  Sorghums  are  also  an  important  crop.  Because  of  continued  drought, 
this  area  became  for  a  time  part  of  the  Dust  Bowl.  Some  of  it  is  now  re- 
garded as  submarginal  and  should  be  restored  to  grass,  although  frequent 
rains  and  a  concerted  effort  to  restore  the  balance  of  plant  life  have  resulted 
in  a  remarkable  improvement  of  the  entire  area. 

GEOLOGY 

The  Oklahoma  region  for  ages  has  been  in  the  process  of  constant  geo- 
logical change.  Seas  have  covered  it  and  receded,  leaving  swamps,  and  in  the 


10     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

swamps  of  the  Pennsylvanian  period,  coal  formations  were  laid  down.  Exten- 
sive upheavals,  folding,  and  faulting  at  the  close  of  this  period  formed  the 
Arbuckle  and  Wichita  Mountains.  An  idea  of  the  time  required  in  the  geo- 
logic process  may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  some  of  the  formations  laid 
down  at  that  time  are  more  than  a  mile  thick. 

Sandstone  and  limestone  formations  that  are  exposed  in  the  Arbuckle 
and  sandstone  hills  are  important  oil-producing  strata.  From  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  state,  northward  from  a  point  between  Norman  and  Oklahoma 
City,  and  into  Nemaha  County,  Kansas,  a  buried  mountain  range  of  granite, 
known  as  the  Nemaha  Mountains,  can  be  traced  in  subsurface  by  means  of 
wells  drilled  for  oil  and  gas.  Along  this  buried  range  are  found  some  of  the 
most  productive  oil  pools  in  both  states. 

In  the  Jurassic  period  this  area  was  swampy,  with  many  lakes  and  cut- 
off seas;  and  at  that  time  dinosaurs  from  two  to  eighty  feet  in  length  were 
the  characteristic  animal  life.  Fossils  of  these  creatures  have  been  found  in 
many  places  in  the  state.  During  the  Lower  Cretaceous  period,  after  the  time 
of  the  dinosaurs,  the  last  submergence  occurred. 

In  the  later  Pleistocene  period,  as  fossil  remains  show,  the  Oklahoma 
region  was  overrun  by  horses,  some  no  larger  than  a  fox;  camels,  large  and 
small;  rhinoceroses,  mastodons,  mammoths,  musk  oxen,  saber-toothed  tigers, 
and  immense  herds  of  elephants  of  several  species. 

CLIMATE 

Oklahoma  lies  on  the  border  of  distinctive  north-and-south  and  east-and- 
west  climatic  zones.  Rainfall  varies  from  an  average  of  forty-two  inches  an- 
nually in  the  extreme  southeast  to  fifteen  inches  in  the  western  Panhandle; 
average  for  the  state  is  between  twenty-five  and  thirty  inches.  Killing  frost 
comes  from  the  last  week  in  September  in  the  north,  to  mid-November 
farther  south.  Winters  are  usually  mild,  with  occasional  cold  waves  in  Janu- 
ary, February,  and  March. 

In  the  eastern  half  of  the  state  light  to  moderate  east-to-southeast  winds 
prevail.  In  the  western  half,  winds  of  higher  velocity  blow  almost  constantly 
from  south  or  north;  and  a  daytime  temperature  above  100°  F.  may  be 
expected  in  July  and  August.  Nights  are  usually  cool. 

PLANT  AND  ANIMAL  LIFE 

One  hundred  and  thirty-three  varieties  of  trees  are  native  to  Oklahoma. 
The  southern,  or  longleaf,  pine,  various  species  of  oak,  elm,  ash,  hickory, 
pecan,  walnut,  cottonwood,  willow,  and  some  magnolia  and  cypress  are 
characteristic.  In  the  western  part,  among  the  canyons  of  the  Red  Beds  and 


NATURAL   SETTING  II 

Gypsum  Hills,  red  cedar,  or  juniper,  is  abundant.  Sagebrush  is  found  in  the 
west,  and  mesquite  in  the  southwest. 

The  redbud  (Judas  tree)  and  dogwood,  which  bloom  in  the  early  spring,, 
show  masses  of  bright  pink  and  creamy  white  along  the  streams  and  hill- 
sides throughout  the  eastern,  central,  and  most  of  the  southern  parts.  Violets,, 
including  the  dogtooth  variety,  primrose,  anemone,  petunia,  spiderwort,. 
verbena,  gaillardia,  phlox,  the  showy  wild  indigo  in  blue  and  cream  varie- 
ties, poppy  mallow,  goldenrod,  sunflower,  and  ageratum  are  commonly  seen. 
The  trumpet  flower,  though  not  native,  grows  well.  Roses  thrive,  as  do  many 
other  garden  flowers.  Cape  jasmine  does  well  in  the  southern  counties,  and 
crape  myrtle  is  a  favorite  shrub  in  the  north  to  middle  part  of  the  state. 

Wild  grapes  and  many  varieties  of  wild  plums  are  found  in  nearly  every 
part  of  the  state.  In  the  Wichita  Mountains  wild  currants  are  common. 
Pecan,  walnut,  and  some  hickory  nut  trees  grow  in  the  east  and  south. 
Peaches,  apples,  cherries,  and  pears  are  produced  in  Oklahoma,  though  there 
are  few  commercial  orchards. 

Coyotes,  cottontails,  jackrabbits,  and  prairie  dogs  are  fairly  common  on 
the  plains;  mink,  otter,  opossum,  gray  and  fox  squirrels,  and  raccoons  are 
found  in  the  timbered  sections.  Black  bears,  numerous  in  early  days,  had 
almost  disappeared  by  the  time  of  settlement.  There  are  deer,  though  not 
plentiful,  and  no  buffaloes  outside  of  zoos  and  game  preserves. 

The  chief  species  of  birds  are  the  mockingbird,  meadow  lark,  swallow,, 
dove,  woodpecker,  robin,  bluejay,  and  English  sparrow.  Crows  are  so  numer- 
ous that  crow-killing  campaigns  are  carried  on  every  winter.  In  the  early 
fall,  immense  flocks  of  blackbirds  (grackle)  gather  and  are  a  striking  sight 
when  they  settle  in  feedlots.  Recently  (1936-37)  flights  of  English  starlings 
have  migrated  into  the  state.  Redbirds,  bluejays,  and  bobwhites  remain  the 
year  round.  Prairie  chickens  are  sometimes  seen  in  the  western  counties  and 
are  strictly  protected.  Mallard,  teal,  and  other  varieties  of  duck,  and  wild 
geese,  fly  over  in  spring  and  fall.  Wild  turkeys,  found  in  great  abundance  by 
the  early  hunters,  became  almost  extinct,  but  they  are  being  successfully  re- 
stocked in  forest  regions. 

There  are  few  poisonous  snakes.  The  copperhead  and  cottonmouth,  or 
water  moccasin,  are  most  common;  rattlesnakes  are  becoming  more  and 
more  scarce.  Centipedes  are  found,  as  well  as  horned  toads  and  other  varieties 
of  harmless  lizards. 

CONSERVATION 

By  1937,  twelve  permanent  agencies  were  at  work  in  Oklahoma  for  the 
conservation  of  natural  resources  and  the  preservation  and  propagation  of 


12  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

wild  life.  Of  this  number,  five  were  Federal;  the  others  were  controlled  by 
the  state. 

Oklahoma's  Wildlife  Council  is  a  federation  of  all  agencies,  state  or 
Otherwise,  concerned  with  the  preservation  of  wild  life.  Its  program  has  been 
adopted  by  the  American  Wildlife  Institute,  which  is  striving  to  organize  all 
states  on  the  Oklahoma  plan. 

Earliest  efforts  at  conservation  were  hampered  by  lack  of  public  interest 
and  shortage  of  funds.  The  first  game  department,  set  up  shortly  after  state- 
hood, consisted  of  a  few  men  whose  duties  were  mainly  to  fight  the  wide- 
spread practice  of  market  hunting  of  deer,  prairie  chickens,  turkeys,  and 
quail.  At  that  time  professional  hunters  were  numerous,  and  records  reveal 
that  enforcement  oflficers  sometimes  captured  entire  trains  of  wild  game 
billed  to  eastern  markets.  It  was  not  until  1925  that  the  State  Game  and 
Fish  Commission  was  created,  and  the  work  of  replenishing  the  rapidly  van- 
ishing stock  of  wild  game  began.  This  commission  now  maintains  fish  and 
bird  hatcheries,  regulates  hunting  and  fishing,  and  to  an  extent  controls 
predatory  animals. 

At  the  end  of  the  tribal  period  (1907),  great  forests  of  virgin  pine  still 
covered  much  of  the  Choctaw  country;  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
worked  out  a  plan  for  setting  them  aside  as  a  forest  reserve.  The  project, 
however,  was  never  authorized  by  Congress,  and  the  woodland  was  allotted 
along  with  the  rest  of  the  tribal  lands  to  individual  Indians,  who  sold  the 
trees  to  lumbermen.  As  a  result,  nearly  all  of  the  marketable  timber  has  been 
cleared  from  the  Choctaw  lands. 

Forest  conservation  efforts  of  the  United  States  in  Oklahoma  are  repre- 
sented by  the  control  of  140,000  acres  of  timber  in  LeFlore  County,  known 
as  the  Ouachita  National  Forest;  the  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge; 
and  the  Shelterbelt  Project,  which  is  planting  trees  in  the  western  counties 
in  order  to  stop  soil  erosion. 

When  the  State  Forestry  Department  was  set  up  in  1925,  Oklahoma's 
timber  areas  had  been  so  badly  slashed  that  1,300,000  acres  had  to  be  put 
under  fire  protection,  and  1,630,000  acres  into  a  restocking  area.  This  depart- 
ment, working  with  the  United  States  Forest  Service,  established  a  nursery 
on  the  grounds  of  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  at  Stillwater  for 
growing  stock  suitable  for  reforestation  purposes  and  for  woodlot  and  wind- 
break planting.  More  than  650,000  small  trees  grown  here  have  been  sold  in 
one  year  for  fall  and  spring  planting  on  Oklahoma  farms. 

Need  for  the  selection  of  park  sites  in  time  for  the  state  to  use  Civilian 
Conservation  Corps  workers  brought  the  first  legislative  appropriation  in 
1935  for  a  park  commission.  Prior  to  that  date,  all  state-owned  parks  were 


NATURAL   SETTING  13 

administered  by  the  State  Game  and  Fish  Commission.  The  State  Park  Com- 
mission operates  under  the  Oklahoma  Planning  and  Resources  Board,  in 
close  liaison  with  the  National  Park  Service.  The  Planning  and  Resources 
Board  also  directs  the  work  of  the  former  Conservation  Commission  and 
has  charge  of  state  forestry  projects. 

The  Conservation  Commission  and  the  State  Planning  Board  were  set 
up  in  1935.  The  latter  is  interested  in  all  forms  of  conservation,  but  has  advis- 
ory powers  only.  The  Conservation  Commission,  which  has  functioned  under 
other  names  or  departments  since  1907,  is  concerned  chiefly  with  water  proj- 
ects— dams,  lakes,  irrigation,  and  flood  control.  The  State  Corporation  Com- 
mission, though  not  primarily  a  conservation  body,  acts  for  the  oil  and  gas 
industry  in  this  capacity.  It  regulates  the  drilling  of  wells  and  oil  production 
and  works  to  prevent  land  spoilage  and  stream  pollution. 

Federal  conservation  agencies  in  Oklahoma  are  the  National  Park  Serv- 
ice, National  Forest  Service,  Soil  Conservation  Service,  and  the  Fish  and 
Wildlife  Service.  The  National  Forest  Service  administers  the  Kiamichi 
Division  of  the  Ouachita  National  Forest,  co-operates  with  the  state  in  main- 
taining fire  protection  and  in  distributing  planting  stock,  and  supervises  the 
forest  activities  of  the  CCC.  The  National  Park  Service  supervises  Piatt  Na- 
tional Park,  protecting  the  wild  game  and  preserving  plant  life  from  insects, 
disease,  and  fire.  The  Fish  and  Wildlife  Service  engages  in  research  related 
to  birds  and  wild  animals.  Its  activities  are  confined  mainly  to  the  Wichita 
Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge  and  Game  Preserve  and  the  Great  Salt  Plains 
Wild  Fowl  Refuge.  In  co-operation  with  owners,  the  Soil  Conservation  Serv- 
ice supervises  actual  soil  conservation  work  on  the  land. 

Tree  planting  in  the  Oklahoma  sector  of  the  Shelter  Belt  (a  "temporary" 
Federal  project)  began  in  1935  in  Woodward  County  and  extended  through 
sixteen  counties  from  the  northern  line  to  Tillman  County.  There  are  com- 
pleted sections  north  of  Buffalo,  twenty  strips  near  Erick  in  Beckham  County, 
several  strips  north  of  Reydon,  in  Roger  Mills  County,  eighteen  near  Willow, 
more  than  forty  near  Mangum,  thirty-four  sections  near  Cordell,  and  twelve 
strips  near  Moore.  The  project,  although  still  in  its  infancy,  has  measurably 
decreased  erosion  losses,  and  its  program  has  provided  work  for  drought- 
stricken  farmers  of  the  area. 


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Early  Oklahomans 


Although  it  will  never  be  fully  known  what  strange  races  of  men  built 
/j\  their  long-dead  hearth  fires  in  the  sheltered  eastern  woods  and  along 
JL  jL  the  shallow  streams  of  western  Oklahoma,  there  is  evidence  of  six 
main  prehistoric  cultures. 

The  Folsom  Culture.  Archeologists  generally  recognize  the  "Folsom 
Man"  as  the  earliest  known  inhabitant  of  America,  but  even  the  approximate 
age  of  this  culture  has  not  yet  been  determined.  Traces,  however,  in  the  form 
of  the  distinctive  Folsom  and  Yuma  projectile  points,  have  been  found  in  the 
Oklahoma  Panhandle. 

The  Basinet  Maimers'  Culture.  Remains  of  the  Basket  Makers  have  also 
been  uncovered  in  small  rock  caves  in  the  extreme  northwestern  part  of  the 
Panhandle,  apparently  an  eastern  extension  of  their  main  settlements  in  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona.  They  were  a  primitive  people,  unfamiliar  with  the  bow 
and  arrow  or  the  making  of  pottery,  but  the  baskets,  mats,  and  cradles  they 
fashioned  were  elaborate;  and  their  small  fields  were  planted  in  corn,  beans, 
squashes,  and  pumpkins.  Their  occupancy  probably  dates  back  from  fifteen 
hundred  to  two  thousand  years. 

The  OzarI{  Bluff  Dwellers  Culture.  At  about  the  same  time,  the  Ozark 
Bluff  Dwellers  occupied  the  limestone  caves  along  the  streams  of  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  state.  Like  the  Basket  Makers,  they  had  not  discovered 
the  bow  and  arrow  and  made  no  pottery,  but  they  were  skilled  in  basketry, 
practiced  a  rude  agriculture,  and  used  the  dart  and  throw  stick  as  weapons. 

The  Ozarf(^  Top-Layer  Culture.  Overlying  the  Blufl  Dwellers  sites  are 
remains  of  what  is  generally  known  as  the  Ozark  Top-Layer  Culture.  This 
culture,  though  still  crude,  represents  an  advance  over  that  of  the  true  Bluff 
Dwellers;  for  these  people  possessed  the  bow  and  arrow,  made  a  greater 
variety  of  bone  and  stone  implements,  and  fashioned  crude  pottery.  Their 
date  has  not  yet  been  determined. 

The  Slab-House  Culture.  Evidences  of  this  culture,  dating  from  1000 
to  1400  A.D.,  have  also  been  discovered  in  the  Panhandle.  The  slab-house 

14 


EARLY   OKLAHOMANS  15 

people  lived  in  pit  dwellings,  lined  with  flat  stones  set  on  edge,  roofed  with 
rafters  supported  by  central  posts,  and  thatched  with  reeds,  which  were  cov- 
ered with  earth.  They  practiced  a  rude  agriculture;  made  pottery;  used  the 
lance,  the  bow  and  arrow;  and  shaped  a  variety  of  stone  implements. 

The  Lower  Mound  Builder  Culture.  Remains  of  this  culture  may  also 
be  seen  in  eastern  Oklahoma.  It  is  distinguished  by  earthen  mounds,  shaped 
like  cones  or  flat-topped  pyramids,  constructed  along  the  banks  of  the  streams. 
In  these  mounds  is  found  evidence  of  a  high  development  of  the  ceramic  art; 
etchings  and  carvings  on  stone,  bone,  and  shell  serve  further  to  identify  them. 
These  people  lived,  it  is  believed,  from  500  to  1500  a.d.  and  were  part  of  a 
general  cultural  group  that  occupied  most  of  the  present  southern  states. 

Archeological  study  in  Oklahoma  has  barely  begun;  hence  the  relation 
between  the  different  prehistoric  races  and  their  connection  with  the  Indian 
tribes  living  in  Oklahoma  at  the  coming  of  the  white  man  has  not  yet  been 
determined.  Among  the  most  important  sites  are  the  mounds  east  of  Wag- 
oner (see  Tour  8),  the  mounds  northeast  of  Spiro  (see  Tour  7),  and  the  caves 
southeast  of  Kenton  (see  Tour  2).  The  Spiro  Mound  has  been  carefully  exca- 
vated as  a  WPA  project  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Forrest  E.  Clements, 
of  the  University  of  Oklahoma.  A  great  number  of  artifacts  have  been  taken 
from  the  mound  and  placed  on  exhibition  at  the  University;  it  is  hoped  that 
they  will  materially  assist  in  reconstructing  the  life  of  the  state's  prehistoric 
peoples,  and  in  placing  them  in  their  true  cultures. 

Among  the  aboriginal  tribes,  and  those  that  came  into  the  Oklahoma 
area  in  early  historic  times,  six  linguistic  divisions  occurred:  the  Caddoan, 
Siouan,  Athapascan,  Shoshonean,  Tanoan,  and  (a  rather  late  arrival,  1868) 
the  Algonquian.  The  Athapascan  peoples  were  the  Apaches  and  Kiowa- 
Apaches;  the  Siouan  stock  is  represented  by  the  Osages;  the  Shoshonean  by 
the  Comanches;  the  Tanoan  by  the  Kiowas;  and  the  Algonquian  by  the 
Cheyennes  and  Araphaoes,  so  closely  related  that  they  are  usually  spoken  of 
together. 

Indians  of  the  Caddoan  linguistic  stock  seem  to  have  been  most  widely 
distributed  in  Oklahoma  when  the  region  was  first  visited  by  white  men. 
The  Caddoes  proper  were  settled  mainly  on  the  lower  Red  River  in  Louisi- 
ana, but  remains  of  their  culture  are  numerous  in  eastern  Oklahoma.  They 
made  a  distinctive  and  beautiful  pottery,  used  copper  in  their  arts  and  crafts, 
and  practiced  agriculture.  The  Wichitas,  also  a  Caddoan  people,  at  one  time 
occupied  an  extensive  area  between  the  Arkansas  River  in  Kansas  and  the 
Brazos  in  Texas,  but  they  settled  eventually  in  southwestern  Oklahoma.  They 
built  a  peculiar  dome-shaped  house  over  a  framework  of  cedar  poles  lashed 
together  at  the  top  and  covered  with  shingle-like  layers  of  matted  grass. 


16  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

Sedentary,  industrious,  and  peaceable,  they  grew  corn  not  only  for  their  own 
use  but  for  trade  with  their  neighbors.  The  hardy,  far-ranging  Pawnees, 
another  Caddoan  tribe,  were  at  home  in  Nebraska,  but  they  hunted  buffalo 
on  the  plains  of  western  Oklahoma  and  became  adept  at  stealing  horses  from 
Spanish  owners  in  New  Mexico.  Their  houses  were  substantially  constructed 
of  sod  over  a  circular  framework  of  poles.  They  developed  a  mythology 
remarkably  rich  in  symbolism  and  poetic  fancy,  and  elaborate  religious  cere- 
monials connected  with  the  worship  of  cosmic  forces  and  the  heavenly  bodies. 

In  northeastern  Oklahoma,  the  Osages  built  their  tepee  villages,  rode 
out  to  hunt  the  buflfalo  and  fight  with  Pawnees  on  the  western  plains.  They 
were  a  southern  branch  of  the  great  Siouan  linguistic  stock,  and  during  his- 
toric times  they  occupied  a  large  area  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Oklahoma. 
Their  mythology  and  ceremonial  observances  show  that  the  one  factor  over- 
shadowing all  others  in  its  influence  on  their  lives  was  the  buffalo.  Their 
songs  celebrated  its  habits  and  characteristics  and  glorified  the  prowess  of  the 
hunter.  Their  legends  tell  how  great  massed  herds  came  up  every  year  from 
the  distant  caves  of  the  Sunset  Lands.  Their  mythological  enemies  were 
wicked  beings  who  held  the  buffalo  captive,  and  their  legendary  heroes  were 
demigods  who  dared  all  magic  spells  and  cunning  to  bring  them  back  to  the 
hungry  people.  Next  to  the  buffalo,  the  sun  dominated  their  imagination, 
and  each  morning  they  poured  out  their  song  to  the  sunrise.  The  Osages  were 
divided  into  two  groups — the  Peace  People  and  the  War  People — and  the 
two  had  distinctive  functions  in  the  ceremonial  observances  of  the  tribe. 

More  restless  and  fierce  even  than  the  Osages  were  the  Comanches,  who 
set  up  their  tepees  along  the  streams  of  western  Oklahoma,  and  from  these 
bases  set  out  on  raiding  and  horse-stealing  expeditions  against  the  Texas 
frontier  and  the  distant  settlements  of  Old  Mexico.  Members  of  the  Sho- 
shonean  linguistic  stock,  they  were  a  recent  ofifshoot  of  the  Shoshones,  Utes, 
and  Bannocks  of  Wyoming,  coming  to  the  southwestern  plains  region  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Breeding  horses,  first  obtained  from 
the  Spaniards,  and  stealing  from  the  Mexicans,  they  became  the  most  skilled, 
fearless  riders  of  the  plains.  The  Comanche  brave's  importance  in  camp  and 
council  was  measured  largely  by  the  number  of  his  ponies;  horse  racing  was 
a  passion,  and  betting  an  exciting  tonic.  Early  explorers  marveled  at  the  skill 
with  which  the  yelling,  shield-protected  Comanche  warrior  clung  to  the  side 
of  his  mount  in  battle.  Hated  and  feared  by  the  Texas  frontiersmen  for  the 
stealth  and  swiftness  of  their  raids,  they  were  a  kindly  and  hospitable  people 
in  the  happy,  turbulent  life  of  their  camps.  Their  speech  became  the  lingua 
franca  of  the  southwestern  Indians,  and  they  were  the  most  proficient  of  all 
the  tribes  in  the  use  of  the  sign  language  of  the  plains.  They  practiced  no 


EARLY   OKLAHOMANS  17 

agriculture  and  depended  upon  the  buffalo  herds  for  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter. 

Closely  allied  with  the  Comanches  were  the  Kiowas,  a  distinct  linguistic 
stock,  who  came  to  the  Southwest  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. With  them  came  a  small  band  of  Apaches,  an  Athapascan  people  that 
had  become  separated  from  their  kinsmen  in  the  North  and  formed  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  Kiowas'  tribal  organization.  Like  the  Comanches,  the  Kiowas 
set  their  life  to  the  rhythm  of  the  chase.  As  soon  as  the  grass  on  the  prairie 
was  green  enough  to  fatten  their  ponies,  they  formed  small  hunting  parties 
and  organized  raiding  expeditions  that  extended  sometimes  as  far  as  Du- 
rango,  in  Mexico.  In  the  fall  the  whole  tribe  engaged  in  a  great  buffalo  hunt, 
the  men  killing  and  the  women  drying  the  meat  and  packing  it  in  skin 
containers,  and  stretching  the  green  hides  to  dry.  At  the  end  of  this  busy 
season  they  established  winter  camps  in  sheltered  places  on  the  upper  tribu- 
taries of  the  Red  River.  Here  the  men  chipped  out  f^int  weapons,  made 
buffalo-hide  shields,  repaired  saddles,  and  perfected  their  marksmanship, 
while  their  ponies  cropped  dried  grass  or  nibbled  cottonwood  twigs.  The 
women's  winter  work  was  to  dress  skins  and  make  clothing  and  tepee  cov- 
erings. The  Kiowas,  more  than  any  other  hunting  tribe,  had  a  sense  of  his- 
toric sequence.  They  kept  a  calendar  on  which  they  recorded,  by  a  crude 
system  of  pictographs,  the  most  impressive  of  each  year's  events. 

In  northwestern  Oklahoma,  western  Kansas,  and  eastern  Colorado, 
ranged  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes.  These  two  closely  related  tribes  belong 
to  the  great  Algonquian  stock,  which  at  one  time  comprised  most  of  the 
Indians  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  United  States.  The  Oklahoma  bands 
were  an  agricultural  people  who  came  from  the  northern  plains  as  a  conse- 
quence of  intertribal  warfare.  About  1840,  they  made  peace  with  the  Kiowas 
and  Comanches,  joining  in  their  raids  and  observing  an  amicable  division  of 
the  buffalo  range.  They  became  a  purely  hunting  tribe,  living  in  skin  tepees, 
using  horses,  and  following  the  buffalo  herds.  The  Sun  Dance,  in  which  they 
practiced  an  elaborate  ritual  of  self-torture,  was  their  great  tribal  ceremony. 

Although  the  Plains  Indians  differed  widely  in  language,  ceremonials, 
and  traditions,  they  employed  the  same  economic  techniques.  Their  food  was 
almost  exclusively  meat,  but  they  learned  to  prepare  it  in  ways  to  protect  them 
from  nutritional  diseases.  Their  skin  tepees  could  be  dismantled,  packed  on 
travois  poles,  and  moved  to  new  locations  with  surprising  rapidity.  Their 
women  wore  beautifully  dressed  and  elaborately  decorated  skins;  and  the 
details  of  their  costumes  were  so  distinctive  that  even  today  their  civilized 
descendants  adhere  rigidly  to  them.  All  their  activities  depended  on  the  horse. 
Except  for  this  fact,  their  living  techniques  were  similar  to  those  of  other 


18     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

tribes  that  had  preceded  them  on  the  plains.  In  speaking  of  these  earlier 
people  in  1541,  Coronado  described  their  characteristics  and  their  depend- 
ence upon  the  buffalo  ("cows")  in  terms  that  apply  equally  well  to  the 
later  Plains  tribes: 

"And  after  seventeen  days'  march  I  came  across  a  settlement  of  Indians 
who  travel  around  with  these  cows,  .  .  ,  who  do  not  plant,  and  who  eat  the 
raw  flesh  and  drink  the  blood  of  the  cows  they  kill,  and  they  tan  the  skins 
of  the  cows,  with  which  all  the  people  of  this  country  dress  themselves  here. 
They  have  little  field  tents  made  of  the  hides  of  the  cows,  tanned  and  greased, 
very  well  made,  in  which  they  live  as  they  travel  around  near  the  cows,  chang- 
ing with  these.  They  have  dogs  which  they  load,  which  carry  their  tents  and 
poles  and  small  things.  These  are  the  best  formed  people  that  I  have  seen  in 
the  Indies." 

Certain  other  generalizations  may,  with  some  hesitancy,  be  advanced 
concerning  the  aboriginal  and  adopted  tribes  and  their  historic  cultures.  The 
predominant  political  organization  was  the  village,  or  band;  the  civil  chief 
was  supreme  in  authority,  except  when  he  was  supplanted  by  the  war  chief 
for  the  duration  of  raids  or  expeditions  against  enemies.  Most  southern  Plains 
Indians  traced  descent  through  the  male  line;  parents  controlled  marriages; 
polygamy  was  permitted  when  the  man  could  afford  to  keep  more  than  one 
wife;  and  marriages  between  men  and  women  of  different  but  related  tribes 
was  encouraged  in  order  to  strengthen  informal  but  real  alliances  among 
them. 

Such  were  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Oklahoma.  But  the  phase  of 
Indian  history  that  gives  the  present  state  its  unique  character  resulted  from 
the  plan  of  the  Federal  government  to  set  it  aside  as  the  permanent  home 
of  the  Indian  race.  In  furtherance  of  this  project,  tribes  from  the  southeastern 
states  were  removed  from  the  path  of  advancing  white  settlements  and  sent 
west  with  the  more-or-less  clearly  defined  purpose  of  creating  an  Indian 
commonwealth  (see  History). 

Five  advanced  agricultural  groups  from  the  region  between  Tennessee 
and  the  Gulf  and  from  the  Carolinas  to  the  Mississippi  became  the  first 
modern  Indian  occupants  of  Oklahoma;  the  Cherokees,  a  populous  tribe 
separated  at  an  early  time  from  the  Iroquoian  group  of  western  New  York; 
and  the  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  and  Seminoles — all  members  of  the 
Muskhogean  stock  of  the  Southeast.  All  brought  with  them  the  institutions 
and  customs  of  civilization;  and  their  development  and  achievements  form 
an  integral  part  of  the  history  of  the  state.  Later,  other  tribes  and  fragments 
of  tribes  were  brought  from  the  East  and  North  as  the  white  frontier  con- 
tinued to  advance  upon  their  homes.  Among  these  were  the  Delawares, 


EARLY   OKLAHOMANS  19 

Shawnees,  Sacs  and  Foxes,  the  Quapaws — a  Siouan  tribe  of  peaceable  habits, 
crowded  out  of  their  homes  in  Arkansas — and  the  Kaws,  another  fragment 
of  a  Siouan  tribe  from  Kansas. 

Members  of  these  tribes  now  constitute  a  considerable  portion  of  the  citi- 
zenship of  Oklahoma  and  have  intermarried  with  the  whites  until  they  are 
no  longer  appreciably  Indian — though  they  cherish  the  tradition  of  their 
Indian  ancestry.  In  the  state  are  about  ninety-two  thousand  representatives 
of  more  than  thirty  tribes  who  show  pronounced  Indian  characteristics.  They 
have  the  same  privileges  as  other  citizens  of  the  state,  except  that  some  of 
those  with  the  highest  quantum  of  Indian  blood — varying  in  amount  from 
tribe  to  tribe — still  (1941)  hold  their  individual  allotments  of  land  under 
title  which  prevents  them  from  selling.  These  restricted  Indians  are  under 
the  guardianship  of  seven  Federal  agencies,  which  exercise  a  certain  super- 
vision over  their  land  and  assist  them  in  acquiring  the  white  man's  economic 
techniques.  Most  of  the  children  attend  the  public  schools,  but  twelve  board- 
ing schools  are  also  maintained  by  the  United  States  government  for  special 
vocational  training.  Many  young  Indians  are  enrolled  in  Oklahoma  colleges. 

A  few  conservative  fullblood  settlements  exist  in  remote  communities, 
though  most  of  the  Indians  are  distributed  through  the  general  farming 
population  or  are  engaged  in  ordinary  occupations  in  the  towns  and  cities. 

In  fullblood  communities  the  Indians  still  retain  their  own  social  life 
with  tribal  dances  and  ceremonies,  but  little  remains  of  their  native  mode  of 
living.  The  picturesque  native  of  feathers,  paint,  blanket,  and  breechcloth 
is  never  seen,  except  at  Indian  fairs  and  exhibitions,  which  are  held  in  many 
places  throughout  the  state. 


^0^2 , . z^^li > , i^^'!:: ^ , ^^"j. ^, ^^11 , t^^ij, . ♦'^D/H ^tlti" 


History 


THE  CHRONICLE  of  Oklahoma  is  as  old  as  the  expedition  of  Coronado, 
pushing  east  in  search  of  gold  from  Tiguez,  New  Mexico,  in  1541, 
and  as  new  as  the  completion  of  the  mile-long  Grand  River  Dam,  the 
greatest  multiple-arch  dam  in  the  world,  in  the  fall  of  1940.  If  it  seems  over- 
weighted by  happenings  before  there  was  a  state  of  Oklahoma,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  statehood  came  as  late  as  1907 — in  the  youth  of  men  and 
women  now  (1941)  hardly  past  their  middle  age. 

A  succession  of  Spanish  adventurers  were  the  first  recorded  explorers 
of  the  territory  that  became  Oklahoma.  Coming  from  the  east  in  the  winter 
of  1540-41,  Hernando  de  Soto  is  supposed  to  have  missed  meeting  Coronado 
within  Oklahoma's  border  by  not  so  many  leagues.  Then,  fifty  years  later, 
Captain  Francisco  Leiva  Bonilla's  expedition  probably  crossed  the  Panhandle, 
to  be  followed  in  1601  by  that  of  Governor  Juan  de  Onate,  from  Santa  Fe, 
and  that  of  Diego  de  Castillo,  searching  for  gold  and  silver,  in  1650. 

Beyond  some  traces  of  prospecting  for  gold  in  the  Wichita  Mountains, 
the  Spaniards  left  no  impression  on  the  region;  they  carried  back  the  report 
that  it  was  peopled  only  by  a  few  bands  of  poor  Indians,  and  that  its  prairies 
furnished  grazing  for  myriads  of  strange  "crooked-back  cows" — buffaloes. 

Next  to  enter  the  territory  out  of  which  Oklahoma  was  carved  was  Rene 
Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  who  came  down  the  Mississippi  and  thence 
west  in  1682  and  claimed  for  the  French  all  the  lands  drained  by  the  great 
river;  some  of  his  followers  came  up  the  Red  River  and  pushed  north  across 
the  eastern  quarter  of  the  present  state,  leaving  evidence  of  their  passing  in 
the  names  of  such  rivers  as  the  Poteau  and  the  Verdigris. 

At  long  intervals  before  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  Territory  by  the 
United  States  in  1803,  traces  of  French  contacts  in  the  Oklahoma  area  are 
found:  traders  out  of  the  post  established  in  1715  by  Juchereau  de  St.  Denis 
at  Natchitoches,  on  the  Red  River;  Bernard  de  la  Harpe's  expedition  from 
Red  River  to  the  present  town  of  Haskell  (see  Tour  2);  Charles  Claude  de 
Tisnc's  visit  in  1719  to  the  Pawnees  in  the  vicinity  of  the  present  town  of 

20 


HISTORY  21 

Chelsea  (see  Tour  1);  the  traders  Pierre  and  Paul  Mallet's  descent  of  the 
Arkansas  River  in  canoes  in  1740;  and  the  1741  winter  camp  of  Fabre  de  la 
Bruyere  on  the  Canadian  at  the  mouth  of  Little  River. 

Then,  in  1762,  that  part  of  Louisiana  Province  which  contained  present 
Oklahoma  was  given  back  to  Spain;  and  some  thirty  years  later,  with  the 
canceling  of  permits  to  French  traders  in  the  Osage  and  Missouri  River 
regions,  the  Spanish  attempted  to  exploit  the  area.  In  1800,  however,  Louisi- 
ana Province  was  regained  by  France,  and  in  1803  it  was  purchased  by  the 
United  States.  The  next  year  the  District  of  Louisiana  was  divided,  the  Okla- 
homa region  becoming  part  of  the  Territory  of  Indiana,  and  receiving  its  first 
code  of  laws  from  Vincennes.  The  arrival  from  St.  Louis  in  1822  of  Auguste 
Pierre  Chouteau,  who  established  at  Grand  Saline  (Salina;  see  Tour  8)  the 
first  permanent  white  settlement  in  Oklahoma,  marked  the  beginning  of 
white  infiltration  through  the  influence  of  this  great  French  trading  family 
of  Missouri. 

Two  other  early  dates  are  significant,  the  inclusion  of  the  Oklahoma 
region  in  the  Territory  of  Missouri  in  1812,  and  its  transfer  to  the  Territory 
of  Arkansas  in  1819,  when  the  United  States  offered  a  home  west  of  the 
Mississippi  for  all  Cherokees  who  would  consent  to  emigrate  from  Georgia 
and  Tennessee.  Incidentally,  this  arrangement,  as  the  Osages  claimed,  arbi- 
trarily took  land  from  them  and  gave  it  to  the  Cherokees  without  their  sanc- 
tion, and  led  to  extended  warfare  between  the  tribes  after  the  coming  of  the 
Cherokees. 

In  1819,  by  the  treaty  with  Spain  which  named  the  Red  River  as  far  west 
as  the  one-hundredth  meridian  as  the  boundary  between  Arkansas  Territory 
and  the  Spanish  Southwest,  the  southern  and  western  limits  of  Oklahoma 
were  fixed.  In  this  same  year,  1819,  the  English  naturalist  Thomas  Nuttall 
made  his  trip  up  the  Arkansas  through  the  Cherokee  lands,  and  the  Reverend 
Epaphras  Chapman  came  to  open  Union  Mission  on  Grand  River  to  the 
Osages.  In  1822,  Cephas  Washburn,  another  devoted  friend  of  the  Indians, 
followed  the  Cherokees  who  had  voluntarily  removed  to  the  Arkansas  Terri- 
tory and  founded  D wight  Mission  for  their  comfort  and  education.  In  1824, 
in  anticipation  of  the  coming  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes,  Fort  Gibson  and 
Fort  Towson  were  laid  out. 

Except  for  a  few  Osages  east  of  Grand  River,  small  bands  of  Indians 
of  Caddoan  stock,  such  as  the  Wichitas  and  some  nomadic  Comanches  and 
Kiowas  in  the  west — probably  the  bands  seen  by  Coronado,  Bonilla,  and 
de  Onate — the  Indian  Territory  which  was  to  become  Oklahoma  was  a 
vacant  land  when  President  Jackson  began  applying  so  much  pressure  on  the 
Five  Civilized  Tribes  that  they  could  no  longer  resist.  From  1828  to  1846 


HISTORY  23 

the  long  and  doleful  procession  of  exiled  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Chickasaws, 
Choctaws,  and  Seminoles  ended  among  the  timbered  hills  and  on  the  litde 
open  prairies  of  the  eastern  end  of  the  present  state. 

These  Indians,  distinguished  by  the  title  of  "The  Five  Civilized  Tribes," 
had  lived  in  close  contact  with  the  whites  for  more  than  a  century;  had 
adopted  many  of  the  white  man's  habits  and  customs;  were  farmers,  stock- 
men, millwrights;  had  schools  and  mission  churches;  and  were  slaveholders. 
Some  had  become  wealthy  from  plantations  of  the  old  southern  type,  though, 
of  course,  most  lived  in  simple  cabins.  All  had  been  at  peace  with  the  whites 
since  1812. 

After  conflicting  boundary  claims  had  been  adjusted,  the  immigrant  In- 
dians held  title  to  all  of  the  present  state  of  Oklahoma  except  the  Panhandle; 
and  though  their  setdements  were  confined  to  the  eastern  half,  they  made 
periodic  buffalo-hunting  expeditions  to  the  western  limits  of  their  holdings. 
Each  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  was  organized  into  a  "nation,"  which 
maintained  a  separate  existence  as  a  protectorate  of  the  United  States  under 
treaties  which  guaranteed  that  its  tenure  should  be  perpetual,  "as  long  as 
grass  shall  grow  and  waters  run."  Each  nation  had  its  own  laws,  tried  of- 
fenders, decided  civil  suits  and  probate  matters  in  its  own  courts;  and  built 
Capitols  in  the  wilderness,  where  Indian  legislators  conducted  smoothly- 
running  parliamentary  assemblies,  and  able  chiefs  prepared  state  papers  and 
dealt  with  intricate  problems  of  administration. 

Survivors  of  the  forced  Removal,  after  the  hard  years  of  pioneering, 
began  to  prosper.  They  cleared  land,  laid  out  farms,  accumulated  livestock, 
built  schoolhouses  and  churches,  and  entered  into  friendly  diplomatic  rela- 
tions with  each  other  and  with  the  "wild"  nomadic  tribes  at,  and  beyond, 
the  western  border  of  Indian  Territory.  Protected  from  intrusion  by  treaties 
and  the  Indian  Intercourse  Acts,  for  a  time  they  lived  apart  from  the  whites. 

But  the  Civil  War  interrupted  their  material  progress  and  destroyed 
their  isolation.  Naturally,  the  slaveholding  Five  Civilized  Tribes,  coming  as 
they  had  from  the  Gulf  states,  Tennessee,  and  North  Carolina,  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Confederates.  Almost  to  a  man  the  United  States  agents  to 
the  various  tribes  were  Southern  sympathizers  also;  and  they,  together  with 
delegations  from  Arkansas  and  Texas  that  alternately  urged  and  threatened, 
persuaded  the  Indians  to  joi  the  South.  During  1861  all  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  accordingly  made  alliances  with  the  Confederacy,  and  many  of  the 
Plains  Indians  followed  their  example.  But  in  spite  of  this  official  action, 
there  was  a  strong  Union  element  among  the  Cherokees,  Creeks,  and  Semi- 
noles; and  these  tribes  were  torn  by  miniature  civil  wars  of  their  own,  the 
more  deadly  and  devastating  because  of  the  close  ties  binding  their  citizens. 


24     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

In  the  case  of  the  Cherokees,  the  struggle  was  so  violent  that  Chief  John 
Ross,  who  attempted  to  maintain  neutraUty  for  the  tribe,  was  compelled  to 
leave  the  nation  and  Stand  Watie,  made  a  brigadier  general  by  the  Con- 
federacy, claimed  the  office. 

No  important  battle  was  fought  in  the  Indian  Territory,  but  guerrilla 
bands  ravaged  the  country,  and  Union  and  Confederate  partisans  killed  each 
other  on  sight;  refugees  left  their  homes  and  fled.  Union  sympathizers  to 
Kansas,  and  adherents  of  the  Confederacy  to  the  Red  River  region.  While 
they  endured  exile,  illness,  and  starvation,  thieves  looted  and  burned  their 
abandoned  homes  and  barns  and  sold  their  stock  to  army  contractors. 

After  the  war  the  Federal  government  contended  that  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes,  by  their  "rebellion,"  had  forfeited  all  their  lands  and  treaty  guaran- 
tees, and  it  was  proposed  to  open  their  country  to  white  settlement.  Yielding 
in  part  to  the  Indians'  strong  protests,  the  United  States  took  only  a  part 
of  their  western  lands  as  a  home  for  other  Indian  tribes,  allowing  them  to 
retain  the  eastern  portion  under  previous  treaty  status.  All  were  required  to 
liberate  their  former  slaves;  and  some  tribes  were  induced  to  adopt  their 
freedmen  as  citizens  with  full  property  rights.  Provision  was  also  made  for 
a  united  territorial  government,  which  it  was  hoped  would  in  time  absorb 
the  separate  Indian  nationalities  and  lead  to  the  establishment  of  a  state.  At 
the  suggestion  of  Allen  Wright,  a  Choctaw  delegate  who  once  served  as 
principal  chief  of  his  tribe,  one  of  the  treaties  referred  to  this  hoped-for 
commonwealth  as  Oklahoma,  the  Choctaw  word  for  "red  people." 

Indians  living  in  Kansas  and  other  states  were  removed  to  the  Indian 
Territory  and  settled  on  the  ceded  land.  The  "wild"  Plains  tribes  also  went 
through  the  form  of  accepting  reservations  there,  though  they  continued  to 
hunt  in  Kansas,  Texas,  and  Colorado  until  the  buffalo  herds,  which  they 
regarded  as  their  special  property,  were  gone;  they  then  began  raiding  white 
settlements.  To  protect  the  whites,  forts  were  established  at  strategic  points 
on  the  frontier.  In  the  present  state  of  Oklahoma  were  Fort  Supply  (1868) 
on  the  North  Canadian,  near  the  western  boundary;  Fort  Sill  (1869),  at  the 
eastern  edge  of  the  Wichita  Mountains;  and  Fort  Reno  (1874),  also  on  the 
North  Canadian,  in  the  heart  of  the  ceded  territory.  By  1875,  the  "hostiles" 
were  reduced  to  the  status  of  reservation  Indians. 

Meanwhile,  leaders  among  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  met  at  the  Creek 
capital,  Okmulgee,  in  1871,  with  the  purpose  of  forming  a  confederated 
Indian  Territory,  to  be  administered  by  Indians.  They  urged  it,  along  with 
better  education  and  farming  practices,  as  a  measure  vital  to  their  survival. 
Other  meetings  were  held  in  the  following  four  years,  at  all  of  which  repre- 
sentatives of  the  hostile  Plains  tribes  listened  attentively  to  talks  about  the 


HISTORY  25 

necessity  for  adopting  the  white  man's  civilization;  but  before  their  principal 
aim  could  be  accomplished  the  Federal  government  acted  to  prevent  it,  and 
no  more  meetings  could  be  held. 

As  though  conditioned  by  adversity,  the  Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  made  a  quick  recovery  from  the  desolation  caused  by  the  Civil  War. 
Farms  and  plantations  once  more  came  under  cultivation,  and  the  rich  ranges 
supported  herds  of  Indian-owned  cattle.  Schoolhouses  were  rebuilt;  the  tribes 
financed  the  expansion  of  both  neighborhood  elementary  schools,  with  edu- 
cated Indian  teachers  in  charge,  and  higher  grade  boarding  schools,  mainly 
staffed  by  white  college  graduates. 

The  Indians'  problem — how  to  keep  the  Territory  for  their  exclusive  use 
and  occupation — was  complicated  by  the  rapid  growth  of  white  population 
on  its  northern,  eastern,  and  southern  borders;  and  when  the  first  railroad 
crossed  it  (1870-72),  any  effort  to  find  an  answer  became  hopeless.  As  other 
railroads  built  into,  and  across,  the  Territory,  white  men  came  in  to  lay  out 
towns  and  open  farms,  some  as  employees  or  tenants  of  the  Indians,  others  as 
plain  intruders,  defiant  alike  of  the  tribal  governments  and  the  Federal  Inter- 
course Acts.  In  1890,  when  the  first  Federal  census  was  made  of  the  Five 
Civilized  Tribes,  there  was  a  population  of  109,393  whites  and  18,636 
Negroes,  as  compared  with  a  total  of  50,055  Indians. 

These  noncitizens,  outside  the  authority  of  the  Indian  governments,  were 
without  civil  law,  and  in  criminal  matters  they  were  under  the  long-distance 
jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  court  at  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas.  Their  towns  were 
built  upon  lands  to  which  they  could  obtain  no  title,  and  their  children 
were  denied  access  to  tribal  schools;  naturally,  therefore,  they  were  eager  for 
the  extinguishment  of  the  Indian  land  tenure  and  the  creation  of  a  govern- 
ment in  which  they  could  participate. 

White  cattlemen,  too,  coveted  the  lush  ranges  of  the  Indians.  At  first,  the 
Indians'  grass  only  helped  to  fatten  the  big  moving  herds  which  began  to  cross 
the  Territory  from  Texas  to  Kansas  railheads  soon  after  the  Civil  War,  and 
trample  deep  and  wide  such  trails  as  the  Western,  the  Chisholm,  the  East 
Shawnee,  and  the  West  Shawnee.  Between  five  and  six  million  longhorns 
used  these  trails.  Then  Texas  cattle-owners  thought  to  secure  grazing  rights, 
either  leasing  great  areas  from  tribal  authorities  or  arranging  sham  "sales"  to 
citizens  of  the  Territory,  then  hiring  themselves  and  their  cowboys  to  the 
Indian  "owners"  to  care  for  and  market  the  cattle. 

Most  extensive  and  richest  of  the  Indians'  ranges  was  the  Cherokee 
"Outlet,"  or  "Strip,"  some  six  and  one-half  million  acres  of  grassland  south  of 
the  southern  border  of  Kansas,  and  west  of  the  tribal  lands  granted  by  the 
Cherokees  to  the  Osages.  Here  for  a  time  the  Cherokee  national  government 


26     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

collected  grazing  fees  from  individual  cattlemen,  then  leased  the  whole  area 
to  the  Cherokee  Strip  Livestock  Association. 

Looking  over  the  border  at  this  cattleman's  "fair  and  happy  land,"  white 
farmers  of  Kansas,  Missouri,  and  sections  even  more  remote  began  the  long- 
continued  agitation  for  throwing  open  for  settlement  the  fertile  acres  which 
were  not  used  and  occupied  by  their  Indian  owners.  Bills  were  repeatedly 
introduced  in  Congress  for  the  liquidation  of  tribal  governments,  allotment 
of  reservation  land  held  in  common,  and  making  the  surplus  land  available 
for  homesteading. 

Beginning  about  1879,  extensive  publicity  was  given  to  the  fact  that  no 
Indian  tribes  had  ever  been  settled  on  a  tract  in  the  heart  of  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory ceded  by  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War;  and 
newspapers  throughout  the  West  contended  that  these  "Unassigned  Lands" 
— soon  to  be  popularly  designated  as  "Oklahoma  Lands" — were  subject  to 
homestead  entry. 

Homeseekers  known  as  "Boomers"  gathered  at  the  Kansas  border  and 
made  repeated  and  systematic  attempts  to  colonize  this  tract,  but  the  Federal 
government,  holding  that  the  land  had  been  ceded  only  for  Indian  occupation, 
removed  the  invaders.  They  returned  in  increasing  numbers;  cattlemen  came 
in  without  legal  sanction,  divided  the  range,  built  fences  and  corrals,  and 
grazed  their  cattle  over  its  rich  prairies;  and  in  1886-87,  the  Atchison,  Topeka 
and  Santa  Fe  Railroad  was  built  across  the  region,  and  stations  were  estab- 
lished along  its  right  of  way. 

Finally  the  United  States  purchased  title  to  the  land  from  the  Creeks  and 
Seminoles;  the  tract  was  laid  out  in  160-acre  homesteads;  and  on  April  22, 
1889,  it  was  opened  to  white  setdement  in  the  "Run"  for  farms  and  town  lots 
which  has  become  one  of  the  most  dramatized  episodes  in  western  history. 

As  the  hour  for  the  opening  approached,  great  crowds  waited  on  the 
border,  while  mounted  soldiers  stood  on  guard  to  turn  back  intruders.  At 
noon  bugles  sounded,  then  guns  were  fired  as  a  signal  that  the  land  was  open. 
Men  raced  in  on  horseback,  on  foot,  in  covered  wagons,  hanging  to  every 
available  hold  on  the  slowly  moving  trains,  all  trying  to  outstrip  their  fellows 
in  the  scramble  for  "claims."  When  a  homeseeker  found  a  tract  of  land  to  his 
liking,  he  drove  a  stake  as  evidence  of  possession  and  held  it  as  best  he  could 
against  other  claimants.  On  the  same  day  lots  were  staked  in  the  townsites, 
and  men  engaged  in  feverish  promotion. 

The  weeks  following  that  first  Run  of  homesteaders  were  busy  ones  on 
this  newest  of  American  frontiers.  In  the  towns,  stores  were  opened,  banks 
and  newspapers  were  established,  doctors  and  lawyers  set  up  offices.  Some  of 
the  most  substantial  business  firms  in  Oklahoma  point  to  this  time  as  the  date 


HISTORY  27 

of  their  founding;  and  many  elderly  couples  are  now  living  on  well-improved 
farms  which  they  staked  on  that  historic  day. 

For  thirteen  months,  the  settlers  were  without  any  organized  govern- 
ment, yet  good  order  prevailed.  Frontier  living  conditions  were  too  rigorous, 
and  money  was  too  scarce,  to  attract  outlaws.  In  May,  1890,  Congress  passed 
the  Organic  Act,  providing  for  a  territorial  government,  with  executive  and 
judicial  officers  appointed  by  the  President,  and  a  legislature  to  be  elected  by 
the  people.  The  active  new  town  of  Guthrie  (see  Tour  10)  was  designated  as 
the  capital,  and  in  spite  of  the  bitter  rivalry  of  its  ambitious  neighbor,  Okla- 
homa City,  it  remained  the  seat  of  government  throughout  the  territorial 
period. 

The  new  Territory  of  Oklahoma  increased  rapidly  in  area  as  well  as  in 
population.  The  Organic  Act  provided  that  the  Panhandle  (see  Tour  2) 
should  be  included  within  its  jurisdiction.  This  narrow  strip  of  land  had  had 
a  curious  history.  Included  in  the  Spanish  domain  by  the  treaty  of  1819,  it 
had  passed  by  successive  revolutions  into  the  possession  first  of  Mexico,  and 
then  of  Texas.  Separated  from  Texas  by  the  Compromise  of  1850  because  it 
lay  north  of  the  slavery  line,  and  lying  south  of  the  Kansas-Colorado  bound- 
ary, it  had  become  appropriately  known  as  "No  Man's  Land."  After  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  Plains  Indians  and  the  extinction  of  the  buffalo,  homesteaders 
and  ranchers  had  filtered  in  and  had  been  completely  ignored  by  the  Federal 
government.  In  1887,  they  met  at  Beaver  City  and  attempted  to  create  a 
government  for  the  "Territory  of  Cimarron,"  but  their  action  never  received 
official  recognition.  Now  this  strip  of  forgotten  frontier  was  added  to  Okla- 
homa. 

As  different  Indian  tribes  accepted  allotment  of  reservations,  their 
surplus  lands  were  opened  to  settlement  and  joined  to  Oklahoma.  The  wild 
scenes  of  the  first  Run  were  re-enacted,  and  the  same  building  activity  fol- 
lowed. The  Sac  and  Fox,  Iowa,  and  Shawnee-Potawatomi  reservations  to 
the  east  of  "Old  Oklahoma"  were  opened  in  1891,  and  the  Cheyenne-Arapaho 
lands  to  the  west  in  1892.  The  greatest  Run  of  all  occurred  when  the  United 
States  purchased  the  Cherokee  Oudet  and  opened  it,  with  the  Tonkawa  and 
Pawnee  reservations,  in  the  fall  of  1893.  This  was  followed  by  the  opening  of 
the  small  Kickapoo  Reservation  in  1895.  Greer  County,  an  area  between  the 
north  and  south  forks  of  the  Red  River,  which  later  became  Jackson,  Harmon, 
Greer,  and  (in  part)  Beckham  counties,  had  long  been  claimed  by  Texas  and 
settled  largely  by  Texans,  many  of  them  cattlemen.  In  1896,  it  was  awarded 
to  Oklahoma  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court;  each  resident  was  allowed 
to  retain  160  acres  and  to  purchase  an  additional  160  acres  at  $1.25  an  acre. 

The  surplus  land  of  the  Kiowas  and  Comanches  and  the  Wichitas  and 


28     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

Artiliated  Tribes  was  opened  for  settlement  August  6,  1901,  this  time  by 
lottery  instead  of  a  run. 

About  1904,  four  small  tribes — Poncas,  Otoes,  Missouris,  and  Kaws — 
divided  all  their  land  among  their  members,  except  small  tracts  which  they 
retained  for  tribal  purposes;  and  the  Osages'  land  also  was  divided  among  the 
citizens  without  leaving  a  surplus  for  white  homesteaders.  Each  Osage  re- 
ceived 659.52  acres,  but  the  mineral  rights  were  retained  under  communal 
tenure,  a  fact  that  was  to  have  great  significance  to  the  tribe  when  the  reser- 
vation became  one  of  the  great  producing  oil  fields  of  the  world.  Their  allot- 
ments were  finally  completed  about  1908,  and  the  land  was  attached  to  the 
Territory  of  Oklahoma  for  governmental  purposes. 

After  1890,  the  map  showed  "Twin  Territories,"  the  Indian  Territory 
with  a  population  of  178,084,  comprising  the  Cherokee,  Choctaw,  Chickasaw, 
Creek,  and  Seminole  nations,  and  a  small  corner  in  the  northeast  settled  by 
fragments  of  other  tribes;  and  Oklahoma,  with  its  population  of  61,834  white 
pioneers  and  allotted  Indians,  organized  under  a  territorial  government  with 
its  capital  at  Guthrie. 

The  creation  of  Oklahoma  Territory  on  their  border  foretold  the  end  of 
the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  as  independent  nations.  David  A.  Harvey,  the 
Territory's  delegate  in  Congress,  joined  representatives  of  surrounding  states 
in  demanding  the  extinction  of  the  Indian  governments  and  abolition  of  tribal 
land  tenure.  Homeseekers  who  failed  to  secure  land  in  the  runs  and  lotteries 
moved  over  into  the  Indian  Territory,  laid  out  farms,  speculated  in  town  lots, 
and  formed  ambitious  plans  for  the  development  of  its  mineral  rights,  all 
looking  to  a  future  dominated  by  the  white  man's  enterprise.  In  response  to 
this  growing  demand.  Congress  in  1893  created  the  Dawes  Commission  and 
authorized  it  to  negotiate  with  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  for  termination  of 
their  existence  as  nations.  The  Indians  steadfastly  refused  to  treat,  yet  Con- 
gress had  their  land  surveyed  and  rolls  made  of  their  citizens  as  a  preparation 
for  allotment.  Under  such  coercion  they  were  finally  induced  to  negotiate; 
and  partly  by  voluntary  surrender  and  partly  through  Congressional  mandate 
their  governments  were  liquidated  and  their  estates  divided  among  the 
citizens. 

First,  the  townsites  were  segregated  and  platted;  town  governments  were 
organized,  bonds  voted,  school  systems  created,  and  waterworks  and  electric 
light  plants  established.  The  Dawes  Commission  then  divided  the  remainder 
of  the  land  equally  among  the  tribal  citizens.  Each  allotee  received  his  share 
under  a  restricted  tenure;  his  land  was  inalienable  and  tax  exempt  for  a  term 
of  years,  during  which  he  was  supposed  to  gain  experience  in  individual 
ownership. 


HISTORY  29 

By  1906  the  work  undertaken  by  the  Dawes  Commission  was  approach- 
ing completion.  Federal  officials  believed  that  the  Indian  Territory  was  ready 
for  statehood.  Leaders  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes,  meanwhile,  had  taken  the 
initiative  by  meeting,  with  a  few  white  sympathizers,  at  Muskogee,  in  the 
Creek  Nation  in  1905,  to  draw  up  a  constitution  to  govern  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Indian  Territory.  The  new  state  was  to  be  named  Sequoyah  (see  Litera- 
ture) in  honor  of  the  revered  Cherokee  who  had  taught  his  people  to  read  and 
write  their  language.  Constitution  and  name  were  submitted  to  the  people, 
both  white  and  Indian,  and  overwhelmingly  adopted;  but  they  were  never 
accepted  by  Congress. 

The  people  of  Oklahoma  had  been  clamoring  for  statehood  since  the  first 
stakes  were  driven  into  its  prairies,  and  it  seemed  desirable  to  the  lawmakers 
at  Washington  to  unite  the  Twin  Territories  as  one  state.  Under  the  Enabling 
Act,  passed  by  Congress  in  1906,  delegates  from  both  sections  met  at  Guthrie 
to  write  the  constitution. 

The  voluminous  charter  framed  for  the  new  state  showed  the  influence 
of  Bryan  Democracy.  The  initiative,  referendum,  and  recall  weapons  were 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  while  the  fear  that  a  strong  executive  might 
prove  too  powerful  explained  the  proviso  that  no  governor  can  succeed  him- 
self. Many  state  offices  were  made  elective.  A  corporation  commission — a 
new  idea — was  created  to  regulate  public  service  corporations  operating 
within  the  state;  passenger  fares  were  expressly  limited  to  two  cents  per  mile; 
a  moderate  homestead  tax  exemption  was  assured;  child  labor  was  restricted; 
the  contracting  of  convict  labor  was  prohibited;  and  an  eight-hour  working 
day  was  decreed  for  mine  and  governmental  employees. 

Various  groups  had  brought  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  constitution- 
makers — the  Farmer's  Union  through  William  H.  Murray,  and  the  mine 
workers  through  Peter  Hanraty,  president  and  vice-president  respectively  of 
the  convention.  The  liquor  interests  were  extremely  active.  Oklahoma  Terri- 
tory had  saloons,  but  the  Enabling  Act  required  prohibition  of  intoxicants 
in  the  Indian  country  for  twenty-one  years  after  statehood.  Women  lobbyists 
flocked  to  the  convention  to  meet  defeat  in  the  fight  for  woman  suffrage  and 
for  the  eligibility  of  women  for  the  office  of  governor.  They  succeeded,  how- 
ever, in  securing  limitations  on  the  employment  of  women  and  children  in 
work  injurious  to  health  or  morals,  and  the  establishment  of  a  Department 
of  Charities  and  Corrections  for  the  protection  of  orphans  and  inmates  of  all 
charitable  and  penal  institutions.  One  concession  won  by  the  women  at  the 
time  was  a  provision  that  the  Commissioner  of  Charities  and  Corrections 
"may  be  of  either  sex."  Kate  Barnard,  a  militant  social  worker,  was  elected 
to  that  position  in  1907,  and  re-elected  in  1910.  Except  for  two  terms  (1914- 


30  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

22),  the  office  has  been  held  by  two  women,  Miss  Barnard,  and  Mabel  Bas- 
sett  (1923-41). 

State-wide  prohibition  was  adopted  at  the  election  which  ratified  the 
constitution. 

Born  at  the  crisis  of  the  1907  "money  panic,"  the  state  was  (to  quote  from 
the  Organization  and  Administration  of  Ol{lahoma,  a  Brookings  Institution 
report  made  in  1935)  "the  kind  of  community  that,  a  hundred  years  ago,  was 
placing  its  stamp  on  our  political  institutions  and  governmental  practices. 
Such  a  community,  vigorous,  individualistic,  and  self-confident,  was  typical 
of  the  Jacksonian  era,  characterized  by  intense  partisanship;  loyalty  to  per- 
sonalities; localism;  territorial  decentralization  in  administration;  attachment 
to  local  self-government;  checks  and  balances;  legislative  control  of  adminis- 
tration; distrust  of  the  executive;  numerous  elective  offices;  rotation  in  office; 
the  spoils  system." 

State  officers  were  installed  on  November  16,  1907,  including  the  first 
governor,  Charles  N.  Haskell.  As  United  States  senators  Oklahoma's  legis- 
lature sent  to  Washington  a  blind  white  man,  Thomas  P.  Gore,  and  a  Chero- 
kee citizen,  Robert  L.  Owen.  To  the  House  of  Representatives  were  elected 
Bird  S.  McGuire,  former  Territorial  Delegate;  Elmer  L.  Fulton;  James  S. 
Davenport;  Charles  D.  Carter,  of  both  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  blood;  and 
Scott  Ferris. 

At  statehood,  Oklahoma  had  a  population  of  1,414,177,  of  which  only 
5.3  per  cent  were  Indians.  Restless,  and  critical  of  the  established  order,  dubbed 
radicals  by  outsiders,  they  had  proposed  to  create  a  commonwealth  for  the 
poor  man.  Ironically,  the  first  great  surge  of  oil  development  in  Oklahoma 
occurred  just  before  statehood  and  called  for  the  investment  of  enormous 
amounts  of  capital  in  leases,  drilling,  storage,  gathering  lines,  shipping  facili- 
ties, and  refining.  Taxes  paid  by  oil  saved  the  state  from  bankruptcy  in  the 
period  when  no  real  estate  taxes  could  be  collected  from  the  restricted  lands 
in  the  Indian  half  of  Oklahoma.  Other  mineral  resources,  in  the  development 
of  which  capital  was  required,  also  became  more  and  more  important:  coal, 
mined  as  early  as  1872  in  the  McAlester  region;  lead  and  zinc,  in  the  north- 
eastern corner;  gypsum  in  the  west,  and  asphalt  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
state. 

What  seemed  to  be  happening  beneath  the  surface  of  the  disturbed  waters 
of  radical  political  and  economic  agitations  was  the  rapid  transformation  of 
a  Bryanesque  commonwealth,  controlled  by  farmers  and  small  business  men, 
to  a  modern  industrial  state,  dominated  by  the  "big  money"  which  the  pio- 
neers had  so  greatly  feared. 

At  Haskell's  inauguration,  the  state  had  seen  five  thousand  oil  wells 


HISTORY  31 

drilled,  the  price  of  crude  had  dropped  to  twenty-five  cents  per  barrel,  and 
the  powerful  Mid-Continent  Oil  and  Gas  Association  had  been  formed. 
"Standard  Oil"  was  a  political  battle  cry,  and  the  Socialist  Party  was  gather- 
ing strength. 

The  race  question  was  raised  by  Democrats  from  the  beginning  of  state- 
hood, and  Oklahoma's  Jim  Crow  Law  was  one  of  the  first  adopted.  The 
Grandfather  Clause,  which  would  have  deprived  the  Negroes  of  suffrage, 
was  adopted  in  1910.  It  was  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Federal  District 
Court,  and  the  decision  was  sustained  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
in  1915.  An  attempt  to  initiate  a  literacy  test  as  a  substitute  was  defeated  by 
popular  vote  in  1916. 

The  location  of  the  capital  at  Oklahoma  City  in  1910  followed  attempts 
to  establish  a  new  city  in  the  geographic  center  of  the  state — the  "New 
Jerusalem"  plan — which  failed,  as  did  Guthrie's  attempt  to  retain  the  capital 
after  the  election  in  which  Oklahoma  City  was  chosen. 

Haskell  and  his  successor  as  governor,  Lee  Cruce,  both  faced  bitter  polit- 
ical opposition.  Cruce  was  embroiled  in  controversy  that  brought  a  threat  of 
impeachment  which  never  materialized.  Legislative  scandals  and  the  growth 
of  the  Socialist  Party  held  down  the  1912  Oklahoma  vote  for  Woodrow  Wil- 
son to  119,000. 

The  1914  Democratic  primary  was  spiced  by  the  vigorous  candidacy  of 
Al  Jennings,  former  train-robber,  for  governor.  He  received  21,732  votes  and' 
ran  third.  Robert  L.  Williams  was  nominated  with  33,605  votes.  Socialists 
joined  Republicans  in  an  attack  on  Governor  Williams,  charging  that  his 
election  was  stolen.  At  the  election,  Williams  won,  polling  100,597  votes  to 
95,904  by  his  Republican  opponent,  who  was  hampered  because  the  Progres- 
sives put  a  candidate  into  the  field  who  polled  4,189  votes.  The  Socialists,  who 
had  polled  9,740  votes  at  statehood,  cast  52,703  votes  for  their  gubernatorial 
candidate;  five  Socialist  members  were  elected  to  the  state  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  one  to  the  state  Senate.  National  economic  stress  contributed 
to  the  growth  of  Socialism;  the  lack  of  a  cotton  market,  the  decreasing  value 
of  all  farm  products,  and  the  rapid  growth  of  farm  tenancy  throughout  the 
state  aggravated  social  unrest  that  was  stilled  only  by  the  entrance  of  the 
United  States  into  the  World  War. 

The  First  Regiment  of  Oklahoma's  National  Guard,  which  had  seen 
service  in  Mexico  in  the  short  campaign  against  Pancho  Villa,  merged  with  a 
Texas  regiment  to  form  the  One  Hundred  and  Forty-second  Regiment.  This 
was  incorporated  in  the  Thirty-sixth  Division  and  sent  overseas.  Among  the 
90,378  Oklahomans  who  went  into  the  service  were  more  than  five  thousand 
Negroes;  and  Company  E  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Forty-second  Infantry 


32        OKLAHOMA:  the  general  background 

was  made  up  almost  entirely  of  Indians.  A  brigade  of  Oklahoma  troops  saw 
action  at  St.  Mihiel  and  in  the  final  ofiFensive  of  the  Meuse-Argonne.  Casual- 
ties were  1,046  killed  in  battle,  502  missing,  710  dead  of  disease,  and  4,154 
wounded. 

Even  before  the  first  World  War,  Oklahoma's  war  record  was  as  varied 
as  the  character  of  its  people.  In  the  Civil  War,  there  had  been  Indian  regi- 
ments on  both  sides,  and  in  the  Spanish-American  War,  Theodore  Roose- 
velt's regiment  of  "Rough  Riders"  had  been  largely  recruited  from  the  Twin 
Territories. 

The  Socialist  party  steadily  declined  in  the  state  during  the  war  years 
and  fell  into  disrepute  because  of  opposition  expressed  by  a  minority  of  its 
members  to  participation  in  the  war.  By  1922,  the  party  was  able  to  muster 
only  3,941  votes,  and  in  1924,  it  was  denied  a  place  on  the  state  ballot. 

The  campaign  of  1920  brought  the  first  Republican  victory  to  Oklahoma. 
That  party's  representative,  J.  W.  Harreld,  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  five  of  the  state's  eight  members  of  the  national  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives were  Republicans.  The  majority  of  the  state  House  of  Representa- 
tives were  also  of  that  party.  Governor  J.  B.  A.  Robertson,  a  holdover  from 
the  election  of  1918,  was  a  Democrat  and  found  himself  unable  to  push  legis- 
lation through  the  lower  house,  which  showed  its  political  hostility  by  voting 
impeachment  charges  against  Lieutenant  Governor  M.  E.  Trapp  and  failed 
by  only  one  vote  to  prefer  similar  charges  against  Robertson. 

The  Red  Scare  that  swept  the  country  after  the  war  stirred  into  action 
such  secret  organizations  as  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  which  gained  numerous  mem- 
bers in  all  sections  of  the  state.  It  elected  or  controlled  many  municipal  and 
county  officials.  During  the  last  two  years  of  Robertson's  administration  the 
Klan  became  such  an  issue  that  he  forbade  officers  of  the  National  Guard 
to  join. 

Unrest  caused  by  the  Klan,  growing  dissatisfaction  among  farmers  and 
workmen  with  post-war  depression  conditions,  and  the  Socialist  remnants 
in  the  state — all  threatened  the  dominance  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the 
election  of  1922.  In  September,  1921,  a  large  convention  had  been  held  of 
delegates  from  the  State  Federation  of  Labor,  the  railroad  Brotherhoods,  and 
the  Farmer's  Union.  These  groups  formed  the  Farmer-Labor  Reconstruction 
League,  advocating  state  operation  of  a  number  of  industries  with  the  elimina- 
tion of  private  profits,  aid  to  home  building  and  labor,  and  free  school  text- 
books. In  the  followingFebruary  a  more  comprehensive  platform  was  adopted 
and  candidates  were  nominated  for  state  offices;  J.  C.  Walton,  mayor  of 
Oklahoma  City,  was  the  nominee  for  governor. 

In  the  primary,  R.  H.  Wilson,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  and 


HISTORY  33 

Thomas  H.  Owen,  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  opposed  Walton.  The 
Klan  endorsed  Wilson;  this  turned  the  support  of  Catholics,  Jews,  Negroes, 
and  citizens  of  foreign  lineage,  who  had  suffered  from  the  persecution  of  the 
Klan,  to  the  support  of  Walton.  Governor  Robertson  used  administrative 
pressure  against  the  Klan,  and  Patrick  S.  Nagle,  head  of  the  old  Socialist 
party,  led  most  of  its  adherents  into  the  Walton  camp.  Walton  was  nominated 
and  elected  despite  the  bolt  of  a  group  of  Democrats  to  the  support  of  the 
Republican  nominee. 

Walton  began  his  administration  by  inviting  all  his  constituents  to  attend 
an  inaugural  barbecue.  Thousands  gathered  in  Oklahoma  City  and  many 
remained  as  office  seekers;  the  Governor  felt  obligated  to  award  his  friends 
by  overstaffing  offices  and  creating  new  positions.  He  encountered  opposition 
from  more  conservative  members  of  the  Democratic  party  and  at  the  same 
time  lost  the  confidence  of  leaders  of  the  Reconstruction  League.  The  Ku 
Klux  Klan  remained  in  opposition.  After  eleven  months  of  strife,  the  legis- 
lature impeached  and  removed  Walton  and  M.  E.  Trapp,  lieutenant  governor, 
succeeded  him. 

In  the  Trapp  administration  the  State  Game  and  Fish  Department  was 
organized,  the  first  legislation  was  passed  for  the  conservation  of  natural 
resources,  and  the  State  Highway  Department  speeded  the  construction  of 
all-weather  roads. 

Henry  S.  Johnston  was  elected  governor  in  1926  for  the  next  four-year 
term,  but  he  immediately  broke  with  some  of  his  closest  advisers.  The  legis- 
lature, after  one  abortive  attempt,  impeached  him  on  ten  charges,  the  tenth 
being  general  incompetency.  Acquitted  on  the  other  nine  charges,  he  was  con- 
victed on  the  tenth.  In  March,  1929,  William  J.  Holloway,  lieutenant  gover- 
nor, became  the  eighth  governor  of  Oklahoma. 

In  1930,  William  H.  Murray,  returned  from  a  five-year  colonizing  ven- 
ture in  Bolivia,  entered,  with  eight  others,  the  primary  contest  for  governor. 
He  conducted  a  spectacular  campaign  by  being  driven  from  place  to  place  in 
an  ancient  "model-T,"  and  dining  publicly,  between  speeches,  on  cheese  and 
crackers.  Dressed  like  the  popular  conception  of  a  sharecropper,  he  promised 
relief  to  the  unemployed  and  the  debt-ridden  farmers.  A  prolonged  drouth 
a  few  weeks  before  the  primary  election,  causing  millions  of  dollars  of  dam- 
age to  the  farmers  and  stock  men  of  the  state,  reacted  favorably  to  the  Murray 
candidacy.  In  the  regular  primary,  he  lacked  fewer  than  five  thousand  votes 
of  doubling  the  vote  given  his  nearest  opponent. 

Murray  soon  attracted  nationwide  attention  by  his  insistence  upon  the 
sovereignty  of  the  state;  by  his  use  of  the  National  Guard  as  police;  by  his 
verbal  blasts  at  Federal  District  Courts  which  he  called  inferior;  by  his  abol- 


34     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

ishment  of  toll  bridges,  including  those  spanning  Red  River,  and  by  his  cam- 
paign for  the  presidential  nomination.  However,  a  great  advance  in  state 
administration  was  made  by  the  creation  of  the  Oklahoma  Tax  Commission, 
a  body  which  has  varied  in  membership  and  personnel  but  nevertheless  has 
become  a  powerful  adjunct  to  efficient  government.  Murray  also  helped  to 
stabilize  the  oil  industry  when  he  ordered  the  shutdown  of  3,108  flowing 
wells  for  three  months  after  crude  oil  had  fallen  in  price  below  twenty  cents 
a  barrel.  Through  the  temporary  shutdown  of  oil  wells  and  the  proration  of 
the  greater  producing  areas  the  price  of  oil  was  forced  upward  to  nearly  one 
dollar  a  barrel.  From  these  early  steps  toward  proration  succeeding  adminis- 
trations formed  oil  control  compacts  with  all  other  states  of  the  mid-continent 
area.  Murray,  likewise,  tried  to  help  the  farmers  of  Oklahoma,  and  both  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  legislatures  provided  free  seed  for  applicants  and 
relief  to  the  needy.  However,  fearing  Federal  encroachment  of  power  and 
the  entrenchment  of  bureaucratic  control  over  social  and  economic  problems, 
he  failed  to  co-operate  with  the  national  administration  in  all  its  recovery 
and  relief  programs. 

His  successor,  Ernest  W.  Marland,  who  had  built  and  lost  a  great  fortune 
in  the  oil  industry,  was  elected  in  1934.  Though  comparatively  new  to  poli- 
tics, he  had  served  the  previous  two  years  in  Congress  as  a  supporter  of  admin- 
istration measures  and  took  his  election  as  a  mandate  for  the  fullest  possible 
co-operation  with  the  national  administration. 

Despite  his  lack  of  dominant  executive  leadership,  Marland  persuaded 
the  legislature  to  adopt  many  of  the  proposals  suggested  by  organized  citizen 
committees  who  had  made  studies  of  the  problems  and  functions  of  adminis- 
tration. Planning,  flood  control,  employment,  housing,  public  welfare,  new 
industries,  and  conservation  boards  were  created;  an  initiative  measure  pro- 
viding for  homestead  tax  exemption  and  another  that  provided  for  assistance 
to  the  needy,  aged,  and  dependent  were  passed.  Much  work  was  done  in  soil 
conservation  and  flood  control  by  the  construction  of  farm  ponds.  Work  on 
the  $22,500,000  Grand  River  Dam  was  begun  in  February,  1938.  Through 
Federal-state  co-operation,  state  parks  were  developed  by  the  CCC,  more 
National  Guard  armories  were  constructed  in  Oklahoma  than  in  the  rest  of 
the  United  States  by  WPA  assistance,  and  PWA  and  WPA  combined  in  the 
construction  of  new  courthouses,  schoolhouses,  swimming  pools,  stadiums, 
and  recreation  centers  throughout  the  state.  Highway  improvement  contin- 
ued at  a  rapid  rate.  Out  of  earnings  from  oil  wells  drilled  on  the  state  capitol 
grounds,  the  state's  modern  million-dollar  office  building  was  erected;  and 
Marland  provided  from  his  own  Ponca  City  home  much  of  the  shrubbery 
that  was  used  to  beautify  the  rather  arid  landscape  about  the  capitol. 


HISTORY  35 

In  the  primary  election  of  1938,  Leon  C.  Phillips,  a  former  speaker  of  the 
Oklahoma  House  of  Representatives,  William  S.  Key,  wealthy  oil  man  and 
former  state  administrator  of  WPA,  and  William  H.  Murray,  former  gover- 
nor, were  the  leading  Democratic  candidates.  Indications  pointed  to  a  Murray 
victory,  but  Phillips  polled  179,139  votes  to  Key's  176,034,  and  Murray's 
148,395. 

In  line  with  a  recently  established  tradition  that  elections  ought  to  be 
fun,  the  usual  number  of  "name"  candidates  was  offered  for  lesser  offices: 
Joe  E.  Brown  placed  third  in  the  primary  contest  for  Secretary  of  State; 
Oliver  Cromwell  did  nearly  as  well  as  candidate  for  Commissioner  of  Insur- 
ance; Mae  West,  an  Oklahoma  City  switchboard  operator,  polled  67,607  votes 
in  the  race  for  Commissioner  of  Charities  and  Corrections;  Sam  Houston  III 
placed  fifth  among  nine  candidates  for  president  of  the  State  Board  of  Agri- 
culture. Second  in  this  race  was  a  farmer.  Josh  Lee,  who  capitalized  on  the 
name  of  Oklahoma's  popular  junior  senator  and  polled  127,940  votes  to  the 
successful  incumbent's  129,580.  Huey  Long  placed  second,  and  Daniel  Boone 
third  for  Clerk  of  Supreme  Court  to  the  incumbent  Andy  Payne,  whose  polit- 
ical ads  in  1934  informed  prospective  voters  that  he  was  the  winner  of  a 
California  to  New  York  footrace,  C.  C.  Pyle's  Bunion  Derby!  These  hope- 
fuls had  been  encouraged  by  the  success  of  an  unknown  schoolteacher  in 
capitalizing  on  the  name  Will  Rogers  in  winning  an  election  for  Congress- 
man-at-large  in  1932  in  a  race  against  twenty-four  other  candidates.  In  the 
primary  of  1938,  the  political  Will  Rogers  had  to  face  opposition  from  an- 
other William  Rogers,  as  well  as  from  Brigham  Young.  Others  among  his 
opponents  have  been  Robert  E.Lee  (1934)  and  William  CuUen  Bryant  (1936). 

Inaugurated  in  January,  1939,  Governor  Phillips  urged  a  drastic  reduc- 
tion in  state  expenditure  and  abandoned  many  of  the  experiments  in  govern- 
ment begun  under  his  predecessor.  The  sixteenth  legislature  had  appropriated 
an  all-time  high  of  $61,484,154.12  for  the  biennium  1937-39.  This  was  re- 
duced by  the  seventeenth  legislature  for  the  period  1938-39  to  $47,657,465. 
Phillips  has  been  the  first  governor  of  the  state  to  dominate  the  legislature 
through  both  its  regular  sessions.  The  eighteenth  legislature  (1941)  continued 
his  retrenchment  program,  and  the  voters  who  have  since  statehood  seen 
more  than  two  hundred  initiative  measures  proposed  and  almost  one  hundred 
measures  referred  acted  favorably  on  his  proposals  for  a  budget  balancing 
amendment  to  the  constitution,  the  establishment  of  a  co-ordinating  board 
for  higher  education,  and  an  amendment  pledging  state  co-operation  with 
the  Federal  government  in  its  social  security  program.  The  Governor,  how- 
ever, resisted  the  Federal  Red  River  Denison  Dam  project  and  resented  the 
influence  exercised  by  Federal  agencies  within  the  state. 


36  OKLAHOMA:    THE    G  li  N  t  RA  L    BACKGROUND 

Generally,  the  state's  unemployment  problem  has  paralleled  the  national 
crisis.  According  to  an  estimate  by  the  Bureau  of  Business  Research  of  the 
University  of  Oklahoma,  there  was  an  increase  from  under  fourteen  thou- 
sand unemployed  in  the  autumn  of  1930  to  more  than  310,000  during  1932 
and  the  first  five  months  of  1933.  With  the  inauguration  of  various  New 
Deal  measures,  the  figure  dropped  sharply  to  177,000  in  1935.  In  1939, 
108,000  heads  of  families  were  registered  for  relief  employment,  with  only 
a  little  more  than  one-half  that  number  receiving  it. 

The  Panhandle,  northwestern,  and  southeastern  sections  of  the  state 
have  received  the  highest  per  capita  relief  expenditures.  The  first  two  named 
sections  have  shown  improvement  in  agricultural  and  employment  condi- 
tions, but  the  problem  in  the  southeastern  area  has  become  increasingly  severe. 
A  tenant-landlord  commission  was  established  during  the  administration  of 
Governor  E.  W.  Marland,  to  deal  with  the  crisis  in  the  cotton-growing  sec- 
tions; but  its  powers  were  so  limited  that  results  were  negligible,  and  it  was 
abolished  early  in  1939. 

Oklahoma's  industry  has  not  been  materially  accelerated  by  the  National 
Defense  Program,  but  the  selection  of  Tulsa  and  Oklahoma  City  as  sites  for 
defense  factories  and  airports,  the  establishment  of  schools  of  aeronautics  at 
several  points,  and  the  increased  activity  at  Fort  Sill  have  contributed  some- 
what to  the  betterment  of  business  conditions. 


^fl/t^ ^  ^ ^i\uj, ^  „ ^f\fij, jjO*: _, jjO/^ ^ , jjO/t^ ^ , ^<\/fz ^ , E^O/t* 


The  Setting 


rj^^3     '        Ti/^i^     '        Ti/[j^     '  ■      Tl/^j^  Tii)^     '        rj/^^     '        J^o^*  i.4'(|i» 


WHITE     :    WPA 

ELDON  VALLEY,  NEAR  TAHLEQUAH 

I  \  1  Itl.TT   M.   SWAN- 


GLASS  MOUNTAIN,  NEAR  FAIRVIEW 


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DIVISION    or    STATl.    PARKS      I 


QUARTZ  MOUNTAIN  STATE  PARK,  NEAR  MANGUM 


SAND  DUNES,  NEAR  WAYNOKA 

1  \  I  RITT    M.    SWAN 


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LAKE  BUFORD,  WICHITA  MOUNTAINS  WILDLIFE  REFUGE 

NATURAL  BRIDGE  AT  CEDAR  CANYON  PARK,  NEAR  FREEDOM 


WHITE     : 

WPA 

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HE     MOUNTAIN,  MCCURTAIN  COUNTY 


LAKE  CLAYTON,  PUSHMATAHA  COUNTY 

DIVISION    OF    STATE    PARKS 


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D1\'ISI0N   OI    ST\TE    PARKS 

DRIVE  TO  OSAGE  HILLS  STATE  PARK,  NEAR  PAVVHUSKA 

"tombstone"  WEATHERING  OF  TILTED  ROCK  STRATA 

ARBUCKLE  MOUNTAINS 

OKLAHOMA  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 


«  ♦         if 


DIVISION    ol     SI  All     1^\KK^ 


BUFFALO  HERD  IN  WICHITA  MOUNTAINS  WILDLIFE  REFUGE 


BLACK  MESA  VALLEY,  NEAR  KENTON 

WHITE     :    WPA 


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LEE    :    FSA 

ARKANSAS  RIVER  VALLEY,  MUSKOGEE  COUNTY 


WHITE     :    WPA 


WILDCAT  CURVE,  NORTH  OF  GUTHRIE 


i0^mm. 


DIVISION   OF  STATE  PARKS 

KIAMICHI  MOUNTAINS,  SOUTHEASTERN  OKLAHOMA 

TURNER  FALLS,  ARBUCKLE  MOUNTAINS 


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DIVISION    OF    STATE    PARKS 


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Industry  and  Labor 


LLAHOMA  is  not  a  one-industry  state,  but  the  business  of  oil  produc- 
tion, handling,  and  refining  overshadows  all  other  industries.  Only 
the  output  of  the  state's  179,687  farms — crops,  livestock,  and  live- 
stock products — comes  measurably  near  to  approaching  oil  in  value;  and 
where  the  farmers'  income  is  some  $160,000,000  a  year,  the  normal  yearly 
value  of  crude  oil  is  about  $180,000,000 — and  twice  that  amount  when  turned 
into  gasoline  and  other  salable  by-products. 

Potentially,  however,  the  state  is  far  from  being  dependent  on  oil  for  its 
reputation  as  a  treasure  house  of  natural  resources.  Statements  which  seem  to 
be  extravagant  concerning  its  little-exploited  minerals  are  nevertheless  justi- 
fied by  reconnaissance.  Within  its  borders  are,  literally,  mountains  of  building 
stone — granite,  marble,  limestone,  sandstone;  enormous  deposits  of  brick 
clay,  asphalt,  glass  sand,  tripoli,  volcanic  ash,  gravel;  and,  to  quote  an  Okla- 
homa Geological  Survey  pamphlet,  "enough  limestone  and  clay  ...  to  make 
Portland  cement  to  supply  the  United  States  for  ten  thousand  years." 

In  manufacturing,  only  a  start  has  been  made,  but  it  is  expected  that 
when — probably  in  1941 — the  Grand  River  lake  is  filled  and  ready  to  pro- 
duce its  rated  two  hundred  million  kilowatt  hours  of  cheap  electric  energy 
annually,  new  industries  will  be  attracted  to  the  region;  and  as  other  planned 
flood  control  and  power  projects  are  completed  on  the  Red  River  and  else- 
where additional  impetus  will  be  given  to  factory  expansion. 

Already,  important  glass-making  plants  are  operating  at  Okmulgee, 
Henryetta,  Sand  Springs,  Sapulpa,  Black  well,  and  Poteau;  a  subsidiary  of  one 
of  the  big  nationally  known  steel  companies  and  a  cotton  mill  are  at  Sand 
Springs;  and  in  the  Tulsa  area  are  a  number  of  plants  making  oil-field  equip- 
ment. Such  regional  industries  as  grain  elevators,  flour  mills,  alfalfa  mills, 
creameries,  cotton  ginning  and  compress  plants,  cottonseed  mills,  brick  and 
tile,  lime  and  rock-wool  plants,  stockyards  and  meat  packing  plants  are  located 
at  strategic  points. 

Historically,  industry  had  its  birth  in  the  Oklahoma  area  when  the  Chou- 

37 


38     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

teaus  began  making  salt  at  their  trading  post  at  Salina  (see  Tour  8)  about 
1819.  In  a  small  way,  too,  lumbering  had  its  beginning  in  the  period  during 
which  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  settled  in  Indian  Territory,  roughly  from 
1829  to  1840,  and  building  materials  were  required;  and  some  coal  had  been 
stripped  (mined  after  the  removal  of  the  rock  overburden)  from  surface  out- 
croppings.  But,  in  effect, the  natural  resources  of  Oklahoma,  including  lumber- 
ing and  mining,  had  hardly  been  touched  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  Civil  War. 

Mining  in  Oklahoma  was  not  commercially  important  until  after  the 
railroads  came  in  1872,  when  J.  J.  McAlester,  founder  of  the  city  which  bears 
his  name,  began  to  develop  a  four-foot  vein  of  coal  in  the  Choctaw  Nation. 
In  the  same  year,  in  the  forests  of  the  Ouachitas,  an  old  millman  put  up  a 
sawmill  and  produced  rough  "boxing-boards."  The  market  for  this  lumber, 
which  he  called  "boxum,"  was  good,  and  others  began  to  operate  in  the  same 
field  with  small  "groundhog"  mills  that  could  easily  be  moved  from  place  to 
place.  Lead  and  zinc  mining,  which  had  to  wait  for  both  fuel  and  transporta- 
tion, started  in  Ottawa  County  in  1890.  With  the  establishment  of  towns  there 
developed  a  need  for  cement  and  building  stone,  and  the  trades  associated 
with  these  products  began  to  develop. 

Long  before  the  first  white  oil  man  appeared,  Indians  in  the  Kansas- 
Oklahoma  area  had  discovered  seepage  oil.  Drilling  began  in  Kansas  in  1881, 
and  the  first  practical  discovery  was  made  there  a  year  later.  In  1884,  prospec- 
tors extended  their  "wildcatting" — that  is,  drilling  in  unproved  territory — 
into  the  region  that  is  now  Oklahoma.  An  oil  lease  was  made  by  the  Cherokee 
Nation  to  Edward  Byrd  in  1886;  and  three  years  later  the  first  shallow  well — 
thirty-six  feet  deep — was  completed  near  Chelsea  (see  Tour  1).  In  1891, 
eleven  wells  in  this  region  produced  thirty  barrels  of  crude  for  market. 

In  1897,  the  Cudahy  Oil  Company,  founded  by  Eugene  Cudahy,  of  Kan- 
sas City,  completed  a  well  in  what  is  today  the  city  park  of  Bartlesville  which 
is  still  producing. 

The  Curtis  Act  of  June  28,  1898,  providing  for  individual  instead  of 
collective  ownership  of  Indian  lands,  made  it  impossible  to  obtain  leases  until 
the  membership  roll  of  the  Indian  nations  could  be  completed  and  the  land 
allotted.  Thus,  although  the  Red  Fork-Tulsa  field  was  opened  in  1901,  fur- 
nishing the  first  important  commercial  production  of  oil  in  Oklahoma,  there 
was  no  major  activity  until  1904,  after  the  tribal  lands  had  been  divided.  In 
that  year,  more  than  one  hundred  wells  were  drilled  in  the  Bartlesville,  AUu- 
we,  Coody's  Bluff,  and  Cleveland  fields.  Nearly  every  year  since  has  seen  the 
opening  of  new  fields  or  new  pools. 

In  the  Glenn  Pool,  twelve  miles  south  of  Tulsa,  opened  in  1905,  the  third 
well  drilled  had  a  daily  production  of  two  thousand  barrels  and  attracted 


INDUSTRY    AND    LABOR  39 

national  attention  to  the  oil  resources  of  Oklahoma.  By  June,  1907,  this  field 
had  reached  a  peak  of  117,000  barrels  a  day.  In  1906-10  new  fields  were 
opened  in  Okmulgee  and  Osage  counties;  and  in  1912  the  Gushing  field  was 
brought  in,  attaining  a  gross  production  in  1915  of  305,000  barrels  a  day. 
Several  smaller  pools  were  also  proved  during  this  period. 

Ruthless  exploitation,  unavoidable  in  the  development  of  a  natural  re- 
source of  such  proportions,  marked  the  beginnings  of  the  oil  industry  in 
Oklahoma,  as  an  early  court  decision  suggests: 

.  .  .  every  landowner  or  his  lessee  may  locate  his  wells  wherever  he  pleases,  regardless 
of  the  interest  of  others.  He  may  distribute  them  over  the  whole  farm,  or  locate  them 
only  on  one  part  of  it.  He  may  crowd  the  adjoining  farms  so  as  to  enable  him  to  draw 
the  oil  and  gas  from  them.  What  then  can  the  neighbor  do?  ...  Nothing;  only  go 
and  do  likewise. 

This  was  common  law,  for  at  that  time  no  specific  oil  legislation  had 
been  enacted.  No  attempt  was  made  at  conservation;  billions  of  cubic  feet  of 
natural  gas  and  millions  of  barrels  of  oil  were  wasted,  and  the  life  of  every 
important  field  appreciably  shortened  by  this  profligacy. 

Much  waste  was  due  to  inadequate  pipe-line  facilities;  and  though  trans- 
portation of  oil  is  still  a  problem  whenever  a  new  and  large  field  is  opened,  the 
continuous  building  of  trunk  pipe  lines  has  largely  resolved  the  difficulty 
(see  Transportation). 

During  the  first  eighteen  years  of  the  oil  industry  in  Oklahoma,  little  use 
was  made  of  scientific  methods  in  prospecting.  Discovery  followed  discovery, 
despite  the  crude  methods  of  the  day.  No  co-ordination  of  activities  of  differ- 
ent producers  existed,  and  the  advancement  of  the  industry  depended  more 
upon  luck  and  persistence  than  planned  activity.  Superstition  and  ignorance 
played  a  considerable  part  in  the  exploration  for  oil,  and  there  are  still  old- 
timers  who  ridicule  modern  scientific  methods.  "Doodlebugs" — sometimes 
the  tools  of  confidence  men,  but  more  often  the  brain  children  of  well-mean- 
ing cranks — appeared  in  every  field. 

In  territory  where  no  wells  have  been  drilled,  and  in  certain  producing 
fields,  it  is  still  true  that  "the  only  way  to  find  oil  is  to  drill  for  it."  Modern 
geological  methods  have,  however,  greatly  reduced  the  expense  of  opening 
new  fields.  This  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  fact  that,  as  early  as  1926,  of  thirty- 
one  new  fields  opened  during  the  year,  twenty-one,  or  nearly  68  per  cent,  were 
so  located.  Fear  of  an  oil  famine  during  and  immediately  after  the  World 
War  brought  in  the  scientific  era  in  the  oil  industry.  Aided  by  oil  companies, 
the  schools  of  Geology  and  Petroleum  Engineering  of  the  University  of  Okla- 
homa have  assumed  leadership  in  the  fields  of  petroleum  geology  and  engi- 


40  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

neering.  The  College  of  Petroleum  Engineering  of  the  University  of  Tulsa, 
likewise,  attracts  students  from  all  over  the  nation. 

Tools  first  used  were  merely  elaborations  of  the  spring-pole  machinery 
employed  in  drilling  water  wells.  Underreamers,  which  permit  the  casing  to 
follow  the  drill  bit  down  the  well,  thus  preventing  cave-ins,  were  unknown; 
as  were  "fishing  tools"  for  retrieving  drill  bits  lost  in  the  well.  To  a  degree,  it 
was  up  to  the  driller  to  create  the  tools  he  needed  as  an  emergency  arose;  and 
drilling  was  a  long  and  arduous  process. 

Two  types  of  drilling  machines  are  used — cable  tools  and  rotary  rigs. 
Cable  tools  were  used  in  drilling  the  first  wells  in  Oklahoma  and  were  so 
much  more  common  than  rotaries,  for  a  long  time,  that  they  were  called 
"standard."  In  cable-tool  drilling,  the  bit  is  lifted  and  dropped,  literally 
pounding  a  hole  through  the  soil  and  rock.  Cable  tools  are  not  now  used  to 
any  great  extent,  though  they  are  still  preferred  where  there  is  a  scarcity  of 
water  and  where — when  the  depth  of  a  producing  sand  or  lime  is  unknown 
— there  is  danger  of  drilling  through  oil  pools  and  into  salt  water. 

Most  drilling  is  done  by  the  rotary  method.  A  cutting  tool  is  attached  to 
a  length  of  pipe,  and  power  to  rotate  the  pipe  is  applied  at  the  surface.  New 
lengths  of  pipe  are  added  as  the  well  deepens.  When  it  is  necessary  to  change 
the  cutting  tool,  the  "string"  of  pipe  is  drawn  out  of  the  well,  dismantled  joint 
by  joint  as  it  is  brought  up,  and  then  reassembled  as  it  is  replaced  in  the  hole. 

Both  the  rotary  and  the  cable-tool  methods  of  drilling  have  their  distinct 
advantages  and  disadvantages.  With  the  former,  the  weight  on  the  bit  becomes 
greater  as  the  hole  deepens  and  thus  drilling  proceeds  more  rapidly  as  the 
work  progresses.  In  cable-tool  drilling  there  is  no  weight  on  the  tools;  the  cable 
by  which  they  are  raised  and  dropped  becomes  less  manageable  as  the  hole 
deepens,  and  at  a  depth  below  four  thousand  feet  it  is  an  expert  driller,  indeed, 
who  can  give  the  bit  the  necessary  motion  to  "make  hole."  There  is  still  an- 
other side  to  the  story,  however.  Since  rotary  rigs  depend  on  weight  for  drill- 
ing efficiency,  they  can  make  little  progress  where  extremely  hard  formations 
are  encountered  close  to  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Generally,  a  small  cable-tool 
machine  called  a  "spudder"  is  used  to  start  the  hole  for  a  rotary  so  that  drilling 
can  begin  with  several  joints  of  pipe.  In  fields  where  formations  change  fre- 
quently from  soft  to  hard,  combination  rotary-cable-tool  drilling  machines 
are  used. 

Many  erroneous  ideas  about  the  location  of  the  earth's  petroleum  stores 
have  been  prevalent.  Prospectuses  of  certain  oil  companies  have  referred  to 
"lakes  and  rivers  of  oil,"  which  have  no  existence  outside  the  writer's  imagina- 
tion. Oil  is  contained  in  tiny  openings  between  grains  of  sand,  in  the  pores 
and  crevices  of  a  crystalline  limestone,  or,  as  in  the  largest  wells,  in  the  com- 


INDUSTRY   AND    LABOR  41 

paratively  small  openings  of  a  very  porous  rock.  It  is  generally  agreed  that 
oil  has  migrated  to  the  places  where  it  is  now  found.  Lighter  than  the  water 
with  which  the  rock  formations  are  saturated,  oil  and  gas  have  a  tendency 
to  rise  until  stopped  by  a  rock.  An  oil  pool,  then,  lies  under  a  convex  stratum 
of  impermeable  rock  known  as  an  anticline  and  has  the  shape  of  an  inverted 
saucer.  Natural  gas  is  always  present  with  petroleum,  separated  or  in  solu- 
tion. The  normal  pattern  of  an  oil  pool  is  gas  just  below  the  cap  rock,  then 
oil,  then  water. 

Oklahoma's  prominence  in  the  oil  industry  has  been  due  to  the  discovery 
of  a  succession  of  huge  pools  as  the  result  of  persistent  "wildcatting."  These 
pools  were  generally  opened  by  individuals;  the  large  corporations  have 
bought  in  later.  This  is  in  contrast  to  California  usage,  where  initial  develop- 
ment has  been  a  big-company  activity. 

While  the  belief  that  a  major  part  of  Oklahoma's  population  has  been 
made  wealthy  by  oil  has  no  foundation,  the  Indians  and  farmers  of  certain 
localities  have  become  enriched  by  the  discovery  of  petroleum  on  their  lands. 
The  Osage  Indians,  the  richest  race  of  people  per  capita  in  the  world,  have  re- 
ceived as  high  as  $1,600,000  for  a  single  lease.  In  June,  1921,  fourteen  Osage 
leases  brought  $3,256,000,  while  at  the  December  sale  in  the  same  year  a 
group  of  eighteen  leases  sold  for  $6,258,000.  In  addition  to  the  immense 
prices  paid  as  bonuses  for  the  right  to  drill,  the  Osages  receive  a  royalty  of 
one-sixth  of  the  oil  on  leases  producing  less  than  one  hundred  barrels  a  day, 
and  one-fifth  on  wells  yielding  more  than  one  hundred  barrels  a  day.  The 
usual  royalty  payment  is  one-eighth  of  production. 

Gushers  in  the  Seminole  field  broke  the  market  for  crude  oil  in  1927; 
and  the  first  efforts  at  production  control  in  Oklahoma  were  made  when  the 
oil  operators  signed  voluntary  agreements  to  limit  production.  The  agree- 
ments were  reasonably  effective  until  1931.  In  that  year,  however,  the  opening 
of  the  East  Texas  oil  fields  in  the  midst  of  the  general  financial  depression 
drove  the  price  of  Oklahoma  crude  down  from  $1.57  a  barrel  to  as  low  as 
ten  cents,  and  the  state,  with  its  gross-production  tax  alarmingly  reduced  by 
the  drop,  assumed  control.  On  August  5,  1931,  Governor  William  H.  Murray 
ordered  3,106  wells  in  twenty-seven  Oklahoma  fields  shut  down.  An  oil  um- 
pire was  appointed,  and  proration  was  enforced  by  the  National  Guard. 
Within  two  months,  offers  from  the  major  refiners  had  gone  as  high  as  seventy 
cents  a  barrel,  and  on  October  3  the  wells  were  allowed  to  run  part  of  their  oil. 

With  sharp  limitations  on  production,  there  developed  a  widespread 
traffic  in  "hot  oil,"  or  oil  produced  in  excess  of  a  well's  quota  and  smuggled 
to  market  without  paying  the  state  tax.  For  a  time,  this  traffic  was  as  difficult 
to  eradicate  as  the  bootlegging  of  alcoholic  liquor. 


42    OKLAHOMA:  the  general  background 

Since  the  drilling  of  the  Chelsea  well,  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
producing  oil  wells  have  been  sunk  in  Oklahoma.  Total  production  has  been 
approximately  three  billion  barrels,  valued  at  more  than  four  billion  dollars. 
Allowable  production  under  proration  now  averages  about  four  hundred 
thousand  barrels  daily.  In  many  years  Oklahoma  has  headed  the  list  of  oil 
producing  states,  and  in  still  more  years — because  of  the  high  quality  of  the 
oil — the  sum  paid  for  Oklahoma  crude  has  been  greater  than  the  oil  revenue 
of  any  other  state.  Proration  has  reasonably  stabilized  the  price,  and  the  tre- 
mendous waste  of  past  years  has  been  greatly  reduced;  and  through  improved 
drilling  methods  and  equipment,  fire  hazards  have  been  cut  to  a  minimum. 

No  one  can  do  more  than  estimate  the  extent  of  Oklahoma's  unexplored 
oil  resources.  At  various  times  it  has  been  said  that  they  would  be  exhausted 
in  a  few  years,  and  under  the  old  methods  of  production  these  estimates  might 
have  proved  correct.  However,  with  increasing  attention  to  the  conservation 
of  this  natural  resource  and  with  newly  developed  methods  of  reclaiming  oil 
from  old  fields,  the  industry  will  continue  to  be  a  major  factor  in  the  economic 
life  of  Oklahoma  for  decades  to  come. 

When  J.  J.  McAlester  began  mining  coal  in  the  Choctaw  Nation  in  1872, 
the  railroads  were  burning  wood  and  he  had  little  diflficulty  in  selling  his  coal. 
Demand  exceeded  supply;  and  in  1875  the  Osage  Coal  and  Mining  Company 
began  large-scale  developments  from  deeper  veins,  paying  a  small  royalty  to 
the  national  agent  of  the  Choctaws.  Individual  Indian  citizens  protested  this 
payment  and  won  their  case  in  the  courts.  A  compromise  resulted  and  royal- 
ties were  thereafter  divided  between  the  tribal  treasury  and  individual  citizens. 

In  1899,  when  the  Dawes  Commission  made  the  Choctaw-Chickasaw 
allotments,  approximately  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  coal  land  were  set 
apart  as  communal  tribal  property.  The  area  was  offered  for  sale  in  1906,  but 
all  bids  were  rejected;  then  the  land  was  leased  to  mine  operators  who  paid 
the  Indians  a  royalty  of  eight  cents  per  ton. 

Annual  coal  output  increased  steadily  from  1880  until  1903,  then  slumped 
until  1910,  when  more  than  2,500,000  tons  were  mined.  From  1910  to  1920 
production  again  took  an  upward  trend,  attaining  a  figure  of  4,848,288  tons 
in  1920,  the  peak  year  of  the  industry,  and  employing  some  8,500  workers. 

Because  of  the  thinness  of  the  veins  and  the  sharp  tilting  of  the  coal  beds, 
the  cost  of  mining  coal  in  Oklahoma  has  always  been  relatively  high.  Follow- 
ing the  serious  strikes  of  1910  and  1919,  many  mines  closed  and  others  were 
abandoned;  and  neighboring  coal-producing  states,  with  fewer  labor  disputes 
and  easier  mining,  made  serious  inroads  on  the  Oklahoma  market.  The  World 
War  boomed  almost  every  industry,  and  the  unhealthy  condition  of  coal 
mining  was  not  apparent  until  after  1920.  Then,  through  the  rapid  develop- 


INDUSTRY    AND    LABOR  43 

ment  of  the  enormous  oil  and  gas  resources  of  the  state,  which  provided  fuel 
at  only  a  fraction  of  the  cost  of  coal,  coal  mining  started  on  a  decline  from 
which  it  has  only  slightly  recovered.  The  smokeless  fuel  ordinance  of  St. 
Louis,  Missouri,  however,  and  the  favorable  freight  rates  that  were  obtained 
for  shipping  eastern  Oklahoma  and  western  Arkansas  low  volatile  coal  has 
stimulated  production  in  LeFlore  County. 

From  the  peak,  coal  production  declined  steadily  to  a  low  of  986,904  tons 
in  1933.  Since  then,  however,  output  has  increased,  and  amounted  to  1,352,495 
tons  in  1938.  Broken  Arrow  (see  Tour  6)  and  Catoosa  (see  Tour  1),  where 
strip  mining  is  practiced,  are  now  (1941)  the  largest  producers.  In  1933, 
Oklahoma  miners  worked  only  93  days;  in  1939,  120  days.  The  working  day 
was  shortened  from  eight  to  seven  hours  in  1934.  Wages  rose  from  the  low 
of  $2.50  a  day  in  1932-33  to  $4.35  a  day  in  1939. 

Coal  reserves  in  Oklahoma  have  been  estimated  by  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  at  nearly  fifty-five  billion  tons,  and  the  workable  coal  area 
covers  approximately  ten  thousand  square  miles.  The  state's  tremendous  store 
of  coal  will  probably  be  seriously  depleted  only  when  the  supply  of  cheaper 
gas  and  oil  products  is  exhausted. 

Zinc  and  lead  mining  began  in  Ottawa  County  in  1890,  but  Oklahoma 
lagged  behind  other  states  producing  these  minerals  for  almost  twenty-five 
years.  Production  began  to  climb  in  1907  with  the  opening  of  the  Miami 
mines;  yet  in  1914,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  first  World  War,  Missouri  was  still 
producing  90  per  cent  of  the  zinc  of  the  Tri-State  Mining  District,  embracing 
adjacent  areas  in  Oklahoma,  Kansas,  and  Missouri,  which  yields  more  than 
half  of  the  zinc  mined  in  the  United  States. 

The  tremendous  rise  in  zinc  prices  occasioned  by  the  war  led  to  an  in- 
crease in  prospecting,  and  new  deposits  were  uncovered  in  Oklahoma.  The 
period  which  followed  was  like  the  boom  era  in  a  newly  discovered  oil  field. 
The  older  and  less  profitable  mines  in  Missouri  were  abandoned  for  these 
richer  and  more  easily  mined  deposits.  Miners  swarmed  into  the  state.  By 
1920,  there  were  hundreds  of  mines  and  mills,  and  a  number  of  new  towns, 
where  before  there  had  been  nothing  but  open  prairies. 

Lead  is  produced  as  a  secondary  product  of  the  zinc  industry.  It  is  found 
in  small  pockets,  as  a  rule,  although  rich  pockets  of  the  ore  are  occasionally 
encountered.  Lead  production  rises  and  falls  with  zinc  production,  as  does 
its  price. 

Oklahoma's  asphalt  reserves,  concentrated  in  the  southern  portion  of  the 
state,  are  greater  than  those  of  any  other  state  in  the  Union.  Asphalt  has  been 
mined  since  1903,  but  the  industry  has  attained  no  great  importance  since 


44  OKLAHOMA:    THli    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

petroleum  asphalt  is  much  cheaper  than  the  natural  product  and  comprises 
more  than  90  per  cent  of  the  output  used  in  the  state. 

Oklahoma's  extensive  gypsum  and  clay  deposits  have  been  exploited 
hardly  at  all.  Limestone,  granite,  and  other  building  stones  are  found  in  large 
quantities  in  central,  southern,  and  western  Oklahoma,  and  production  has 
increased  steadily  under  the  impetus  of  government  building  projects.  Today 
the  state  ranks  eighteenth  in  cut-stone  production.  Two  big  plants  in  Okla- 
homa manufacture  Portland  cement;  the  larger  with  a  daily  capacity  of  six 
thousand  barrels,  is  at  Ada;  the  other  is  at  Dewey.  In  many  towns  there  are 
small  plants  for  making  cement  products  for  sale  locally.  There  also  are  a  few 
factories  for  making  cement  pipe;  the  larger  plants  of  this  type  are  at  Okla- 
homa City  and  Tulsa. 

Salt  is  no  longer  mined  in  Oklahoma,  and  the  small  amount  produced 
is  recovered  through  a  process  of  evaporation  from  salt  springs  or  salt-water 
wells. 

Oklahoma  produces  about  one-third  of  the  total  natural  gasoline  output 
of  the  United  States.  This  industry  had  its  beginning  in  1911  and  reached  its 
peak  year  in  1928,  with  the  production  of  approximately  620  million  gallons 
valued  at  more  than  forty-three  million  dollars.  Since  1936  the  annual  pro- 
duction has  been  approximately  419  million  gallons,  but  owing  to  low  prices 
the  yearly  cash  return  has  been  only  about  one-third  of  the  1928  figure.  Some 
two  hundred  natural  gasoline  plants  are  in  operation  throughout  the  oil  and 
gas  fields  of  the  state.  Natural  gasoline  is  obtained  from  the  gas  accompany- 
ing the  flow  of  crude  oil  from  the  wells,  and  is  separated  from  the  gas  but 
not  refined.  It  is  blended  with  most  motor  fuels  and  because  of  its  lightness 
and  high  volatility  is  especially  adapted  to  aviation  needs.  A  by-product  of 
natural  gasoline  plants  is  "liquid  gas" — gas  compressed  in  cylinders  in  liquid 
form;  when  released  the  liquid  vaporizes,  furnishing  a  fuel  similar  to  natural 
gas. 

The  manufacture  of  carbon  black  is  one  of  the  state's  newer  industries, 
and  there  are  three  plants  for  making  this  product  in  Oklahoma.  Derived 
from  natural  gas,  carbon  black  is  used  in  manufacturing  rubber  and  as  a 
pigment  in  making  inks  and  paints. 

Petroleum  refining  is  the  principal  manufacturing  industry  in  Okla- 
homa, both  in  the  number  of  wage  earners  and  in  the  value  of  the  finished 
products.  Although  there  were  small  "skimming  plants"  before  that  time, 
the  first  complete  refinery  was  built  about  1907  in  West  Tulsa.  By  1917,  so 
rapidly  had  the  industry  grown,  there  were  sixty-six  refineries  in  the  state 
with  an  annual  output  worth  approximately  150  million  dollars.  Since  1919 
the  trend  has  been  toward  fewer  but  larger  and  more  complete  plants;  and 


INDUSTRY    AND    LABOR  45 

today,  the  bulk  of  the  state's  crude  oil  is  handled  by  forty  refineries  in  ten 
cities.  Some  of  these  plants  distill  gasoline,  kerosene,  and  fuel  oils;  some  turn 
out  lubricating  oils;  and  a  few  manufacture  a  complete  line  of  oil  products — 
motor  fuels  and  lubricating  oils,  paraffin  wax,  petroleum,  coke,  asphalt, 
naphtha,  and  others.  The  largest  refineries  in  the  state  are  at  Tulsa  and  Ponca 
City;  one  plant,  at  Ponca  City,  is  capable  of  handling  more  than  fifty  thousand 
barrels  of  crude  daily  and  is  said  to  be  the  largest  refinery  in  the  world.  Okla- 
homa's position  in  the  refining  industry  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  more 
than  three-fourths  of  the  gasoline  produced  in  the  state  is  exported. 

Large-scale  lumber  production  began  about  1910;  and  ruthless  exploita- 
tion of  the  timber  belt  followed.  Sawmills  were  small  at  first,  but  by  1924, 
output  of  the  five  largest  was  ninety  million  board  feet  per  year;  and  one 
hundred  small  mills  sawed  eighty  million  board  feet.  In  1925,  the  State  For- 
estry Department  was  set  up  and  with  the  Federal  government  began  forest 
conservation  work.  Since  then,  more  than  1,300,000  acres  have  been  placed 
under  fire  protection,  and  1,630,000  acres  in  a  restocking  area.  Also,  the 
Federal  government  has  established  the  Washita  National  Forest  of  140,000 
acres  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  state,  and  the  Wichita  Wildlife  Refuge 
in  the  southwestern  part. 

At  peak  production,  about  1928,  there  were  seventy-five  sawmills  operat- 
ing in  the  state,  turning  out  lumber  (mostly  yellow  pine)  at  the  rate  of  157 
million  board  feet  a  year.  Narrow-gauge  railroads  carried  the  timber  to  the 
large  stationary  mills,  while  small,  portable  mills  followed  the  loggers.  A 
considerable  number  of  "free  lance"  forest  workers  were  engaged  in  cutting 
railway  ties  and  fence  posts.  On  a  much  reduced  scale,  the  picture  is  the 
same  today  (1941). 

Only  factories  required  for  the  preparation  of  raw  materials  for  shipment, 
such  as  meat  packing  and  cotton  processing  plants,  and  oil  refining  obtained 
an  early  foothold  in  Oklahoma;  and  the  practice  of  exporting  raw  commodi- 
ties and  importing  finished  products  has  prevailed. 

Saturation  of  the  oil  and  agricultural  markets  gave  some  impetus  to 
general  manufacturing,  as  did  the  supply  of  cheap  labor  which  was  made 
available  by  the  depression;  but,  generally,  the  manufacturing  structure  of 
the  state  today  differs  only  in  size  from  that  of  the  1920's. 

LABOR 

Labor  organization  began  in  1882,  when  two  coal  miners  from  Illinois  — 
Dill  Carroll  and  Frank  Murphy — established  in  the  McAlester  area  the  first 
union  in  Indian  Territory,  a  local  assembly  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.  Unioni- 
zation was  slow  and  difficult,  owing  mainly  to  distrust  by  mine  owners,  but 


46     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

by  1894  there  were  four  local  assemblies  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  with  an 
aggregate  membership  of  about  fifteen  hundred.  Three  of  the  locals  were 
mixed  assemblies,  while  the  fourth  was  made  up  exclusively  of  miners. 

As  a  rule  wages  in  the  Oklahoma  coal  mines  were  higher  than  in  the 
East,  and  employment  was  stable,  but  the  advantage  of  regular  work  was 
olTset  by  the  hazards  under  which  the  labor  was  performed,  and  the  imposi- 
tions of  the  company-town  system.  Indian  Territory  mines  were  rated  the 
most  dangerous  in  the  world — fatal  explosions  were  frequent  occurrences; 
often  the  miners  worked  in  water  up  to  their  knees;  almost  all  the  mines 
were  badly  ventilated. 

Soon  after  union  organization  started,  the  Knights  of  Labor  demanded 
and  received  a  reduction  in  working  hours  and  an  increase  in  wages.  But  the 
real  test  of  unionism  came  in  1894,  when  the  first  major  strike  was  called. 
Early  in  March  the  mine  owners,  claiming  they  had  lost  some  of  their  mar- 
kets, announced  a  25  per  cent  wage  reduction,  to  a  scale  of  something  less  than 
two  dollars  a  day.  The  miners  refused  to  accept  the  cut,  and  one  by  one  various 
mines  were  struck. 

Almost  immediately  the  tribal  government  of  the  Choctaw  Nation, 
where  practically  all  the  mines  were  located,  entered  the  struggle.  With  the 
mines  closed,  the  nation  was  losing  its  revenues  from  royalties  and  from  the 
fees  of  one  dollar  a  month  (which  the  operators  had  been  paying)  required 
of  miners  for  working  in  the  Indian  Territory.  At  the  instance  of  Wilson  N. 
Jones,  principal  chief  of  the  Choctaws,  D.  M.  Wisdom,  United  States  Indian 
Agent  for  the  territory,  requested  and  received  aid  from  Federal  troops  to 
deport  striking  miners. 

Accompanied  by  Indian  police  to  point  out  the  strikers  ("intruders"), 
whose  permits  to  remain  in  the  nation  no  longer  were  being  paid,  the  soldiers 
rounded  up  several  hundred  strikers  and  their  families,  loaded  them  into 
boxcars,  and  deported  them  to  Arkansas. 

Many  of  the  miners  caught  the  first  train  back  to  Indian  Territory; 
others  (foreigners)  lodged  protests  with  the  consuls  of  the  various  nations  of 
which  they  were  citizens.  Within  a  few  months  practically  all  were  back  in 
the  territory,  and  no  further  effort  was  made  to  deport  them.  On  July  31,  a 
settlement  between  the  miners  and  the  operators  was  reached,  providing  for 
a  20  per  cent  reduction  in  wages,  or  only  5  per  cent  less  than  the  proposed 
reduction  which  had  led  to  the  strike,  but  giving  the  miners  concessions  in 
the  matters  of  house  rent,  shooting  powder,  and  fuel. 

By  1898,  the  Knights  of  Labor  organization  was  practically  nonexistent 
in  Oklahoma,  and  a  new  union,  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  domi- 
nated the  coal  fields.  Late  in  the  winter  of  1898  the  UMWA  began  calling 


INDUSTRY    AND    LABOR  47 

Strikes  in  various  mine  localities  for  better  working  conditions  and  wages, 
and  within  a  year  virtually  every  mine  was  closed  or  operating  on  a  curtailed 
schedule.  The  strike  dragged  on  for  four  years,  until  August  1,  1903,  when 
the  operators  capitulated.  Among  other  things,  the  miners  were  granted  rec- 
ognition of  the  union,  an  eight-hour  day,  payment  of  wages  twice  a  month, 
and  most  important  of  all,  perhaps,  to  the  union  the  checkoff  (deduction  of 
union  dues  from  the  miners'  wages  by  employers). 

Carpenters,  painters,  plasterers,  and  hod  carriers  began  active  organiza- 
tion during  the  late  1890's,  as  did  the  typographical  workers  and  the  building 
trades  workers.  By  1903  almost  every  trade  carried  on  in  Oklahoma  was  rep- 
resented by  a  union.  Among  the  largest  of  these  were  the  Railroad  Brother- 
hoods. 

The  first  successful  attempt  to  unite  all  labor  unions  in  the  two  territories 
into  a  coherent  working  body  came  in  1903,  when  J.  Harvey  Lynch,  a  plas- 
terer from  Lawton,  issued  a  call  for  a  convention  which  resulted  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  Twin-Territorial  Federation  of  Labor.  Known  as  the  Oklahoma 
State  Federation  of  Labor  since  1906,  it  was  organized — largely  by  the  coal 
miners — at  Lawton  on  March  28,  1903,  and  received  its  charter  from  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  on  February  15,  1904.  It  claimed  to  represent 
approximately  twelve  thousand  organized  workers  in  the  two  territories. 

In  1906,  with  statehood  imminent,  there  was  need  for  concerted  action 
on  the  part  of  labor,  and  a  convention  of  the  Twin-Territorial  Federation 
opened  at  Shawnee  on  August  20.  At  the  same  time  the  federation  was  in 
session,  two  other  organizations — the  State  Farmers  Union  (see  Agricul- 
ture) and  the  Railroad  Brotherhoods — were  holding  their  conventions  in  the 
city.  Representatives  from  each  convention  were  selected  to  form  a  joint  board 
of  ten  members  which  met  at  Shawnee  on  September  10  and  prepared  for 
submission  to  the  constitutional  convention  a  comprehensive  list  of  twenty- 
four  labor  measures  which  were  placed  before  every  candidate  for  delegate 
to  the  convention.  So  vigorously  did  labor  press  its  proposals  that  75  per  cent 
of  the  elected  delegates  approved  the  program  in  its  entirety,  while  an  addi- 
tional 15  per  cent  approved  a  portion  of  it. 

In  1907  the  State  Federation  established  a  legislative  committee  which 
was  credited  with  securing  the  creation  of  the  Department  of  Charities  and 
Corrections;  the  establishment  of  eight  hours  as  a  maximum  working  day 
on  public  works;  the  child  labor  law,  prohibiting  the  employment  of  children 
under  sixteen  in  any  occupation  injurious  to  health  or  morals,  or  especially 
hazardous  to  life  or  limb;  factory  and  boiler  inspection  laws;  laws  prohibiting 
employers  from  bringing  strikebreakers  into  the  state  by  using  false  state- 
ments as  to  conditions  of  employment,  and  requirement  of  employers  to  state 


48    OKLAHOMA:  the  general  background 

in  advertisements  where  there  is  a  strike  in  progress;  prohibition  of  black- 
listing of  employees;  and  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Law.  An  outstand- 
ing achievement  is  the  so-called  Labor's  Bill  of  Rights,  forestalling  any  attempt 
to  declare  a  union  illegal. 

The  Federation's  legislative  committee  also  fought  the  passage  of  acts 
such  as  the  Industrial  Court  Bill,  the  Conspiracy  Bill,  the  Anti-picketing  Bill 
and  the  proposal  to  extend  the  working  day  on  public  works. 

From  1907  to  1911,  inclusive,  the  number  of  unions  in  the  state  increased 
from  303  to  415,  with  a  total  membership  of  twenty-five  thousand.  But  the 
same  period  saw  the  decline  of  the  once  powerful  Farmers'  Union — largely 
because  of  a  court  ruling  which  admitted  outsiders  to  the  farmer  co-opera- 
tives— and  increasing  unrest  in  the  agrarian  population. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1914  a  militant  secret  organization  known  as  the 
Working  Class  Union  sprang  up  in  Arkansas  and  spread  into  Oklahoma.  It 
advocated  principally  the  abolition  of  rent,  interest,  and  profit-taking;  and 
government  ownership  of  public  utilities — and  proposed  revolution  as  the 
means  to  the  end.  In  the  spring  of  1917  the  union  had  about  thirty-four 
thousand  members,  most  of  them  in  eastern  Oklahoma  and  Arkansas;  and 
with  the  coming  of  the  Draft  Act,  the  violence  which  the  organization  had 
so  often  preached  was  put  into  practice.  Telephone  wires  were  cut,  pipe  lines 
destroyed,  water  mains  and  sewers  dynamited.  Several  "armies"  were  organ- 
ized and  sent  into  the  field,  subsisting  on  barbecued  beeves  and  wagonloads 
of  roasting  ears.  This  "Green  Corn  Rebellion,"  staged  by  some  two  thousand 
farmers,  including  Negroes  and  Seminole  Indians,  collapsed  early  in  August, 
when  450  "rebels"  were  arrested  by  citizen-police.  Strikes  were  outlawed 
either  by  agreement  or  statute  during  the  first  World  W^ar,  but  in  the  years 
immediately  following,  they  broke  out  in  almost  every  industry  and  were, 
almost  without  exception,  lost  by  the  strikers.  Controversies  in  which  the 
largest  number  of  workers  were  involved  were  the  packing-house  strike  at 
Oklahoma  City,  which  lasted  from  December,  1921,  to  February,  1922;  and 
the  Railway  Shopmen's  strike,  from  July,  1922,  to  June,  1923. 

In  the  early  post-war  years,  the  Farmer  Labor  Reconstruction  League 
attained  its  greatest  influence,  drawing  its  membership  from  the  Farmers' 
Union — which  had  been  revived  by  a  law  favorable  to  farm  co-operatives  in 
1917 — the  Railroad  Brotherhoods,  and  the  State  Federation  of  Labor.  Union 
of  the  farmers  and  industrial  workers  in  political  action  was  its  purpose;  and 
the  League  named  candidates  for  entry  into  the  1922  Democratic  primary 
and  began  a  vigorous  campaign  for  their  election.  Buttressed  by  a  $3.50  mem- 
bership fee  from  an  estimated  forty  thousand  members  and  with  a  sizable 
contribution   from   the   Railroad   Brotherhoods,   the   organization   sent  out 


INDUSTRY   AND    LABOR  49 

speakers  and  distributed  literature.  As  a  result,  its  candidate  for  governor, 
Jack  Walton  (see  History),  received  a  plurality  of  approximately  thirty-five 
thousand  votes  over  his  nearest  opponent.  Walton  went  into  office  on  a  land- 
slide, and  other  League-endorsed  candidates  also  were  victorious.  Walton's 
impeachment  and  removal  from  office  meant  the  downfall  of  the  Farmer 
Labor  Reconstruction  League. 

The  program  of  labor  organization  in  Oklahoma  during  the  next  decade 
approximated  the  national  curve,  losing  ground  during  the  middle  and  late 
twenties  and  picking  up  sharply  after  1930.  The  most  important  mass  move- 
ment during  the  depression  years  was  the  Unemployed  (Unemployment) 
Councils,  which  attained  a  membership  in  the  state  of  approximately  thirty 
thousand.  After  the  arrest  of  their  leaders  in  1934,  the  Councils  largely  dis- 
integrated, and  most  of  their  membership  was  taken  over  by  the  Workers 
Alliance  and  the  Veterans  of  Industry  of  America,  which  had  much  the 
same  aims  but  exercised  better  control  over  their  adherents. 

The  CIO  appeared  in  Oklahoma  in  1937,  when  on  June  1  of  that  year 
a  charter  was  given  to  the  Oklahoma-Arkansas  Industrial  Council.  David 
Fowler  became  president  of  the  Council,  then  composed  of  7,500  coal  miners, 
8,000  oil  field  and  refinery  workers,  2,000  glass  workers,  3,000  metal  miners 
and  smelter  workers,  and  200  journeyman  tailors.  For  a  time  several  thousand 
members  of  the  Oklahoma  branch  of  the  Southern  Tenant  Farmer's  Union 
were  included  in  the  CIO  organization  as  an  affiliate  of  the  United  Cannery, 
Agricultural  Packing,  and  Allied  Workers.  In  March,  1939,  they  were  sus- 
pended in  a  controversy  involving  distribution  of  dues  payments,  and  in  April 
they  returned  to  the  fold  as  a  semiautonomous  body.  Backed  by  the  CIO,  a 
strike  in  the  big  Tulsa  refinery  of  the  Mid-Continent  Oil  Company  was 
called  late  in  1938  by  the  Oil  Workers'  International  Union  and  came  to  an 
indecisive  end  more  than  a  year  later.  The  issue  was,  nominally,  hours  and 
pay  and  seniority,  but  in  reality  it  was  a  test  of  strength  in  the  oil  industry 
by  the  CIO. 

As  to  the  actual  relative  strength  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  and  CIO  locals  within 
the  state,  no  estimate  can  be  made.  Two  of  the  largest  CIO  bodies — the  can- 
nery workers  and  the  oil-field  workers — have  a  highly  transient  membership, 
subject  to  severe  fluctuations.  Many  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  locals  are  affiliated 
directly  with  their  nationals,  and  not  with  the  Oklahoma  federation. 

Union  organization  has  progressed  rapidly  in  Oklahoma,  but  has  to 
reckon  with  the  essentially  individualistic  psychology  of  a  state  that  is  close 
in  time  to  its  pioneer  period. 


^t\/fi, ^ :^f\iij, ^ t^Dflj ^  , :^(\/ii, _, i^fl/!j< ^ , i^fiflj, ^ , r^!)/?^ ^ ^f)/r' 


Transportation 


FROM  travois  to  airplane,  the  story  of  transportation  in  Oklahoma  follows 
the  pattern  worked  out  by  experience  for  the  settlement  of  the  plains 
region.  In  its  earliest  stages,  transport  was  of  necessity  adapted  to  pass- 
age over  broken,  hilly  stretches;  through  difficult,  desolate  areas  like  the 
Cross  Timbers;  and  across  prairie  flats  that  became  almost  bottomless  bogs 
in  the  rainy  seasons  of  spring  and  late  fall. 

Burden-bearing  dogs,  used  by  the  Indians  before  the  Spaniards  brought 
horses  into  their  country,  were  succeeded  by  pack  horses.  Then  some  experi- 
mental tribesmen  thought  to  increase  the  horse's  capacity  beyond  what  it  was 
able  to  carry  on  its  back  by  attaching  two  poles  to  the  packsaddle,  allowing 
the  butt-ends  to  drag  along  the  ground.  Between  the  poles,  a  carrier — usually 
a  crude,  strong  basket — was  fixed,  in  which  could  be  placed  anything  from 
a  supply  of  corn  to  a  tired  child  or  a  grandmother  too  feeble  to  ride  on  the 
horse's  back.  French  explorers  saw  the  device  and  dubbed  it  a  travois. 

The  earliest  trappers  and  traders  among  the  Osages  and  more  western 
tribes  used  saddle  and  pack  horses  as  well.  The  first  trail  breakers  across 
Oklahoma  moving  westward  from  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  Smith,  Arkan- 
sas, found  that  wagons  drawn  by  oxen  and  small-hoofed  mules  were  less 
satisfactory  than  pack  trains. 

Pioneers  of  Oklahoma,  the  Indians  for  whom  the  region  was  set  aside 
— the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  removed  from  the  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  lands,  beginning  about  1832 — first  came 
into  their  new  homes  by  Arkansas  River  steamboats;  and  many  of  these 
shallow-draft  vessels  (which,  legend  says,  could  navigate  a  western  stream 
after  a  heavy  dew!)  steamed  as  far  as  Fort  Gibson,  on  the  Grand  River,  and 
as  far  as  the  original  western  Creek  Agency  on  the  Verdigris.  Later,  the  same 
type  of  paddlewheel  boat  plied  the  Red  River. 

River  transportation  however,  proved  to  be  impracticable  because  of 
frequent  stages  of  low  water;  moreover,  it  was  inadequate  to  handle  the 
thousands  of  exiled  Indians  who,  with  many  of  their  belongings,  were  being 

50 


TRANSPORTATION  51 

driven  to  the  Indian  Territory.  Wagon  trains  took  their  place,  each  capable 
of  supplying  the  needs  of  a  thousand  or  more  emigrants;  and  they  broke 
new  roads  into  Oklahoma.  During  the  next  seventy-five  years,  the  area 
that  was  finally  incorporated  into  the  state  was  criss-crossed  and  rutted  by 
high-wheeled  wagons  that  changed  in  character  from  the  ponderous  prairie 
schooner  to  a  much  lighter  type  of  farm  and  general  utility  wagon. 

In  the  course  of  the  Civil  War,  the  Indian  nations  that  lived  in  the 
eastern  third  of  Oklahoma  were  overrun  at  different  times  by  Union,  then 
by  Confederate,  forces.  The  difficulties  met  in  transporting  soldiers  and 
necessary  supplies  brought  forcibly  to  the  attention  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment the  need  for  railroads.  After  the  war,  Congress  undertook  to  stimulate 
the  building  of  railroads  across  the  Indian  Territory  by  authorizing  land 
grants — which  were  later  invalidated — along  the  right  of  way,  to  the  first 
north-south,  and  the  first  east-west,  road  to  reach  the  border.  The  winner 
from  the  north  was  the  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas  line  (the  Katy).  Its 
tracks  touched  Indian  Territory  soil  at  the  Kansas  line  on  June  6,  1870,  and 
its  first  southbound  passenger  train  crossed  the  bridge  over  Red  River  into 
Texas  on  Christmas  Day,  1872. 

In  the  summer  of  1871,  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  which  became  the 
St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco  (Frisco),  built  to  Vinita  (see  Tour  1),  a  station 
on  the  Katy,  thus  winning  the  east-west  franchise.  By  the  summer  of  1882 
it  was  in  operation  to  Tulsa;  and  by  1886  it  had  bridged  the  Arkansas  River 
and  established  its  western  terminal  at  Sapulpa  (see  Tour  1). 

The  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  began  grading  its  Ime  south  from 
Wichita,  Kansas,  in  1886,  the  ultimate  destination  being  Galveston,  Texas. 
Trains  were  running  across  what  became  Oklahoma  Territory  two  years 
before  the  first  opening  to  white  settlement — that  of  unassigned  Indian  lands 
in  April,  1889. 

The  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  built  down  from  Kansas  to  the 
border  of  the  Chickasaw  Nation  in  1890,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Choctaw 
Coal  and  Railway  Company  completed  a  line  to  link  the  Rock  Island  with 
the  Santa  Fe  at  the  newly  established  settlement  of  Oklahoma  City. 

Later  railroad  development  consisted  largely  of  local  projects — spurs 
and  connecting  lines — meant  to  serve  definite  industrial  needs;  and  when 
these  proved  their  economic  worth  they  were  taken  over  by  the  main-line 
systems — the  Frisco,  Katy,  Santa  Fe,  and  Rock  Island. 

The  opening  to  the  whites  of  the  Indians'  unoccupied  western  holdings, 
and  the  influx  of  homesteaders  to  vacant  land  overnight,  necessitated  much 
rapid  railroad  construction.  In  1907,  at  the  beginning  of  statehood,  Oklahoma 


52  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

contained  a  third  of  all  the  railroad  mileage  built  in  the  United  States  since 
the  turn  of  the  century. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  Indian  Territory  portion  of  Oklahoma,  the  exploita- 
tion of  coal  resources  centering  at  McAlcster,  the  enormous  expansion  of  oil 
production,  and  the  multiplication  of  lumber  mills  brought  much  new  busi- 
ness (see  Industry  and  Labor)  and  stimulated  the  laying  of  branch  railway 
tracks. 

Oil  transportation  could  be  handled  by  railway  tank  cars  while  pro- 
duction was  limited  to  wells  in  the  shallow  fields  making  only  a  few  barrels  a 
day  each,  but  when  the  gusher  fields — Glenn  Pool  (end  of  1905)  and  Gush- 
ing (end  of  1912) — came  in,  pipe  lines  to  connect  the  wells  with  refineries 
(some  as  far  away  as  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  others  at  Gulf  of  Mexico 
ports)  became  an  urgent  need.  Until  they  were  sufficiendy  extended  to 
handle  the  load,  enormous  stores  of  crude  oil  were  kept  in  great,  round, 
mushroom-like  tanks,  each  holding  fifty  thousand  or  more  barrels,  grouped 
— sometimes  fifty  and  more  together — on  vast  "tank  farms." 

The  first  local  pipe  lines,  from  wells  to  storage,  were  laid  down  in  1905, 
the  year  the  Glenn  Pool  gusher  field  was  opened;  but  the  one  available  line 
reached  only  the  limited  storage  and  refinery  facilities  at  Bartlesville,  some 
seventy  miles  away.  In  the  following  year,  however,  there  was  pipe-line 
transportation  from  Kansas  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  By  1909,  construction 
had  so  extended  that  facilities  equaled  demand.  With  the  opening  of  the 
Gushing  and  Healdton  pools,  around  1912,  however,  pipe  lines  and  railroads 
were  both  swamped.  Since  then,  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  miles  of 
trunk  and  branch  lines  have  grid-patterned  the  state.  A  much  later  extension 
has  been  the  pipe  lines  for  conducting  Oklahoma  natural  gas  from  the  wells 
to  markets  as  far  away  as  Chicago.  The  state's  pipe-line  investment  was  $400,- 
000,000  in  1940. 

As  general  carriers,  of  course,  the  railroads  with  nineteen  steam,  and 
six  electric,  lines  in  operation  (1941)  are  most  important.  Trucks  and  busses, 
however,  have  claimed  more  and  more  of  both  short-haul  and  long-haul  traf- 
fic as  the  main  highways  were  hard  surfaced  and  gasoline  motors  became 
more  powerful  and  dependable.  Operating  out  of  Oklahoma  City  and  Tulsa, 
two  motor  truck  express  fleets,  first  put  into  service  to  speed  up  newspaper 
delivery,  undertook  to  cover  the  small  towns  and  extensive  country  areas 
surrounding  these  cities  as  quickly  and  completely  as  the  United  States  mail. 
Fifty-seven  passenger  and  express  bus  lines  operate  on  Oklahoma  highways 
and  more  than  sixty  thousand  trucks  are  in  use. 

Oklahoma  is  perhaps  as  air  minded  as  any  state  in  the  Union.  Develop- 
ment of  airplanes  and  the  state's  great  oil  fields  were  contemporaneous,  and 


TRANSPORTATION  53 

some  of  the  first  practicable  planes  were  flown  by  oil  company  executives. 
The  number  of  private  planes  has  increased  with  the  lowering  of  their  cost, 
and  the  increase  of  airf>orts  and  landing  fields,  which  now  (1941)  number 
fifty-three.  An  Oklahoma  City-owned  line,  organized  in  1928,  maintains 
service  between  Chicago  and  Brownsville,  Texas,  with  stops  at  Oklahoma 
City  and  Ponca  City.  One  transcontinental  line  stops  at  Tulsa  and  Oklahoma 
City,  and  a  Minneapolis-to-Tulsa  line  has  its  southern  terminus  at  Tulsa. 
Increased  activity  in  this  field  is  resulting  from  the  greatly  enlarged  govern- 
ment pilot  training  program  in  the  state. 

Transportation  in  Oklahoma  is  regulated  by  the  Corporation  Commis- 
sion, which  issues  licenses  to  carriers,  controls  operation,  and  regulates  fares 
and  charges  on  intrastate  business. 


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Agriculture 


PKHDOMiNANTLY  agricultural,  with  nearly  thirty-five  million  acres  of  its 
total  area  of  some  forty-four  million  acres  in  farms,  Oklahoma  pro- 
duces almost  every  crop  grown  in  the  United  States.  Its  various  soils 
— alluvial,  sandy  loam,  black  waxy,  granitic,  prairie  limestone,  clay  hardpan 
— are  adapted  generally  to  such  staples  as  cotton,  wheat,  corn,  oats,  and  hay; 
and  in  selected  regions  valuable  crops  of  potatoes,  alfalfa,  sorghum,  cane, 
broomcorn,  peanuts,  and  pecans  help  to  swell  the  annual  value  of  farm  crops 
and  livestock  to  approximately  $160,000,000. 

Wheat  has  replaced  cotton  as  Oklahoma's  principal  crop,  having  risen 
from  a  1930  production  of  some  51,000,000  bushels  to  more  than  58,000,000 
in  1940.  In  the  same  period,  the  acreage  in  cotton  was  reduced  two-thirds, 
and  the  output  fell  from  1,130,415  to  520,591  bales,  though  the  yield  per  acre 
went  up  slightly.  Diversified  farming,  by  contrast,  has  shown  a  large  and 
steady  increase.  Evidence  of  this  is  the  mounting  value  of  such  items  as  forage 
crops,  dairy  products,  and  alfalfa  seed.  The  state  ranks  first  (1941)  in  pro- 
duction of  alfalfa  seed. 

Oklahoma  has  suffered,  along  with  most  of  the  farming  areas  of  the 
Middle  West,  from  abnormally  low  prices  for  its  products,  while  the  value 
of  farm  land  has  correspondingly  declined.  From  an  average  valuation,  as 
census  figures  showed,  of  $11.33  an  acre  in  1890,  Oklahoma  farm  land  rose 
to  $51.97  in  1920,  declining  again  to  a  1940  value  of  $23.88.  In  the  decade 
1930-40,  the  total  value  of  the  state's  farms  decreased  almost  a  third,  while 
the  number  of  farms  shrank  11.9  per  cent  from  203,866  to  179,687;  average 
acreage  per  farm,  however,  rose  14.5  per  cent  from  165  to  193  acres. 

In  this  period  of  readjustment,  the  long-time  trend  toward  increase  of 
farm  tenancy  in  Oklahoma  was  reversed.  The  1940  census  showed  81,866 
farms  operated  by  owners,  part  owners,  and  managers  against  78,537  in 
1930,  an  increase  of  slightly  over  4  per  cent;  the  decrease  in  nonowner  opera- 
tors in  the  1930-40  decade  was  nearly  30  per  cent,  the  total  number  of  tenants 
falling  off  from  125,329  to  97,821,  and  of  croppers  from  21,055  to  4,954. 

54 


AGRICULTURE  55 

Stabilization  of  farm  crop  values;  the  work  of  county  agents;  and  govern- 
mental assistance,  national  and  state,  in  various  types  of  farm,  pasture,  water, 
and  woods  conservation — all  are  combining  to  lighten  the  picture.  Such 
widespread  efforts  toward  improvement  as  are  made  by  the  Future  Farmers 
of  America  and  the  4-H  clubs  are  especially  effective. 

Like  nearly  everything  else  in  Oklahoma,  agriculture's  beginning  traces 
back  to  the  Indians.  The  first  scratching  of  its  soil  is  credited  to  those  semi- 
nomadic  aboriginal  tribes  who  grew  limited  supplies  of  corn,  beans,  melons, 
and  tobacco. 

With  the  arrival  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  from  the  region  between 
the  Cumberland  and  the  Gulf  and  North  Carolina  and  the  Mississippi  River, 
in  the  period  1829^0,  agriculture  really  began.  These  Indians  brought  with 
them  a  thorough  knowledge  of  farming  and  some  farming  tools,  and  of 
necessity  undertook  with  vigor  to  subdue  the  new  land  to  the  plow  and  the 
hoe. 

They  settled  at  first  in  the  forested,  spring-fed  highlands  of  the  eastern 
section,  where  fish  and  game  were  to  be  had,  gradually  moving  farther  west 
to  wide  belts  of  prairie  between  the  streams.  On  their  selected  farms  they 
prospered;  certain  of  the  mixed  bloods  who  had  brought  their  slaves  estab- 
lished plantations  and  ranches  in  the  valleys  of  the  Arkansas,  Canadian,  and 
Red  rivers,  where  they  built  sturdy  homes  with  spreading  verandas  and  lived 
in  patriarchal  plenty.  Such  plantations  produced  the  food  and  clothing  needed 
for  its  dependents;  and  surpluses  of  corn,  cotton,  and  cattle  were  shipped 
down  the  Arkansas  and  Red  rivers  to  distant  markets.  FuUblood  Indians 
built  their  cabins  along  the  streams;  planted  fruit  trees,  gardens,  and  small 
patches  of  corn;  raised  a  little  cotton,  from  which  the  women  made  their 
clothing;  and  let  their  hogs,  cattle,  and  ponies  run  on  the  open  range.  For  a 
time,  the  Creeks,  more  conservative  than  their  neighbors,  used  the  town 
system  of  agriculture  they  had  practiced  in  Alabama,  all  the  men  of  a  settle- 
ment working  together  to  till  a  communal  farm.  Eventually  they,  too, 
adopted  individual  farming  methods,  and  each  family  established  its  cabin 
in  the  midst  of  its  own  fields. 

Driven  from  their  farms  during  the  Civil  War,  with  the  return  of  peace 
the  Indians  replanted  their  orchards,  reclaimed  their  weed-grown  fields,  and 
accumulated  new  herds  of  catde.  Freed  slaves  setded  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  old  plantations  and  farmed  in  a  careless  fashion;  and  former  plantation 
owners  carried  on  by  leasing  their  land  to  white  men  who  by  this  time  were 
drifting  into  the  country.  Most  of  the  full  bloods  remained  in  the  eastern  hills, 
but  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles  moved  westward  to  the  rough,  blackjack- 
covered  sandstone  hills.  When  other  Indians  were  given  reservations  west 


56  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GHNERAL    BACKGROUND 

of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes,  some  of  them  also  settled  in  this  region,  but  most 
went  to  the  prairies  in  the  western  half  of  the  Territory,  to  become  stock- 
raisers  rather  than  farmers. 

In  this  period  the  Indian  Territory,  with  or  without  the  consent  of  its 
owners,  became  a  cattle  country.  Even  in  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  area  the 
Indian  population's  agricultural  needs  were  so  limited  that  only  a  small  part 
of  the  arable  land  was  cultivated.  Good  grass  covered  the  timbered  hills;  in 
the  valleys  rank  bluestem  grew  as  high  as  the  head  of  a  man  on  horseback; 
and  the  Indians  fenced  their  little  fields  against  ranging  herds. 

West  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  region,  the  prairies  remained  un- 
broken by  the  plow.  At  their  eastern  margin  grew  the  rank  bluestem,  while 
their  rising  levels  to  the  west  were  covered  with  the  short,  dense  buffalo 
grass.  Great  herds  of  longhorns  were  brought  in  each  spring  from  Texas, 
fattened  on  the  range  during  the  summer,  and  in  the  fall  driven  for  ship- 
ment to  the  railheads  of  Kansas. 

The  range  catde  industry  began  to  decline  in  the  late  eighties,  when  the 
surplus  lands  of  the  western  tribes  were  opened  to  white  settlement.  In  the 
course  of  these  dramatic  openings  (see  History),  each  homesteader  took  160 
acres,  on  a  creek  if  possible,  where  wood  and  water  could  be  obtained,  and 
where  the  most  productive  "bottom  land"  lay.  His  second  choice  was  a  level 
prairie  tract,  easy  to  cultivate.  Many  quarter  sections  of  rugged  land,  entirely 
unsuited  to  agriculture,  were  taken  by  less  fortunate  homesteaders;  and  in 
the  struggle  to  make  a  living  from  such  quarter  sections,  soil  that  should 
have  remained  in  grass  was  soon  worn  out. 

Usually,  the  new  farmer's  first  job  was  to  plow  a  number  of  furrows 
around  his  quarter  section  as  protection  against  destructive  prairie  fires. 
Often  this  fireguard  was  planted  to  peach  trees  or,  if  peach  seeds  were  lack- 
ing, to  watermelons.  The  next  task  was  breaking  the  prairie  and  planting 
such  crops  as  he  had  grown  before  coming  to  this  new  country. 

Meanwhile  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  area  was  coming  predominantly 
under  the  white  man's  plow.  In  the  Indian  region,  white  farmers,  either  in- 
truders or  lessees,  came  in  increasing  numbers  to  settle  on  tribal  land.  When 
the  Dawes  Commission  allotted  it,  each  Indian  received  from  forty  to  320 
acres  of  average  land.  In  most  cases,  the  combined  holdings  of  his  family 
formed  a  larger  agricultural  unit  than  he,  with  his  simple  farming  methods, 
could  cultivate;  and  while  allotments  were  protected  for  a  varying  number 
of  years  against  alienation,  leasing  to  white  farmers  was  permitted. 

At  statehood,  virtually  all  of  Oklahoma's  arable  land  was  under  cultiva- 
tion—  the  western  half,  still  in  160-acre  tracts,  was  held  by  the  original  home- 


AGRICULTURE  57 

steaders  or  their  successors,  except  for  the  small  amount  comprised  in  Indian 
allotments;  the  eastern  half  was  owned  by  Indian  allotees. 

Since  that  time  tenant  farming  increased  steadily,  until  the  last  few 
years,  though  it  was  not  by  any  means  uniform  throughout  the  state.  It  has 
ranged  in  percentage  from  35.1  per  cent  in  the  Panhandle  county  of  Beaver, 
a  grain  and  livestock  region,  to  78.3  per  cent  in  Mcintosh  County,  where 
staple  crops  are  corn,  potatoes,  peanuts,  and  cotton.  Taking  the  state  as  a 
whole,  the  percentage  of  tenant  farmers  increased  in  the  ten  years  from  1925 
to  1935  from  58.6  to  61.2,  and  the  number  of  tenants  from  125,329  to  130,661. 
In  the  five  years  from  1935  to  1940  the  reduction  in  farm  tenancy  has  been 
over  25  per  cent. 

Farm  tenancy  in  the  western  part  of  the  state  is  explained  largely  by  the 
failure  of  homesteaders  to  survive  hard  years  with  only  160  acres  as  a  grain- 
growing  unit.  In  the  eastern  half  of  Oklahoma,  most  of  the  allotted  land 
passed  out  of  the  hands  of  Indian  owners  as  soon  as  it  ceased  to  be  restricted. 
Bought  by  land  speculators,  it  was  rented  to  white  farmers  who  seldom  be- 
came owners. 

Roughly,  the  period  of  land  cultivation  in  Oklahoma  dates  from  1890. 
In  the  brief  time  since,  in  the  western  part  of  the  state  particularly,  there  have 
been  serious  losses  from  soil  erosion.  Climate,  the  thin,  light  character  of  the 
soil,  the  topography  of  the  region,  and  the  exigencies  of  "quarter  section" 
farming  have  all  combined  to  hasten  the  destructive  process. 

A  problem  since  early  territorial  days,  erosion  has  been  studied  inten- 
sively at  Oklahoma's  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  and  at  other 
farm  schools.  Paul  B.  Sears  (see  Literature),  while  a  teacher  at  the  University 
of  Oklahoma,  brought  it  into  national  prominence  with  his  book.  Deserts  on 
the  March  (1935).  At  first,  efforts  by  public  agencies  to  check  erosion  were 
almost  wholly  educational,  all  the  practical  work  being  undertaken  by  the 
farmers  at  their  own  expense.  But  in  1933  the  Federal  government  began 
demonstrating  methods  of  erosion  control,  co-operating  with  the  farmers  in 
supervising  actual  work  on  the  land.  Almost  one-half  of  the  land  area  of  the 
state  is  now  (1941)  organized  into  fifty-six  soil  conservancy  districts. 

Varied  soil,  contrasting  topography,  and  the  difference  in  average  annual 
rainfall — twenty  inches  in  the  northwest  to  more  than  forty  in  the  south- 
east— have  made  possible  great  diversity  in  agricultural  methods  and  prod- 
ucts. On  the  level  prairies  of  the  northwest  central  portion,  wheat  does  well 
and  is  grown  usually  in  big,  tractor-farmed  holdings.  Farther  west  and  north- 
west, including  the  more  arid  Panhandle  area,  broomcorn  and  sorghum  crops 
are  surer;  the  southwestern  prairies  are  planted  to  cotton,  with  sorghum 
providing  an  alternative  crop  in  the  drier  sections.  A  broad  belt  stretching 


58  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

north  and  south  across  the  central  portion  of  the  state,  a  region  of  more 
abundant  rainfall,  is  occupied  with  diversified  farming,  producing  a  good 
yield  of  almost  every  product  grown  in  other  sections.  The  arable  land  of  the 
east  is  planted  largely  to  corn  and  oats,  with  an  increasing  acreage  of  potatoes 
and  garden  products  for  canning;  fruit  and  pecan  orchards  flourish  in  the 
rich  valleys. 

The  tendency  to  develop  special  regional  crops  in  especially  suitable  soil 
is  illustrated  by  the  growing  of  potatoes  in  the  Muskogee  region,  peanuts 
near  Bristow  and  Okmulgee,  and  alfalfa  in  the  Washita  River  valley,  center- 
ing at  Pauls  Valley. 

The  size  of  Oklahoma's  farms  is  gradually  changing  from  the  uniform- 
ity of  an  Indian  allotment  or  a  homesteader's  quarter  section.  With  increasing 
use  of  expensive  power  machinery — tractors  and  combines — in  the  wheat- 
growing  sections,  and  the  restricted  production  per  acre  of  the  semiarid  re- 
gion, farms  have  grown  larger  in  the  western  part  of  the  state,  while  the  east- 
ern farm,  with  more  intensive  cultivation,  has  decreased  in  size.  The  appear- 
ance of  farm  buildings  differs  widely  in  different  sections — there  is  the  little 
mountain  cabin  surrounded  by  its  Indian  peach,  and  other  fruit  trees;  the 
prosperous  farmstead  in  the  central  region  with  big  barns  and  silos;  the  clean, 
bare  aloofness  of  the  wheat-farmer's  dwelling;  and  the  unpainted  shack  stand- 
ing alone  with  its  windmill  on  the  arid  plains.  But  to  visitors,  especially  from 
the  north,  Oklahoma  farms  regardless  of  location  seem  poor  in  buildings. 
This  is  due  mainly  to  a  climate  so  mild  that  shelter  for  livestock  is  not  re- 
quired. 

Though  cotton  production  has  declined  to  second  place  in  importance, 
the  average  annual  value  of  the  crop  in  Oklahoma  over  the  last  fifteen  years 
has  been  in  excess  of  $70,000,000.  Corn  follows  cotton  in  importance,  with  a 
1940  crop  of  more  than  twenty-five  million  bushels  and  an  average  annual 
production  of  some  forty  million  bushels  over  a  ten-year  span.  The  state 
ranked  first  in  broomcorn  from  1930  to  1940,  except  in  1936,  supplying 
approximately  half  of  the  national  total;  it  is  second  in  yield  of  pecan  nuts 
(1940);  it  is  third  (1940)  in  acreage  and  harvest  of  sorghum  crops;  and  in 
dairy  products  Oklahoma  stands  twelfth  in  1941. 

As  to  livestock,  1940  statistics  show  an  increase  over  1930  of  nearly  25 
per  cent  in  cattle,  nearly  15  per  cent  in  swine,  and  almost  250  per  cent  in 
sheep  and  lambs.  With  bigger  farm  units  and  greater  use  of  tractors,  the 
count  of  horses  and  mules  fell  from  811,669  in  1930  to  491,669  in  1940.  The 
state's  chicken  census  went  down  from  11,470,000  in  1930  to  9,047.000  in 
1940. 

While  the  big-ranch  cattle  business  has  almost  ceased  to  exist  in  Okla- 


AGRICULTURE  59 

homa,  improved  strains  of  livestock  on  the  farms,  and  livestock  products,  the 
development  of  which  is  stressed  in  the  training  of  Future  Farmers  and  4-H 
Club  youth,  account  for  more  than  48  per  cent  of  the  income  received  directly 
from  the  state's  179,687  farms. 

Farming  in  Oklahoma  is  becoming  increasingly  scientific;  leadership  in 
this  movement  is  held  by  the  state  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  and 
the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  at  Stillwater;  this  work  is  supported 
jointly  by  state  and  Federal  appropriations.  Here  young  men  are  trained  in 
agricultural  methods,  and  young  women  in  homemaking.  They  graduate 
into  farm  homes,  vocational  teaching,  or  the  extension  service  of  the  college, 
work  which  was  inaugurated  in  1904  and  has  continued  to  grow  in  extent 
and  importance.  County  farm  agents  and  home  demonstration  agents  directed 
by  this  branch  of  the  college  reach  the  agricultural  population  of  all  sections. 

The  Colored  Agricultural  and  Normal  University  at  Langston  (see  Tour 
2A)  trains  young  Negroes  in  scientific  farming  and  homemaking,  and  a  num- 
ber of  its  graduates  are  working  as  field  agents  among  their  people,  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Extension  Service  at  Stillwater.  These  agents,  both  col- 
ored and  white,  give  individual  assistance  to  farmers  and  their  families,  but 
most  of  their  work  is  carried  on  through  voluntary  local  associations  of  farm 
people. 

The  most  effective  Oklahoma  farm-aid  groups  are:  the  Master  Farmers 
of  America  and  Home  Demonstration  Clubs,  for  adults;  the  Future  Farm- 
ers of  America,  for  boys  studying  vocational  agriculture  in  high  school;  and 
the  4-H  Clubs,  for  boys  and  girls  participating  in  agricultural  and  homemak- 
ing activities.  Oklahoma  Future  Farmers  and  4-H  Clubs  for  boys  and  girls 
have  won  recognition  in  national,  even  in  international,  competitions.  The 
state  produced  its  first  4-H  Club  world  champion  in  1924,  the  boy  of  most 
outstanding  achievements;  repeated  in  1925  with  a  girls'  world  champion; 
and  has  continued  to  win  more  national  and  international  honors  than  any 
other  five  states  combined.  Some  275,000  farm  boys  and  girls  have  received 
training  through  this  organization.  Incidentally,  the  winner  of  the  first  world 
championship  and  the  next  year's  winner  married  and  established  a  home  at 
Stillwater.  Oklahoma's  Future  Farmers  of  America  have  also  won  high  hon- 
ors in  national  contests.  In  1926,  at  the  first  national  meeting  of  the  students 
of  vocational  agriculture,  Oklahoma  boys  took  first  place  in  stock  judging 
over  competing  teams  from  twenty-two  states;  they  repeated  this  victory  the 
next  year  over  a  still  larger  number  of  contestants;  and  since  that  time  they 
have  won  nearly  a  dozen  major  national  titles  in  this  field. 

Fred  Groff,  whose  farm  is  near  Guthrie,  deserves  the  title  of  Oklahoma 
Burbank  for  his  work  in  plant  breeding.  According  to  the  American  Society 


60     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

for  the  Advancement  of  Agriculture,  eleven  of  the  one  hundred  important 
recent  developments  in  horticulture  have  been  credited  to  him.  Among  his 
achievements  are  a  freeze-proof  lemon  tree,  giant  cucumbers  and  peas,  and 
an  evergreen  pea. 

Besides  the  farm  clubs  sponsored  by  the  extension  department  of  the 
State  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  Oklahoma  farmers  have  devel- 
oped, on  their  own  initiative,  a  number  of  co-operative  marketing  associa- 
tions. The  first  were  formed  by  white  farmers  in  the  Indian  Territory  as  a 
part  of  a  widespread  agrarian  movement  that  was  sweeping  the  agricultural 
states  in  the  eighties;  farmers'  alliances  and  agricultural  wheels  were  formed 
in  many  communities;  one  newspaper,  the  Alliance  Courier,  was  founded 
at  Ardmore  in  the  Chickasaw  Nation,  in  1888;  and  a  number  of  coopera- 
tive stores,  cotton  gins,  and  gristmills  were  established  in  railroad  towns. 
When  Oklahoma  was  thrown  open  to  white  settlement,  similar  organiza- 
tions sprang  up  there.  The  Farmers'  Union  was  established  in  Oklahoma 
Territory  shortly  before  1900  and  began  to  operate  stores,  gins,  grain  eleva- 
tors, and  warehouses.  The  first  year  after  statehood  this  society  had  a  mem- 
bership of  8,120,  which  had  increased  to  20,703  by  1939.  At  the  present  time 
the  Oklahoma  Grain  Growers  Association,  the  Oklahoma  Cotton  Growers 
Association,  and  the  Farmers'  Co-operative  Grain  Dealers  Association  are 
active  and  have  important  marketing  achievements  to  their  credit.  The  Cot- 
ton Growers  Association  has  handled  as  much  as  30  per  cent  of  the  state's 
production,  and  the  importance  of  co-operative  marketing  in  the  wheat  sec- 
tions is  dramatically  shown  by  the  many  farmer-owned  grain  elevators  that 
tower  above  the  little  towns  in  the  northwest.  Another  society,  known  as  the 
Oklahoma  Crop  Improvement  Association,  attempts  through  close  co-opera- 
tion with  the  state  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  to  produce  and  certify 
superior  seed  and  sell  it  at  an  attractively  low  price. 


jjO*: . , jjH^2 , , jjO^i ^ , ES'l'i: ^, ^^1^1 ^'^'^^ ^^i\i s^O'''' 


Sports  and  Recreation 


IN  THE  HUNDREDS  o£  pubUc  and  private  recreational  parks  and  playgrounds, 
along  the  stocked  streams,  and  in  the  woods-and-pasture  areas  of  Okla- 
homa, all  outdoor  enthusiasts — sports  lovers,  vacationists,  bird  hunters, 
fishermen.  Boy  Scouts,  Girl  Scouts,  and  Camp  Fire  Girls — will  find  a  wide 
choice  of  activities. 

Game  and  fish  are  most  plentiful  in  the  eastern  section,  although  quail 
are  found  nearly  everywhere.  Almost  every  town  has  its  swimming  pool, 
natural  or  artificial,  its  municipal  or  private-club  tennis  courts  and  golf 
course;  bicycles  can  be  rented;  and  bowling  alleys  are  numerous.  High  class 
hotels  generally  provide  golf  facilities  for  their  guests.  Football  and  basket- 
ball are  popular  in  the  schools — high  schools,  junior  colleges,  and  universi- 
ties; baseball,  however,  has  almost  ceased  to  be  a  school  sport  and  is  largely 
confined  to  the  town  sandlotters.  Oklahoma  City  and  Tulsa  are  on  wresding 
wheels  and  boxing  circuits,  and  Tulsa  has  an  ice  hockey  league  team  which 
plays  in  the  beautiful,  modern  Coliseum.  Over  the  waters  of  Grand  Lake, 
Lake  Murray,  Spavinaw,  Tulsa's  Mohawk  Lake  and  Oklahoma  City's  Lake 
Overholser,  motor  boat  racers  bounce  and  sail  boats  spread  their  wings. 

Recreational  facilities  for  Negroes  are  provided  by  the  state,  the  counties, 
towns,  school  authorities,  and  semipublic  and  private  agencies  in  the  regions 
where  the  Negro  population  is  greatest.  A  1940  survey  of  thirty-three  counties 
showed  ninety-six  such  areas  for  their  exclusive  use. 

More  than  a  century  ago,  Washington  Irving  described  that  portion  of 
present  Oklahoma  covered  in  his  Tour  on  the  Frames  (roughly,  a  great  oval, 
the  ends  at  Fort  Gibson  and  Norman)  as  "hill  and  dale,  brush  and  brake, 
tangled  thicket  and  open  prairie."  Litde  remains  in  that  primitive  state,  but 
twelve  million  acres  are  still  well  forested,  and  four  mountainous  areas  in 
the  east  and  south  have  been  opened  to  the  motorist  by  the  building  of  ade- 
quate roads.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  pioneers  and  the  Indians  used  dynamite, 
poisonous  herbs,  seines,  and  spears  for  taking  fish,  the  streams  and  lakes  are 
well  stocked,  and  there  is  no  closed  season  for  fishermen.  The  mountain 

61 


62     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

Streams  supply  sport  for  the  fly  caster,  and  such  rivers  as  the  Grand,  Kiamichi, 
Black  Fork,  Potcau,  and  Litde  give  up  catfish  weighing  as  much  as  fifty 
pounds  to  the  bamboo  pole  angler.  All  fishing  waters  are  being  continuously 
restocked  from  state  and  Federal  hatcheries. 

In  1935,  the  last  open  season  on  deer,  between  two  and  three  thousand 
were  reported.  Short  open  seasons  are  fixed  by  state  regulations.  In  all 
forested  areas,  and  along  the  wooded  streams  of  the  state,  squirrels  are  plenti- 
ful. The  best  quail  shooting  is  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the  state,  and  in  the 
Panhandle  (see  Tour  2),  where  blue  (or  Mexican)  quail  and  prairie  chicken 
— especially  in  Ellis  County — are  fairly  plentiful.  In  other  prairie  sections 
wild  chickens  have  all  but  disappeared  —  killed  out  by  market  hunters  and 
farmers — but  they  have  been  strictly  protected  in  late  years,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  they  will  again  become  a  common  state  game  bird. 

Duck  hunting  is  good  along  Red  River  and  fair  on  the  many  lakes  and 
ponds  throughout  the  state.  One  may  not  kill  a  fox  in  Oklahoma,  but  it  is 
permissible  to  organize  hunts;  the  chase  is  popular  in  Atoka  County  and  in 
the  Kiamichi  valley. 

As  a  wildlife  conservation  project,  the  Oklahoma  Game  and  Fish  Com- 
mission in  1938  began  quail  restocking  and  has  established  199  refuges,  total- 
ing 99,118  acres,  on  which  some  seven  thousand  quail  from  the  state  farm  at 
El  Reno  (see  Tour  1)  were  liberated  by  1940.  Three  hundred  more  of  these 
refuges,  of  about  one  section  (640  acres)  each,  will  be  checkerboarded  over 
all  suitable  areas  of  the  state,  and  twenty  thousand  more  birds  placed  thereon 
to  breed  and  spread  to  surrounding  farms  and  pastures. 

Roughly,  four  scenic  regions  attract  the  sportsman  and  vacationist — 
the  Ozark  slope  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  state;  the  Ouachita  National 
Forest,  embracing  most  of  the  mountainous  Kiamichi  country  in  the  south- 
east; the  Arbuckle  mountains  in  the  south  central  region;  and  the  Wichita 
Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge  in  the  southwest. 

Within  Oklahoma's  borders,  25,724  acres  of  recreational  parks  have  been 
developed;  and  in  addition,  there  are  about  five  thousand  acres  of  state- 
controlled  and  municipal  lakes.  By  far  the  largest  body  of  water  open  to 
public  use  and  enjoyment  is  Grand  Lake,  a  $22,750,000  Federal  flood  control 
and  power  project  on  Grand  River  seventeen  miles  southeast  of  Vinita  (see 
Tour  1),  which  covers  an  area  of  fifty-four  thousand  acres,  and  has  a  shore 
line  of  thirteen  hundred  miles.  The  dam  was  finished  in  the  summer  of  1940, 
and  by  the  end  of  1941  the  lake  was  full.  Though  its  development  as  a  recrea- 
tion center  has  only  begun,  the  possibilities  are  almost  unlimited  for  yachting, 
motor  boating,  aquaplaning,  bathing,  fishing,  and  camping. 

Other  large  completed  Federal  lake  projects  are  on  the  Salt  Fork,  in 


SPORTS    AND    RECREATION  63 

Alfalfa  County,  east  of  Cherokee  (see  Tour  2),  and  northwest  of  Woodward 
on  Wolf  Creek  (see  Tour  5). 

Construction  of  the  dam  to  impound  the  Red  River  flood  control  and 
power  reservoir,  about  twelve  miles  southwest  of  Durant  (see  Tour  6),  is 
under  way;  and  when  this  Federal  job  is  completed  an  interstate  body  of 
water  several  times  larger  than  Grand  Lake  will  be  available  to  the  water- 
sports  lovers  of  Oklahoma  and  Texas. 

Lake  Murray  State  Park,  almost  touching  the  city  of  Ardmore  (see  Tour 
10)  on  the  southeast,  is  designed  to  be  the  most  complete  recreational  plant 
in  Oklahoma  when  its  seventeen  thousand  acres  are  developed  and  the  lake, 
which  will  cover  6,100  acres,  is  filled.  At  the  end  of  1940,  the  dam  had  been 
finished,  and  more  than  2,500  acres  covered  with  water. 

Boiling  Springs  State  Park,  six  miles  east  of  Woodward  (see  Tour  5),  is 
notable  as  the  only  native  tree  growth  within  120  miles.  In  this  semiarid  tract 
of  nine  hundred  acres,  a  number  of  large  springs  supply  a  four-acre  swim- 
ming pool.  It  has  a  bathhouse  with  modern  facilities  for  three  hundred 
bathers.  Beavers  Bend  State  Park,  in  McCurtain  County  nine  miles  north  of 
Broken  Bow  (see  Tour  15 A),  is  in  a  very  rough  and  picturesque  setting;  and 
through  its  sixteen  hundred  acres  runs  Mountain  Fork  River,  offering  some 
of  the  best  fishing  in  the  state. 

Lake  Altus,  at  Lugert  (see  Tour  13),  has  twelve  miles  of  shore  line,  and 
lakes  at  Okmulgee  (see  Tour  3)  and  McAlester  (see  Tour  5)  each  have 
twenty-four  miles;  Lake  Lawtonka  (see  Tour  3B)  covers  1,408  acres;  Spavi- 
naw  Lake  (see  Tour  15),  the  source  of  Tulsa's  water  supply,  is  seven  miles 
long  and  at  places  two  miles  wide.  Lake  Carl  Blackwell,  west  of  Stillwater,  is 
one  of  the  latest  (1941)  recreation  spots  to  be  developed.  Recreational  facilities 
and  tourist  accommodations  are  available  at  all  these  lakes. 

Trails  for  hiking  have  been  built  in  some  of  the  state  parks.  Especially 
good  are  those  in  Piatt  National  Park  (see  Tour  10 A),  the  Wichita  Mountains 
Wildlife  Refuge  (see  Tour  3B),  and  in  the  Arbuckle  Mountains  near  Turner 
Falls  (see  Tour  10). 

Oklahoma's  parks  and  lakes,  generally,  are  at  their  best  during  the  spring, 
summer,  and  early  fall  months;  but  because  of  its  abundant  mineral  springs 
Piatt  National  Park,  near  the  town  suggestively  named  Sulphur,  is  a  popular 
all-season  resort. 

The  cosmopolitan  character  of  Oklahoma  is  indicated  by  its  sports — the 
former  Terrapin  Derby,  for  example.  It  originated  in  1928  at  the  101  Ranch 
(see  Tour  10)  as  a  community  joke  and  proved  popular;  by  1935  there  were 
7,100  entries  and  $3,000  went  to  the  owner  of  the  winning  terrapin.  Rodeos, 
usually  held  in  the  fall,  draw  visitors  to  a  number  of  towns  where  the  cattle 


64  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

business  either  still  flourishes,  under  fence,  or  is  a  fairly  recent  memory.  Some 
important  rodeos  are  staged  at  Ada,  Dewey,  Woodward  (see  Tour  5),  Cov- 
ington (see  Tour  2),  Craterville  Park  (see  Tour  3),  Gene  Autry  (formerly 
Berwyn),  and  Vinita  (see  Tour  1 ).  This  last  is  one  of  the  several  memorials 
to  the  memory  of  Oklahoma's  beloved  humorist  Will  Rogers.  Unique  is  the 
experiment  of  holding  a  rodeo  within  the  grounds  of  the  state  penitentiary 
at  McAlester  to  bolster  the  morale  of  the  inmates. 

The  state  is  noted  for  its  high  school  and  college  football  teams.  The 
University  of  Oklahoma's  1938  team,  a  member  of  the  "Big  Six"  conference 
— Oklahoma,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Kansas  State,  and  Iowa  State — 
played  Tennessee  at  the  Miami  Orange  Bowl  in  an  intersectional  after-season 
game.  A.  and  M.  at  Stillwater  has  been  a  member  of  the  Missouri  Valley 
conference  since  1924  and  is  the  strongest  state  rival  of  the  University  in 
athletics.  The  former's  wresding  teams  have  been  among  the  best  in  the 
United  States  in  recent  years.  Professional  football  clubs  have  recruited  a 
number  of  Oklahoma  college  graduate  football  players. 

The  national  amateur  tennis  champion  of  1940,  Don  McNeill,  is  a  prod- 
uct of  Oklahoma  City's  courts.  In  golf,  the  low  handicap  players  of  the  state 
rank  with  the  best. 

Polo  is  not  a  popular  sport,  though  there  are  twelve  teams  in  Oklahoma, 
of  which  five  are  at  Fort  Sill.  The  University  of  Oklahoma  polo  team  stands 
high  among  the  college  teams.  Basketball,  everywhere  a  popular  fall  and 
winter  sport  among  the  schools,  colleges,  and  Y's,  has  taken  such  firm  hold 
on  the  people  at  El  Reno — adults  and  youth  alike — that  the  city  is  known  as 
the  basketball  capital  of  the  state.  Tulsa's  ice  hockey  team,  called  the  Ice 
Oilers,  is  a  member  of  the  American  Hockey  Association. 

A  surprising  development  in  sport  in  a  state  so  near  in  time  to  the  rugged 
pioneer  era  is  softball.  Not  only  in  the  cities,  where  teams  are  maintained  that 
rate  high  nationally,  but  in  practically  every  small  town  and  consolidated 
country  school  there  are  at  least  two  teams  of  boys,  young  men,  and  girls;  and 
formal  and  informal  intersectional  league  contests  draw  summer  crowds  to 
parks  that  can  be  lighted  for  night  games.  Softball  has  all  but  superseded 
baseball,  though  such  colleges  as  the  University  of  Oklahoma  and  A.  and  M. 
develop  teams  from  which  professional  baseball  clubs  frequently  draw  re- 
cruits. At  Oklahoma  City  and  Tulsa,  baseball  teams  of  the  Texas  League  play 
a  regular  summer  schedule  of  154  games. 


»^()/?i , ^!\i>'> , jjO/f: ^  , iS0/?2 ^, j50/»2 ^ , ^fltfj. ^  , ^fiifj ^  , sjOiJ* 


Education 


LIKE  OTHER  PHASES  of  Oklahoma's  story,  that  of  education  reaches  much 
farther  back  than  statehood  or  even  the  coming  of  the  white  pioneer. 
d  It  originated  with  the  Five  CiviHzed  Tribes  in  their  homes  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  impact  of  white  civilization,  pressure  from  Washington  for 
repeated  cessions  of  tribal  lands  for  homesteaders,  the  hard  necessity  of  deal- 
ing with  those  who  were  crowding  them  into  narrower  and  narrower  limits 
— all  these  experiences  convinced  the  tribal  leaders  that  only  by  acquiring  the 
white  man's  education  could  they  cope  with  him  in  the  struggle  for  survival. 

The  Cherokees  took  the  lead  in  1800  when  they  invited  Moravian  mis- 
sionaries to  their  country.  In  1817  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  founded  a  school  near  Chattanooga,  Tennessee,  where  the 
great  Samuel  Austin  Worcester  entered  upon  a  work  that  was  to  engage  the 
efforts  of  this  remarkable  family  for  three  generations. 

But  the  greatest  incentive  to  Cherokee  education  came  from  the  inven- 
tion of  the  Cherokee  syllabary  (see  Literature)  by  the  half-blood  Sequoyah, 
who  had  gone  to  the  West  with  an  advance  Removal  contingent  in  1818.  In 
1821  he  returned  to  the  East  and  submitted  his  alphabet  to  the  chiefs  and 
headmen  of  his  tribe,  and  the  next  year  he  carried  a  written  message  from 
their  kinsmen  to  the  Cherokees  on  the  western  frontier.  From  that  time  until 
the  removal  of  the  eastern  Cherokees  in  1838-39  the  two  sections  of  the  severed 
nation  were  able  to  carry  on  a  written  correspondence.  In  1832  the  western 
Cherokees  passed  the  first  school  law  enacted  in  the  present  state  of  Okla- 
homa; they  provided  for  the  opening  of  five  schools  and  employed  Sequoyah 
to  supervise  the  teaching  of  his  syllabary  to  the  whole  colony.  The  formal 
schools  established  by  the  missionaries,  and  later  by  the  Cherokee  Nation,  car- 
ried on  their  instruction  in  English,  but  as  long  as  the  Cherokees  maintained 
their  tribal  existence  it  was  common  for  parents  to  teach  their  children  to 
read  and  write  the  native  characters  before  undertaking  their  regular  edu- 
cation. 

Soon  after  the  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  began  to  work  among 

65 


66  OKLAHOMA:    Tllli    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

the  Cherokccs,  the  Choctaws  invited  them  to  their  country;  Cyrus  Kingsbury 
was  accordingly  sent  from  the  Cherokee  Mission  and  estabhshed  a  school 
among  the  Choctaws  in  Mississippi  in  1818.  Even  at  this  early  period  the 
Choctaws  contributed  to  the  support  of  their  schools  by  donations  of  cattle 
and  money,  and  a  general  council  of  the  nation  appropriated  lor  education 
the  annuities  which  they  received  from  the  United  States  for  land  cessions. 
By  1830 — the  year  the  main  body  of  Choctaws  consented  to  leave  their  native 
forests  and  remove  to  the  present  state  of  Oklahoma  —  they  had  eleven  schools 
with  an  attendance  of  260  children  who  were  learning  English;  250  adults 
had  been  taught  to  read  the  native  language;  and  eighty-nine  boys,  who  were 
to  become  the  future  leaders  of  the  tribe,  were  enrolled  in  a  boarding  school 
established  by  Richard  Mentor  Johnson  in  Kentucky. 

The  Creeks  had  more  strongly  marked  native  traits  than  the  Choctaws 
and  Cherokees;  hence  they  were  more  reluctant  to  admit  their  need  for  educa- 
tion. But  with  the  continued  pressure  of  the  frontier  upon  their  homes  and 
the  increasing  demands  for  land  cessions,  they  learned  to  depend  upon  Chero- 
kees to  defend  them  from  the  white  man's  tricks  of  literacy;  and  they  began 
to  feel  the  need  of  mastering  his  useful  arts.  In  1822  they  reluctantly  consented 
to  the  establishment  of  two  schools  in  their  country,  by  Methodist  and  Baptist 
missionaries.  By  this  time  they  subscribed  in  theory  to  the  Cherokee-Choctaw 
principle  that  only  through  education  could  they  hope  for  the  survival  of 
their  race.  Even  so,  they  were  more  advanced  than  the  Seminoles  and  the 
Chickasaws,  who  did  not  yet  feel  the  need  of  the  white  man's  skills. 

The  Indians'  educational  progress  was  interrupted  by  the  sufferings  of 
Removal  and  the  hardships  of  pioneering  in  the  West,  but  some  of  their  de- 
voted missionaries  shared  their  exile  and  opened  schools  in  the  new  land.  The 
American  Board  had  established  Union  Mission,  west  of  the  Grand  River  in 
northeast  Oklahoma,  for  the  Osages  in  1821;  and  when  the  Creeks  and 
Cherokees  began  to  arrive  in  that  vicinity  a  number  of  their  more  promising 
young  people  were  enrolled  there.  Missionaries  working  in  the  Creek  country 
reduced  the  native  language  to  writing,  and  an  illustrated  child's  primer  was 
printed  at  Union  in  1835 — a  date  significant  to  present-day  Oklahomans, 
who  honored  it  in  a  state-wide  centennial  celebration.  The  Creeks,  however, 
were  so  resentful  at  their  expulsion  from  their  homes  that  the  next  year  they 
closed  their  borders  against  missionaries  and  all  educational  efforts.  Mean- 
while several  schools  were  opened  among  the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws,  two 
of  which  —  Dwight,  in  the  Cherokee  hills,  and  Whcelock,  near  Red  River — 
are  still  (1941)  in  existence. 

After  the  Removal,  the  tribes  began  to  develop  comprehensive  school 
systems.  In  1841,  the  Cherokees  adopted  a  plan  of  general  education  under 


EDUCATION  67 

the  supervision  of  a  tribal  superintendent,  and  nine  years  later  established 
two  seminaries — one  for  young  men  and  one  for  young  women — which 
were  the  first  public,  nonsectarian  schools  for  higher  education  in  the  West. 
The  Choctaws'  tribal  legislature,  in  1842,  authorized  general  education  under 
a  system  of  native  language  schools  for  adults;  neighborhood,  or  day  schools; 
boarding  schools  for  more  advanced  instruction  conducted  by  missionaries 
but  supported  by  the  tribe;  and  college  training  for  selected  young  men  and 
women  who  were  sent  to  eastern  states. 

The  Creeks  soon  lifted  their  ban  on  missionary  effort  and  entered  into 
contracts  with  the  Presbyterian  and  Methodist  churches  for  the  establishment 
of  boarding  schools,  under  an  arrangement  similar  to  that  of  the  Choctaws. 
The  greatest  of  these  schools  was  TuUahassee,  on  the  Arkansas,  a  few  miles 
northwest  of  present  Muskogee.  Robert  M.  Loughridge,  a  young  Princeton 
graduate  from  Alabama,  and  W.  S.  Robertson,  who  married  a  daughter  of 
Worcester,  gave  devoted  service  to  this  school;  Loughridge  and  Mrs.  Robert- 
son published  readers,  tracts,  and  portions  of  the  Bible  in  the  native  language 
for  the  use  of  their  Creek-speaking  converts.  In  1856  the  tribal  legislature 
passed  a  comprehensive  school  law.  A  superintendent  was  appointed  for  each 
of  the  two  districts  comprising  the  Creek  Nation,  and  rural  schools — in  many 
cases  taught  by  TuUahassee  graduates — were  opened  in  the  different  neigh- 
borhoods. 

The  Chickasaws,  although  an  able  people,  were  slower  to  respond  to 
educational  influences,  probably  because  in  their  eastern  home  they  had  not 
been  so  seriously  crowded  by  whites.  But  in  1848  they  decided  upon  the  estab- 
lishment of  two  boarding  schools.  The  Chickasaw  Academy,  for  boys,  was 
accordingly  constructed  with  tribal  funds  and  operated  by  the  Methodists; 
and  Wapanucka  Institute,  for  girls,  was  built  by  the  tribe  and  conducted  by 
the  Presbyterians.  The  Chickasaws  also  established  six  neighborhood  schools, 
most  of  which  were  taught  by  educated  Indians.  The  unfortunate  Seminoles 
were  so  distracted  by  war  and  the  sufferings  of  their  forced  removal  that  for 
several  years  they  were  indifferent  to  education.  A  few  schools  were  opened 
in  their  country  by  missionaries  after  1849. 

Every  school  in  the  Indian  country  was  shut  down  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War.  The  Cherokees  made  some  attempt  to  provide  educational  train- 
ing for  their  children  in  the  refugee  camps  on  the  Red  River,  but  this  seems 
to  have  been  the  sole  educational  effort  during  the  whole  period  of  the  war. 
As  soon  as  the  Indians  returned  to  their  devastated  country  and  began  to 
rebuild  their  ruined  homes,  each  tribe  took  active  steps  to  place  its  schools  on 
a  permanent  basis.  The  Chickasaws  and  Seminoles,  who  had  previously 
lagged  behind  the  other  tribes,  now  established  complete  school  systems.  Some 


68     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

of  the  tribes  had  compulsory  attendance  laws.  The  Chickasaws  even  compen- 
sated the  parents  under  a  law  passed  in  1876,  providing  an  allowance  of  eight 
dollars  a  month  for  the  board  of  every  child  attending  the  neighborhood 
schools,  and  fifteen  dollars  a  month  to  defray  the  expenses  of  those  parents 
who  preferred  to  send  their  children  to  school  in  the  surrounding  states.  The 
tribes  that  adopted  their  freedmen  also  established  separate  neighborhood 
and  boarding  schools  for  Negro  children. 

By  the  end  of  the  century,  the  Cherokees,  Choctaws,  and  Chickasaws 
had  a  higher  proportion  of  educated  people  than  had  the  neighboring  states. 
Probably  half  of  the  Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  were  able  to  speak 
and  read  English,  and  literacy  in  the  native  languages  was  general.  All  the 
tribes  regarded  their  schools  as  their  highest  creative  achievement  and  freely 
appropriated  money  for  their  support.  In  the  course  of  their  forced  land  ces- 
sions, each  tribe  had  accumulated  a  considerable  capital  investment  for  which 
it  received  interest.  This  income  was  supplemented  by  taxes  on  goods  intro- 
duced by  white  traders,  permit  fees  paid  for  the  employment  of  noncitizen 
laborers,  grazing  taxes  paid  by  cattlemen,  and  royalties  paid  for  the  use  of 
coal,  timber,  and  other  natural  resources. 

When  the  Plains  Indians  accepted  reservations  in  what  is  now  western 
Oklahoma,  the  government  established  agencies  among  them  and  attempted 
to  conduct  schools;  and  courageous  missionaries,  mainly  Quakers  and  Men- 
nonites,  tried  to  induce  the  untamed  savages  to  engage  in  manual  labor  and 
submit  to  the  discipline  of  the  three  R's.  But  the  proud  owners  of  the  prairies 
were  contemptuous  alike  of  the  white  man's  painfully  acquired  learning  and 
his  grubbmg  economic  techniques.  It  was  only  when  their  spirit  was  broken 
by  military  defeats  and  the  loss  of  the  buffalo  herds  that  they  turned  in  des- 
peration to  this  untried  way  of  life.  Even  then  they  would  not  listen  to  the 
white  man,  but  over  and  over  in  intertribal  councils  they  appealed  to  the 
civilized  Indians  for  help  and  guidance,  and  from  them  they  accepted  the 
oft-reiterated  advice  to  till  the  soil  and  educate  their  children.  Gradually  their 
schools  filled  up.  They  even  consented  to  send  a  few  of  their  young  people  to 
the  nonreservation  boarding  schools  maintained  by  the  government  at  Car- 
lisle, in  Pennsylvania;  Haskell  at  Lawrence,  Kansas;  and  Chilocco,  in  north- 
ern Indian  Territory. 

At  the  same  time,  schools  were  being  established  for  the  Indians  removed 
from  other  states  to  the  land  ceded  by  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  at  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War.  Some  of  these  immigrants  already  had  imposing  educational 
achievements,  and  they  went  bravely  to  work  amid  the  hardships  of  pioneer- 
ing to  establish  schools  in  their  new  homes.  Others,  broken  and  beaten  by  the 
aggressions  that  had  driven  them  into  exile,  were  too  impoverished  to  take 


EDUCATION  69 

the  initiative,  but  they  responded  to  the  efforts  of  the  government  and  the 
missionaries.  Some,  like  the  Osages,  were  indifferent;  and  some,  especially 
the  Kickapoos,  were  so  resentful  over  their  forced  removal  that  they  rejected 
all  overtures  from  the  race  that  had  exploited  them.  But  these  immigrants 
also  came  under  the  influence  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  and  began  con- 
scientiously to  follow  their  example.  Thus,  through  a  combination  of  tribal 
initiative,  government  paternalism,  and  missionary  devotion,  schools  were 
eventually  established  on  all  these  reservations,  and  children  from  these  tribes 
also  began  to  accept  training  at  Carlisle,  Haskell,  and  Chilocco.  The  most 
successful  missionary  effort  was  carried  on  by  the  Quakers  among  the  Shaw- 
nees,  and  the  Roman  Catholics  among  the  Potawatomis  and  Osages. 

When  these  tribes  began  to  accept  allotments  under  the  Dawes  Act,  and 
their  surplus  land  was  thrown  open  to  the  white  man  (see  History),  a  few 
of  their  children  began  to  attend  the  public  schools  established  in  the  area 
formerly  constituting  their  reservations.  Some  of  the  government  and  mis- 
sionary schools  continued  to  function,  but  the  general  education  of  the  Indians 
came  under  the  supervision  of  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma. 

The  white  settlers  in  the  new  Territory  of  Oklahoma  had  a  serious  edu- 
cational problem  of  their  own,  but  they  undertook  it  with  characteristic  energy 
and  determination.  The  homeseekers  who  arrived  on  that  first  day  in  April, 
1889,  were  too  busy  breaking  prairie,  building  towns,  and  providing  shelter 
for  their  families  to  think  immediately  of  education;  but  the  following  fall, 
although  they  were  entirely  without  organized  government  or  public  funds, 
they  opened  a  few  schools  by  private  subscription.  Their  boys  and  girls,  accus- 
tomed to  living  in  dugouts,  thought  nothing  of  riding  their  ponies  many  miles 
over  the  prairie  to  a  sod  schoolhouse  where  they  sat  on  boxes  or  homemade 
benches  and  studied  from  assorted  textbooks  brought  from  distant  states. 

The  next  spring  the  Organic  Act  was  passed.  The  first  territorial  legis- 
lature, which  met  under  its  provisions  the  following  fall,  made  courageous 
provision  for  education.  The  country  was  divided  into  districts,  embracing 
four  square  miles  (sixteen  homesteads),  for  the  organization  of  rural  schools, 
and  an  elective  superintendent  in  each  county  was  entrusted  with  the  duty  of 
supervision;  towns  of  more  than  2,500  population  were  authorized  to  organize 
as  independent  districts;  and  three  territorial  colleges  were  established.  Provi- 
sion was  also  made  for  uniform  textbooks  and  the  training  and  certification 
of  teachers;  and  the  office  of  territorial  superintendent  of  public  instruction 
was  created. 

The  pioneers  encountered  almost  insuperable  difficulties  in  maintaining 
the  public  schools  established  under  this  act.  By  the  provisions  of  the  Home- 
stead Law,  each  settler  was  allowed  five  years  to  live  on  his  "claim"  before 


70  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

"proving  up"  and  receiving  a  deed.  This  meant  that  very  little  of  the  land  was 
on  the  tax  rolls,  and  so  great  was  the  poverty  of  the  pioneers  that  the  amount 
of  personal  property  subject  to  taxation  was  almost  negligible.  School  terms 
lasted  three  months  or  less,  the  buildings  were  roughly  constructed  shacks, 
and  most  of  the  teachers  had  only  grade  school  education.  Ihe  purchase  of 
textbooks  called  for  real  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  parents;  a  school  reader  or 
a  slate  and  pencil  was  an  acceptable  Christmas  present  for  a  child.  But  the 
settlers  valued  their  meager  educational  opportunities;  present-day  Oklaho- 
mans  who  spent  their  formative  years  under  these  hard  conditions  are  seldom 
well  educated,  but  very  few  are  entirely  illiterate. 

The  colleges  authorized  by  the  first  legislature  were  established  after 
much  trading  of  votes  between  the  ambitious  little  towns  that  had  sprung  up 
so  recently.  A  territorial  university  was  located  at  Norman  on  the  wind-swept 
prairie  bordering  the  South  Canadian;  an  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Col- 
lege was  situated  at  Stillwater  on  the  hillside  overlooking  Stillwater  Creek; 
and  a  Normal  school  for  the  training  of  teachers  was  built  in  the  tangle  of 
blackjacks  and  sand  that  surrounded  the  town  of  Edmond  (sec  Tour  1). 
The  last  two  schools  opened  their  sessions  in  churches  in  the  fall  of  1891 
with  enrollments  of  forty-five  and  twenty-three  respectively.  The  university 
opened  a  year  later,  and  the  first  building  was  ready  for  occupancy  in  Sep- 
tember, 1893.  Most  of  the  instruction  at  these  struggling  litde  colleges  was  of 
high-school  rank,  but  their  faculties  felt  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
future  and  they  labored  to  create  a  literate  leadership  for  the  new  Territory. 

The  legislature  had  provided  that  the  voters  of  each  county  should  decide 
about  the  establishment  of  separate  schools  for  Negro  children.  Some  irregu- 
lar provision  was  made  for  them,  but  their  educational  opportunities  were 
even  more  meager  than  those  of  the  whites.  The  first  institution  for  the  higher 
training  of  Negroes  was  the  Colored  Agricultural  and  Normal  University, 
created  by  an  act  of  the  territorial  legislature  in  1897.  It  was  located  at  Langs- 
ton  (see  Tour  2/1),  an  all-Negro  town  that  had  been  laid  out  on  a  tract  of 
high  rolling  prairie  east  of  Guthrie  the  year  after  the  Run. 

As  the  area  of  Oklahoma  was  increased  by  subsequent  openings,  the 
new  settlements  were  placed  under  the  same  school  law  and  school  adminis- 
tration. In  each  was  the  same  difficult  beginning,  with  nontaxable  land,  pov- 
erty, and  inadequate  instruction;  hence  for  a  few  years  these  sections  lagged 
behind  "Old  Oklahoma"  in  educational  development.  In  an  attempt  to 
equalize  this  disadvantage,  the  territorial  legislature  established  several  col- 
leges in  the  newer  areas — a  normal  school  at  Alva,  in  the  Cherokee  Strip; 
and  another  at  Weatherford,  in  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  country. 

While  this  provision  was  being  made  for  the  children  of  Oklahoma, 


EDUCATION  71 

thousands  of  white  people  who  were  living  as  legal  residents  or  intruders 
in  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  area  were  entirely  without  educational  privi- 
leges. The  Federal  government  therefore  undertook  to  create  a  uniform 
school  system  for  the  Indian  Territory.  Under  a  law  passed  by  Congress  in 
1898,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  assumed  the  management  of  the  tribal 
finances  and  took  over  the  administration  of  the  Indians'  schools.  The  board- 
ing schools,  now  under  the  control  of  Federal  officials,  were  still  maintained 
for  Indian  children;  but  the  rural  schools  were  opened  to  white  children 
upon  the  payment  of  tuition,  first  by  their  parents,  and  later  by  a  Congres- 
sional appropriation.  During  the  same  period,  as  the  townsites  were  platted 
and  sold,  the  newly  organized  municipal  governments  began  to  establish  city 
school  systems  supported  by  a  local  property  tax. 

When  the  "Twin  Territories"  were  united  to  form  the  state  of  Okla- 
homa in  1907,  the  rural  schools  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  became  a  part 
of  the  state  school  system;  and  in  order  to  compensate  the  state  for  the  non- 
taxable Indian  land,  the  Federal  government  paid  tuition  to  these  public 
schools  for  the  attendance  of  Indian  children.  The  state  endeavored  to  equal- 
ize the  opportunities  for  higher  education  throughout  its  extended  juris- 
diction by  establishing  a  number  of  colleges  on  the  "East  Side";  the  most 
important  of  these  were  the  normal  schools  at  Tahlequah  (see  Tour  3),  Ada 
(see  Tour  14),  and  Durant  (see  Tour  6),  and  the  Oklahoma  College  for 
Women  at  Chickasha  (see  Tour  3). 

Most  of  the  great  historic  schools  established  by  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes 
eventually  passed  out  of  existence.  In  most  cases  the  land  was  sold,  and  the 
buildings  were  torn  down.  The  commodious  Female  Seminary  building 
erected  at  Tahlequah  by  the  Cherokees  was  purchased  by  the  state  of  Okla- 
homa for  the  normal  school  established  there;  it  still  dominates  the  campus 
of  the  Northeastern  State  College,  an  object  of  peculiar  interest  to  visitors 
and  of  pride  to  the  Cherokees. 

Six  of  the  schools  formerly  conducted  by  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  are 
still  in  operation  as  Indian  boarding  schools,  but  the  United  States  now  bears 
the  cost  of  maintenance.  Six  other  boarding  schools  are  maintained  by  the 
government  for  Oklahoma  Indians,  and  others  are  conducted  by  religious 
organizations.  Most  of  these  were  established  for  the  western  tribes,  and  they 
have  been  helpful  in  assisting  the  Plains  Indians  to  learn  the  hard  lessons  of 
civilization.  The  graduates  of  these  schools  sometimes  return  to  the  Indian 
neighborhoods,  but  more  often  they  are  merged  in  the  general  citizenship 
of  the  state.  Most  Oklahoma  Indian  children,  like  their  white  playmates, 
attend  the  regular  schools  in  their  communities;  in  1940  out  of  a  total  of 
19,971  young  people  from  six  to  eighteen  years  old  of  one-fourth  or  more 


72     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

Indian  blood,  15,028  were  enrolled  in  the  public  schools.  The  Federal  gov- 
ernment pays  the  local  district  a  small  tuition  fee  for  the  attendance  of  each 
child. 

Except  for  Indian  education,  the  school  system  of  Oklahoma  resembles 
that  of  other  states.  Consolidation  of  districts  and  transportation  of  children 
by  bus  is  becoming  more  and  more  common,  and  high-school  courses  are 
generally  available  throughout  the  state.  The  most  important  development, 
after  1925,  was  the  creation  of  junior  colleges  in  a  number  of  towns  and 
cities  as  a  part  of  the  public  school  system;  enrollment  in  these  in  the  school 
year  1939-40  was  1,772. 

Total  enrollment  in  Oklahoma  public  schools,  kindergarten  to  twelfth 
grade  inclusive,  was  (1939-40)  611,818,  a  decrease  of  17,210  from  the  pre- 
vious year  due  to  the  declining  birth  rate  and  emigration  from  the  more 
arid  sections. 

The  University  of  Oklahoma  and  the  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Me- 
chanical College,  both  of  which  offer  courses  extending  through  the  doc- 
torate, are  at  the  top  of  the  educational  system.  There  are,  in  addition, 
eighteen  state  colleges,  of  which  six  give  normal  training;  and  twenty-eight 
municipal  junior  colleges. 

An  amendment  to  the  constitution  was  adopted  in  1941  providing  for 
a  board  to  co-ordinate  the  work  of  all  state-supported  colleges.  It  is  expected 
that  it  will  eliminate  much  duplication  and  further  reduce  the  dispropor- 
tionate emphasis  on  normal  instruction  which  was  pointed  out  in  the  1935 
Brookings  Institution's  survey  of  education  in  Oklahoma. 

The  Colored  Agricultural  and  Normal  University,  at  Langston,  con- 
tinues its  leadership  in  the  higher  education  and  training  of  Negroes.  Sepa- 
rate schools  have  been  compulsory  since  statehood;  enrollment  in  501  Negro 
schools  in  the  year  1939-40  was  47,579, 

WPA  contributions  to  education  in  Oklahoma  have  included  adult  train- 
ing; correspondence  study;  projects  for  instruction  in  music,  museum  service, 
recreation,  library  service,  and  art;  and  the  provision  of  school  lunches. 
These  have  been  made  available  to  both  whites  and  Negroes.  From  1935 
to  the  middle  of  1940,  the  WPA  has  provided  598  new  school  buildings  for 
whites  and  twenty-three  for  Negroes,  and  has  added  to,  or  renovated,  1,925 
buildings  for  whites  and  eighty-two  for  Negroes. 

As  yet  (1941),  school  libraries  in  Oklahoma  are  in  the  formative  stage. 
The  minimum  requirements  for  a  small  high  school,  for  example,  are  an 
approved  encyclopedia,  a  dictionary,  thirty  books  for  each  English  course, 
ten  for  each  history  course,  and  ten  each  for  courses  in  science,  industrial 
arts,  home  economics,  languages,  agriculture,  and  problems  in  American 


EDUCATION  73 

democracy.  For  elementary  grade  schools  the  requirement  is  merely  "suit- 
able reference  books,  supplementary  readers,  and  children's  books." 

Oklahoma's  public  schools  are  supported  by  taxation,  except  for  a  con- 
siderable endowment  furnished  by  the  Federal  government:  When  the 
western  half  of  the  state  was  opened  for  settlement,  certain  sections  in  each 
township  were  exempt  from  homestead  entry  and  set  aside  for  the  support 
of  education,  and  when  the  Indian  Territory  was  joined  with  Oklahoma, 
the  United  States  made  a  cash  grant  of  $5,000,000  in  lieu  of  such  school 
lands  in  that  part  of  the  state. 

Because  of  the  initiative  taken  by  the  state  in  creating  public  institutions 
of  higher  education,  denominational  and  privately  supported  colleges  have 
never  been  as  important  in  Oklahoma  as  in  other  states.  Such  colleges  do 
exist,  however,  the  most  important  ones  being  the  University  of  Tulsa,  estab- 
lished by  the  Presbyterians,  but  now  supported  by  endowment;  Oklahoma 
City  University,  controlled  by  the  Methodist  Church;  Phillips  University, 
maintained  by  the  Disciples  of  Christ  at  Enid;  Oklahoma  Baptist  University 
and  St.  Gregory's  Catholic  (junior)  College,  both  at  Shawnee;  the  Catholic 
College  of  Oklahoma,  for  women,  at  Guthrie  {see  Tour  10);  and  Bethany 
Peniel  College,  maintained  by  the  Nazarene  Church  at  Bethany  (see  Tour 
1).  Bacone  College,  near  Muskogee  (see  Tour  8),  is  maintained  by  the  Bap- 
tist Church  for  the  education  of  Indian  youths,  the  only  institution  of  its 
kind  in  the  United  States. 


_«j.()j<  ■  ^%  -  ^^j?  -  ^fly  -  *»(!»; ^        ^()»; ^  ,^ jjl)/»2 ^ jjl)^ 


Newspapers 


NEWSPAPER  PUBLICATION  in  Oklahoma  stemmed  from  a  tribal  enter- 
prise of  the  Cherokee  Nation,  before  the  removal  from  Georgia 
and  Tennessee,  when  the  Cherohjse  Phoenix  was  founded  (1828)  to 
stimulate  opposition  to  encroachments  of  whites  on  Indian  lands. 

This  first  paper  was  made  possible  by  the  invention  by  Sequoyah  of 
the  Cherokee  syllabary  and  the  help  of  the  devoted  missionary,  Samuel  Aus- 
tin Worcester.  In  1827  the  tribal  council  made  an  appropriation  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  printing  press;  and  Elias  Boudinot,  a  young  Cherokee  educated 
at  the  Moravian  mission  in  the  Cherokee  country  and  the  Foreign  Mission 
School  at  Cornwall,  Connecticut,  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  printing  office 
which  was  set  up  in  a  log  building  at  New  Echota,  Georgia,  the  Cherokee 
capital,  and  appointed  editor  of  the  tribal  newspaper. 

This  official  publication,  called  Tsa-la-ge  Tsi-le-hi-sa-ni-hi,  or  the  Chero- 
kee Phoenix,  first  appeared  on  February  21,  1828.  It  was  a  weekly,  containing 
columns  in  both  English  and  Cherokee,  and  attracted  international  attention. 
Incomplete  files  are  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress, and  the  Oklahoma  State  Historical  Society.  After  about  six  years,  the 
printing  plant  was  seized  by  the  authorities  of  Georgia  in  the  campaign  to 
force  the  Indians  out  of  the  state.  The  Cherokees  were  driven  to  the  West 
in  1838-39,  and  almost  as  soon  as  they  had  established  themselves  in  their 
new  home  they  revived  their  tribal  newspaper. 

Their  new  periodical,  the  bilingual  Chero\ee  Advocate,  was  established 
under  tribal  law,  enacted  October  25,  1843,  to  disseminate  useful  knowledge 
among  the  Cherokee  people,  and  "send  abroad  correct  information  of  their 
condition,  and  of  passing  events  generally  among  the  different  Indian  tribes." 
An  editor,  elected  for  a  four-year  term  by  the  National  Council,  was  directed 
to  "support  and  defend  the  National  Rights  of  the  Cherokees,  and  those 
recognized  in  all  acknowledged  treaties  with  the  United  States,  and  such 
measures  as  will  in  his  opinion  conduce  to  their  best  interests,  in  a  moral 
and  civil  point  of  view." 

74 


NEWSPAPERS  75 

William  P.  Ross,  an  able  mixed-blood  Cherokee  and  a  graduate  of 
Princeton,  was  the  first  editor.  A  translator  from  English  into  Cherokee 
and  two  printers  were  also  employed. 

The  first  issue  appeared  on  September  26,  1844,  at  Tahlequah  (see  Tour 
3).  Except  for  gaps  due  to  the  Civil  War,  a  disastrous  fire  that  destroyed 
the  plant,  and  the  exigencies  of  tribal  finances,  publication  was  continuous 
until  the  dissolution  of  the  Cherokee  government  in  1906.  When  the  Chero- 
kees  surrendered  their  tribal  autonomy,  their  printing  establishment  was 
sold.  Some  of  the  Cherokee  type  was  deposited  with  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution; the  rest  passed  into  private  hands  and  has  been  lost. 

The  influence  of  the  Cherokee  Advocate  extended  to  educated  Indians 
throughout  the  Territory  and  it  was  probably  this  influence  that  convinced 
the  Creek  leaders  of  the  need  for  an  intertribal  newspaper  to  defend  the 
cause  of  all  Indians  against  hostile  propaganda. 

In  1875  the  Creek  delegates  presented  this  plan  at  the  last  meeting  of 
the  Intertribal  Council  at  Okmulgee  and  argued  earnestly  for  its  adoption. 
When  the  other  delegates  failed  to  approve,  the  Creeks  then  undertook  to 
carry  it  on  as  a  tribal  project.  A  franchise  was  issued  to  a  corporation,  the 
International  Printing  Company,  composed  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Tribes. 
William  P.  Ross  was  employed  as  editor,  and  Dr.  Myron  P.  Roberts,  a  white 
man  from  the  north,  was  in  charge  of  publication. 

The  first  number  of  the  paper,  the  Indian  Journal,  appeared  at  Musko- 
gee in  May,  1876.  Columns  in  both  English  and  Creek  were  printed  for  a 
time,  but  the  latter  section  eventually  lapsed  through  lack  of  popular  demand. 
Under  Ross's  direction,  the  paper  undertook  the  active  defense  of  all  Indians 
in  the  United  States  and  exposed  the  personal  and  interested  motives  of  their 
opponents;  but  it  never  exerted  a  strong  influence  upon  the  conservative 
elements  of  the  Creek  population.  It  was  subsidized  for  a  time  by  the  tribal 
government;  then  it  passed  into  private  hands  and  gradually  lost  its  Indian 
character.  It  is  now  published  at  Eufaula  and  is  the  oldest  surviving  news- 
paper in  Oklahoma. 

In  1883,  the  Choctaw  Council  made  an  appropriation  for  a  tribal  news- 
paper, the  Indian  Champion,  and  employed  Roberts'  two  sons,  who  had 
become  the  proprietors  of  the  Indian  Journal,  as  editor  and  publisher.  Allen 
Wright,  a  brilliant  and  educated  Choctaw  who  had  served  as  chief,  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  native  language  section.  The  publication  began  at 
Atoka  in  February,  1884,  and  continued  for  a  little  more  than  a  year. 

The  denominational  press  reinforced  the  efforts  of  Indian  leaders  to 
create  an  informed  public  opinion.  After  Worcester  helped  to  launch  the 
Chero\ee  Advocate,  missionaries  ceased  to  have  any  connection  with  the 


76     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

tribal  newspaper  and  confined  their  efforts  to  religious  periodicals.  Though 
most  of  them  were  short-lived,  they  made  a  vital  contribution  to  Indian 
Territory  journalism. 

The  first  issue  of  the  Cherol^cc  Messenger,  published  at  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sion, appeared  in  August,  1844,  antedating  the  Cherokee  Advocate  about 
a  month;  hence  it  holds  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  periodical  published 
in  the  present  state.  The  Indian  Missionary,  a  monthly  also  published  by  the 
Baptists,  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  its  successors.  Similar  in  char- 
acter, Our  Brother  in  Red,  a  Methodist  publication  with  Cherokee  and 
Creek  sections,  began  publication  at  Muskogee  in  1882  as  a  monthly  journal 
and  changed  to  a  weekly  in  1887.  At  one  time  it  reported  a  circulation  of 
1,820. 

Other  periodicals  were  issued  from  time  to  time  by  the  faculties  and 
students  of  the  boarding  schools,  most  of  which  were  under  missionary  aus- 
pices. Our  Monthly,  published  at  TuUahassee  from  1873  to  about  1876  by 
the  Robertson  family  and  their  Creek  assistants  and  supported  by  the  Creek 
Council,  was  distributed  free.  In  one  sense,  therefore,  it  was  a  tribal  news 
bulletin  and  a  forerunner  of  the  Indian  Journal. 

The  publications  of  the  Cherokee  seminaries  show  a  student  participa- 
tion as  lively  as  that  of  any  modern  college  periodical.  At  Park  Hill,  cul- 
tural center  of  the  Cherokees,  students  of  the  Female  Seminary  began  in 
1854  to  publish  a  magazine  known  as  Chero\ee  Rose  Buds.  Here,  in  the 
sentimental  language  affected  by  "females"  in  that  far-off  time,  one  may 
catch  glimpses  of  genuine  girlish  idealism,  innocent  gaiety,  and  a  devoted 
patriotism.  These  lines  are  characteristic: 

Like  roses  bright  we  hope  to  grow, 
And  o'er  our  home  such  beauty  throw 
In  future  years — that  all  may  sec 
Loveliest  of  lands, — the  Cherokee. 

Another  young  writer,  under  the  caption,  "View  from  our  Seminary," 
describes  Park  Hill  as  "peeping  from  among  the  trees.  .  .  .  Instead  of  the 
rudely  constructed  wigwams  of  our  forefathers  .  .  .  elegant  white  dwelhngs 
are  seen.  Everything  around  denotes  taste,  refinement,  and  progress  of  civi- 
lization among  our  people."  At  the  Male  Seminary  was  issued  a  small  weekly 
newspaper,  the  Sequoyah  Memorial.  Its  motto  was  "Truth,  Justice,  Freedom 
of  Speech  and  Cherokee  Improvement,"  and  it  printed  both  seminary  and 
outside  news.  One  of  the  editors  was  Joel  B.  Mayes,  who  afterwards  served 
the  nation  as  principal  chief. 

The  development  of  the  religious  and  public  press  was  paralleled  by 
private  newspaper  enterprise.  At  least  four  such  papers  appeared  before  the 


NEWSPAPERS  77 

Civil  War — the  Choctaw  Telegraph,  founded  in  1848  at  Doaksville;  the 
Choctaw  Intelligencer,  started  in  1850  by  a  white  man  and  a  native  preacher; 
the  Chickasaw  Intelligencer,  issued  in  the  Chickasaw  Nation;  and  the  Chick- 
asaw and  Choctaw  Herald,  published  during  1858  and  1859  at  Tishomingo, 
the  Chickasaw  capital. 

All  were  short-lived.  The  few  extant  copies  present  an  interesting  pic- 
ture of  everyday  happenings  among  the  whites  and  mixed  bloods  of  that 
period.  Their  advertisements  show  the  business  that  was  carried  on  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  trading  posts;  one  merchant,  for  example,  was  willing  to  sell 
for  "CASH,  Hides,  Pecans,  Corn,  Dressed  Skins  or  Buffalo  Robes,"  and 
several  offered  "Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  Stripes"  among  their  important 
dry  goods  items. 

The  Civil  War  halted  newspaper  development,  but  in  the  period  follow- 
ing new  impetus  was  given  to  publication  by  increasing  white  immigration. 
Most  of  the  papers  were  "Booster  Sheets,"  hostile  to  the  Indian  regime  and 
clamoring  for  the  opening  of  the  country  to  white  settlement;  it  is  certain 
that  at  least  one  of  them  was  operated  by  a  man  in  the  pay  of  the  railroads. 
These  foreign  publications  usually  deemed  it  expedient  to  carry  articles  in 
the  local  Indian  language. 

After  1880,  newspapers  multiplied  rapidly  as  the  country  filled  with 
white  settlers.  During  the  late  eighties  and  early  nineties  several  periodicals 
were  established  upon  a  stable  and  permanent  basis.  The  Musl^ogee  Phoenix, 
founded  in  1888  by  Dr.  Leo  E.  Bennett,  an  able  young  white  man  who  had 
married  a  Creek  citizen,  became  a  semi  weekly  in  1895,  and  a  daily  in  1901. 
While  friendly  to  the  Indians  and  their  institutions,  it  recorded  news  events 
from  the  white  man's  point  of  view.  From  the  first  it  set  a  high  editorial 
standard,  and  it  is  still  (1941)  one  of  the  influential  newspapers  of  the  state. 
The  Indian  Citizen,  successor  to  the  Atol^a  Independent,  was  established  in 
1889.  Owned  and  edited  by  James  S.  Standley,  an  able  mixed-blood  Choc- 
taw, his  daughter.  Norma,  and  his  white  son-in-law,  Butler  S.  Smiser,  it  was 
the  most  completely  Indian  in  its  news  content  and  editorial  policy  of  any 
paper  ever  published  in  the  Indian  Territory. 

Two  similar  newspapers  were  published  in  the  Cherokee  Nation.  The 
Indian  Chieftain,  started  at  Vinita  in  1882,  was  edited  at  different  times  by 
the  Cherokees  Robert  L.  Owen — one  of  the  first  United  States  senators  from 
Oklahoma — William  P.  Ross  and  John  L.  Adair.  Devoted  at  first  to  Chero- 
kee news  and  political  issues,  it  passed  into  the  control  of  white  men  in  1891 
and  became  an  exponent  of  the  white  man's  point  of  view.  The  Indian 
Arrow  was  founded  at  Fort  Gibson  in  1888  by  a  Cherokee  stock  company, 
with  William  P.  Ross  as  editor;  in  1894  it  was  consolidated  with  the  Tahle- 


78  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

qitah  Telephone,  a  paper  launched  in  1887  and  published  irregularly  by  a 
succession  of  white  and  Cherokee  editors. 

The  Tahlequah  Telephone  attempted  a  daily  in  1889,  but  the  first  real 
daily  in  the  Territory,  the  Daily  C hie j tain,  was  launched  at  Ardmore  in  1892, 
and  the  Ardmoreite  was  started  the  next  year.  Both  these  papers  recorded 
the  growth  of  the  Chickasaw  country  as  a  rapidly  developing  white  frontier. 
The  Ardmoreite,  owned  and  managed  by  Sidney  Suggs,  soon  became  one 
of  the  leading  newspapers  of  the  Indian  Territory  and  is  still  (1941)  one  of 
the  state's  influential  journals.  The  first  daily  paper  in  Muskogee,  published 
in  1896,  was  the  Morning  Times.  It  also  was  a  white  man's  newspaper, 
but  it  was  edited  for  a  time  by  the  gifted  mixed-blood  Creek  writer,  Alex 
Posey.  It  was  merged  with  another  periodical,  the  Mus\ogee  Democrat,  and 
under  the  name  Times-Democrat  it  continues — as  a  contemporary  of  the 
Muskpgee  Phoenix — to  serve  the  readers  of  a  large  section  of  Oklahoma. 

Against  this  background  of  newspaper  activity,  the  Indian  Territory 
Press  Association  came  into  being  at  Muskogee,  March  19,  1888,  and  in  the 
early  1900's  it  became  merged  with  a  similar  society  representing  the  news- 
papers of  Oklahoma  Territory. 

Three  periodicals  were  launched  in  the  Indian  reservations  that  com- 
prised Oklahoma  Territory  before  the  coming  of  the  white  man.  The  first 
was  probably  the  Indian  Herald,  published  during  1875-78  at  Pawhuska, 
the  seat  of  the  Osage  Agency.  Edited  by  William  McKay  Dugan,  the  Agency 
physician,  it  reflected  the  Quaker  influence  that  at  that  time  dominated  the 
administration  of  Indian  affairs.  It  gave  a  sympathetic  account  of  daily  hap- 
penings among  the  Osages,  their  painful  agricultural  progress,  their  last 
buffalo  hunting  expedition  to  the  West,  the  development  of  mission  and 
agency  schools  in  their  country,  and  the  doings  of  their  chiefs  and  leaders. 

At  Darlington,  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Agency,  the  Cheyenne 
Transporter  first  appeared  on  December  5,  1879,  and  was  continued  until 
1886.  Started  as  the  voice  of  missionary  enterprise  to  inform  eastern  philan- 
thropists of  the  progress  made  in  civilizing  the  Plains  tribes,  it  soon  passed 
into  private  hands,  but  it  continued  to  support  the  educational  work  carried 
on  by  the  government  and  the  religious  societies.  Supporting  the  Indians  and 
the  cattlemen  in  opposing  the  opening  of  the  country  to  white  settlement,  it 
printed  caustic  articles  about  the  Boomers. 

The  Boomers  had  a  newspaper  of  their  own,  the  Of(lahoma  War  Chief 
or  the  0/{lahoma  Chief,  official  organ  of  David  L.  Payne,  Boomer  leader, 
and  it  was  published  precariously  from  1883  to  1886  at  various  places  along 
the  Kansas  border.  For  a  short  time  in  1884 — June  14  to  August  7 — it  was 
printed  on  the  forbidden  land  within  the  present  limits  of  Oklahoma,  on 


NEWSPAPERS  79 

the  Chikaskia  River  twenty-five  miles  northwest  of  Ponca  City.  Here  several 
hundred  Boomers  had  established  a  settlement  of  tents  and  rough  plank 
houses,  which  they  named  Rock  Falls.  On  the  door  of  the  shack  used  as  the 
printing  office  was  defiantly  tacked  a  government  warning  that  any  person 
attempting  to  publish  a  newspaper  in  the  "Cherokee  Strip"  would  be  guilty 
of  trespass  and  subject  to  fine  and  imprisonment. 

Payne  managed  to  secure  printers  willing  to  take  the  risk,  and  the 
papers  sold  as  fast  as  printed  at  ten  cents  a  copy,  until  soldiers  arrested  Payne 
and  the  other  leaders,  set  fire  to  the  printing  office,  and  escorted  the  Boomers 
to  the  Kansas  line. 

An  entirely  different  type  of  publication  was  developing  at  the  same 
time  among  the  settlers  in  the  far  western  section  known  as  "No  Man's 
Land."  The  first  paper  in  this  region,  the  Beaver  City  Pioneer,  began  its  brief 
career  June  19,  1886,  with  the  slogan,  "Westward  the  Star  of  Empire  Takes 
its  Way."  The  next  year  a  second  publication,  the  Territorial  Advocate,  was 
started  at  Beaver  City,  and  a  third,  the  Benton  County  Banner,  was  launched 
at  Benton  in  1888.  The  fourth  paper,  the  Hardesty  Times — soon  changed 
to  the  Hardesty  Herald — began  publication  in  October,  1890,  in  a  sod  house 
that  served  as  the  combination  home  and  office  of  the  editor. 

After  "No  Man's  Land"  was  joined  to  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma  in 
1890  as  Beaver  County,  newspapers  multiplied.  Among  the  able  editors  of 
these  papers  were  Richard  Briggs  (Dick)  Quinn  and  Maude  O.  Thomas. 
Quinn,  the  editor  of  the  Hardesty  Herald,  nursed  the  ambitious  little  settle- 
ment of  Hardesty  from  its  beginning  as  a  station  on  a  cattle  trail,  through 
railroad  booms  and  townsite  exploitation,  and  saw  it  become  a  ghost  town. 
Quinn  then  assisted  in  organizing  the  company  which  established  the  town- 
site  of  Guymon  at  a  switch  on  the  railroad  nineteen  miles  to  the  northwest, 
and  the  Hardesty  Herald  became  the  Guymon  Herald.  Maude  Thomas  came 
to  "No  Man's  Land"  in  early  childhood,  grew  up  at  Beaver  City,  and  became 
the  editor  and  publisher  of  the  Beaver  Herald  in  1902.  When  the  Beaver 
County  Editorial  Association  was  organized  at  Guymon  in  1905,  Quinn  was 
elected  president,  and  Miss  Thomas  secretary  and  treasurer.  H.  H.  Hubbart 
took  over  the  paper  in  1928,  at  which  time  it  became  the  Herald  Democrat. 

The  Guthrie  Getup  was  probably  the  pioneer  newspaper  actually  pub- 
lished in  the  new  Oklahoma  Territory.  Its  first  number  appeared  a  week 
after  the  Run  of  April  22,  1889.  Its  salutatory,  typical  of  pioneer  Oklahoma, 
began,  "The  Guthrie  Getup  prances  into  the  promised  land  at  the  head  of 
the  procession.  .  .  .  Praise  God  all  ye  good  people,  and  let  these  prairies 
resound  to  the  measured  strokes  of  our  job  press.  Ah,  there  is  the  rub,  if  you 
do  not  give  us  job  work  we  will  have  to  go  back  to  our  wife's  folks.  This 


80  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

would  place  US  in  a  h of  a  fix,  as  vvc  arc  not  married.  Our  last  statement 

is  especially  directed  to  single  ladies  who  hold  corner  lots.  .  .  ." 

This  paper  ran  only  a  few  weeks  until  it  was  absorbed  by  a  competitor. 
The  same  fate  overtook  several  other  newspapers  started  in  Guthrie  that 
first  year.  But  three  dailies  survived  from  these  ambitious  ventures,  and  all 
three  were  influential  in  shaping  and  recording  the  development  of  the 
Territory. 

The  State  Capital,  established  by  Frank  Hilton  Greer,  was  first  printed 
at  Winfield,  Kansas,  three  weeks  before  the  Opening.  It  was  soon  moved  to 
Guthrie,  where  at  first,  like  many  another  ambitious  business  enterprise,  it  was 
established  in  a  tent.  It  ran  both  a  daily  and  a  weekly  edition,  and  its  influence 
extended  with  the  years  throughout  the  increasing  area  of  the  Territory. 

The  Daily  News  also  began  publication  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  Run. 
It  purchased  a  number  of  the  ephemeral  publications  that  sprang  up  at  that 
time  and  entered  upon  a  stable  career  of  daily  and  weekly  service.  The  Daily 
Leader  was  the  successor  of  one  of  the  short-lived  newspapers  of  the  Terri- 
ritory,  and  it  still  serves  a  large  area  in  central  Oklahoma. 

The  number  of  society  and  other  special  publications  established  at 
Guthrie  during  its  first  ten  years  illustrates  the  vigor  of  early  Oklahoma 
Territory  life.  The  list  includes  three  religious  periodicals,  two  farm  papers, 
three  lodge  organs,  one  medical  journal,  an  official  teachers'  journal,  one 
foreign  language  publication,  one  Negro  newspaper,  and  four  populist  pub- 
lications. 

Newspaper  enterprise  in  Guthrie  was  closely  paralleled  by  the  develop- 
ment in  the  enterprising  rival  settlement  of  Oklahoma  City.  Four  dailies 
were  launched  there  the  first  year.  The  0\lahoma  City  Times  was  started 
even  before  the  Run,  when  "Oklahoma  City"  was  only  a  railroad  siding. 
Written  on  the  spot,  the  copy  was  sent  to  Wichita,  Kansas,  for  printing.  The 
first  issue  appeared  December  29,  1888.  The  novelty  of  a  newspaper  bearing 
an  "Oklahoma  City"  date  line  appealed  to  eastern  readers  and  subscriptions 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  even  from  foreign  countries. 
But  its  editor  was  ejected  by  soldiers  from  Fort  Reno.  Publication  was  con- 
tinued irregularly  at  Wichita,  or  at  Purcell,  a  border  town  in  the  Chickasaw 
Nation  just  across  the  South  Canadian  River  from  the  "Oklahoma  Lands." 
It  became  a  daily  on  lune  30,  1889. 

The  first  paper  actually  printed  in  Oklahoma  City,  beginning  on  May  9, 
1889,  was  the  Oklahoma  Times,  published  bv  Winfield  W.  and  Ansielo  C. 
Scott.  Housed  in  a  tent  and  a  partially  constructed  building,  the  printing  was 
done  to  the  sound  of  hammers  that  marked  the  growth  of  the  rapidly  rising 
town.  Because  of  the  confusion  of  names  with  the  Oklahoma  City  Times, 


NEWSPAPERS  81 

the  second  issue  bore  the  title  Ohjahoma  Journal.  The  daily  edition  started 
on  June  3.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  it  bought  out  its  rival,  and  became  the 
0}{lahoma  City  Times-journal.  Through  various  changes  of  ownership  and 
management  it  has  continued  to  the  present  day  and  appears  as  the  Ol{la- 
homa  City  Times,  Oklahoma  City's  evening  newspaper. 

The  Daily  01{lahoman  and  the  Evening  Gazette  were  also  established 
in  1889.  The  0\lahoman  eventually  absorbed  its  competitor  and  increased 
in  influence  and  circulation  until  it  became  one  of  the  most  prominent  news- 
papers of  the  Territory.  Since  statehood,  it  has  continued,  as  Oklahoma  City's 
morning  paper,  to  grow  in  prestige  and  importance. 

As  Oklahoma  Territory  was  enlarged  by  successive  openings,  news- 
papers appeared  in  each  new  area.  Some,  like  the  Enid  Eagle  established  by 
Omer  K.  Benedict  and  Charles  E.  Hunter  five  days  after  the  opening  of  the 
Cherokee  Outlet,  have  survived  as  important  dailies.  Of  the  country  news- 
papers, the  Watonga  Republican,  owned  and  edited  by  Thompson  D.  Fergu- 
son and  his  wife,  has  achieved  prominence.  Mrs.  Ferguson  in  They  Carried 
the  Torch  (1937),  has  written  an  unforgettable  description  of  the  journey 
from  Sedan,  Kansas,  with  the  press  and  type  packed  in  one  covered  wagon 
and  the  editor's  wife,  with  a  baby  on  her  lap  and  a  small  boy  by  her  side, 
driving  another  that  contained  the  camp  equipment.  They  arrived  at  the 
little  new  town  of  Watonga  in  the  fall  of  1892,  about  six  months  after  the 
opening  of  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  country,  and  set  up  a  combination 
printing  office  and  home  in  an  unpainted  wooden  building.  Their  news- 
paper soon  became  a  power  in  Republican  politics  and  a  stabilizing  influence 
on  that  raw  frontier.  In  1901,  Ferguson  was  appointed  by  President  Roose- 
velt as  governor  of  Oklahoma  Territory.  Mrs.  Ferguson's  career — pictured 
in  a  different  and  imaginary  setting — was  used  by  Edna  Ferber  in  her 
novel,  Cimarron. 

The  Oklahoma  Territory  Press  Association  was  formed  soon  after  the 
first  opening.  In  turn,  it  founded  the  Oklahoma  Historical  Society  in  1893 
at  Kingfisher  and  began  a  systematic  preservation  of  newspapers  and  other 
documents  recording  the  development  of  the  territories.  Out  of  this  far- 
sighted  action  has  grown  the  extensive  collection  of  newspaper  files  now 
preserved  in  the  Historical  Society  building  in  Oklahoma  City. 

Newspapers  multiplied  rapidly  in  the  Twin  Territories  between  1900 
and  the  advent  of  statehood.  The  discovery  of  oil  brought  a  new  and  dramatic 
feature  into  Indian  Territory  iournalism  at  this  period.  In  1902,  as  Bartlesville 
began  its  growth  from  a  typical  Cherokee  trading  post  to  an  oil  center,  the 
Bartlesville  Magnet  advertised  itself  as  "The  Only  Newspaper  Published  in 
the  Natural  Gas  and  Petroleum  Region  of  the  Indian  Territory."  In  the  same 


82     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GHNHRAL  BACKGROUND 

year  the  boom  lovvn  of  Red  Fork  launched  two  newspapers,  the  Derrick  and 
the  Illuminator.  Tulsa,  which  had  been  developing  gradually  from  a  cow 
town  on  the  Frisco  to  a  community  trading  center,  was  headlined  as  the  oil 
capital  of  the  region,  and  eventually  as  the  "Oil  Capital  of  the  World";  and 
its  struggling  weekly  newspapers  blossomed  into  metropolitan  dailies.  The 
most  notable  of  these  were  the  Tulsa  World,  which  is  now  one  of  Oklahoma's 
leading  papers,  and  the  Tulsa  Democrat,  predecessor  to  the  present  Tulsa 
Tribune.  The  importance  of  oil  development  was  indicated  by  the  growth  of 
the  Oil  and  Gas  Journal,  founded  by  the  Petroleum  Publishing  Company  in 
1902;  this  publication  has  increased  in  importance  and  is  read  by  oil  men 
throughout  the  world.  The  interest  in  approaching  statehood  was  reflected 
in  Tulsa  by  the  launching  of  such  publications  as  the  Of(lahoma  Constitution, 
founded  as  a  weekly  m  1904  and  changed  to  a  daily  in  1906;  the  Netf  State 
Farm  and  Home,  started  about  1905;  and  Sturm's  Statehood  Magazine,  estab- 
lished in  1905.  The  Oklahoma  News,  Oklahoma  City,  was  established  about 
this  time  and  operated  as  a  Scripps-Howard  paper  until  its  demise  in  1939. 

During  the  session  of  1905-06  it  became  certain  that  Congress  would 
authorize  the  Twin  Territories  to  enter  the  Union  as  one  state.  On  May  18,  a 
month  before  the  Enabling  Act  was  actually  passed,  newspaper  men  of  the 
two  territories  met  at  Shawnee,  Oklahoma  Territory,  and  arranged  for  cover- 
ing the  news  of  the  proposed  constitutional  convention  and  the  future  state 
legislature.  Although  a  certain  division  of  "East  Side"  and  "West  Side"  inter- 
ests persisted  for  a  few  years  after  statehood,  journalism  in  the  new  state 
developed  harmoniously. 

At  present  (1941)  there  are  in  Oklahoma  sixty  dailies  and  230  weekly  or 
semiweekly  newspapers.  Circulation  ranges  from  the  101,154  subscribers  of 
the  Oklahoman  to  the  small  list  of  the  struggling  country  weekly.  Besides  the 
regular  newspapers  there  are  a  number  of  special  news  journals.  The  Ameri- 
can Guardian,  a  Socialist  weekly  of  Oklahoma  City  edited  by  Oscar  Amering- 
er,  has  an  international  circulation.  The  Blac\  Dispatch,  the  most  widely 
circulated  of  a  long  succession  of  Negro  publications,  presents  local  and  gen- 
eral news  from  an  alert  and  intelligent  racial  point  of  view. 

All  these  publications  are  received  regularly  by  the  State  Historical  Soci- 
ety, which  has  18,134  bound  volumes  in  its  newspaper  stacks.  These  record  a 
period  of  change  from  an  unsettled  region  to  the  complex  social  and  industrial 
institutions  of  modern  American  life.  A  fitting  recognition  of  this  achieve- 
ment took  place  in  1935,  when  the  University  of  Oklahoma  Press  sponsored 
a  state-wide  celebration  of  the  Centennial  of  Printing  and  published  early  in 
1936  Carolyn  Thomas  Foreman's  Oklahoma  Imprints,  a  comprehensive  his- 
tory of  newspaper  development  in  the  two  territories  that  formed  the  state. 


^l\flj ,— sjiJli . ., ^^'!z .  - Ej^i! ,- ^^12. - ^^'li -  - ^^12 -  - eJ''^ 


Land  of  the  Indians 


rZ/(i$5 — "      rv{j^ — '      Tvij^ — '      rvi^^ — "     r^^i^s    '      rj^i^s    '      tinj^         r^;i^ 


BUREAU  OF  AMERICAN  ETHNOLOGY 

CHOCTAW   INDIAN   BALL   PLAYER    :    CATLIN 


CHOCTAW  BOYS  PLAYING  BALL  AT  TUSKAHOMA 


will  IK    :   \\i\\ 


•^. 


PONCA  INDIANS  ( ABOUT  I900) 


far. 


PHILLIPS  COLLtcnON,   UNlVtRSlTY  Ol-    OKLAHOMJI 


CHEYENNE  CAMP  (aBOUT  I9OO) 

PHILLIPS  COLLECTION,  UNIVERSITY  01    OKLAHOM.^ 


\v 


f^ 


^^ 


'liJ 


L  S  il  LDIO,  LAWTON 

GERONIMO,  APACHE  CHIEF 
CHOCTAW   INDIAN  FARM  WOMAN 

LEF     :    IS\ 


SEQUOYAH,  INVENTOR  OF 
THE  CHEROKEE  SYLLABARY 

AN  INDIAN  MATRON 
CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO   AGENCY 

U.  S.  INDIAN  SERVICE 


^ 


'  •' 


FRED  LOOKOUT,  CHIEF  OF  THE  OSAGE,  WITH  WIFE  AND  GRANDCHILD 

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO  SCHOOL  CHILDREN  IN  CHRISTMAS  PLAY 


U.  S.    IVDI  \\    M  K\  liE 


ROY  Yin  \i. 

INDIAN  DANCERS  AT  ANADARKO 


INDIAN  DRUMMERS 


EXNIS  r.  HELM 


^*:^:.\' .^jtAtilt^-i 


WHITE    :    WP  \ 

SEQUOYAH  SHRINE,  ENCLOSING  HIS  OLD  CABIN,  NORTH  OF   SALLISAW 

LOG  WATER  PIPE,  LAID  BY  INDIANS  MORE  THAN  A  CENTURY  AGO 


WHITF     :    WPf 


-^ii-j^i^^^lr^^- 


BUREAU  OF  AMERICAN  ETHNOLOGY 

CHOCTAW  BALL  PLAY  DANCE    :   CATLIN 

V.  S.  INDIAN  SERVICE 


INDIAN  ARTISTS  OF  TODAY 


.   ,-1&'  ■'^. 


A  NATIVE  SCHOOLBOY  GRASPS  AN  OPPORTUNITY 
TO  LEARN  BY  DOING 


^fidnj ^!),i^ ^(j/ij ^ ^(\/vi ^, ^^iij ^  ^ zl.!)/ij ^ ^O/ij ^  , jjH/^ 


Literature 

By  KENNETH  C.  KAUFMAN 


LITERATURE  in  Oklahoma  is  as  new  as  a  baby's  first  tooth,  and  yet  it  ante- 
dates the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  by  almost  a  century.  For  there  were 
j  white  men  in  Oklahoma  long  before  Plymouth  Rock  served  as  the 
world's  most  famous  stepping  stone;  and  one  of  them  was  writing  a  book. 
His  name  was  Castaiiada  and  he  was  the  historian  of  the  famous  expedition 
of  Coronado,  who  passed  through  a  part  of  what  is  now  Oklahoma  in  search 
of  the  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola.  To  be  sure  the  line  of  succession  was  sadly  inter- 
rupted, as  it  has  been  several  times  since,  and  it  was  a  long  time  after  this  first 
writing  before  literature  began  in  earnest.  But  whether  the  reason  is  to  be 
found  in  the  air  or  the  soil  or  the  sweep  of  the  landscape,  something  there  is 
in  Oklahoma  which  impels  the  sojourner  of  a  few  days  as  well  as  the  long- 
time resident  to  express  himself  on  paper.  Washington  Irving,  who  was, 
admittedly,  a  connoisseur  of  places  to  write  about,  had  been  in  Oklahoma 
only  a  few  weeks  when  he  began  his  Tour  on  the  Prairies.  That  was  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  A  dozen  years  before,  the  naturalist  Nuttall  was  writing  a 
book  on  Oklahoma  wild  life  which  is  today  a  highly  prized  collector's  item. 

Irving  had  scarcely  left  the  prairies  before  the  Indians  themselves  were 
not  only  doing  considerable  writing  but  publishing  books.  Before  they  were 
driven  out  of  their  ancient  homes  in  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  North  Caro- 
lina, Tennessee,  and  Mississippi  by  Andrew  Jackson,  backed  by  the  United 
States  Army,  they  were  actually  on  a  cultural  level  superior  to  that  of  the 
whites  who  dispossessed  them. 

The  amazing  intellectual  advance  of  the  Cherokees  was  due  in  large 
measure  to  the  invention  of  a  Cherokee  syllabary  by  Sequoyah  (George  Gist), 
who,  although  his  father  was  supposed  to  have  been  a  white  man,  was  un- 
acquainted with  English,  and  totally  illiterate.  He  was,  however,  an  artist  (a 
silversmith  by  trade)  and  a  thinker.  Intrigued  by  the  white  man's  "talking 

83 


84  OKLAHOMA:    THli    GtNEKAL    BACKGROUND 

leaves,"  he  began  to  study  the  possihiHty  of  an  Indian  alphabet.  A  process  of 
trial  and  error  showed  him  that  there  are  eighty-five  possible  syllables  in  the 
Cherokee  language;  he  invented  symbols  for  those  sounds.  (Some  of  them 
he  copied  from  an  English  newspaper;  however,  he  could  not  understand 
them  and  merely  borrowed  them  for  convenience.)  His  system  was  so  logical 
and  so  simple  that  any  intelligent  Cherokee  could  master  the  syllabary  in 
three  days  and  so  begin  immediately  to  read.  Thus  the  whole  nation  became 
literate  almost  overnight.  The  achievement  of  Sequoyah  was  one  of  the  great- 
est triumphs  of  the  human  intellect  in  any  age  among  any  people. 

In  1835,  Samuel  Austin  Worcester,  a  missionary  who  came  with  the 
Cherokees  from  their  old  home,  set  up  at  Union  Mission  (see  Tour  8),  in 
northeastern  Oklahoma,  a  printing  press  and  almost  at  once  proceeded  to 
publish  a  book,  a  sort  of  primer — not  in  Cherokee,  however,  but  in  the 
Creek  language.  Only  two  or  three  copies  are  known  to  exist.  Book  publica- 
tion in  Oklahoma,  therefore,  is  seventy-two  years  older  than  the  state.  This 
press,  soon  removed  to  Park  Hill  (see  Tour  3),  began  publication  of  an  Alma- 
nac; it  poured  out  books,  pamphlets,  and  tracts  by  the  millions  of  impressions, 
even  a  number  of  pieces  of  fictional  writing  by  native  authors,  some  of  whom 
had  been  well  educated  in  the  North.  These  were,  ordinarily,  stories  designed 
to  teach  the  Christian  way  of  life,  either  by  setting  forth  the  triumph  of  the 
faithful  or  the  horrible  fate  of  sinners.  Today  they  are  rare  and  eagerly  sought 
after. 

Indeed,  most  of  the  writings  done  by  the  Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  and  their  missionaries  and  other  white  friends  concerned  religion  or 
tribal  politics  and  so  have  no  place  in  an  account  of  literature  as  such.  Shortly 
before  the  Civil  War,  however,  a  young  Cherokee  named  John  Rollin  Ridge 
was  writing  poetry.  His  poems  are  conventional  and  in  their  melancholy  and 
tenderness  reflect  the  prevailing  taste  of  their  day.  But  they  compare  favorably 
with  the  work  of  white  poets  of  the  period. 

The  Civil  War  disrupted  the  peaceful  progress  of  the  Cherokees  as  well 
as  of  the  other  Civilized  Tribes  and  put  a  stop  to  what  might  have  become  a 
truly  indigenous  literature,  so  that  the  writings  of  Oklahomans  of  Indian 
blood  are  no  longer  in  general  distinguishable  from  those  of  the  Anglo- 
Americans. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  there  was  no  writing  worthy  of  mention 
from  the  Civil  War  to  the  era  of  statehood;  army  officers  and  missionaries, 
cattlemen  and  Indian  agents  often  believed  their  experiences  worth  putting 
into  print,  and  such  volumes  as  Thomas  C.  Battcy's  A  Quaker  Among  the 
Indians  (1875)  and  Mrs.  Byer's  Fort  Reno  (1896)  arc  today  valuable  as  his- 
torical records,  if  not  as  literature.  Then,  when  the  Unassigned  Lands  were 


LITERATURE  85 

opened  to  settlement  in  the  first  Run,  1889,  this  newly-settled  country,  known 
today  as  Old  Oklahoma,  fairly  blossomed  into  print;  there  were  newspapers 
in  every  county  seat,  and  in  many  other  towns.  Their  columns  were  flooded 
with  verse;  apparently  there  was  something  about  being  in  at  the  beginning 
of  a  tremendous  undertaking  that  called  forth  rhyme  irresistibly.  Most  of 
this  verse  seems  pretty  awful  —  until  it  is  compared  with  the  newspaper  verse 
of  the  day  in  older  states.  Of  it  all  only  the  poems  of  Alex  Posey,  a  Creek 
Indian,  are  remembered  both  for  their  intrinsic  worth  and  for  the  light  they 
shed  on  Indian  psychology  and  ways  of  life.  Posey  was  also  a  satirist,  aiming 
his  darts  in  the  "Fixico  Papers"  chiefly  at  white  politicians.  There  was  even  a 
novel  in  those  days;  Thompson  B.  Ferguson,  a  pioneer  newspaper  man  of 
Wa tonga  (see  Tour  5),  afterward  appointed  territorial  governor  by  Presi- 
dent Theodore  Roosevelt,  wrote  a  story  called  The  ]ayhaw}{ers;  A  Tale  of 
the  Border  War  {imi). 

But  the  real  flowering  of  literature  in  the  new  state  began  shortly  after 
the  first  World  War.  A  group  of  young  poets,  most  of  them  connected  with 
the  University  of  Oklahoma,  began  to  place  work  in  such  national  magazines 
as  Smart  Set,  Century,  American  Mercury,  Poetry:  A  Magazine  of  Verse, 
The  Bookman,  and  so  on.  Among  these  were  John  McClure,  Muna  Lee,  Lynn 
Riggs,  and  Stanley  Vestal.  Their  work  appealed  to  Mr.  Henry  Louis  Men- 
cken, who  is  not  unduly  given  to  enthusiasms,  so  much  that  he  devoted  a 
sizable  section  of  one  issue  of  the  American  Mercury  to  them,  and  in  his  com- 
ment used  the  phrase,  "The  Oklahoma  manner  in  Poetry." 

In  the  late  1920's,  writing  in  Oklahoma  underwent  something  of  a  boom. 
The  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  under  the  direction  of  Joseph  A.  Brandt, 
recently  head  of  Princeton  University  Press,  and  more  recently  (1940)  elected 
president  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma,  was  favorably  disposed  toward 
regional  productions  and  offered  an  outlet  for  a  considerable  amount  of  work. 
B.  A.  Botkin,  a  young  University  English  instructor,  began  publication  in 
1928  of  a  regional  annual  called  Fol\-Say,  which  instantly  earned  favorable 
comment  from  critics.  Many  writers,  among  them  Paul  Horgan,  Mari  Sandoz, 
and  N.  L.  Davis,  from  outside  the  state,  as  well  as  a  number  of  Oklahomans, 
notably  George  Milburn,  first  attracted  attention  through  their  work  in  Fol\- 
Say.  Four  volumes  of  the  annual  were  brought  out. 

In  1927  the  University  Press  began  publication  of  a  quarterly  magazine 
called  Boo^s  Abroad,  edited  by  Roy  Temple  House  and  devoted  to  reviews 
of  books  in  languages  other  than  English.  It  appears  to  be  the  only  publication 
of  its  kind  anywhere  in  the  world,  and  its  fourteen  published  volumes,  total- 
ing some  seven  thousand  pages,  constitute  the  largest  single  body  of  informa- 
tion on  current  foreign  literatures  to  be  found  anywhere. 


86     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

At  about  the  same  time,  Oklahoma's  two  most  distinguished  biographers, 
Marquis  James  and  Stanley  Vestal  (W.  S.  Campbell),  began  the  researches 
for  their  best  works.  Marquis  James  while  a  boy  in  Oklahoma  knew  and  ad- 
mired Temple  Houston,  son  of  the  Liberator  of  Texas;  and  this  interest  led 
him,  in  1926,  to  undertake  a  life  of  Sam  Houston.  He  expected  to  finish  it  in 
six  months;  it  took  him  four  years.  But  when  it  finally  appeared  it  won  the 
Pulitzer  Prize  for  biography.  His  work  on  Houston  naturally  led  him  on  to 
Jackson,  and  his  two-volume  life  of  Old  Hickory,  the  first  in  1934,  the  second 
in  1938,  again  brought  him  the  Pulitzer  award.  James  is  also  the  author  of  a 
collection  of  short  stories  based  on  dramatic  episodes  from  American  history, 
They  Had  Their  Hour,  and,  in  collaboration  with  his  wife,  of  juvenile  lives 
of  Houston  and  Jackson. 

Stanley  Vestal,  whose  father  had  been  a  field  worker  for  H.  H.  Bancroft, 
had  been  interested  all  his  life  in  Kit  Carson  and,  naturally,  also  in  Indians. 
When  he  approached  the  writing  of  biography,  he  went,  like  a  sensible  man, 
to  the  only  living  eye-witnesses  of  many  of  the  events  he  wished  to  describe — 
older  members  of  the  Plains  Indian  tribes.  The  result  is  that  his  works  on 
western  history  have  a  unique  viewpoint  as  well  as  a  unique  flavor.  In  1928 
his  Kit  Carson:  The  Happy  Warrior  of  the  Old  West  appeared,  no  doubt  the 
definitive  life  of  the  old  scout.  In  close  succession  followed  two  more  biogra- 
phies, Sitting  Bull:  Champion  of  the  Sioux,  and  Warpath,  a  life  of  Sitting 
Bull's  nephew.  White  Bull. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  define  an  "Oklahoma  Writer."  The  state  is 
so  young  that  it  is  hard  to  find  a  native  of  middle  age — excepting,  of  course, 
the  Indians.  Then,  too,  Oklahomans  are  a  restless  breed;  the  lure  of  green 
pastures  brought  them  to  the  state,  and  many  have  moved  on.  In  general,  an 
Oklahoma  writer  is  one  who  was  born  in  the  state,  or  who  has  lived  in  the 
state  long  enough  to  have  become  identified  with  it.  Thus  Marquis  James, 
born  in  Missouri  and  now  (1941)  residing  in  New  York,  spent  the  formative 
years  of  his  life  in  the  Cherokee  Strip.  Paul  B.  Sears,  native  of  Ohio,  lived  in 
Oklahoma  during  the  years  which  saw  his  greatest  development  and  activity 
as  a  writer;  and  he  wrote  his  best-known  book.  Deserts  on  the  March,  in 
Oklahoma  and  on  a  subject  for  which  the  state  offered  the  most  satisfactory 
workshop. 

As  might  be  expected,  in  view  of  the  dramatic  and  romantic  history  of 
the  state,  a  great  deal  of  the  published  work  of  Oklahomans  has  consisted 
of  history  and  biography.  Oklahomans  have  been,  almost  from  the  beginnings 
of  white  settlement,  keenly  alive  to  the  value  of  their  history  as  such,  and  also 
as  the  raw  materials  of  pure  literature.  In  1890,  one  year  after  the  Opening, 
the  first  attempt  at  a  comprehensive  history,  The  Illustrated  History  of  0\la- 


LITERATURE  87 

homa,  by  Marion  Tuttle  Rook,  was  published;  and  histories  of  the  state,  large 
and  small,  of  every  degree  of  excellence,  have  been  issued  ever  since. 

The  Oklahoma  Historical  Society  was  founded  by  the  Oklahoma  Press 
Association  in  1893,  and  from  that  date  has  taken  the  lead  in  collection  and 
preservation  of  historical  material.  Its  library  contains  some  ten  thousand  vol- 
umes; and  since  1921  it  has  published  The  Chronicles  of  Of^lahoma,  a  quar- 
terly whose  files  are  a  repository  of  priceless  information.  In  1927  Mr.  Frank 
Phillips  of  Bartlesville  made  a  gift  of  $10,000  (since  doubled)  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oklahoma;  this  sum,  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  E.  E.  Dale,  has  been 
used  in  the  acquisition  of  some  four  thousand  volumes  of  historical  material, 
three  thousand  photographs,  two  thousand  pamphlets,  three  thousand  photo- 
stats, and  at  least  fifty  thousand  documents.  Within  the  last  few  years  the 
historical  consciousness  has  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  civic  and  other 
organizations  in  various  localities  have  been  publishing  (usually  on  a  sub- 
scription basis)  collections  of  the  memoirs  of  old  settlers.  This  history  at  the 
grass  roots  is  frequently  sadly  lacking  in  literary  quality,  but  it  is  of  unique 
value  as  the  basic  material  of  which  both  history  and  literature  are  made;  and 
the  movement  comes  in  time,  for  most  of  it  will  have  passed  away  within  a 
decade. 

Probably  the  dean  of  historians  in  Oklahoma  was  J.  B.  Thoburn,  author 
of  a  comprehensive  history  of  the  state,  which  has  appeared  in  two  editions, 
the  second  prepared  in  collaboration  with  Miss  Muriel  Wright,  granddaugh- 
ter of  a  principal  chief  of  the  Choctaw  Nation.  Mr.  Thoburn  served  for  many 
years  on  the  governing  board  of  the  Historical  Society;  both  Mr.  Thoburn 
and  Miss  Wright  have  contributed  extensively  to  magazines  and  newspapers 
and  have  prepared  textbooks  dealing  with  Oklahoma  and  Indian  history. 

A  notable  contributor  to  the  history  of  the  Cherokees  was  Emmett  Starr, 
a  member  of  the  Cherokee  tribe,  whose  genealogical  histories  are  invaluable 
in  any  study  of  the  nation.  Important  books  on  various  phases  of  Oklahoma 
history  are  those  of  W,  B.  Morrison,  who  specializes  in  early  forts  and  mili- 
tary posts;  of  Roy  Gittinger,  who  has  written  on  the  constitutional  history 
and  the  formation  of  the  state  government;  of  George  Rainey,  who  has  stud- 
ied the  Cherokee  Strip  and  No  Man's  Land;  of  Morris  L.  Wardell,  whose 
Political  History  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  records  one  of  the  world's  most 
astonishing  experiments  in  democracy;  of  A.  B.  Thomas  and  Lillian  Estelle 
Fisher,  who  have  delved  extensively  into  the  history  of  Spain  in  southwestern 
America. 

Angle  Debo  produced  in  1934  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Choctatv  Repub- 
lic, which  won  for  her  the  John  H.  Dunning  prize  for  the  most  notable  con- 
tribution to  American  history  at  the  1935  meeting  of  the  American  Historical 


88  OKLAHOMA:    THE    G  li  N  E  RA  L    BACKGROUND 

Society.  Her  And  Still  the  Waters  Run  (1940)  is  an  authoritative,  unsparing 
indictment  of  the  processes  by  which  the  Indians  of  Oklahoma  have  been 
defrauded.  Her  The  Road  to  Disappearance,  a  history  of  the  Creek  Nation, 
was  published  in  1941. 

Anna  Lewis,  in  her  study  of  early  explorations  in  the  Indian  country. 
Along  the  Arl{ansas,  has  made  a  valuable  addition  to  the  history  of  Oklahoma. 

Edward  Everett  Dale,  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma,  is  editor,  poet, 
and  fiction  writer  as  well  as  historian.  Probably  his  best-known  work  is  the 
history  of  The  Range  Cattle  Industry.  His  other  works  include  the  Lafa- 
yette Letters  and  Tales  of  the  Teepee,  as  well  as  textbooks.  He  has  also  edited 
The  Journal  of  James  Ail{en,  Jr.,  Evan  G.  Barnard's  Rider  of  the  Cherokee 
Strip,  and  Frank  M.  Canton's  Frontier  Trails.  He  is  joint-editor,  with  Gaston 
Litton,  of  Cherokee  Cavaliers. 

Paul  I.  Wellman,  native  Oklahoman,  has  written  two  historical  books 
on  the  western  Indians,  Death  on  the  Prairie  and  Death  in  the  Desert.  Carl 
Coke  Rister,  in  addition  to  The  Southtvestern  Frontier  and  The  Greater 
Southwest  (with  R.  N.  Richardson),  has  won  favorable  comment  with  his 
social  history  of  the  southwest  plains,  Southern  Plainsmen.  Carbine  and 
Lance,  by  Captain  W.  S.  Nye,  is  the  vivid  and  authentic  story  of  old  Fort 
Sill  (see  Tour  3 A). 

The  most  productive  of  all  Oklahoma  historians  is  Grant  Foreman,  for- 
mer employee  of  the  Dawes  Commission,  and  retired  lawyer,  whose  books  on 
the  history  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  will  be  indispensable  sources  for  the 
study  not  only  of  Oklahoma  but  of  the  whole  of  the  South  so  far  as  Indian 
affairs  are  concerned.  Most  of  his  work  is  based  on  unpublished  material,  for 
which  he  has  ransacked  the  libraries  of  Europe  and  America.  His  Indians 
and  Pioneers,  Indian  Removal,  Advancing  the  Frontier,  The  Five  Civilized 
Tribes,  among  others,  are  models  of  scholarly  precision  and  patient  search  for 
truth  in  history. 

In  general  nonfiction  writing  a  number  of  Oklahomans  have  been  out- 
standing. The  works  of  A.  B.  Adams  (Trend  of  Business,  Our  Economic 
Revolution,  and  National  Economic  Security)  and  of  Elgin  Groseclose  (Mon- 
ey: The  Human  Conflict)  have  attracted  nationwide  attention.  Groseclose  is 
a  former  editor  of  Fortune  Magazine.  Jerome  Dowd  is  a  prolific  writer  on 
sociological  questions,  and  his  books  on  the  Negro  in  America  have  made 
him  one  of  the  foremost  authorities.  W.  B.  Bizzell  has  written  a  number  of 
valuable  books  on  the  philosophy  of  education,  on  social  philosophy  and  eco- 
nomics. In  this  connection  should  also  be  mentioned  Royden  J.  Dangerfield, 
Cortez  A.  M.  Ewing,  and  Frederick  Lynne  Ryan.  Gustav  Mueller  has  a  dozen 
or  more  books  on  philosophical  subjects  to  his  credit.  Howard  O.  Eaton  and 


LITERATURE  89 

Charles  M.  Perry  have  also  made  important  contributions  to  philosophical 
literature.  Paul  B.  Sears,  author  of  Deserts  on  the  March,  pioneer  of  a  con- 
siderable list  of  books  on  soil  erosion  and  the  waste  of  natural  resources,  and 
This  Is  Our  World,  is  a  scientist  who  writes  more  charmingly  than  most 
novelists. 

Will  Rogers  was  most  famous  as  a  humorist  and,  in  his  own  words  "am- 
bassador of  good  will"  to  all  the  world.  Yet  he  was  the  author  of  seven  books 
of  homely  philosophy  and  sound  common  sense,  which  have  a  style  and  an 
appeal  all  their  own.  Since  his  death  have  appeared  David  N.  Milsten's  Cher- 
okee Kid,  Spi  M.  Trent's  My  Cousin  Will  Rogers,  Harold  Keith's  A  Boy's 
Life  of  Will  Rogers,  and  the  authentic  biography  by  his  widow,  Betty  Blake 
Rogers. 

Two  of  the  nation's  outstanding  women  newspaper  columnists  are  Okla- 
homans,  Edith  Johnson  and  Mrs.  Walter  Ferguson.  And  an  Oklahoman, 
George  B.  (Deak)  Parker  won  the  Pulitzer  Prize  for  editorial  writing  in 
1936.  Vernon  M.  Parrington's  Main  Currents  in  American  Thought  is  a 
classic  in  the  field  of  literary  criticism.  Incidentally,  book  reviews  by  Okla- 
homans  appear  regularly  in  such  publications  as  the  Netv  Yor\  Herald  Trib- 
une, New  Yor\  Times,  Saturday  Review  of  Literature,  the  Christian  Science 
Monitor,  New  Masses,  and  The  Nation.  The  most  spectacular  of  all  Oklahoma 
critics,  and  discoverer  of  new  writers,  is  without  doubt  the  cyclonic  Burton 
Rascoe.  Starting  out  as  literary  critic  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  he  went  on  to 
New  York,  to  McCall's  Magazine,  then  successively  to  the  New  York  Trib- 
une, Arts  and  Decorations,  The  Bookman,  and  Plain  Tal\.  He  has  been  on 
the  board  of  the  Literary  Guild  for  years,  has  been  until  recently  general 
editorial  advisor  to  Doubleday  Doran,  served  as  literary  critic  of  Esquire, 
1933-38,  and  has  written  a  weekly  book  review  for  News  Wee\  since  1938. 
His  published  books  include  Titans  of  Literature,  Prometheans,  and  a  book 
of  memoirs,  Before  I  Forget.  Another  autobiography  of  merit,  which  ap- 
peared in  1940,  was  Oscar  Ameringer's  //  You  Don't  Weaken,  the  story  of 
a  radical  Oklahoma  editor. 

After  the  biographical  works  of  Marquis  James  and  Stanley  Vestal  should 
be  placed  the  remarkable  Wah'Kon-Tah  by  John  Joseph  Mathews,  a  member 
of  the  Osage  Indian  tribe;  after  them,  because  it  is  difficult  to  classify.  Osten- 
sibly, it  is  the  life  of  Major  Laban  J.  Miles,  agent  to  the  Osages;  in  reality  it 
is  a  long  prose  poem  in  praise  of  the  noblest  qualities  of  two  picturesque 
breeds — the  American  pioneer  and  the  American  Indian.  It  was  a  Book-of- 
the-Month  Club  selection  in  1932,  the  only  book  from  this  part  of  the  South- 
west ever  to  receive  such  distinction,  and  the  only  book  thus  far  (1941)  pub- 
lished by  a  university  press  anywhere  in  the  United  States  chosen  by  a  major 


90  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

book  club.  Mathews  is  also  the  author  of  a  poignant  novel  of  Indian  life, 
Sundown,  and  is  (1941)  working  (on  a  Guggenheim  Memorial  Fellowship) 
on  a  study  of  the  contrasting  life  outlook  of  the  Anglo- American  and  the 
Indian.  Another  important  biography  is  Althea  Bass's  Cherokee  Messenger, 
a  scholarly  and  readable  study  of  Samuel  Austin  Worcester.  Richmond 
Croom  Beatty,  native  Oklahoman,  is  the  author  of  two  biographies  of  im- 
portance, Bayard  Taylor:  Laureate  of  the  Gilded  Age,  and  Macaulay:  Vic- 
torian Liberal. 

Two  Oklahoma  dramatists  have  reached  Broadway — Lynn  Riggs  and 
Mary  McDougal  Axelson.  Riggs  has  written  a  dozen  or  so  plays,  all  of  high 
literary  quality  and  some  successful  as  stage  presentations,  notable  among 
them  Knives  from  Syria,  A  Lantern  to  See  By,  Borned  in  Texas,  and  Green 
Grow  the  Lilacs.  These  plays  deal  with  a  remembered  frontier  environment, 
superficially  raw  and  barren;  actually  informed  with  a  tender  love  and  fresh- 
ness, with  an  undercurrent  of  romantic  tragedy,  and  silvered  over  with  the 
magic  of  nostalgia.  His  Chero\ee  Night  treats  the  tragedy  of  the  dispossessed 
Indian;  Russet  Mantle,  prominently  mentioned  for  the  Pulitzer  Prize  in  1936, 
is  Riggs'  only  play  on  a  contemporary  subject.  His  plays  as  well  as  his  poems 
(collected  in  The  Iron  Dish)  show  a  fairylike  quality  and  a  kind  of  Chopin- 
esque  transparency.  Mrs.  Axelson's  play,  Life  Begins,  had  a  New  York  pres- 
entation in  1932,  and  has  since  been  shown  as  a  film  in  nearly  every  country 
on  the  globe — the  last  two  to  permit  its  exhibition  being  Siam  and  Great 
Britain. 

Fiction  in  Oklahoma  has  been  sporadic  and  of  very  uneven  quality,  al- 
though respectable  in  both  quantity  and  quality.  Every  genre  is  represented, 
from  the  wild  western  and  the  detective  story  to  the  novel  of  domestic  bliss 
and  of  hard-boiled  realism  in  the  lives  of  tenant  farmers.  Oklahoma,  having 
been  first  an  Indian,  afterwards  a  cattle,  country,  offers  an  especial  stimulus 
to  the  writer  of  adventure  fiction;  so  that  the  magazine  stories  of  Foster 
Harris  and  Jesse  E.  Grinstead,  running,  literally,  into  the  hundreds,  and  the 
published  books  of  Vingie  E.  Roe  (a  score  or  more,  in  addition  to  magazine 
publications),  are  not  surprising.  It  does  seem  a  bit  out  of  the  ordinary  for 
■  Oklahomans  to  excel  in  the  detective  novel,  the  most  artificial  and  highly 
developed,  technically,  of  all  forms  of  writing.  Yet  Todd  Downing,  a  Choc- 
taw Indian,  is  the  author  of  eight  such  novels;  Dorothy  Cameron  Disney,  of 
two  books  of  detective  fiction  plus  a  great  deal  more  in  the  magazines.  New- 
ton Gayle  (the  nom  de  plume  of  a  well-known  Oklahoma  poet)  has  written 
five,  and  Stanley  Vestal  one.  All  of  these  have  had  their  day  with  the  thrill 
hunters,  and  their  popular  following  appears  to  be  growing.  A  number  of 
younger  writers  contribute  constantly  to  popular  detective  story  magazines. 


LITERATURE  91 

The  novel  proper  is  represented  by  the  stories  of  Dora  Aydelotte,  who 
specializes  in  the  problems  of  farm  women,  her  story  of  the  Cherokee  Strip, 
Trumpets  Calling,  having  been  a  best  seller;  of  Nola  Henderson,  This  Much 
Is  Mine,  the  story  of  an  Oklahoma  farm  girl;  of  Isabel  Campbell,  who  spe- 
cializes in  middle-class  family  life.  William  Cunningham  has  written  two 
realistic  novels,  each  with  an  Oklahoma  setting.  Green  Corn  Rebellion  and 
Pretty  Boy,  the  latter  an  overly  sympathetic  fictional  account  of  the  outlaw 
"Pretty  Boy"  Floyd.  Edward  Donahoe's  Madness  in  the  Heart  is  a  dramatic 
re-creation  of  the  life  of  a  boom  oil  town,  and  its  social  and  financial  leeches. 
Since  1939,  Alice  Lent  Covert  has  been  writing  realistic  and  honest  Oklahoma 
fiction  with  a  sympathetic  treatment.  Many  of  her  short  stories  have  appeared 
in  the  magazines,  and  her  two  novels.  Return  to  Dust  and  The  Months  of 
Rain,  are  vivid  and  powerful  fictional  accounts  of  rural  conditions  in  the 
Southwest  and  the  Middle  West. 

John  Milton  Oskison,  Cherokee  Indian,  has  contributed  to  many  maga- 
zines and  is  the  author  of  several  novels  of  the  old  Indian  Territory,  the  latest. 
Brothers  Three,  having  been  a  best  seller  for  many  weeks.  He  has  written, 
also,  two  biographies,  one  (fictionized)  of  Sam  Houston,  A  Texas  Titan,  the 
other  Tecumseh  and  His  Times.  Stanley  Vestal  is  the  author  of  two  novels  of 
the  Old  West,  'Dobe  Walls  and  Revolt  on  the  Border.  In  this  field  of  fiction 
are  also  the  novels  of  the  historian  of  the  Indians,  Paul  I.  Wellman,  Broncho 
Apache  and  the  best  selling   ]ubal  Troop,  and  Ross  Taylor's  Brazos. 

All  of  these  novelists  also  write  short  stories,  but  Demma  Ray  Oldham, 
Jennie  Harris  Oliver,  Fleta  Campbell  Springer,  and  George  Milburn  may  be 
said  to  specialize  in  short  stories.  Mrs.  Oldham's  stories  of  Ozark  mountain 
people  have  been  starred  in  the  O'Brien  and  O.  Henry  Memorial  anthologies. 
Mrs.  Oliver  has  contributed  a  great  many  short  stories  to  the  magazines  and 
has  two  published  books  of  short  stories.  Fleta  Campbell  Springer  is  the  author 
of  a  life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  According  to  the  Flesh,  several  novels,  and  a 
play,  but  she  is  best  known  for  her  more  than  two  hundred  short  stories.  These 
have  appeared  in  leading  magazines  and  in  O'Brien's  collections  of  "the 
year's  best  short  stories."  George  Milburn,  adherent  to  the  hard-boiled  school 
of  realism,  who  first  attracted  attention  through  his  work  in  Fol^-Say,  has 
published  stories  of  small-town  life  in  Oklahoma  in  such  magazines  as  Es- 
quire, Collier's,  American  Mercury,  and  others.  His  two  volumes  of  short 
stories,  Oklahoma  Town  and  No  More  Trumpets,  and  his  novel,  Catalogue, 
give  him  a  secure  place  among  the  fiction  writers  of  his  day.  Allen  McGinnis 
and  Robert  Whitehand  are  two  young  writers  whose  short  stories  have  at- 
tracted considerable  attention.  Edward  O'Brien  dedicated  one  of  his  recent 
collections  to  Robert  Whitehand. 


92  OKLAHOMA:    TIIK    GliNEKAL    BACKGROUND 

Poetry  seems  to  be  the  preferred  mode  of  expression  for  Oklahomans. 
From  Indian  times  on,  verse  from  Oklahoma  poets  has  seeped  or  swirled  into 
print.  Vanity  publishing  has  been,  and  is,  rampant.  Yet  the  work  of  Okla- 
homa poets  appears  also  in  every  standard  publication  and  in  the  better  an- 
thologies, while  books  of  poems  published  on  a  legitimate  royalty  basis  are 
frequent.  In  1918,  fifty  years  after  the  Poems  of  John  Rollin  Ridge,  came  the 
Villon-like  Airs  and  Ballads  of  John  McClure.  Other  poets  whose  work  has 
appeared  between  boards  are  Stanley  Vestal,  with  Fandango,  a  book  of  bal- 
lads based  on  the  adventures  of  trappers,  scouts,  and  Indian  warriors,  Muna 
Lee,  Lena  Whittaker  Blakeney,  Althea  Bass,  Katherine  Shepard  Hayden, 
Violet  McDougal  and  Mary  McDougal  Axelson,  Lexie  Dean  Robertson,  Zoe 
A.  Tilghman,  Mark  Turbyfill,  Jennie  Harris  Oliver,  and  Kenneth  Kaufman. 
Others  whose  poems  have  seen  the  light  in  magazines  are  B.  A.  Botkin,  Rob- 
ert Brittain,  Isabel  Campbell,  Henry  T.  Chambers,  May  Frank  Rhodes,  Mau- 
rine  Halliburton,  Welborn  Hope,  Anne  Dinsmore  McClure,  Paul  Thompson, 
and  Leo  C.  Turner. 

The  most  spectacularly  successful  of  all  Oklahoma  poets  is  no  doubt 
Don  Blanding.  His  books,  among  them  Paradise  Loot,  Leaves  from  a  Grass 
House,  Memory  Room,  The  Rest  of  the  Road,  and  Vagabond's  House,  all 
illustrated  with  exotic  line  drawings  by  the  author,  go  through  edition  after 
edition.  Vagabond's  House  being  now  (1941)  beyond  its  twenty-fifth.  Bland- 
ing is,  as  the  tides  of  his  books  indicate,  an  incurable  wanderer,  but  of  late 
his  verse  has  been  turning  more  and  more  frequently  to  themes  taken  from 
his  native  prairies  and  the  desert  country  of  the  Southwest. 

But  while  poetry  in  Oklahoma  has  been  prolific,  and  while  individual 
poets  and  poems  have  attracted  rather  extravagant  praise  from  readers  and 
critics  (John  Cooper  Powys  once  said  Jennie  Harris  Oliver's  "Noon  Trail" 
was  the  finest  poem  that  ever  came  out  of  America),  the  situation  is  a  bit 
disappointing.  Oklahoma  has  not  produced  a  single  first-line  poet;  poets  who 
have  started  out  with  every  evidence  of  developing  into  greatness  have  stopped 
writing  all  too  soon,  either  because  of  a  change  in  philosophical  viewpoint  or 
in  taste,  or  for  economic  reasons;  and  poetry  in  Oklahoma  has  never  crystal- 
lized into  a  movement.  This  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  Oklahoma  poets  are 
a  cosmopolitan  breed,  as  likely  to  write  on  a  theme  native  to  New  England 
or  Old  England  or  Alaska  as  to  the  short-grass  country.  But  the  vitality  is 
there,  and  the  native  themes  cry  for  an  indigenous  poetry. 

The  literary  picture  as  a  whole  is  encouraging.  Every  year  more  young 
people  turn  to  writing  as  a  profession.  Recently  the  state's  largest  school,  the 
University  of  Oklahoma,  has  been  offering  courses  in  professional  writing. 

No  state  has  a  richer  historical,  social,  and  ethnological  background. 


LITERATURE  93 

While  America  as  a  whole  has  foreshortened  the  ages  of  man's  progress  into 
a  century  and  a  half,  Oklahoma  has  telescoped  that  century  and  a  half  into 
fifty  years.  The  state  was  born  in  drama,  and  the  clash  of  Anglo-American 
against  Indian,  or  Yankee  against  Southerner,  or  the  product  of  great  univer- 
sities against  the  rankest  of  the  illiterate,  produces  strain  and  tension  in  real 
life,  which,  translated  into  words,  must  mean  drama,  conflict,  color. 


Z^t^/fJ ^  , z^tlUj, ^  , z^^l/IJ, ^ t^fl/lj, ^_ 1^(1/1^ ^  ^ ^!\/lj, , rtl)/?i ^l)/?" 


Architecture  and  Art 


IN  Oklahoma,  architecture  has  achieved  interesting  and  often  distinctive 
qualities  through  the  adaptation  of  borrowed  designs  to  local  conditions. 
The  first  log  houses  of  the  Indians,  pioneers,  and  traders  in  what  is  now 
eastern  Oklahoma  were  patterned  rather  closely  after  the  same  types  of  build- 
ing in  other  regions.  Because  of  different  climatic  conditions  and  structural 
materials,  however,  changes  in  the  construction  of  these  types  were  soon 
made.  Thus  small,  clay  fireplaces  superseded  the  former  huge,  stone  affairs, 
and  builders  used  split,  rather  than  whole,  logs. 

As  the  buildings  were  erected  hastily,  the  timber  was  seldom  seasoned; 
when  it  shrank  the  crevices  were  chinked  with  clay  and  in  the  course  of  time 
the  structure  appeared  to  be  half  log  and  half  clay.  Generally,  the  timbers 
were  nailed  together,  rather  than  notched.  Heavy  rains  made  substantial  roofs 
necessary,  and  care  was  taken  in  the  cutting  and  fitting  of  "shakes"  (home- 
made shingles)  for  this  purpose.  Window  shutters,  made  of  split  sticks  nailed 
to  cross  pieces  and  sometimes  faced  with  cloth  or  skins,  were  propped  open  in 
warm  weather  and  kept  closed  during  the  winter  months.  For  door,  a  sheet, 
blanket,  or  hide  might  suffice;  or  an  actual  door  might  be  brought  in  by  wagon 
from  Texas  or  Arkansas.  Additions  were  made  by  cutting  a  doorway  in  one 
end  of  the  cabin  and  continuing  the  plan  in  an  elongated  pattern.  More  popu- 
lar, however,  was  the  lean-to,  formed  by  extending  a  section  of  the  roof  down- 
ward and  walling  up  the  open  sides. 

After  the  first  small  "groundhog"  sawmills  were  set  up,  boxing-board 
shacks  became  common,  but  they  did  not  entirely  replace  log  buildings.  Plank 
additions,  frequently  built  on  to  the  cabins,  formed  a  hybrid  type  still  found 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state.  Most  of  the  frame  houses  through  this  section 
were  of  the  "shotgun"  type — one  room  divided  by  a  partition;  porchless, 
paintless,  and  shake-roofed.  In  appearance  and  comfort  they  were  hardly  an 
improvement  upon  the  log  cabin.  Cold  in  winter,  hot  in  summer,  their  one 
advantage  was  cheapness  of  construction. 

In  the  western  part  of  the  state,  where  timber  was  scarce,  the  dugout  was 

94 


ARCHITECTURE   AND   ART  95 

the  most  common  habitation  among  the  first  settlers.  Since  the  land  was  gen- 
erally level,  the  dugout  could  not  be  built  into  a  hillside  as  in  other  regions. 
Usually  it  consisted  of  low  sod  walls  enclosing  a  cellar,  with  the  above-ground 
structure  varying  in  height  according  to  the  depth  of  the  excavation.  To  enter 
the  house  it  was  necessary  to  stoop  under  a  low  doorway  and  descend  several 
steps.  In  some  instances,  the  dugout  had  a  shingle  roof;  more  frequently,  it 
was  thatched  over  with  branches  covered  with  sod.  As  the  region  became  more 
thickly  setded,  box  houses  began  to  dot  the  prairie.  These  were  just  what  the 
name  implied,  square  or  rectangular  box-like  structures,  often  with  single 
slope  roofs,  and  the  inside  papered  with  newspapers;  the  wide  cracks  that 
developed  as  the  boards  shrank  were  pasted  over  with  strips  of  old  cloth. 
Intended  as  makeshifts,  a  few  of  these  box  houses  are  still  in  use  today  (1941). 

Houses  in  the  south  and  southwest  were  perhaps  better  in  construction 
and  design  than  those  of  other  sections.  Sturdily  built  homes  were  erected  by 
prosperous  Indian  leaders  among  the  Choctaws  and  other  tribes,  and  later 
by  white  cattlemen  with  an  eye  to  permanence  and  comfort  rather  than  econ- 
omy. These  residences  combined  the  best  features  of  the  ranch  and  plantation 
types  farther  south.  To  obtain  the  maximum  exposure,  the  house  was  fre- 
quently planned  in  the  form  of  a  "T."  High  ceilings  were  characteristic,  as 
were  wide  windows  and  broad-roofed  porches.  These  dwellings  varied  in 
size  from  eight  to  fifteen  rooms. 

Kansans  and  lowans  who  staked  out  the  excellent  farms  in  north  central 
Oklahoma  lived  in  shanties  during  the  early  years,  but  as  prosperity  came 
they  first  built  big  barns  and  then  big  houses.  The  farmer  was  judged  by  the 
size  of  his  barn,  and  his  wife  by  the  size  of  her  house.  Except  for  an  occasional 
"curlicue"  and  the  almost  universal  fancy  lightning  rod,  there  were  few 
attempts  at  embellishment;  and  when  agriculture  slumped  in  the  1920's  there 
was  litde  money  for  repairs  or  painting.  Thus  today  there  are  in  this  section 
many  huge,  prematurely  aged  but  still  stern-appearing  houses  remaining  to 
tell  the  story  of  pioneer  success  and  pride. 

As  far  as  the  builders'  skill  and  the  materials  at  hand  would  permit,  the 
first  houses  in  the  cities  followed  contemporary  architectural  types  in  other 
states.  No  attempt  was  made  at  conformity,  and  a  dozen  different  kinds  of 
houses  might  be  found  in  a  single  block.  Later,  as  the  business  districts  spread 
out,  these  houses  were  either  torn  down  or  included  in  the  slums  and  Negro 
sections. 

As  he  prospered,  the  Oklahoman  was  quick  to  adopt  foreign  types  of 
architecture  and  mix  one  with  another.  Imitations  of  Spanish  villas,  French 
chateaux,  and  English  cottages  were  built  side  by  side.  The  eclectic  period 
reached  its  height  during  the  first  World  War,  when  the  shortage  of  other 


96  OKLAHOMA:    THt   G  li  N  H  RA  L    BACKGROUND 

building  materials  made  the  use  of  stucco  patriotic,  even  necessary.  Plaster, 
which  could  be  tinted  any  color  the  owner  desired,  was  sprayed  over  a  net- 
work of  chicken  wire.  Fortunately,  from  an  aesthetic  standpoint,  stucco  and 
wire  parted  company  after  a  few  years,  and  the  houses  had  to  be  torn  down 
or  remodeled. 

Generally,  good  architecture  and  construction  were  more  common  in  the 
smaller  towns  than  in  the  cities.  The  townsman  usually  planned  the  type  of 
house  he  wanted  while  he  was  saving  the  money  to  build  it,  and  he  was  also 
on  hand  to  supervise  the  building.  Aware  that  the  residence  would  have  to 
serve  as  an  indication  of  his  good  sense  and  importance  for  years,  he  was  not 
easily  influenced  by  architectural  fads.  The  city-dweller,  on  the  other  hand, 
usually  acquired  a  home  as  a  speculation,  because  it  was  the  "right  thing"  to 
be  a  home-owner,  or  because  he  had  heard  that  it  was  cheaper  than  paying 
rent.  He  was  often  obliged  to  accept  what  the  realtor  or  building  contractor 
had  to  offer,  and  trusted  to  luck  to  receive  value.  In  many  cases,  the  only 
permanent  thing  about  these  city  houses  was  the  mortgage. 

Fortunately,  development  of  the  oil  industry,  and  the  consequent  crea- 
tion of  many  newly  rich  families,  did  not  result  in  a  plague  of  architectural 
monstrosities.  Oil  men  generally  hired  the  best  architects  available  and  saw 
to  it  that  when  the  pinch  of  adversity  came  (oil  is  uncertain)  they  had  some- 
thing that  would  bear  up  under  a  heavy  loan.  Considerable  oil  money  was 
spent  on  apartment  houses,  and  these,  too,  were  usually  built  with  an  eye  to 
negotiability.  Typically  of  brick  construction,  not  more  than  four  stories  high, 
they  are  often  divided  into  "efficiency"  apartments,  many  consisting  of  one 
room,  bath,  and  kitchenette.  Simply  designed,  and  entirely  without  decora- 
tion, they  are  built  primarily  as  investments. 

The  most  common  modern  types  of  dwellings  in  both  cities  and  towns 
are  the  Oklahoma  bungalow,  a  four-  to  six-room,  hip-roofed,  box-like  struc- 
ture with  a  small  porch  in  front;  the  California  bungalow,  differing  from  the 
Oklahoma  bungalow  by  having  a  broad,  low  roof;  the  airplane  bungalow, 
with  a  one-  or  two-room  upper  story  mostly  of  windows,  an  adaptation  of  the 
upstairs  sleeping  porch  to  the  one-story  house;  the  English-type  home,  a' 
roomy,  two-story  dwelling  of  frame  or  brick,  often  built  lengthwise  on  a  lot; 
and  the  Colonial-type  house,  a  severe  two-story  structure,  with  shuttered 
windows  and  without  a  porch.  Especially  Oklahoman  are  the  increasingly 
popular  double  purpose  brick,  stone,  and  frame  apartments  built  for  rental 
over  garages  at  the  back  of  spacious  residence  lots. 

The  most  forthright  departure  from  conventional  design  in  private  house 
building  in  Oklahoma,  and  one  of  the  best  examples  of  modern  residential 
architecture  in  America,  is  "Westhope,"  Tulsa  home  of  Richard  Lloyd  Jones, 


ARCHITECTURE    AND    ART  97 

designed  by  Frank  Lloyd  Wright,  his  cousin.  Comments  of  passers-by,  at- 
tracted by  the  thousand  after  the  house  was  finished,  varied  from  "What's  it 
supposed  to  be?"  to  the  more  or  less  contemptuous,  "A  pickle  factory!"  With 
the  growth  of  its  surrounding  planting  (a  part  of  the  design),  however,  its 
great  beauty  and  livability  are  apparent. 

The  first  nonresidential  buildings  in  the  state,  as  might  be  expected,  were 
of  little  or  no  architectural  interest  and  often  structurally  unsound.  The  first 
state  architect  with  enough  training  to  inspire  confidence  in  his  architectural 
knowledge  was  J.  A.  Foquart,  a  Frenchman.  His  design  followed  the  Norman 
French,  or  chateau  Gothic  style,  with  circular  bays,  round  turrets,  curved 
windows,  bastions,  and  embattled  towers.  The  Old  Central  Building  and  the 
Biology  Building  on  the  campus  of  the  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Mechani- 
cal College  (see  Stillwater)  and  the  City  Hall  at  Guthrie  (see  Tour  10)  are 
typical  examples  of  Foquart's  work. 

Fireproof  construction  was  not  used  for  public  and  commercial  build- 
ings in  Oklahoma  until  1905,  and  fire  caused  many  losses.  The  W.  J.  Pettee 
Hardware  Building,  erected  about  1906,  was  one  of  the  first  reinforced  con- 
crete structures  in  Oklahoma  City.  Other  good  examples  of  the  city's  early 
fireproof  buildings  are  the  Western  Newspaper  Union  Building  and  the 
Pioneer  Telephone  Building. 

Oklahoma  has  kept  pace  with  modern  developments  in  the  use  of  archi- 
tectural concrete,  and  with  that  material  has  obtained  buildings  excellent  in 
design  and  permanent  in  construction.  Among  the  most  notable  of  these  is 
the  high  school  at  Bartlesville,  designed  by  John  Duncan  Forsythe,  and  the 
city  hall  at  Chickasha,  by  Paul  Harris.  An  unusual  and  practical  application 
of  this  method  of  construction  may  be  found  in  a  barn  at  the  Cameron  Agri- 
cultural College  at  Lawton,  also  by  Harris.  Other  commendable  reinforced 
concrete  structures  are  the  Fairview  City  Hall,  by  John  C.  Hope;  the  Buffalo 
School,  by  Parr;  Stillwater  City  Hall,  by  Sorey,  Hill,  and  Sorey;  and  Altus 
City  Hall,  by  Moore  and  Hudgins.  These  structures  are  all  modern  in  manner 
and  make  use  of  modern  material  to  good  effect. 

With  the  development  of  oil,  local  headquarters  for  the  big  companies 
became  necessary,  and  impressive  new  office  buildings  were  erected.  These 
were  not  only  improvements  on  existing  buildings  in  Oklahoma  at  that  time, 
but  were  often  more  modern  than  contemporary  structures  in  other  states. 
The  Colcord  Building,  Oklahoma  City,  was  designed  by  Carl  Wells  in  the 
tradition  of  Louis  Sullivan,  "father  of  American  architecture."  Erected  in 
1910,  it  is  still  one  of  the  best  arranged  and  equipped  office  buildings  in  the 
state.  Later,  the  two  tallest  buildings  of  Oklahoma  City — the  First  National 
Building  and  the  Ramsey  Tower — raised  their  roofs  to  the  sky.  The  Phil- 


98     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

tower,  and  National  Bank  of  Tulsa  Building  in  Tulsa,  are  examples  of  the 
new  and  striking  business  structures  in  the  "Oil  Capital"  of  Oklahoma. 

Many  school  buildings,  churches,  and  civic  structures  did  not  fare  so 
well  as  business  buildings.  Too  often  they  were  barnlike,  of  poor  design. 
The  old  county  courthouse  at  Oklahoma  City,  for  example,  was  out  of  date 
architecturally  ten  years  after  it  was  erected,  and  it  was  by  no  means  an  iso- 
lated example. 

There  were  exceptions,  of  course.  The  Administration  Building  of  the 
University  of  Oklahoma,  at  Norman,  designed  by  Shepley,  Rutan,  and  Cool- 
idge,  is  noteworthy  for  its  chaste  decoration  and  well-studied  proportions  in 
a  pure  collegiate  Gothic  style.  Built  in  the  same  manner,  the  Library  Building 
is  considered  one  of  the  most  successful  designs  in  the  state;  its  main  reading 
room  is  spacious  and  well  lighted.  Other  buildings  of  interest  architecturally 
on  the  University  of  Oklahoma  campus  are  the  Business  Administration  and 
the  Biological  Sciences  buildings,  designed  by  the  director  of  the  university's 
School  of  Architecture,  Joe  Smay.  They  are  examples  of  the  application  of 
collegiate  Gothic  to  modern  building,  made  to  harmonize  with  other  struc- 
tures on  the  campus.  The  designer  has  succeeded  in  securing  exceptionally 
well-lighted  rooms.  Interesting  also  is  the  use  of  symbolism  in  the  carved  orna- 
ment, depicting  business  on  one  building  and  the  evolution  of  life  over  the 
portals  of  the  other. 

Notable  examples  of  perpendicular  Gothic  ecclesiastical  architecture  are 
the  Trinity  Episcopal  Church  in  Tulsa,  George  Winkler,  architect;  the  Wes- 
ley Methodist  in  Oklahoma  City,  and  the  Post  Chapel  at  Fort  Sill,  designed 
by  Leonard  Bailey.  The  Boston  Avenue  Methodist  Church  in  Tulsa  was  one 
of  the  first  so-called  "modernistic"  churches.  Especially  meritorious  are  the 
main  portals,  where  careful  design  forms  a  focal  point  leading  to  the  interior. 
Supplanting  the  usual  pinnacle  and  turreted  tower,  terminal  motifs  resemble 
darts  that  have  been  dropped  from  on  high.  Its  architects  were  Adah  Robin- 
son and  Bruce  GofT.  Capitol  Hill  High  School,  Oklahoma  City,  a  three-story 
brick  structure  of  collegiate  Gothic  style  designed  by  Layton,  Hicks,  and 
Forsyth,  was  when  built  the  best-equipped  school  building  in  the  state. 

The  largest  and  most  expensive  building  in  Oklahoma  (1941),  the  First 
National  Building  in  Oklahoma  City,  designed  by  Weary  and  Alford,  is  a 
striking  example  of  restrained  modern  American  skyscraper  architecture.  At 
the  time  of  its  erection,  in  1931,  it  was  said  that  more  aluminum  was  used  in 
this  building — above  the  main  entrance,  in  spandrels,  and  in  its  flood-lighted 
roof — than  in  any  other  in  the  world.  Its  Bedford  limestone  veneer,  how- 
ever, seems  somewhat  insecure,  as  bits  have  dropped  off  from  time  to  time. 
Another  outstanding  building  of  the  skyscraper  type  is  Oklahoma  City's 


ARCHITECTURE   AND   ART  99 

33-Story  Ramsey  Tower,  designed  by  Walter  Ahlschlager,  of  Chicago,  and 
erected  in  1931. 

Public  buildings,  constructed  with  the  aid  of  Federal  funds,  have  been 
a  leaven  to  architecture  throughout  the  state.  Typical  of  the  structures  of  this 
kind  is  the  neoclassic  group  of  the  Civic  Center,  Oklahoma  City,  which  in- 
cludes a  county  courthouse,  a  municipal  building,  auditorium,  and  jail.  The 
auditorium,  designed  by  Joseph  Overton  Parr,  was  selected  as  one  of  Ameri- 
ca's outstanding  architectural  masterpieces  by  a  committee  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Architects.  The  well-planned  city  hall,  designed  by  the  Allied 
Architects  of  Oklahoma  City,  is  characterized  by  rich  aluminum  grills  that 
adorn  the  principal  windows. 

Scattered  over  the  state  are  many  WPA-built  National  Guard  armories, 
usually  constructed  of  local  stone;  they  are  uniformly  of  sound  design  and 
workmanship  and  have  afforded  excellent  opportunities  for  apprentice  stone- 
masons to  learn  their  craft.  Bryan  Nolen  was  the  architect  of  most  of  them. 

Outstanding  architecturally  are  the  air-conditioned  tourist  courts  m 
Norman  designed  by  architect  W.  C.  Lightfoot.  Not  only  do  they  form  a 
pleasingly  white  housing  group,  but  they  pioneer  in  the  extensive  use  of 
impervious  bituminous  binding  of  earthern  materials  that  keep  the  interiors 
surprisingly  cool.  Such  material  lends  itself  to  long,  low  masses  and  may  set 
a  precedent  for  extensive  use  of  "Oklahoma  Adobe." 

ART 

In  purpose,  the  first  painter  to  work  in  Oklahoma  and  the  state's  latest 
developed  Indian  artist  are  brothers.  George  Catlin,  who  came  to  the  Wichita 
Mountains  region  in  1834  with  the  Leavenworth-Dodge  expedition,  under- 
took to  record  the  types  and  customs  of  a  people  who,  he  thought,  were  dying 
out.  In  1941,  Stephen  Mopope,  university-trained  Kiowa  Indian  artist,  was 
painting  murals  for  the  walls  of  the  Interior  Department  in  Washington 
which  he  designed  for  the  same  purpose.  Catlin,  remembering  the  tales  told 
in  his  home  by  explorers  and  hunters  when  he  was  a  boy,  abandoned  the  law 
for  art,  showed  his  numerous  paintings  in  the  East  and  in  Europe  in  1840 
(they  are  now  in  the  National  Museum  in  Washington),  and  in  1841  pub- 
lished his  best-known  book.  Manners,  Customs,  and  Conditions  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  with  three  hundred  engravings.  Nearly  one  hundred  years 
later,  Acee  Blue  Eagle,  a  young  Ponca-Creek  Indian,  was  invited  to  show  his 
vivid  water  colors  (and  his  skill  as  a  symbolic  dancer)  at  Oxford  University 
in  England. 

Next  in  the  succession  to  Catlin  as  a  recorder  of  the  early  Oklahoma 
scene  was  John  Mix  Stanley  (1814-72),  a  much-traveled  artist  educated  in 


100  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

Italy.  In  1843  he  attended  an  intertribal  council  at  Tahlequah  as  the  guest  of 
Chief  John  Ross  of  the  Chcrokecs  and  remained  for  a  year  to  paint  portraits 
and  make  daguerreotypes  of  the  Indians  at  Tahlequah  and  Webbers  Falls, 
and  of  army  officers  at  Fort  Gibson  (see  Tours  2  and  3).  Most  of  this  work 
was  destroyed  when  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington  was  burned 
in  1865,  but  a  number  of  portraits,  including  one  of  Will  Rogers'  mother  at 
the  age  of  eight,  are  in  Oklahoma. 

Frederic  Remington  (1861-1918)  was  an  illustrator,  painter,  and  sculp- 
tor, as  well  as  a  writer.  He  came  down  the  Chisholm  Trail  in  1882,  stayed  at 
Fort  Reno  and  the  Darlington  Indian  Agency  to  paint  Indians  and  army  men, 
gather  material  for  Crooked  Trails,  and  jot  down  his  low  opinion  of  the 
politician  type  of  Indian  Agent.  His  interpretations  of  frontier  life  with  clean, 
sharp  lines  caught  the  spirit  of  blanket  Indians,  blue<lad  soldiers,  bow-necked 
bronchos,  long-legged  and  long-horned  steers;  and  his  statuettes  are  vigorous 
and  full  of  character.  Like  Catlin,  Remington  was  not  a  iirst-rate  artist,  but 
his  illustrations  were  excellent;  and  as  authentic  records  of  an  all  but  van- 
ished West  his  work  is  in  demand  by  collectors  and  museums. 

Elbridge  Ayer  Burbank,  born  in  1858  and  trained  at  the  Chicago  Acad- 
emy of  Design  and  in  Munich,  worked  at  and  near  Fort  Sill  in  Oklahoma 
Territory  in  1896-97.  He  painted  some  125  notable  portraits  of  Kiowa  and 
Comanche  Indians,  and  three  of  the  famous  Apache  captive,  Geronimo.  Many 
of  these  hang  in  the  Field  Museum  and  Newberry  Library,  Chicago,  and  in 
the  Smithsonian  Institution;  only  a  few  are  in  Oklahoma.  A  portfolio  of  re- 
productions in  color  of  his  Indian  portraits  was  published  in  Chicago  in  1899. 

John  Noble  (1874-1934)  son  of  a  Wichita,  Kansas,  catdeman  and  a  cow- 
boy in  his  early  years,  made  the  Run  into  the  Cherokee  Oudet  in  1893,  and 
secured  a  claim  which  he  could  not  hold  on  account  of  his  youth.  Later  he 
went  abroad  to  study  art  at  Julian's  in  Paris,  in  Brussels,  and  London,  and 
remained  in  France  for  twenty-one  years.  His  picture,  The  Run,  painted  from 
memory,  though  not  one  of  his  best  was  acquired  for  its  historical  value  by 
Frank  Phillips  for  his  Woolaroc  Museum  (see  Tour  4),  then  given  by  him  to 
the  state.  It  hangs  in  the  Blue  Room  of  the  capitol  at  Oklahoma  City.  One 
of  Noble's  portraits,  executed  for  the  state  capitol  collection,  is  of  Thompson 
B.  Ferguson,  sixth  territorial  governor. 

Howell  Lewis,  an  army  man,  some  of  whose  pictures  hang  in  the  capi- 
tol, and  Nellie  Shepherd,  who  died  in  1920,  painted  Oklahoma  scenes,  the 
first  notable  for  the  size  of  his  canvases  and  the  second  for  the  warm,  impres- 
sionistic style  learned  in  France  and  used  to  depict  the  hills  and  prairies  of 
the  state. 

After  the  subsidence  of  interest  in  the  pioneer  phase  by  visitmg  artists, 


ARCHITECTURE    AND    ART  101 

native  Oklahoma  art  was  mainly  an  activity  of  more  or  less  amateur  practi- 
tioners among  the  house  painters,  "cafe  muralists,"  and  small-town  art  teach- 
ers with  more  enterprise  than  talent. 

In  the  surge  of  development  of  the  state's  resources  before  the  first  World 
War,  the  artist  group  in  Oklahoma  became  larger  and  its  interests  broader. 
Men  made  wealthy  by  oil,  ranching,  and  other  industries  encouraged  art  by 
buying  the  work  of  painters  developed  in  the  state.  In  1916,  the  Association 
of  Oklahoma  Artists  was  formed  and  instituted  an  annual  exhibit  at  the  Okla- 
homa Historical  Society  Museum;  they  also  exhibited  at  stores  and  residences 
in  Oklahoma  City. 

The  influence  of  the  Art  School  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma,  headed 
by  Oscar  B.  Jacobson,  an  artist  of  high  rank  and  an  enthusiastic  teacher,  be- 
came predominant  in  this  period;  and  a  number  of  painters  and  sculptors 
who  emerged  into  public  notice  were  among  his  faculty  and  students — Edith 
Mahier,  Joseph  Taylor,  Dorothy  Kirk,  Doel  Reed,  Leonard  Good,  Olinka 
Hrdy,  Harold  Smith,  and  others.  Nan  Sheets,  of  Oklahoma  City,  produced 
paintings  of  merit  and  became  a  leader  among  the  serious  workers;  her  home 
was  loaned  for  exhibitions  not  only  by  Oklahoma  Artists  but  also  by  those 
more  widely  known.  May  Todd  Aaron,  Glenn  and  Treva  Wheete,  Olive 
Nuhfer,  John  O'Neill,  Dorothea  Stevenson,  M.  McFarland,  and  Eugene 
Kingman,  now  (1941)  director  of  the  Philbrook  Museum  at  Tulsa,  are  among 
the  contemporary  Oklahoma  artists  developed  in  this  period. 

Most  notable,  interesting,  and  significant  of  the  University  Art  School's 
achievements  has  been  the  development  of  Indian  painting  in  Oklahoma. 
The  encouragement  and  guidance  given  here — particularly  by  Jacobson, 
who  from  the  first  insisted  that  these  Indian  students  should  use  Indian  themes 
and  a  style  based  on  the  Indians'  historical  pictorial  art  adapted  to  modern 
materials — have  produced  more  than  thirty  worth-while  artists  of  ten  dif- 
ferent tribes. 

Pioneers  among  the  talented  tribesmen  who  have  come  under  Jacobson's 
teaching  and  inspiration  since  1928  were  five  Kiowas — Stephen  Mopope, 
Monroe  Tsatoke,  James  Auchiah,  Jack  Hokeah,  and  Spencer  Asah.  Except 
for  Tsatoke,  who  died  of  tuberculosis  in  1937,  these  artists  have  contmued  to 
lead  in  spreading  an  ever  deeper  appreciation  of  Indian  art  by  their  work  as 
painters  and  muraUsts.  Close  behind,  if  not  abreast  of  them,  are  Blue 
Eagle,  Woodrow  Crumbo,  a  Potawatomi  who  is  (1941)  head  of  the  art  de- 
partment of  Bacone  Indian  College  (see  Tour  8);  Allan  Houser,  Oklahoma 
Apache  and  grandson  of  Geronimo;  Cecil  Dick  and  Franklin  Gritts,  Chero- 
kees;  Walker  Boone,  Oneida;  Solomon  McCombs,  Creek;  Cecil  Murdock, 
Kickapoo;  Paul  Goodbear,  Richard  West,  and  Archie  Blackowl,  Cheyennes; 


102  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

Frank  Overton  Colbert,  Choctaw;  and  the  Cherokee  sculptor,  Joseph  Se- 
quiche  Morris. 

A  portfolio  of  exquisitely  colored  reproductions  of  the  work  of  the  five 
Kiowa  painters,  edited  by  Jacobson  and  printed  in  France  in  1930,  attracted 
much  favorable  notice  both  in  the  United  States  and  abroad.  Exhibitions 
abroad  of  the  Indians'  original  work  were  held  in  a  number  of  countries 
before  the  second  World  War. 

Two  Indian  women,  Lois  Smokey,  a  Kiowa,  and  Marian  Terasaz,  a 
Comanche,  have  shown  more  than  average  talent  in  painting.  The  first  is 
now  (1941)  married  and  no  longer  paints,  but  the  second  has  gone  on,  at 
Bacone,  to  portray  the  traditional  life  of  the  women  and  children  of  her  tribe. 

Oklahoma's  Indian  artists  have,  almost  exclusively,  gone  to  the  past  tribal 
culture  for  their  subjects:  legends,  dances,  games,  medicine  men  rites,  hunts, 
and  other  characteristic  phases  of  the  old  life.  Their  visual  memory  is  remark- 
ably detailed  and  accurate. 

Most  important  of  the  murals  done  by  them  in  public  buildings  are  at 
Tahlequah  (Northeastern  State  College),  Muskogee,  Edmond  (Central  State 
College),  Oklahoma  City  (Historical  Society),  Anadarko  (Agency  and 
School),  Lawton  (Government  Indian  School),  and  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  Washington.  Blue  Eagle's  work  is  on  the  walls  of  the  officers'  mess 
room  of  the  battleship  Oklahoma. 

Predecessors  of  these  modern  Indian  artists,  whose  work  hardly  went 
beyond  the  experimental  stage,  were  Carl  Sweezy,  Arapaho;  Spybuck,  Shaw- 
nee; and  Silver  Horn. 

Aside  from  its  Art  School,  with  ten  teachers  and  an  enrollment  (1941)  of 
three  hundred  students,  the  University  of  Oklahoma  has  the  most  important 
art  collection  in  the  state.  The  museum  contains  numerous  pieces  of  oriental 
art — paintings,  bronzes,  statuary,  pottery,  and  other  objects  from  China, 
Nepal,  and  India.  It  has  a  small  collection  of  European  masters,  and  many 
American  Indian  paintings,  fine  baskets,  and  examples  of  other  tribal  crafts. 
Because  of  lack  of  exhibition  space,  the  greater  part  of  its  treasures  is  not  on 
public  view.  The  museum  sponsors  exhibitions  of  paintings  from  other  states; 
from  sixteen  to  eighteen  are  held  each  year  in  the  limited  space  available. 

The  museum  assembled  by  Father  Gerrer  at  St.  Gregory's  College  at 
Shawnee  (see  Tour  5)  includes  some  good  Italian  primitives.  At  Kaw  City 
(see  Tour  10),  the  Laura  A.  Clubb  Art  Collection,  exhibited  in  the  public 
rooms  of  the  Clubb  Hotel,  contains  canvases,  laces,  and  rare  books. 

Except  for  notices  in  newspapers,  little  has  been  published  about  Okla- 
homa art;  nothing  of  its  history.  In  1928  the  Sooner  Magazine  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oklahoma  published  a  scries  of  critical  biographies  of  painters  con- 


ARCHITECTURE    AND   ART  103 

nected  with  the  school;  and  in  1930  the  University  of  Oklahoma  Press  issued 
a  memorial  booklet  on  the  work  of  Laurence  Williams,  associate  professor  of 
art.  In  1930,  Ethel  Gray,  at  Chickasha,  began  to  issue  a  monthly  called  Inter- 
state Art  News,  dealing  with  painting  and  minor  arts  in  the  Southwest,  but 
it  was  soon  abandoned  for  lack  of  support.  There  is  also,  in  the  University 
Library,  a  volume  of  Masters'  theses  written  by  students  in  the  School  of  Art 
that  contains  much  material  about  the  state's  artists  and  their  work.  Nan 
Sheets  and  Maurice  A  De  Vinna,  Jr.  have  for  some  years  written  weekly 
newspaper  departments  concerning  the  state's  art  activities  for  the  Sunday 
Okjahoman  of  Oklahoma  City,  and  the  Tulsa  Sunday  World,  respectively. 

Philbrook  Art  Museum  in  Tulsa,  opened  in  October,  1939,  in  the  spacious 
private  residence  given  to  the  Southwestern  Art  Association  of  Tulsa  by 
Waite  Phillips,  stages  traveling  exhibits,  one-man  shows,  regional  exhibitions,^ 
and  architectural  displays  which  tell  the  story  of  American  building.  A  special 
efifort  is  being  made  to  fill  the  Indian  rooms  with  material  illustrating  the 
history,  and  the  comparative  importance,  of  native  arts  and  crafts.  A  full  pro- 
gram of  shows,  classes,  lectures,  and  concerts  is  promoted  at  the  Museum. 

Set  up  in  1936,  and  sponsored  by  the  University  of  Oklahoma  and  the 
Oklahoma  Council  of  Art,  the  Oklahoma  Art  Project  of  the  Work  Projects 
Administration  has  done  much  to  stimulate  general  interest  in  art,  as  well  as 
to  provide  work  for  needy  artists.  Galleries,  free  art  classes,  and  lecture 
courses,  first  established  in  Oklahoma  City,  Tulsa,  and  Claremore,  have  been 
extended  to  Shawnee,  Okmulgee,  Stillwater,  Edmond,  Sapulpa,  Bristow, 
Skiatook,  Clinton,  and  Marlow.  As  of  1941,  the  project  occupies  five  galleries 
on  the  fifth  floor  of  the  Oklahoma  City  Municipal  Auditorium. 

Constructive  work  has  been  undertaken  with  the  grade  and  high  schools 
of  the  state;  and  the  galleries  furnish  exhibit  pieces,  which  are  changed  from 
time  to  time,  for  study. 

Another  state-wide  WPA  project,  sponsored  by  the  U.S.  Indian  Service, 
began  in  February,  1939,  to  co-ordinate  the  arts  and  crafts  work  done  by 
Oklahoma  Indians  and  find  markets  for  their  products.  The  supervisor,  Mrs. 
Eula  A.  Looney,  a  member  of  the  Chickasaw  tribe,  in  co-operation  with  some 
350  other  persons  of  Indian  blood  representing  twenty-three  tribes  throughout 
the  state,  has  encouraged  Indian  artists  and  craftsmen  through  exhibitions 
and  displays  of  their  work,  education,  the  provision  of  working  quarters,  and 
research.  Indian  arts  and  crafts,  displayed  at  many  places  in  Oklahoma,  have 
been  in  such  media  as  tempera  painting,  sculpture,  wood  carving,  basketry, 
weaving,  jewelry  and  metal  work,  costuming,  ribbon  and  feather  work. 


^f\/r^ i^fj/v ^  , i^!}/i2 'jfl/ijr ^, zxflilz . . 'J^i^^ . , '^^^^ , z^^ll 


Music 


As  IN  EVERY  OTHER  PHASE — industrial,  educational,  cultural — Oklahoma's 
/j\  development  in  the  field  of  music  is  still  in  its  youth.  But  it  has  a  rich 
JL  Jx  background  of  folk  music  upon  which  to  create  an  indigenous  motif. 
The  purposeful  native  Indian  chant  and  rhythm;  the  tunes  of  the  Five  Civ- 
ilized Tribes  and  the  staid  hymns  of  the  early-day  missionaries  fused  together 
by  propinquity;  the  plaintive,  yet  indefinably  joyous,  spirituals  of  the  trans- 
planted Negro;  the  boasting,  gay,  courageous  ballads  of  the  cowboy,  who 
sang  to  ward  away  his  loneliness;  and  the  rollicking,  un-pretty  songs  of  the 
pioneer  homemaker,  who  worked  prodigiously  in  the  daytime  and  forgot,  at 
night,  his  calloused  hands  and  rude  clothes  while  he  raised  his  voice  in  a 
spontaneous  outpouring — all  may  eventually  be  welded  together  into  a 
characteristic  Oklahoma  theme.  Thus  Oklahoma  folk  music  cannot  properly 
be  called  native,  for  each  successive  immigrant  to  the  state  brought  the  dust 
of  another  locale  on  his  feet  and  the  lilt  of  another  people's  song  on  his  lips. 

The  music  of  the  Indian  tribes  who  ranged  this  region  before  their  more 
civilized  brothers  came  was  not  just  an  adjunct  to  their  daily  life,  but  a  vital 
part  of  it;  nearly  every  physical  act  and  mental  emotion  was  accompanied  by 
a  song,  and  the  most  common  means  of  communication  with  the  Great  Spirit 
was  through  melody.  Although  each  individual  Indian  exercised  his  creative 
instinct  at  will,  the  majority  of  the  chants  were  those  which  had  stood  the  test 
of  time  to  become  traditionally  appropriate  as  a  fitting  accompaniment  for 
the  act  at  hand.  The  ceremonial  and  historical  songs  in  particular  were  pa- 
tiently transmitted  as  a  sacred  duty  to  each  new  generation.  Since  these  simple 
people  recorded  melodies  only  in  their  minds,  much  of  their  music  is  lost  to 
the  world  forever;  and  the  disintegration  of  their  pure  race  has  introduced 
blood  strains  foreign  to  their  peculiar,  melodic  spontaneity.  No  diatonic  scale 
can  catch  or  interpret  the  fullness  or  the  beauty  of  the  themes,  and  proper 
rendition  of  Indian  music  requires  congeniality  of  mind  and  a  mystical  union 
with  nature. 

104 


MUSIC  105 

The  pronounced  thinness  (to  the  white  ear)  of  Indian  music  is  due  mostly 
to  the  scarcity  of  instruments — they  used  only  the  drum  for  rhythm,  a  flute- 
like reed  for  obbligato,  and  a  ratding  gourd  for  an  occasional  interpolation,  to 
accompany  the  vocal  melody.  Any  attempt  at  harmonization  of  Indian  music 
loses  the  true  quality  and  charm,  for  the  melody  and  rhythm  are  often  at 
complete  variance.  Recording  of  Indian  music  is  the  only  real  means  of  pre- 
serving it,  and  even  that  lacks  the  fullness  which  would  be  immediately 
apparent  if  one  could  see  the  supple  body  movements  attending  it. 

The  Oklahoma  Music  Program  is  one  of  the  few  in  the  nation  to  conduct 
research  on  folk  music;  in  the  course  of  this  work,  recordings  were  made  of 
Cheyenne,  Kiowa,  Sac  and  Fox,  Apache,  Pawnee,  Ottawa,  and  Osage  music. 
A  special  portable  recording  unit  was  made  so  that  the  work  might  be  done 
on  reservations  and  in  the  remote  homes  of  full  bloods.  The  records,  which 
include  some  two  hundred  songs  of  war,  ceremonials,  medicine,  animals,  love, 
lullabies,  dances,  and  games,  will  be  preserved  in  the  Library  of  Congress  in 
Washington,  D.C.,  at  the  University  of  Oklahoma  in  Norman,  and  at  the 
central  office  of  the  Oklahoma  Music  Program  when  final  transcriptions  are 
made. 

One  of  the  recordings  is  a  perfect  example  of  a  composite  musical  entity. 
It  is  sung  by  John  Loco,  or  Thinc-ah-e-sitten,  an  Apache,  who  when  a  boy 
was  taken  prisoner  by  Geronimo  (see  Tour  3 A)  and  was  subsequently  im- 
prisoned in  Florida  by  the  United  States  when  that  warrior  and  his  band 
were  captured.  Probably  during  this  period  of  confinement,  John  was  in- 
fluenced by  missionaries  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  and  now  he  sings 
in  his  native  language  a  song  which  he  created  as  a  result  of  these  several  con- 
tacts: "I  was  lost,  but  Jesus  found  out  and  gave  me  way.  I  came  back.  Now  I 
am  happy  in  Jesus."  This  illustration  is  also  typical  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  music,  which  was,  by  the  time  they  emigrated  to  their  new  home  in 
Oklahoma,  already  deeply  influenced  by  the  hymns  of  the  various  white  de- 
nominations whose  missionaries  had  worked  among  them. 

With  this  earliest  Oklahoma  music  must  be  included  the  contribution  of 
the  Negroes,  who  were  brought  along  as  slaves  by  the  emigratmg  Indians. 
The  childlike  faith  and  the  intense  religious  fervor  of  their  spirituals  was 
expressed  by  the  rhythmical  syncopation  common  to  the  bulk  of  Negroes  and 
by  the  plaintive  quality  resulting  from  the  frequent  use  of  the  five-tone  scale. 
Three  Negro  spirituals,  well  known  and  loved  today,  are  said  to  have  been 
composed  in  the  1840's  by  "Uncle"  Wallace  Willis,  a  slave  on  a  large  planta- 
tion near  Doaksville  in  the  Choctaw  Nation.  The  actual  authorship  and  origin 
of  spirituals  can  seldom  actually  be  credited  to  individuals,  but  it  is  a  matter 
of  record  that  "Uncle"  Willis  sang  "Swing  Low,  Sweet  Chariot,"  "Steal 


106  OKLAHOMA:    THE    GLNtRAL    BACKGROUND 

Away  to  Jesus, "  and  "I'm  A  Rollin'  "  as  he  worked  in  the  cotton  fields  of 
Reverend  Alexander  Reid,  superintendent  of  a  Choctaw  boarding  school.  The 
story  is  that  Reid  wrote  down  the  words  and  music  and  sent  the  transcriptions 
to  the  Jubilee  Singers  of  Fisk  University.  The  group  sang  the  numbers  on  a 
tour  of  the  United  States  and  Europe;  one,  "Steal  Away  to  Jesus,"  is  said  to 
have  particularly  pleased  Queen  Victoria. 

As  the  plantations  declined  after  the  Civil  War  and  many  more  white 
people  drifted  into  Indian  Territory  and  No  Man's  Land,  another  kind  of 
folk  music  began  to  be  heard — the  nasal,  lonely  ballads  of  the  cowboy  and 
the  fiddlin'  rhythms  of  the  pioneer  farmer.  The  mushroom  settlements  and 
towns  fostered  two  types  of  music — inside  the  homes  and  churches,  voices 
were  raised  with  fervor  in  hymnal  praise  of  God,  while  from  the  brighdy- 
lighted  saloons  and  dance  halls  came  the  rousing  tunes  of  early-day  swing 
music.  Percussion  instruments  were  almost  unheard  of,  but  the  fiddler  could 
be  counted  upon  at  almost  any  time. 

The  peculiar  technique  of  the  fiddler  is  foreign  to  the  schooled  violinist, 
for  many  of  the  effects  are  produced  by  tricks  not  included  in  the  formal 
study  of  the  violin.  One  trick,  frequently  employed  to  produce  a  distinctive 
twangy  vibration,  is  to  tune  the  G  string  a  whole  tone  higher  and  then  use 
only  the  other  three;  others  are  the  accenting  of  the  last  of  tied  notes,  and 
the  playing  of  a  double  note  on  the  same  pitch.  Such  idioms  are  impossible 
to  reproduce  on  any  other  than  stringed  instruments  and,  as  the  fiddler 
maintains,  almost  impossible  for  the  conventionally-trained  violinist  to  play 
effectively.  Deviations  from  the  violinist's  technique  include  supporting  the 
weight  of  the  instrument  in  the  left  hand  rather  than  with  the  chin;  playing 
entirely  in  the  first  position,  usually  holding  the  bow  nearer  the  middle  than 
the  end;  and  bowing  in  quick,  sawing  motions.  These  methods  of  playing 
allow  conveniences  the  trained  violinist  is  denied — the  fiddler's  head  is  left 
free  for  nodding  and  emphasizing  the  music,  and  for  smoking,  chewing, 
and  expectoration.  It  is  said  that  the  fiddler  needs  only  his  battered  instru- 
ment, a  chunk  of  rosin,  a  chair  with  a  rawhide  seat,  and  a  dash  of  Old  Nick 
to  produce  a  concert. 

Texans,  who  settled  in  Greer  County,  brought  a  tune  which  has  been 
traced  to  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Indiana,  where  it  was  known  as  "Old  Lady 
Tucker,"  but  the  Greer  County  settlers  called  it  "Love  Somebody"  and  set 
their  own  words  to  its  melody.  Colorado  miners  came  to  the  new  land  and 
brought  the  nostalgic  "Cripple  Creek";  "Little  Dutch  Girl"  came  by  way 
of  Missouri;  and  "Liza  Jane,"  "Number  Nine,"  "Bonaparte's  Retreat,  "Lost 
Indian,"  "Sweet  Child,"  "Cotton-Eyed  Joe,"  "Grandma  Blair,"  "Five  Miles 
From  Town,"  "Tom  and   Jerrv,"  "Idy  Red,"  "Cluckin'  Hen,"   "Custer's 


MUSIC  107 

Last  Charge,"  and  the  favorite  love  plaint,  "Little  Girl  with  Her  Hair  All 
down  Behind,"  entered  Oklahoma  by  devious  ways  and  from  many  locales. 
The  stanzas  of  many  of  the  early  ballads  and  songs  were  not  merely 
doggerel — as  they  may  sound  today — but  correctly  interpreted  some  phase 
of  life  to  their  singer  or  originator.  Cowboys  quieted  herds  of  wild  and 
uneasy  longhorns  with  "Old  Paint,"  "The  Stampede,"  "Beans  for  Break- 
fast," "Ropin',"  "Brandin',"  "Old  Chisholm  Trail,"  and  at  the  same  time 
consoled  themselves  with  the  anticipatory  "Little  Home  to  Go  to."  Missouri 
immigrants  are  said  to  have  introduced  the  fearful 

Oh  good  Indian,  don't  kill  me, 
For  I've  a  wife  and  family. 

Nearly  everyone  sang  the  popular 

Had  a  piece  of  pie,  had  a  piece  of  puddin', 
Gave  it  all  away  to  see  Sally  Gooden. 

In  addition  to  the  research  and  recording  of  authentic  Indian  melodies, 
the  folk  music  division  of  the  Oklahoma  Music  Program  has  transcribed  and 
classified  some  four  hundred  of  these  popular  folk  songs  of  early  Oklahoma, 
including  125  fiddle  tunes;  plans  are  being  made  for  their  publication. 
Among  those  which  have  been  fairly  generally  established  as  originating  in 
Oklahoma  are  "Verdigris  Bottom,"  a  dance  tune;  "Oklahoma  Run,"  (also 
known  as  "Old  Purcell");  "Red  Bird";  the  "Oklahoma  Waltz";  and  the 
"Tulsey  Waltz,"  the  last  two  drippingly  sentimental.  Two  popular  tunes 
originated  with  their  performers  at  Indian  Territory  dances — one,  "Uncle 
Paul,"  was  composed  on  the  spot  by  Paul  Toupin,  a  favorite  territorial  fid- 
dler; and  the  other,  "Slaton's  Waltz,"  was  the  brain  child  of  Tom  Slaton, 
playing  for  a  dance  near  Mangum. 

The  play-party,  the  square  dance  (see  Folklore  and  Folkways),  and  the 
singing  school  furnished  other  means  of  musical  life  to  the  pioneer.  At 
the  "sings"  he  could  rock  the  rafters  with  the  familiar  songs  and  feel  no 
embarrassment,  since  everyone  joined  in  lustily.  Religious  songs,  the  old 
faithfuls  such  as  "Darling  Nellie  Gray,"  "Tumble-down  Log  Shanty  on  the 
Claim,"  and  "Red  Wing,"  and  running  of  the  scales  filled  the  evening  till 
the  time  came  to  join  in  on  "Oh  the  Singin'  Schule"  for  the  finale. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  the  singing  society  has  again  become  popular 
in  Oklahoma,  and  organizations  have  been  formed  in  many  towns  and 
communities;  all-day  "sings"  are  frequently  held. 

After  statehood,  the  erection  of  gilt-decorated  opera  houses  in  the  fast- 
growing  towns  began  to  bring  classical  music — usually  executed  with  a 


108     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

piano  and  violin,  dignified  by  the  term  orchestra — to  Oklahomans.  Lyceum 
and  chautauqua  courses  introduced  soloists  with  extensive  repertoires;  bands 
were  formed  in  towns  of  any  size,  and  the  Sunday  afternoon  concert  in  the 
public  square  became  an  established  custom.  With  the  coming  of  statehood 
and  the  drafting  of  the  school  curriculum,  the  teaching  of  music  was  autho- 
rized by  law.  In  some  instances,  local  school  boards  made  provision  for  the 
office  of  a  music  teacher  or  supervisor. 

Most  Oklahoma  primary  schools  introduce  some  music  in  the  day's 
activities,  more  often  by  phonograph  in  the  field  of  music  appreciation;  all 
accredited  junior  and  senior  high  schools  require  music  teachers  to  hold 
special  certificates  in  addition  to  their  general  teaching  qualifications;  and 
in  the  secondary  bracket,  too,  curricular  music  is  stressed  as  much  as  extra- 
curricular activity  in  the  subject.  Music  appreciation  and  history  are  taught 
in  addition  to  the  more  technical  studies  of  theory,  and  instrumental  and 
vocal  training.  Various  musical  organizations  of  the  Oklahoma  public 
schools  have  won  many  honors  in  national  and  regional  competition,  par- 
ticularly in  the  band  section — for  most  schools  in  the  state  support  their 
brilliantly  costumed  marching  groups  as  enthusiastically  as  their  football 
teams. 

Excellent  music  departments  have  been  established  in  the  state  univer- 
sities and  colleges,  where  instruction  is  offered  in  all  instruments  and  voice, 
and  in  the  more  technical  fields  of  theory  and  composition.  The  department 
of  music  at  the  University  of  Oklahoma,  at  the  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and 
Mechanical  College,  at  the  University  of  Tulsa,  and  at  Phillips  University 
all  support  full-size  symphony  orchestras.  Most  of  the  smaller  institutions 
have  symphonic  or  chamber  music  groups.  Bacone  Indian  College  (see  Tour 
8)  has  an  outstanding  choral  organization  which  makes  extensive  tours 
annually;  the  school's  music  department  is  striving  to  keep  native  Indian 
music  from  extinction.  The  a  cappella  choir  of  Northwestern  State  College 
(see  Tour  2)  is  a  vested  group  of  fifty  voices  which  has  become  well  known 
in  the  Southwest,  since  it  makes  annual  concert  tours  through  several  states. 
The  choir,  organized  in  1928,  has  a  repertoire  which  includes  chorales, 
masses,  madrigals,  liturgical  music,  spirituals,  and  sacred  and  secular  songs. 
The  two  most  discerning  national  music  sororities  are  represented  in  Okla- 
homa: Mu  Phi  Epsilon  with  an  active  chapter  at  the  University  of  Oklahoma 
and  several  alumnae  groups;  and  Sigma  Alpha  Iota  with  units  at  the  uni- 
versities in  Oklahoma  City,  Tulsa,  Shawnee,  and  Norman. 

Outside  the  schools,  though  always  working  indirectly  with  them  and 
sometimes  in  actual  collaboration,  are  various  musical  organizations  through- 
out the  state.  The  Oklahoma  Federation  of  Music  Clubs  is  the  most  far- 


MUSIC  109 

reaching  and  prominent;  there  are  212  senior,  student,  and  junior  affiliated 
clubs  with  a  total  membership  of  4,737  in  the  state's  nine  districts.  The  fed- 
eration sponsors  the  state's  part  in  the  National  Federation's  competition  for 
solo  and  group  work  and  composition,  and  has  also  organized  an  all-state 
chorus  and  orchestra  which  meets  to  rehearse  and  perform  at  the  annual 
convention. 

Enid  is  noted  as  a  particularly  music-minded  city,  for  the  schools,  civic 
groups,  and  Phillips  University  join  in  sponsoring  the  annual  Tri-State  Band 
Festival  and  the  Cimarron  Opera  Company.  Oklahoma,  Kansas,  and  Texas 
send  bands  to  the  festival,  held  during  the  second  week  in  April,  where  they 
are  judged  by  nationally  prominent  band  conductors  and  join,  as  the  finale 
of  the  event,  for  a  massed  band  concert  and  parade.  The  meet  is  open  to 
all  bands  and  is  not  primarily  competitive;  it  is  rather  designed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  inculcating  musical  standards.  The  opera  company  is  a  civic  organi- 
zation which  presents  each  June  in  the  Glenwood  Amphitheater  four  operas, 
for  which  well-known  singers  are  often  imported  to  sing  the  lead  roles;  a 
symphony  made  up  of  citizen  musicians  and  university  players  interprets 
the  score.  Tulsa,  for  a  time,  supported  a  symphony,  and  is  the  home  of  two 
outstanding  musical  organizations — the  Tulsans,  one  of  the  state's  first  male 
choral  groups,  and  the  Hyechka  Club,  first  organized  in  1904  and  still  active 
with  a  membership  of  three  hundred.  The  name  is  said  to  mean  "music"  in 
the  Creek  language.  The  State  Organists'  Guild  is  represented  by  chapters 
in  Tulsa  and  in  Oklahoma  City. 

Oklahoma  City  boasts  a  number  of  prominent  and  active  musical  organi- 
zations in  which  are  included  the  famous  Kiltie  band,  an  unusual  marching 
society  that  has  represented  the  city  throughout  the  state  and  in  most  of  the 
important  metropolises  of  the  country  during  the  last  fifteen  years.  There  is 
a  constant  waiting  list  for  the  perpetual  membership  of  fifty  girls,  some  750 
girls  having  worn  the  bright  plaid  kilts,  the  highlander  cap,  and  the  fur  purse 
since  the  start  of  the  band.  The  minimum  age  for  entrance  is  sixteen  years; 
rigid  moral  standards  are  required;  membership  pays  nothing  except  trip 
expenses;  and  the  only  musical  knowledge  necessary  is  the  ability  to  read 
music,  for  instruction  in  the  playing  of  the  bagpipe  and  the  drums  is  given 
by  the  conductor  of  the  band. 

The  Oklahoma  Symphonic  Choir,  sponsored  by  the  First  Christian 
Church  of  Oklahoma  City,  has  made  enviable  progress  since  it  was  founded 
in  1937.  It  has  no  denominational  restrictions,  only  a  high  vocal  standard 
and  a  limited  membership.  Mastery  of  a  large  repertoire  of  unusual  choral 
music  was  responsible  for  the  group's  being  invited  to  sing  at  the  New  York 
World's  Fair  in  1939  and  with  the  famous  Westminster  Choir  at  the  West- 


110  OKLAHOMA:    TIIU    G  li  N  E  RA  L    BACKGROUND 

minster  College  of  Music  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  in  the  same  year.  An- 
other Oklahoma  City  music  group  is  the  twenty-year-old  chapter  of  the 
MacDowell  Club,  represented  elsewhere  in  Oklahoma  at  only  two  other 
cities,  Ada  and  Anadarko.  The  Oklahoma  City  group  has  a  constant  mem- 
bership of  approximately  five  hundred  and  has  undertaken  the  responsi- 
bility of  sending  Oklahoma  artists  to  the  MacDowell  summer  colony  at 
Peterboro,  New  Hampshire.  Musicians  who  have  been  given  the  privilege 
are  Spencer  Norton,  Lemuel  Childers,  and  Charles  B.  Macklm.  The  Ladies' 
Music  Club,  established  at  the  turn  of  the  century  and  listing  a  membership 
of  five  hundred,  presents  three  artist  concerts  each  year,  open  to  members 
and  guests.  The  Apollo  Club  is  an  old  and  active  men's  choral  group. 

The  Oklahoma  Music  Teachers'  Association,  affiliated  with  the  national 
organization,  has  headquarters  in  Oklahoma  City.  The  state's  one  hundred 
members  must  be  accredited  by  examination  before  the  State  Board  of 
Education  and  possess  the  necessary  college  degrees.  The  association's  pur- 
pose is  primarily  to  give  recognition  to  the  private  music  teacher  by  licensing, 
thus  allowing  him  to  give  instruction  which  will  accord  public  school  credit 
to  the  pupil. 

The  Flatfoot  Four,  composed  of  Oklahoma  City  policemen,  has  proved 
itself  a  championship  quartet  in  "barbershop"  vocalizing,  for  it  was  declared 
winner  in  the  nationwide  contest  conducted  at  the  New  York  World's  Fair 
in  1940.  A  quartet  from  Bartlesville  won  second  place  in  the  same  competi- 
tion. 

The  most  important  state  musical  movement  in  recent  years  is  that 
created  by  the  Oklahoma  Music  Program,  a  unit  of  the  Work  Projects  Admin- 
istration, with  headquarters  in  the  Municipal  Auditorium  in  Oklahoma 
City.  The  75-piece  Oklahoma  Symphony  Orchestra  made  its  debut  in  Janu- 
ary, 1938,  with  pianist  Guy  Maier  as  soloist.  Each  winter  a  tour  is  made — by 
the  end  of  1940  seventeen  state  cities  had  heard  the  symphony  in  thirty-three 
school  concerts,  attended  by  35,368  children,  and  in  twenty-four  public  per- 
formances, attended  by  15,695.  School  busses  travel  as  far  as  seventy-five 
miles  to  bring  children  from  the  rural  districts  to  the  place  of  concert  for 
the  afternoon  performance,  always  primarily  a  music  appreciation  program 
preceded  by  school  study  on  the  concert  numbers.  Oklahoma  City  school 
students  hear  the  group  regularly.  The  orchestra  presents  a  series  of  formal 
concerts  at  Oklahoma  City  in  the  winter  and  lighter  symphonic  revues  in  the 
city's  Taft  Stadium  in  the  summer;  artists  of  national  caliber  who  have 
appeared  with  the  group  are  Harold  Bauer,  Alec  Templeton,  Albert  Spald- 
ing, Donald  Dickson,  Charles  Wakefield  Cadman,  Dalies  Frantz,  the  San 
Francisco  Opera  Ballet,  and  the  Littlefield  Ballet.  Works  of  thirteen  state 


MUSIC  111 

composers  have  been  presented,  and  a  junior  symphony  of  sixty-five  students 
is  sponsored. 

The  young  conductor,  Victor  Alessandro,  is  a  graduate  of  the  Eastman 
School  of  Music  at  Rochester,  New  York,  the  American  winner  of  the  Salz- 
burg and  Prix  de  Rome  fellowship  in  1937,  and  has  appeared  as  guest  con- 
ductor of  the  New  York  Civic  Symphony,  the  Rochester  Civic  and  Phil- 
harmonic Symphonies,  and  the  Eastman  Symphony. 

The  future  of  the  orchestra  is  being  assured  through  the  organization 
of  the  Oklahoma  State  Symphony  Society,  a  nonprofit  organization  which 
sponsors  the  concerts  and  assures  the  necessary  backing;  by  the  official  spon- 
sorship of  the  University  of  Oklahoma;  and  by  the  Oklahoma  City  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  which  for  two  successive  years  (1939-40)  chose  the  orchestra 
as  one  of  its  thirteen  major  activities.  The  Oklahoma  Music  Program  also  has 
a  widespread  Music  Education  unit  employing  seventy-seven  teachers. 

Native  Oklahomans  who  have  become  well  known  in  the  concert  and 
operatic  field  are  Giuseppe  Bentonelli  (Joseph  Benton),  who  was  born  in 
Kansas  City,  Missouri,  but  was  brought  to  Sayre  as  an  infant,  and  who  is 
(1941)  a  leading  tenor  with  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company;  Lushanya 
(Tessie  Mobley),  born  near  Ardmore  of  Chickasaw  parentage,  a  mezzo- 
soprano  engaged  with  the  Chicago  Civic  Opera  and  a  concert  artist  of  fame 
both  here  and  abroad,  where  she  sang  before  England's  King  George  and 
Queen  Mary  and  Italy's  Premier  Mussolini;  Princess  Pakanli  (Mrs.  Edwin 
Underwood),  born  also  in  Ardmore  of  mixed  Indian  blood,  a  soloist  with 
the  Chicago  Civic  Opera  Company  in  1935,  and  later  on  the  concert  stage; 
Kathleen  Kersting,  born  near  Enid,  who  sang  for  two  seasons  with  the 
Chicago  Civic  Opera,  at  Bayreuth  in  the  Wagnerian  Festival  in  1931,  with 
the  Berlin  Opera  Company,  and  with  various  other  organizations  abroad; 
Ruth  Alexander  Young,  another  native  of  Ardmore,  who  appeared  with  the 
Denver  Opera  Company  and  the  Denver  Symphony  Orchestra  in  1936-37 
and  taught  earlier  at  the  Conservatory  of  Music  at  Manila,  Philippine 
Islands;  and  Annette  Burford,  of  Oklahoma  City,  who  was  the  1940  winner 
of  the  Chicago  Civic  Opera  auditions  and  who  is  appearing  regularly  in 
their  productions.  Mack  Harreld,  1939  baritone  winner  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company  auditions,  is  a  native  Texan  who  lived  in  Oklahoma  City 
for  several  years. 

Dr.  Melvin  G.  Riggs,  professor  of  psychology  at  the  Oklahoma  Agri- 
cultural and  Mechanical  College,  is  making  a  contribution  in  the  field  of 
music  as  associate  editor  of  the  Journal  of  Musicology,  a  music  research 
magazine  published  at  Greenfield,  Ohio.  A  number  of  his  articles  on  experi- 
mental psychology  in  relation  to  music  have  appeared  in  various  publications; 


112     OKLAHOMA:  THE  GLNERAL  BACKGROUND 

one  formed  the  basis  for  a  chapter  in  Deems  Taylor's  The  Well-Tempered 
Listener. 

Oklahoma  lays  claim  to  a  number  of  recognized  composers,  some  native 
to  the  state  and  others  transplanted  citizens.  Roy  Harris,  prominent  musician 
and  well-known  composer,  was  born  near  Chandler  (see  Tour  1).  His  honors 
include  a  Guggenheim  fellowship  and  appointments  to  head  the  composition 
department  of  the  Westminster  Choir  of  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  and  the 
Princeton  Festival  of  American  Music.  His  music,  including  the  First,  Sec- 
ond, and  Third  Symphonies;  the  Time  Suite,  commissioned  by  the  Colum- 
bia Broadcasting  System;  "Johnny  Comes  Marching  Home,"  commissioned 
by  Victor  Records;  and  a  number  of  other  works,  has  been  played  widely  by 
such  orchestras  as  the  New  York  Philharmonic,  the  Boston,  Washington, 
D.C.,  and  Seattle  symphonies,  and  by  groups  in  Mexico  and  Italy.  Other 
native  Oklahomans  who  have  achieved  a  measure  of  fame  are  Spencer  Nor- 
ton, University  of  Oklahoma  professor,  who  wrote  Aeschylus  for  orchestra 
while  at  the  MacDoweli  summer  camp,  and  who  has  had  several  piano 
compositions  published;  Wynn  York,  whose  "Silhouettes"  has  been  played 
by  the  Chicago  Symphony  Orchestra;  and  Albert  Kirkpatrick,  composer 
of  a  number  of  published  concert  songs,  using  the  lyrics  of  the  English  poet, 
A.  E.  Housman. 

Native  Indian  themes  have  been  incorporated  in  the  music  written  by 
Lemuel  Childers,  an  Osage  born  in  Pawhuska,  and  the  composer  of  "Hia- 
watha," "Peace  Pipe,"  "Warriors,"  "Laughing  Water,"  and  "Sand  Dance," 
all  for  symphony  orchestra;  Fred  Cardin,  born  on  the  Quapaw  Reservation 
(see  Tour  1),  whose  "Cree  War  Dance"  for  violin  and  piano  has  been  pub- 
lished; Ingram  Cleveland,  born  in  the  Cherokee  Hills  of  Cherokee  Indian 
parentage  and  composer  of  "Spavinaw  Moonlight"  for  violin,  which  has 
been  performed  in  Chicago  and  has  also  been  orchestrated  and  performed 
by  the  Oklahoma  Symphony  Orchestra;  and  Jack  Kilpatrick,  Cherokee  In- 
dian born  near  Stilwell  and  a  graduate  of  Bacone  College,  who  has  written 
"Saturday  Night  on  Echota  Hill,"  "Wovoka,"  and  "Cherokee  Suite"  for 
orchestra  in  addition  to  vocal  and  instrumental  works. 

Adopted  Oklahomans  who  are  well  known  for  accomplishments  in  the 
music  world  include  Claude  Lapham,  of  Oklahoma  City,  who  has  received 
acclaim  for  his  oriental  music,  including  the  Japanese  opera,  Sof{ura,  per- 
formed in  Tokyo  and  at  the  Hollywood  Bowl  in  1933;  Edwin  Vaile  Mc- 
Intyre  (died  1934),  of  Oklahoma  City,  a  prolific  and  well-known  composer 
of  teaching  pieces  for  piano,  many  of  which  are  published;  Paul  Thomas 
(died  1940),  of  Oklahoma  City,  composer  of  the  orchestra  number  based 
on  Edwin  Markham's  famous  poem,  "Man  With  The  Hoe";  Samuel  A. 


MUSIC  113 

McReynolds,  of  Oklahoma  City,  whose  Southwest  was  performed  by  the 
New  York  Symphony  in  1937,  and  whose  more  recent  work,  Grand  River 
Suite,  for  string  orchestra,  descriptive  of  the  eastern  Oklahoma  river,  was 
presented  in  1939  by  the  Oklahoma  Symphony  Orchestra;  Charles  B.  Mack- 
lin,  of  Seminole,  who  has  five  published  books  of  teaching  pieces  for  piano, 
violin,  and  voice;  Bohumil  Makovsky,  head  of  the  music  department  at  the 
Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  the  composer  of  the  180th 
Infantry  March;  Paolo  Conte,  dean  of  music  at  Oklahoma  Baptist  University, 
composer  of  more  than  two  hundred  works  including  the  well-known  The 
Old  Love  Story  and  Canzone  Triste,  written  for  piano  but  later  orchestrated; 
Father  Ignatius  GroU,  former  instructor  of  music  at  St.  Gregory's  College, 
noted  for  the  prelude,  Snow  Angel;  Oscar  J.  Lehrer,  of  the  University  of 
Oklahoma  faculty,  writer  of  sixty  published  anthems  and  the  noted  cantata, 
King  of  Alcohol;  Galen  Holcomb,  of  Oklahoma  City,  whose  native  African 
dance,  Poro,  has  been  performed  by  the  Illinois  Symphony  Orchestra,  the 
Chicago  Women's  Symphony,  and  the  Oklahoma  Symphony  Orchestra,  and 
whose  Capriccio  for  Tympani  and  Orchestra,  performed  by  the  Illinois  and 
Oklahoma  Symphonies,  has  received  notice  for  its  unusual  choice  of  solo 
instrument;  Marie  M.  Hine,  of  Tulsa,  who  is  the  composer  of  two  hundred 
published  anthems  and  six  cantatas,  among  them  The  Redemption;  and 
Mayme  Rabinovitz-Travis,  of  Tulsa,  who  has  written  many  compositions  for 
voice  and  violin,  including  the  well-known  "Indian  Dance"  and  "O  Wonder- 
ful Mother  of  Mine." 

In  the  field  of  poular  music,  Oklahoma  is  represented  by  Truman 
(Pinky)  Tomlin,  of  Durant,  composer  of  "Object  of  My  Affections";  Phil 
Grogan,  of  Oklahoma  City,  composer  of  "Especially  for  You";  and  Helen 
Myers,  of  Oklahoma  City,  a  mezzo-soprano  well  known  as  a  night  club 
singer  and  a  recording  artist. 


j^O/?* ^  , :xf\i^^ ^ j^O/'i ^ , i^O'i: ^, ^I'^i ^  , i^^lZ .  - t^^ll ^  - ^''il 


Folklore  and  Folkways 


A  ccoRDiNG  to  an  imaginative  early  historian,  a  pioneer  settler  in  Okla- 
/j\  homa  ran  amuck  on  a  visit  to  town  and,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
jL  jI.  minutes,  killed  a  representative  of  each  of  five  races.  The  historian 
adds  that  it  was  possible  because  they  were  found  within  the  space  of  a  city 
block.  Considering  the  diversity  of  sources  from  which  the  state's  population 
was  drawn,  the  story  is  not  so  farfetched  as  it  might  sound.  It  would  be  more 
illuminating,  however,  if  the  victims  had  been  identified  specifically  as  an 
Iowa  farmer,  a  Texas  ranchman,  a  Missouri  lead  miner,  a  Pennsylvania  oil- 
man, and  an  Arkansas  fruit  grower. 

Although  guns  play  no  part  in  present-day  Oklahoma  life,  they  hold 
an  important  place  in  its  folklore.  This  is  particularly  true  in  the  western 
part  of  the  state,  where  almost  any  stripling  can  spin  a  yarn  that,  for  shoot- 
ing exploits,  would  shame  Annie  Oakley.  The  narrator  may  start  off  with 
the  solemn  assertion  that  he  and  a  rival  decided  to  test  their  skill  by  shooting 
the  barbs  from  a  wire  fence  over  a  mile  stretch.  As  each  was  equally  success- 
ful in  the  contest,  a  further  test  was  necessary.  So,  loading  their  guns  with 
charges  of  glue,  barbs,  and  powder,  they  galloped  back  over  their  course, 
shooting  the  barbs  back  on  the  fence. 

"An'  if  you  don't  believe  that,"  the  tale-teller  says,  "I'll  take  you  out  an' 
show  you  the  fence  where  it  happened!" 

The  tall  tale  is  usually  not  merely  a  highly  improbable  piece  of  fiction, 
but  a  method  of  "codding"  a  naive  youngster  or  newcomer.  The  story  starts 
innocently  enough,  and  if  the  victim  remains  credulous  it  explodes  into  utter 
absurdity. 

The  cyclone  is  a  common  subject  for  such  stories.  The  "codder"  begins 
with  a  series  of  events,  credible  enough,  which  he  claims  to  have  witnessed: 
his  house  was  blown  away,  but  the  cookstove  was  left  undisturbed  with  fire 
going  and  the  teakettle  steaming.  All  of  his  listeners  who  are  aware  of  what 
is  going  on  pretend  to  be  not  at  all  interested.  The  conclusion  of  the  story  may 
be  that  a  sack  of  meal  had  been  hanging  on  a  neighbor's  porch  and  the  wind 
blew  the  sack  away,  leaving  the  meal  hanging  there! 

114 


FOLKLORE    AND    FOLKWAYS  115 

The  story  of  Paul  Bunyan's  great  gray  wolf — a  blood  cousin  of  the 
blue  ox — is  an  oil-field  classic.  The  wolf,  "derrick-high  and  slushpit  wide," 
became  associated  with  Paul  on  one  of  his  transadantic  swims.  Bunyan  met 
the  animal  in  mid-ocean,  swimming  for  shore  with  a  whale  in  his  Jaws.  They 
"spelled"  each  other  with  the  burden  and  became  fast  friends. 

Bunyan  hitched  the  wolf  to  a  buckboard  and  established  the  first  mail 
line  into  Oklahoma,  making  daily  trips  between  this  state  and  Pennsylvania. 
He  finally  gave  up  the  mail  line  to  take  the  agency  for  a  remarkable  salve. 
Paul  commonly  began  its  demonstration  by  cutting  off  an  arm  or  leg  and 
sticking  it  back  again.  Paul  and  the  wolf  became  rich;  but  the  railroads  had 
always  been  jealous  of  the  pair.  The  wolf,  who  was  a  guileless  animal,  accepted 
a  challenge  from  the  Santa  Fe  to  race  from  Oklahoma  City  to  Ardmore  and 
was  just  about  to  win  when  the  engineer  threw  a  crowbar  out  of  the  window, 
slicing  the  beast  in  two  from  nose  to  tail.  Paul  rushed  to  the  scene  with  a 
satchel  full  of  salve  and  stuck  the  wolf  together  again,  but  in  his  haste  the  two 
halves  were  not  properly  arranged.  Two  legs  were  on  the  ground,  the  other 
two  pointed  to  the  sky.  This  proved  to  be  an  advantage,  however,  for,  when 
the  wolf  grew  tired  of  running  on  one  side,  Paul  would  turn  him  over  and  let 
him  run  on  the  other.  The  wolf  finally  died  of  iron  poisoning  after  eating  182 
miles  of  Santa  Fe  track. 

Tall-tale  telling  is  essentially  a  country  diversion,  although  in  the  towns 
and  cities  of  Oklahoma  the  Negroes  are  fond  of  the  Paul  Bunyan,  or  John 
Henry,  variety.  One  of  these  tells  how  old  John  Henry  drifted  into  Oklahoma 
without  either  cottonseed  or  planting  tools  and  found  that  none  of  the  Indians 
would  sell  him  any  land.  But  he  wasn't  discouraged;  he  just  up  and  drank  all 
the  water  out  of  the  Canadian  River,  then  took  and  put  his  two  hands  together 
and  drug  'em  along  the  sandy  bed  of  the  river,  plowing  it  up  with  his  fingers. 
Then  he  reached  into  the  sky  to  get  him  cotton  plants  from  the  big  patches 
up  there  that  some  folks  call  clouds  .  .  .  Was  this  John  Henry  a  big  man? 
Well,  I  never  seen  him  till  he  was  four  hundred  and  sixty  years  old,  and  by 
then  he  was  kind  of  shriveled,  not  more  than  seventeen  hoe-handles  between 
his  eyes. 

On  the  farms,  where  there  is  leisure  for  "codding,"  almost  every  dwelling 
will  have  some  opening  that  can  be  pointed  out  as  a  "crowbar  hole."  The  town 
innocent,  inquiring  into  the  purpose  of  the  opening,  will  learn  that  it  is  to 
test  the  wind  velocity.  If  the  crowbar  merely  bends  when  thrust  through  the 
hole,  it  is  safe  to  go  out.  However,  if  the  bar  is  broken  off,  it  is  better  to  stay 
in  the  house. 

There  is  a  very  real  basis  for  the  stories  of  Oklahoma  outlaws,  or  the 
outlaws  who  occasionally  made  Oklahoma  their  stamping  ground.  No  one 


116  OKLAHOMA:    Tllli   GliNHKAL    BACKGROUND 

will  deny  that  the  Daitons  and  DooHns  were  all  handy  with  rifle  or  six- 
shooter,  or  that  Belle  Starr  was  able  to  tell  the  butt  of  a  gun  from  the  barrel. 
But  the  story  of  the  outlaw  who  lined  his  family  up  against  a  barn  door  and 
traced  their  silhouettes  with  six-guns  can  be  characterized  only  as  a  tall-tale. 

A  number  of  stories  of  bad  men  have  defied  exaggeration  from  the  time 
they  were  first  told.  This  is  the  case  with  the  tale  of  a  Panhandle  cowboy  who 
was  captured  by  outlaws  about  1870.  The  hard-hearted  villains  cooped  the 
cowboy  up  in  a  barrel  and  rolled  him  out  on  the  prairie  to  die  of  thirst  and 
starvation.  Several  hours  later  a  herd  of  buffaloes  passed  that  way  and  one 
came  close  to  sniff  curiously  at  the  barrel.  As  it  turned  away,  its  tail  slipped 
through  the  bunghole  and  the  cowboy  seized  it.  The  frightened  animal  began 
to  run  and,  the  cowboy  guiding  him  by  instinct,  they  reached  a  town  where 
the  barrel  was  opened  and  the  man  released. 

There  were  notable  gun-shots  in  early  Oklahoma,  of  course,  and  the 
time  probably  bred  more  fearless  and  daring  men  than  any  other  period.  Life 
was  indeed  real  and  earnest,  and  the  one  safe  place  for  a  dreamer  was  his  bed. 
Some  of  the  officers  vi^ere  reformed  outlaws,  and  some  of  the  outlaws  had  been 
officers;  there  was  understanding  between  the  two  classes  even  though  there 
was  no  compromise.  There  was  romance  in  outlawry,  and  a  broad  streak  of 
humor  which  not  even  lynching  or  legal  execution  could  completely  extin- 
guish. This  light-hearted  disregard  of  life  and  death  is  evident  in  the  follow- 
ing song: 

A  friend  of  mine  once  stole  a  horse, 

'T  was  in  a  place  out  West. 
The  horse  just  left  his  owner 

Cause  he  liked  my  friend  the  best. 
My  friend  had  lots  of  trouble 

When  the  owner  came  on  deck, 
When  he  found  the  horse  had  had 

A  string  around  his  neck. 

Chorus:     A  little  piece  of  string,  it  seems  a  tiny  thing. 

But  strong  enough  to  keep  the  horse  in  check. 
When  my  friend  I  last  did  see,  he  was  hanging  from  a  tree 
With  a  little  piece  of  string  around  his  neck. 

On  the  great  cattle  ranches  that  spread  across  western  Oklahoma  after 
the  Civil  War,  folk  songs  were  almost  inevitably  popular.  During  the  long, 
idle  winters,  a  battered  accordion  or  banjo  was  a  god-send  in  more  than  one 
lonely  bunkhouse.  The  balladry  of  this  period  is  illustrated  in  these  lines: 

"Come  alive  you  fellers,"  hear  the  foreman  shout. 

"Drop  your  books  and  banjos,  fetch  your  saddles  out  .  .  . 
"Shake  that  squeaky  fiddle,  Red,  go  and  get  your  boss, 

"Dutch,  ain't  you  got  duties,  as  the  chuck-wagon  boss? 


FOLKLORE    AND    FOLKWAYS  117 

"Range  is  gettin'  grassy,  winter  draws  its  claws, 

"Calves  are  fat  an'  sassy,  teasin'  of  their  maws, 
"Loafin'  days  are  over,  dreamin'  time  is  gone, 

"No  more  life  in  clover,  fer  the  round-up's  on." 

In  rural  sections,  the  square  dance  is  still  popular.  Except  during  the 
busy  summer  season,  every  community  has  its  weekly  "shindig"  in  some 
farm  home.  Only  in  those  districts  where  big  barns  are  common  are  these 
affairs  "barn  dances."  In  most  cases  barns  are  too  small  and  rickety,  or  hay- 
mows are  too  full  to  be  used  for  such  purposes.  As  a  rule,  the  square  dance  is 
a  social  affair,  but  occasionally  one  is  held  to  raise  money  for  some  charitable 
cause. 

The  square  dance  fiddler's  first  concern  is  to  carry  a  tune,  but  he  must 
carry  it  loud  enough  to  be  heard  over  the  noise  of  stamping  feet,  the  cries  of 
the  "caller,"  and  the  shouts  of  the  dancers.  When  he  fiddles,  he  "fiddles  all 
over";  feet,  hands,  knees,  head,  and  eyes  are  all  busy.  He  is  usually  supported 
by  a  "second,"  whose  performance  on  the  piano,  guitar,  banjo,  organ,  or 
another  fiddle,  gives  the  music  additional  resonance  and  depth. 

The  "caller"  at  the  square  dance  is  as  important  as  the  fiddler  or  his 
second.  He  tells  the  dancers  what  to  do,  but  his  directions  are  so  enhanced 
by  his  poetical  fervor,  his  humor,  and  his  vocalizing  that  a  visitor,  unfamiliar 
with  square-dance  calls,  can  hardly  understand  the  words,  let  alone  translate 
them  into  commands.  The  caller  is  necessarily  well  acquainted  with  his  audi- 
ence and  is  apt  to  incorporate  in  his  chants  well-known  bits  of  family  history. 
He  may  also  make  observations  upon  love-smitten  couples,  the  perils  of  store 
teeth  at  taffy  puUings,  or  hint  gently  that  his  own  art  is  a  thirsty  business. 

Dance  calls  are  fairly  uniform  throughout  the  state,  but  each  caller  puts 
his  own  stamp  upon  them.  The  result  is  a  rich  body  of  rustic  rhymes. 

The  following  verses  are  typical: 

Break  trail  home 

In  Indian  style; 
Swing  the  gal  behind  you 

Once  in  a  while 
Now  grab  your  partner 

And  go  hog-wild! 

Two  little  sisters 

Form  a  ring. 
Now  you're  born 

Now  you  swing! 
(A  play  on  the  expression  "born  to  be  hung.") 

Panthers  scream 

Bobcats  squall 
House  cat  jumps 

Through  a  hole  in  the  wall. 


118  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

Eat  ice  cream, 

Drink  soda  water; 
Some  old  man 

Gonna  lose  his  daughter. 

Ladies  lead  off 

In  the  cowboy  style; 
Stop  and  rope  one 

Every  little  while. 

Same  ol'  boys 

An'  the  same  ol'  trail; 
An'  watch  the  same  ol'  'possum 

Walk  the  same  ol'  rail. 

Walk  the  Huckleberry  shuffle 

And  Chinese  cling; 
Elbow  twist  and 

The  grapevine  swing! 

Swing  your  partners  one  and  all, 
Swing  that  lady  in  the  checkered  shawl. 
Gents,  hands  in  your  pockets,  back  to  the  wall, 
Take  a  chaw  of  terbacker  and  balance  all. 
Quit  that  hugging,  ain't  you  a-shamed, 
Promenade,  Oh  Promenade! 

In  communities  where  dancing  is  frowned  upon  the  play-party  is  popu- 
lar. It  resembles  the  dance  in  figures  and  tunes,  but  substitutes  vocal  for  instru- 
mental accompaniment.  A  favorite  old  play-party  song  is  this: 

Rise  you  up  my  dearest  dear 

And  present  to  me  your  hand, 

And  we'll  go  in  pursuit 

Of  some  far  and  better  land 

Where  the  hawk  '11  chase  the  buzzard, 

And  the  buzzard  '11  chase  the  crow. 

And  we'll  rally  'round  the  cane  brake 

And  chase  the  buffalo. 

"Skip  To  My  Lou,"  another  popular  play-party  song,  contains  more  than 
a  hundred  verses.  The  following  is  typical: 

Red  birds  singin',  two  by  two. 
Red  birds  singin',  two  by  two. 
Red  birds  singin',  two  by  two, 
Skip  to  m'  Lou,  my  darlin'. 

The  first  line  of  another  verse  pictures 

Rats  in  the  buttermilk,  two  by  two. 

Another  early-day  expression  of  social  life  was  the  "singin'  school."  The 
singing  teacher,  whose  status  in  the  community  might  range  from  that  of  a 


FOLKLORE   AND    FOLKWAYS  119 

member  of  the  church  choir  to  an  itinerant  whisky  tenor,  was  usually  paid 
a  dollar  for  each  man;  women  and  children  were  admitted  free,  and  whole 
families  attended. 

Songs  shook  the  one-room  schoolhouse  rafters  on  the  sharp  winter  nights 
when  the  singin'  school  "took  up,"  blending  with  the  roaring  of  red-bellied 
heating  stove  and  the  sad,  distant  tinkle  of  harness.  Many  of  the  tunes  were 
nameless  and  of  unknown  origin,  such  as  this: 

I  married  me  a  wife  in  the  month  of  June  — 

Nickle  te,  nackle  te,  now,  now,  now, 

I  took  her  home  by  the  light  of  the  moon, 

With  a  wree-wrah-wraddle, 

And  a  Jack  straw  straddle 

And  a  little  brown  bridle  come  under  the  broom. 

Scales  were  sung,  and  some  attempt  was  made  to  group  the  diflferent 
voices,  but  the  people  were  too  intent  on  fun  to  submit  to  any  great  amount 
of  discipline. 

'Coon  and  'possum  hunts,  held  in  the  fall  and  winter,  are  the  most  com- 
mon outdoor  recreations  in  the  hills  and  wooded  sections.  The  essentials, 
other  than  a  party  of  men  or  boys,  are  hound  dogs  and  a  supply  of  corn  liquor. 
The  dogs  "tree"  the  quarry  and  stand  guard  until  the  hunters  arrive.  The 
whisky  helps  to  kill  the  poison  in  the  night  air. 

It  is  in  the  hills  of  eastern  Oklahoma  that  the  beliefs  and  customs  of  an- 
other century  are  best  preserved;  but  in  every  section  of  the  state  there  are 
cures  that  no  doctor  would  recommend,  methods  of  planting  that  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  would  not  encourage,  and  modes  of  speech  that  gram- 
marians would  frown  upon.  Some  of  the  most  interesting  superstitions  are: 

To  cure  a  snake  bite,  kill  the  snake,  cut  it  open,  and  apply  the  warm 
flesh  to  the  wound. 

To  cure  the  sting  of  a  bee,  chew  up  three  kinds  of  leaves  and  grass  and 
apply  to  the  wound. 

Don't  marry  in  a  dotted  dress.  If  you  do,  you  will  have  as  many  children 
as  there  are  dots. 

Don't  sweep  under  a  sick  person's  bed  lest  he  die. 

A  child  suffering  from  "fits"  can  be  cured  by  putting  its  feet  into  the 
open  body  of  a  freshly  killed  chicken. 

Boils  can  be  prevented  from  recurring  by  swallowing  shot,  one  shot  for 
each  boil  the  patient  may  have  had. 

To  remove  a  wart,  loop  a  thread  around  it,  then  remove  the  thread  and 
throw  it  away  in  the  woods.  When  it  decays,  the  wart  will  have  vanished. 
Another  method  is  to  put  a  kernel  of  corn  on  a  wart,  then  feed  the  corn  to  a 


120         OKLAHOMA:  Tin-:  general  background 

rooster;  or  the  wart  may  be  removed  by  touching  it  lightly  with  a  drop  of 

blood  from  the  armpit  of  an  enemy. 

Never  let  a  woman  be  the  first  to  enter  your  home  on  Monday  morning; 
let  it  be  a  man,  even  if  you  must  invite  him  in. 

If  a  cock  crows  three  times  at  your  door,  on  the  porch,  or  on  the  back 
doorstep,  a  stranger  will  arrive  at  your  home  soon. 

If  you  plan  to  move  to  a  new  house,  burn  five  tallow  candles  in  the  new 
residence  in  the  shape  of  a  cross  for  good  luck;  one  at  each  end  of  the  house, 
one  at  each  side,  and  one  in  the  center.  Let  them  burn  until  consumed. 

Negroes  say  that  if  a  man  tries  to  steal  your  girl  or  wife,  you  should  first 
warn  him.  Then  if  he  fails  to  take  heed,  place  a  miniature  coffin,  with  a 
drawing  of  a  skeleton  therein,  under  his  doorstep.  The  curse  can  be  removed 
by  having  a  voodoo  doctor  burn  the  coffin.  If  a  person  for  whom  it  was  not 
intended  steps  over  it,  he  must  wash  his  hands  in  "pine"  whisky  and  either 
destroy  the  casket  or  let  the  voodoo  doctor  destroy  it. 

The  following  beliefs  are  typical  of  the  lore  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes, 
which  reflects  their  long  association  with  whites  and  Negroes: 

Earache  should  be  treated  with  fire  coals.  The  sizzling  coal  is  momen- 
tarily dipped  into  water,  wrapped  in  a  woolen  cloth,  and  applied  to  the  ear. 

To  cure  a  headache,  the  medicine  man  takes  a  mouthful  of  water  from  a 
mountain  spring  and  sprays  it  upon  the  head  of  the  sufferer. 

Medicine  kept  in  a  house  where  death  has  occurred  loses  its  potency. 

Trash  should  not  be  swept  out  of  doors  on  Sunday  mornings,  or  bad  luck 
will  follow. 

Ashes  should  be  removed  from  a  stove  only  in  the  morning.  If  they  are 
taken  out  in  the  afternoon,  some  member  of  the  family  will  become  ill. 

Storms  can  be  avoided  by  sticking  an  axe  handle  in  the  ground,  burning 
a  pinch  of  tobacco  in  the  fireplace,  burning  the  shell  of  a  turtle  or  terrapin, 
or  placing  a  flatiron  on  top  of  a  griddle  in  the  exact  center  of  the  room. 

A  mourner  must  not  enter  a  garden,  or  the  plants  will  wither  and  die. 

Babies  must  not  have  their  hair  cut  until  after  they  are  a  year  old,  or  they 
will  never  walk. 

If  a  child  is  left  alone  in  a  room,  a  Bible  or  a  pair  of  scissors  is  placed 
near  it  to  frighten  away  witches. 

The  mother  of  a  baby  should  scratch  the  bare  hips  of  her  young  one  with 
the  feet  of  a  live  chicken  to  ensure  that  her  influence  over  the  baby  will  con- 
tinue during  its  life. 

The  average  Oklahoman,  of  course,  is  far  more  literate  than  he  is  pic- 
tured by  some  western-story  writers.  Men  do  not  habitually  call  one  another 


FOLKLORE   AND    FOLKWAYS  121 

"pardner,"  and  few  children  address  their  mothers  as  "mammy."  However, 
there  are  interesting  peculiarities  of  speech  in  certain  sections. 

Hill  folk  are  apt  to  say  "et"  for  "ate"  and  follow  the  cockney  English 
custom  of  dropping  or  adding  the  aspirate  "h."  "You'ns,"  "they'uns,"  and 
"nary'uns"  are  in  general  use,  as  are  "I  taken,"  and  "I  done."  The  Elizabethan 
"quote"  is  often  a  substitute  for  "echo";  "sorry"  means  inferior;  and  "eve- 
nin'  "  is  any  time  between  noon  and  dusk.  In  the  Arbuckle  mountains,  the 
Spanish  influence  is  evident  in  the  use  of  such  words  as  loco,  hombre,  and 
"savvy."  The  southwestern  Indians  picked  up  the  expression  no  sabe  from 
the  Spaniards,  pronouncing  it  "no  savvy."  The  term  came  to  mean,  among 
both  whites  and  Indians,  "I  do  not  know."  Along  the  Red  River,  the  slurred 
"r"  is  more  the  rule  than  the  exception,  and  "h"  is  carelessly  handled.  Former 
Texans  also  say  "putt"  for  "put,"  "awn"  for  "on,"  and  "hone"  for  "horn." 
"Gallery"  is  a  synonym  for  "porch,"  and  a  small  body  of  water  is  a  "tank."  A 
common  practice  is  to  pronounce  "e"  like  "i,"  turning  the  word  "men,"  for 
example,  into  "min."  In  the  western  part  of  the  state  there  is  a  tendency  to- 
ward Zane  Grey  vocabularies,  which  may  or  may  not  have  a  connection  with 
the  popularity  of  his  books  in  that  region.  Such  westernisms  are  most  pro- 
nounced in  the  very  young  or  very  simple  and  either,  in  moments  of  excite- 
ment, is  likely  to  forget  his  cowboy-story  lingo. 

Oil-field  workers  use  strange  hybrid  words  and  phrases,  some  technically 
sound,  some  acutely  suggestive,  some  that  come  from  the  hobo  and  criminal 
lingoes.  In  general  use  in  the  oil-field  world  are  the  following  expressions: 

Bindle — (Bundle)  Usually  containing  cooking  utensils  as  well  as  clothing. 

Bindlestiff — A  migratory  worker  who  carries  a  bindle. 

Bronze  John — The  sun. 

Boweevil — (Boll  Weevil)  A  worthless  fellow,  or  a  novice  at  oil-field  work. 

Button — To  end.  "We  put  the  button  on  the  job." 

Cake — Bread. 

Christmas  Tree — The  collection  of  valves  and  fittings  at  the  top  of  a  well 

controlling  oil  and  gas  flow. 
Cherries — Beans. 
Crumb — Infringing  upon  the  work  or  rights  of  others.  "Stop  crumbing  on 

me."  Also  an  animal  parasite. 
Crumb  Boss — A  man  who  has  charge  of  tents  or  bunkhouses.  Derived  from 

the  humorous  supposition  that  he  is  able  to  command  the  crumbs  which 

(may)  infest  the  beds. 
Doodlebug — An  unscientific  device  used  in  attempts  to  locate  oil  and  other 

minerals. 


122  OKLAHOMA:    THE   GENERAL    BACKGROUND 

Dope — Creosote;  used  to  coat  pipe. 

Drag-up — To  draw  one's  pay  and  quit. 

Fire,  or  fire  in  the  hole — "Get  out  of  the  way!  Explosion  due!" 

Four-foot  gas — Wood  cut  in  four-foot  lengths. 

Mr.  Gluckenheimer — A  "wise  guy." 

High-pressure — The  boss.  Adjective — "The  high-pressure  tent." 

Hold — To  possess  money.  "What  are  you  holding.''" 

Jamoke — Coffee.  A  merging  of  Java  and  mocha. 

Knowledge  bench — A  three-tiered  stool  belonging  to  the  driller. 

Lazy  board — A  board  above  the  derrick  floor,  from  which  pipe  is  stabbed 

into  the  well.  The  stabber  works  spasmodically,  hence  the  name. 
Mormon  board — A  broad  board  with  two  handles,  used  for  filling  in  a  ditch. 
Mud  hog — A  rotary  driller.  Also,  a  pump. 
Rope-choker — A  cable-tool  driller. 
Snake — A  West  Virginian.  This  is  probably  derived  from  the  "treachery" 

of  the  West  Virginians  in  siding  with  the  North  during  the  Civil  War. 
Slush-pit — A  hole  approximately  fifty  by  one  hundred  feet,  and  four  feet  in 

depth,  where  thin  mud  that  circulates  about  the  drill-stem  and  flushes 

out  the  cuttings  is  stored. 
Stroke — A  minor  foreman.  "He  is  (or  has)  the  stroke  on  the  dope  gang." 
Swamper — A  truck  driver's  helper. 

Tool  pusher — The  supervisor  in  direct  charge  of  several  drilling  wells. 
Tower — (for  "Tour"),  the  daily  stint  of  a  driller. 
Wildcat — A  well  in  unproved  territory. 
Wildcatter — One  who  drills  in  unproved  territory. 


jjO/'j ^ , Eji^/i: ^ , ejI)*: ^ , ^^/^j ^, ^^ui, , ^(Inj ^ , ^f)/i2 ^ , ^(i/i" 


PART  II 

Principal  Cities 


r^d^s    '      ^tH}^ ^jji^s — '      zi\j^ — '"    r^(j$5 — '  ~    zin)^ — '      Ji'^^ — '      *i>;i^ 


^(l/i'> ^ , ^fln-i ^ , ^(Ifli, ^  , ^d/jj, ^, ^^iij ^ , ^Oi^r ^ , r^O/r: , t^fli^j: 


Ardmore 


Railroad  Stations:  217  E.  Main  St.  for  Santa  Fe;  Broadway  and  A  St.  for  Frisco. 

Bus  Stations:  300  W.  Main  St.  for  Oklahoma  Transportation  Co.;  10  E.  Main  St.  for  Jordan 

Bus  Line. 

Airport:  Ardmore  Field,  9.6  m.  N.  on  US  77. 

City  Busses:  Terminal,  201  S.  Washington  St.,  fare  5c. 

Taxis:  fare  15c, 

Accommodations:  5  hotels;  rooming  houses;  tourists  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  100  W.  Main  St. 

Radio  Station :  K VSO  ( 1 2 40  kc. ) . 

Motion  Picture  Theaters:  6;  1  for  Negroes. 

Athletics:  Walker  Stadium,  S  St.  and  McLish  Ave.,  S.W. 

Golf:  Dornick  Hills,  2  m.  N.  on  US  77,  greens  fee  $1;  Municipal  Golf  Club,  2.5  m.  N.  on 

US  77,  greens  fee,  25c  weekdays,  35c  Sundays  and  holidays. 

Swimming  and  Wading  Pools:  for  children,  Whittington  City  Park,  800  4th  Ave.,  S.E.,  free; 

Lake  Murray  State  Park,  3.9  m.  S.  on  Washington  St. 

Boating:  Lake  Murray. 

Tennis:  City  courts,  B  and  9th  Sts.,  N.W.  F  St.  and  3d  Ave.,  N.E.,  free. 

Annual  Event:  Southern  Oklahoma  Free  Fair  and  Exposition,  Whittington  City  Park,  2d 
week  in  Sept. 

ARDMORE  (896  alt.,  16,886  pop.),  seat  of  Carter  County,  is  the  largest  city 
between  Oklahoma  City,  104  miles  north,  and  Fort  Worth,  Texas,  107  miles 
south.  It  came  into  being  on  the  RofT  Brothers'  "700  Ranch"  in  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory when,  in  1887,  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  railroad  was  built 
through  the  site. 

The  growth  of  this  self-styled  "capital  of  south  central  Oklahoma"  from 
a  catde-loading  point  in  the  middle  of  a  big  ranch  to  the  wide-spreading 
metropolis  of  an  area  rich  in  farming  land,  pastures,  oil,  asphaltum,  and  rec- 
reational resources,  has  been  steady  but  unspectacular. 

In  general,  the  city  has  a  spaced,  comfortable  appearance  that  suggests 
the  predominant  southern  population.  The  broad,  tree-shaded  streets  of  the 
section  first  laid  out  by  Ardmore's  pioneers  were  not  made  truly  north  and 
south  and  east  and  west,  but  were  oriented  to  the  Santa  Fe  railway  tracks. 
Later  additions,  therefore,  laid  out  by  compass,  do  not  jibe  with  them.  Notice- 
able are  the  number  of  fine  old  native  hackberry  trees  that  arch  over  the  side- 
walks. 

125 


126  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

Ardmore's  Negroes,  who  make  up  approximately  13  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation, live  east  of  the  Santa  Fe  tracks,  north  and  south  of  East  Main  street. 
They  are  mainly  from  the  Negro  families  that  were  drawn  to  the  cotton  fields 
of  the  region  after  it  became  possible  for  non-Indians  to  obtain  leases  and 
develop  the  good  cotton-growing  farms  of  the  surrounding  region. 

When  Ardmore  was  founded  it  was  named  by  an  official  of  the  railroad 
in  honor  of  the  Philadelphia  suburb  he  had  known,  though  the  young  settle- 
ment had  little  of  the  beauty  of  its  namesake.  Two  years  after  it  had  become 
a  station  on  the  Santa  Fe,  a  pioneer  setder  from  Texas  pictured  it  in  these 
words: 

"Father  met  us  at  the  depot,  and  on  the  way  to  our  new  home  we  saw  the 
public  well  and  watering  trough  in  the  middle  of  Main  Street. ...  I  remember 
how  my  sister  and  I  gazed  at  the  cowboys  standing  at  the  well  with  their  ten- 
gallon  white  hats,  black-and-white  checked  shirts,  and  slant-heeled  boots.  The 
spot  seemed  to  be  attractive  to  the  town's  hogs,  also,  as  they  had  made  a  wal- 
lowing ground  around  the  trough.  Before  reaching  home  we  saw  our  first 
rattlesnake  and  prairie  chickens. 

"The  first  winter  we  were  visited  by  a  fierce,  mangy  herd  of  wild  horses 
that  stayed  near  our  house  for  quite  a  while,  snorting  and  pitching  and  mak- 
ing it  unsafe  for  us  children  to  venture  outside." 

There  is  also  the  tale  of  the  retired  town  marshal,  drafted  to  help  capture 
a  mountain  man  charged  with  attempted  homicide,  who  went  alone  and  un- 
armed to  take  him,  stayed  to  dinner,  and  drove  back  to  the  courthouse  on  the 
friendliest  possible  terms  with  him.  Such  stories  as  these  are  told  by  Ardmore- 
ites  who  can  say,  "I  was  there  and  saw  it." 

In  its  early  days,  Ardmore  was  a  trading  point  for  farmers  and  ranchmen 
of  the  Chickasaw  Nation  and  an  important  primary  market  for  cotton.  Five 
years  after  the  coming  of  the  railroad,  it  was  claimed  that  more  than  fifty 
thousand  bales  were  sold  on  its  streets  by  growers  in  the  season. 

The  even  progress  of  the  city's  growth  was  stimulated  by  the  discovery 
of  oil  near  by  in  1913;  it  is  perhaps  this  factor  which  has  determined  its 
regional  prominence.  In  contrast  to  the  history  of  most  Oklahoma  oil-boom 
towns,  the  subsidence  of  the  gusher  phase  of  the  Healdton  and  other  fields 
in  the  region  did  not  mean  partial  paralysis  of  Ardmore.  Under  the  rule  of 
limited  output  imposed  by  proration,  the  thousands  of  wells  settled  into  pro- 
duction which  as  yet  shows  few  signs  of  exhaustion  in  the  Healdton,  Ringling, 
Wirt,  Fox,  Hewitt,  and  other,  lesser,  fields  of  the  same  general  area. 

As  early  as  1901,  when  the  first  oil  developments  in  Oklahoma  were  excit- 
ing the  farmers  and  ranchers  of  the  Tulsa-Red  Fork  region,  a  group  of  Ard- 
more citizens,  together  with  investors  from  Missouri  and   South   Dakota, 


ARDMORE  127 

formed  a  company  to  explore  the  Red  Beds  for  oil.  They  had  seen  crude  oil 
on  the  surface  of  water  flowing  from  springs,  and  despite  the  expert  judg- 
ment of  such  men  as  John  D.  Archbold,  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  who 
declared  he  would  drink  all  the  oil  found  in  the  Red  Beds,  they  persisted  in 
their  explorations  and  found  oil  at  four  hundred  feet. 

But  it  was  not  until  after  Roy  Johnson  came  to  start  a  newspaper  at 
Ardmore  in  1907  that  a  persistent  effort  to  develop  the  field  was  made.  John- 
son was  obsessed  by  the  conviction  that  there  must  be  oil  near  the  extensive 
beds  of  asphaltum  which  had  been  mapped  near  Ardmore.  The  city's  streets 
were  being  paved  with  rock  asphalt  at  the  time;  and  Johnson,  after  examining 
it,  believed  that  this  material  had  once  been  saturated  with  oil,  that  the  light 
oil  had  drained  away,  and  that  asphaltum  had  been  formed  from  the  residue. 
He  took  on  as  a  partner  in  the  venture  a  young  man  who  could  give  all  his 
time  to  securing  leases,  while  he  himself  undertook  to  finance  the  enterprise. 
When  their  funds  ran  out,  Johnson  negotiated  a  loan  of  $2,000,  paying  a  com- 
mission of  2  per  cent,  promising  to  pay  interest  at  the  rate  of  10  per  cent  a 
year,  and  giving  as  security  his  newspaper  publishing  plant.  When  the  money 
was  spent,  he  borrowed  more  from  the  young  schoolma'am,  Odessa  Otey, 
with  whom  he  was  keeping  company  and  whom  he  later  married. 

Ten  years  after  he  and  his  group  had  brought  in  the  first  well  in  1913, 
Johnson  recalled  the  story  of  oil  in  the  Ardmore  region  and  suggested  that 
Archbold  would  have  drunk  a  big  mouthful  of  oil  had  he  made  good  on  his 
promise — up  to  that  time  the  Red  Beds  had  yielded  some  167,000,000  barrels! 

More  striking,  though  perhaps  no  more  important  to  the  oil  history  of 
Ardmore  than  Roy  Johnson,  were  John  Ringling,  circus  man,  and  Jake 
Hamon,  Republican  politician.  It  was  Ringling,  who,  annoyed  by  the  poor 
roads  between  his  wells  and  Ardmore,  built  twenty  miles  of  railway  to  a  point 
named  Ringling,  with  a  six-mile  branch  to  Healdton,  which  was  later  ex- 
tended. Hamon  was  so  prominent  in  the  campaign  which  resulted  in  the 
election  of  Harding  as  President  that  before  his  untimely  death  he  was  said 
to  be  slated  for  a  cabinet  post.  John  W.  Harreld,  an  Ardmoreite  living  in  Okla- 
homa City,  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  the  Harding  landslide 
of  1920.  He  and  W.  B.  Pine  (see  Okmulgee),  who  defeated  Jack  Walton  in 
1924  (see  History),  are  the  only  Republicans  (up  to  1941)  ever  elected  from 
Oklahoma  to  a  term  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Lee  Cruce,  of  Ardmore,  an 
intermarried  member  of  the  Chickasaw  tribe,  was  the  second  governor  of 
Oklahoma  (1913-17). 

Ardmore's  first  newspaper,  the  Alliance  Courier,  a  weekly,  was  started 
in  1888,  when  there  was  no  municipal  government,  when  the  city's  fire  de- 
partment was  a  volunteer  bucket  brigade  and  its  water  supply  came  from 


128  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

cisterns  dug  beside  their  stores  by  the  merchants  of  Main  Street,  and  the  only 
poHce  force  was  a  deputy  marshal  from  the  Federal  court.  Under  Jules  Soule, 
this  paper  served  as  mouthpiece  for  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  a  radical  agrarian 
movement  that  was  widespread  in  Kansas  and  other  drought-aflected  areas, 
and  was  brought  into  Indian  Territory  by  leasers  and  tenant  farmers.  Soule 
acquired  the  Ardmore  Chronicle  in  1890  and  also  printed  the  Wind  Bag. 

Two  Negro  newspapers,  the  Ardmore  Sun  (1901)  and  the  Baptist  Rival 
(1902),  were  the  next  of  a  number  of  weekly  journals  to  be  born  and  have  a 
life  in  the  town.  The  Chickasaw  Chieftain,  which  Rezin  McAdam  established 
in  1890  to  campaign  for  the  breaking  up  of  tribal  governments,  allotment  of 
Indian  lands,  and  their  opening  to  white  settlement,  became  an  evening  daily 
in  1892.  In  the  following  year,  Sidney  Suggs,  a  picturesque  figure  who  made 
himself  a  leader  in  Oklahoma  journalism,  bought  for  $600  the  new  and  strug- 
gling Daily  Ardmoreite.  It  is  the  only  survivor  (1941)  of  the  half-dozen 
dailies  that  have  tried  their  wings  in  the  city — Roy  Johnson's  Statesman, 
the  Daily  Citizen,  the  Chronicle,  the  Ardmore  Appeal,  the  Bulletin,  and  the 
Morning  Democrat.  The  Ardmoreite  management  also  prints  the  Democrat, 
a  weekly. 

A  dramatic  highlight  in  Ardmore's  history  was  the  explosion,  on  Sep- 
tember 27,  1915,  of  a  tank  car  containing  highly  volatile  casing-head  gasoline. 
So  terrific  was  the  concussion  that  the  Santa  Fe  station,  most  of  the  business 
houses,  and  many  residences  were  wrecked;  and  some  fifty  persons  lost  their 
lives.  It  was  said  that  horses  eight  miles  away  were  knocked  to  their  knees. 

From  the  first  traditional  one-room  schoolhouse,  Ardmore's  educational 
plant  has  multiplied  to  a  modern  accredited  high  school,  a  junior  high  school, 
and  four  elementary  schools  which  enroll  more  than  4,400  students.  A  high 
school  and  an  elementary  school,  with  twenty  teachers,  take  care  of  some  six 
hundred  Negro  students.  Twenty-seven  churches  are  supported  by  the  white 
people  of  the  city,  while  the  Negroes  have  twelve  churches. 

As  Ardmore  grew,  park  spaces  were  generously  provided.  Today  (1941) 
there  are  ten  municipal  parks,  one  of  which  is  in  the  Negro  district.  Within 
an  hour's  driving  distance  lie  twelve  lakes  and  other  attractive  recreational 
features  which  draw  tourists  and  vacationists  to  the  clear,  fish-stocked  streams 
and  lakes  of  the  Arbuckle  Mountains  region. 

Among  the  seventy-three  industrial  enterprises  that  have  plants  in  the 
city  are  an  automobile  tire  manufacturing  plant,  oil  refineries,  cotton  oil  and 
flour  mills,  cotton  gins  and  compresses,  manufacturers  of  guns,  cigars,  stoves, 
and  pecan-cracking  machinery.  In  all,  says  Ardmore's  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, the  city's  industries  have  (1941)  an  annual  pay  roll  of  $685,000,  and 
their  sales  amount  to  $6,000,000. 


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Early  Settlement 


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(c)    MDKION    HARVEY 


PIONEER  WOMAN,  BY  BRYANT  BAKER;   PONCA  CITY 


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OKLAHOMA  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY 


WAITING  FOR  THE  RUN,  CHEROKEE  STRIP,  1893 

THE  RUN,  CHEROKEE  STRIP,  1893 


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OKLAHOMA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

SAM  HOUSTON  HOME,  WAGONER  COUNTY 

HISTORIC  AMERICAN  BUILDING  SURVEY 


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SPRING  HOUSE  AT  SALINA ;  OLDEST  WHITE  SETTLEMENT 

BUILDING  STILL  STANDING  OLD  MILLSTONES 

AT  DWIGHT  MISSION,  NEAR  SALLISAW 

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OKLAHOMA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


SEMINOLE  COUNCIL  HOUSE,  WEWOKA,  187O 


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OKLAHOMA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

CHICKASAW  CAPITOL  AT  TISHOMINGO 


OLD  CHEROKEE  FEMALE  SEMINARY  BUILDING 

(now  part  of  northeastern  STATE  COLLEGE,  TAHLEQUAH) 


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ARDMORE  129 

Ardmore  operates  under  a  city  manager.  Incorporated  as  a  municipality 
of  the  first  class  in  1899,  with  a  mayor  and  aldermen,  it  changed  to  the  com- 
mission form  of  government  in  1909.  It  was  the  second  city  in  Oklahoma  to 
make  this  change,  Tulsa  being  the  first. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

The  CARNEGIE  LIBRARY,  502  Stanley  Ave.,  a  two-story  gray  stone 
building,  is  the  successor  to  a  reading  room  for  young  men  provided  in  1895 
out  of  funds  collected  by  a  committee  of  citizens.  It  has  now  (1941)  more 
than  26,000  books  in  its  stacks. 

In  1904,  Mrs.  Hosea  Townsend  started  the  movement  for  a  library  and 
wrote  to  Andrew  Carnegie  stating  Ardmore's  need.  He  gave  $15,000,  and 
work  on  the  present  library  was  started.  The  building  was  opened  in  1906, 
its  first  accessions  being  350  books  begged  and  bought  by  the  women  of  the 
Orio  Club.  Not  until  1919  did  the  city  appropriate  sufficient  funds  to  increase 
materially  the  collection  by  purchase,  but  within  two  years  thereafter  there 
were  12,500  books  on  the  shelves.  Funds  for  additional  improvements  to  the 
library  were  provided  in  1941.  A  Museum  (free),  on  the  first  floor  of  the 
library,  has  on  display  a  small  collection  of  documents  and  relics  of  historic 
interest  relating  to  southern  Oklahoma  history,  and  also  geological  and  bio- 
logical specimens. 

ST.  PHILLIPS  CHURCH  (open  to  visitors),  E  St.  and  McLish  Ave., 
built  in  1927,  is  an  interesting  adaptation  of  the  Gothic  design  of  Merton 
College,  Oxford  University,  England.  Built  of  Missouri  limestone,  it  is  a 
small  church  seating  only  250  worshipers.  The  stained  glass  windows — over 
the  altar,  in  the  west  end  wall,  and  in  the  side  walls — tell  the  story  of  the 
ascension  of  Christ:  Christ  as  the  Good  Shepherd,  Saint  Paul  before  Agrippa, 
and  the  Angel  with  the  Faithful  Women  before  Christ's  empty  tomb. 

In  the  belfry  of  the  Gothic  type  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 
C  St.  and  Broadway,  is  a  chime  of  11  bells,  said  to  be  the  first  to  be  installed 
in  Oklahoma.  The  largest  of  the  bells,  weighin;;  2,500  pounds,  can  be  rung 
independently. 

The  YMCA  BUILDING,  A  St.  and  Broadway,  dedicated  in  1938,  is  a 
small  structure  of  cream  brick,  beautifully  proportioned,  modernistic  in  de- 
sign and  decoration.  There  are  no  rooms  for  rent,  and  no  classes  are  conducted 
in  the  building;  the  interior — drawing  room,  two  small  parlors,  banquet 
room-auditorium  in  the  basement,  and  kitchenette — is  finished  and  fur- 
nished like  a  club.  The  building  was  made  possible  by  a  generous  contribu- 
tion by  Mrs.  Edward  T,  Noble,  supplemented  by  those  of  other  citizens  of 
Ardmore. 


130  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL   CITIES 

The  CARTER  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  1st  Ave.  between  A  and 
B  Sts.,  S.W.,  is  a  solid,  square  building  of  gray  limestone,  adorned  with  tall, 
massive  pillars  in  front,  topped  by  a  dome  which  is  one  of  the  first  objects  to 
attract  the  eye  as  one  approaches  Ardmore. 

The  CITY  HALL,  South  Washington  St.  at  1st  Ave.,  S.W.,  is  a  buff 
brick  structure  of  modern  design. 

The  FEDERAL  BUILDING,  100  N.  Washington  St.,  typical  of  the 
strictly  utilitarian  structures  built  in  the  1920's,  is  of  plain  brown  brick  with 
white  trim.  It  houses  the  Federal  District  Court  and  the  post  office. 

The  AMERICAN  LEGION  HUT,  3d  Ave.  and  Washington  St.,  is 
the  former  station  of  the  Ardmore-Ringling  railroad,  which  was  taken  over 
by  the  Santa  Fe.  Abandoned  by  the  railroad,  the  property  reverted  to  the  city 
and  was  turned  over  to  the  George  R.  Anderson  post  of  the  Legion  on  a  long- 
term,  dollar-a-year  lease  in  1940.  The  renovated  building  is  used  as  a  club- 
house by  the  war  veterans,  and  also  provides  quarters  for  the  county  draft 
board  and  the  Red  Cross. 

The  DOUGLAS  HIGH  SCHOOL  (for  Negroes),  at  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  city,  a  brown  brick  structure  with  white  trim  built  in  1917,  occupies 
a  site  that  overlooks  the  city.  Native  oak  trees,  trimmed  to  fit  into  the  land- 
scaping, give  dignity  to  the  school  grounds. 

The  OLD  700  RANCH  HOUSE,  G  St.  and  2d  Ave.,  S.E.,  the  first 
building  on  the  site  of  Ardmore  and  the  first  in  the  county,  has  been  so  altered 
through  the  years  that  only  a  small  part  of  it  remains  in  its  original  state.  As 
built,  it  was  a  double  log  house,  with  a  breezeway  between  the  two  sections. 
Old-time  Ardmoreites  remember  when  it  was  headquarters  of  the  ranch  on 
which  the  city  was  built,  with  corrals  and  outbuildings  back  of  it  on  the 
small  creek  to  the  south,  and  with  bluestem  grass  growing  near  by  "as  high 
as  a  man  on  horseback."  The  house,  now  in  the  Negro  section,  is  occupied  by 
a  Negro  family. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Oak  Hill  Farm,  9.6  m.;  Oil  Springs,  25  m.  (see  Tour  6);  Lake  Murray  State  Park, 
3.9  m.;  Turner  Falls  Park,  14.1  m.;  Price's  Falls,  22.2  m.  {see  Tour  10). 


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Bartlesville 


Railroad  Station:  Union  Depot,  200  W.  2d  St.,  for  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry.  and 

Missouri-Kansas-Texas  R.R. 

Bus  Station:  Union  Terminal,  406  Dewey  St. 

Airport:  Commercial,  3.5  m.  E.  on  Tuxedo  Rd.  (county  highway);  Phillips  Petroleum  Field, 

1.2  m.  W.  on  US  60. 

City  Bus  Lines:  Fare  10c,  two  for  15c. 

Taxis:  Fare  15c. 

Accommodations:  4  hotels;  rooming  houses;  tourist  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  121  W.  3d  St. 

Neu/spapers:  Morning  Examiner  and  Bartlesville  Enterprise,  evening. 

Motion  Picture  Houses:  3. 

Athletics:  Baseball,  softball,  football  at  Municipal  Stadium,  1st  St.  and  Dewey  Ave.;  seating 

capacity  3,000. 

Wrestling:  "The  Bowl,"  305  Short  St.,  Friday  evenings  in  winter. 

Swimming:  Sanipool,  120  N.  Seneca  St.,  fee  15c  for  children,  25c  for  adults. 

Golf:  Osage  Hills,  2  m.  W.,  greens  fee  50c;  Sunset  Course,  3  m.  N.W.,  greens  fee  50c. 

Tennis:  Municipal  courts,  1st  St.  at  Osage  Ave.;  S.  edge  of  city;  free. 

BARTLESVILLE  (694  alt.,  16,267  pop.),  seat  of  Washington  County,  is 
the  center  of  a  productive  agricultural  region  and  headquarters  for  important 
oil  interests.  The  city  claims  a  greater  percentage  of  college  graduates  among 
its  inhabitants  than  any  other  city  in  Oklahoma.  Though  this  is  not  suscep- 
tible of  proof  from  available  statistics,  it  is  true  that  university  men  have  been 
drawn  to  Bardesville  in  large  numbers  by  the  U.S.  Bureau  of  Mines  experi- 
mental station  and  laboratory,  with  sixty  workers;  the  Phillips  Petroleum 
Company's  research  laboratories,  employing  190  persons;  the  head  offices  of 
four  important  major  oil  companies;  and  the  office  and  factory  of  a  company 
that  supplies  unique  oil  well  equipment. 

One  other  distinction  claimed  by  Bartlesville  is  that  it  leads  the  state  in 
percentage  of  income  tax  payers,  having  one  taxable  income  for  every  fifteen 
inhabitants.  The  explanation  is  that  a  large  number  of  its  people  are  execu- 
tives of  companies  that  produce  more  than  10  per  cent  of  all  the  oil  brought 
to  the  surface  in  the  United  States;  and  much  wealth  has  been  drawn  into 
the  city  by  the  six  thousand  wells  of  the  shallow  field  early  developed  in 
Washington  County. 

Bardesville  is  a  spreading,  tree-shaded  city  of  wide  streets,  with  an  air 
of  newness  and  prosperity.  Its  eastern  end  occupies  a  loop  of  the  Caney  River, 

131 


132  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

a  section  that  is  sometimes  flooded,  but  the  main  part  of  the  city  lies  on  high 
ground  to  the  west.  Its  skyline  is  broken  by  three  business  buildings  that 
rise  well  above  the  half-dozen  blocks  of  stores  and  offices  at  the  center.  Be- 
yond, westward,  industrial  plants  and  workmen's  homes  have  reached  out 
to  the  edge  of  the  blackjack  hills  of  the  Osage  country.  At  the  city's  southern 
edge  is  a  river  shelf  on  which  have  been  built  many  fine  homes,  and  a  high 
school  plant  that  is  (1941)  the  finest  and  most  modern  in  the  state.  Below 
this  bench  are  the  Caney  River  bottoms,  where  in  the  fall  pecans  from  native 
trees  drop  in  the  backyards. 

Founder,  and  for  a  considerable  time  chief  owner,  a  trader  named  Jake 
Bardes  was  the  third  white  man  to  move  into  Coo-wee-scoo-wee  District  of 
the  old  Cherokee  Nation.  The  town,  named  for  him,  had  its  birth  in  1877 
when  Bartles  quit  his  original  store  location  at  Silver  Lake,  six  miles  to  the 
southeast,  at  that  time  the  site  of  the  Osage  Indian  Agency,  and  built  the 
first  flour  mill  in  Indian  Territory  on  the  bank  of  the  Caney  River  in  what 
is  now  the  northeastern  quarter  of  the  city. 

An  enterprising  pioneer,  Bartles  had  married  the  daughter  of  Charles 
Journeycake,  a  consecrated  native  preacher  and  chief  of  one  remnant  of  the 
Delaware  tribe  of  Indians  that  had  been  granted  equal  rights  in  the  Cherokee 
Nation.  This  had  given  him,  as  an  "adopted"  citizen,  the  right  to  live  and 
trade  among  the  Cherokees.  Then,  in  order  to  catch  the  trade  of  the  Osage 
Indians,  to  whom  a  reservation  (carved  out  of  Cherokee  lands)  had  been 
given  five  years  before,  he  removed  to  what  he  thought  was  the  edge  of  that 
reservation.  It  turned  out,  later,  that  the  border  was  several  miles  to  the  west, 
but  Bartles  stuck  to  his  mill  and  store  on  the  Caney,  and  within  a  year  he 
had  hauled  in  a  dynamo  and  was  producing  the  first  electric  light  to  glow 
in  Oklahoma. 

Bartles  prospered.  When,  in  1880,  Jim  French  and  his  tw'O  stepsons 
drove  down  from  Kansas  with  wagons  and  four-mule  teams  to  establish  the 
first  freight  line  in  that  section  of  Indian  Territory,  the  store  and  camp  had 
become  a  town. 

Another  pioneer.  Nelson  Carr,  a  white  man  from  Kansas  who  married 
into  the  Cherokee  tribe,  had  preceded  Bartles  on  the  Caney  and  had  con- 
structed a  small  gristmill  for  grinding  corn  in  1868.  But  he  sold  out  to  Bartles 
and  disappeared  from  local  history. 

Two  other  early  comers  are  given  almost  equal  credit  with  Bardes  for 
fanning  the  town's  life  spark  into  a  steady  blaze;  William  Johnstone  and 
George  B.  Keeler,  partners,  opened  a  store  across  the  river  from  Bartles  in 
1884  and  became  vigorous  rivals  of  the  founder  for  the  Indian  trade.  Keeler, 
though  a  young  man,  had  had  experience  with  the  old  Chouteau  trading 


BARTLESVILLE  133 

dynasty,  was  an  expert  in  the  sign  language,  and  spoke  Osage  fluendy;  and 
for  a  time  he  had  served  as  clerk  in  Bartles'  store.  Keeler's  partner,  John- 
stone, had  also  married  into  the  Journeycake  family  and  had  also  clerked  in 
Bartles'  store.  Before  the  coming  of  oil,  the  partners  were  occupied  with 
storekeeping,  cattie,  and  sawmills;  walnut  lumber  from  the  Caney  and  Verdi- 
gris river  bottoms  was  turned  out  by  the  mills  and  had  a  good  market.  After 
the  town  began  to  grow  they  erected  buildings  for  rental.  The  first  telephone 
line,  linking  the  two  stores  with  Caney,  Kansas,  was  built  in  1897. 

After  it  became  possible,  in  1898,  for  townsites  to  be  platted  and  lots 
sold,  legally,  these  pioneers  reincorporated  the  settlement,  which  they  had 
previously  organized  under  Arkansas  law.  It  was  not  until  1898  that  a  rail- 
road (the  Santa  Fe)  came;  it  built  in  on  the  grade  surveyed  and  leveled  from 
Caney,  Kansas,  twenty  miles  to  the  north,  by  Bartles'  men.  When  the  tracks 
went  down,  the  inveterate  town-building  Bartles  moved  north  four  miles  to 
establish  the  town  of  Dewey  (see  Tour  9)  in  honor  of  the  hero  of  Manila 
Bay.  To  that  site  he  hauled  his  original  store  and  residence  at  Silver  Lake, 
and  also  the  newer  two-story  residence  he  had  built  near  his  mill  on  the  Caney. 

A  second  railroad,  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas,  came  to  Bartlesville  in 
1903.  By  this  time  the  extensive  shallow  oil  field  had  become  important  from 
the  eastern  Osage  border  to,  and  beyond,  the  Verdigris  River.  Then  the  first 
deep  oil-bearing  stratum  in  the  Mid-Continent  field  was  discovered  and  called 
the  Bartlesville  sand.  In  1901,  H.  V.  Foster  established  the  Indian  Territory 
Illuminating  Oil  Company,  which,  under  the  more  familiar  title  ITIO,  twenty- 
seven  years  later  brought  in  the  discovery  well  at  Oklahoma  City  and  developed 
into  one  of  the  major  companies  maintaining  its  chief  offices  at  Bartlesville. 

Natural  gas,  incident  to  the  production  of  oil,  became  available  and  its 
cheapness  as  fuel  was  the  deciding  factor  in  bringing  a  zinc  smelter  to  the 
southwestern  edge  of  town  in  1906.  Two  more  smelters  were  built,  and  then 
a  pottery  for  making  the  retorts  used  in  the  zinc  smelting  process.  Uncertainty 
in  the  market  for  zinc,  however,  has  caused  many  partial  or  complete  shut- 
downs of  these  smelters,  and  they  have  seldom  run  to  capacity. 

Bartlesville  has  twelve  modern  schools  with  a  total  enrollment  of  more 
than  four  thousand,  a  church  membership  of  7,500,  and  a  large  Sunday 
School  enrollment.  There  is  a  Town  Hall  discussion  club  with  a  membership 
of  three  hundred,  a  Little  Theater  Guild,  and  a  Co-operative  Concert  Asso- 
ciation, which  brings  three  outstanding  musical  attractions  to  the  city  each 
season. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

The  CIVIC  CENTER,  Johnstone  Ave.  between  6th  and  7th  Sts.,  was 
built  in  1922  as  a  memorial  to  the  Bartlesville  men  who  lost  their  lives  in  the 


134  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL   CITIES 

first  World  War.  Under  its  spacious  roof  are  quarters  for  city  officials,  the 
American  Legion  (James  H.  Teel  Post  No.  105),  the  Red  Cross,  an  audi- 
torium with  seats  for  2,000  persons,  and  the  Public  Library.  This  library  is 
one  of  the  oldest  in  the  state,  having  been  established  in  1913.  More  than  60 
per  cent  of  the  city's  population  are  borrowers  from  its  stock  of  25,000  books; 
and  more  than  50  per  cent  of  the  readers  choose  nonfiction. 

PHILLIPS  PETROLEUM  COMPANY  RESEARCH  LABORA- 
TORY (no  visitors),  Jennings  Ave.  at  6th  St.,  is  a  windowless  glass-brick 
structure,  where  the  190  employees  are  engaged  in  the  study  of  hydrocarbons 
in  petroleum,  and  in  the  working  out  of  problems  which  arise  in  connection 
with  such  varied  oil  production  as  that  from  the  old  "stripper"  fields  adjacent 
to  Bardesville  (where  a  water  repressuring  method  to  stimulate  oil  flow  when 
natural  gas  pressure  no  longer  exists  has  been  found  feasible)  and  the  deep 
wells  of  the  Oklahoma  City  and  south  Texas  fields.  In  some  aspects,  its  work 
is  similar  to  that  of  the  Bureau  of  Mines  state  laboratory,  and  in  others  it  is 
supplementary. 

WASHINGTON  COUNTY  MEMORIAL  HOSPITAL,  at  the  east- 
ern end  of  3d  St.,  was  erected  in  1921  at  a  cost  of  $225,000.  It  is  thoroughly 
modern  in  equipment  and  personnel. 

SENIOR  HIGH-JUNIOR  COLLEGE,  18th  St.  on  Hillcrest  Drive,  with 
a  1940  enrollment  of  492  in  Senior  High  and  104  in  Junior  College,  is  one  of 
the  newest  and  most  modern  and  complete  small-city  school  plants  in  the 
country.  The  two  buildings  are  strikingly  modern  in  plan  and  fenestration. 
The  white  facade,  curved  in  design,  with  low  windows  and  rounded  corners, 
is  ornamented  only  by  the  name  of  the  school  prominendy  carved  across  the 
front.  Here  can  be  seen  in  operation  in  classroom  and  shops  the  "6-4-4"  city 
plan  of  education.  That  is,  six  years  in  the  elementary  school,  four  years  in 
junior  high  (7th  to  10th  grades  inclusive),  and  four  years  in  senior  high  and 
junior  college  (grades  11  to  14  inclusive). 

The  school  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  $500,000,  the  Federal  government 
contributing  $225,000,  the  city  an  equal  amount,  and  the  other  $50,000  being 
given  by  Frank  Phillips,  head  of  the  Phillips  Petroleum  Company.  With  the 
opening  of  this  school  in  1940,  the  older  Bartlesville  Central  High  School,  at 
9th  St.  and  Cherokee  Ave.,  became  the  junior  high  school,  with  an  attendance 
of  1,270. 

The  MUNICIPAL  STADIUM,  Dewey  Ave.  and  1st  St.,  is  a  complete 
athletic  plant  with  baseball  and  softball  diamonds,  cinder  track  and  field 
equipment,  and  a  football  gridiron,  where  high  school  football  games  are 
played.  Constructed  in  1930  at  a  cost  of  $40,000,  its  concrete  stands  have  a 
seating  capacity  of  3,000. 


BARTLESVILLE  135 

JOHNSTONE  PARK,  through  which  the  Caney  River  makes  an  al- 
most perfect  horseshoe  loop,  is  Bartlesville's  largest  and  most  accessible  picnic 
area  and  playground,  its  80  acres  lying  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  city.  In 
the  development  of  the  park,  the  fine  old  native  trees  were  made  the  main 
feature,  and  further  planting  was  designed  to  retain  the  appearance  of  a  nat- 
ural forest.  A  shelter  house,  surrounded  by  a  landscaped  and  flower-planted 
area,  is  near  the  largest  of  the  picnic  spaces.  Discovery  Well,  in  the  park, 
was  drilled  as  the  result  of  talk  of  oil  that  had  persisted  in  the  neighborhood 
since  George  Keeler  found  a  seepage  in  1875.  The  drill  rig  was  hauled  from 
an  abandoned  location  between  Red  Fork  and  Tulsa.  It  took  two  weeks  to 
get  it  over  the  70  miles  of  muddy  winter  roads — "fourteen  days  with  four- 
teen teams,"  as  oil  historians  have  put  it.  Drilling  began  late  in  January,  1897; 
gas  was  found  at  1,252-1,275  feet,  and  the  Bartlesville  oil  sand  was  first 
tapped  at  1,303  feet.  At  1,320  feet,  on  April  15,  the  well  was  shot  with  nitro- 
glycerin and  came  in  with  an  initial  flow  of  more  than  30  barrels  a  day. 
Because  of  lack  of  transportation  facilities,  it  was  shut  in  for  a  time. 

Later  the  well  was  deepened  to  1,345  feet,  shot  again,  and  began  produc- 
ing at  the  rate  of  30  barrels  a  day.  In  1932,  it  was  found  that  the  original  pipe 
had  corroded  and  was  letting  so  much  water  into  the  well  that  it  was  flooded 
out.  With  new  pipe,  it  again  became  a  producer.  Now  (1941),  more  than 
four  decades  after  it  was  drilled,  its  yield  is  somewhat  less  than  a  barrel  a  day. 

The  PETROLEUM  EXPERIMENT  STATION  (not  open  to  visi- 
tors), Virginia  and  Cudahy  Aves.,  was  opened  in  1918  as  a  joint  undertaking 
of  the  U.S.  Bureau  of  Mines  and  the  state  of  Oklahoma.  Its  purpose  is  to 
secure  increased  efficiency  and  safety  "in  the  production,  refining,  and  han- 
dling of  petroleum,  natural  gas  and  their  products,"  and  to  conserve  such 
natural  resources  "by  developing  and  promoting  methods  for  eliminating 
unnecessary  waste  in  the  petroleum  industry."  With  its  60  experts  and  ad- 
ministrative personnel,  it  is  the  largest  of  six  similar  stations  in  the  United 
States.  Its  technical  library  contains  more  than  4,600  volumes. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Round  Mountain,  1.8  m.;  Osage  Hills  State  Park,  11.4  m.;  Frank  Phillips  Ranch,  12  m. 
{see  Tour  4);  Bar  Dew  Lake,  5  m.;  Silver  Lake  Agency,  5.1  m.  {see  Tour  9). 


^<)if2  i^t\/lz  T^f\iT2, rS^''^ z^^^_2 r^fl'l!  l'I":! l^^l" 


Enid 


Railroad  Stations:  728  N.  Independence  Ave.  for  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  RY.;  722  N.  Inde- 
pendence Ave.  for  Atchison,  Topcka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry.;  115  E.  Market  Ave.  for  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific  Ry. 

Bus  Stations:  119  W.  Maple  Ave.  for  Kansas  &  Oklahoma  Trail  ways  and  Panhandle  Stages; 
124  E.  Maple  Ave.  for  Red  Ball  Bus  Lines. 

Airport:  Woodring  Airport,  3  m.  E.  on  US  64;  no  scheduled  service. 
City  Busses:  Junction  for  all  routes  at  Public  Square,  fare  5c. 

Traffic  Regulations:  TrafSc  lights  in  business  section,  see  signs  for  turns  permitted  and  park- 
ing limits. 

Accommodations:  6  hotels;  tourist  camps  on  every  highway. 

Information  Service:  Hotel  Youngblood,  N.W.  Independence  Ave.  and  Maple  Ave. 

Radio  Station:  KCRC  (1390  kc). 

Motion  Picture  Houses:  5. 

Baseball:  Semiprofessional,  Champlin  Stadium,  1  m.  W.  of  city;  Softball,  baseball,  night 

games,  at  Phillips  University  Fields  E.  edge  of  city  on  US  64. 

Swimming:  Government  Park,  501  E.  Oklahoma  Ave.,  fee  25c;  Lake  Heliums,  6  m.  N.W. 

on  US  81,  fee  15c. 

Golf:  University  Lake  Golf  Course,  400  S.  22d  St.,  9  holes,  greens  fee  25c;  Countrj-  Club,  2 

m.  S.  of  City  on  US  81,  9  holes,  greens  fee  25c. 

Tennis:  Free  courts  at  all  city  parks. 

Annual  Events:  County  Fair,  fall;  Industrial  Fair,  spring;  Tri-Statc  Band  Tournament, 
spring;  Celebration  of  Opening  of  Cherokee  Suip,  Sept.  16  and  week  following. 

ENID  (1,246  alt.,  28,081  pop.),  the  largest  city  of  north  central  Oklahoma, 
ranking  fourth  in  size  in  the  state  and  third  in  industry,  is  in  the  old  Chero- 
kee Oudet.  It  is  the  center  of  the  state's  wheat  growing,  processing,  and 
marketing  industry;  the  seat  of  Phillips  University  and  the  Southwestern 
Bible  College.  Serving  three  minor  oil  fields,  it  is  also  the  home  of  refineries 
with  a  capacity  of  more  than  twenty-one  thousand  barrels  of  crude  oil  daily, 
and  of  oil-well  supply  and  equipment  companies.  An  Army  Air  Corps  basic 
flying  school  was  completed  at  Enid  at  the  end  of  1941  as  a  unit  in  the  national 
defense  program.  Built  at  a  cost  of  $2,870,000,  it  provides  for  a  personnel  of 
2,600. 

Enid  has  grown  from  the  tent  city  which  sprang  out  of  the  prairie  dust 
on  the  day  of  the  Strip  opening,  September  16,  1893,  to  a  typically  prosperous, 
self-contained  municipality.  Its  business  section  lies  on  a  gendy  shelving  hill, 
from  which  the  clean  and  spacious  residential  streets  stretch  out.  A  fourteen- 

136 


ENID  137 

Story  hotel  and  two  office  buildings,  eleven  and  fifteen  stories  high,  modern 
and  utilitarian  in  design,  give  the  business  section  a  big-city  appearance. 
Fronting  the  public  square  are  the  older  business  structures,  while  the  newer 
buildings  are  spread  around  in  every  direction.  Fifty-four  church  organiza- 
tions occupy  forty-one  buildings,  of  which  six  are  for  Negro  worshipers;  and 
the  city's  schools  have  an  enrollment  of  nearly  six  thousand  students. 

This  "Queen  City  of  the  Cherokee  Strip"  and  seat  of  Garfield  County's 
government  began  life  some  time  before  the  historic  day  of  the  opening  as 
a  watering  place  for  nomadic  Indians  and  stagecoach  teams.  It  successfully 
avoided  having  the  name  Skeleton  thrust  upon  it  (from  its  proximity  to  the 
head  of  Skeleton  Creek)  and  acquired  its  real  name  from  an  official  of  the 
Rock  Island  Railroad  who  was  fond  of  Tennyson's  "Idylls  of  the  King"  and 
felt  that  Geraint's  wife  ought  to  be  honored  by  having  a  city  named  for  her. 

Enid  had  been  chosen  as  the  site  of  a  government  land  office  in  the  Chero- 
kee Strip  in  advance  of  the  opening,  and  government  surveyors  and  troops 
moved  in  approximately  a  year  before  in  order  to  run  section  lines  and  plat 
townsites. 

On  that  opening  day  in  1893,  it  was  discovered  that  certain  enterprising 
Cherokee  Indians,  with  profit  in  mind,  had  chosen  allotments  within  the 
area  planned  for  the  town.  Discovery  of  the  scheme  caused  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  Hoke  Smith  to  order  the  townsite  located  three  miles  south  of 
the  original  setdement  around  the  railroad  station.  Consequently,  with  the 
government  land  office,  the  county  courthouse,  and  the  post  office  separated 
from  the  depot,  rivalry  between  the  north  and  south  sections  developed  into 
a  feud.  Each  claimed  the  name  of  Enid,  and  the  other  (depending  upon 
which  faction  one  belonged  to)  was  tagged  a  suburb.  North  or  South  Enid. 
The  Rock  Island  had  refused  to  recognize  the  government's  ruling,  continu- 
ing to  run  its  trains  through  South  Enid  without  stopping,  when  on  July  13, 
1894,  a  freight  train  went  off  the  tracks  into  a  ditch  near  South  Enid.  Investi- 
gation brought  about  the  discovery  that  the  bridge  supports  had  been  weak- 
ened by  sawing.  Rock  Island  officials  announced  that  while  the  company 
would  respect  any  law  the  government  might  enact,  it  would  not  surrender 
to  mob  action.  Secretary  Smith's  decision  was  upheld,  however,  by  a  presi- 
dential proclamation,  and  on  September  16,  1894,  a  freight  and  ticket  office 
was  established  in  South  Enid,  which  became  the  present  city.  A  six-foot 
hatchet,  symbol  of  strife,  was  later  buried  with  due  and  proper  ceremony  by 
members  of  both  factions. 

One  of  the  many  escapades  told  of  the  rivalry  between  the  towns  con- 
cerned a  massive,  three-hundred-pound  bell  which  citizens  of  South  Enid 
bought  and  installed  to  warn  the  bucket  brigade  of  fires  endangering  the 


138  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

town's  wooden  buildings.  The  arrival  one  afternoon  of  a  finely-dressed  livery- 
man who  extolled  the  virtues  of  North  Enid  caused  a  loud  clanging  of  the 
bell.  This  time  the  men  who  responded  were  also  secretly  organized  into  an 
"egg  committee,"  supplied  with  ample  overripe  ammunition,  and  the  North 
Enidian  was  turned  back  by  a  well-aimed  barrage. 

Enid's  first  celebration  of  the  founding  of  the  town  and  the  opening  of 
the  Cherokee  Strip  was  staged  just  one  year  after  the  actual  event.  Fifteen 
thousand  were  there  to  watch  an  authentic  re-enactment  of  the  race,  and  150 
Cheyenne  Indians  entertained  with  tribal  dances  and  ceremonies.  This  same 
year  proved  unfortunate  for  crops,  little  grain  being  raised  because  of  drought. 
Free  seed  wheat  was  supplied  by  the  Rock  Island  in  1894,  but  this  crop  was 
a  failure,  as  were  those  of  1895  and  1896,  and  many  of  the  settlers  moved 
away.  In  1897,  however,  rains  were  plentiful,  the  harvest  was  good,  and  wheat 
prices  shot  up  to  $1  a  bushel.  To  furnish  entertainment  for  a  general  celebra- 
tion of  this  turn  in  the  community's  fortunes,  the  Ringling  Brothers'  circus 
came  to  town  on  September  25.  On  that  occasion,  the  largest  crowd  ever  to 
be  assembled  under  the  Ringling  "big  tent,"  up  to  that  time,  overflowed  its 
twenty  thousand  capacity  to  a  record  of  thirty  thousand  paid  admissions. 

Another  incident  of  Enid's  early  history  which  is  told  with  gusto  by  its 
pioneers  occurred  in  1899  when  a  cakewalk  contest  was  staged  between  the 
Negro  citizens  of  Kingfisher  and  those  of  Enid.  Bad  feeling,  spawned  by 
high  betting  and  previous  athletic  rivalry,  broke  into  the  open  when  King- 
fisher was  awarded  the  prize.  Gunfire  and  general  confusion  followed,  many 
leaping  from  the  second-story  windows  of  the  feed  store,  where  the  event  was 
being  held.  Derogatory  criticism  of  this  and  other  typically  "Wild  West" 
incidents  brought  about  a  determined  campaign  against  lawlessness  which 
shordy  made  a  quiet,  model  town  of  Enid. 

Between  1897  and  1903,  two  railroads,  the  Santa  Fe  and  Frisco,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  already  existing  Rock  Island,  were  connected  with  Enid,  laying  the 
foundation  for  what  it  later  became — the  wheat  and  milling  center  for  north- 
western Oklahoma.  The  town's  population  rose  from  3,444  in  1900  to  13,799 
in  1910,  a  tremendous  gain  for  this  sparsely  settled  section. 

Until  the  1920's,  Enid  depended  commercially  on  agriculture,  trade,  and 
shipping;  then,  with  the  discovery  of  the  famous  Tonkawa  district  in  1921 
and  the  Crescent  pool  in  1926,  both  underlying  the  previously  exploited  shal- 
low Garber  pool,  oil  began  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  industrial  life  of 
the  city.  Two  refineries  were  erected,  along  with  the  usual  influx  of  oil  supply 
houses,  foundries,  and  machine  shops.  Flour  mills  and  elevators  in  1928  had 
storage  facilities  for  fifteen  million  bushels  of  wheat.  The  Pillsbury  Mill, 
largest  in  Oklahoma,  was  erected  in  that  year. 


ENID  139 

Five  days  after  the  opening  of  the  Cherokee  Outlet  to  settlement,  Omer 
K.  Benedict  and  Charles  E.  Hunter,  pioneer  newspaper  men,  established 
Enid's  first  weekly,  the  Eagle.  Changed  to  a  daily,  it  continues  as  the  city's 
evening  paper.  Also  published  in  Enid  are  the  Morning  News,  and  two 
weeklies,  Enid  Events  and  Garfield  County  News. 

In  addition  to  grain  and  oil,  poultry  feed  and  eggs  are  important  to  Enid, 
representing  an  annual  turnover  of  more  than  $8,000,000.  Three  packing 
plants  in  the  industrial  section  turn  out  such  varied  products  as  meat,  butter, 
canned  eggs,  dried  buttermilk,  and  cheese.  The  stockyards  do  an  annual  busi- 
ness of  $1,000,000;  and  here  is  one  of  the  state's  best  markets  for  horses  and 
mules.  As  a  division  point,  the  Frisco  Railroad  maintains  at  Enid  large 
machine  and  car  repair  shops. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

The  new  GARFIELD  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  dominating  the 
public  square,  is  a  three-story  white  Texas  sandstone  building  with  an  addi- 
tional story  in  the  central  section.  Modern  and  functional  in  design,  its  utter 
simplicity  makes  it  one  of  the  most  notable  architectural  achievements  in  the 
state. 

A  half-million  dollar  FEDERAL  BUILDING  and  POST  OFFICE  of 
white  marble,  south  of  the  county  courthouse  in  the  public  square,  was  dedi- 
cated in  1941. 

The  ENID  PROFESSIONAL  ARTISTS'  LEAGUE  GALLERY  (free), 
105  54  Independence  Ave.,  South,  shows  and  sells  the  work  of  its  members, 
including  architects,  photographers,  cartoonists,  and  window  decorators;  it 
also  brings  exhibits  of  worth-while  art  from  out  of  town.  The  three  regular 
exhibits  during  the  year  are  opened  by  talks  on  art. 

The  CARNEGIE  LIBRARY,  with  more  than  30,000  volumes,  is  the 
only  city-county  library  in  the  state.  It  has  outgrown  the  building  erected  with 
a  gift  of  $25,000  from  Andrew  Carnegie  and  dedicated  in  1910;  plans  for  a 
new  one  are  now  (1941)  being  considered.  The  library  had  its  origin  in  the 
Enid  Study  Club,  organized  in  1899  to  establish  a  reading  room.  Its  first 
quarters  were  in  a  room  over  a  drugstore,  where,  with  money  raised  from  a 
"book  social,"  a  collection  of  150  books  was  made  available  for  readers.  Five 
years  later,  the  founders'  offer  to  turn  this  nucleus  of  a  library  over  to  the 
municipality  was  rejected  because,  in  the  opinion  of  the  city  fathers,  the  Study 
Club  was  a  "silk  stockinged"  group.  However,  it  was  taken  over  in  1905  and 
efforts  to  obtain  a  grant  from  Carnegie  were  begun.  Mr.  Carnegie's  first  offer 
of  $10,000  was  rejected  as  too  small,  but  when  he  raised  it  to  $25,000  the 
present  site  was  purchased. 


140  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

Among  the  library's  special  collections  are  the  Southard  shelves  of  rare 
books,  a  D.A.R.  historical  and  genealogical  niche,  and  a  large  amount  of 
Oklahoma  material,  including  more  than  700  volumes  by  the  state's  authors 
and  thousands  of  clippings  from  newspapers  and  other  sources.  There  is  a 
branch  library  in  the  Booker  T.  Washington  School  for  Negroes. 

PILLSBURY  FLOUR  MILL  (open  10-11:30  daily;  guides).  515  E. 
Spruce  St.,  has  a  capacity  of  4,000  barrels  of  flour  per  day.  Built  in  1928,  it  has 
operated  almost  continuously  since  that  date  on  a  24-hour  schedule.  Visitors 
are  taken  to  the  top  by  elevator,  then  they  walk  back  through  the  various 
departments  and  levels  to  the  ground  floor. 

GOVERNMENT  SPRINGS  PARK,  Broadway  and  Market  Sts.,  was 
perhaps  the  most  noted  stopping  place  on  the  Chisholm  Trail.  The  springs  did 
not  furnish  enough  water  for  stock  but  there  was  usually  an  ample  supply  in 
Skeleton  Creek,  two  miles  east,  and  the  trail  drivers  grazed  the  cattle  to  the 
creek  while  they  themselves  rested  at  the  springs.  The  park  received  its  name 
when  government  surveyors  camped  there  while  surveying  the  townsite  and 
section  lines. 

The  old  drinking  hole  has  been  cleaned  out  and  walled  in,  and  today 
the  springs  supply  a  small  lake  with  water.  North  of  the  lake  are  picnic 
grounds  with  all  accommodations,  and  across  the  street  from  the  lake  are  the 
Sunken  Gardens,  planted  with  all  varieties  of  native  flowers.  The  park  con- 
tains a  munipical  swimming  pool  and  bathhouse. 

PHILLIPS  UNIVERSITY,  coeducational,  east  of  Government  Springs 
Park  at  the  eastern  edge  of  the  city,  was  chartered  October  11,  1906,  as  Okla- 
homa Christian  University.  Seven  years  later,  after  the  death  of  T.  W. 
Phillips,  of  Buder,  Pennsylvania,  whose  generosity  made  possible  the  found- 
ing of  the  school,  its  name  was  changed  to  honor  him.  It  is  controlled  by  the 
Christian  Church  (Disciples  of  Christ)  and  dedicated  to  Christian  education, 
but  proclaims  itself  nonsectarian.  Of  its  more  than  700  students  some  300  are 
enrolled  in  the  Bible  School;  the  faculty  numbers  44. 

The  campus  embraces  36  landscaped  acres  planted  with  growing  trees 
and  shrubbery.  There  are  seven  college  buildings,  including  a  recently  erected 
women's  dormitory,  and  a  stadium  seating  2,000. 

Within  the  university,  and  planned  to  promote  educational  activities 
beyond  the  regular  day  schedule.  New  College  offers  evening  classes  and  short 
courses  and  provides  for  "interest  groups"  and  conferences.  New  College 
courses  and  conferences  are  designed  for  high  school  graduates  unable  to 
attend  day  classes  at  the  university,  adults  who  wish  to  continue  their  educa- 
tion, groups  of  young  people  seeking  trade  and  professional  training,  and 


ENID  141 

persons  interested  in  practical  arts  and  crafts  and  in  mechanical  and  manual 
skills. 

Music  is  emphasized  at  the  university,  where  musical  organizations 
include  the  band  (see  Music),  the  String  Ensemble,  Women's  Trio,  Men's 
Quartet,  Glee  Club,  Woodwind  Quintet,  Brass  Quartet,  Saxophone  Sextet, 
and  Convocation  Choir.  In  the  Main  Building,  third  floor,  is  an  extensive 
Indian  Collection,  a  zoological  collection  of  insects,  snakes,  mounted  birds, 
and  shells;  cases  here  are  filled  with  botanical  specimens  from  Oklahoma, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Colorado,  Nevada,  and  California. 

LAKE  VIEW  ASSEMBLY  GROUNDS  (picnic\ing.  bathing,  fishing, 
golf),  lying  just  south  of  the  Phillips  University  Stadium,  is  a  tract  of  77  acres 
containing  a  spring-fed  lake  encircled  by  a  golf  course.  Enid's  annual  Easter 
morning  service  is  held  here.  To  the  south  lies  the  160-acre  farm  given  to  the 
university  in  1919  by  Harry  H.  Rogers. 

NORTHERN  OKLAHOMA  HOSPITAL  (open  1-4  weekdays),  N.E. 
edge  of  the  city  on  26th  St.,  founded  in  1910,  is  the  state's  only  institution  for 
the  care  of  feeble-minded  children.  The  thousand  and  more  patients  are 
housed  in  21  buildings  on  a  687-acre  tract.  Regular  school  instruction  and 
training  in  the  crafts  are  given  by  the  hospital's  staff  of  98.  The  large  dairy 
herd  is  under  the  management  of  a  graduate  of  the  Oklahoma  Agricultural 
and  Mechanical  College. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Wild  Fowl  Hunting  Grounds,  S.l  m.;  Meno,  largest  Mennonite  community  in  Okla- 
homa, 18.2  m.  {see  Tour  4). 


j5;')'»i ^  , j^fl/l: ^  , ^<\i!i . .. ^^'^2 .^ i^^'^^ .  ^ i^^'^^ - ^^'fi .  - ^fltl* 


Lawton 


Railroad  Stations:  Railroad  and  C  Ave.  for  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Ry.;  4th  St.  and 

F  Ave.  for  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  Ry. 

Bus  Stations:  Oklahoma  Transportation  Co.,  428  C  Ave.;  Santa  Fe  Trailways,  421  C  Ave.; 

Lawton-Fort  Sill  Bus  Co.,  202  C  Ave. 

Airport:  2100  S.  6th  St. 

Taxis:  lOc  first  10  blocks;  5c  each  10  blocks  thereafter. 

Traffic  Regulations:  Parking  meters  in  downtown  section. 

Accommodations:  6  hotels;  rooming  houses;  tourist  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Warren  Hotel,  302  C  Ave. 

Radio  Station:  KSWO  (1150  kc). 

Newspapers:  Lawton  Constitution,  daily,  evening;  Press,  daily,  morning;  News  Review, 

weekly. 

Motion  Picture  Houses:  5. 

Athletics:  High  School  (Roosevelt)  Stadium,  Bell  Ave.  and  14th  St.,  for  football. 

Swimming:  Stephens  Pool,  804  S.  2d  St.;  Meadows  Pool,  2  Lee  Blvd.;  Lost  Bridge  Pool,  2 

m.  S.  of  city.  Fees  at  all:  adults  25c,  children  10c. 

Golf:  Lawton  Golf  and  Country  Club,  2  m.  N.  on  Ft.  Sill  Blvd.,  greens  fee  35c. 

Tennis:  Lincoln  and  Union  Parks,  5th  to  8th  Sts.  at  I  Ave.;  Mattie  Beal  Park,  between  9th 

and  11th  Sts.  and  I  and  Park  Ave.;  Harmon  Park  h>etween  13th  and  14th  Sts.  and  Lake  and 

Bell,  all  free. 

Annual  Events:  Pioneer  Day,  Aug.  6;  Easter  morning  sunrise  services,  Wichita  Mountain 
Wildlife  Refuge  17.4  m.  N.W.  (see  Tour  3B). 

LAWTON  (1,116  alt.,  18,055  pop.),  seat  of  Comanche  County,  known  as 
the  "Post  City"  from  its  nearness  to  Fort  Sill  (see  Tour  3A),  was  named  in 
honor  of  Major  General  Henry  W.  Lawton,  who  was  killed  in  the  Philippines 
in  1900.  It  came  into  being  on  August  6,  1901,  six  days  after  the  opening 
by  lottery  of  the  three-million-acre  Kiowa-Comanche  Indian  reservation  to 
white  setders.  The  site  had  been  designated  by  the  United  States  Land  Office 
as  one  of  the  three  county  seats  to  be  established;  Hobart  (see  Tour  12)  in 
Kiowa  County  and  Anadarko  (see  Tour  3)  in  Caddo  County  were  the  others. 
Lawton  drew  an  overnight  population  of  ten  thousand.  Mostly  it  was  made  up 
of  men,  with  their  families,  who  had  failed  to  secure  160-acre  homesteads  in 
the  lottery  of  August  1  and  came  to  the  townsite  in  the  hope  of  bidding  suc- 
cessfully at  the  sale  of  lots. 

142 


LAWTON  143 

By  August  3,  in  anticipation  of  the  sale,  four  hundred  temporary  business 
structures,  nearly  all  tents,  had  been  raised;  a  newspaper,  The  Lawton  State 
Democrat,  was  being  printed;  and  three  streets  had  been  laid  out. 

The  sale  of  the  lots  platted  on  the  320-acre  townsite  realized  $414,845, 
of  which  some  $125,000  was  turned  over  by  the  government  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  the  new  town.  By  the  first  of  March,  1902,  five  banks  were  in 
operation,  with  deposits  of  $635,000;  a  railroad  was  building  in  from  the 
north;  and  although  some  of  the  1,119  inhabitants  were  still  sleeping  out  of 
doors,  in  general  the  town  was  adequately  "housed,  fed  and  watered." 

In  brief,  Lawton  telescoped  into  a  period  of  months  the  pioneer  phase  of 
a  western  town  which  usually  extended  over  years.  Until  1930  its  progress 
was  steady  but  not  spectacular.  Then,  largely  owing  to  the  expansion  of  Fort 
Sill  as  the  principal  Artillery  School  of  Fire  for  the  army,  a  rapid  growth 
began.  Between  1930  and  1940  the  percentage  of  population  increase — 49 
per  cent — was  greater  than  that  of  any  other  Oklahoma  city,  and  its  numerical 
increase — 5,934 — was  exceeded  only  by  Oklahoma  City's  19,128.  With  some 
8,300  permanendy  located  active  and  service  troops  at  Fort  Sill  and  additional 
consignments  sent  there  for  training  under  the  new  defense  program,  there 
has  been  an  increasingly  heavy  demand  for  houses  and  the  incidentals  of 
living  from  officer-instructors  and  noncommissioned  officers  who  choose  to 
live  in  Lawton. 

The  older  part  of  Lawton  is  on  the  second  bench  of  land  that  rises  from 
the  western  bank  of  Cache  Creek.  In  its  growth,  the  city  has  pushed  higher 
up  the  slope,  toward  the  north  and  northwest.  Its  business  section  consists  of 
blocks  of  low  brick  buildings,  and  the  people  seen  on  its  downtown  streets 
represent  a  true  cross  section  of  Oklahoma — white  farmers,  Indians  (some 
women  wearing  shawls),  Negroes,  clerks,  professional  men.  The  one  different 
note  are  the  soldiers,  on  leave  from  near-by  Fort  Sill.  In  the  variety  of  resi- 
dences, ranging  from  the  shacks  of  Negroes  (who  make  up  approximately 
10  per  cent  of  the  population)  in  the  south  end  to  expensive  homes  along 
Fort  Sill  Boulevard,  the  city  is  typical  of  Oklahoma,  too.  Lawton  has  the  arid, 
clean-swept  look  of  western  municipalities,  though  trees  are  plentiful  in  some 
of  the  older  sections. 

The  city's  initial  and  permanent  growth  was  helped  by  the  fact  that  it 
lay  under  the  shadow  of  Fort  Sill  and  became  a  sort  of  civic  center  for  that 
important  army  post.  It  is  also  the  metropolis  of  an  extensive  farming  area 
(there  are  2,826  farms  in  Comanche  County),  with  cotton  the  principal  crop. 
Among  its  fifteen  industrial  plants  is  one  of  the  big  cottonseed-oil  mills  of 
the  state.  To  serve  the  region,  the  city  has  forty-five  wholesale  and  326  retail 
businesses;  at  its  western  edge  is  Cameron  State  Agricultural  College,  the 


144  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIliS 

largest  junior  college  in  Oklahoma,  and  within  an  hour's  drive  lie  many  of 
the  finest  scenic  spots  in  the  state. 

Also  contributing  to  Lawton's  growth  has  been  the  development  of 
near-by  profitable  deposits  of  asphalt,  and  mountains  of  granite  and  other 
building  stone.  It  is  said  that  out  of  the  Lavvton  neighborhood  could  be  taken 
enough  road  building  material  to  pave  every  road  in  the  state — with  a  lot 
left  over. 

The  senior  high  school  is  undertaking  an  interesting  experiment  in 
co-operation  with  Lawton  business  men;  industrial  apprentice  training  is 
given  to  a  selected  group  of  students  who  attend  classes  in  the  morning  and 
vi'ork  at  jobs  which  pay  $2.00  and  $3.00  a  week  in  the  afternoons.  Each  is 
assigned  to  a  "trainer,"  who  directs  his  education. 

Last  of  Oklahoma  cities  to  be  born,  overnight,  out  of  the  dust  and  clamor 
of  an  Indian  reservation  opening,  Lawton  had  among  its  first  settlers  many 
who  were  aware  of  the  color  and  drama  of  its  birth  and  first  days.  Don 
Blanding,  a  poet  of  recognized  talent,  wrote  in  "Prairie  Days": 

Lawton,  the  new  town,  sprang  from  the  prairie  land, 

Grew  as  a  mushroom  grows  . . . 

All  night  long  the  hammers  sounded  . . . 

Houses  grew  in  the  flare  of  kerosene  torches. 

As  the  men  streamed  in  looking  for  shade,  with  rolls  of  currency  to  pay 
for  town  lots  in  sweat-drenched  pants  pockets,  they  saw  the  lone  oak  tree  on 
the  site;  they  saw  F.  M.  English's  bank — a  one-room  frame  shack — poised 
on  rollers,  ready  to  be  wheeled  to  the  lot  he  meant  to  buy  at  the  sale;  they  saw 
an  enterprising  citizen  take  in  $500  in  dimes  for  registering  intended  bidders 
for  lots  at  ten  cents  apiece;  they  heard  over  and  over  the  cry  of  "stop  thief!" 
from  men  and  women  whose  purses  were  snatched,  and  the  more  ominous 
mutterings  of  men  whose  teams  were  stolen;  and  they  were  half  choked  in  the 
dust  raised  by  water  haulers  who  brought  clear,  tepid  water  from  Cache 
Creek  and  retailed  it  at  five  cents  a  cup  until  competition  forced  the  price 
down  to  fifty  cents,  then  twenty-five  cents  a  barrel. 

In  the  volume  called  Neath  August  Sun,  initiated  and  assembled  by 
Lawton's  business  and  professional  women  (not  dated),  is  the  picture  of  that 
August  6  lot  sale  in  the  words  of  scores  of  persons  who  were  there.  The  gov- 
ernment auctioneer  stood  on  a  dry-goods  box  beside  a  big  tent  and  hour  after 
hour  and  day  after  day  cried  the  lots  beginning  at  the  northern  limits  of  the 
platted  townsite.  When  he  shouted  "Sold!"  a  soldier  escorted  the  successful 
bidder  between  lines  of  other  soldiers  and  into  the  tent.  There,  he  was  given 
tide  to  his  lot  if  he  paid  down  the  amount  of  its  purchase  price  in  cash.  In 


LAWTON  145 

case  he  did  not  have  the  whole  amount  with  him,  he  could  pay  $25  to  hold 
the  property  for  thirty  minutes. 

That  provision  was  to  allow  him  time  to  reach  one  of  the  two  banks 
—  Mr.  English's  and  another — which  had  undertaken  to  receive  and  safe- 
guard money,  but  it  sometimes  happened  that  thirty  minutes  was  not  time 
enough  for  a  lot-buyer  to  work  his  way  down  the  line  of  men  waiting  to 
withdraw  deposits.  In  that  case,  the  $25  was  forfeited  to  the  government,  and 
the  lot  was  resold.  In  the  collection  of  stories  is  one  of  a  man  who  bought  a 
lot  for  $850,  paid  his  $25,  then  ran  to  the  bank  for  the  rest.  Luckily,  after 
seeing  it  was  hopeless  to  wait  in  line,  he  spotted  a  good  friend  inside  the 
chicken-wire  cage  where  four  men  were  working  to  record  withdrawals  and 
hand  out  currency.  To  him  he  appealed,  and  presendy  $1,000  in  bills  was 
made  into  a  package  and  tossed  over  the  fence.  The  first  lot  sold  brought  $420, 
and  the  top  price  was  $4,555,  for  the  lot  opposite  the  land  office. 

It  is  told,  too,  how  a  man  named  Woods,  number  one  in  the  reservation 
land  lottery,  selected  a  homestead  in  a  strip  a  mile  long  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
wide  alongside  the  Lawton  townsite,  instead  of  taking  the  usual  half-mile 
square.  Thus  he  shut  off  from  the  townsite  frontage  Mattie  Beal,  the  young 
lady  who  had  drawn  number  two,  and  was  promptly  nicknamed  "Hog" 
Woods.  In  spite  of  this  deprivation  due  to  Woods'  lack  of  gallantry,  Miss  Beal 
received  in  a  space  of  weeks  five  hundred  proposals  of  marriage  from  all  parts 
of  the  United  States,  so  widely  had  the  news  of  her  second  most  valuable 
homestead  drawing  been  published.  She  finally  chose  as  her  husband  Charles 
Payne,  a  young  businessman  who  had  openly  professed  to  having  no  interest 
whatever  either  in  Miss  Beal  or  her  160  acres. 

There  was  a  "ragtown"  Lawton  with  a  "ragtown"  restaurant  named  the 
Goo-Goo  (later  Smith's  Dining  Room),  after  the  avenue  of  the  same  name. 
That  was  the  summer  when  young  men  learned  from  a  woman  singer  with 
a  wagon  show  the  words  of  "When  you  make  dem  goo-goo  eyes  at  me!"  And 
at  the  Goo-Goo  restaurant,  if  a  client  dared  to  order  a  moderate  priced  steak, 
the  waiter  called  back  to  the  kitchen,  "One  for  the  dog!"  Another  sign,  put 
up  in  a  saloon,  served  to  recall  the  famous  crusader  of  the  day,  "All  nations 
welcome  here  except  CARRIE." 

Described  as  a  "rollicking,  hilarious  tent  and  shack  city,"  Lawton  had 
eighty-six  saloons — one  for  every  one  hundred  inhabitants — in  November, 
1901.  Gambling  joints  grew  so  numerous  that  a  volunteer  committee  of 
citizens  swept  them  out.  The  first  serious  fire,  threatening  to  destroy  the 
town,  was  held  in  check  by  hundreds  of  men  and  women  with  wetted  quilts 
and  blankets,  backed  by  a  bucket  brigade  supplied  by  frantically  galloping 
water  haulers;  and  the  first  big  town  celebration — a  slightly  delayed  first 


146  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

birthday  fete — was  a  bull  fight,  with  authentic  Spanish  toreador  costumes, 
plus  an  Apache  Indian  dance,  in  costume  too,  staged  by  the  distinguished 
prisoner  at  Fort  Sill,  old  Geronimo. 

For  a  time  the  nearest  railroad  station  was  Marlow,  on  the  Rock  Island; 
and  initiated  travelers  to  Lawton  used  to  leave  the  cars  by  the  windows  in 
order  to  rush  out  and  engage  a  wagon  and  team  to  haul  their  goods  and 
themselves  across  the  prairie  to  the  new  town.  Many  ambitious  businessmen 
from  the  East,  compelled  to  camp  out  overnight,  trembled  at  the  coyotes' 
crazy  combination  of  howling  and  barking. 

Among  the  town's  first  settlers  were  two  men  who  became  United 
States  senators,  Thomas  P.  Gore  and  Elmer  Thomas;  Scott  Ferris,  who  served 
in  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives;  and  Jake  L.  Hamon,  the  city's 
first  attorney,  who  wrote  his  name  large  in  the  story  of  oil  development  in 
southern  Oklahoma,  and  was  for  a  time  Oklahoma  Republican  National 
Committeeman.  It  has  also  been  recorded  that  Heck  Thomas,  the  first  town 
peace  officer  and  a  well-known  outlaw-catcher,  once  chased  Lon  Chaney 
(then  a  Lawton  photographer)  for  speeding — on  horseback! 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

The  CARNEGIE  LIBRARY,  5th  St.  and  C.  Ave.,  is  a  small,  neat  build- 
ing of  buff  brick  erected  in  1921  with  $30,000  from  the  Carnegie  fund  for 
library  construction. 

In  1903,  the  second  year  of  the  town's  existence,  a  library  committee  of 
the  City  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  was  appointed  and  a  fund  started  for 
the  purchase  of  books.  The  merchants  of  Lawton  offered  178  books  as  a  prize 
to  the  organization  having  the  greatest  number  of  votes — one  vote  being 
allowed  for  each  ten-cent  purchase;  then  another  group  raised  the  award  to 
372  books  given  under  the  same  condition.  With  these  as  a  nucleus  and  an 
additional  sixty-five  volumes  secured  at  a  book  reception  by  the  women,  the 
library  came  into  being  and  was  given  to  Lawton  on  condition  that  if  the 
town  failed  to  maintain  it  the  books  would  revert  to  the  City  Federation. 
Two  rooms  on  the  second  floor  of  the  city  hall  were  set  aside  for  the  library. 
When  it  was  removed  to  its  present  building  in  1922  it  had  four  thousand 
volumes;  the  collection  has  grown  (1941)  to  fifteen  thousand. 

COMANCHE  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  5th  St.  and  C.  Ave.,  a 
strikingly  modern  building  erected  with  the  help  of  WPA,  was  dedicated  in 
1939.  It  is  a  chaste,  solid,  three-story  structure  of  buff  sandstone,  trimmed  with 
chromium  steel. 

LAWTON  HIGH  SCHOOL  BUILDING,  8th  St.  and  E  Ave.,  housing 
the  senior  and  junior  high  schools,  is  an  immense  red-brick  building,  with 


LAWTON  147 

white  Ionic  columns  and  a  dome  that  attracts  the  eye  from  afar  ofJ.  Archi- 
tecturally, it  dominates  the  city.  A  large,  buff-brick  annex,  with  additional 
classrooms,  a  gymnasium,  and  the  school's  offices,  was  completed  in  1940. 

CAMERON  STATE  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE,  at  the  western 
edge  of  the  city,  with  an  enrollment  of  more  than  700  boys  and  girls  and  an 
annual  budget  of  nearly  $80,000,  is  Oklahoma's  largest  junior  college.  Set  in 
the  midst  of  350  acres  of  fenced  and  terraced  farm  land  are  three  classroom 
and  laboratory  buildings;  an  auditorium  with  seats  for  1,200;  a  gymnasium; 
three  dormitories  for  boys,  two  for  girls,  and  one  for  married  students.  A 
modern  poultry  plant  and  a  horse  and  dairy  barn  are  also  on  the  campus. 
The  college  farm  supports  a  herd  of  20  registered  Holstein  and  Jersey  cows, 
a  drove  of  registered  hogs,  and  a  flock  of  chickens  representing  all  the  well- 
known  breeds. 

The  college,  named  in  honor  of  the  first  State  Superintendent  of  Schools, 
was  founded  in  1909  as  one  of  six  district  agricultural  high  schools  offering 
work  beginning  with  the  seventh  grade  and  extending  through  the  twelfth. 
For  the  first  two  years,  regular  high  school  subjects  were  taught,  followed  by 
work  in  agriculture  and  home  economics.  The  institution  was  raised  to  junior 
college  rank  in  1927. 

Boxing  is  a  favorite  sport  among  the  boys;  the  Cameron  Aggie  teams 
have  been  outstandingly  successful  in  the  State  Golden  Gloves  boxing  tourna- 
ments. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Fort  Sill  Indian  School,  0.3  m.;  Craterville  Park,  19.6  m.;  Home  of  Quanah  Parker, 
20.6  m.  i^see  Tour  3);  Fort  Sill  Military  Reservation,  6.5  m.  {see  Tour  3 A);  Medicine  Park, 
12.1  m.;  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge,  17.4  m.  (see  Tour  3B). 


i^^/r: , ^d/t: ^  , z^flflj: , i^fl/ii ^, rt:')/i^ ^ . *^D/?2 . , L^1'?i . , "J^"" 


Muskogee 


Railroad  Stations:  Intersection  of  Broadway  and  tracks  for  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  R.R.;  2d 

and  Elgin  Sts.  for  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  Ry.  and  Midland  Valley  R.R. 

Bus  Station:  201  S.  5th  St.  for  Santa  Fe  Trail  System  and  Southern  Kansas  Stage  Lines. 

Airport:  Hatbox  Field,  40th  St.  and  Arline  Rd.;  private  and  chartered  planes  only. 

City  Bus  Service:  Fare  5c. 

Taxis:  10c  and  upward,  according  to  distance  and  number  of  passengers. 

Traffic  Regulations:  Standard  traffic  signals  in  business  section;  parking  limits  and  turns 

permitted  designated  by  signs. 

Information  Service:  Hotel  Severs,  215  State  St. 

Accommodations:  9  hotels,  2  for  Negroes;  rooming  houses  and  tourist  cottages. 

Radio  Station:  KBIX  (1490  kc). 

Motion  Picture  Houses:  5,  1  for  Negroes. 

Baseball:  Athletic  Park,  Boston  Ave.  and  5th  St. 

Swimming:  Municipal  Swimming  Pool,  Honor  Heights  Park,  40th  St.  and  Park  Blvd.; 

Spaulding  Park,  E.  Okmulgee  Ave.  and  E.  Side  Blvd.,  fees  lOc. 

Golf:  Muskogee  Town  and  Country  Club,  Club  Blvd.  2.5  m.  N.E.  on  US  62,  18  holes, 

greens  fee  $1.12;  Meadowbrook  Golf  Club,  1.5  m.  S.W.  on  US  64-62,  18  holes,  greens  fee 

50c  Mon.-Fri.,  75c  Sat.  and  Sun.;  Grandview,  2  m.  E.  on  Callahan  Ave.,  9  holes,  greens  fee 

25c  Mon.-Fri.,  50c  Sat.  and  Sun. 

Tennis:  Free  municipal  courts  Spaulding  Park. 

Annual  Events:  Muskogee  Free  Fair,  first  week  in  Oct.;  Flower  Show,  spring  and  fall. 

MUSKOGEE  (617  alt.,  32,332  pop.),  third  largest  city  of  Oklahoma,  was 
named  for  the  Muskogee  (Creek)  Indians  and  lies  just  south  of  the  confluence 
of  the  Verdigris,  Grand,  and  Arkansas  rivers.  It  is  surrounded  by  low,  gently 
sloping  hills,  blending  into  a  rich,  flat-to-rolling  farming  section.  The  tracks 
of  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  pass  squarely  through  the  town  from 
north  to  south,  dividing  it  into  almost  equal  parts.  Streets  are  wide  and  bor- 
dered by  trees,  and  old  fashioned  two-  and  three-story  houses  are  set  far  back 
in  well-kept  lawns.  Many  small  parcels  of  land,  such  as  are  ordinarily  eyesores 
in  most  cities,  are  here  developed  into  flower  gardens  and  parks. 

Thomas  Nuttall,  widely  traveled  English  naturalist  and  later  curator 
of  the  botanical  gardens  of  Harvard  University,  on  a  journey  up  the  Arkansas 
in  1819,  predicted  that  "if  the  confluence  of  the  Verdigris,  Arkansas,  and 
Neosho  [Grand]  rivers  shall  ever  become  of  importance  as  a  setdement — 
which  the  great  and  irresistible  tide  of  western  emigration  promises  —  a  town 

148 


MUSKOGEE  149 

will  probably  be  founded  here  at  the  junction  of  these  streams."  Earlier 
(1805),  Meriwether  Lewis  had  recommended  to  President  Jefferson  this  site 
for  a  trading  point;  and  in  1806  James  B.  Wilkinson  advised  the  government 
to  establish  a  factory  there,  and  also  "a  garrison  of  troops." 

It  was  natural  for  Nuttall  and  others  to  assume  that  river  traffic  would 
determine  the  location  of  the  town.  But  the  importance  of  river  transportation 
and  river  trading  posts  hardly  increased  after  Nuttall's  visit  and  became 
negligible  as  soon  as  railroads  were  built  into  the  territory. 

Before  Nuttall  wrote  about  the  region,  the  "Three  Forks"  had  become 
a  center  of  trade  and  a  rallying  point  for  buyers  and  sellers  of  furs.  There  the 
traders  Hugh  Glenn,  Nathaniel  Pryor,  French  and  Rutherford,  Thompson 
and  Drennan;  Jesse  B.  Turley,  the  Creek  Benjamin  Hawkins,  and — best 
known  of  all — Auguste  P.  Chouteau  trafficked  with  the  Osages  who  came 
down  the  Grand  River  from  the  North  and  the  nomadic  tribes  that  brought 
their  peltries  down  the  Salt  Fork,  the  Deep  Fork,  and  the  Arkansas  rivers  and 
across  the  comparatively  short  stretch  of  country  between  "Three  Forks"  and 
the  Canadian. 

By  1829,  emigration  of  Creeks  from  Alabama  in  response  to  United 
States  government  pressure  was  well  under  way,  and  some  twelve  hundred 
were  located  near  the  mouth  of  the  Verdigris  on  land  which  turned  out  to 
be  part  of  the  Cherokee  Nation.  The  Creeks  were  then  moved  south  of  the 
Arkansas,  and  their  agency  was  established  in  the  vicinity  of  Fern  Mountain, 
some  three  miles  northwest  of  Muskogee. 

It  was  at  this  agency  that  the  first  settiement  in  the  Muskogee  region 
started.  Not  until  1872,  when  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  railroad  crossed  the 
Arkansas,  and  their  agency  was  established  in  the  vicinity  of  Fern  Mountain, 
did  the  town  itself  come  into  being.  Its  first  white  inhabitants  were  those 
hopeful  and  adventurous  fortune  seekers  who  had  waited  in  camp  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  river  for  the  completion  of  the  bridge;  they  rode  the  first 
train  over,  got  off  at  the  station,  and  began  to  build  stores  and  residences  on 
both  sides  of  the  track. 

Across  the  site  of  the  new  town  ran  the  old  Texas  Road,  over  which 
thousands  of  setders  had  traveled  southward  by  wagon  and  over  which  many 
herds  of  Texas  cattle  had  been  driven  northward.  In  the  neighborhood  lived 
a  few  Creek  Indians,  but  the  population  was  predominantly  Negro — Creek 
freedmen  who  had  chosen  the  neighborhood  as  especially  suited  to  their 
agricultural  needs  and  knowledge. 

For  a  considerable  time  after  the  town  was  established,  the  Creeks, 
oflBcially,  refused  to  consider  it  as  an  Indian  settlement.  Appealed  to  for 
protection  against  certain  swaggering  outlaw  Cherokee  half  bloods  and  bad 


150  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

men  from  Texas  intent  on  putting  the  Negroes  "in  their  place,"  the  Creek 
chief  once  instructed  the  head  of  the  nation's  lighthorse  (police)  force  to 
assist  in  maintaining  order  in  Muskogee.  That  officer  answered  that  since  it 
was  a  purely  Negro  town  he  could  not  appropriately  assign  any  of  his  men 
to  the  task. 

Old-timers  in  Muskogee  are  apt  to  point  with  pride  to  the  city's  steady 
and  vigorous  growth,  its  solid  and  law-abiding  people,  then  cast  back  in 
memory  to  the  early  days,  when  hogs  rooted  and  wallowed  in  the  streets  and 
Bradley  Collins,  bootlegger  and  bad  man,  amused  himself  by  shooting  them. 
They  will  tell  of  the  time  one  of  Bradley's  shots  winged  a  United  States 
marshal,  and  how  he  was  acquitted  of  blame  because  "it  was  a  private 
quarrel  and  both  men  had  sworn  to  shoot  on  sight." 

Another  memory  of  Muskogee's  early  days  centers  on  the  old  Federal 
jail,  the  first  to  be  erected  in  the  Indian  Territory,  It  stood  at  what  is  now  the 
corner  of  Dennison  and  Third  Streets  and  consisted  of  a  number  of  wooden 
buildings  surrounded  by  a  twelve-foot  stockade.  For  walls,  the  jail  had  two 
by  six  inch  boards  covered  with  sheet  iron.  Sometimes,  before  a  Federal  court 
was  established  at  Muskogee  in  1889,  as  many  as  350  prisoners  were  held 
there  at  one  time;  and  it  is  recorded  that  a  number  of  women  remained 
behind  the  board  walls  for  two  years  before  being  removed  for  trial  by  the 
nearest  Federal  court,  at  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas. 

When  Muskogee  was  made  a  railroad  division  point  the  town's  perma- 
nence was  assured,  and  its  importance  as  a  business  center  was  further 
enhanced  by  the  establishment  in  1874  of  the  Union  Agency  for  the  Five 
Civilized  Tribes.  Eufaula  (see  Tour  8)  had  also  made  a  bid  for  the  agency, 
and  an  inspector  was  sent  from  Washington  to  determine  which  of  the  two 
towns  was  better  fitted  to  care  for  employees.  On  the  night  before  his  arrival, 
it  is  said  that  a  resident  of  Muskogee  emptied  a  barrel  of  salt  into  the  town 
well  at  Eufaula;  the  inspector,  after  one  taste  of  the  water,  decided  that 
Muskogee  should  be  the  administrative  headquarters  of  Indian  Territory. 

In  contrast  to  this  phase  of  Muskogee's  history  was  the  organization  in 
1877,  when  the  town  was  still  hardly  more  than  a  huddle  of  shacks  and  tents, 
of  the  International  Indian  Fair  for  the  encouragement  of  farming  and  stock- 
growing  especially  among  the  more  backward  Indians  of  the  Five  Tribes  and 
of  the  western  Plains  tribes.  In  a  call  to  the  people  to  come  to  the  eleventh 
fair,  F.  B.  Severs,  a  Muskogee  pioneer,  as  president,  and  Joshua  Ross,  a 
Cherokee  and  one  of  the  first  settlers,  as  secretary,  said  those  who  came 
"must  bring  corn,  wheat,  cotton,  potatoes,  fruits  and  flowers,  livestock,  and 
works  of  art.  In  all  the  departments  there  will  be  lively  contests  for  prizes, 
and  especially  in  the  musical  department." 


MUSKOGEE  151 

This  annual  gathering  of  Indians,  intent  on  maintaining  their  Indian 
character,  reached  its  peak  of  importance  in  the  fall  of  1879  when  the  threat 
of  "Boomer"  invasion  of  their  unoccupied  western  lands  had  become  serious. 
A  visitor  to  the  Fair,  Secretary  of  the  Interior  Carl  Schurz,  inspected  the 
exhibits,  saw  sales  at  good  prices  of  baskets  and  beadwork  wrought  by  the 
Plains  Indians  to  members  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes,  and  sat  with  them 
in  councils  in  the  big  barn-like  pavilion  in  which  their  products  were  shown. 
The  Osages  came  to  ask  for  the  same  self-governing  status  as  the  Five  Civi- 
lized Tribes  enjoyed;  and  from  the  far-off  Chippewas  came  messages  of 
encouragement. 

With  the  amalgamation  of  Oklahoma's  Indian  and  white  populations, 
and  the  Indians'  complete  adoption  of  white  methods,  the  need  for  such  a 
fair  passed,  and  it  was  dropped.  The  idea  was  adopted  by  the  United  States 
Indian  Bureau  for  the  more  backward  tribes  living  on  reservations  in  other 
western  states. 

Climatic  conditions  in  the  Muskogee  area  are  favorable  to  diversified 
agriculture,  and  many  farmers  drifted  into  the  neighborhood,  but  tribal 
ownership  of  the  land  retarded  development.  Then,  in  1894,  the  Dawes 
Commission,  formed  the  year  before  to  allot  land  to  individual  Indians, 
established  headquarters  in  Muskogee,  and  the  town  grew  rapidly.  It  was 
incorporated  under  the  Arkansas  statutes  in  1898,  and  its  first  public  school 
was  attended  by  235  pupils.  Impetus  to  expansion  was  added  by  the  opening 
of  oil  and  gas  fields  in  1904.  Traces  of  oil  had  been  found  and  wells  drilled 
within  the  town's  limits,  as  far  back  as  1894,  but  until  the  Dawes  Commission 
completed  its  work  it  was  impossible  for  the  white  promoters  to  obtain  valid 
titles  to  land,  so  development  was  halted. 

As  soon  as  it  became  possible  to  secure  titles  to  land  in  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory, so  many  white  men  flocked  in  that  the  supremacy  of  the  Indians  was 
seriously  threatened.  There  then  began  a  belated  attempt  to  form  the  territory 
into  an  Indian  state.  A  convention  of  the  chiefs  of  the  various  tribes  was  called 
to  meet  at  Muskogee  in  1905,  form  a  constitution,  and  complete  plans  for  a 
new  state  which  was  to  be  called  Sequoyah  after  the  inventor  of  the  Cherokee 
alphabet.  However,  the  vision  of  an  Indian  state  vanished  when  the  Enabling 
Act  was  passed  in  1906,  joining  Indian  Territory  with  Oklahoma  Territory 
to  form  one  state  (see  History). 

In  the  eleven  years,  1889-1900,  the  population  of  Muskogee  increased 
from  2,500  to  4,254.  Between  1900  and  1907,  because  of  oil  development,  the 
number  of  inhabitants  more  than  tripled,  and  by  1910,  when  the  city  charter 
was  granted,  it  stood  at  25,278.  In  that  year  Muskogee  was  larger  than  Tulsa 
by  some  six  thousand  persons,  and  the  second  city  in  the  state  in  size.  In  the 


152  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

next  twenty  years,  census  figures  rose  only  to  32,025,  because  of  the  shifting 
of  oil  interests  from  Muskogee  westward  to  Tulsa;  and  in  the  decade  1930-40 
there  was  a  population  gain  of  only  306. 

Throughout  Muskogee's  history  the  Negro  population  has  been  large; 
at  present  (1941)  it  amounts  to  almost  24  per  cent  of  the  total.  On  South 
Second  Street,  the  center  of  the  Negro  business  district,  are  the  plants  of 
three  Negro  newspapers — the  Muskpgee  Lantern,  the  Mus/{ogee  Parrot,  and 
the  Oklahoma  Independent — and  the  main  office  of  the  state's  largest  Negro 
insurance  company.  Negroes  are  largely  employed  in  domestic  service,  as 
workers  in  near-by  cotton  fields,  and  in  certain  minor  industries.  They  have 
provided  for  themselves  schools,  churches,  amusement  places,  apartment 
houses,  and  clubs. 

During  the  1900's,  three  important  oil  fields  were  opened  in  the  Mus- 
kogee area;  the  town  gained  three  new  railroads — the  Frisco,  the  Midland 
Valley,  and  the  Kansas,  Oklahoma  &  Gulf — and  farming  gready  expanded 
in  the  surrounding  territory.  On  the  Arkansas  River  bottom  lands  truck 
gardening  has  increasingly  flourished,  and  canning  is  an  important  industry. 
This  area  is  also  noted  for  potato  growing  (see  Agriculture). 

In  1917  a  small  iron  works  with  only  a  few  employees  was  established. 
The  plant  expanded  rapidly  and  now  manufactures  derricks,  transmission 
towers,  transformer  racks,  road-building  equipment,  and  steel  framework. 
In  addition  to  the  one  opened  in  1917,  another  turns  out  winches,  hoists,  and 
various  kinds  of  machinery  and  equipment.  There  are  two  oil  refineries  with 
a  total  capacity  of  six  thousand  barrels  a  day.  Other  manufacturing  plants 
include  a  brick  factory,  a  truck-body  works,  and  railroad  shops.  There  are  a 
dozen  wholesale  supply  houses.  Excellent  low-cost  fuel,  and  good  transporta- 
tion facilities,  including  nine  rail  outlets,  have  given  Muskogee  an  advan- 
tageous position  for  manufacturing. 

As  an  agricultural  trading  center  the  city  serves  all  the  Arkansas  River 
valley  except  those  areas  past  midway  points  toward  Tulsa  and  Fort  Smith. 
The  city  ranks  among  the  three  leading  cotton  centers  of  the  state,  with  a 
cottonseed-oil  mill,  gins,  and  a  compress.  There  are  also  two  flour  mills,  six 
produce  houses,  and  a  meat  packing  plant. 

At  the  foot  of  Agency  Hill,  west  of  the  city,  is  the  airport,  where  the 
commercial  shops  and  private  ships  are  being  supplemented  by  the  United 
States  Army's  expanding  program  of  pilot  training. 

Under  a  city  manager  form  of  government  since  1920,  Muskogee  owns 
its  water  supply  system;  and  the  city's  light  and  power  comes  from  a  modern 
plant  on  the  Arkansas  River. 

Two  ably  edited  daily  newspapers,  the  Phoenix  and  the  Times-Democrat, 


MUSKOGEE  153 

are  the  successors  of  an  interesting  line  that  runs  back  to  1876,  when  the 
Indian  Journal  was  proposed  as  an  instrument  of  the  Intertribal  Council. 
When  that  proposal  was  vetoed,  the  paper  was  started  as  a  private  enterprise 
under  the  editorship  of  William  P.  Ross,  a  Princeton-educated  Cherokee.  Its 
purpose  was  to  champion  the  cause  of  all  Indians  and  to  expose  the  designs 
and  personal  and  interested  motives  of  those  who  sought  to  secure  their  land. 
The  paper  was  later  moved  to  Eufaula. 

In  1882,  Our  Brother  in  Red,  a  Methodist  missionary  monthly,  was 
started  at  Muskogee,  and  in  1887  it  became  a  weekly.  Like  the  Indian  Journal, 
it  had  at  first  both  English  and  Creek  language  sections;  and  at  one  time  it 
reported  a  circulation  of  1,820.  It  too  regarded  itself  as  an  instrument  of 
justice  for  the  Indians. 

The  Phoenix  was  founded  in  1888  by  Leo  E.  Bennett,  a  young  white 
man  who  had  married  a  Creek  citizen.  Always  friendly  to  the  Indians,  it 
changed  from  a  weekly  to  semiweekly  in  1895,  and  to  a  daily  in  1901.  The 
first  daily,  however,  was  the  Morning  Times,  started  in  1896,  and  edited  for 
a  time  by  a  talented  mixed-blood  Creek  poet  and  essayist  in  the  vernacular^ 
Alex  Posey.  Merged  with  an  evening  rival,  it  became  the  Times-Democrat. 
The  next  development  was  the  consolidation  under  the  ownership  of  Tams 
Bixby  of  the  two  surviving  dailies  (see  Newspapers). 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

MUSKOGEE  PUBLIC  LIBRARY  (open  9-9  weekdays),  D  St.  and 
E.  Broadway,  is  a  two-story-and-basement  structure,  modified  Georgian  in 
design,  of  red  tapestry  brick  and  white  stone  trim.  Erected  in  1909  with  the 
gift  of  $60,000  from  Andrew  Carnegie,  the  library  was  designed  by  Henry 
D.  Whitefield,  Mr.  Carnegie's  son-in-law.  Besides  its  56,000  and  more  books, 
it  houses  a  Museum  of  Indian  Relics  on  the  second  floor;  exhibits  include  a 
rare  double-weave  Cherokee  basket,  medicine  man  ratdes,  moccasins,  drums, 
clubs,  knives,  arrowheads,  primitive  chairs,  and  other  curios.  On  the  same 
floor  is  an  art  collection;  and  on  the  library  walls  hang  paintings,  including 
French  War  by  J.  Baker,  Grand  Canyon  by  M.  Dupree,  and  Ajter  the  Rain 
by  George  F.  Shultz. 

The  MUNICIPAL  BUILDING,  3d  St.  and  Okmulgee  Ave.,  a  three- 
story  red-brick  structure,  its  facade  broken  by  five  tall  columns,  covers  a 
block  near  the  business  center.  Besides  housing  the  city  offices,  it  provides  a 
convention  hall  with  a  seating  capacity  of  3,500;  here,  in  the  winter  season, 
weekly  wrestling  meets  are  held.  On  the  first  floor  is  a  small  Museum  of  his- 
torical relics,  photographs,  and  documents. 

The  million-dollar  FEDERAL  BUILDING,  5th  St.  and  Broadway,  is 


154  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIliS 

a  many-vvindowcd,  four-story  building  of  limestone  that  fills  the  block 
frontage  on  5th  St.  It  contains  the  post  office,  courtroom,  and  offices  of  the 
United  States  Court  for  the  Eastern  District  of  Oklahoma.  It  also  houses  the 
offices  of  the  United  States  Union  Agency  for  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes. 

Modern,  with  simple  lines,  is  the  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  216 
State  St.,  a  three-story,  block-like  structure  of  granite  and  limestone. 

MUSKOGEE  MUNICIPAL  JUNIOR  COLLEGE,  420  Dayton  St., 
established  in  1921,  was  the  first  institution  of  its  kind  in  the  state.  It  shares 
quarters  with  the  old  Central  High  School. 

The  ALICE  ROBERTSON  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL,  S  St.  and 
Callahan  Ave.,  is  one  of  the  most  spacious  and  modern  secondary  schools  in 
the  state.  Named  for  a  member  of  a  famous  missionary  family  and  the  only 
woman  who  has  represented  Oklahoma  in  Congress,  it  was  opened  for  use 
in  1940.  It  is  a  wide -spreading  white  building  of  two  stories,  square-cut  in 
design,  with  its  rows  of  wide  windows  broken  by  flat  engaged  columns.  With 
its  football  stadium,  east  of  the  building,  seating  6,500  spectators,  the  school 
occupies  almost  four  blocks.  Its  erection,  at  a  cost  of  $368,000,  relieved  the 
increasing  pressure  for  space  on  the  Central  High  School  plant. 

HONOR  HEIGHTS  PARK  (old  Agency  Hill  Park),  40th  St.  and 
Park  Blvd.,  has  been  developed  as  a  memorial  to  veterans  of  the  first  World 
War.  Covering  20  acres  of  the  50  which  constitute  the  grounds  known  as 
Agency  Hill,  this  beautiful  landscaped  and  watered  park  tumbles  down  the 
hillside  in  terraces,  cascades,  pools,  flowered  borders,  and  grassy  plots  to  the 
large  lake  and  public  swimming  pool  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  Somewhere  in  its 
colorful  area,  nearly  every  flower  and  shrub  native  to  Oklahoma  is  planted 
and  flourishing;  and  besides  evergreens  in  profusion  there  are  oak  trees, 
maples,  redbud,  dogwood,  hackberry,  native  and  Chinese  elms,  plum  and 
peach  and  cherry  trees,  which  succeed  the  redbud  and  dogwood  as  splashes 
of  bloom  in  the  spring.  In  1935  this  park  was  awarded  a  prize  of  $1,000  for 
the  most  beautiful  rock  garden  in  a  contest  sponsored  by  Belter  Homes  and 
Gardens.  Union  Agency  Building,  in  the  park,  is  a  dignified  and  beautiful 
stone  structure  that  was  used  for  a  time  as  headquarters  for  the  government's 
business  with  the  Five  Tribes,  and  then  for  a  school  for  freedmen  by  the 
Creeks.  It  is  vacant  now  (1941).  Near  by  is  the  site  of  the  Alice  Robertson 
home,  "Sawokla." 

UNITED  STATES  VETERANS'  FACILITY  (open  2-4  daily),  estab- 
lished as  a  veterans'  hospital  in  1923  and  as  a  combined  facility  of  the  United 
States  Veterans'  administration  in  1938,  lies  just  south  of  Honor  Heights 
Park.  Its  17  buildings  are  set  in  an  attractively  landscaped  area  of  16  acres  that 
overlook  the  city  and  the  hills  that  rise  toward  the  western  edge  of  the 


MUSKOGEE  155 

Ozarks.  The  main  building,  U-shaped  in  plan  and  classical  in  design,  rises 
four  stories  above  a  basement;  like  the  other  principal  structures,  it  is  built 
of  brick,  terra  cotta,  and  artificial  stone. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Japanese  Garden,  5.2  m  (see  Tour  2);  site  of  old  Steamboat  Landing,  9.4  m.;  Fort 
Gibson  National  Cemetery,  13.1  m.  (see  Tour  3);  Bacone  Indian  College,  2.3  m.;  Three 
Forks  Monument,  7.2  m.  (see  Tour  8);  New  Army  Air  Field,  5.5  m. 


^^0^2 rjO/i:: , j^i}/»^ , jjO^j ., z^'^'^J. . . ^^iJl -  - z^'^^J . . C'''!i 


Norman 


Railroad  Stations:  Intersection  of  Comanche  St.  and  Oklahoma  Ave.  for  Atchison,  Topeka 

&  Santa  Fe  Ry.;  105  W.  Main  St.  for  Oklahoma  Ry.  (Interurban). 

Bus  Station:  Main  St.  and  Santa  Fc  for  Oklahoma  Transportation  Co.,  Santa  Fe  Trailways, 

and  Greyhound. 

Taxis:  1 5c  upward,  depending  on  distance  traveled  and  number  of  passengers. 

Accommodations:  2  hotels;  tourist  camps  on  highway. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  132/2  E.  Main  St. 

Radio  Station:  WNAD  (640  kc). 

Motion  Picture  Houses:  5. 

Airport:  Max  Wcstheimer  Flying  Field   (owned  by  the  University  of  Oklahoma)    1.5  m. 

N.W.  on  State  74. 

Golf:  University  Golf  Course,  E.  of  University,  grass  greens,  .50c;  Cedar  Crest  Golf  Course, 

2  m.  S.  of  south  city  limits  and  1  m.  E.  of  US  77,  sand  greens,  25c;  Norman  Countr)'  Club. 

1.5  m.  E.  of  the  city  limit,  sand  greens,  50c. 

Stvimming:  Crystal  Lake,  1  m.  N.  on  US  77,  fees  20c  for  adults,  15c  for  children. 

Annual  Events:  High  School  Field  Meet,  April  or  May.  Homecoming  Week,  usually  begins 

Nov.  14. 

NORMAN  (1,160  alt.,  11,429  pop.)  occupies  a  plateau  overlooking  the  valley 
of  the  South  Canadian  River,  the  bed  of  which  is  about  four  miles  southwest 
of  the  town.  The  surrounding  land  is  gendy  rolling,  most  of  it  cultivated, 
with  some  in  pasture,  and  there  are  a  few  trees.  The  city  is  divided  in  a 
northwest-southeast  direction  by  the  Santa  Fe  Railway,  and  this  orientation 
has  been  turned  to  advantage.  The  streets  of  the  central  part  of  the  town 
run  northwest-southeast  and  southwest-northeast,  and  form  an  approximate 
square.  Outlying  streets  were  laid  out  straight  with  the  compass.  This  varies 
the  customary  pattern  of  smaller  cities,  somewhat  mitigates  the  assault  of 
winter  winds,  and,  to  a  degree,  lessens  the  fire  hazard.  Fortunately  there 
has  been  litde  effort  to  put  as  much  of  the  town  as  possible  upon  the  main 
highway,  US  77. 

Except  for  those  that  serve  the  population,  there  are  practically  no 
industries  in  Norman.  The  business  life  of  the  town  is  dependent  upon  the 
university  and  the  surrounding  country-trade  area.  The  greater  part  of  the 
business  district,  along  Main  Street,  consists  largely  of  establishments  that 
cater  to  farmers.  It  differs  little  from  the  main  street  of  any  small  municipality 

156 


NORMAN  157 

in  an  agricultural  community;  students  doing  their  after-class  shopping  leave 
the  rural  pattern  unaltered. 

Near  the  university,  however,  a  different  atmosphere  prevails.  Here,  the 
restaurants  and  other  business  houses  subsist  almost  entirely  on  the  patronage 
of  the  faculty  and  students. 

Although  the  townsite  originally  had  almost  no  trees,  its  streets  today 
are  shaded  by  many  varieties — elm,  maple,  oak,  locust,  ash,  sycamore,  walnut, 
pecan,  and  other  trees  indigenous  to  Oklahoma.  This  is  largely  due  to  David 
Ross  Boyd,  first  president  of  the  university,  a  tree  enthusiast,  who  planted 
thousands  of  saplings  in  spite  of  the  popular  belief  that  trees  would  not  grow 
there,  and  established  a  nursery  of  his  own  on  the  campus.  From  this  begin- 
ning the  city  of  Norman  and  the  grounds  of  the  university  have  become 
notable  for  their  shaded  streets  and  parked  spaces. 

"It  is  not  claimed  for  this  city,"  said  the  Norman  Transcript  in  1893, 
"that  she  will  ever  be  a  great  metropolis,  but  it  is  a  city  of  homes,  and  one 
of  the  most  desirable  places  of  residence  of  which  the  mind  can  conceive." 
Lacking  industries,  the  town  has  attracted  residents  through  civic  improve- 
ments and  cultural  advantages.  Schools  are  excellent,  and  churches  numerous. 

The  city  owns  its  own  water  plant  and  has  an  abundant  supply  of 
deep-well  water  99.6  per  cent  pure.  In  1919  the  commission  form  of  govern- 
ment was  adopted,  and  a  city  manager  chosen.  The  five  city  commissioners 
serve  without  pay.  In  the  years  1928-34  there  was  no  tax  levy  for  general 
government  expenses  as  the  city  used  revenue  from  its  water  plant,  fines, 
licenses,  and  other  sources;  there  has  been  no  deficit  in  operating  funds,  and 
since  1934  the  tax  rate  has  not  been  above  1.25  mills. 

Norman  was  named  for  a  government  engineer  who  pitched  camp  about 
eighteen  miles  south  of  the  present  site  of  Oklahoma  City  in  1872.  Little  is 
known  of  him  beyond  the  fact  that  when  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa 
Fe  Railroad  built  through  the  Territory  several  years  later,  a  boxcar  was  set 
out  near  the  spot  where  he  had  camped  and  designated  "Norman  Switch." 
It  was  all  that  there  was  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  when  the  Territory 
was  opened  for  setdement  on  April  22,  1889. 

The  population  of  Norman  Switch,  or  of  Norman  as  it  came  to  be  called, 
jumped  from  zero  on  the  dawn  of  opening  day  to  five  hundred  at  nightfall. 
On  January  25,  1890,  the  Norman  Transcript  boasted  that  the  community 
already  had  "two  newspapers,  four  churches,  and  twenty-nine  business 
houses  of  importance." 

The  Indian  Mission  Annual  Conference  of  the  Southern  Methodist 
Church,  in  April,  1890,  ordained  that  a  college  be  established  within  the 
bounds  of  the  newly  created  Oklahoma  Territory;  and  the  board  of  trustees 


158  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL   CITIES 

was  instructed  to  negotiate  with  towns  interested  in  such  a  school  and  "to 
accept  the  bid  that  seemed  the  most  advantageous." 

Norman  was  selected,  and  on  September  18,  1890,  High  Gate  Female 
College  opened  its  doors  with  an  enrollment  of  130.  Stringent  rules  were 
laid  down  for  the  students.  They  were  not  allowed  to  attend  places  of  amuse- 
ment, and  all  correspondence  with  persons  outside  the  school  was  subject  to 
examination.  Even  a  code  governing  the  conduct  of  faculty  members  was 
promulgated,  one  rule  requiring  that  male  members,  when  appearing  on  the 
streets,  should  wear  a  silk  tie  and  a  Prince  Albert  coat.  In  1892,  with  the 
opening  of  the  university,  the  enrollment  at  High  Gate  decreased  rapidly, 
and  in  the  following  year  its  buildings  were  sold  to  the  Oklahoma  Sanitarium 
Company.  This  company,  which  had  secured  a  contract  from  Oklahoma 
Territory  for  the  care  of  insane  persons,  in  turn  sold  its  property  to  the  state 
in  1915.  The  institution,  renamed  the  Central  State  Hospital,  provides  Nor- 
man with  its  second  largest  pay  roll. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA,  between  Lindsay  and  Boyd 
streets,  and  Elm  and  Jenkins  Avenues,  occupies  a  grassy,  tree-grown  campus 
of  217  acres.  The  School  of  Medicine,  University  Hospital,  and  Crippled 
Children's  Hospital  are  in  Oklahoma  City  (see  0\lahoma  City);  on  the 
Norman  campus  there  are  forty-one  buildings,  seventeen  of  which  are  used 
for  class  work.  Collegiate  Gothic  architecture  predominates  and  the  plant  is 
one  of  the  show  spots  of  the  state.  Enrollment  for  1940-41  in  the  regular 
sessions  was  7,054;  in  the  summer  sessions,  2,497;  and  in  the  correspondence 
courses  and  service  classes,  2,059.  In  the  academic  year  1939-40  a  total  of 
12,690  persons  registered  for  forty-four  institutes  and  short  courses  of  a  few 
days.  The  attendance  at  fifty-one  institutes  and  short  courses  in  1940-41  was 
approximately  19,500. 

The  university  is  a  part  of  the  educational  system  of  the  state  (see  Educa- 
tion) and  is  supported  by  legislative  appropriations  made  biennially.  It  is  a 
constituent  member  of  the  Oklahoma  State  System  of  Higher  Education, 
supervised  by  the  Oklahoma  State  Regents  for  Higher  Education,  an  ap- 
pointive board  of  nine  members.  Immediate  supervision  of  the  university  is 
in  charge  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma  Board  of  Regents,  consisting  of 
seven  members  appointed  by  the  governor,  who  is  also  an  ex  officio  member 
of  the  board.  Sound  scholarship,  good  citizenship,  and  the  duties  of  the 
individual  to  the  community  and  the  state — briefly,  these  are  the  points 
emphasized  in  the  university's  teaching.  Currendy,  its  annual  budget  totals 
some  $1,555,000,  more  than  $1,250,000  of  which  is  spent  in  salaries  for  the 


NORMAN  159 

faculty  of  301  and  others  employed  to  maintain  the  plant.  Part  of  the  univer- 
sity's annual  income — an  average  of  |80,000 — is  received  from  land  endow- 
ment and  the  sale  of  school  land. 

In  September,  1892,  the  university  opened  in  a  rented  store  building  in 
Norman,  with  David  Ross  Boyd  as  its  first  president;  the  faculty  consisted 
of  four  teachers;  the  curriculum  provided  for  preparatory  courses  and  two 
years  of  college  work.  Since  there  were  no  high  schools  in  the  Territory,  it 
was  necessary  to  maintain  the  preparatory  department  for  fifteen  years,  until 
adequate  local  school  systems  had  been  built  up.  The  first  group  of  students 
numbered  fifty-seven,  all  in  the  preparatory  school.  In  1893  a  three-story-and- 
basement  brick  structure  with  a  small  tower  was  completed,  looming  starkly 
out  of  an  expanse  of  level  prairie  that  was  still  scored  by  the  paths  of  game 
and  cattle.  Until  destroyed  by  fire  in  1903,  this  building  housed  the  university. 

Living  expenses  at  the  school  were  low,  but  not  many  students  had  the 
small  amount  of  money  needed.  President  Boyd  encouraged  ambitious  young 
men  and  women  to  come  anyway,  and  to  work  their  way  through  at  such 
jobs  as  were  available.  Few  business  houses  in  Norman  could  give  employ- 
ment, and  part-time  work  in  early  years  generally  consisted  of  chores  for  men 
and  housework  for  girls.  With  the  growth  of  the  city  and  the  school,  more 
jobs  for  students  became  available,  and  today  about  one-third  of  the  student 
body  is  self-supporting. 

The  university's  School  of  Geology,  established  in  1900,  has  graduated 
a  number  of  well-known  geologists.  Many  have  played  important  parts  in  the 
oil  industry  in  Oklahoma  and  other  oil-producing  states.  The  organizer  of 
the  school,  Dr.  Charles  N.  Gould,  was  for  some  years  also  head  of  the  State 
Geological  Survey,  which  operates  under  the  Board  of  Regents  and  the  presi- 
dent of  the  university.  The  School  of  Government,  with  a  faculty  of  ten 
(1941),  trains  an  ever-increasing  number  of  men  who  take  an  active  part  in 
government.  The  first  degrees  from  the  School  of  Law  were  given  in  1912 
and  today  (1941)  about  half  of  the  members  of  the  state  bar  are  university 
alumni.  The  School  of  Petroleum  Engineering  attracts  students  from  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

The  name  "Sooners,"  applied  to  Oklahomans  generally,  is  given  to  the 
athletic  teams  of  the  university,  and  to  its  publications. 

As  a  land-grant  college,  the  university  maintains  a  military  unit  of  the 
Reserve  Ofl&cers  Training  Corps.  The  first  two  years  of  training  are  required; 
the  last  two,  or  advanced  course,  are  elective.  Between  the  junior  and  senior 
years,  advanced  students  are  given  a  six-weeks  course  in  active  service,  usually 
at  Fort  Sill.  In  the  fall  of  1940,  a  unit  of  the  Naval  Reserve  Officers'  Training 
Corps  was  installed  at  the  university. 


160  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIIiS 

One  of  the  most  colorful  events  of  the  year  is  the  annual  High  School 
Field  Meet,  in  April  or  May,  a  series  of  athletic,  musical,  and  curricular 
contests.  This  event  draws  an  attendance  of  thousands  of  high  school  students, 
who  in  this  way  become  acquainted  with  the  university. 

CAMPUS  TOUR 

The  buildings  are  listed  in  order  of  their  location  from  the  main  entrance,  University 
Blvd.  and  Boyd  St.  Unless  otherwise  stated,  the  buildings  are  open  during  school  hours. 

The  PRESIDENT'S  HOME  is  a  two-story  frame  house  of  classic 
revival  design. 

HOLMBERG  HALL  (the  Fine  Arts  Building),  a  three-story  structure 
of  concrete,  brick,  and  stone,  completed  in  1918,  was  named  for  Frederik 
Holmberg,  professor  of  music  and  dean  of  the  College  of  Fine  Arts. 

ADMINISTRATION  HALL,  a  collegiate  Gothic,  three-story  structure 
at  the  head  of  the  North  Oval,  is  notable  for  its  chaste  decoration  and  fine 
proportions.  The  building  contains  the  general  administrative  offices  of  the 
university,  the  Graduate  School,  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  the 
offices,  classrooms,  and  laboratories  of  the  department  of  mathematics,  philos- 
ophy, physics,  and  psychology. 

The  four-story  EDUCATION  BUILDING  was  erected  in  1904  as  the 
Carnegie  Library;  in  1920  it  was  remodeled  for  the  College  of  Education  and 
now  contains  the  offices  and  classrooms  of  that  college  and  the  university  dem- 
onstration schools. 

MONNET  HALL,  known  as  the  "Law  Barn,"  is  a  three-story  structure 
of  white  Bedford  stone.  It  contains  the  offices,  lecture  rooms,  courtroom,  and 
library  of  the  School  of  Law,  the  offices  and  library  of  the  department  of  gov- 
ernment, and  the  offices  and  museum  of  the  department  of  anthropology.  In  the 
basement  (open  9-4,  Mon.-Fri.)  a  great  many  objects  of  archeological  interest, 
taken  from  the  Indian  mounds  near  Spiro  (see  Tour  7),  are  on  display. 

The  ART  BUILDING,  a  concrete,  brick,  and  Algonite  stone  structure, 
was  erected  in  1920  as  the  Library  Building;  in  1930  it  was  remodeled  and  now 
houses  the  offices,  studios,  classrooms,  and  exhibition  rooms  of  the  School  of 
Art.  Paintings,  etchings,  sculpture,  and  items  of  industrial  arts  are  on  display; 
the  exhibits  are  loans,  for  the  most  part,  and  are  changed  every  two  weeks.  In 
this  building  is  the  Matzene  Collection  of  Oriental  Art  (open  12-5,  Mon., 
Wed.,  Fri.),  valued  at  more  than  $100,000  and  including  Chinese,  Manchurian, 
Japanese,  East  Indian,  and  Persian  objects  of  art.  Indian  graduates  of  the 
School  of  Art  have  attracted  national  attention  with  their  authentic  paintings 
of  Indian  life. 

In  addition  to  the  space  occupied  by  the  department  of  geology,  the 


NORMAN  161 

GEOLOGY  BUILDING  contains  the  offices,  laboratories,  and  publication 
rooms  of  the  Oklahoma  Geological  Survey,  and  the  Museum  of  Paleontology 
(open  9-5,  Mon.-Fri.).  On  display  are  scale  models  of  plant  and  animal  life  of 
the  Devonian  and  Jurassic  periods,  prepared  as  WPA  projects  by  university 
students;  archeological  remains  excavated  from  all  sections  of  Oklahoma;  and 
minerals  and  rocks  from  many  other  states. 

The  OKLAHOMA  (STUDENT)  UNION  BUILDING  was  completed 
in  1928  and  a  tower  was  added  in  1936.  Donations  from  students,  alumni, 
faculty,  and  friends  of  the  university  paid  for  the  building  and  its  furnishings; 
and  fees  paid  by  the  students  at  the  time  of  their  registration  support  it.  It 
contains  the  quarters  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma  Association,  the  Men's 
Council,  the  Independent  Men's  Association,  the  University  Christian  Associa- 
tions, the  student  centers  of  several  religious  groups,  the  offices  and  studio  of 
the  department  of  speech,  the  Book  Exchange,  a  recreation  hall,  a  cafeteria, 
dining  rooms,  a  lounge,  a  ballroom,  meeting  rooms,  and  living  apartments 
for  several  members  of  the  faculty.  In  the  tower  are  the  offices,  studios,  and 
rehearsal  rooms  of  WNAD,  "The  Voice  of  Soonerland,"  the  university  broad- 
casting station. 

The  PETROLEUM  ENGINEERING  LABORATORY  contains  labor- 
atories and  research  rooms  of  the  School  of  Petroleum  Engineering.  Immedi- 
ately north  of  the  building  is  an  oil  refinery,  consisting  of  a  96-tube  bubble 
tower  and  a  tube  still  with  a  capacity  of  250  barrels  of  crude  oil  a  day.  A  brick 
building  near  by,  completed  in  1936,  houses  an  experimental  lubricating-oil 
plant. 

The  School  of  Journalism  is  in  the  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  BUILDING. 
Here  is  published  The  Oklahoma  Daily,  student  newspaper;  and  here  also  is 
the  University  Press,  publishing  division  of  the  university,  organized  in  1929. 
Besides  departmental  bulletins,  the  Press  prints  Boo}{s  Abroad,  a  quarterly 
which  has  earned  an  international  reputation  for  scholarly  criticism,  and  has 
published  a  widely  varied  list  of  books.  Among  these  are  Wah'Kon-Tah,  a 
Book-of-the-Month  Club  selection;  four  volumes  of  Fol\-Say:  a  Regional 
Miscellany;  22  volumes  of  a  series  called  "Civilization  of  the  American 
Indian";  and  seven  volumes  in  a  new  "American  Exploration  and  Travel" 
series. 

BUCHANAN  HALL  (formerly  known  as  the  Liberal  Arts  Building) 
is  occupied  by  the  English,  history,  and  classical  and  modern  languages  and 
literatures  departments.  Walls  in  the  classrooms  of  the  Latin  and  Greek 
departments  are  lined  with  bas-relief — casts  of  the  Elgin  marbles.  Other 
classroom  walls  in  the  building  are  covered  with  symbolic  murals,  the  work 
of  former  art  students  in  the  University.  The  building  was  named  in  honor 


162  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

of  James  Shannon  Buchanan,  a  former  professor  of  history,  acting  president 
and  president  of  the  university. 

The  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  BUILDING  (locally  called  the  Field 
House),  a  three-story  structure,  contains  a  large  gymnasium,  with  balconies 
seating  3,500  and  main-floor  seats  for  2,000,  the  quarters  of  the  department  of 
physical  education,  and  the  offices  of  the  Intercollegiate  Athletic  Council.  A 
frame  structure  adjacent  to  the  building  houses  the  men's  swimming  pool. 
The  spring  graduation  exercises  are  held  in  the  gymnasium. 

MEMORIAL  STADIUM,  consisting  of  two  wings  each  400  feet  long 
and  57  feet  high,  with  62  rows  of  seats  affording  a  total  seating  capacity  of 
32,000  persons,  was  erected  as  a  World  War  memorial.  Intercollegiate  football 
games  are  played  here,  and  track  meets  are  held  on  its  quarter-mile  cinder 
oval  and  220-yard  straightaway.  In  the  space  beneath  the  seats  are  classrooms, 
facilities  for  the  student  athletes,  and  the  living  quarters  of  members  of  the 
student  co-operative  dormitory.  Here,  too,  student  assistants  and  graduate 
workers,  employed  by  NYA  and  WPA,  clean  and  mount  animal  skeletons 
for  paleontological  exhibits.  Thousands  of  fossil  bones  are  stored  here,  but 
they  must  remain  in  packing  cases  until  funds  are  appropriated  for  an 
exhibit  building. 

The  BUSINESS  ADMINISTRATION  BUILDING  is  designed  in  the 
collegiate  Gothic  style,  in  harmony  with  most  of  the  other  buildings  on  the 
campus.  Topping  the  pylons  at  each  side  of  the  main  entrance  are  statues 
representing  Industry  and  Commerce,  and  surmounting  the  octagonal  bay  is 
a  horizontal  frieze  of  the  famous  coins  of  history.  The  stone  gable  is  orna- 
mented with  conventionalized  carvings  of  Oklahoma  agricultural  products 
— cotton,  corn,  and  kaffir.  Panels  on  the  first  floor  represent  Oklahoma's  four 
major  sources  of  income — oil,  mining,  agriculture,  and  commerce;  and  in 
recessed  niches  are  other  murals  that  depict  all  phases  of  state  industries. 
Grotesque  corbel-heads,  symbolic  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Oklahoma  plains 
and  their  relation  to  history,  adorn  the  auditorium  on  the  second  floor  in  a 
vertical  design.  Libraries,  classrooms,  and  laboratories  provide  adequate 
facilities  for  students  in  the  School  of  Business  Administration. 

The  BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES  BUILDING  is  decorated  with  a  series 
of  conventionalized  carvings  of  animal  types,  executed  in  stone  by  Joseph 
R.  Taylor,  of  the  art  faculty.  In  the  building  are  laboratories,  classrooms, 
libraries,  a  herbarium  of  Oklahoma  plants,  and  a  large  and  interesting 
Zoology  Museum,  which  contains  specimens  from  many  parts  of  the  United 
States.  The  Amphibian  Collection  (permit  from  the  zoology  department), 
in  the  basement,  contains  thousands  of  specimens  of  amphibia  common  to 
Oklahoma  waters. 


NORMAN  163 

The  LIBRARY  is  perhaps  the  most  impressive  building  on  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oklahoma  campus.  Its  collegiate  Gothic  architecture  is  similar  to 
that  of  Administration  Hall,  with  which  it  will  ultimately  be  joined.  The 
reading  room  (second  floor)  extends  east  and  west  across  the  entire  length 
of  the  building.  The  Phillips  Collection  of  Southwestern  Literary 
Material  (open  by  permit  from  History  Department)  is  on  the  first  floor. 
The  Treasure  Room  (permit  from  Librarian),  on  the  same  floor,  contains 
many  rare  books  and  valuable  manuscripts.  In  the  basement  are  seminar  and 
research  rooms. 

Additional  buildings  on  the  campus  are  the  Faculty  Club,  Debarr  Hall 
(Chemistry  Building),  Science  Hall,  Engineering  Building,  Engineering 
Laboratory,  the  Armory,  the  Women's  Building,  Pharmacy  Building,  Physics 
Laboratories,  the  Infirmary,  and  the  Military  Science  Buildings. 

OTHER  POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

McFARLIN  memorial  church  (Methodist),  University  Blvd. 
and  Apache  St.,  was  built  by  Robert  M.  McFarlin  as  a  memorial  to  his  son, 
at  a  cost  of  more  than  $1,000,000.  The  church,  rising  above  the  surrounding 
tree-shaded  residences,  seems  impressive  in  its  plain  white  stone  simplicity. 
It  is  neo-Gothic  in  design;  the  interior  is  richly  ornamented,  with  hand-carved 
walnut  woodwork  and  other  decorative  features. 

During  the  1930's  the  16  acre  CITY  PARK  was  made  into  a  notable 
recreation  center,  as  a  WPA  project,  with  an  ampitheatre  that  seats  2,200, 
more  than  600  trees  and  thousands  of  shrubs,  athletic  grounds,  and  game 
equipment.  In  1940,  attendance  at  the  park  exceeded  198,000.  A  handicraft 
and  recreational  program,  also  sponsored  by  the  WPA,  is  carried  on  there 
throughout  the  year.  It  had  an  average  daily  attendance  of  40  boys  and  girls 
in  1940. 

CENTRAL  STATE  HOSPITAL  (visitors  by  appointment),  6  blocks 
E.  of  junction  of  US  77  and  Main  St.,  is  the  state's  largest  institution  for  the 
treatment  of  mental  disorders.  Representing  an  investment  of  more  than 
$4,000,000,  it  has  820  acres  of  land  and  111  buildings,  mosdy  plain  two-and- 
three-story  structures  of  red  brick.  There  are  approximately  300  employees 
and  2,500  patients.  The  institution  operates  its  own  farm,  dairy,  canning 
plants,  laundry,  and  mattress  and  furniture  factories.  Recreational  facilities 
consist  of  moving  pictures,  ball  games,  square  dances,  and  indoor  games  such 
as  bridge,  checkers,  and  dominoes. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Washington  Irving  Marker,  Moore,  9.2  m  I  see  Tour  10). 


^^(\/h , z^<\ni, ^  ^<\iij, ^  , ^ffifj. .. ^duj ^  , i^!\iij , , jjO/j^ ^  , jjl)^ 


Oklahoma  City 


Railroad  Stations:  Union  Station,  300  W.  Choctaw  St.   for  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  Ry. 

(Frisco),  and  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Ry.  (Rock  Island);  Santa  Fe  Station,  Santa  Fe 

Ave.  and  California  St.,  for  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fc  Ry.  (Santa  Fe);  Katy  Station,  200 

E.  Reno  St.,  for  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  R.R.  (Katy)  and  Oklahoma  City  Ada-Atoka  Ry. 

Bus  Stations:  Union  Bus  Station,  Grand  Ave.  and  Walker  St.,  for  Oklahoma  Transportation 

Co.,  Greyhound  Lines,  Santa  Fe  Trailways,  Southwestern  Trailways,  Panhandle  Trailways, 

Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma  Coach  Lines,  Red  Ball  Bus  Line;  15  W.  Grand  Ave.,  for  All- 

American  Bus  Line. 

Airports:  Municipal  Airport  (N.W  edge  of  Bethany),  6.9  m.  W.  on  US  66,  for  Braniff 

Airways,  Mid-Continent  Airlines,  and  American  Airlines;  Wiley  Post  Field,  N.  May  Ave., 

4  m.  N.  on  US  66  (no  scheduled  service). 

Taxis:  15c  and  upwards  according  to  distance  and  number  of  passengers. 

Streetcars  and  City  Busses:  Intracity  rate  10c  or  two  for  15c;  interurban  electric  lines  to 

Norman,  El  Reno,  Guthrie,  and  intermediate  points,  terminal  Grand  Ave.  between  Hudson 

and  Harvey  Sts. 

Traffic  Regulations:  Parking  limit  varies  with  street.  Parking  meters,  which  originated  in 

Oklahoma  City,  on  most  downtown  streets;  5c  dropped  in  slot  allows  motorist  to  park  for 

time  shown  on  meter.  No  charge  between  6  p.m.  and  7a.m.  No  all-night  parking. 

Accommodations:  19  hotels,  2  for  Negroes;  2  tourist  hotels;  residential  hotels;  rooming 
houses;  many  tourist  camps;  no  seasonal  rate. 

Information  Service:  Oklahoma  Auto  Club,  Biltmore  Hotel,  Grand  Ave.  and  Harvey  St. 

Radio  Stations:  KOCY  (1,340  kc),  KOMA  (1,520  kc),  WKY  (930  kc),  KTOK  (1,400 
kc). 

Theaters  and  Motion  Picture  Houses:  Municipal  Auditorium,  Walker  Ave.  between  1st  and 
2d  Sts.;  and  Shrine  Auditorium,  6th  St.  and  Robinson  Ave.,  for  local  and  touring  stage  pro- 
ductions; 18  motion  picture  houses,  several  with  stage  shows,  2  for  Negroes. 
Stvimming:  Lincoln  Park  Pool,  Grand  Blvd.  and  N.  Eastern  Ave.,  free,  accessories  for  rent; 
Rotary  Park  Pool,  Westwood  Blvd.  and  S.W.  15th  St.,  free. 

Golf:  Two  municipal  courses,  Lincoln  Park,  Grand  Blvd.  and  N.  Eastern  Ave.,  and  S.  W. 
29th  St.  and  May  Ave.,  greens  fee  25c,  Sat.  and  Sun.  40c.  Other  courses:  Woodlawn,  3401 
Lincoln,  18  holes,  greens  fee  50c;  Capitol  Hill,  501  S.W.  44th  St.,  9  holes,  greens  fee 
30c;  Fairview,  2602  N.  Eastern,  18  holes,  greens  fee  30c;  Shepherd,  N.W.  23rd  and  Grand 
Blvd.,  9  holes,  greens  fee  30c;  Rowlett,  3000  S.W.  29th  St.,  9  holes,  greens  fee,  weekdays 
25c,  Sat.,  Sun.,  &  holidays  40c. 

Tennis:  Municipal  courts  at  N.W.  25th  St.  and  Robinson  Ave.,  N.W.  35th  St.  and  Western 
Ave.,  N.W.  20th  and  Broadway  Sts.,  23d  and  Glen  Ellyn  Sts.,  N.W.  4th  St.  and  Pennsyl- 
vania Ave.,  12th  St.  and  May  Ave.,  S.W.  29th  and  Broadway  Sts.,  S.W.  15th  and  Black- 
welder  Sts.,  S.W.  10th  and  Shartel  Sts.,  18th  and  Miramer  Sts.,  6th  St.  and  Eastern  Ave.,  and 
12th  and  McKinley  Sts.:  free  during  dav,  40c  an  hour  at  night. 
Baseball:  Texas  League  Park,  1837  N.W.  4th  St.,  Texas  League  (Class  A). 
Wrestling:  Each  Wednesday  night  (winter)  at  the  Municipal  Auditorium,  Civic  Center. 
Boating  and  Fishing:  Lake  Overholser,  W.  from  city  on  39th  St. 

Annual  Events:  State  Fair,  Fair  Grounds,  Eastern  Ave.  and  7th  St.,  last  week  in  Sept.;  Flower 
Show  (state-wide),  Municipal  Auditorium,  1st  and  Dewey  Sts.,  first  week  in  Oct.;  Golden 
Gloves  amateur  boxing  tournament,  Municipal  auditorium,  in  Feb.;  Livestock  Show,  Stock- 
yards Coliseum,  last  week  in  March. 

164 


OKLAHOMA   CITY  165 

OKLAHOMA  CITY  (1,194  alt.,  204,424  pop.)  is  not  only  the  largest  munici- 
pality in  the  state,  and  the  capital,  but  is  also  the  most  representative  of  all 
phases  of  Oklahoma  life — with  one  important  exception — it  has  no  trace  of 
the  Indian  character  which  still  gives  color  to  the  major  part  of  the  state.  It 
has  no  Indian  history,  for  it  began  as  a  pioneer  town.  Here,  on  the  undulant 
acres  north  and  south  of  the  sandy,  nearly  always  dry,  bed  of  the  North 
Canadian  River,  the  city  takes  in  skyscrapers,  two  of  the  nation's  finest 
hotels,  a  fabulously  rich  oil  field  with  drill-rigs  reaching  up  out  of  the  back 
yards  of  many  fine  homes,  scores  of  parks  and  parkways,  an  excellent  medical 
school,  a  sectarian  university,  a  splendid  new  Civic  Center,  packing,  manu- 
facturing, and  wholesale  districts,  and  wide  areas  of  homes  that,  whatever 
their  cost  and  pretentiousness,  are  as  Oklahoman  as  the  rows  of  native  elms 
which  shade  the  streets.  Characteristically,  too,  the  city's  slum  section  is  a 
"Stringtown"  of  picturesque,  makeshift  shacks  along  the  river  bank  occupied 
not  only  by  victims  of  poverty  but  also  by  nomads  who  know  quite  well  how 
to  contrive  for  themselves. 

Downtown,  on  the  streets,  in  the  stores,  and  in  lodging  places  that  range 
from  twenty-five  cents  a  night  to  the  luxury  of  fine  hotel  suites,  fur  coats 
and  overalls,  oil-field  workers  and  clerks,  farmers  and  their  families  and 
sophisticates  who  know  Europe  and  South  America  as  well  as  they  know 
the  playgrounds  of  the  United  States — all  these  mingle  and  make  Oklahoma 
City  a  true  American  metropolis. 

At  the  edge  of  the  high  plains  country  that  rises  gradually  to  the  Rockies, 
the  city  gives  an  impression  of  altitude  not  justified  by  the  figures.  Viewed 
from  a  distance,  it  strengthens  that  impression  by  a  skyline  broken  by  tall 
buildings.  In  climate  and  clarity  of  air,  too,  Oklahoma  City  suggests  a 
mountain-slope  city  rather  than  one  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

Roughly,  the  city  falls  into  four  fairly  equal  sections,  bisected  from  east 
to  west  by  Grand  Avenue  and  from  north  to  south  by  Broadway.  Mounting 
to  the  observation  tower  on  top  of  the  thirty-two-story  First  National  Build- 
ing in  the  heart  of  the  business  district,  you  may  look  north  to  the  domeless 
capitol  and  the  governor's  official  home,  on  23d  Street,  overtopped  by  the 
clean-cut,  spidery  steel  towers  of  oil  wells  that  go  down  six  thousand  feet  and 
more  to  tap  four  richly  yielding  oil-bearing  strata.  As  your  eyes  swing  east- 
ward they  pass  over  a  section  of  ten  blocks  of  new  and  beautiful  homes, 
where,  as  in  other  newly  developed  sections,  there  are  no  sidewalks — a  car 
in  every  family  (almost  literally  true),  and  no  one  thinks  of  walking!  Then, 
below  13th  Street,  you  see  older  homes,  of  the  architectural  styles  of  the 
1890's  and  1900's,  bowered  in  trees,  with  sidewalks  in  front. 

Next,  extending  south  to  California  Street,  beyond  the  wide  webbing 


166  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

of  railroad  tracks  almost  directly  cast  of  you,  the  largest  Negro  section, 
housing  most  of  the  city's  twenty  thousand  Negroes,  unrolls  across  a  low 
ridge,  once  covered  by  blackjack  oaks,  from  the  Santa  Fe  tracks  eastward  to, 
and  beyond,  the  State  Fair  Grounds. 

Shifting  your  eyes  to  the  southeastern  quarter  of  the  city,  south  of  the 
river,  you  realize  what  is  meant  by  the  familiar  oil-field  description,  a  "forest 
of  derricks."  Literally,  they  crowd,  row  on  close-set  row,  a  whole  quarter  of 
the  city  until  the  few  residences  left  in  that  oil-soaked  area  are  all  but 
invisible.  Nine  hundred  and  more  of  them,  they  lead  the  eye  southward  to 
the  city  limits  six  miles  away  where  the  discovery  well  was  brought  in  on 
December  4,  1928. 

Now  you're  facing  south,  looking  along  the  line  of  the  Santa  Fe,  and  that 
of  the  interurban  line  which  will  carry  you  in  forty  minutes  to  the  uni- 
versity city  of  Norman.  Under  your  eyes  as  they  swing  a  bit  westward  is  Capi- 
tol Hill,  a  section  of  modest  homes  set  close  together  facing  wide  streets,  domi- 
nated by  one  of  the  largest  and  best  high  schools  in  the  state.  Beyond  lie  pro- 
ductive farms,  on  which  suburban  developments  are  impinging;  and  still 
farther  on  is  the  distant  line  of  timber  that  marks  the  South  Canadian  (five 
times  as  wide,  and  as  sandy  and  waterless  as  Oklahoma  City's  North  Cana- 
dian). In  that  quarter,  too,  is  the  Army's  busy  Will  Rogers  flying  field. 

Look  west,  and  beyond  the  business  district  lies  Packingtown,  the  stock- 
yards, and  meat  processing  plants,  which  make  this  the  principal  livestock 
market  in  the  state.  In  that  area,  too,  are  most  of  the  266  manufacturing 
establishments,  large  and  small,  which  employ  nearly  five  thousand  workers, 
pay  out  more  than  $5,000,000  annually  in  wages,  and  produce  goods  worth 
$68,000,000. 

Last,  the  northwestern  quarter  of  the  city  spreads  fanwise,  street  after 
street,  mile  after  mile  of  residences,  occasional  apartment  houses,  schools, 
Oklahoma  City  University,  hospitals,  local  business  centers,  oudying  movie 
houses,  and  an  impressive  high  school  stadium.  It  is  in  this  sector  that  you 
will  find  at  their  best  homekeeping  Oklahomans,  from  the  clerk  paying 
installments  on  a  low-priced  car  and  a  five-room  bungalow  to  the  oil-enriched 
millionaire  with  his  elaborate  mansion  in  the  Nichols  Hills  district  just  beyond 
the  city  limits. 

Progressively,  as  your  eyes  lift  from  the  older  residence  streets  of  this 
quarter  to  the  latest  developments  five  miles  away,  the  shade  trees  that  line 
the  sidewalks  of  nearer  streets,  then  dot  the  farther  lawns  in  blocks  devoid 
of  walks,  are  younger  and  smaller.  The  lawns,  too,  are  newer  and  less  lush, 
the  ever-present  shrubs  and  flower  beds  scantier.  Everywhere,  except  in  that 
segment  where  oil  development  has  marred  the  yards  and  streets  of  the  big 


OKLAHOMA    CITY  167 

pie-shaped  area  which  is  Oklahoma  City,  there  is  breathing  green  of  grass, 
shrubs,  flowers,  and  trees.  The  city  grew  up  amid  the  stiff-limbed  blackjack 
oaks,  some  of  which  still  survive,  and  loves  shade. 

A  common  description  of  western  towns  is  that  they  "sprang  up  over- 
night." In  the  case  of  Oklahoma  City,  the  literal  truth  is  that  it  came  into 
being  between  noon  and  sunset  of  April  22,  1889;  and  certain  cynical  his- 
torians insist  that  a  considerable  population  had  appeared  on  the  site  fifteen 
minutes  after  the  noon  signal  for  the  "run"  had  been  given  to  those  lined  up 
more  than  thirty  miles  away.  Three  years  later,  Richard  Harding  Davis  (in 
his  West  From  a  Car  Window)  said  that  "men  of  the  Seminole  Land  and 
Town  Company  were  dragging  steel  chains  up  the  street  on  a  run"  at  12:15 
P.M.  that  day.  In  any  case,  ten  thousand  setders  had  camped  by  nightfall  over 
the  wide  expanse  east  and  west  of  the  Santa  Fe's  single-track  boxcar  station, 
where  land  had  been  set  aside  for  a  townsite. 

For  thirteen  months  the  community  had  no  legal  municipal  existence; 
only  with  the  setting  up  of  Oklahoma  Territory  on  May  2,  1890,  came  author- 
ity to  organize  one.  However,  the  settlers  formed  a  provisional  city  govern- 
ment on  May  23,  1889,  a  month  after  the  Run,  choosing  first  a  committee  of 
fourteen,  then  a  mayor  and  council. 

The  first  provisional  mayor  was  William  L.  Couch,  who  had  succeeded 
David  L.  Payne  as  leader  of  the  "Boomers"  {see  History).  He  and  the  make- 
shift council  were  chosen  at  a  mass  meeting  "on  their  looks,"  for  when  a  man 
was  named  for  a  place  he  stood  up  on  a  dry-goods  box  to  be  appraised  by  the 
crowd.  One  candidate  who  failed  of  election  because  he  did  not  please  the 
people  was  James  B.  Weaver,  once  a  candidate  for  President  of  the  United 
States  on  the  Populist  ticket;  and  Mayor  Couch  held  office  only  briefly  before 
he  died  in  an  "argument"  over  title  to  land  which  is  now  the  center  of  the  city. 

Another  "argument,"  which  fortunately  did  not  reach  the  gun-arbitra- 
tion stage,  arose  between  two  townsite  companies.  One,  working  north  of 
Grand  Avenue,  made  its  survey  west  from  the  Santa  Fe  track,  while  the  one 
platting  south  of  Grand  Avenue  took  as  its  eastern  base  a  true  north  and 
south  line;  and  when  the  surveys  met  there  the  streets  failed  to  jibe.  Neither 
company  would  yield  to  the  other,  hence  the  apparendy  inexplicable  jog  at 
Grand  Avenue  of  the  streets  that  run  north  and  south. 

At  times  during  the  months  of  provisional  city  government.  United 
States  deputy  marshals  were  called  in  to  enforce  Federal  law,  and  on  one 
occasion  at  least — when  an  enterprising  citizen  took  possession  of  the  only 
pump  in  town  and  began  selling  water — troops  were  required  to  prevent 
bloodshed.  On  the  whole,  however,  Oklahoma  City's  first  settlers  succeeded 
in  governing  themselves  admirably. 


168  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

The  second  phase  of  the  city's  history,  from  its  formal  organization  as  a 
municipality  on  May  23,  1890,  to  1910,  when  the  capital  was  voted  away  from 
Guthrie  and  removed  to  Oklahoma  City,  was  that  of  vigorous  growth  as  the 
trade  center  of  an  expanding  new  territory.  In  those  twenty  years,  the  popula- 
tion grew  from  10,037  to  66,408;  and  it  had  become  by  far  the  largest  city  in 
the  state.  Four  other  railroads  had  reached  in  to  help  the  wholesale  merchants 
extend  their  trade  areas;  to  serve  the  farmers,  flour  mills  and  cottonseed-oil 
mills  grew  in  size  and  numbers;  and  in  1910-11  two  meat-packing  plants 
were  established.  When  the  capital  was  moved  from  Guthrie,  many  state 
employees  came  to  Oklahoma  City  and  remained  after  their  political  employ- 
ment ceased.  With  the  development  of  the  state's  natural  resources  of  oil, 
coal,  and  metals  the  city  became  a  financial  and  manufacturing  center.  Popula- 
tion growth  was  again  gready  stimulated  by  the  high  wages  of  the  World 
War  period.  In  1920  the  population  of  Oklahoma  City  was  98,317,  increasing 
almost  without  interruption  from  that  time  to  the  1940  figure  of  204,424. 

After  the  first  World  War,  wholesalers  intensified  their  activities;  manu- 
facturing became  less  bound  up  with  agriculture  and  expanded  into  new 
fields;  and  then  a  gusher  oil  field  was  found  to  lie  within  the  city's  limits. 
As  it  grew  industrially,  Oklahoma  City  added  iron  and  steel  plants,  potteries, 
factories  for  making  furniture,  clothing,  and  electrical  equipment.  Various 
large  utility  companies  and  brokerage  and  commission  concerns  established 
their  headquarters  downtown. 

Of  the  approximately  sixty  thousand  workers  in  Oklahoma  City,  about 
sixteen  thousand  are  organized.  The  Oil  Workers'  Union,  with  a  member- 
ship in  the  state  of  eight  thousand,  has  many  members  in  the  city.  The 
building  trades,  too,  are  largely  organized.  The  Amalgamated  Meat  Cutters, 
once  a  strong  union,  has,  however,  almost  completely  disintegrated.  The 
Oklahoma  City  Central  Trades  and  Labor  Council  is  one  of  the  most  pro- 
gressive labor  bodies  in  the  state. 

Though,  as  has  been  said,  the  principal  Negro  district  lies  east  of  the 
city's  main  business  section,  there  are  two  other  growing  centers,  the  so-called 
western  block  west  of  Shartel  Avenue,  and  the  Walnut  Grove  Community  in 
the  Southeastern  quarter  between  Stiles  and  Eastern  Avenues.  Except  for  a 
poor  district  bordering  the  river,  the  Negro  quarters  compare  favorably  with 
the  average  residential  and  suburban  business  districts  occupied  by  the 
whites;  and  there  are  a  few  homes  costing  from  $20,000  to  $30,000  each. 
One  Negro,  W.  J.  Edwards,  has  amassed  a  fortune  as  a  wholesale  junk 
dealer,  and  there  is  a  gradual  seepage  of  Negroes  into  other  than  the  usual 
service  industries. 

On  the  cultural  side,  Oklahoma  City  Negroes  have  provided  themselves 


OKLAHOMA    CITY  169 

two  movie  houses,  churches,  lodge  and  dance  halls;  Tolan  Park,  on  the  west 
side,  is  for  their  enjoyment;  they  maintain  a  little  theater,  opened  in  1935, 
and  some  of  its  productions  have  been  attended  by  more  than  a  thousand; 
their  own  weekly  newspaper,  the  Blacky  Dispatch,  established  in  1916,  has 
not  only  a  state-wide  circulation  but  many  subscribers  in  other  states.  Well 
made  up  and  printed,  it  carries  local  and  world  news,  book  and  motion  picture 
reviews,  and  a  department  of  news  and  comment  on  Negro  music  and 
musicians.  It  is  claimed  that  their  high  school  has  the  only  Negro  girls'  drum 
and  bugle  corps  in  the  United  States. 

The  educational  picture  for  present-day  Oklahoma  City  shows  sixty-five 
public  schools,  including  five  senior  and  eight  junior  high  schools;  Oklahoma 
City  University,  the  University  of  Oklahoma  Medical  School,  and  the  Car- 
negie Library,  with  its  eleven  branches  and  116,000  volumes.  The  schools 
enroll  some  forty-six  thousand  students  and  employ  twelve  hundred  teachers. 

The  city's  growing  interest  in  the  arts  is  expressed  through  its  musical 
organizations,  which  offer  their  own  programs  and  instruction  to  members 
and  make  possible  the  appearance  of  nationally  known  artists;  by  the  increas- 
ingly competent  Oklahoma  Symphony  Orchestra  of  the  WPA  Music  Program; 
by  the  fine  arts  department  of  Oklahoma  City  University,  and  the  type  of 
musical  instruction  given  in  the  schools;  and  by  the  Art  League  and  the 
vigorous  activities  of  the  WPA  Art  Center  at  the  Municipal  Auditorium. 

The  city  is  headquarters  for  the  Oklahoma  State  Writers'  Club,  with  a 
membership  of  about  three  hundred;  a  considerable  number  of  these  fulfill 
the  requirement  for  active  membership,  selling  something  at  least  once  a  year. 
The  writers  have  no  fixed  meeting  place,  but  they  get  together  once  a  month. 
The  Club's  quarterly  contests  stir  Oklahoma  poets,  playwrights,  essayists,  and 
short  story  writers  to  action.  A  half  dozen  of  the  city's  writers  have  books  to 
their  credit.  Nine  retail  and  secondhand  bookshops  serve  the  city's  readers. 

Four  daily  newspapers  were  started  in  the  first  year  of  Oklahoma  City's 
existence — one  of  them,  in  fact,  the  0\lahoma  City  Times,  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  land  to  settlement.  Prior  to  his  ejection  as  a  trespasser,  its  editor 
wrote  the  copy  on  the  site  of  the  future  capital  and  sent  it  to  Wichita,  Kansas, 
where  the  paper  was  printed.  The  first  newspaper  printed  in  Oklahoma  City, 
issued  from  a  tent,  was  called  the  Oklahoma  Times;  its  name  was  changed 
to  the  Oklahoma  Journal;  then  it  was  combined  with  its  rival  as  the  Oklahoma 
City  Times-Journal.  After  dropping  the  Journal  out  of  its  title,  it  has  con- 
tinued as  the  city's  principal,  and  now  (1941),  only  evening  paper.  The 
Daily  Okjahoman  and  the  Evening  Gazette  were  also  established  in  1889. 
The  Ot{lahoman  absorbed  the  Gazette  and  became  the  only  morning  paper. 
Both  daily  newspapers  are  (1941)  under  the  same  management. 


170  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

As  part  ot  the  national  dclcnsc  program,  the  War  Department,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1940,  designated  the  Oklahoma  City  municipal  air  terminal  as  the 
Thirty-seventh  Army  Air  Corps  base,  and  also  the  base  of  the  new  forty- 
eighth  light  bombardment  group.  The  expansion  will  mean  the  detail  of 
some  350  officers,  and  4,200  enlisted  men.  It  will  also  involve  a  $1,400,000 
building  program  to  provide  barracks,  mess  halls,  stores,  administration  build- 
ings, and  shop.  Also,  at  the  southeastern  edge  of  the  city,  is  the  War  Depart- 
ment's Mid-West  Air  Depot,  a  fifteen-million-dollar  plant  for  conditioning 
and  repairing  bomber  planes. 

The  development  of  the  Oklahoma  City  oil  field,  beginning  in  1928,  is 
one  of  the  highlights  in  the  dramatic  story  of  the  oil  industry  in  the  Middle 
West.  It  attracted  national  attention  because  of  the  amazing  potential  pro- 
duction of  its  wells  —  at  times  exceeding  sixty  thousand  barrels  a  day  from  a 
single  well;  the  enormous  rock  pressure,  and  gas  flows,  resulting  in  such 
spectacular  fires  in  the  midst  of  the  city's  residences  as  the  industry  had 
never  before  known;  and  the  then  unprecedented  depth  (from  four  thousand 
to  seven  thousand  feet)  to  which  the  drill  bits  were  sent.  Small  in  area  as  it 
is,  this  pool  is  one  of  the  richest  ever  developed. 

For  several  years  before  the  discovery  well  came  in  on  December  4,  1928, 
geologists  had  believed  that  oil  might  be  found  under  this  area,  but  probably 
only  at  such  depths  as  to  make  exploration  impracticable;  its  exploitation  had 
to  wait  until  drilling  equipment  was  developed  to  a  point  that  would  make 
such  deep  wells  profitable. 

After  drilling  started,  it  was  learned  that  the  main  part  of  the  pool  lay 
under  the  southeastern  sector  of  the  city,  and  a  legion  of  derricks  came 
advancing  toward  the  city  limits.  Then  in  March,  1930,  the  Mary  Sudik, 
blowing  in,  got  out  of  control.  For  eleven  days  it  ran  wild,  spouting  nearly 
thirty-five  thousand  barrels  a  day  in  a  roaring  brown-black  geyser  that  sent 
spray  as  far  as  the  town  of  Norman,  fifteen  miles  to  the  south.  The  fire 
hazard  was  so  great  that  the  other  wells  were  closed  down  and  the  area  was 
put  under  police  control. 

As  drilling  operations  pushed  on  toward  the  north  and  west,  there  arose 
a  controversy  over  drilling  within  the  city  limits.  One  faction  argued  that  the 
wells  outside  were  drawing  oil  from  under  the  city  and  demanded  the  right 
to  share  in  the  profits  by  sinking  wells,  if  necessary,  in  their  hack  yards. 
Another,  remembering  the  danger  of  a  disastrous  conflagration  during  the 
wild  run  of  the  Mary  Sudik,  demanded  that  the  derricks  stay  out  of  town. 

In  July,  1930,  the  city  council,  in  an  effort  to  please  both  sides,  enacted 
two  ordinances,  one  to  establish  safety  regulations,  and  the  other  allowing 
drilling  in  the  southeast  corner  of  town.  Shortly  the  derricks  were  towering 


OKLAHOMA   CITY  171 

above  the  homes  in  that  residential  district.  Additional  ordinances  setting 
more  strict  rules  for  safety  and  providing  a  system  of  permits  and  rigid 
inspection  were  enacted. 

Demands  for  extending  the  drilling  zone  forced  the  city  council  to  call 
a  special  election  in  the  spring  of  1935,  with  the  result  that  the  derricks  moved 
north  along  the  east  side  of  town.  Then  in  the  spring  of  1936  another  election 
was  held  and  the  drilling  zone  was  further  enlarged  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
state  capitol.  Governor  E.  W.  Marland  demanded  that  production  be  allowed 
on  state-owned  land  around  the  capitol  so  that  the  state  would  receive  a 
share  of  the  revenue;  and  when  the  city  council  refused  to  include  it  in  the 
area  voted  upon,  he  put  the  lands  under  martial  law  and  issued  drilling 
permits  in  defiance  of  the  city  government.  Twenty-four  wells  went  down  im- 
mediately, some  within  a  few  yards  of  the  capitol  and  of  the  governor's  man- 
sion. 

The  full  extent  of  the  field  has  not  been  determined.  It  is  believed  that 
the  area  of  four  hundred  acres  directly  beneath  the  business  section  of  down- 
town Oklahoma  City  would  yield  as  richly  as  any  part  of  the  pool  thus  far 
developed.  Production  has  been  from  four  different  horizons,  one  at  a 
depth  of  more  than  seven  thousand  feet.  Up  to  January  1,  1938,  there  were 
thirteen  hundred  wells  in  the  field,  only  nineteen  of  which  had  come  in  as 
"dry  holes."  Nine  hundred  and  forty-nine  of  the  wells  are  still  producing 
(1941). 

Oklahoma  City  is  out-of-doors  and  sports-minded.  Among  its  seventy- 
one  parks  are  four  of  considerable  size  situated  at  the  four  "corners  of  the 
city"  and  connected  by  an  outer  drive  called  Grand  Boulevard.  The  city  con- 
tributed the  1940  amateur  tennis  champion  of  the  United  States  (see  Sports 
and  Reaeation)  and  has  sent  many  fine  golfers  to  national  tournaments.  At 
640-acre  Lincoln  Park  is  a  zoo  containing  350  animals,  birds,  and  reptiles,  and 
a  lake  which  is  a  resort  for  wild  fowl.  There  is  a  smaller  zoo  at  Wiley  Post 
Park.  Everywhere  in  the  parks,  small  or  large,  picnic  grounds  are  provided; 
and  on  summer  evenings  literally  thousands  of  the  city's  families  take  advan- 
tage of  these  facilities. 

Oklahoma  City  has  a  city  manager  and  city  council  form  of  government. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1.  The  STATE  CAPITOL,  Lincoln  Blvd.,  between  21st  and  23d  Sts.,  an 
example  of  neoclassic  architecture,  was  designed  by  S.  A.  Layton,  of  Okla- 
homa City.  Erection  of  the  building  was  begun  in  1914  and  finished  in  1917. 
The  original  design  called  for  a  dome  on  the  central  tower,  but  it  was  not 
built  for  reasons  of  economy.  The  matter  was  at  one  time  a  political  issue. 


172  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

The  massive  five-story  edifice  is  in  the  form  of  a  cross  with  projecting 
central  pedimented  pavilions  at  the  front  and  rear.  A  low  central  tower,  over 
the  crossing,  is  the  base  of  the  proposed  dome.  The  east  and  west  section  is 
434  feet  in  length  and  136  feet  in  width;  the  north  and  south  division  304  feet 
long,  and  88  feet  wide.  The  exterior  of  the  building  is  of  granite  to  the  second- 
floor  level,  and  the  superstructure  is  of  Indiana  limestone.  Entrances  are  pro- 
vided on  all  four  sides  of  the  building,  with  the  main  entrance  on  the  south. 
Because  of  crowded  conditions,  the  west  entrance  has  been  closed  to  permit 
the  use  of  the  west  corridor  for  offices.  Before  the  south  entrance  stands  a 
Statue  of  a  Cowboy  on  a  wild  pony,  executed  by  Constance  Whitney 
Warren.  The  statue  has  been  much  criticized  by  old-timers,  who  insist  that 
"it  don't  look  much  like  the  real  thing."  There  are  replicas  in  Texas  and 
Colorado.  The  north  and  south  facades  have  Corinthian  porticoes,  and  the 
east  and  west  have  Corinthian  pilasters. 

The  interior  is  decorated  with  classic  features  in  harmony  with  the 
exterior — lobby  floors,  stairs,  and  balustrades  are  of  light-colored  marble; 
columns,  pilasters,  painted  beams,  lunettes,  and  Italian  elliptical  vaulted 
ceilings  adorn  the  various  offices.  The  second  and  the  fourth  floors  are  the 
most  elaborate  in  the  building. 

The  governor's  office  and  reception  room  are  on  the  second  floor,  as  are 
the  courtrooms  and  offices  of  the  two  appellate  courts,  the  state  supreme 
court,  and  the  criminal  court  of  appeals.  On  the  fourth  floor  are  the  two 
chambers  of  the  state  legislature.  Over  the  grand  stairway,  on  the  south  wall 
of  the  corridor  of  the  fourth  floor,  are  three  World  War  memorial  murals, 
painted  by  Gilbert  White  and  presented  to  the  state  by  Frank  Phillips,  wealthy 
oil  man.  The  artist,  a  painter  in  the  conservative  French  tradition,  combined 
classic  allegory  with  realistic  portraiture  to  memorialize  Oklahoma's  part  in 
the  World  War. 

2.  The  CAPITOL  OFFICE  BUILDING  (ANNEX)  (open  during  oifice 
hours),  Lincoln  Blvd.,  S.  and  W.  of  the  capitol,  a  severely  plain  neoclassic 
six-story  white  limestone  structure,  was  built  to  relieve  congestion  in  the 
capitol.  Chromium  steel  is  used  for  the  light  standards  at  the  north  and  east 
entrances  and  for  the  decorations  under  the  wide  windows  between  the  first 
and  fourth  floors;  there  are  low-relief  sculptures  over  the  east  entrance  and 
on  the  walls  of  the  first-floor  lobby.  The  architect  was  }.  Duncan  Forsythe, 
Tulsa. 

3.  The  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  BUILDING  (open  8:30-5 
Mon.-Fri.,  8-12  Sat.),  Lincoln  Blvd.,  S.  and  E.  of  the  capitol,  is  a  three-story 
neoclassic  structure,  with  massive  facade  pillars,  designed  by  Layton,  Hicks, 
and  Forsyth,  of  Oklahoma  City.  Completed  in  1930  at  a  cost  of  $500,000,  it 


OKLAHOMA    CITY  173 

has  a  Georgia  granite  base  and  Indiana  limestone  superstructure.  The  build- 
ing houses  the  society's  museum  and  library,  and  quarters  of  veterans'  organi- 
zations. The  interior  arrangement  is  simple,  affording  appropriate  background 
for  many  exhibits.  The  corridor  walls  are  decorated  with  life-size  figure  paint- 
ings of  Indian  dances  by  Steve  Mopope  and  Monroe  Tsa-to-ke,  Kiowa  Indian 
artists. 

The  Oklahoma  Historical  Society  was  organized  at  Kingfisher,  in  1893, 
and  was  housed  in  a  tiny  room  of  the  courthouse.  Later  it  was  moved  to  the 
state  university  at  Norman,  and  then  to  the  basement  of  the  Capitol  Building, 
where  it  remained  until  1930.  Membership  in  the  society  is  open  to  anyone 
upon  the  payment  of  one  dollar  a  year.  Money  for  the  salaries  of  employees 
and  the  upkeep  of  the  building  and  museum  is  appropriated  by  the  legisla- 
ture; there  are  no  endowments. 

The  museum  has  many  valuable  and  interesting  relics  not  only  of  Okla- 
homa and  the  Southwest,  but  of  Indians  elsewhere — for  example,  the  pipe 
used  by  the  Delawares  when  they  made  their  treaty  with  William  Penn  in 
1683.  There  are  also  many  large  pictures  of  famous  Indian  leaders,  including 
all  modern  chiefs  of  the  Choctaw  Nation,  Pleasant  Porter  of  the  Creeks, 
Bacon  Rind  of  the  Osages,  and  John  Ross  of  the  Cherokees,  Greenwood 
LeFlore,  Quanah  Parker,  Pawhuska,  and  Mrs.  Alice  Davis,  who  served  as 
chief  of  the  Seminoles. 

In  the  museum's  cases  are  objects  illustrating  life  among  the  Indians 
who  were  removed  from  various  sections  of  the  United  States  to  the  territory 
that  became  Oklahoma:  Chief  Joseph's  war  bonnet,  worn  when  that  great 
Nez  Perce  leader  was  forced  to  leave  his  Oregon  home  and  remain  for  a 
time  as  prisoner  in  Oklahoma;  highly  decorative  headdresses  of  Cheyennes, 
Kiowas,  lowas,  Osages,  Delawares,  and  others;  a  collection  of  ceremonial  and 
everyday  fans  made  from  the  feathers  of  the  eagle,  hawk,  magpie,  turkey, 
and  (rarest)  the  scissorbill  bird  used  in  the  peyote  ceremony;  a  Choctaw 
version  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  worked  in  needlepoint;  an  Apache  pictograph 
representing  the  Devil's  Dance;  a  Cheyenne  ceremonial  shirt  decorated  with 
long  wisps  of  hair  from  enemy  scalps;  a  Kiowa  child's  chest;  Kickapoo  and 
Potawatomi  rugs  made  of  dyed  reeds  and  cattails;  the  land  grant  to  the 
Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  in  1842  signed  by  President  Tyler. 

There  are  mortars  and  pestles  used  in  crushing  corn;  and  two  millstones, 
given  to  the  Choctaws  by  Andrew  Jackson  before  the  removal  of  the  tribe  to 
Indian  Territory;  a  stagecoach  used  in  Oklahoma  in  the  early  days;  a  covered 
wagon,  minus  the  wagon  sheet,  used  in  the  Run  of  1889  and  the  Cherokee 
Strip  Opening  of  1893;  and  a  one-cylinder  Cadillac  of  the  vintage  of  1900,  one 
of  the  first  cars  in  Oklahoma. 


174  OKLAHOMA:    PKINCIPAL    CITIES 

In  the  museum  are  also  several  Lincoln  mementos;  a  desk  used  in  his 
Illinois  law  oHicc,  a  bedspread  that  he  used  as  a  shawl  on  a  trip  from  Spring- 
field to  Decatur,  Illinois,  and  a  number  of  letters  in  his  handwriting. 

The  Laura  A.  Clubb  Fan  Collection  of  86  fans  includes  one  of  hand- 
made lace  and  mother-of-pearl,  inlaid  with  gold,  once  owned  by  Sarah 
Bernhardt;  another  presented  by  Queen  Victoria  to  Jenny  Lind;  a  seven- 
teenth century  carved  opera  glass  fan;  and  a  "kingfisher"  fan  used  by  an 
emperor  of  Japan. 

The  Newspaper  Files  in  the  basement  contain  nearly  20,000  bound 
volumes  of  newspapers,  some  more  than  100  years  old,  and  many  dating 
from,  and  carrying  accounts  of,  the  first  attempts  to  open  Oklahoma  Territory 
to  settlement.  Bound  volumes  of  every  newspaper  in  the  state  published  in  a 
town  of  1,500  or  more  are  in  this  room. 

4.  The  GOVERNOR'S  MANSION,  700  E.  23d  St.,  a  19-room,  three-story 
building  of  concrete  faced  with  Bedford  limestone,  was  designed  in  the 
Dutch  Colonial  manner  by  Layton,  Hicks,  and  Forsyth,  and  built  in  1928. 
The  oil  well  east  of  the  mansion  is  "whipstocked,"  that  is,  drilled  at  a  slant 
so  that  it  will  take  oil  from  direcdy  beneath  the  building. 

5.  The  UNIVERSITY  OF  OKLAHOMA  MEDICAL  SCHOOL,  801  E. 
13th  St.,  a  five-story  buff  brick  building,  is  used  exclusively  for  classrooms, 
while  most  of  the  clinical  laboratories  are  in  the  University  Hospital  on  the 
opposite  side  of  13th  St.  The  legislative  act  creating  the  Medical  School  made 
the  Hospital  and  the  Crippled  Children's  Hospital,  to  the  east,  both  state 
institutions,  a  part  of  the  school. 

6.  The  FIRST  NATIONAL  BUILDING,  120  N.  Robinson  St.,  32  stories 
(447  feet)  high,  is  the  largest  bank-office  structure  in  the  state.  It  occupies  an 
area  of  140  by  200  feet  for  the  first  13  stories,  then  rises  19  additional  stories 
as  an  approximately  square  tower.  Of  functional  modern  design,  its  exterior 
facing  is  polished  black  granite  to  the  second-floor  windows,  and  Bedford 
limestone  above.  The  trim  is  made  up  of  aluminum  cast  panels,  grilles  and 
ornaments,  aluminum  sand-blasted  spandrels,  and  polished  extruded  alum- 
inum window  jambs.  More  aluminum  was  used  in  the  building  than  in  any 
other  in  the  United  States  up  to  the  time  it  was  erected. 

The  32d  story  is  an  enclosed  observation  platform,  from  which  rises  an 
aluminum-sheathed  airplane  beacon  tower  in  which  a  light  of  two  million 
candle  power  can  be  seen  by  flyers  from  a  distance  of  75  miles.  On  occasions, 
the  exterior  of  the  main  tower  building  is  illuminated  at  night  by  floodlights. 

The  main  banking  room  of  the  First  National  Bank,  on  the  second 
floor,  is  elaborately  designed,  with  a  pavement  of  Italian  marble.  On  the  walls 
are  enlarged  reproductions  of  ancient  coins,  among  them  a  silver  coin  minted 


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OKLAHOMA    CITY  175 

at  Antioch  between  83  and  69  b.c,  a  Byzantine  coin  minted  at  Constantinople 
between  857  and  867  a.d.,  and  a  coin  of  Macedonia  minted,  probably,  about 
150  B.C.  This  room  also  has  four  large  murals  by  Edgar  Spier  Cameron,  of 
Chicago,  two  of  which  depict  the  Run  of  1889,  another  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase, and  the  fourth  the  Cherokee  tribe  coming  to  Oklahoma.  The  last 
named  was  first  entitled  The  Trail  of  Sorrow,  but  when  someone  noticed 
that  it  was  over  the  door  of  the  loan  department  of  the  bank  the  title  was 
changed  to  Sunset  Trail.  The  murals  are  painstakingly  executed,  and  figures 
hardly  visible  from  the  floor  are  said  to  be  draped  in  the  authentic  costumes 
of  the  period — except  that  the  Cherokee  Indians  are  represented  as  wearing 
war  bonnets  of  the  Plains  tribes. 

7.  The  CIVIC  CENTER  occupies  the  old  right  of  way  of  the  Frisco  and 
Rock  Island  railways  through  the  center  of  the  city.  The  group  of  city  and 
county  buildings  is  between  Harvey  Ave.  and  Shartel  Ave.  on  the  east  and 
west,  and  between  1st  and  2d  Sts.  on  the  north  and  south. 

The  old  city  hall  at  Broadway  and  Grand  Ave.,  and  the  old  courthouse 
at  Main  St.  and  Dewey  Ave.  had  become  inadequate  for  housing  these  offices. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  ofTer  of  a  WPA  grant,  the  taxpayers  of  the  county 
and  city  voted  a  bond  issue  for  the  construction  of  the  new  buildings  in  1935; 
and  they  were  completed,  at  a  cost  of  more  than  $10,000,000,  in  1936-37. 

The  County  Building,  between  Harvey  and  Hudson  Aves.,  is  the  chief 
structure  of  this  group.  Designed  by  S.  A.  Layton  and  George  Forsyth,  it  is 
a  successful  adaptation  in  Bedford  limestone  of  the  classic  style.  Over  the 
broad  main  entrance  on  1st  St.  is  a  sculptured  group  in  deep  bas-relief  repre- 
senting Indians,  cowboys,  early  settlers  and,  at  either  extremity,  Lincoln  and 
Washington. 

In  the  lobby,  with  its  terrazzo  floor  and  walls  of  rose-colored  marble 
broken  by  flat  fluted  columns  of  black  marble,  is  a  frieze  of  separate  squares 
depicting  such  appropriate  symbols  as  the  lamp  of  truth,  the  scales  of  justice, 
the  book  of  knowledge,  and  the  Roman  fasces.  Doors,  window  frames,  and 
ornaments  are  of  aluminum. 

The  first  six  floors  provide  for  five  district  courtrooms,  two  common 
pleas  courts,  and  the  county  court,  as  well  as  the  necessary  jury  rooms  and 
other  offices.  On  the  seventh  and  eighth  floors  is  a  modern  jail. 

The  Municipal  Building,  between  Walker  and  Hudson  Aves.,  was 
designed  by  the  Allied  Architects  of  Oklahoma  City  in  harmony  with  the 
courthouse  and  the  auditorium  both  in  the  use  of  Bedford  limestone  for 
exterior  facing  and  in  its  modified  Romanesque  architectural  motif.  Set, 
like  the  other  buildings  of  the  group,  in  the  center  of  a  smoothly  landscaped 
square,  this  three-story-and-basement  structure  consists  of  a  main  section,  with 


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TO  AIR   CORPS   DEPOT 


178  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL   CITIES 

six  flat  fluted  columns  that  rise  from  the  broad  steps  leading  to  the  first- 
floor  lobby  to  the  capitals  under  the  roof,  and  two  perfectly  plain  attached 
office  sections.  In  front  of  the  eastward-facing  main  entrance  on  Hudson  Ave. 
is  a  fountain  dedicated  to  the  89'ers,  the  city's  first  settlers. 

The  Municipal  Auditorium,  between  Lee  and  Dewey  Aves.,  is  an 
all-purpose  community  meeting  house  that  fills  almost  the  entire  block.  Its 
main  hall  has  seats  for  6,000,  a  convention  hall  seats  900,  and  a  small  theater 
can  take  care  of  an  audience  of  400.  There  are  five  galleries  for  art  exhibits, 
22  committee  rooms,  and  an  exhibition  hall  with  38,000  square  feet  of  floor 
space.  Within  the  auditorium  are  staged  such  varied  diversions  as  the  annual 
Golden  Gloves  amateur  boxing  tournament,  the  programs  of  noted  musicians, 
the  concerts  of  the  city's  own  symphony  orchestra,  wresding  bouts,  basketball 
and  ice  hockey  games,  indoor  tennis  and  track  events,  little  theater  produc- 
tions, religious  revivals,  and  automobile  shows.  Among  the  activities  carried 
on  here  is  the  work  of  the  Oklahoma  WPA  Art  Center  and  the  WPA  Music 
Program. 

Designed  by  J.  O.  Parr,  of  Parr,  Frye  and  Aderhold,  of  Oklahoma  City, 
the  building  is  described  as  modern  classic,  with  the  accent  on  the  practical. 
The  exterior  is  faced  with  Bedford  limestone.  The  main  entrance,  to  the  east, 
has  five  wide  doorways  at  the  top  of  a  broad,  shallow  flight  of  steps;  above 
the  doorways  five  great  windows  dominate  the  facade. 

The  power  plant  for  the  Civic  Center  group  is  in  the  next  block  west 
from  the  auditorium,  between  Lee  and  Shartel  Aves.  The  same  building 
also  contains  the  city  jail. 

8.  The  FEDERAL  BUILDING,  3d  St.  between  Robinson  and  Harvey 
Aves.,  a  modified  classic  structure  of  limestone,  provides  space  for  the 
postoffice,  the  United  States  District  Court,  the  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals, 
the  United  States  Veterans'  Bureau,  and  other  Federal  agencies.  The  three- 
story  east  section  was  erected  in  1912,  and  in  1934  a  nine-story  central  section 
and  a  west  wing  of  three  stories  were  added  to  meet  the  imperative  demands 
of  a  city  that  had  grown  from  some  80,000  population  to  200,000  in  the  inter- 
vening 22  years. 

M.  F.  Foster,  architect  for  the  United  States  Treasury  Department, 
designed  the  1934  edition  and  succeeded  in  fitting  it  to  the  original  structure 
to  make  an  impressive  and  harmonious  effect. 

9.  The  SHRINE  TEMPLE  (private),  6th  St.  and  Robinson  Ave.,  formerly 
headquarters  of  Oklahoma  City  Masonic  bodies,  was  built  in  1922.  It  is  a 
four-story  structure  of  marble,  brick,  granite,  and  concrete,  designed  by 
Layton,  Hicks,  and  Forsyth.  The  interior  is  decorated  with  the  classic  orders 
of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  hall  of  the  Eastern  Star,  and  Amaranth,  while  the 


OKLAHOMA    CITY  179 

simplest  of  all  the  rooms,  is  thought  by  many  to  be  the  most  beautiful.  It  is 
modeled  after  one  of  the  early  Christian  churches;  the  massive  low  arches, 
heavy  columns,  simple  decoration,  and  chaste  ceiling  supported  by  great 
crude  beams  are  in  keeping  with  early  Romanesque  traditions.  The  com- 
mandery  room  is  decorated  in  the  manner  of  the  Inner  Temple  of  London. 
To  the  left  of  the  vestibule,  with  its  Doric  marble  columns,  is  a  small  audi- 
torium that  seats  750  persons.  The  murals  in  the  main  auditorium  were 
painted  by  G.  A.  Fush  and  tell,  in  part,  the  story  of  Freemasonry.  The  main 
auditorium,  used  as  a  theater  and  convention  hall,  has  a  seating  capacity  of 
2,062. 

10.  OKLAHOMA  CITY  UNIVERSITY,  N.  Blackwelder  Ave.  and  24th 
St.,  a  nonsectarian  school  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
includes  a  College  of  Liberal  Arts  and  a  College  of  Fine  Arts.  In  1940  it  had  a 
student  enrollment  of  1,500  and  a  faculty  of  65. 

The  school  was  founded  in  1904  at  Oklahoma  City  as  Epworth  Univer- 
sity. In  1911,  it  was  removed  to  Guthrie,  where  it  was  known  as  the  Methodist 
University  of  Oklahoma;  in  1919  it  was  established  at  its  present  site  under 
the  name  of  Oklahoma  City  University. 

Administration  Hall,  planned  to  dominate  a  quadrangular  group  of 
buildings,  is  a  large  brick  and  stone  structure  of  collegiate  Gothic  design.  On 
the  top  floor  is  the  University  Library  (open  8-9  weekdays,  8-12  Sat.).  The 
Fine  Arts  Building,  erected  in  1928  direcdy  north  of  Administration  Hall, 
contains  18  classrooms  for  painting  and  sculpture,  commercial  design,  and 
crafts;  studios,  quarters  for  dramatic  art  work,  and  an  auditorium.  The 
Journalism  Building,  University  Press  Building,  Hinderlin  Training  School, 
and  cafeteria  are  east  of  the  campus  entrance.  Adjoining  the  Gymnasium  are 
the  football  and  other  outdoor  fields. 

11.  The  PUBLIC  MARKET,  1201  Exchange  Ave.,  built  in  1928,  comprises 
a  main  building,  occupying  the  center  of  a  block,  and  sheds.  The  two-story 
main  building,  finished  in  three-tone  buff  stucco  with  terra-cotta  colored 
trim,  was  designed  by  Gaylord  B.  Noftager  in  the  modified  Spanish  style. 
It  has  an  auditorium  on  the  second  floor,  used  for  athletic  events,  and  shops 
on  the  ground  floor.  Surrounding  the  block  on  three  sides  are  steel  and  con- 
crete sheds,  where  Oklahoma  County  truck  gardeners  have  their  market 
stalls  and  dealers  handle  vegetables  shipped  in  from  the  Rio  Grande  Valley. 

12.  WILL  ROGERS  COURTS  (visitors  invited),  1620  Heyman  St.,  an 
extensive  housing  project  for  low-income  tenants  covering  37  acres  in  the 
southwestern  section  of  the  city  near  "Packingtown,"  is  under  the  direction  of 
the  U.S.  Housing  Authority.  Here,  in  an  attractively  landscaped  area,  units 
are  provided  for  354  families  with  maximum  incomes  of  $25  a  week  and 


180  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

(with  some  exceptions)  minimum  incomes  of  $9.00  a  week.  Rent  for  the 
twc^to-five-room  modern  apartments  ranges  from  $13.25  to  $17.50  per  month. 
The  85  oblong  red-brick  buildings  with  flat  roofs  are  nearly  all  one  story  in 
height;  a  few  are  two  stories  high. 

Begun  early  in  1936  and  completed  in  1937  as  a  WPA  project  with  an 
appropriation  of  $2,000,000,  the  Will  Rogers  Courts  were  taken  over  in  1939 
by  the  Housing  Authority.  Apartments  are  supplied  with  gas  ranges,  refrig- 
erators, and  shades;  and  the  management  maintains  for  the  tenants  a  library, 
a  kindergarten,  "Toy-land,"  and  other  play  facilities  for  children.  There  is  an 
active  women's  club.  Donald  Gordon  was  the  architect,  and  the  landscaping 
was  done  under  the  supervision  of  the  city's  park  department. 
13.  STOCKYARDS  AND  PACKING  PLANTS  (conducted  tours  10:30- 
1:30  daily  except  Sat.  and  Mon.),  Exchange  and  Agnew  Aves.,  is  one  of  the 
largest  livestock  centers  in  the  Southwest.  Armour  and  Company  and  Wilson 
and  Company  have  plants  here. 

The  morning  is  generally  the  best  time  to  visit  the  plants  as  most  of  the 
butchering  is  done  at  this  time.  Visitors  are  permitted  to  see  every  phase  of 
the  packing  industry,  from  sheep  being  led  to  the  killing  pens  by  a  goat,  with 
no  other  duties  than  to  encourage  them  to  follow  his  nonchalant  lead,  to  the 
canning  of  eggs  in  five-gallon  lots  for  the  baking  trade. 

The  two  packing  plants  were  located  at  Oklahoma  City  in  1910  on 
payment  of  bonuses  by  businessmen;  the  stockyards  came  as  a  natural  adjunct 
to  these  plants.  Prior  to  the  development  of  the  city's  oil  fields,  the  packing 
industry  was  the  city's  largest  employer  of  labor.  Approximately  1,000,000 
head  of  livestock,  aside  from  horses  and  mules,  pass  through  the  stockyards 
each  year. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Bethany  Peniel  College,  6.9  m.;  Lake  Ovcrholser,  9.1  m.  (see  Tour  1);  Lincoln  Park, 
4.5  m.;  Home  of  the  Poor  Prophet,  4.6  m.;  Municipal  Airport,  7  m.;  Bombardment  Train- 
ing School  and  Base,  8.4  tn.;  Horseshoe  Lake,  21.1  m.  (see  Tour  3);  Memorial  Park, 
10.1  m.  (see  Tour  10). 


■^^(l/i'> j^ii/Tj ^  ^ jjO/i: . , ^^/Jj ^, ^^i: ^ , ^^i^L ^  - ^^lz ^  - ssi^i: 


Okmulgee 


Railroad  Stations:  E.  5th  St.  and  tracks,  for  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  Ry.;  723  W.  6th  St. 

for  Okmulgee  Northern  Ry.  (no  passenger  service).) 

Bus  Stations:  1 12  E.  7th  St.,  for  Southwest  Greyhound  Lines;  220  W.  7th,  for  Santa  Fe  Trail 

System. 

Airport:  Municipal  Airport,  3  m.  E.  on  US  62. 

City  Transportation:  Busses,  fare  5c;  taxis,  fare  15c. 

Traffic  Regulations:  25  m.  city  speed  limit;  2-hour  parking. 

Accommodations:  6  hotels,  1  for  Negroes;  rooming  houses,  2  for  Negroes;  tourist  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  5th  St.  and  Grand  Ave.  (McCulloch  Bldg.). 

Radio  Station:  KHBG  (1240  kc). 

Motion  Picture  Hottses:  4;  balcony  in  I  for  Negroes. 

Athletics:  Harmon  Stadium,  12th  St.  and  Creek  Ave.;  Hospital  Park,  N.  Okmulgee  Ave., 

Melrose  to  Belmont  Aves.,  for  baseball,  Softball. 

Wrestling:  Armory,  2d  St.  and  Alabama  Ave. 

Boating:  Lake  Okmulgee  {see  Tour  3),  1  m.  W.  on  State  27;  Douglas  Park,  400  E.  8th  St. 

Swimming:  Douglas  Park;  Greenwood  Lake,  adjoining  city  on  S.E. 

Golf:  Country  Club,  on  Mission  Rd.,  adjoining  city  on  S.E.  Greens  fee,  35c  weekdays; 

50c  Sundays  and  holidays. 

Tennis:  Hospital  Park  (6  city-owned  courts). 

Annual  Events:  Regional  Tennis  Carnival,  June;  Creek  Indian  Stomp  Dance,  mid-July,  at 
nearby  Henryetta  {see  Tour  3);  Pioneer  Powwow  and  Indian  Festival,  Aug.  24-26. 

OKMULGEE  (670  alt.,  16,051  pop.),  seat  of  Okmulgee  County,  and  capital 
of  the  Creek  Nation  from  1868  until  the  tribal  government  was  extinguished 
by  the  coming  of  statehood  in  1907,  emphasizes  both  its  Indian  past  and  its 
industrial  present.  It  retains  its  annual  Indian  powwow  and  also  uses  as  its 
slogan,  "Where  oil  flows,  gas  blows,  and  glass  glows,"  to  point  its  varied 
modern  qualities. 

The  city  is  set  in  a  wide  valley  between  low,  timber-covered  hills.  Its 
spruce  business  section  has  spread  over  the  lowland;  its  residences,  parks, 
and  playgrounds  are  spotted  on  the  view-giving  slopes  on  the  northwest, 
west,  and  south.  To  the  north  and  east,  the  city  fades  into  fertile,  level  farms. 

It  is  said  that  in  choosing  Okmulgee  as  the  site  of  their  capital  the  Creek 
Indians  assured  themselves  immunity  from  cyclones.  In  justification  of  their 
choice,  the  people  who  live  in  the  two  or  three  square  miles  of  comfortable 
homes  with  porches  and  shade  trees  have  never  yet  (1941)  been  visited  by  a 
cyclone,  though  "twisters"  have  skirted  the  region. 

181 


182  OKLAIiOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

Oil  was  discovered  within  a  half  mile  of  the  old  Creek  Council  House, 
in  1904,  and  three  years  later  had  become  a  leading  factor  in  the  town's 
growth.  Five  giassmaking  plants  have  been  built  during  Okmulgee's  history, 
though  giassmaking  has  turned  out  to  be  an  uncertain  business.  More  stable 
are  its  packing  plants,  cotton  processing  industries,  oil  refining  business,  and 
market  for  peanuts  and  pecans.  Nuts  from  the  world's  largest  native  pecan 
orchard,  twenty-five  miles  west  on  the  Deep  Fork  of  the  Canadian  River,  are 
marketed  in  Okmulgee. 

The  city's  period  of  swiftest  growth  was  what  it  calls  its  "golden  decade," 
1907  to  1918,  when  oil  development  reached  its  peak.  By  1930  the  population 
had  reached  17,097;  the  decrease  of  6.1  per  cent  between  that  date  and  1940 
may  perhaps  be  accounted  for  by  the  waning  importance  of  oil  and  allied 
industries,  and  the  shutting  down  of  glass  plants  which  have  had  troubled 
industrial  careers. 

Since  1912,  when  a  new  charter  was  adopted,  Okmulgee  has  had  a  com- 
mission form  of  government.  Its  water  supply  is  municipally  owned.  In  the 
county  are  ample  supplies  of  fuel  oil,  natural  gas,  and  coal. 

The  story  of  Okmulgee  goes  far  back  in  the  history  of  the  Creek  Indians 
and  begins  long  before  their  removal  to  what  is  now  Oklahoma.  According 
to  tribal  tradition,  these  Indians  originated  somewhere  in  the  western  part 
of  America,  and  in  the  course  of  time  migrated  to  the  Alabama-Georgia 
region,  where  the  white  men  first  found  them.  Arriving  there,  the  Indians 
sought  as  a  site  for  their  principal  (capital)  town  a  never-failing  spring;  and 
having  found  it  they  called  it  Okmulgee,  which  means  "bubbling  water." 
It  was  there,  they  say,  that  the  powerful  confederation  of  the  tribes  of  Mus- 
khogean  stock  was  formed  to  resist  the  encroachment  of  whites  on  Indian 
lands.  In  course  of  time,  the  white  name  for  one  of  the  tribes — the  Creeks 
—  became  fixed  upon  it,  although  it  is  still  sometimes  called  Muskogee. 

From  the  time  of  their  enforced  exile  from  the  east,  1829-36,  when 
twenty  thousand  were  settled  in  the  new  Indian  Territory,  to  the  building  of 
their  Council  House  at  Okmulgee  in  1868,  the  tribal  meeting  place  was  at 
High  Springs,  near  Council  Hill,  some  twenty  miles  southeast.  Factional 
strife  and  the  almost  complete  destruction  of  property  in  the  Civil  War  led 
to  the  selection  of  the  new  site,  and  the  name  which  was  sacred  to  all. 

Their  first  capitol  was  a  two-story  log  structure,  with  a  roofed-over 
breezeway  separating  the  meeting  places  of  the  two  branches  of  the  Council, 
the  House  of  Kings,  anciently  concerned  with  civil  administration,  and  the 
House  of  Warriors.  There,  encouraged  at  first  by  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, met  not  only  the  Creek  lawmakers  but  also  the  important  Intertribal 
Council  composed  of  the  head  men  of  the  Five  Tribes  and,  in  the  later  years, 


OKMULGEE  183 

delegates  from  the  so-called  wild  western  tribes,  Comanches,  Kiowas,  Cad- 
does,  Cheyennes,  and  Arapahoes.  Others  that  came  in  the  years  from  1870 
to  1875  included  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  Osages,  Shawnees,  Ottawas,  Wyan- 
dottes,  Quapaws,  and  Peorias — mainly  remnants  of  once  powerful  tribes 
east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Ohio  River.  At  the  last  meeting, 
twenty-nine  tribes  were  represented. 

This  council  was  discontinued  when  the  United  States  government 
refused  to  finance  it  further  because  the  delegates  had  reached  the  point  of 
proposing  to  form  an  Indian  Territory  according  to  their  own  conception  and 
writing  out  a  constitution  for  its  government.  When  it  became  certain  that 
Washington  would  insist  upon  retaining  the  veto  power  on  any  legislation 
enacted  by  this  Territory's  legislature,  there  no  longer  existed  a  reason  for  the 
Council,  and  the  1875  meeting  was  the  last. 

Silas  Smith,  a  blacksmith,  was  the  first  white  resident  of  Okmulgee.  He 
was  sent  there  by  the  Federal  government  to  help  the  Creeks  secure  and  keep 
in  order  the  tools  necessary  for  their  farming  operations. 

By  1878,  Okmulgee  had  become  an  active  Indian  trade  center;  the  Creeks 
had  recovered  from  the  ravages  of  war;  the  people  of  the  farms  and  ranches 
were  prosperous;  the  tribal  schools  were  flourishing;  and  it  was  decided  that 
the  old  log  Council  House  must  go.  It  was  torn  down,  and  on  the  site  a 
square  two-story-and-cupola  stone  structure  was  erected.  The  new  capitol, 
set  in  the  town  square  and  dominating  the  fringe  of  stores  around  it,  served 
also  as  a  community  meeting  place  and  schoolhouse. 

In  1894,  when  the  question  of  alloting  Creek  lands  and  coming  under 
a  territorial  government  which  would  soon  be  dominated  by  the  whites  had 
been  hotly  debated  in  the  grounds  of  the  Council  House  between  Indian 
leaders  and  representatives  of  the  Federal  government,  Chief  Legus  C.  Perry- 
man  called  for  a  vote.  He  asked  all  who  opposed  allotment  to  move  to  the 
west  side  of  the  grounds,  and  those  who  favored  it  to  the  east.  All  save  one 
moved  west;  Moty  Tiger  alone  stepped  east  and  turned  to  face  the  three 
thousand  who  opposed  allotment.  When  called  upon  to  explain  his  stand,  he 
said  that  whatever  the  Indians  did  the  whites  would  overwhelm  them,  and 
that  it  would  be  best  to  accede  to  the  Federal  government's  desires  and  obtain 
whatever  favors  they  could  from  the  white  man's  government.  Five  years 
later,  allotment  was  accepted  and  Moty  Tiger's  stand  vindicated. 

As  a  modern  city,  Okmulgee's  history  began  after  the  Creek  tribal  lands, 
in  1899,  ceased  to  be  held  in  communal  ownership  and  were  allotted  to 
individuals.  That  change  meant  the  coming  of  whites  and  a  great  stimulus 
of  trade  and  commerce.  The  first  bank  was  opened  in  1900,  and  in  the  same 
year  train  service  was  begun. 


184  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

Okmulgee's  growth  from  a  trading  point  with  a  population  of  some  two 
hundred  to  an  incorporated  municipality,  with  a  mayor  and  four  aldermen, 
with  telephone  service  to  Muskogee,  and  a  determination  to  dominate  the 
region,  was  swift  after  allotment.  By  the  end  of  1905,  thanks  to  oil  discoveries 
near  by,  the  city's  population  had  risen  to  four  thousand. 

Okmulgee  citizens  call  1907  their  year  of  years.  It  brought  statehood  and 
the  first  of  the  gusher  oil  fields  to  be  opened  in  its  territory.  In  April  a  well 
was  brought  in  that  produced  five  hundred  barrels  a  day;  in  June  a  thousand- 
barrel  well  blew  in;  and  the  rush  of  drillers,  lease  hounds,  speculators,  and 
the  platoons  of  men  and  women  who  always  follow  the  developers  of  an  oil 
field  soon  boosted  the  population  to  six  thousand. 

By  1910  the  surrounding  oil  region  was  so  well  established  that  a 
refinery  was  built;  and  it  is  still  (1941)  the  largest  employer  of  labor  in 
Okmulgee,  with  325  workers  on  its  pay  roll. 

Until  1916,  the  old  Creek  Council  House  served  more  or  less  adequately 
as  the  Okmulgee  County  Courthouse.  Then  the  need  for  more  space  became 
pressing,  and  a  $125,000  bond  issue  was  voted  for  the  construction  of  a  new 
one.  When  these  bonds  were  offered  for  sale,  the  white  guardian  of  an 
illiterate  Creek  woman,  Katie  Fixico,  who  had  been  adjudged  by  the  County 
Court  an  incompetent,  used  $133,379  of  her  money  to  buy  them.  Her  wealth 
had,  of  course,  come  out  of  oil  wells  drilled  on  her  allotment. 

The  city's  roll  of  honor  is  truly  varied:  General  Hugh  Johnson;  Katie 
Fixico;  W.  B.  Pine,  a  wealthy  oilman,  hog  rancher  (with  three  droves  of 
purebred  Hampshires  totaling  eight  thousand),  and  Republican  U.S.  Senator 
(1924-30);  Dr.  L.  S.  Skelton,  who  established  the  first  glass  manufacturing 
plant  at  Okmulgee  and  contributed  to  many  other  enterprises;  Captain 
F.  B.  Severs,  an  early-day  trader  and  the  city's  first  dealer  in  nuts  from 
Okmulgee  County's  125,000  pecan  trees;  Enos  Wilson,  said  to  be  the  richest 
Indian  since  the  death  of  Jackson  Barnett;  E.  H.  Moore,  who  could  not  quit 
the  oil  business  after  making  as  much  of  a  fortune  as  he  wanted,  but  after 
selling  out  went  into  it  again  and  added  to  his  wealth;  and  Dr.  R.  M.  Isham, 
an  oil  chemist  and  researcher  of  national  reputation. 

Negroes,  who  make  up  approximately  12  per  cent  of  the  city's  popula- 
tion, live  in  a  district  by  themselves,  provide  their  own  amusements,  have 
fourteen  churches  for  the  use  of  their  worshipers,  a  hospital  (city  owned), 
and  a  branch  of  the  Okmulgee  Public  Library. 

The  city  shares  with  Muskogee,  to  the  northeast,  and  McAlester,  to  the 
southeast  (see  Tour  5),  the  trade  of  the  eastern  section  of  the  state.  It  is  also 
the  trade  center  of  the  county,  in  which  lie  more  than  3,500  farms,  with  some 
160,000  acres  of  land  in  cultivation.  Cotton  is  a  million-dollar-a-year  crop; 


OKMULGEE  185 

nearly  five  million  pounds  of  pecans  are  harvested  from  Okmulgee  County's 
groves — mostly  of  wild  trees,  but  some  in  which  the  big  papershell  species 
have  been  grafted  on  native  trees.  Truck  farming,  poultry  breeding,  and 
dairying  also  contribute  largely  to  its  business. 

Newspaper  history  in  Okmulgee  began  when  E.  P.  Gupton  started  the 
Record,  printed  at  Muskogee,  on  April  3,  1900.  It  lasted  only  a  few  weeks. 
Then  Valdo  Smith,  on  August  23,  1900,  established  the  weekly  Democrat, 
which  after  various  changes  of  ownership  has  continued.  On  September  3, 
1901,  George  Wood  put  out  the  first  issue  of  his  Creel{  Chieftain,  which 
became  the  Times  in  1918  and  began  publication  as  a  daily.  Since  1925,  both 
the  Times  and  the  Democrat  have  been  issued  by  the  same  management;  and 
the  Democrat  has  changed  from  an  afternoon  daily  to  a  weekly. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

The  CREEK  INDIAN  NATIONAL  COUNCIL  HOUSE  (free;  open 
9^:30),  6th  and  Morton  Sts.,  at  the  center  of  the  city,  is  set  in  a  square  shaded 
by  enormous  maple  trees.  It  is  a  source  of  pride  to  the  city,  though  at  one  time 
the  mayor  made  every  effort  to  have  it  removed  as  an  old  and  ugly  blot  on 
the  fair  face  of  Okmulgee.  He  wished  to  have  a  new  and  expensive  Federal 
Building  on  this  central  site. 

The  council  house  is  a  plain  four-square,  two-story  structure  of  brown 
stone,  with  a  cupola  rising  from  the  center,  suggesting  in  its  simplicity  and 
excellent  proportions  the  best  of  New  England  Colonial  architecture.  On  the 
first  floor,  its  four  spacious  rooms  house  a  growing  Museum  of  Creek 
History.  Upstairs,  where  the  House  of  Kings  and  the  House  of  Warriors 
used  to  meet  in  two  rooms  when  Council  was  in  session,  a  WPA  art  project 
and  a  kitchen  and  dining  room  for  the  YWCA  are  (1941)  carrying  on  the 
tradition  of  service  to  a  community.  The  building,  acquired  by  Okmulgee 
from  the  Creeks  when  the  tribal  government  went  out  of  existence,  is  in  the 
care  of  the  Creek  Indian  Memorial  Association,  whose  purpose  is  to  gather  for 
exhibition  "all  data  relating  to  the  history,  traditions,  folklore,  relics,  handi- 
craft, art,  music,  and  all  that  is  finest  and  best  in  the  life  of  the  Creek  tribe  of 
Indians,  and  the  preservation  of  the... Council  House."  What  has  already  been 
collected  constitutes  one  of  the  most  interesting  tribal  exhibits  in  the  state. 

The  OKMULGEE  PUBLIC  LIBRARY,  218  Okmulgee  Ave.,  is  a 
commodious  one-story  brick  building  trimmed  with  white  stone.  The  library 
developed  from  a  tiny  club  reading  room  equipped  with  a  secondhand  Bible 
and  80  other  books  contributed  at  a  "pink  tea  and  book  shower"  given  by  the 
Civic  Club  in  May,  1907.  First  quartered  in  a  business  building,  the  library 
moved  to  two  rooms  in  the  old  Creek  Council  House  in  1910. 


186  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

When  the  Council  House  rooms  became  overcrowded,  the  city  asked 
the  Carnegie  Corporation  for  funds  with  which  to  build  a  library.  The  offer 
of  $15,000  was  deemed  inadequate,  so  the  municipality  voted  $75,000  in 
bonds  and  later  added  $25,000  for  furniture  and  equipment.  Today  (1941) 
the  Okmulgee  library  has  more  than  38,000  volumes  and  ranks  as  one  of  the 
best  in  the  state.  In  certain  ways,  it  also  serves  as  a  community  center,  for 
here  the  Okmulgee  Law  School,  university  extension  classes,  and  the  Okmul- 
gee Litde  Theater  hold  their  meetings.  Its  Dunbar  Branch,  for  Negroes,  has 
more  than  5,000  books.  In  1923  the  library  acquired  a  considerable  collection 
of  books  belonging  to  William  H.  ("Alfalfa  Bill")  Murray,  who  later  became 
governor  (see  History). 

The  FEDERAL  BUILDING,  at  4th  St.  and  Grand  Ave.,  a  modern 
three-story,  block-like  structure  of  granite  and  limestone,  might  well  be  the 
answer  to  the  prayer  of  the  mayor  who  wanted  to  banish  the  old  Council 
House  to  a  farm  site.  Its  cost,  $350,000,  suggests  its  size  but  not  the  effective- 
ness of  its  tall,  square-pillared  facade  or  the  beauty  of  the  interior  where  the 
Federal  District  Court  meets  and  the  city  post  office  is  housed. 

Of  a  different  type  of  architecture — red  brick  with  interesting  white 
limestone  trimming— the  HIGH  SCHOOL  BUILDING,  Okmulgee  Ave. 
and  2d  St.,  and  the  near-by  OKMULGEE  JUNIOR  COLLEGE,  the  second 
largest  municipal  college  in  the  state,  top  an  educational  system  that  com- 
prises also  ten  elementary  schools  for  white  students  and  three  for  Negroes, 
a  Negro  high  school,  and  two  parochial  schools. 

HARMON  STADIUM,  600  E.  12th  St.,  is  a  modern  concrete  amphi- 
theater, enclosing  a  softball  field,  capable  of  seating  5,000  spectators;  it  is  also 
used  for  track  meets. 

HOSPITAL  PARK,  Okmulgee  Ave.  and  Belmont  St.,  a  landscaped  area 
six  blocks  in  extent,  is  the  principal  recreation  ground  within  the  city.  In  this 
spot  is  also  an  NYA  training  school.  Among  the  facilities  are  picnic  grounds, 
baseball  and  softball  diamonds,  wading  pools,  and  six  concrete-surface  tennis 
courts,  city  owned,  where  the  annual  district  summer  tennis  carnival  is  held. 
Four  smaller  parks  are  included  in  Okmulgee's  park  system. 

BALL  BROTHERS  GLASS  PLANT  on  S.  Madison  St.,  and  the 
SOUTHWESTERN  SHEET  GLASS  COMPANY  on  W.  20th  St.  (both 
open  to  visitors  in  worJ{ing  hours),  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  illustrate  one 
important  phase  of  the  city's  industrial  activity. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Lake  Okmulgee,  7  m.;  Rifle  Range,  7  m.:  Nuyaka,  76  m.:  I  see  Tour  3):  Fidelity 
Laboratories,  4.1  m.  (see  Tour  9). 


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Ponca  City 


Railroad  Stations:  1st  St.  and  W.  Oklahoma  Ave.  for  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry.;  700 

S.  3d  St.  for  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Ry. 

Bus  Stations:  114  N.  4th  St.  for  Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma;  201  N.  2d  St.  for  Santa  Fe  Trail 

Transportation  Co.;  and  1st  St.  and  Grand  Ave.  for  Turner  Transportadon  Co. 

Airport:  Municipal  Airport,  1.5  m.  N.W. 

City  Transportation:  Busses,  fare  5c;  taxis,  fare,  10c  first  15  blocks;  5c  each  additional  5 

blocks. 

Traffic  Regulations:  20  m.p.h.  in  business  district,  30  m.p.h.  elsewhere. 

Accommodations:  6  hotels;  rooming  houses;  3  tourist  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Community  Bldg.  N.  3d  St. 

Radio  Station:  WBBZ  (1230  kc). 

Newspaper:  Ponca  City  News,  daily. 

Theaters:  4  motion  picture  houses,  Municipal  Auditorium. 

Athletics:  Blaine  Park  Stadium,  Brookfield  Ave.  and  6th  St.;  Conoco  Ball  Park,  S.W.  edge 

of  city  (9  blocks  W.  on  South  Ave.  from  5th  St.),  reached  by  US  60. 

Golf:  Marland  Course,  9  holes,  between  E.  Grand  and  Highland  Aves.  at  N.  10th  St. 

Swimming:  Wentz  Pool,  5.5  m.  N.E.  (children  15c,  others  25c);  municipal  pools  (free), 

Ponca  Ave.  and  S.  6th  St.  and  W.  Chestnut  and  Palm  Sts. 

Boating:  Lake  Ponca,  4  m.  N.E.  of  city,  via  Cann  Blvd. 

Tennis:  Municipal  free  courts,  N.  7th  St.  between  Highland  and  Overbrook  Aves.;  N.  7th 

St.  between  Grand  and  Cleveland  Aves.;  W.  Otoe  Ave.  and  S.  Oak  St. 

Annual  Events:  Ponca  Indian  Powwow,  3d  week  in  Aug.;  Wentz  Bathing  Beauty  Revue 
(for  girls  under  5;  also  those  under  12  years  of  age),  Sunday  before  Labor  Day;  Cherokee 
Strip  Opening  celebration,  Sept.  16. 

PONCA  CITY  (1,003  alt.,  16,794  pop.),  "built  on  oil,  soil  and  toil,"  as  its 
people  say,  lies  nearly  in  the  center  of  a  triangle  at  the  points  of  which, 
roughly  one  hundred  miles  away,  are  the  cities  of  Wichita,  Kansas,  Tulsa, 
and  Oklahoma  City.  It  is  the  chief  city  in  Kay  County,  which  borders  on 
Kansas.  There  are  no  city  taxes,  since  the  municipality,  under  the  city  man- 
ager form  of  government,  is  supported  from  the  earnings  of  its  municipal 
light  plant  and  waterworks. 

Ponca  City  impresses  one  as  a  clean,  somewhat  bare,  city  set  in  a  prairie 
landscape.  It  is  built  on  a  tableland,  rolling  slighdy  toward  the  east  where  its 
outskirts  approach  a  belt  of  scrub  oak.  Here  the  streets  of  widely  spaced 
homes  suggest  comfort  and  well-being,  rarely  luxury  or  ostentation.  Most  of 
the  city's  growth  was  in  the  two  and  one-half  decades  from  1915  to  1940, 

187 


188  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

an  era  of  prosperity  largely  due  to  oil,  when  buildings,  paving,  parks,  and 
other  public  conveniences  were  planned  and  executed  in  a  generous  mood. 
In  that  era,  too,  came  the  inspiration  to  depart  from  the  usual  semidassic 
Greek  type  of  public  buildings  in  favor  of  warmer  Spanish  models. 

Oil  was  responsible  for  Ponca  City's  129  per  cent  increase  in  population 
from  1920  to  1930,  as  compared  with  a  growth  of  only  4  per  cent  in  the  fol- 
lowing decade,  when  oil  production  in  the  region  had  become  stabilized. 
While  oil  more  than  doubled  the  population,  the  city  is  also  the  trading 
center  of  a  good  farming  and  stock-raising  area;  and  abundant  supply  of 
natural  gas  for  fuel  has  attracted  twenty-four  manufacturing  establishments 
(not  including  oil  refineries  and  allied  works)  employing  2,400  workers, 
with  an  annual  pay  roll  of  more  than  $4,000,000;  there  are  now  (1941)  some 
320  wholesale,  retail,  and  service  organizations,  with  nine  hundred  employees 
who  draw  around  $786,000  annually  as  wages  and  salaries. 

Like  Enid,  another  northern  Oklahoma  metropolis,  Ponca  City  came 
into  existence  in  an  afternoon,  and  for  the  same  reason.  At  noon  of  September 
16,  1893,  its  site  was  raw  prairie,  a  part  of  the  six  million  and  more  acres 
of  the  Cherokee  Oudet,  which  the  United  States  opened  to  white  settlement 
that  day.  By  nightfall,  thousands  of  homeseekers  had  covered  the  twenty 
miles  from  the  Kansas  border  by  wagon  and  buggy,  on  horseback,  and  by 
train — some  of  the  overflow  clinging  to  the  steps  or  riding  the  Santa  Fe 
engine  cowcatcher — and  three  thousand  were  camped  on  the  spot  where, 
according  to  the  government's  map,  a  town  named  Cross  was  to  be  laid  out 
three  miles  north  of  the  present  Ponca  City.  But  a  group  of  men  headed  by 
B.  S.  Barnes  decided  that  a  more  logical  location  would  be  near  the  border  of 
the  Ponca  Indian  reservation.  Inside  the  reservation  was  a  Santa  Fe  station 
called  White  Eagle  by  the  government,  and  Ponca  by  the  railroad,  so  Barnes 
and  his  associates  dubbed  their  location  New  Ponca,  and  in  the  spirit  of 
pioneer  town-builders  undertook  to  "wipe  Cross  off  the  map." 

One  handicap  in  their  fight  was  that  the  railroad  did  not  recognize 
New  Ponca  and  would  not  stop  the  trains  there,  maintaining  speed  between 
Cross,  two  miles  to  the  north,  and  White  Eagle,  seven  miles  to  the  south. 
However,  the  town's  hopeful  citizens  finally  secured  a  railroad  station  and 
the  order  to  halt  trains  there.  Old-timers  tell  how  a  crowd  of  elated  citizens 
rode  down  from  Cross  on  the  first  train  to  stop  at  New  Ponca,  distributing 
cigars  to  men  passengers,  flowers  to  the  women,  and  to  all  a  card  reading, 
"The  train  stops  at  New  Ponca  the  same  as  Chicago."  In  time,  Ponca  City 
grew  far  enough  north  to  absorb  Cross. 

A  pioneer  woman  of  Ponca  City  has  recalled  that  sixty  days  after  the 
opening  of  the  Oudet  the  first  one-room  school  building,  erected  by  public 


PONCA   CITY  189 

subscription,  was  completed.  To  celebrate,  excursion  trains  came  from  Guth- 
rie, Perry,  Orlando,  and  Arkansas  City,  Kansas.  In  all,  thousands  made  of 
the  occasion  a  holiday;  to  feed  them,  beeves  were  slaughtered  and  barbecued 
over  huge  firepits  by  Ponca  Indians  from  the  reservation  a  few  miles  south. 
Since  that  time  nearly  $2,000,000  has  been  spent  for  plants  to  provide  public 
education. 

Oil  production,  in  fields  developed  in  the  Ponca  Indian  reservation 
south  of  the  city,  and  in  the  Osage  holdings  to  the  east,  began  before  1909, 
when  wildcatting  brought  showings  on  the  big  Miller  101  Ranch  (see  Tour 
10),  leased  from  the  Ponca  Indians.  But  until  E.  W.  Marland,  an  operator 
from  Pennsylvania,  with  a  "nose  for  oil  and  the  luck  of  the  devil,"  plus 
solid  financial  backing  in  New  York,  got  under  way  the  field  was  small. 
Then  the  picture  changed.  It  was  said  that  in  the  choice  of  locations  to  drill 
Marland  couldn't  go  wrong.  Year  after  year,  under  his  leadership,  the  Ponca 
Pool  was  extended;  and  presently  wildcatters  found  that  the  trend  was  east- 
ward into  the  Osage  country.  Upon  the  opening  of  the  Burbank  and  Shidler 
fields,  the  story  developed  into  a  saga  which  drew  national  attention. 

With  an  apparently  limitless  supply  of  crude  oil  available,  and  his  luck 
in  bringing  in  new  rich  well  holdings,  Marland  began  building  what  is  known 
as  an  integrated  company,  that  is,  one  which  handles  the  oil  all  the  way  from 
the  well  to  its  delivery  as  gasoline  to  the  motorist.  Ponca  City  became  the 
site  of  the  largest  refinery  in  the  Mid- West  field;  the  name  Marland  went  up 
on  filling  stations  over  an  ever-expanding  area;  and  Marland's  pipe  lines 
reached  out  into  widening  fields  to  gather  the  crude  from  the  Marland 
Company  wells. 

Wealthy,  generous,  and  with  a  genuine  liking  for  his  fellow  men,  Mar- 
land undertook  to  make  this  prairie  town,  his  adopted  home,  a  model;  and 
to  make  of  his  own  organization  a  sort  of  country  club.  But  oil  is  slippery, 
and  a  man's  luck  in  the  oil  business  seldom  lasts  beyond  a  brief  decade. 
When  Marland's  ran  out,  and  his  extravagant  organization  could  no  longer 
support  itself,  eastern  financial  support  was  withdrawn.  "Wall  Street"  took 
over;  the  Marland  Company  polo  team  was  disbanded;  Marland  retired  from 
his  baronial  mansion  on  the  outskirts  of  Ponca  City  to  live  in  the  gate  lodge 
of  the  estate;  and  apparently  finis  was  written  to  another  epic  of  oil  entitled 
"From  riches  to  rags." 

But  after  a  period  of  eclipse  he  entered  the  oil  business  again  in  a  small 
way,  then  became  interested  in  politics,  and  was  elected  to  Congress.  One 
term  in  the  House  of  Representatives  and  he  came  back  as  a  strong  exponent 
of  President  Roosevelt's  New  Deal  policies  to  capture  the  Democratic  primary 
in  the  race  for  governor;  he  v/as  elected  in  1934  (see  History). 


190  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL   CITIES 

In  a  sense,  Marland's  successor  as  the  dominant  figure  in  the  oil  business 
of  the  Ponca  area,  and  as  the  generous,  public-spirited  first  citizen  of  the 
growing  city,  is  Lew  (Lewis  Haines)  Wentz,  another  Pennsylvania  trained 
oilman.  The  best  evidence  of  his  interest  in  the  people  is  the  big  Wentz 
Educational  Camp  (see  Tour  10),  near  by.  No  one  has  ever  said  anything 
about  the  "Wentz  luck,"  but  it  seems  to  be  the  sort  that,  though  unspectacular, 
holds.  Wentz's  selection,  in  1940,  as  Oklahoma  member  of  the  Republican 
National  Committee  would  indicate  that  he  is  also  following  the  Marland 
transition  from  oil  to  politics. 

Three  elevators,  capable  of  handling  540,000  bushels  of  grain;  a  packing 
plant;  and  a  creamery  producing  all  kinds  of  dairy  products  provide  service 
for  the  surrounding  farming  and  stock-raising  activities. 

Ponca  City's  recreational  facilities  include  thirteen  parks  comprismg 
1,335  acres,  fishing  and  boating  on  an  eight-hundred-acre  suburban  lake, 
three  supervised  playgrounds,  ten  gymnasiums,  and  ten  auditoriums. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

PONCA  CITY  LIBRARY,  Grand  Ave.  at  5th  St.,  is  a  one-story  white 
stucco  building  of  modified  Spanish  design,  erected  in  1936.  Above  the 
three-arch  entrance,  the  central  section  rises  an  additional  story  to  a  sloping 
tiled  roof.  In  its  stackrooms,  which  hold  more  than  18,000  volumes,  is  a 
section  devoted  to  the  works  of  Oklahoma  writers,  practically  every  book 
having  been  autographed  by  its  author.  There  is  also  a  small  but  growing 
exhibit  of  Indian  relics,  an  auditorium,  kitchen,  and  other  facilities  for  the 
entertainment  of  small  groups. 

The  MUNICIPAL  BUILDING,  Grand  Ave.  opposite  the  library,  an 
example  of  Spanish-Moorish  architecture,  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful buildings  in  the  state.  Set  in  well-landscaped  grounds,  its  southwestern 
mission  type  to.wer  stands  out  as  a  distinctive  feature. 

In  BLAINE  PARK,  a  10-acre  playground  between  5th  and  7th  Sts.  on 
Brookfield  Ave.,  is  the  flood-lighted  Ponca  City  Stadium,  built  of  native 
stone,  with  an  enclosed  press  and  broadcasting  room  at  the  top  of  the  stand. 
It  has  a  well-sodded  and  drained  football  field,  a  quarter-mile  cinder  track 
around  the  field,  and  baseball  and  Softball  diamonds;  the  stadium  proper 
seats  3,000. 

The  city's  SENIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL,  7th  St.  and  Overbrook  Ave., 
built  in  1926,  has  a  feature  unique  among  Oklahoma  schools,  its  radio  instruc- 
tion. One  program  is  broadcast,  over  facilities  provided  by  Station  WBBZ 
and  the  city  Chamber  of  Commerce,  every  morning  by  the  Future  Farmers 
of  America;  all  assembly  and  special  programs  are  also  broadcast;  and  at 


PONCA   CITY  191 

intervals  broadcasts  are  sent  from  every  classroom  in  the  three-story  building. 
During  the  school  year  every  student  who  cares  to  take  part  in  these  radio 
demonstrations  has  the  opportunity.  The  building,  Spanish  type  in  design, 
has  a  red-tiled  roof  and  truncated  towers. 

CONOCO  REFINERY  and  CLUB  (club  and  cafeteria  open  to  public), 
at  the  southwestern  corner  of  Ponca  City,  together  with  the  extensive  Tank 
Farm  where  10,000,000  barrels  of  crude  oil  can  be  stored,  symbolize  the  oil 
business  of  Oklahoma,  the  state's  most  important  industry.  This  refinery, 
capable  of  converting  50,000  barrels  of  crude  oil  daily  into  gasoline  and  other 
marketable  products,  is  the  largest  in  the  state  and  one  of  the  most  modern 
in  the  world.  Taken  over,  with  all  its  other  properties,  from  the  Marland 
Refining  Company  by  the  Continental  Oil  Company  in  1929,  it  has  been 
constantly  enlarged  and  improved.  It  employs  (1941)  some  2,500  workers, 
the  majority  of  whom  own  their  homes. 

Shared  by  the  people  of  the  city  are  the  facilities  of  the  18-hole  golf 
course  laid  out  by  the  company,  the  baseball  grounds,  swimming  pool,  the 
tennis  courts;  and  the  big  Recreation  Building  erected  by  the  Continental 
Associates  for  social,  educational,  and  athletic  purposes.  This  building  de- 
veloped out  of  the  need  for  more  oflSce  room  and  the  company's  wish  to 
provide  play  space  and  equipment  for  its  workers,  their  families,  and  friends. 
It  is  240  by  165  feet  in  area,  one  of  its  two  big  wings  being  devoted  to  oflfices, 
and  the  other  to  a  gymnasium,  cafeteria,  and  game  rooms;  amusement  facili- 
ties are  also  provided  in  the  connecting  wings.  Between  the  main  wings,  an 
out-of-doors  swimming  pool  80  by  38  feet  in  area  is  turned  over  to  the 
children  of  the  city  on  Saturday  mornings  in  the  summer. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Pioneer  Woman  Statue,  1.5  m.;  Ponca  Indian  Reservation,  5  m.;  101  Ranch,  10.2  m.; 
White  Eagle  Monument,  72.2  m.;  Laura  A.  Clubb  Art  Collection,  15.8  m.  {see  Tour  10); 
R.A.F.  Flying  School,  4  m. 


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Shawnee 


Railroad  Stations:  Main  St.  and  Minnesota  Ave.  for  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry;  225  S. 

Broadway  for  Oklahoma  City-Ada-Atoka  Ry. 

Bus  Station:  Union  Station,  123  N.  Union  Ave.,  for  Oklahoma  Transportation  Co.  and 

Turner  Transportation  Co. 

Airport:  1  m.  W.  of  city  limit  on  US  270. 

City  Transportation:  Busses,  fare  10c;  taxis,  fare  20c. 

Accommodations:  5  hotels;  rooming  houses;  5  tourist  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Aldridge  Hotel,  9th  St.  and  Bell  Ave. 

Radio  Station:  KGFF  (1450  kc). 

Motion  Picture  Houses:  5. 

Athletics:  Athletic  Park,  Burns  and  Pottenger  Aves.,  for  baseball,  track,  and  football. 
Basl{etball  and  Wrestling:  City  Auditorium,  400  N.  Bell  Ave.,  weekly  in  winter. 
Swimming:  Municipal  pool,  Woodland  Park,  401  N.  Broadway,  fee  45c. 
Tennis:  12  free  municipal  courts,  at  Woodland  Park;  Farrell  Park,  301  W.  Hayes  St.;  Jef- 
ferson School,  800  N.  Louisa  St. 

Boating:  Shawnee  Lake,  8  m.  W.,  via  W.  Highland  Ave.,  and  unnumbered  graveled  high- 
way. 

Golf:  Shawnee  Country  Club,  2  m.  E.  on  US  270,  greens  fee  $1;  Elks  Country  Club,  5  m. 
N.W.,  greens  fee  $1;  Meadow  Lark  course,  5  m.  W.  on  US  270,  greens  fee  35c. 

SHAWNEE  (1,008  alt.,  22,053  pop.),  seat  of  Pottawatomie  County,  at  the 
edge  of  its  own  small  oil  field  and  near  the  rich  developments  of  the  big 
Seminole  and  Earlsboro  areas,  is  built  on  land  that  has  been  claimed  at 
different  times  by  Spain,  France,  England,  the  Creek  and  Seminole  Indian 
nations,  and  the  Sac  and  Fox  tribe.  The  first  settlement  was  called  Shawnee 
Town,  because  it  was  a  trading  place  for  the  Shawnee  Indians,  whose  reserva- 
tion lay  near  by.  In  1895,  according  to  a  special  count,  the  town  had  only 
three  hundred  inhabitants;  the  1940  census  showed  it  to  be  the  fifth  city  in 
size  in  Oklahoma. 

Shawnee  is  still  an  Indian  trading  post,  as  well  as  the  center  of  perhaps 
the  richest  agricultural  section  of  the  state.  Today,  however,  in  the  reassuring 
words  of  a  Chamber  of  Commerce  writer,  "the  Sac  and  Fox,  Shawnee, 
Potawatomi,  and  Kickapoo  tribes  live  peacefully  in  and  around  Shawnee 
under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  Indian  Agency,  with  headquarters 
at  Shawnee." 

Set  on  a  broad  bench  in  a  jagged  horseshoe  loop  of  the  North  Canadian 

192 


SHAWNEE  193 

River,  the  city  rises  toward  rolling  prairie  ridges  to  the  east  and  north.  Its 
southern  edge  drops  abruptly  to  a  wide  basin  of  farm  land  that  is  sometimes 
inundated  by  the  uncertain  river.  To  the  west,  its  suburbs  slope  easily  outward. 
Carved  out  of  a  thick  forest  of  ash,  Cottonwood,  hickory,  and  elm,  Shawnee 
has  kept  many  of  the  fine  native  trees.  They  tower  above  close-clipped  lawns 
and  dominate  litde  Woodland  Park,  the  heart  of  Shawnee.  Downtown,  the 
streets  are  broad,  clean,  and  bordered  by  two-  and  three-story  buildings,  old 
and  new.  One  hotel,  built  in  oil-boom  times,  rises  well  above  the  low  sky  line, 
the  only  suggestion  of  skyscraper  opulence. 

Shawnee's  history  has  been  highlighted  by  a  strenuous  county  seat  fight; 
a  flood  disaster  that  cost  approximately  $1,000,000;  a  tornado  which  swept 
twenty-eight  city  blocks;  a  smallpox  epidemic;  two  bank  failures;  and  a 
serious  railroad  shopmen's  strike.  But,  paradoxically,  during  its  most  troubled 
days  there  were  fewer  business  failures  in  Shawnee  than  in  any  other  Okla- 
homa city  of  its  approximate  size. 

In  the  late  twenties,  Shawnee  was  the  principal  city  in  the  largest  closely 
grouped  area  of  highly  productive  oil  fields  in  the  world  and  for  five  years 
grew  prodigiously,  once  claiming  a  population  of  almost  thirty-five  thousand. 
By  1930,  however,  the  census  takers  found  only  23,283;  and  this  number 
was  reduced  by  1,244  in  the  next  ten  years,  owing  largely  to  the  decreasing 
activity  of  near-by  oil  fields. 

A  more  reliable,  steadier  prop  for  the  city's  prosperity  are  the  products 
of  Pottawatomie  County's  4,400  farms,  comprising  more  than  five  hundred 
thousand  acres.  From  these  acres  are  taken  the  state's  best  cotton  crops  and 
valuable  crops  of  grain  sorghums,  alfalfa  and  other  types  of  hay,  and  pecans, 
mainly  from  wild  groves.  Dairying  is  important,  also;  and  two  nationally 
known  firms  maintain  cheese  factories  at  Shawnee.  The  Pottawatomie  County 
Wednesday  Community  sale,  held  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  city,  attracts 
thousands  of  farmers  from  a  wide  area. 

Shawnee's  pioneer  memories  go  back  to  the  opening  to  white  settlement, 
on  September  22,  1891,  of  the  reservations  of  the  Sac  and  Fox,  Iowa,  and 
Shawnee-Potawatomi  Indians.  It  is  told  that  Etta  Ray  and  her  sister,  young 
women  from  Oklahoma  City,  stood  on  Kickapoo  Indian  land  with  their  toes 
touching  the  western  border  of  the  territory  to  be  opened,  and  when  the 
opening  gun  was  fired  they  stepped  across  and  drove  their  stakes.  On  the  160- 
acre  claim  obtained  by  Etta  the  new  town  began  to  grow;  later,  after  she  mar- 
ried Henry  G.  Beard  and  the  first  railroad  sought  a  right  of  way  eastward  from 
Oklahoma  City,  one-half  of  the  farm  was  given  on  condition  that  the  station 
should  be  built  there.  Today  (1941),  close  by  the  fine  new  Municipal  Audi- 
torium, the  original  Beard  log  cabin  still  stands. 


194        OKLAHOMA:  principal  cities 

A  sidelight  on  the  manners  and  morals  of  the  homeseekers  who  made 
the  Run  lor  land  is  that  the  claims  of  both  Etta  Ray  and  her  sister  were  con- 
tested—  by  men.  After  a  long  period  of  litigation,  Etta  bought  off  the 
contestant  to  her  claim  for  $65,  but  her  sister  had  to  give  up  half  of  her  land 
to  stop  the  fight  for  the  whole  160  acres. 

In  the  spring  of  1892  a  town-building  company  was  formed,  trees  were 
cut  to  open  a  street,  and  a  sawmill  was  brought  in  to  save  the  long  and 
difficult  hauling  of  lumber  by  ox  team  from  Oklahoma  City,  forty-five  miles 
away.  Another  ambitious  group  attempted  to  create  a  town  to  be  called 
Brockway,  but  had  no  luck.  When  the  Beards  and  their  associates  had  built 
a  store  and  set  up  a  blacksmith  shop,  they  applied  for  a  post  office.  To  make  it 
simpler,  they  asked  that  it  be  named  Shawnee.  It  was,  and  Mrs.  Beard 
became  the  first  postmistress.  Mail  came  from  the  town  of  Tecumseh,  five 
miles  across  the  river  to  the  south,  and  the  carrier,  who  supplied  his  own 
transportation,  was  paid  $10  a  month. 

Out  of  the  pioneer  past,  too,  comes  the  story  of  the  bitter  fight  between 
Tecumseh  and  Shawnee  for  the  county  seat  of  Pottawatomie  County,  one  of 
the  two  new  counties  carved  out  of  the  opened  reservations.  To  call  attention 
to  its  already  established  importance,  Tecumseh's  citizens  organized  an  old- 
time  "anvil  shoot,"  and  Charlie  Miller  wrote  a  parody  of  "Sweet  Marie," 
which  jeered. 

Come  to  me,  poor  Shawnee, 
Poor  Shawnee,  come  to  me. 
Just  because  we  will  not  move, 
Love,  to  thee. 

When  you  hear  the  whistle  plain, 
And  you  see  the  Frisco  train, 
You  will  surely  lose  your  brain, 
Poor  Shawnee! 

Because  of  the  nationwide  financial  depression  of  1893,  the  coming  of 
the  first  railroad  was  delayed  until  the  summer  of  1895;  the  arrival  at  Shawnee 
of  a  train  of  the  Choctaw,  Oklahoma  and  Gulf  (later  absorbed  by  the  Rock 
Island)  was  the  outstanding  feature  of  that  year's  Fourth  of  July  celebration. 
In  March,  1902,  the  Santa  Fe  railroad  reached  Shawnee,  and  two  years  later 
the  Oklahoma  City-Ada-Atoka  built  in.  No  doubt  to  the  disappointment  of 
Charlie  Miller,  the  Frisco  did  not  come  either  to  Tecumseh  or  Shawnee. 

About  1910,  when  it  became  evident  that  the  state  capital  was  to  be 
removed  from  Guthrie  {see  Tour  10),  the  citizens  of  Shawnee  made  an 
attempt  to  secure  it  but  could  not  offer  sufficient  ground  space  within  the 
city  to  make  a  serious  fight  against  much  larger  Oklahoma  City. 

The  location  at  Shawnee  of  the  big  Rock  Island  shops  and  the  shops  of 


SHAWNEE  195 

the  Santa  Fe,  together  employing  some  nine  hundred  workers,  made  the  city 
acutely  conscious  of  the  countrywide  strike  of  railroad  shopmen  against  a  cut 
in  wages  that  began  July  1,  1922,  and  continued  to  October  1.  The  railroads' 
property  was  under  heavy  guard  and  on  the  morning  of  August  18  a  scattering 
volley  of  thirty  shots  was  fired  into  the  Rock  Island's  yards.  Over  the  protest 
of  the  city's  peace  officers,  the  report  went  out  that  conditions  at  Shawnee 
were  the  worst  in  the  United  States,  and  that  radical  agitators  were  in  control. 
However,  it  was  said  in  Shawnee  that  during  the  period  of  the  strike  mail 
trains  were  never  delayed  and  regular  service  was  litde  affected. 

On  March  28,  1924,  a  cyclone  swooped  upon  the  northwestern  residential 
section  of  the  city,  killed  eight  persons,  and  caused  damage  to  property 
exceeding  one-half  million  dollars.  Following  tradition,  this  "twister"  leveled 
buildings,  uprooted  trees,  and  "left  no  living  thing  in  its  immediate  path." 

Shawnee's  trial  by  flood  came  on  April  4,  1928,  when  a  torrential  seven- 
inch  rainfall  sent  the  North  Canadian  River  out  of  its  banks  and  choked  the 
deep  and  narrow  channel  of  Shawnee  Creek,  which  ran  through  a  populous 
section  of  the  city.  Hundreds  of  houses  were  swept  from  foundations  and 
wrecked  by  the  flood,  and  the  roofs  of  other  hundreds  were  so  seriously 
damaged  by  the  battering  of  the  terrific  hailstorm  preceding  the  deluge  that 
their  interiors  were  ruined.  Six  persons,  unable  to  move  out  of  the  way  of 
the  rushing  water,  were  drowned. 

A  map  issued  by  Shawnee  businessmen  at  the  crest  of  the  oil  boom  in 
the  1920's  listed  six  richly  productive  fields  within  the  city's  trade  area,  the 
most  distant  only  one  and  one-half  hours  away  by  automobile.  The  thousands 
of  workers,  most  of  them  highly  paid,  and  the  wealth  brought  to  the  men 
who  drilled  the  ten  thousand  and  more  wells  gravitated  largely  to  Shawnee; 
and  the  city  was  hard  pressed  to  take  care  of  the  newcomers.  There  were 
days  when  the  hungry  visitor  paid  a  dollar  for  a  sandwich  and  was  lucky 
to  get  one.  There  were  nights  when  this  same  visitor  paid  five  dollars  for  a 
cot  in  a  room  with  three  other  sleepers.  So  rapid  was  the  development  in 
such  fields  as  Earlsboro,  Seminole,  and  Cromwell  that  for  a  time  it  was 
impossible  to  supply  accommodations  for  all  who  rushed  in  to  exploit  them. 
It  was  during  this  period  that  Shawnee  was  believed  to  have  a  population  of 
nearly  thirty-five  thousand. 

The  oil  rush  ended,  Shawnee  tackled  the  job  which  has  faced  various 
other  Oklahoma  cities,  that  of  adjusting  itself  to  the  normal  growth  of  an 
inland  city  after  the  subsidence  of  an  oil  boom. 

Shawnee's  first  newspaper,  named  by  Editor  Phelps  the  Shawnee  Chief, 
appeared  for  a  few  weeks  in  1892  and  was  then  removed  to  Tecumseh.  Next 
came  the  weekly  Shawnee  Quill,  in  time  to  record  the  fire  that  all  but  wiped 


196         OKLAHOMA:  principal  cities 

out  the  business  district  on  December  13,  1895.  The  OtuU's  estimate  of  the 
loss  of  fifteen  buildings  and  a  wagon  yard  was  $26,700.  Since  then,  through 
various  changes,  dailies  have  been  established;  the  morning  News  and  the 
evening  Star,  now  ( 1941 )  under  the  same  ownership,  claim  a  large  circulation 
throughout  a  wide  territory.  There  are  three  weeklies,  distributed  free  in 
Shawnee — the  County  Democrat,  the  Herald,  and  the  American. 

A  city  manager,  working  with  a  mayor  and  council,  carries  on  the 
business  of  the  municipality;  the  real  estate  tax  rate  (1941)  was  33.18  mills 
on  an  80  per  cent  valuation.  Industries  have  been  attracted  by  low-cost  natural 
gas — ten  cents  per  thousand  cubic  feet — and  by  plentiful  and  cheap  fuel  oil 
and  coal.  The  biggest  industry,  a  milling  company,  has  a  pay  roll  of  more 
than  $1,000  each  working  day;  and  a  cotton  oil  mill  which  turns  out  cotton- 
seed meal  and  cake  for  catde  feed  describes  itself  as  "the  connecting  link 
between  cotton  and  livestock." 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

The  iMUNICIPAL  AUDITORIUM,  400  N.  Bell  Avenue.,  in  the  center 
of  downtown  Shawnee,  is  a  modern  red-brick  structure  with  a  seating  capacity 
of  3,000.  Built  with  a  WPA  grant  of  $61,363  and  the  proceeds  of  a  $75,000 
municipal  bond  issue,  it  has  been  a  popular  meeting  place  for  conventions, 
because  of  its  size  and  convenience.  The  building  has  complete  gymnasium, 
basketball,  indoor  tennis,  and  stage  facilities,  including  projection  booths  and 
sound  equipment  for  movie  showings.  Two  low,  flat-roofed  wings  flank  the 
southern  entrance. 

WOODLAND  PARK,  four  blocks  in  area,  is  direcdy  north  of  the 
auditorium  and  is  dominated  by  a  big  swimming  pool,  with  ample  dressing 
rooms.  Concrete  tennis  courts  and  picnic  facilities  under  the  tall  native  ash 
and  elm  trees  add  to  the  park's  attractiveness.  At  its  center  is  the  Beard  Log 
Cabin  (private),  the  first  residence  in  Shawnee. 

The  POTTAWATOMIE  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  in  the  300 
block  on  N.  Broadway,  built  in  1934,  is  a  three-story -and-basement  building 
fronting  on  Broadway,  with  Woodland  Park  at  its  back.  Simple  and  modern 
in  design,  it  has  a  base  of  black  Missouri  limestone  which  supports  walls  of 
Indiana  limestone,  trimmed  at  the  corners  in  terra  cotta.  Its  facade  is  orna- 
mented with  spandrels  of  aluminum;  and  above  the  granite  front  steps  are 
plaques  that  picture  the  Indian,  the  Pioneer,  and  Justice.  Inside,  a  wide, 
two-way  branching  stairway  of  warm-tinted  marble  leads  to  an  elaborate 
mezzanine;  from  it  opens  the  high-ceilinged  modernistic  courtroom  with 
wainscoting  of  oriental  walnut.  The  architect  was  A.  C.  Davis. 

The  CARNEGIE  LIBRARY,  just  north  of  the  courthouse  on  N.  Broad- 


SHAWNEE  197 

way,  was  opened  in  1905;  later  it  was  seriously  damaged  by  fire  and  rebuilt. 
Its  book  stacks  contain  (1941)  more  than  25,000  volumes,  and  its  book  circula- 
tion exceeds  250,000  a  year.  The  library's  facilities  are  available  to  the  faculty 
and  students  of  Oklahoma  Baptist  University  as  well  as  the  people  of 
Shawnee. 

OKLAHOMA  BAPTIST  UNIVERSITY,  coeducational,  lying  pardy 
within  the  city  at  its  northwestern  corner,  had  a  1941  enrollment  of  more 
than  750  students,  and  a  faculty  of  32.  Plans  for  its  founding  were  made  in 
1906,  and  its  pioneer  classes  met  in  September,  1911,  in  the  basement  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Shawnee  and  in  Convention  Hall. 

By  1915,  the  first  building  (Shawnee  Hall)  on  the  present  campus  of 
60  acres,  donated  by  the  city,  was  ready  to  receive  students;  since  that  time 
the  university  plant  has  expanded  to  include  another  classroom  building 
(Montgomery  Hall),  a  publications  building,  a  well-equipped,  small  observa- 
tory, a  gymnasium  for  men,  a  men's  dormitory,  a  dormitory  for  women,  and 
other  residence  facilities  for  students  and  faculty.  A  new  dormitory  for  men 
is  now  (1941)  under  construction. 

West  of  the  landscaped  quadrangle  are  the  football  field,  a  nine-hole 
golf  course,  and  the  flying  field  where  the  O.B.U.  School  of  Aviation  trains 
student  flyers. 

The  university  library,  housed  in  Shawnee  Hall,  contains  15,000  volumes, 
including  the  Gillon  collection  of  religious  books  and  denominational  records. 
Its  reading  room  seats  115  and  has  a  "browsing  nook"  with  an  open-shelf 
collection  of  books  for  cultural  and  recreational  reading. 

ATHLETIC  PARK,  at  the  western  edge  of  the  city,  contains  two  fields, 
one  for  baseball  and  one  for  football.  The  baseball  plant,  lighted  for  night 
games,  has  seats  for  3,000,  and  the  stadium  at  the  football  field,  with  seating 
capacity  of  4,500,  is  encircled  by  a  cinder  track.  There  is  a  stone  clubhouse 
with  dressing  rooms  for  players. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Shawnee  Quaker  Mission  and  Shawnee  Indian  Sanitorium,  2.5  m.;  St.  Gregory's  Col- 
lege, 3.3  m.  (see  Tow  5). 


^^/IjZ ^ i^fi'[: . i^^i^j. ^ :^f)'[i ., 'j'^i^j. , 'J^li ^  , 'J^ifz ^ T^<\/!i 


Stillwater 


Railroad  Station:  Intersection  of  tracks  and  E.  9th  St.  for  Atchison,  Topcka  &  Santa  Fc  Ry. 
Btis  Statiotis:  1 1 1   W.  7th  St.  for  Turner  Transportation  Co.;  Grand  Hotel  for  Missouri- 
Kansas-Oklahoma  Trailways. 

Airport:  Searcy  Field,  2  m.  N.  on  State  40  and  0.5  m.  W.;  no  scheduled  service. 
Taxis:  10c  upward,  according  to  distance  and  number  of  passengers. 

Accoinmodatiotis:  4  hotels;  tourist  camps. 

Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Municipal  Bldg.,  8th  and  Lewis  Sts. 

Golf:  Hillcrcst,  1.5  m.  N.  on  State  40,  and  0.5  m.  W.,  greens  fee  25c;  Yost  Lake  Course,  4 

m.  N.  and  3  m.  E.  on  State  40. 

Tennis:  Free  courts  at  High  School,  Duncan  St.  and  11th  Ave. 

Swimming  and  Boating:  Yost  Lake,  4  m.  N.  and  3  m.  E.  on  State  40;  Stillwater  Lake,  1.5 

m.  N.  and  0.5  m.  W.  on  State  40;  Lake  Carl  Blackwell,  7  m.  W.  on  State  51. 

Annual  Events:  Junior  Livestock  Show,  March;  Flower  and  Vegetable  Show,  late  June; 
Farmer's  Week,  and  4-H  Club  Roundup  (sponsored  by  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Me- 
chanical College),  Aug.;  Payne  County  Fair,  2d  week  in  Sept.;  Homecoming  Celebration, 
early  Nov. 

STILLWATER  (886  alt.,  10,097  pop.),  seat  of  Payne  County  and  site  of 
Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  was  laid  out,  legally,  imme- 
diately after  the  opening  of  the  original  Oklahoma  Territory  in  1889.  Pre- 
viously, however,  the  site  was  known  to  the  "Boomers,"  those  men  who  con- 
tended that  this  occupied  Indian  land  could  be  homesteaded,  and  in  January, 
1885,  a  force  of  six  hundred  United  States  troops  was  sent  to  oust  a  setde- 
ment  of  five  hundred  that  had  been  living  in  dugouts  in  "Prairie  Dog  Town," 
on  the  present-day  Fair  Grounds.  Their  leader,  William  L.  Couch,  defied  the 
soldiers,  who  instead  of  firing  on  the  entrenched  intruders  cut  their  lines  of 
supply  and  starved  them  out. 

The  present  city  was  located  on  Stillwater  Creek  by  a  group  who  made 
the  Run  together;  the  majority  of  them  were  from  Cowley  County,  Kansas. 
A  240-acre  tract  was  assembled  from  their  160-acre  claims  by  five  men  in 
honor  of  whom  Lewis,  Duck,  Husband,  Lowry,  and  Duncan  streets  were 
named.  The  land  thus  donated,  plus  eighty  acres  which  it  was  discovered 
had  not  been  staked  in  the  Run,  was  to  constitute  the  townsite,  but  the  man 
who  was  chosen  to  file  on  the  unclaimed  eighty  and  then  turn  it  over  to  the 

198 


STILLWATER  199 

town's  promoters  refused  to  give  it  up  until  the  matter  was  settled  at  a  hearing 
by  land-office  officials.  In  the  beginning,  $6.25  would  pay  for  one  business 
and  two  residential  lots;  and  until  after  the  passage  of  the  Organic  Act  of 
1890  government  of  the  town  was  wholly  voluntary,  without  formal  authority. 
Money  from  the  sale  of  lots  went  into  the  town's  treasury  and  was  spent  for 
bridges,  a  well,  and  street  improvements. 

The  main  streets  of  most  Oklahoma  towns  and  cities  are  laid  out  east 
and  west,  but  that  of  Stillwater  runs  north  and  south;  and  the  explanation 
is  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  practical  working  of  the  pioneers'  sense 
of  fairness.  When  it  was  found  that  an  east-west  layout  would  unduly 
enhance  the  value  of  one  man's  holdings,  its  direction  was  changed. 

Eighteen  months  after  Stillwater  was  laid  out  the  first  legislature 
awarded  to  it  the  new  college  of  agriculture;  and  since  then  Stillwater's  story 
and  that  of  the  college  have  developed  together. 

On  a  slight  slope  north  of  Stillwater  Creek,  bowered  in  trees,  the  city 
spreads  up  to,  and  beyond,  the  campus  of  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and 
Mechanical  College,  familiarly  known  throughout  the  state  as  A.  and  M.  A  big 
small  town  in  appearance,  its  business  buildings  are  low,  trim,  and  solid; 
its  residences,  set  in  big  yards,  large  and  comfortable. 

The  town's  first  boost  came  when  it  was  designated  as  a  registration 
point  for  the  opening  of  the  Cherokee  Outlet  in  1893;  and  the  next  big  help 
was  the  coming  of  the  railroad  in  1899.  Before  that  year,  the  outside  world 
was  reached  by  hack  to  Wharton  (now  Perry),  twenty-five  miles  away. 

Stillwater  describes  itself  as  a  business  and  educational  center,  measuring 
up  to  the  dreams  of  its  founders  in  enterprise,  culture,  and  hospitality.  Its 
population  is  the  familiar  Oklahoma  college-town  mixture  of  retired  farmers; 
those  who  serve  the  surrounding  farm  region  by  operating  creameries, 
hatcheries,  grain  elevators,  flour  mills,  and  cotton  gins;  retail  merchants  who 
cater  to  the  student  body  of  A.  and  M.;  the  faculty  and  regular  students;  and 
the  increasing  number  who  come  for  short  courses  and  summer  sessions. 

Under  a  commission  form  of  government,  Stillwater  has  levied  no 
municipal  taxes  since  1931;  the  government  is  supported  by  revenues  from 
its  utilities.  A  roomy,  modern  municipal  hospital,  a  municipal  library,  and  a 
beautiful  municipal  building  of  modern  design  serve  the  city. 

OKLAHOMA  AGRICULTURAL  AND  MECHANICAL  COLLEGE 

A.  and  M.  occupies  a  120-acre  campus  at  the  northwestern  border  of 
Stillwater.  An  outlying  farm  of  twelve  hundred  acres,  west  of  the  city,  is 
used  as  an  experiment  station,  and  the  college  owns  880  acres  of  farm  land 
elsewhere.  The  fifty-five  buildings  on  the  campus  include  thirty  used  for 


200  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIHS 

instruction  and  administration;  nineteen  barns  and  other  agricultural  struc- 
tures; and  seven  residence  halls  capable  of  housing  950  women  students  and 
825  men. 

One  of  the  two  most  important  institutions  of  higher  education  in  the 
state,  A.  and  M.  enrolled  6,483  students  in  its  regular  courses  in  1940-41;  in 
summer  sessions,  2,557;  and  1,151  in  correspondence  and  extension  courses. 
Attendance  at  short  courses  (from  four  days  to  two  weeks)  totaled  7,193. 

The  teaching  staf?  numbers  306;  there  are  some  four  hundred  additional 
employees  at  Stillwater,  and  280  workers  in  the  Extension  Division  distributed 
over  the  seventy-seven  counties.  At  the  1940  spring  commencement,  749 
bachelors'  degrees  were  conferred  in  all  departments.  Masters'  degrees  were 
also  awarded  to  219  students. 

On  Christmas  Day,  1890,  the  act  of  the  territorial  legislature  establishing 
the  college  became  effective.  The  law  "required  that  the  county  of  Payne,  or 
the  municipality  in  or  near  which  the  institution  might  be  located,  should 
issue  its  bonds  in  the  sum  of  $10,000  .  . ."  These  were  to  be  sold  by  the 
territory's  secretary  "at  not  less  than  their  par  value." 

Payne  County  defeated  the  bond  issue,  but  the  residents  of  Stillwater, 
at  a  municipal  election  in  April,  1891,  plumped  for  the  bonds,  by  132  votes 
out  of  136.  The  bonds  brought  only  $8,600;  the  $1,400  required  to  bring 
them  up  to  par  was  raised  by  selling  city  warrants  and  by  a  note  for  $352 
made  by  members  of  the  city  council. 

By  July  of  that  year  two  hundred  acres  of  prairie  land  adjoining  the 
town  on  the  northwest  had  also  been  donated  as  a  site.  It  was,  said  an  early 
catalogue,  "untouched  by  plow  or  other  implements,  with  the  exception  of 
about  16  acres.  The  work  of  fencing  this  land  and  reducing  it  to  cultivation 
was  at  once  begun,  the  first  furrow  . . .  being  turned  on  the  2d  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1891."  As  a  land-grant  college,  Stillwater  was  entitled  to  Federal  aid; 
in  its  first  year,  however,  this  amounted  to  only  $3,000;  and  in  the  following 
year  to  $750. 

Out  of  these  very  limited  resources,  a  small  laboratory  for  the  chemistry 
department,  a  barn,  residences  for  the  school  head  and  farm  manager  were 
built  in  1892,  and  next  year  engine  and  seed  houses — small  frame  structures 
— -were  added.  Meanwhile,  classes  were  held  in  the  Congregational  Church. 
In  June  of  1894,  Assembly  Hall — known  now  as  "Old  Central" — was  ready 
for  classwork. 

Commencement  exercises  were  held  at  the  end  of  each  college  year,  but 
it  was  not  until  1896  that  there  were  any  graduates  to  receive  degrees.  Then 
six  young  men  qualified.  Of  the  June,  1893,  commencement,  a  Stillwater 
paper  said  that  the  college  had  "over  150  students  under  the  care  of  an  able 


STILLWATER  201 

and  energetic  board  of  regents  and  faculty.  This  was  a  commencement 
without  a  graduate,  although  the  sweet  girls  were  there  just  the  same."  All 
graduates  up  to  1915  had  to  return  for  additional  work  in  order  to  have 
their  degrees  recognized. 

An  integral  part  of  the  college,  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  is 
maintained  by  funds  provided  by  Congress  under  successive  acts,  and  its 
work  was  started  at  the  same  time,  in  December,  1891,  when  "most  of  the 
good  people  of  Stillwater"  turned  out  to  help  the  first  director  burn  off  the 
tall  grass  that  hid  the  corner  markers  of  the  property;  and  again  when  the 
first  furrows  were  turned.  "A  pair  of  mules,"  once  wrote  the  station's  head, 
"was  probably  the  first  property  acquired. . . .  Tradition  has  it  that  one  evening 
Professor  Magruder,  overseer  of  the  farm,  caught  a  pair  of  runaway  mules 
and  held  them  until  the  owner  came  up  in  a  furious  mood  and  offered  to  sell 
them  to  any  man  who  would  offer  a  price.  Magruder  got  the  mules."  And, 
presumably,  tamed  their  wild  spirits  by  hitching  them  to  a  sod  plow. 

On  the  college's  twelve-hundred-acre  farm  adjoining  the  campus  have 
been  tried  varied  experiments  like  the  sowing  of  wheat  on  the  same  plot 
every  year  since  1892;  determination  of  the  minimum  vitamin  A  require- 
ments for  dairy  catde;  the  improvement  of  hogs  through  inbreeding;  determi- 
nation of  the  effect  of  environmental  factors  on  the  composition  of  vege- 
tables; the  effects  of  different  forms  of  waste  from  oil  wells;  insect  control; 
meat  laboratory  work;  and  research  on  diseases  of  cattle,  horses,  sheep,  hogs, 
and  chickens.  The  station  also  carries  on,  through  county  agents  and  home 
demonstration  women  aides,  a  state-wide  program  of  extension  work. 

Short  courses  of  a  week  or  less  bring  adults  to  the  college  for  instruction 
in  many  subjects  ranging  from  firemanship  to  school  custodianship,  cafeteria, 
and  waterworks  management.  Special  meetings  of  one  or  two  days  deal  with 
stock  feeding,  agronomy,  vocational  guidance,  "band  clinics,"  choral  festivals, 
editing,  and  many  other  topics. 

Student  activities  include  the  publication  of  the  O'Collegian,  a  campus 
daily  (twice  weekly  during  the  summer  session),  the  Reds\in,  the  college 
annual,  various  departmental  periodicals;  and  seven  musical  organizations. 
Because  the  college  is  far  from  any  city  of  considerable  size,  the  student  body 
and  faculty  rely  to  an  unusual  extent  upon  themselves  for  extra-curricular 
interests. 

Loosely  grouped  on  land  that  was  level  prairie,  with  litde  attempt  at 
landscaping  and  with  few  trees  as  yet  to  add  shade  and  variety  to  the  campus 
scene,  the  college's  buildings  are  primarily  utilitarian  in  design.  The  whole 
effect  is  one  of  bareness,  neatness,  and  the  utmost  economy  in  the  use  of 
building  funds. 


202  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

CAMPUS  TOUR 

The  buildings  are  listed  in  order  of  location  from  the  corner  of  Knoblocli  and  Col- 
lege Sts.,  the  most  convenient  starting  point.  Ordinarily  they  are  open  during  school  hours. 

FIREMANSHIP  TRAINING  BUILDING  is  a  two-story  brick  fire- 
house,  with  regular  fire-fighting  equipment  below  and  quarters  for  students 
above.  The  tall  octagonal  tower  at  the  north  end  of  the  building  is  somewhat 
suggestive  of  a  New  England  meeting  house.  Here  is  the  equivalent  of  a 
three-company  fire  brigade,  with  classrooms  and  laboratories.  It  is  the  only 
school  department  of  the  kind  in  the  country. 

WILLIAMS  HALL,  in  which  is  housed  The  Prairie  Playhouse,  is  a 
reconditioned  old  building  where  the  work  of  the  speech  and  English  depart- 
ments is  carried  on.  The  equipment  includes  an  auditorium,  stage,  dressing 
rooms,  and  drama  workrooms. 

"OLD  CENTRAL,"  set  back  from  Knoblock  St.  (L),  was  the  first 
building  erected  on  the  campus  for  classroom  use.  A  quaint,  square,  squat, 
pink-brick  litde  survival,  it  was  described  at  its  dedication  in  1894  as  "a  hand- 
some structure  ...  67  by  67  feet  in  size,  consisting  of  two  stories,  and  contains 
16  rooms."  In  the  minds  of  loyal  students  and  alumni,  "Old  Central"  has 
retained  at  least  a  sentimental  beauty.  It  is  still  (1941)  commodious  enough 
(a  third  story  has  been  added)  to  house  the  Graduate  School,  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agricultural  Education,  the  Geology  Department,  the  Former  Stu- 
dents Association  and  Placement  Bureau,  a  museum,  and  an  auditorium. 

The  AUDITORIUM,  corner  of  Knoblock  and  Morrill  Sts.,  is  a  brick 
and  reinforced  concrete  structure,  equipped  with  a  large  stage,  dressing  rooms, 
and  drama  workrooms. 

GARDNER  HALL,  opposite  the  auditorium  on  Morrill  St.,  a  plain  but 
well-designed  four-story  red-brick  structure  with  dormer  windows,  houses 
the  activities  of  the  Extension  Division,  the  women's  section  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Health  and  Physical  Education,  and  a  part  of  the  staff  of  the  School 
of  Commerce. 

MORRILL  HALL,  Morrill  St.,  facing  toward  "Old  Central,"  is  a  four- 
story,  wide-spreading  structure  of  the  older  period,  built  of  brick  and  stone. 
Here  are  the  departments  of  commerce,  education,  foreign  languages,  and 
art.  The  hall  was  named  for  United  States  Senator  Justin  S.  Morrill,  who 
wrote  the  Federal  act  establishing  land-grant  colleges. 

Farther  along  on  Knoblock  Street,  Athletic  Avenue  (L)  marks  the 
southern  boundary  of  an  area  devoted  to  sports.  Here,  flanked  by  concrete- 
surfaced  tennis  courts  are  the  GYMNASIUM  167  by  107  feet;  the  football 
STADIUM,  with  seats  for  30,000  spectators;  and  GALAGHER  HALL,  the 


STILLWATER  203 

college  Field  House  named  for  the  long-time  coach  of  A.  and  M.'s  wrestling 
teams.  The  Field  House,  a  great  modernistic  block-shaped  hall,  is  used  for 
such  indoor  sports  as  wrestling  and  basketball;  and  when  the  school's  basket- 
ball team  plays  that  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma — A.  and  M.'s  traditional 
rival — all  its  7,000  seats  are  filled. 

West  of  the  Stadium  is  CORDELL  HALL,  an  enormous  wide-H- 
shaped  residence  hall  of  red  brick  trimmed  with  white  stone,  with  quarters 
for  525  men  students.  First  used  in  the  school  year  1939-40,  this  "dorm"  is 
one  of  the  largest  in  the  Southwest. 

The  agriculture  school's  utilities  are  west  of  the  athletic  area  and  Cordell 
Hall.  The  impressive  Animal  Husbandry  Building  is  a  steel,  concrete  and 
brick  structure,  with  rounded  roof  and  tall  Ionic  columns  supporting  a  lofty 
porch.  Within  is  an  arena  59  by  180  feet,  with  seats  for  2,000. 

Farther  west  on  the  1,200-acre  experimental  farm  is  the  huge  BEEF 
CATTLE  BARN,  with  four  commodious  wings,  flanked  at  its  four  corners 
by  enormous  brick  silos.  Other  structures  in  this  area  are  the  DAIRY 
BUILDING,  the  HOG  BARN,  the  HORSE  BARN,  the  SHEEP  BARN, 
the  EXPERIMENTAL  SHED,  and  the  POULTRY  FARM  BUILDING. 

The  section  of  the  campus  on  Washington  Street,  to  the  west,  is  given 
over  to  women's  residence  halls.  Here,  in  order  from  north  to  south,  are 
FRANCES  E.  WILLARD  HALL  (L),  a  modern  four-story  red-brick  home 
for  410  students;  NORTH  HALL  (R),  with  accommodations  for  150  wom- 
en. A  covered  arcade  leads  from  North  Hall  to  the  big  MURRAY  HALL, 
housing  410  students,  where  there  is  a  joint  dining  room  for  North  and 
Murray  halls. 

North  of  Frances  Willard  Hall  is  WHITEHURST  HALL,  the  Agri- 
cultural and  Administration  building.  Constructed  of  brick,  stone,  and  con- 
crete, four  stories  high,  it  is  typical  of  A.  and  M.'s  simple,  practical  architec- 
tural style.  Similar  in  design  is  the  LIFE  SCIENCES  BUILDING,  which 
houses  the  departments  of  zoology,  bacteriology,  physiology,  botany,  and 
veterinary  science,  and  the  ENGINEERING  BUILDING  used  by  the 
Mechanical  Engineering  Department. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  ENVIRONS 

Boomer  Lake,  1.9  m.:  Stillwater  Lake,  3.4  m.;  Lake  Carl  Blackwell,  13  m.;  Midget 
Cattle  Farm,  14.2  m.  (see  Totir  2). 


»^()/tj ^ rj')/'^ ^  , z^fl/tl. ^  ., z^flljl. ^^ z^fl/ll. ^  , «tO^^ ^  ^ i^f\/!l, , rjO/f* 


Tulsa 


Railroad  Stations:  Union  Depot,  3  S.  Boston  Ave.  for  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry.,  St. 

Louis-San  Francisco  Ry.,  and  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  R.R.;  Frankford  Ave.  and  6th  St.  for 

Midland  Valley  Ry. 

hiterurban:  Waiting  Room,  27  E.  Archer  St.  for  service  between  Tulsa  and  Sand  Springs. 

Bus  Stations:  Union  Bus  Station,  319  S.  Cincinnati  Ave.,  for  Missouri,  Kansas  &  Oklahoma 

Trailways,   Southwestern   Greyhound   Lines,    Southern    Kansas   Greyhound   Lines,    Union 

Transportation  Co.,  Santa  Fe  Trailways;  All-American  Bus  Station,  215  S.  Boulder  Ave., 

for  All-American  Bus  Lines. 

Airport:  Municipal  Airport,  E.  Apache  Ave.  and  Sheridan  Rd.  for  American  Air  Lines  and 

Mid-Continent  Lines;  30-min.  cab  service  (fare  50c)  from  Hotel  Mayo,  Cheyenne  Ave. 

and  5th  St. 

City  Bus  Lines:  Fare  5c,  universal  transfers. 

Taxis:  15c  to  50c,  according  to  number  of  passengers  and  distance. 

Traffic  Regtdations:  No  left  turn  on  or  into  Main  Street  between  2d  and  5th  Sts.  inclusive. 

Parking  only  at  designated  places.  Obey  School  Zone  signs. 

Accommodations:  22  hotels,  8  for  Negroes;  rooming  houses,  tourist  camps  and  trailer  parks 
on  every  highway.  Capacity  rates  during  International  Petroleum  Exposition,  2  weeks  in 
May,  even  years. 

Information  Serf  ice:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Tulsa  Bldg.,  3d  St.  and  Cincinnati  Ave.;  Auto 
Club  of  Oklahoma  (for  members),  Adams  Hotel,  4th  St.  and  Cheyenne  Ave. 

Radio  Stations:  KTUL  (1430  kc);  KVOO  (1170  kc);  KOME  (1340  kc). 

Theaters  and  Motion  Picture  Houses:  Tulsa  Little  Theater,1511   S.  Delaware  Ave.,  local 

productions  during  fall  and  winter;  Convention  Hall,  101  W.  Brady  St.;  and  Akdar  Theater, 

4th  St.  and  Denver  Ave.,  local  productions,  occasional  road  shows,  and  concerts;  20  motion 

picture  houses,  2  for  Negroes. 

Athletics:  Texas  League  Baseball  Park  (night)  4300  E.  15th  St.;  Skelly  Field  (Public  High 

School  and  University  of  Tulsa  Stadium),  2900  E.  11th  St. 

Hocliey,  Wrestling,  and  Ice  Sl{ating  (winter  and  spring):  The  Coliseum,  501  S.  Elgin  Ave. 

Boating:  Mohawk  Park  Lagoons  and  Mohawk  Lakes  (see  Tour  9A). 

Swimming:  Ncwblock  Pool  (municipal),  20  blocks  \V.  of  Main  St.  on  US  64,  15c  and  25c; 

YMCA,  4th  St.  and  Cincinnati  Ave.,  25c;  Crystal  City  Park,  S.  of  cit\'  on  US  66,  25c. 

Golf:  Mohawk  Municipal  Course,  Mohawk  Park,  5  m.  N.,  reached  by  Peoria,  Lewis,  and 

Howard  Aves.,  18  holes;  Northridge,  N.  of  city  near  Mohawk  Park;  McFarland,  Memorial 

Drive  and  East  Federal,  E.  of  city;  Kennedy  (sand  greens)  N.W.  of  city;  Wil-Croft  (sand 

greens)  21st  St.  and  Harvard  Ave.,  greens  fees  at  all  75c. 

Tennis:  Free  municipal  courts  at  6th  St.  and  Peoria  Ave.,  1 1th  St.  and  Peoria  Ave.,  13th  St. 

and  Cincinnati  Ave.,  N.  Boston  Ave.  between  Queen  and  Tecumseh  Sts.,  Edison  St.  and 

Quannah  Ave.,  Ncwblock  Park,  2500  S.  Quannah  Ave.,  21st  St.  and  Olympia  .\ve.,  42d 

St.  and  Yukon  Ave,  and  Admiral  Blvd.  and  Utica  St. 

Annual  Events:  Magic  Empire  Junior  Livestock  Show,  March:  Oil  Capital  Horse  Show,  Fair 
Grounds  Pavilion,  May;  Tulsa  State  Fair,  Fair  Grounds,  6  blocks  E.  of  15th  St.  and  Harvard 
Ave.,  Sept.;  Mid-Continent  Kennel  Club  Show,  Fair  Ground-;,  Poultry  Bldg.,  Nov. 

204 


TULSA  205 

International  Petroleum   Exposition:   Biennial   event,    in    May   of   even    years.   Exposition 
Grounds  (adjoining  Fair  Grounds). 


For  further  information  regarding  this  city  see  TULSA,  A  Guide  to  the  Oil 
Capital,  American  Guide  Series,  published  May,  1938,  by  the  Mid-West 
Printing  Company,  Tulsa,  Oklahoma. 


TULSA  (750  alt.,  142,157  pop.)  is  built  chiefly  on  low,  rolling  hills  and 
on  the  flat  between  the  hills  and  the  east  bank  of  the  Arkansas  River.  The  city 
has  reached  out  across  the  river,  however,  and  includes  West  Tulsa,  now 
(1941)  an  integral  part  of  it.  Stretching  away  to  the  south  is  one  of  Okla- 
homa's most  fertile  farming  and  fruit-growing  sections;  toward  the  north  and 
east  the  land  is  broken  and  better  adapted  to  grazing;  and  on  the  northwest 
are  the  lower  ranges  of  the  Osage  Hills,  a  part  of  the  Osage  Indian  oil  lands. 

Tulsa,  the  second  largest  city  in  Oklahoma,  is  the  oil  center  of  the  great 
Mid-Continent  area  and  the  state's  largest  oil  refining  center,  yet  it  is  neither 
typically  Oklahoman  nor  a  typical  oil-boom  town.  It  is  a  city  of  contrasts, 
resulting  from  the  transplanting  of  a  metropolitan  population  to  a  small  set- 
tlement of  Indians  and  white  pioneers.  In  certain  sections,  as  north  of  3d 
Street,  old  Tulsa  still  exists  (1941)  with  the  squat  one-  and  two-story  frame, 
stone,  and  brick  buildings  of  its  earlier  days.  Generally,  however,  the  city  is 
eastern  in  the  character  of  its  people,  in  its  office  buildings  on  Boston  Avenue 
between  3d  and  6th  Streets,  and  in  its  southern  section,  where  elaborate  homes 
suggest  New  York  or  Philadelphia  suburbs  rather  than  Oklahoma. 

The  sections  flanking  the  railroad  tracks  between  1st  Street  and  Archer 
Avenue  and  West  Tulsa,  across  the  river,  are  industrial  in  character;  and 
beyond  Archer  to  the  northeast  lies  the  extensive  Negro  district. 

A  dramatic  view  of  Tulsa  from  the  southwest,  across  the  vast  refinery 
plant  dominating  West  Tulsa  and  the  wide  sand-carpeted  bed  of  the  river, 
shows  tall,  smoke-stained  stacks  giving  way,  on  the  skyline,  to  the  taller 
modern-city  group  of  skyscrapers  that  serve  the  office  and  hotel  needs  of  its 
hundreds  of  oil  companies.  It  is  a  visual  summary  of  the  city's  description 
of  itself  as  the  oil  capital  of  the  world. 

More  than  98  per  cent  of  Tulsa's  population  is  American  born,  but  it  is 
composed  of  many  elements.  The  first  organized  settlement  was  made  by 
civilized  Indians,  and  the  first  whites  were  a  mixture  of  workmen,  small- 
scale  merchants,  missionaries,  and  adventurers.  After  statehood  brought  the 
right  to  buy  land,  many  farmers  and  ranchmen  came  from  the  South  and 
West  to  settle  in  the  vicinity,  and  their  children  built  homes  in  the  city.  To 


206  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

this  already  conglomerate  citizenry  the  oil  industry  added  thousands  of  ad- 
ministrative, technical,  and  clerical  workers  from  the  North  and  East. 

Tulsa  has  wealthy  citizens  whose  fortunes  are  generations  old  and  others 
whose  wealth  is  new.  Many  of  the  poor  became  rich  and  many  of  the  rich 
lost  their  money  as  the  status  of  oil  in  the  Mid-Continent  region  fluctuated. 
Indians  and  whites  intermarried  extensively;  factory  workers  drifted  in;  leis- 
ure classes  developed;  businessmen  retired  and  took  up  the  hobbies  of  leisure. 
The  city's  great  middle  class,  composed  of  minor  oil  executives,  tradesmen 
and  clerks,  mechanics  and  oil  office  workers,  increased. 

There  are  citizens  of  all  degrees  of  Indian  mixture,  but  even  those  of  less 
than  one-eighth  proudly  call  themselves  Indians.  They  boast,  as  did  the  late 
Will  Rogers,  who  was  a  Cherokee  member  of  Tulsa's  Akdar  Shrine,  that 
their  ancestors  were  not  Mayflower  passengers,  but  were  on  the  "reception 
committee."  Tulsa's  Indians  are  not  easily  identified  unless  they  are  of  more 
than  one-quarter  blood.  Their  dress,  pursuits,  and  attainments  are  exactly 
the  same  as  those  of  the  white  population. 

About  12  per  cent  of  Tulsa's  population  is  Negroes,  who  live  in  a  segre- 
gated district  of  which  Greenwood  Avenue  is  the  principal  business  street. 
This  district  lies  to  the  northeast  of  the  Union  Depot,  running  in  a  fan  shape 
from  a  line  almost  due  north  to  a  line  approximately  northeast,  and  extending 
indefinitely  to  the  city's  edge.  Housing  facilities  here  are  generally  poor,  re- 
flecting the  income  of  a  people  largely  dependent  upon  work  as  servants  or 
casual  laborers.  There  are,  however,  a  few  fine  residences,  the  homes  of  suc- 
cessful business  and  professional  men.  Within  the  Greenwood  district  are  the 
"separate"  schools,  Negro  hotels,  a  park,  places  of  business  and  amusement, 
a  municipal  hospital,  and  churches. 

Tulsa  existed  as  early  as  1879  as  a  postoffice  on  the  pony  mail  route 
through  Indian  Territory.  The  office  was  in  the  home  of  a  Creek  rancher, 
George  Ferryman,  near  what  is  now  41st  Street;  the  rancher's  brother  was 
the  first  postmaster.  Into  this  primitive  section,  unknown  to  any  whites  except 
a  few  cattlemen  and  those  who  had  married  into  the  tribe,  the  old  Adantic 
&  Pacific  Railroad  built  in  1882.  Originally  the  builders  planned  to  stop  in  the 
Cherokee  Nation,  about  a  mile  from  the  river  bank,  but  since  the  Cherokee 
laws  prohibited  commercial  transactions  by  native,  intermarried,  or  adopted 
Cherokee  citizens,  the  rails  were  extended  into  the  Creek  Nation  where  whites 
were  permitted  to  trade  by  posting  a  bond.  There,  on  the  site  of  the  present 
Tulsa  business  section,  the  railroad  established  a  terminal  with  a  roundhouse 
and  a  large  loading  pen.  The  vast  herds  of  cattle  from  the  Southwest,  for- 
merly driven  overland  to  Vinita  (see  Tour  1),  were  now  loaded  in  Tulsa  for 
shipment  to  the  stockyards  of  St.  Louis  and  Chicago.  Trains  began  making 


TULSA  207 

daily  trips  between  the  terminus  and  Vinita,  stopping  at  intervals  to  let 
passengers  shoot  prairie  chickens  along  the  way.  Traders  and  an  occasional 
professional  man  drifted  in.  The  Creek  rancher  moved  his  postoffice  to  the 
terminal. 

The  town  was  first  called  Tulsey  Town,  for  the  Creek  Indians  who  be- 
longed to  the  Tallassee  or  Tulsey  community.  The  present  Tallassee,  Alabama, 
was  the  former  home  of  this  group  before  the  Indians  were  removed  to  Okla- 
homa. 

Isparhecher  ('Spa-hich'-se),  an  insurgent  Creek  leader,  had  organized 
a  small  army  of  full  bloods  and  harassed  those  Creeks  loyal  to  Chief  Checotah. 
Guerilla  warfare  was  rampant  throughout  the  nation  in  1882,  and  the  litde 
stores  of  Tulsa,  unable  to  replenish  their  stocks  for  fear  of  looting,  did  prac- 
tically no  business  all  fall  and  winter.  By  August,  1883,  however,  the  Creek 
trouble  was  settled  and  the  town  began  to  breathe  normally.  Floored  tents 
were  replaced  by  wooden  shacks,  and  plank-built  stores  were  provided  with 
covered  porches.  With  the  coming  of  summer,  1883,  Tulsa  had  all  the  ear- 
marks of  a  "fair  little  city,"  as  its  inhabitants  called  it,  even  to  a  community 
water  well  and  a  Negro  barber. 

The  early  setders  of  the  town  felt  that  one  hundred  feet  was  "too  far  to 
wade  the  mud,"  and  main  street  was  made  only  eighty  feet  wide.  The  street 
was  surveyed  by  a  railroad  engineer  who  ran  his  line  at  right  angles  to  the 
railroad,  thus  causing  the  downtown  district  to  be  built  "cattywampus,"  as 
the  old-timers  express  it,  while  the  rest  of  the  city  is  straight  with  the  com- 
pass. In  writing  of  this  Main  Street  a  pioneer  recalls  that  "whether  it  was 
dusty  or  muddy  depended  upon  the  weather.  We  had  to  dodge  roaming  hogs, 
goats,  and  cows  when  crossing,  and  sometimes  wild  animals  would  venture 
into  the  middle  of  town." 

Alcoholic  liquor  was  prohibited  under  Indian  Territory  law,  but  thous- 
ands of  gallons  poured  into  the  town.  There  were  no  important  trading  points 
within  a  radius  of  sixty  miles,  and  Tulsa's  isolation  made  it  a  resort  for 
gamblers  and  bad  men.  The  only  law  was  that  enforced  by  the  Creek  Light- 
horsemen  and  the  U.S.  deputy  marshals  who  paid  brief  and  rare  visits;  or 
the  "two  volumes  of  common  law"  that  every  man  carried  strapped  to  his 
thighs.  In  spite  of  this  wild-west  atmosphere,  however,  the  first  organization 
of  any  kind  was  a  union  Sunday  School,  formed  in  1883  in  the  tent  of  a  rail- 
road carpenter. 

In  1884  the  Presbyterian  Home  Mission  Board  of  New  York  City  erected 
a  small  mission  school  on  the  summit  of  a  wooded  hill  at  what  is  now  the 
southeast  corner  of  Fourth  Street  and  Boston  Avenue.  Here  Tulsa's  first  con- 
gregation was  organized,  one  that  included  many  Indians  and  an  elder  who 


208  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCll'AL    CITIHS 

used  the  Cherokee  language  when  called  upon  to  pray.  It  was  near  the  old 
catde  trail,  and  herds  ot  cattle  were  driven  past  it  almost  every  day  until 
about  1888.  Its  site  is  now  (1941)  occupied  by  the  Cosden  Building, 

There  were  many  things  to  retard  the  development  ,o£  Tulsa.  First,  a 
long  fight  with  railroad  officials  who  claimed  a  right  of  way  three  hundred 
feet  wide  south  of  the  tracks  that  would  have  included  some  of  the  town's 
buildings.  Then  certain  of  the  Indians  eyed  the  site  of  the  little  settlement 
greedily,  claiming  most  of  it  as  their  personal  allotments  after  the  nation's 
land,  once  held  in  common,  had  been  divided  among  individual  Creek  citi- 
zens. As  a  result  of  these  land  disputes,  residences  and  business  houses  were 
built  on  the  first  white  cemetery  and  the  Creek  burial  grounds  on  the  heights 
overlooking  the  river.  One  of  the  most  serious  difficulties  was  the  lack  of  an 
adequate  water  supply,  which  caused  the  railroad  to  shift  its  terminal  to 
Sapulpa.  In  1900,  at  the  time  of  the  first  government  townsite  survey,  Tulsa, 
with  a  population  of  1,390 — including  whites,  Negroes  and  Indians^ — was 
merely  an  unimportant  town  in  Indian  Territory. 

Then,  on  June  25,  1901,  Tulsa  rocketed  into  national  attention.  Across 
the  river  at  Red  Fork  (now  within  the  city  limits)  the  state's  first  commer- 
ically  important  oil  well  was  brought  in.  During  the  next  two  years  Red 
Fork  and  Tulsa  both  grew  rapidly;  but  since  Tulsa  was  cut  off  from  oil 
development  by  the  Arkansas  River,  there  was  a  possibility  that  she  might 
become  a  suburb  of  the  other  town.  A  bond  issue  to  build  a  wagon  bridge 
failed,  but  three  citizens  built  a  toll  bridge  with  their  own  capital  and  Tulsa 
invited  the  ever-increasing  horde  of  oil  men  to  "come  and  make  your  homes 
in  a  beautiful  litde  city  that  is  high  and  dry,  peaceful  and  orderly.  Where 
there  are  good  churches,  stores,  schools,  and  banks,  and  where  our  ordinances 
prevent  the  desolation  of  our  homes  and  property  by  oil  wells." 

The  oilmen  took  Tulsa  at  its  word.  By  1910  a  building  boom  was  in 
full  swing  and  brick  plants  were  working  at  capacity.  Pipe  lines  were  opened 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  oil  prices  were  climbing.  Hotel  and  office  buildings 
were  erected.  Streets  were  paved.  Banks  were  established.  The  total  value 
of  buildings  under  construction  reached  $1,365,000  by  late  August.  Down 
through  the  Creek  country  and  up  through  the  lands  of  the  Osages  into  Kan- 
sas went  the  drillers;  but  in  Tulsa  lived  the  bosses,  and  here  the  operating 
money  was  banked.  The  population  leaped  from  19,500  in  1910  to  76,966  in 
1920,  and  to  141,258  in  1930. 

Immediately  following  the  World  War,  there  was  increasing  racial  bitter- 
ness due  to  the  influx  of  both  white  and  Negro  laborers  seeking  employment 
in  the  oil  fields.  After  months  of  unrest  and  threats  of  vigilante  activity,  a 
minor  incident  on  June  1,  1921,  developed  into  a  serious  race  riot.  Armed 


TULSA  209 

conflict  between  whites  and  Negroes  spread  to  several  sections  of  the  city. 
Vigilantes  invaded  the  Greenwood  (Negro)  district  and  laid  it  waste  by  fire. 
It  was  estimated  that  more  than  thirty-six  persons  were  killed  in  the  various 
clashes.  After  a  night  of  terror  and  two  days  of  martial  law  the  whites  organ- 
ized a  systematic  rehabilitation  program  for  the  devastated  Negro  section 
and  gave  generous  aid  to  the  Negroes  left  homeless  by  the  fire.  Nationwide 
publicity  of  the  most  lurid  sort  naturally  followed  the  tragedy,  and  Tulsa's 
whites  and  Negroes  joined  in  an  effort  to  live  down  the  incident  by  working 
for  a  better  mutual  understanding. 

Many  of  the  early  settlers  were  cultured  people,  and  the  city's  many-sided 
interest  in  music  has  developed  from  their  activities  (see  Music).  One  of  the 
first  ensembles  of  one  hundred  pianos  heard  in  the  United  States  played  in 
Tulsa  in  1934  and  was  broadcast  over  a  portion  of  the  Columbia  Broadcast- 
ing System's  network. 

The  business  life  of  the  town  is  dominated  by  oil  and  the  industries  allied 
with  oil.  Of  the  latter  there  are  machine  shops,  tank  companies,  rig  and  der- 
rick manufacturers,  and  a  score  of  the  nation's  best -known  makers  of  other 
oil-field  tools  and  equipment.  It  is  estimated  that  540  oil  companies  with 
headquarters  in  Tulsa  purchase  supplies  and  equipment  with  a  value  of  ap- 
proximately $400,000,000.  Much  of  the  financing  is  made  possible  by  the 
city's  banks,  which  specialize  in  oil-field  enterprises  and  handle  successfully 
oil  promotions  that  other  banks  would  not  consider.  As  a  center  for  financing 
such  operations,  the  city  is  second  only  to  New  York. 

Petroleum  refining  is  by  far  the  most  important  industry  in  Tulsa.  One 
of  the  largest  refineries  in  the  state,  with  a  daily  capacity  of  forty  thousand 
barrels  of  crude  oil,  is  across  the  Arkansas  River  from  the  business  district. 
Here  are  also  two  other  refineries  with  capacities  of  eleven  thousand  and  six 
thousand  barrels  a  day;  and  in  the  suburb  of  Sand  Springs,  seven  miles  west, 
there  is  a  fourth  refinery  that  handles  eight  thousand  barrels  of  crude  oil  daily. 

Cheap  fuel  and  an  abundant  supply  of  raw  materials  account  for  the 
city's  industrial  importance  in  fields  other  than  those  associated  with  oil.  In 
the  Sand  Springs  district  are  several  glass  plants,  one  of  the  largest  cotton  mills 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  chemical  works,  a  furniture  factory,  steel  works,  gar- 
ment and  tent  factories,  automobile  body  works,  brick  and  tile  plants  and 
oxygen  making  and  distributing  centers.  An  aircraft  company,  with  which  is 
connected  a  school  of  aeronautics,  represents  a  considerable  investment,  and 
its  expanding  activities  are  closely  tied  in  with  the  national  air  defense 
program. 

With  the  coming  of  oil,  Tulsa's  two  struggling  weekly  newspapers,  the 
Democrat  and  the  World,  blossomed  into  dailies.  In  1920,  the  Democrat,  an 


210  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

evening  paper,  came  under  new  management  and  the  name  was  changed  to 
the  Tribune.  The  World  became  a  morning  daily  and  for  a  short  time  put 
out  an  evening  edition  also.  Published  weekly  at  Tulsa  is  the  Oil  and  Gas 
Journal,  the  most  important,  authoritative  oil  publication  in  the  country,  and 
one  that  is  read  by  oilmen  all  over  the  world. 

The  Oklahoma  Constitution,  the  New  State  Farm  and  Home,  and 
Sturm's  Statehood  Magazine,  now  only  memories,  were  started  in  the  period 
1904-06  to  further  the  movement  for  statehood. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1.  UNION  DEPOT,  3  S.  Boston  Ave.,  on  a  site  125  by  155  feet  in  extent, 
is  at  the  heart  of  old  Tulsa.  The  exterior  walls  of  this  modern  building  are 
formed  of  alternate  blocks  of  white  and  very  pale  gray  Bedford  limestone, 
with  litde  decoration  except  above  the  windows  and  along  a  coping  which 
takes  the  place  of  a  cornice.  The  cornice  efifect  is  achieved  by  a  carved  Greek 
key  motif,  broken  by  conventional  shield  designs  bearing  figures  of  eagles 
and  winged  wheels  in  bas-relief.  In  the  interior,  the  upper  walls  are  plastered 
in  imitation  of  travertine  marble  while  the  two-tone  marble  of  the  wainscoting 
is  laid  in  a  panel  design.  This,  the  first  Union  Depot  in  Oklahoma,  was  de- 
signed by  R.  C.  Stephens,  Frisco  Railway  architect,  and  completed  in  1931. 
Because  the  railway  tracks  were  on  a  level  with  the  diked  banks  of  the  Arkan- 
sas River  and  could  not  be  lowered,  the  streets  in  the  neighborhood  were 
raised  to  cross  over  them.  Thus,  while  the  main  entrances  and  waiting  room 
of  the  depot  are  at  street  level,  they  are  30  feet  above  the  tracks.  The  outstand- 
ing feature  of  the  building  is  the  foyer  extending  from  Cincinnati  to  Boston 
Avenues. 

2.  The  SEAMAN  OFFICE  BUILDING,  14-16  3d  St.,  formerly  contained 
the  Elks'  clubrooms,  in  which,  in  November,  1906,  the  last  passionate  protest 
against  white  occupancy  of  the  Creek  Nation  was  made  by  Chitto  Harjo, 
later  leader  of  the  Crazy  Snake  Rebellion.  Harjo,  speaking  before  a  congres- 
sional committee  and  the  chiefs  of  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees,  reminded  the 
government  of  its  treaties  and  begged  that  all  its  promises  be  kept. 

3.  The  FEDERAL  BUILDING,  Boulder  Ave.  between  2d  and  3d  Sts.,  is 
a  three-story  limestone  structure  of  neoclassic  design  with  a  Corinthian  colon- 
nade across  the  front.  The  southern  third  of  the  building  was  erected  under 
the  supervision  of  James  A.  Wetmore,  acting  supervising  architect  of  the 
Treasury  Department,  in  1915.  Using  the  same  design  and  structural  ma- 
terials, the  building  was  enlarged  to  its  present  size  in  1932. 

4.  The  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  N.E.  corner  6th  St.  and  Boulder 
Ave.,  a  four-story  limestone  structure  of  modified  Greek  design,  was  erected 


TULSA  211 

in  1910-11.  On  this  site  in  1886,  George  Ferryman,  brother  of  Legus  Perry- 
man,  who  was  a  principal  chief  of  the  Creek  Nation,  built  a  sizable  residence, 
which  at  that  time  was  considered  "way  out  in  the  country." 

5.  CENTRAL  SENIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL,  between  Cincinnati  and  De- 
troit Aves.,  extending  from  6th  to  7th  Sts.,  is  a  red-brick  structure  trimmed 
with  white  stone.  The  entrances  are  flanked  by  towers,  Tudor  Gothic  in  feel- 
ing. The  school  was  built  in  two  sections — one  in  1916,  the  other  in  1921 — at 
a  cost  of  approximately  $2,000,000.  The  south  auditorium  (open  during  school 
hours)  is  equipped  with  the  first  pipe  organ  placed  in  a  public  high  school 
in  the  United  States,  a  gift  of  the  graduating  classes  from  1925  to  1935  in- 
clusive. 

6.  The  BOSTON  AVENUE  METHODIST  CHURCH,  Boston  Ave.  be- 
tween 13th  St.  and  13th  Place,  is  a  notable  example  of  modern  ecclesiastical 
architecture.  The  unusual  design  was  conceived  by  Miss  Adah  Robinson, 
Tulsa  artist,  and  executed  by  Rush,  Endicott,  and  Goflf,  Tulsa  architects. 
Construction  was  completed  in  1929. 

The  massive  limestone  walls  of  the  main  building,  four  stories  high,  termi- 
nate in  cubistic  images  of  praying  hands.  The  same  symbolic  imagery,  in  less 
detail,  is  carried  out  in  the  illuminated  tower  that  rises  290  feet  above  the 
doorways  with  their  pointed  arches  and  terra-cotta  and  bas-relief  figures  of 
pioneer  characters.  The  lower  floors  are  occupied  by  a  community  hall,  gym- 
nasium, kitchen,  auditorium,  chapel,  and  educational  rooms.  Other  offices, 
classrooms,  and  studios  are  in  the  tower.  The  building  of  the  church  attracted 
international  attention,  and  newspapers  and  magazines  in  many  parts  of  the 
world  printed  photographs  and  descriptions  of  it. 

7.  The  OLD  COUNCIL  TREE,  on  the  lawn  of  a  private  residence  at  1730 
S.  Cheyenne  Ave.,  is  marked  by  a  bronze  tablet  nailed  to  the  trunk.  The 
ground  around  the  tree  was  the  traditional  meeting  place  for  the  heads  of 
the  Creek  families  composing  the  Tallassee  Lochapokas  (town)  for  their 
councils  or  busks.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  used  as  early  as  1836,  until 
the  Spanish-American  War.  The  busk  was  the  official  town  meeting,  but 
included  purification  and  recreation  rites  as  well  as  business.  Several  days 
before  the  appointed  time,  a  messenger  from  the  town  chief  would  deliver 
to  each  family  a  bundle  of  sticks.  One  stick  was  withdrawn  and  broken  each 
day  until  one  remained.  This  last  stick  was  presented  at  the  roll  call  on  the 
following  day.  The  men  purified  themselves  by  drinking  an  emetic  of  willow 
root.  Recreation  took  the  form  of  feasting,  dancing,  and  Indian  ball.  This 
game  was  so  important  to  the  Creeks  that  their  general  council  passed 
stringent  rules  governing  it. 

8.  BOULDER  PARK,  Boulder  Ave  and  18th  St.,  was  a  favorite  camping 


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214  OKLAHOMA:    PRINCIPAL    CITIES 

place  for  the  Indians,  and  the  scene  of  several  feuds  between  the  Creeks  who 
were  divided  in  loyalty  by  the  Civil  War.  Among  the  park's  attractions  are 
a  formal  flower  garden,  a  softball  diamond,  and  an  archery  range. 

9.  INDIAN  BOUNDARY  SITE,  intersection  of  Frisco  and  Elwood  Aves. 
and  Edison  St.,  is  marked  by  a  bronze  plate  set  in  the  center  of  the  Edison 
Street  paving  at  the  exact  corner  where  the  Osage,  Cherokee,  and  Creek 
nations  met  before  the  Cherokee  and  Creek  boundaries  were  obliterated  by 
statehood.  (The  Osage  Nation,  now  Osage  County,  still  retains  it  boundary.) 

10.  The  PHILBROOK  ART  MUSEUM,  (open  10  a.m.  to  6  p.m.,  except 
Sun.  and  Tues.,  2  p.m.  to  6  p.m.  Closed  Mon.  Admission  free  Sun.  and  Thurs., 
other  days  25c),  1111  S.  Rockford  Ave.,  was  formerly  an  elaborate  and  beau- 
tiful private  residence.  It  was  given  to  the  city  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Waite  Phillips, 
who  also  gave  the  necessary  funds  to  convert  it  into  a  home  of  regional  art. 
The  museum  opened  in  October,  1939.  Under  the  direction  of  the  South- 
western Art  Association,  it  houses  changing  exhibitions  of  paintings,  sculf)- 
ture,  tapestries,  and  other  art  forms;  and  offers  lectures  and  classes  in  painting, 
drawing,  sculpture,  and  modeling  for  children.  One  of  its  principal  purposes 
is  to  emphasize  Indian  art.  On  the  first  Thursday  of  each  month,  there  are 
special  showings  for  Negroes,  with  Negro  docents  in  attendance. 

11.  Many  of  the  buildings  and  the  grounds  of  the  UNIVERSITY  OF 
TULSA,  between  5th  and  7th  Sts.,  and  Delaware  Ave.  and  Gary  Place,  are 
gifts  of  Tulsa  philanthropists.  Some  of  its  $1,252,000  endowment,  however, 
came  from  public  subscriptions.  The  school  was  moved  to  Tulsa  in  1907  from 
Muskogee,  where  it  was  founded  in  1894  as  Henry  Kendall  College.  Origi- 
nally controlled  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions,  it  became  a 
nonsectarian  school  in  1928.  The  university  has  an  enrollment  (1940)  of  1,836 
students  and  a  faculty  of  125. 

The  principal  group  of  seven  buildings  is  in  the  center  of  the  campus, 
the  front,  or  west,  half  of  which  is  marked  by  a  horseshoe  drive.  This  half 
of  the  campus  was  given  to  the  school  in  1929,  and  College  Avenue  was  closed 
where  it  passed  through  the  grounds.  The  university  oval  was  then  laid  out, 
and  the  Library,  Fine  Arts,  and  Petroleum  Engineering  buildings  were  erected 
there.  These  buildings,  of  modified  Gothic  design,  are  of  native  limestone, 
while  Kendall  Hall  and  Robertson  Hall  are  of  red  brick,  and  the  Union  build- 
ing is  of  stone.  Together  with  the  grey-brick  Harwell  Gymnasium  they 
occupy  a  thick  grove  of  oaks  and  elms,  planted  30  years  ago.  Seen  from  the 
west,  the  green  of  the  grove,  splotched  with  the  red  of  the  older  buildings, 
Kendall  and  Robertson  Halls,  makes  a  pleasant  background  for  the  new 
stone  structures  bordering  the  horseshoe;  the  shrubs  and  flower  beds,  young 
trees  and  velvet  expanse  of  the  front  campus,  give  delightful  depth  to  the  view. 


TULSA  215 

Kendall  Hall,  the  original  brick  building  from  which  the  university 
grew,  contains  the  historic  bell  that  rang  out  the  news  of  statehood  to  Tulsa 
citizens  in  1907.  Other  and  newer  buildings  on  the  50-acre  campus  are  Rob- 
ertson Hall,  Kemp  Lodge,  and  Tyrell  Hall,  occupied  by  the  College  of  Fine 
Arts  and  certain  administrative  offices.  McFarlin  Library  (open  8-10  week- 
days; closed  Sat.  p.m.  and  during  Aug.)  contains  more  than  55,000  bound 
volumes.  It  also  houses  the  Alice  M.  Robertson  Collection  of  old  trinkets  and 
manuscripts  of  early  mission  days.  The  Phillips  Engineering  Building, 
seat  of  the  College  of  Petroleum  Engineering,  has  the  largest  oil  well-sample 
library  in  the  Mid-Continent  oil  fields. 

12.  The  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  (SKELLY)  STADIUM,  E.  11th  St.  and  S. 
Florence  Ave.,  is  a  steel  and  concrete  structure,  with  seating  capacity  of  more 
than  15,000.  It  is  completely  equipped  with  electric  scoreboard,  public  address 
system,  and  floodlights  for  night  games.  Both  the  University  of  Tulsa  and 
the  city  high  schools  use  the  stadium. 

13.  In  OWEN  PARK,  N.E.  corner  of  W.  Edison  St.  and  Quanah  Ave.,  is  a 
limestone  Monument  on  which  a  bronze  plate,  upheld  by  bronze  stalks  of 
Indian  corn,  commemorates  the  signing  of  the  treaties  by  which  the  Cherokee, 
Creek,  and  Osage  tribes  were  assigned  to  their  national  lands  in  the  Indian 
Territory.  The  park  is  a  well-landscaped  area,  with  flower  beds,  tennis  courts, 
a  lake  and  rustic  bridge,  a  wading  pool,  and  a  rest  house. 

14.  MID-CONTINENT  PETROLEUM  CORPORATION  REFINERY 
(open  9-3  daily;  guides),  17th  St.  and  Union  Ave.,  W.  Tulsa,  is  the  largest 
refinery  in  the  world  operating  exclusively  on  high  gravity,  100  per  cent  paraf- 
fin-base crude  oils,  and  is  Tulsa's  largest  industrial  plant.  Within  the  ordered 
chaos  of  its  equipment,  covering  800  acres,  are  massive  "crackers"  that  attain 
a  heat  of  1,000  degrees  F.  and  a  pressure  of  1,000  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 
"Fractionating  towers"  rise  120  feet  above  the  heating  units;  16  stillblocks, 
one  with  100  stills  in  a  row,  sprawl  across  the  landscape.  The  plant  has  a 
capacity  of  1,680,000  gallons  of  crude  oil  daily,  operates  on  a  24-hour  schedule, 
and  employs  1,000  workers.  Oil  comes  from  the  company's  own  wells  in  the 
Mid-Continent  field,  through  the  company's  1,400-mile  pipe-line  system.  The 
refinery  opened  in  October,  1913,  with  only  one  battery  of  stills  and  a  few 
tanks.  Now  its  storage  tanks  hold  more  than  4,000,000  barrels,  and  the  refinery 
circulates  more  than  30,000,000  gallons  of  water  per  day  in  making  steam. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST  IN  THE  ENVIRONS 

Red  Fork,  6.9  m.  (see  Tour  1);  Tulsa's  First  Post  Office,  5. 4  m.;  Sand  Springs,  8.2  m.; 
Sand  Springs  Home  Interests,  10.3  m.  (see  Tour  2);  Mashed  O  Ranch,  7.7  m.;  Mohawk 
Park,  9.9  m.  (see  Tour  9A). 


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PART  III 

Tours 


Tvij^    '      i^o^i^    '      :^vij^      ~    i^^js    "     rj'o^j — '  ~ — rp(|^ — '  ~ — ziiij^ — ' ' — r;/^|^ 


^ff(?2 . , ^^"1 -  - ES'''iI ^  . ■^^'^Z ^. ■&^i]l ^  - s5l)i!2 ^  , e50/»2 .  ^ e5')''2 


Tour  1 


(Baxter  Springs,  Kans.) — Tulsa — Oklahoma   City — El   Reno — Clinton — 
Sayre — (Shamrock,  Tex.);  US  66. 
Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  386  m. 

Frisco  Ry.  parallels  route  between  the  Kansas  Line  and  Oklahoma  City;  Rock  Island  Ry. 
between  Oklahoma  City  and  the  Texas  Line. 
Roadbed  concrete-paved  throughout. 
Good  accommodations  at  short  intervals. 

Known  for  many  things,  Grapes  of  Wrath  families,  "Cash  and  Carry" 
Pyle's  Bunion  Derby,  its  popular  local  titles,  "Main  Street  of  America"  and 
the  "Will  Rogers  Highway  of  America,"  US  dd  runs  the  gamut  of  hot  and 
cold,  mountains  and  prairies,  beauty  and  sordid  ugliness. 

Its  path  through  Oklahoma  has  evolved  from  trails  and  footpaths  worn 
deep  in  virgin  prairies  and  blazed  through  blackjack  tangles.  Jealousy  and 
rivalry  played  their  part  in  its  growth,  for  the  brash  new  towns  of  the  young 
state  all  wanted  to  be  on  the  highway  which  connected  the  east  with  the 
rapidly  growing  center,  Amarillo,  Texas,  to  the  west.  In  1916,  the  part  of  US 
66  linking  Oklahoma  City  with  Amarillo  was  improved  as  a  postal  highway. 

US  66  runs  southwestward  to  the  center  of  the  state  through  mining 
districts  and  oil  and  gas  fields,  thence  westward  to  the  Texas  Line  through 
farming  and  stock  country.  Part  of  the  route  traverses  the  area  visited  by 
Washington  Irving  in  1832,  when  the  land  was  a  virgin  wilderness.  He 
related  his  adventures  in  A  Tour  on  the  Frames,  published  in  1835. 

Toward  the  western  end,  as  the  highway  rises  gradually  to  higher  eleva- 
tions, the  air  seems  to  become  clearer,  towns  are  visible  at  great  distances,  and 
tall  office  buildings  loom  mirage -like  above  the  level  land.  The  region  is 
apdy  called  the  country  of  short  grass  and  high  plains. 

Section  a.  KANSAS  LINE  to  TULSA,  1093  m.  US  66 

Crossing  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  tn.,  four  miles  south  of  Baxter  Springs, 
Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide),  US  66  passes  through  a  district  in  which  are  the 
greatest  lead  and  zinc  mines  in  the  world,  a  section  known  to  Oklahoma, 
Kansas,  and  Missouri  as  the  Big  Business  Corner.  For  about  fourteen  miles 
huge  man-made  mountains  of  chat  (waste  rock)  border  the  highway.  The 
lead  and  zinc  deposits  were  discovered  shordy  after  the  Civil  War  by  adven- 
turers searching  for  gold. 

219 


220  OKLAHOMA 

At  0.8  m.,  under  the  highway,  is  part  of  an  abandoned  lead  mine  which 
yielded  $10,000,000  worth  of  ore  to  its  first  owners.  When  they  ceased  opera- 
tions, they  stripped  out  most  of  the  roof  supports  and  leased  the  mine  site.  A 
slide,  caused  by  the  unstable  retimbering  done  by  the  new  owners  filled  the 
main  shaft  with  rocks  and  earth,  and  the  ruined  mine  was  abandoned. 

QUAPAW,  4.5  m.  (840  alt.,  1,054  pop.),  was  built  on  land  once  owned 
by  the  Quapaw  Indians.  The  tall  prairie  grass,  abundant  in  the  surrounding 
country,  made  the  town  a  logical  center  for  hay-shipping  at  the  turn  of  the 
century.  Cattle-grazing  later  became  important. 

Zinc  mining,  however,  which  makes  this  section  a  hub  of  industry  today 
(1941),  is  at  present  the  commercial  mainstay  of  the  town.  Mining  began  in 
this  region  as  early  as  1897.  By  1907,  ores  from  the  Dark  Horse  Mine,  opened 
in  1904,  were  being  taken  out  in  paying  quantities.  After  the  first  World  War, 
when  the  demand  for  the  two  metals  had  lessened,  the  fast  growth  of  Qua- 
paw was  arrested.  However,  the  modern  tree-shaded  residential  section  indi- 
cates the  prosperity  which  mining  leases  have  brought  to  the  citizens.  A 
large  number  of  Quapaw  Indians  live  in  the  town;  many  of  them  received 
immense  royalties  from  their  allotments  during  the  boom  years  of  1917-18. 

Near  Quapaw  an  Indian  Powwow  is  held  annually  on  July  4,  and,  during 
the  second  week  of  August,  the  Seneca-Cayuga  Green  Corn  Feast  and  Dances 
are  observed.  Visitors  are  welcome  to  both. 

COMMERCE,  10.8  m.  (805  alt.,  2,422  pop.),  is  a  mining  town  sur- 
rounded by  large  piles  of  slag  and  chat  that  mark  the  mining  leases  on  all 
sides.  Five  types  of  crystal  formation  and  many  kinds  of  ore  specimens  are 
displayed  for  sale  on  the  main  street  corners.  In  the  town  is  the  abandoned 
Turkey  Fat  Mine  (R),  the  first  in  the  area. 

Commerce  is  at  the  junction  with  US  69,  which  unites  southward  with 
US  66  for  thirty-nine  miles  (see  Tour  8). 

At  13.7  m.  is  a  flying  school  for  the  training  of  R.A.F.  pilots. 

MIAMI,  14.7  m.  (800  alt.,  8,345  pop.),  now  a  financial  center  of  the 
important  Tri-State  mining  area,  was  originally  a  trading  post  called  Jim- 
town  in  the  sparsely  setded  region  set  aside  for  a  number  of  small  Indian 
tribes.  This  post,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  present  North  Miami,  was  the  home 
of  four  farmers  named  Jim;  hence  the  early  name.  In  1890,  mail  for  the 
near-by  Quapaw  Agency  had  to  be  brought  from  Baxter  Springs,  Kansas. 
To  facilitate  delivery  of  the  agency  mail,  arrangements  were  made  with  Jim 
Palmer  (one  of  the  four  Jims)  to  establish  a  post  office.  The  name  chosen  for 
the  new  office  was  Miami,  in  honor  of  Palmer's  wife,  who  was  of  Miami 
Indian  blood.  A  year  later  the  townsite  was  platted  and  the  first  lots  sold. 

Miami  might  have  followed  the  usual  development  from  a  trading  post 
in  Indian  Territory  to  a  small  town  in  a  farming  community  had  it  not  been 
for  the  discovery  of  lead  and  zinc  in  1905.  Boom  excitement  caused  the  pop- 
ulation to  increase  141  per  cent  in  a  brief  period. 

The  principal  industry  in  the  surrounding  territory,  in  addition  to  min- 
ing, is  cattle-raising  and  dairy  production;  purebred  cattle  have  replaced  to 
a  large  extent  the  longhorns  which  formerly  grazed  over  the  reservation. 


TOUR  1        22! 

At  the  eastern  edge  of  the  city,  on  a  forty-acre  campus,  is  the  Northeast- 
ern Oklahoma  Junior  College,  estabHshed  in  1919  by  the  state  legislature 
as  the  Miami  School  of  Mines.  Naturally,  considering  its  location  in  a  region 
of  high  production  of  lead  and  zinc,  the  school  at  first  emphasized  scientific 
mining  instruction.  Then,  as  Miami  lost  importance  as  a  mining  center,  it 
became  a  junior  college,  and  the  name  was  changed.  Regular  students  number 
from  250  to  300,  with  another  200  taking  special  courses,  and  there  are 
( 1941)  fourteen  teachers.  The  school  plant  includes  a  large  modern  Adminis- 
tration Building,  a  combined  Gymnasium  and  Auditorium,  a  shop  build- 
ing, and  two  dormitories,  one  each  for  men  and  women  students. 

At  24.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4),  which  unites  with 
US  66-69  for  25.1  miles. 

At  28.7  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  59  (see  Tour  15). 

AFTON,  29.7  m.  (290  alt.,  1,261  pop.),  a  thriving  farm  center,  lies  in  a 
level  area  of  rich,  black  soil  near  Horse  Creek.  It  is  said  that  it  was  named  for 
the  river  Afton  made  famous  by  Robert  Burns'  poem. 

At  41.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  the  GRAND  RIVER  DAM,  15.5  m.,  a  recently  completed  (1941), 
tremendous  power  project  belonging  to  the  people  of  Oklahoma.  The  idea  of  harnessing  the 
waters  of  the  Grand  River,  which  is  fed  by  Kansas  streams  and  also  by  Ozark  Mountain 
springs,  was  first  thought  of  in  1891.  Successive  private  efforts  failed,  then  the  state  legisla- 
ture created  the  Grand  River  Dam  Authority  in  1935.  Through  a  Public  Works  Administra- 
tion loan  and  grant,  $22,750,000  was  made  available  for  the  project;  the  debt  is  to  be  retired 
by  the  sale  of  hydroelectric  power. 

In  August,  1938,  construction  was  started  on  the  6,565-foot — the  longest  multiple 
arch  dam  in  the  world  (1941) — creating  a  vast  inland  sea  covering  fifty-four  thousand  acres. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  project  will  develop  two  hundred  million  kilowatts  of  power  annually 
to  be  distributed  through  private  utilities. 

Public  grounds  bordering  the  thousantl-mile  shore  line  are  rapidly  being  developed  for 
recreational  purposes,  and  the  lake  is  being  stocked  with  fish  by  the  State  Game  and  Fish 
Commission. 

VINITA,  45  m.  (702  alt.,  5,685  pop.),  was  named  by  Colonel  Elias  C. 
Boudinot,  a  Cherokee  Indian  and  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  townsite,  in 
honor  of  \'innie  Ream  (1850-1914).  Miss  Ream,  a  sculptor,  received  a  Con- 
gressional commission  to  model  the  life-size  statue  of  Abraham  Lincoln  which 
stands  in  the  capitol  at  Washington,  D.C. 

Although  there  was  a  small  settlement,  known  as  Downingville,  here 
in  1870,  Vinita  was  not  founded  until  1871  when  two  railroads  were  extended 
to  this  section.  Vinita's  early  history,  like  that  of  many  frontier  villages,  was 
linked  with  railroad  controversies.  The  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  had 
planned  to  make  a  junction  with  the  Atlantic  &  Pacific  Railroad  (now  the 
Frisco)  at  a  point  north  of  Big  Cabin  (see  Tour  8)  and  refused  to  stop  its 
trains  at  Vinita.  The  Atlantic  &  Pacific,  however,  stopped  at  a  crossing  near 
Vinita  whenever  a  train  from  the  other  road  was  due  to  pass  by.  Eventually, 
the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  capitulated  and  a  station  was  built  at  Vinita. 

The  annual  Will  Rogers  Memorial  Rodeo  is  held  here  in  the  first  week 
in  September.  Rogers  had  planned  to  be  present  at  the  first  event  in  1935, 
but  was  killed  on  August  15  of  that  year.  He  attended  a  secondary  school  here, 
but  in  his  writing  facetiously  referred  to  \'^inita  as  his  "college  town." 


222  OKLAHOMA 

The  Eastern  Oklahoma  Hospital  (visits  by  appointment)  is  a  state 
institution  for  treatment  of  mental  diseases.  It  was  here  that  a  patient,  under 
the  pseudonym,  "Inmate  Ward  8,"  wrote  the  book,  Behind  the  Door  of 
Delusion  (1932). 

At  49  w.  is  the  southern  junction  with  US  69  (see  Tour  8). 

At  50  m.  is  the  southern  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4). 

CHELSEA,  63.3  m.  (723  alt.,  1,642  pop.),  is  well  known  as  a  town  which 
was  frequented  by  Will  Rogers  in  his  boyhood.  Mrs.  Sallie  McSpadden,  his 
sister,  lives  here  (1941)  in  a  home  known  as  Maplewood.  A  Boy  Scout  cabin, 
for  which  Rogers  contributed  the  money,  is  located  in  a  near-by  park. 

The  first  oil  in  Indian  Territory  was  discovered  west  of  Chelsea  about 
1889  by  Edward  Byrd,  who  had  secured  a  lease  from  the  Cherokee  Nation. 
The  first  shallow  well  was  drilled  to  a  depth  of  thirty-six  feet.  Prior  to  the 
passing  of  legislation  regarding  the  leasing  of  Indian  land  for  drilling,  de- 
velopment of  the  known  fields  was  difficult.  But  after  paying  quantities  of 
oil  were  found  in  the  Tulsa  and  Red  Fork  districts  in  1901,  the  United  States 
government  started  the  legislative  machinery  which  led,  in  1902,  to  the  com- 
plete control  of  the  mineral  leasing  of  Indian-owned  land  by  the  Department 
of  the  Interior.  A  shallow  field  including  Chelsea,  AUuwe,  and  Coody's  Bluff 
(to  the  north)  was  part  of  the  large  area  quickly  developed. 

Since  discovery  of  that  first  well,  oil,  as  a  major  industry,  has  been 
mostly  responsible  for  the  town's  growth;  formerly  cattle-raising  and  prairie- 
hay  shipping  were  of  prime  importance. 

BUSHYHEAD,  69.7  m.  (700  alt.,  50  pop.),  is  a  small  farming  com- 
munity named  for  Dennis  W.  Bushyhead,  at  one  time  (1879-87)  chief  of  the 
Cherokee  Nation. 

At  71  m.,  the  highway  passes  between  waste  piles  from  strip  coal  mines. 

CLAREMORE,  82.3  m.  (602  alt.,  4,134  pop.),  is  the  seat  of  Rogers 
County,  named  in  honor  of  Clem  Rogers,  father  of  Will  Rogers. 

Claremore  had  its  beginning  as  an  Osage  Indian  town  in  the  early  nine- 
teenth century.  The  name  is  that  of  the  Osage  chief  who  established  the  town; 
it  is  a  variation  of  the  French  spelling,  Clermont  or  Clermos.  A  famous  battle 
between  this  settlement  of  Osages  and  a  party  of  Cherokees  took  place  in 
1817  on  Claremore  Mound,  northwest  of  the  city. 

The  water  at  Claremore  which  attracts  people  seeking  its  healing  power 
was  discovered  in  1903  when  a  test  oil  well  was  drilled;  instead  of  oil,  the  drill 
struck  a  large  flow  of  artesian  mineral  water  at  a  depth  of  eleven  hundred 
feet.  The  United  States  Indian  Hospital,  erected  in  1928,  is  supervised  by 
the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

Claremore  has  established  a  Bureau  of  Information  for  tourists  at  the 
junction  of  US  66  and  State  20.  What  is  said  to  be  the  largest  individual 
Collection  of  Guns  in  the  United  States,  owned  by  J.  M.  Davis,  is  in  the 
Mason  Hotel  near  by. 

Extensive  publicity  has  been  given  to  Claremore  by  many  who  errone- 
ously believe  it  to  be  the  birthplace  of  Will  Rogers.  Rogers  himself  was  mainly 
responsible  for  the  error,  since,  in  his  own  words,  he  was  born  "half-way 
between  Claremore  and  Oologah  (see  Tour  9 A)  before  there  was  a  town  at 


TOUR  1        223 

either  place."  He  referred  more  to  Claremore  than  Oologah  because,  he  said, 
"nobody  but  an  Indian  could  pronounce  Oologah." 

Oklahoma  honored  its  famous  citizen  by  the  erection  of  the  Will 
Rogers  Memorial  (open  9-5),  approximately  ten  blocks  west  (R)  of  US  66. 
Rogers  had  owned  the  original  twenty-acre  site  on  the  side  of  the  hill  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years,  and  after  his  death  it  was  given  to  the  state  by 
his  widow.  In  1937,  the  Oklahoma  legislature  appropriated  $200,000  to  con- 
struct the  memorial.  The  building  resembles  a  low,  rambling  ranch  house  of 
brown  stone.  The  exterior  is  finished  with  stone  quarried  at  Catoosa,  the 
interior  with  silverdale  limestone  from  Kansas,  and  the  floor  of  the  foyer  is 
of  split  rock  from  Maine.  The  Memorial  houses  four  principal  galleries  — 
Indian,  Pioneer,  Historical,  and  Educational — with  a  fifth  gallery  reserved 
exclusively  for  the  display  of  keepsakes  and  mementos  of  the  famous  humor- 
ist. The  statue  of  Rogers,  in  the  main  entrance,  is  a  duplicate  of  the  one  by 
Jo  Davidson,  well-known  sculptor,  which  stands  in  the  national  capitol.  The 
memorial  building  was  dedicated  on  November  4,  1938,  the  fifty-ninth  birth 
anniversary  of  the  beloved  Will.  A  crypt  on  the  grounds  will  be  the  final 
resting  place  for  the  body,  which  is  now  (1941)  in  California. 

Adjoining  the  memorial  grounds  on  the  south  is  the  Oklahoma 
Military  Academy,  established  in  1920  by  the  state.  Its  graduates  are  ad- 
mitted, on  appointment,  to  West  Point  and  Annapolis  academies  without  the 
usual  entrance  examinations. 

A  farmhouse,  93.4  m.,  on  Spunky  Creek  (L),  is  on  the  Site  of  Fort 
Spunky,  a  station  on  the  Star  Mail  Route  through  this  vicinity  before  the 
coming  of  the  railroad.  It  is  said  that  a  part  of  the  framework  and  the  stone 
chimney  of  the  farmhouse  are  remnants  of  the  original  building. 

CATOOSA,  94.3  m.  (618  alt.,  405  pop.),  was  named  for  "Old  Catoos," 
the  rounded  hill  just  west  of  the  town.  The  name  is  said  to  be  a  derivation  of 
the  Cherokee  expression,  "Gi-tu-zi,"  meaning  "Here  live  the  People  of  the 
Light."  The  story  is  that  the  "People  of  the  Light"  clan  formerly  met  on  the 
summit  of  the  hill. 

As  a  result  of  treaties  made  with  the  Indians  after  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War,  the  railroads  made  slow  but  inevitable  advances  west  through  Indian 
Territor)',  each  step  tapping  a  new  reservoir  of  wealth  in  cattle.  For  a  short 
time  in  1882,  Catoosa  was  the  terminus  of  the  St.  Louis- San  Francisco  Rail- 
way before  that  line  was  extended  to  Tulsa.  During  this  period,  the  town  was 
typically  frontier — the  Saturday-night  gathering  place  of  roistering  cowboys 
who  had  driven  cattle  here  to  the  stockyards. 

On  the  summit  (R)  of  LOOKOUT  MOUNTAIN  (914  alt.),  95.5  tn., 
the  Indians  built  a  cairn,  presumably  as  a  trail-marker. 

At  96.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  paved  State  33. 

Right  on  State  33  to  the  junction  with  Sheridan  Road,  8  ni.;  R.  here  to  Tulsa 
Municipal  Airport  (open  to  visitors).  Spartan  Air  School  and  Factory  (not  open), 
and  U.S.  Bombing  Plane  Assembly  Plant  (not  open) ,  10  m. 

This  is  one  of  the  two  important  aviation  groups  in  the  state.  The  airport,  stretching 
north  and  east  of  the  modernistic  Administration  Building  and  the  hangars  for  more  than 
one  hundred  planes,  was  at  one  time  (1930)  the  world's  busiest  airport,  outranking  in  vol- 


224  OKLAHOMA 

ume  of  traffic  Lc  Bourget  (Paris),  Tcmpclhof  (Berlin),  and  Croydon  (London)  fields.  It  is 
still  (1941)  an  important  station  for  transcontinental  and  local  planes. 

The  Spartan  Air  School  and  Factory  have  been  much  expanded  as  a  result  of  the  in- 
creased demands  of  the  national  defense  j)rogram.  The  new  Bombing  Plane  Assembly  Plant 
is  laid  out  on  a  thousand-acre  tract  adjoining  the  airport  on  the  east.  There,  515,000,000  is 
being  spent  (1941)  to  provide  facilities  for  turning  out  and  testing  fifty  giant  four-motored 
bombers  per  month;  the  parts  are  to  be  fabricated  elsewhere.  Though  provided  by  the  gov- 
ernment, the  plant  is  to  be  operated  by  one  of  the  large  airplane  manufacturing  companies. 

In  TULSA,  109.3  m.  (700  alt.,  142,157  pop.)  (see  Tulsa),  are  junctions, 
with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  US  169  (see  Tour  9A),  State  33  (see  Tour  2A),  and 
US  75  (see  Tour  9),  which  unites  southward  with  US  66  for  fifteen  miles. 

Section  b.  TULSA  to  OKLAHOMA  CITY,  120.8  m.  US  66 

The  country  southwest  of  TULSA,  0  m.,  is  mosdy  rolling  prairie,  dotted 
with  clumps  of  scrubby  post  oak  and  blackjack  trees.  Misdetoe,  the  official 
state  flower,  cHngs  abundantly  to  the  trees  in  winter.  In  spring,  the  creek  banks 
and  small  ravines  are  crimson  with  redbud  blooms. 

RED  FORK,  6.9  m.,  is  an  industrial  suburb  of  Tulsa;  many  of  the  city's 
manufacturing  plants  are  located  here. 

The  Fraxkhoma  Pottery  Plant  (visitors  welcome;  open  wor\  days, 
8-4),  12.7  m.,  manufactures  a  native  clay  ware  named  in  honor  of  its  creator, 
John  N.  Frank,  a  former  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma 
(see  Norman). 

SAPULPA,  15.2  m.  (712  alt.,  12,249  pop.),  a  catde-shipping,  cotton- 
marketing,  and  manufacturing  city,  is  also  in  the  center  of  oil  and  gas  fields. 
Sapulpa's  largest  field  was  a  part  of  the  rich  Glenn  Pool  (L),  which  extended 
to  within  four  miles  of  the  town. 

About  1850,  Jim  Sapulpa,  a  Creek  Indian,  came  to  this  point  from  Ala- 
bama and  commenced  farming  on  Rock  Creek,  about  a  mile  southeast  of  the 
present  site  of  Sapulpa.  Later  he  started  a  store  in  his  home,  hauling  his  goods 
by  team  and  pack  horses  from  Fort  Smith. 

In  1886  the  Frisco  Railway  built  to  this  point,  and  for  a  few  years  Sapulpa 
was  the  rail  terminus;  this  laid  the  foundation  upon  which  the  city  later 
became  an  important  cattle-shipping  center. 

One  of  the  boarding  schools  maintained  by  the  Creek  Indians  as  a  part 
of  their  well-knit  educational  system  was  established  here  in  October,  1893. 
The  institution  was  founded  for  the  Euchees,  an  alien  people  who  had  united 
with  the  Creeks  in  their  former  eastern  home  and  had  consequently  been 
moved  here  with  them.  The  language  of  the  Euchees  was  so  foreign  and 
unintelligible  (even  to  the  Creeks)  that  all  communication  between  the  tribes 
had  to  be  carried  on  through  interpreters.  Cut  off  as  they  were  from  their 
neighbors  by  this  linguistic  wall,  the  Euchees  were  particularly  observant  of 
customs  and  traditions.  With  the  passage  of  the  Curtis  Act  by  Congress  in 
1898,  the  Creeks  lost  control  of  their  schools  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior, 
and  in  1928  the  maintenance  was  also  taken  over  by  the  Federal  government. 
Since  then,  this  institution,  renamed  the  Eichee  Indlw  Boarding  School, 
has  ofTered  instruction  in  the  first  four  grades  to  Indian  boys  of  all  tribes.  For 
higher  grades,  the  boys  attended  Sapulpa's  public  schools. 


TOUR  1        225 

The  diversified  industries  of  Sapulpa  include  a  milk-bottle  factory,  a  glass 
plant  which  manufactures  tableware,  a  brick  and  tile  plant,  and  a  meat- 
packing company;  all  are  served  by  an  electric  railway  connecting  with  the 
freight  terminals  of  Tulsa. 

PRETTY  WATER  LAKE  (cabins,  swimming,  fishing)  north  of  Sapul- 
pa, is  an  attractive  vacation  resort. 

At  Sapulpa  is  the  southwest  junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9). 

KELLY VILLE,  24.1  m.  (764  alt.,  647  pop.),  is  an  agricultural  com- 
munity; there  are  shallow  oil  wells  in  the  surrounding  district. 

Just  west  of  Kellyville  are  the  Dance  Grounds  of  the  Creek  and  Euchee 
Indians.  Celebrations  known  as  "busks"  are  usually  held  here  in  June  and 
July  and  last  four  days — the  number  "4"  being  sacred  to  the  Creeks  (adm. 
25c  a  person;  cameras  by  permission).  On  the  eve  of  the  first  day  the  celebrants 
purify  their  bodies  with  Micco  Anija  (King  of  Purgers),  the  root  of  the  red 
willow,  which  produces  vomiting.  The  next  day  is  devoted  to  Indian  ball. 
An  ox  or  deer  skull  is  nailed  to  a  tall  post,  a  ball  of  hide  is  thrown  into  the  air 
and  the  players  catch  it  in  the  cup-shaped  ends  of  their  two-foot-long  ball- 
sticks,  then  fling  it  at  the  skull.  The  women  frequendy  play  against  the  men; 
they  are  permitted  to  throw  the  ball  with  their  hands  while  the  men  must 
use  the  sticks.  The  Hajo-Banga  (Crazy  Dance)  climaxes  the  busk;  the  dancers 
literally  "go  crazy,"  no  restrictions  being  placed  on  their  enthusiasm. 

BRISTOW,  39.3  m.  (818  alt.,  6,050  pop.),  followed  the  pattern  of  a 
number  of  towns  in  eastern  Oklahoma  in  that  it  began  (1897)  as  a  trading 
post  on  Creek  land  in  the  Indian  Territory. 

After  Oklahoma  Territory  was  opened,  the  railroads  advanced  from  the 
east,  building  across  Indian  Territory  to  reach  the  new  white  domain.  Sched- 
uled stops  for  the  trains  soon  grew  to  settlements  and  were  platted  and 
founded  as  towns.  White  civilizations  encroached  from  all  sides  and  each 
white  settlement  gave  it  another  firm  foothold.  The  Frisco  Railway,  with  its 
terminus  at  Sapulpa  for  a  few  years,  extended  its  route,  and  Bristow,  on  the 
line  of  march,  accordingly  developed.  The  town  was  founded  December  23, 
1901,  and  named  for  J.  L.  Bristow,  then  fourth  Assistant  Postmaster  General. 

Oil  and  gas  in  the  area  around  Bristow  dominate  its  business  life,  and 
many  large  oil  companies  have  plants  or  offices  in  or  near  the  city. 

STROUD,  56.8  m.  (905  alt.,  1,917  pop.),  was  founded  in  1896,  a  few 
years  after  this  part  of  Oklahoma  Territory  was  opened  to  white  homesteaders. 
Since  it  was  only  two  miles  from  the  Indian  Territory  and  was  a  large  shipping 
point  for  cattle  from  the  near-by  Creek  land,  it  attracted  much  illicit  liquor 
trade.  Whisky,  denied  to  the  Indian  by  the  government,  was  often  hidden  in 
supply  wagons  of  groceries  and  commodities  headed  for  the  Territory;  and 
the  consumption  of  liquor  by  celebrating  cowhands  who  had  driven  cattle  to 
the  loading  pens  was  no  small  part  of  the  town's  business.  With  the  advent  of 
statehood,  however,  Stroud's  nine  flourishing  saloons  were  closed,  and  the 
place  began  to  develop  as  a  trading  center  for  an  agricultural  community.  Oil 
is  an  additional  industry. 

Stroud  is  at  the  junction  with  State  99  (see  Tour  14). 


226  OKLAHOMA 

DAVENPORT,  64.3  m.  (840  alt.,  975  pop.),  was  founded  in  1903,  when 
a  group  of  Southern  Methodists,  wishing  to  estabHsh  a  community,  purchased 
a  farm  and  laid  out  a  townsite.  In  1924,  oil  was  discovered  near  by,  creating 
the  boom  sale  of  eighty  additional  acres  which  were  platted  as  town  lots. 
Shortly  after  this  hasty  expansion,  the  big  Seminole  field  (see  Tour  5)  about 
thirty-seven  miles  due  south  was  opened;  and  several  thousand  of  the  new- 
comers in  the  area,  attracted  by  greater  riches,  migrated  to  Seminole. 

Oil  activity  is  still  important,  however,  with  two  large  gasoline  plants 
operating  and  with  the  opening  of  new  fields  in  adjacent  areas. 

CHANDLER,  71.2  m.  (865  alt.,  2,738  pop.),  seat  of  Lincoln  County, 
was  founded  in  September,  1891.  The  town  was  platted  on  a  series  of  low 
hills  and  named  for  George  Chandler,  of  Kansas,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  under  President  Harrison  (1889-93). 

Every  building  in  Chandler  (with  the  exception  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church)  was  razed  and  fourteen  persons  were  killed  in  the  terrible  cyclone 
of  1897.  When  the  small  group  of  citizens  who  had  taken  shelter  in  the 
church  emerged,  they  found  that  tall  trees  had  been  hurled  through  the  air, 
and  houses,  barns,  and  animals  had  been  blown  across  the  town. 

Today,  Chandler  is  known  as  one  of  the  largest  pecan-shipping  points  in 
the  nation.  A  new  pecan-shelling  plant,  to  take  care  of  the  fast-growing 
industry,  is  being  erected  (1941).  Among  the  town's  other  industries  is  a 
honey-packing  plant. 

A  moving  picture  history  of  the  town  was  begun  in  1904  by  Bennie 
Kent,  now  a  veteran  newsreel  cameraman;  the  picture  is  brought  up  to  date 
each  year. 

At  104.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  77  (see  Tour  10),  which  unites  south- 
ward with  US  66  for  21.6  miles. 

A  large  Roadside  Park  (picnic  facilities),  107.7  m.,  nestles  (L)  in  an 
unspoiled  setting  of  low,  rough  hills  and  sharp  ravines  shaded  by  blackjack 
oak  trees. 

EDMOND,  107.5  m.  (1,200  alt.,  4,002  pop.),  was  first  established  as  a 
watering  and  coaling  station  when  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  was  extended  into 
the  Territory  in  1887,  and  was  named  for  one  of  the  railway  officials.  It  served 
as  a  shipping  point  for  cattle  and  as  a  concentration  point  for  supplies  bound 
for  trading  posts  on  the  Kickapoo  and  Iowa  reservations.  In  the  Run  of  April 
22,  1889,  the  townsite  was  homesteaded. 

Pioneer  foresight  is  apparent  in  the  beauty  of  the  landscaping  and  natural 
setting  of  the  town;  houses  are  set  on  deep  lawns  where  there  are  tall  trees 
and  many  flowers.  Edmond  is  a  trading  center  for  the  surrounding  farms, 
has  several  small  factories,  and  a  towering  grain  elevator,  and  is  rapidly 
developing  a  near-by  oil  field. 

On  the  east  side  of  town  stands  Central  State  College,  a  coeducational 
school  with  an  enrollment  (1941)  of  858  students.  It  was  established  here  as 
the  Territorial  Normal  School  in  October,  1891.  North  Tower,  the  oldest  of 
the  nine  buildings  on  the  campus,  was  originally  built  of  brick  made  near  the 
college,  but  when  the  structure  was  enlarged  it  was  covered  with  native  red 
sandstone.  The  Library  contains  approximately  thirty  thousand  volumes.  In 


TOUR  1        227 

the  rear  of  the  buildings  are  tennis  courts  and  a  stadium.  Stately  old  elms  and 
some  twenty  other  kinds  of  trees  cover  the  landscaped  campus. 

At  111  m.  is  Memorial  Park  (L)  {see  Tour  10). 

OKLAHOMA  CITY,  120.8  m.  (1,194  alt.,  204,424  pop.)  (see  Oklahoma 
City),  is  at  the  southern  junction  with  US  77  (see  Tow  10);  US  62  (see  Tour 
3)  and  the  eastern  junction  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

Section  c.  OKLAHOMA  CITY  to  TEXAS  LINE,  155.9  m.  US  66 

From  Oklahoma  City  to  the  Texas  Line  US  66  passes  through  a  farming 
region,  and  though  some  of  it  lies  within  the  much  publicized  "dust  bowl," 
it  is  in  general  reasonably  productive.  With  the  planting  of  trees  (which  has 
been  greatly  stimulated  by  experiences  in  the  shelter-belt  zones)  and  better 
farm  practices,  wind  erosion  and  sun-scorching  of  crops  will  be  greatly 
lessened. 

West  of  OKLAHOMA  CITY,  0  tn.,  US  66  and  US  270  (see  Tour  5) 
are  united  for  33.3  miles. 

At  the  western  edge  of  Oklahoma  City  is  the  junction  with  May  Avenue, 
a  paved  street. 

Right  on  May  Avenue  to  Wiley  Post  Airport,  3  m.,  named  for  the  noted  flier  who 
was  killed  in  the  crash  in  Alaska  in  which  Will  Rogers  died.  Here,  in  1941,  was  being  car- 
ried out  a  program  of  pilot  training  under  contract  with  the  Civil  Aeronautics  Authority. 
Some  three  hundred  students  were  being  trained  by  sixteen  instructors.  No  passenger  service 
is  offered  at  this  airport. 

At  4.6  tn.  is  a  large,  gray  brick  building  (R),  which  until  recently  was 
known  as  the  Home  of  the  Poor  Prophet.  It  was  built  in  1910  by  a  real  estate 
company  which  offered  it  to  the  state  for  use  as  a  capitol  before  the  present 
building  was  constructed.  The  offer  was  rejected,  and  a  private  school  leased  it. 
In  1913,  Eugene  Arnett,  an  insurance  broker,  bought  the  property  and  named 
it  the  Home  of  the  Poor  Prophet,  placing  the  cement  letters  of  the  tide  on  the 
front  lawn.  Arnett  lived  here  and  attempted  to  carry  out  sociological  experi- 
ments and  reforms;  he  was  considered  eccentric  and  many  tales  grew  up  about 
his  queer  doings.  The  building  is  now  (1941)  dilapidated  and  abandoned. 

BETHANY,  6.9  m.  (1,212  alt.,  2,590  pop.),  is  primarily  the  home  of 
members  of  the  Nazarene  religious  sect.  Under  the  terms  of  the  town's  char- 
ter there  are  no  theaters,  billiard  halls,  or  beauty  parlors;  and  the  sale  of 
tobacco  and  intoxicants  is  forbidden.  Even  billboards  advertising  these  articles 
are  banned. 

The  Bethany-Peniel  College,  with  an  average  enrollment  of  four 
hundred  and  a  faculty  of  nineteen,  was  founded  in  Oklahoma  City  in  1906 
and  moved  to  its  ten-acre  campus  at  Bethany  in  1909.  It  was  given  its  present 
name  in  1920  when  the  Peniel  College  of  Peniel,  Texas,  was  incorporated 
with  the  original  institution.  The  school  specializes  in  training  for  the  Naza- 
rene ministry;  it  is,  however,  nonsectarian  and  has  high  school,  junior  college, 
and  college  courses. 

Adjoining  Bethany  on  the  northwest  is  the  new  (1941)  Oklahoma  City 


228  OKLAHOMA 

Municipal  Airport.  When  the  army  took  over  the  former  Oklahoma  City 
field  to  enlarge  it  for  a  bombardment  training  school  and  air  base  {see  Tour 
3),  this  site  was  acquired  and  developed  into  one  of  the  most  modern  airports 
in  the  Middle  West.  It  is  used  by  the  Oklahoma-owned  FkanilT  Airways, 
Mid-Continent  Airlines,  and  the  coast  to  coast  American  Airlines.  The  new 
Airport  represents  an  expenditure  of  approximately  $1,500,000,  of  which  the 
Federal  government  contributed  some  75  per  cent. 

At  9.1  m.,  a  steel  bridge  spans  the  northern  end  of  LAKE  OVER- 
HOLSER  (fishing,  boating,  picnicl^ing).  This  seventeen-hundred-acre  lake 
with  a  ten-mile  shoreline  was  created  by  the  damming  of  the  North  Canadian 
River  in  1916  to  furnish  a  water  supply  for  Oklahoma  City,  and  named  for 
Ed  Overholser,  mayor  of  the  city  (1915-18). 

For  about  six  jniles  along  the  east  side  of  the  present  lake  and  the 
Canadian  River  is  the  Site  of  Camp  Alice,  established  in  1883  by  David 
L.  Payne,  a  Civil  War  veteran  and  former  member  of  the  Kansas  legislature. 
Twice  Payne  and  his  land-hungry  band  of  Boomers  had  attempted  to  setde 
in  the  territory  that  is  now  the  state  of  Oklahoma.  United  States  troops  had 
halted  the  former  invasions,  but  in  April,  1883,  Payne,  with  a  caravan  of  117 
wagons  and  516  men  and  women  reached  this  spot,  setting  up  Camp  Alice, 
also  known  as  Payne's  Trading  Post.  Here  the  group  surveyed  and  platted  a 
townsite  and  also  laid  out  the  site  of  a  capitol  for  the  proposed  state  which 
they  were  advocating  and  attempting  to  create.  The  colonists  staked  out  farms 
and  began  plowing  in  order  to  put  in  crops.  In  the  following  month,  however, 
a  company  of  United  States  infantry  destroyed  the  camp  and  forced  the 
colonists  to  return  to  Kansas.  In  1884,  Payne  led  another  group  to  a  site  near 
where  Blackwell  now  stands,  but  again  the  colonists  were  removed.  Payne 
died  in  Wellington,  Kansas,  November  28,  1884. 

Lake  Overholser  has  been  approved  (1941)  as  a  seaplane  base.  A  float, 
shelter  house,  and  necessary  markers  have  been  provided,  and  the  lake  became 
the  first  officially  designated  seaplane  base  in  Oklahoma. 

YUKON,  13.9  m.  (1,298  alt.,  1,660  pop.),  an  agricultural  and  milling 
center,  was  laid  out  in  1891  by  the  Spencer  brothers,  who  owned  the  160-acre 
site.  Frisco,  a  small  town  of  one  thousand  population,  had  been  established 
near  by;  but  when  a  railroad  was  built  through  Yukon,  most  of  Frisco's  people 
moved  there.  The  large  flour  mills  on  the  eastern  edge  of  Yukon  dominate  the 
town's  commercial  life  as  well  as  its  buildings. 

At  14.7  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  graded  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  1  m.,  to  a  Spring,  once  a  favorite  stopping  place  for  travelers  follow- 
ing the  old  Chisholm  Trail  {sec  Tour  11). 

At  16.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  the  new  (1941)  privately  operated  Air  Training  School,  1  m., 
where,  under  a  contract  with  the  United  States  government,  men  are  given  primary  instruc- 
tion in  flying. 

EL  RENO,  26.9  m.  (1,363  alt.,  10,078  pop.),  the  seat  of  Canadian 
County,  situated  not  far  from  the  south  bank  of  the  North  Canadian  River, 


TOUR  1        229 

was  founded  when  the  Rock  Island  railroad  was  routed  to  the  site  two  months 
after  the  Run  of  April  22,  1889.  The  town  derives  its  name  from  Fort  Reno 
near  by  (see  below). 

Reno  City,  with  a  population  of  fifteen  hundred,  was  located  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  North  Canadian  immediately  after  the  Run  and,  conse- 
quendy,  expected  to  have  the  railway  connection.  The  Rock  Island,  however, 
changed  its  plans  when  the  Reno  Cityans  refused  to  pay  the  high  bonus  asked 
for  the  line.  As  a  result,  the  residents  decided  to  move  to  the  new  town,  loading 
their  household  goods — even  their  buildings — on  wagons  and  crude  rollers, 
and  crossing  the  shallow,  unbridged  river.  A  three-story  hotel  building,  meet- 
ing difficulties,  was  stranded  on  the  river  bed  but  was  operated  continuously 
until  its  removal  to  more  stable  ground. 

In  July,  1901,  El  Reno's  population  increased  to  approximately  145,000 
— literally  within  a  day  —  when  the  Kiowa- Apache-Comanche  reservation 
was  opened  by  lottery  to  white  settlers,  affording  the  last  opportunity  to  obtain 
free  land  in  the  Territory.  Living  accommodations  were  completely  inade- 
quate for  this  sudden  influx,  but,  fortunately,  most  of  those  seeking  home- 
steads left  as  soon  as  the  drawing  was  completed. 

Pioneer  Day,  celebrated  on  April  22,  is  an  annual  holiday  in  El  Reno. 
Residents  dress  in  89'er  costumes,  place  historic  relics  on  display,  and  hold  a 
parade  and  rodeo. 

Marketing,  flour  milling,  shipping,  and  transportation  are  the  chief 
industries.  The  main  lines  of  the  Rock  Island  Railway  meet  here,  where  the 
railroad  maintains  district  offices  and  division  shops.  On  the  division  office 
grounds  stands  a  geological  oddity,  a  petrified  tree  stump  eight  feet  high, 
which  grew  in  a  swamp  some  millions  of  years  ago.  It  was  discovered  in 
1914  by  a  Rock  Island  coal-mining  crew  while  sinking  a  shaft  at  Alderson, 
Oklahoma. 

El  Reno  is  at  the  junction  with  US  81  (see  Tour  11). 

At  28.8  m.  is  the  United  States  Southwestern?  Reformatory  (visitors 
not  admitted).  This  institution  (L),  built  at  a  cost  exceeding  $1,000,000  in 
1934,  houses  first  offenders  against  Federal  law,  short-term  prisoners,  and 
convicts  under  thirty-five  years  of  age.  The  buildings  are  erected  around  a 
rectangular  court  in  the  western  section  of  a  thousand-acre  tract  formerly  a 
part  of  the  Fort  Reno  Military  Reservation. 

At  29.1  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road,  1.8  m.,  to  Fort  Reno,  the  United  States  Army's  largest  remount 
station.  The  post  was  originally  established  to  protect  the  old  Darlington  Indian  Agency  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  North  Canadian  (see  Tour  11)  from  Cheyenne  Indian  forays. 
During  a  Cheyenne  uprising  in  1874,  the  Darlington  agent  sent  for  help  to  the  Fort  Sill 
Military  Reservation  (see  Tour  3 A)  and  to  the  fort  at  Leavenworth,  Kansas.  The  Fort  Sill 
troops  met  hostile  Indians  near  the  Wichita  Agency  at  Anadarko  and  could  not  reach  the 
agency,  but  the  soldiers  from  Leavenworth  arrived.  Fort  Reno  was  established  by  these 
troops  in  July  of  the  same  year  and  named  for  Union  General  Jesse  L.  Reno,  who  had  been 
killed  at  the  Batde  of  .\ntietam  in  the  Civil  War.  The  Indian  insurrectionists  were  finally 
subdued  in  March,  1875.  Permanent  fort  buildings  were  then  erected  and  by  1880  there 
were  three  hundred  cavalrymen  stationed  at  the  garrison  to  oversee  the  fifteen  hundred 
Indians  camped  near  by.  For  the  next  five  years,  the  troops  were  kept  busy  expelling 


230  OKLAHOMA 

Boomers  from  the  surrounding  region;  and,  in  1889,  they  guarded  the  boundary  of  the 
new  land  to  be  opened  to  settlement.  Military  supervision  was  necessary  in  order  to  keep 
the  Sooncrs  from  jumping  the  line  ahead  of  the  starting  gun.  With  the  coming  of  the  white 
settlers  and  the  allotment  of  Indian  lands,  need  for  troops  at  this  point  decreased  and  the 
fort  was  abandoned  in  February,  1908;  but,  in  April  of  the  same  year,  it  was  re-established 
as  a  remount  station,  where  horses  are  broken  and  trained  for  other  military  camps. 

At  36.5  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  western  junction  with  US  270  (see 
Tour  5). 

At  52.3  m.  is  a  junction  with  paved  US  281-  State  8. 

Left  here  is  HINTON,  8  w.  (1,650  alt.,  842  pop.),  where  in  the  first  week  in  August 
a  colorful  rodeo  is  held  at  Kiwanis  Park  (free  swimming  and  fishing),  8.4  m.  This  park 
is  reached  by  a  road  blasted  out  of  steep  sandstone  walls  which  sometimes  rise  as  high  as 
one  hundred  feet.  A  dam  forms  a  lake  eight  feet  deep.  Overlooking  one  bank  is  a  massive 
rock  towering  125  feet  above  the  water.  Large  springs  gush  from  crevices  in  the  rocks,  and 
trees  stud  the  canyon  slopes. 

Access  to  KICKAPOO  CANYON  (S.E.  of  the  park.)  and  WATER  CANYON  CN.E. 
of  the  park)  is  difficult,  except  in  a  few  places,  because  of  the  steep  walls.  Near  the  divide 
between  these  two  canyons,  small  creeks  have  cut  valleys  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet  wide 
and  several  miles  long,  with  level  floors  about  two  hundred  feet  wide.  Growing  here  are 
more  than  twenty  varieties  of  trees  and  many  shrubs,  herbs,  ferns,  mosses,  lichens,  and  fungi. 

WEATHERFORD,  71.5  m.  (1,644  alt.,  2,504  pop.),  is  a  well-ordered 
trade  center  for  the  surrounding  agricultural  population.  It  was  founded  in 
1893  and  named  for  William  J.  Weatherford,  a  United  States  marshal  who 
was  stationed  here  during  Territorial  days. 

In  the  city  is  the  Southwestern  State  College  of  Diversified  Occupa- 
tions, founded  in  1901  and  known  until  1939  as  Southwestern  State  Teachers' 
College.  Situated  on  the  brow  of  a  hill  (R),  it  has  ten  buildings  and  a  large 
ampitheater  on  a  sixty-five-acre  campus.  The  change  of  name  was  brought 
about  by  a  change  in  the  educational  policy  of  the  institution.  While  the  train- 
ing of  teachers  is  still  important,  emphasis  is  placed  on  the  study  of  trades 
ranging  from  mechanics  to  beauty  culture. 

Indian  powwows  are  frequendy  held  near  Weatherford;  a  few  miles 
south  of  town  is  a  "stomp  ground"  where  Indians  gather  in  tribal  costume 
to  stage  ceremonial  dances.  Annually,  in  September,  the  dancers  perform  at 
an  Indian  fair  in  the  town. 

At  85.7  m.  is  the  Clinton  Indian  Hospital  (R),  an  institution  opened 
by  the  Federal  government  in  1933  to  care  for  the  sick  among  the  Indian 
population.  Most  of  the  thirty  beds  are  occupied  by  tuberculous  patients.  The 
three  one-story  red-brick  buildings  stand  on  an  eight-acre  tract.  The  Indians 
were  at  first  hesitant  to  accept  the  benefits  of  medical  care,  but  now  generally 
welcome  the  aid  offered  here. 

CLINTON,  86.6  m.  (1,564  alt.,  6,736  pop.),  is  built  on  a  level  plain 
within  a  bend  of  the  Washita  River.  Upon  the  opening  of  the  Cheyenne- 
Arapaho  Reservation  in  1892,  the  land  where  Clinton  now  stands  was  passed 
up  by  many  who  considered  it  not  worth  staking  out.  The  town  was  founded 
in  1903,  when  the  Frisco  Railway  built  to  the  site  and  named  for  Federal 
Judge  Clinton  F.  Irwin. 

Clinton  has  grown  to  be  an  important  shipping  center  for  the  surround- 


TOUR    1  231 

ing  cattle  lands  and  wheat  fields.  One  of  the  nine  camps  established  by  the 
Soil  Conservation  Service  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  an  effort  to 
check  erosion  is  located  here.  Because  of  its  high  elevation  and  the  dryness 
of  the  atmosphere,  Clinton  has  two  large  private  hospitals,  caring  mosdy  for 
tuberculous  patients;  the  Western  Oklahoma  Charity  Hospital,  at  the 
southern  city  limits,  is  maintained  by  the  state. 

Clinton  is  at  the  junction  with  US  183  (see  Tour  12). 

The  State  Tuberculosis  Sanitorium  (visitors  by  appointment)  87.1 
m.,  also  state-owned  and  controlled,  was  first  established  at  Supply  in  1917 
but  was  moved  to  Clinton  in  1919.  The  large  hospital  (L)  consists  of  fifty- 
three  buildings  on  an  810-acre  tract  of  ground.  Those  who  are  able  to  do  so 
pay  for  their  care.  Negroes  are  admitted  to  the  wards,  since  there  is  no  segra- 
gated  Negro  unit. 

At  96.8  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  graded  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road,  0.5  m.,  is  the  Clinton  Dam  and  Waterworks,  which  forms  a 
seven-hundred-acre  clear-water  lake.  Around  the  lake  Clinton  maintains  a  landscaped 
public  park  (picnicking  and  fishing:  free). 

Westward,  the  route  crosses  over  tree-bordered  creeks  into  a  section 
where  barren  red  hills  rise  suddenly  above  almost  level  prairies. 

On  the  eastern  edge  of  CANUTE,  108.1  m.  (1,910  alt.,  374  pop.),  is 
the  Roman  Catholic  Cemetery  (R),  in  which  is  a  replica  of  the  Crucifixion 
Scene.  Surmounting  a  low  hill  is  a  bronze  figure  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  with 
the  two  Marys  kneeling  below.  In  the  side  of  the  hill,  a  glass-enclosed 
sepulcher  holds  the  waxen  image  of  Christ.  The  scene  was  planned  by  Father 
Peter  Paul  Schaeffer,  of  the  Holy  Parish;  the  sanctuary  will  be  the  final  resting 
place  of  Father  Schaeffer  and  Frank  Flies,  whose  financial  aid  made  its 
erection  possible. 

Canute  has  only  a  small  residential  and  business  section,  but  sheet-metal 
cotton  sheds  and  gin  houses,  spread  out  on  both  sides  of  the  highway,  indicate 
the  town's  main  industry,  cotton  ginning.  The  town  was  founded  in  1902  by 
an  independent  townsite  company. 

West  of  Canute,  the  land  is  rolling  and  hilly,  the  soil  deep  red,  and  the 
farms  have  a  prosperous  appearance. 

At  115.3  m.  is  a  Y-junction  with  State  34,  a  graveled  road.  In  the  center 
of  the  plot  bounded  by  the  Y  is  a  granite  marker,  designating  34  as  the 
Chisholm  Trail  (see  Tour  11).  Actually,  however.  State  34  marks  the  old 
Western  or  Texas  Cattle  Trail,  a  later  route. 

Right  on  State  34  is  HAMMON,  14.6  m.  (1,736  alt.,  705  pop.),  a  farming  setdement. 
Right  from  Hammon  on  a  dirt  road  to  a  CHEYENNE  INDIAN  SETTLEMENT,  16.2  m. 
For  a  small  sum,  the  Indians  will  sometimes  put  on  their  tribal  dress  and  pose  for  pictures. 
The  group  of  boarded-up  tents  and  shacks,  clustered  under  the  trees,  is  the  old  camp  of 
Whiteshield,  former  chief  of  the  Southern  Cheyennes.  In  1871,  Whiteshield  went  to  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  as  a  member  of  the  delegation  representing  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho 
Indians.  There,  from  President  Grant,  he  received  a  treaty  medal,  symbolizing  peace,  agri- 
culture, education,  and  Christianity.  Upon  his  return,  Whiteshield  began  to  live  in  accor- 
dance with  the  treaty  symbols  and  became  an  earnest  advocate  of  civilization,  schools,  and 


232  OKLAHOMA 

missions.  A  white  and  blue  cottage,  bordered  by  a  picket  fence,  northeast  of  the  Cheyenne 
settlement,  was  Whitcshield's  home  in  later  life  and  is  now  occupied  by  his  relatives. 

ELK  CITY,  116  m.  (1,926  alt.,  5,021  pop.),  was  originally  named 
Busch,  in  honor  of  Adolphus  Busch,  of  St.  Louis.  Because  of  the  similarity  of 
the  name  to  that  of  another  post  office,  it  was  renamed  Elk.  City;  Elk  Creek 
skirts  the  town  limits. 

One  of  Oklahoma's  first  co-operative  medical  ventures  is  the  Commun- 
ity Hospital,  located  at  Elk  City,  sponsored  by  the  Farmers'  Co-operative 
Hospital  Association.  Doctor  M.  Shadid,  a  Syrian-born  physician,  was  instru- 
mental in  establishing  the  institution  in  which  each  stockholder — for  $25  a 
year — receives  all  necessary  medical  treatment  for  himself  and  his  immediate 
family. 

SAYRE,  132.3  m.  (1,810  alt.,  3,037  pop.),  seat  of  Beckham  County,  was 
named  for  Robert  H.  Sayre,  a  stockholder  in  the  railroad  extended  to  the  city 
at  its  founding,  September  14,  1901.  The  North  Fork  of  the  Red  River  flows 
along  the  southern  outskirts  of  the  town,  its  sandy  banks  affording  a  natural 
beach  for  swimming.  The  area  has  been  developed  into  a  public  park. 

Sayre  is  chiefly  dependent  on  the  surrounding  rich  gas  fields  and  serves 
as  a  market  for  broomcorn.  It  has  an  oil  refinery  and  a  large  plant  in  which 
420,000  burners  convert  natural  gas  into  carbon  black.  A  weekly  community 
sale  of  livestock  and  farm  utilities  is  held  here. 

Jess  Willard,  former  world's  champion  prize  fighter,  once  ran  a  rooming 
house  in  Sayre.  Another  famous  son,  Cjiuseppi  Bentonelli  (Joseph  Benton), 
Metropolitan  Opera  tenor,  was  brought  there  as  an  infant  in  1900. 

Sayre  is  at  the  junction  with  US  283  (see  Tour  13). 

Westward  for  a  few  miles,  there  are  weed-covered  sand  dunes  and  patches 
of  gnarled  dwarf  trees;  then  the  highway  descends  into  a  valley  where  there 
is  more  vegetation,  although  most  of  the  land  is  uncultivated. 

Prior  to  1896,  Texas  claimed  the  land  south  of  the  North  Fork  of  the 
Red  River,  crossed  at  133.8  m.;  in  that  year  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
ruled  that  the  southern  fork  of  the  Red  River  was  the  northern  boundary  line 
of  Texas,  and  the  area  between  the  forks  was  added  to  Oklahoma  Territory. 

ERICK,  148.2  m.  (2,080  alt.,  1,591  pop.),  was  incorporated  in  1902  and 
named  for  Beech  Erick,  a  member  of  the  townsite  company.  US  66  passes 
between  two  long  rows  of  widely  spaced  houses  and  bisects  the  eight-block 
business  section.  The  town  is  surrounded  by  rich  farming  lands,  catde  ranches, 
and  a  natural-gas  field. 

Southwest  of  Erick  is  an  old  Salt  Springs,  natures  gift  to  early-day 
catdemen.  As  the  beeves  were  driven  north  from  the  Texas  ranches  each 
spring,  many  herders  made  this  a  stopping-place  so  that  the  catde  might  lick 
the  salt.  The  fresh-water  springs  which  flow  through  Cox's  Cave  near  by 
made  the  spot  an  ideal  camping  place  in  that  early  period. 

Between  Erick  and  the  Texas  Line,  the  prairie  stretches  in  shelving  levels 
to  the  west.  Most  of  the  land  is  under  cultivation.  The  wind-mill-like  devices 
on  the  roofs  of  many  of  the  houses  are  wind  generators,  a  popular  means  of 
rural  electrification. 


TOUR  1        233 

TEXOLA,  155.3  m.  (2,150  alt.,  337  pop.),  on  the  Texas-Oklahoma 
border,  combines  syllables  from  the  two  state  names  to  form  its  own.  The 
business  section  still  retains  the  wooden  sidewalk  awnings  —  supported  at  the 
curb  by  iron  or  cement  posts — that  were  in  general  use  during  pioneer  days. 

At  155.9  m.  US  66  crosses  the  Texas  Line,  fourteen  miles  east  of  Sham- 
rock, Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


j^Ofi: ^  ^ E^O/ji ^ , ^il/j^ , , £^Oiy ^, jjO/i: ^ , ^^nj. ^ , ^^ifi ^ , ^^dj. 


Tour  2 


(Fort  Smith,  Ark.) — Gore — Muskogee— Tulsa — Enid — Alva — Guymon 
—Kenton— (Raton,  N.M.);  US  64. 
Arkansas  Line  to  New  Mexico  Line,  603.9  m. 

Roadbed  intermittendy  paved  with  concrete  and  asphalt;  also  graveled. 

The  Missouri  Pacific  R.R.  roughly  parallels  route  between  the  Arkansas  Line  and  Muskogee; 
the  Katy,  between  Muskogee  and  Cleveland;  the  Frisco,  between  Pawnee  and  Alva;  the 
Santa  Fe  between  Alva  and  Buffalo;  the  Katy  between  Gate  and  Boise  City;  and  the  Santa 
Fe  to  the  New  Mexico  Line. 
Good  accommodations  available  at  short  intervals,  except  west  of  Cherokee. 

Marked  by  great  variety  of  landscape,  climate,  and  population,  US  64 
crosses  Oklahoma  from  east  to  west,  the  longest  highway  in  the  state.  Near 
the  Arkansas  border  it  is  shadowed  by  the  verdant  Cookson  Hills;  then  by 
the  timber  along  the  beautiful  Illinois  River;  then  it  crosses  the  Arkansas  and 
Cimarron,  rivers  that  are  occasionally  turbid  floods  but  more  often  litde  more 
than  wide  ribbons  of  blowing  sand. 

As  it  continues  westward,  the  route  climbs  slowly  and  steadily  to  higher, 
more  arid  country,  where  trees  are  scarce  and  burning  summer  winds  threaten 
the  crops.  It  edges  the  Great  Salt  Plains,  now  a  wildfowl  refuge,  runs  the 
length  of  the  Panhandle,  impressive  in  its  barrenness,  and  finally  passes  the 
high,  dry  Black  Mesa  in  the  extreme  west. 

Varied,  too,  are  the  personalities  and  appearance  of  the  towns  through 
which  the  route  passes,  from  the  earliest  Indian  settlements  to  those  that  were 
mushroom  camps  within  the  memory  of  men  who  are  (1941)  scarcely  past 
middle  age. 

For  forty  miles,  roughly  from  the  Arkansas  Line  to  Gore,  US  64  follows 
the  Cherokee  "Trail  of  Tears,"  broken  by  the  exiles  from  Georgia  and  Ten- 
nessee during  the  two  decades  from  1819  to  1839. 

Among  those  who  have  given  character  to  the  region  through  which  the 
route  passes  are  such  diverse  figures  of  history  as  Washington  Irving,  the 


234  OKLAHOMA 

efifete  traveler  who  found  that  he  could  also  rough  it;  Loughridge,  hardy 
missionary  to  the  Creeks;  Sam  Houston,  pausing  for  three  years  between  his 
Tennessee  and  Texas  careers;  Kit  Carson,  who  by  mistake  established  a 
frontier  fort  within  the  boundaries  of  Oklahoma;  Dull  Knife,  the  Cheyenne, 
and  Bacon  Rind,  the  Osage,  figures  out  of  an  almost  legendary  Indian  past; 
and  the  Dallon  Hoys,  brothers  who  made  oudawry  a  life  work  and  train-  and 
bank-robbing  a  trade. 

Section  a.  ARKANSAS  LINE  to  TULSA,  135.6  m.  US  64 

Crossing  the  ARKANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  at  the  Arkansas  River  immedi- 
ately west  of  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas  (see  ArJ{ansas  Guide),  US  64  approaches 
the  rough  Cookson  Hills  of  the  Ozark  region.  There  are  camp  sites  along  the 
highway  or  near  small  clear  streams,  and  in  spring  and  summer  the  hills  are 
covered  with  flowers;  the  pines  furnish  greenery  throughout  the  year. 

MULDROW,  9.8  m.  (478  alt.,  638  pop.),  is  a  rural  community  and 
market  center. 

At  15.8  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  the  Home  of  Sequoyah,  7.5  m.,  standing  on  an  elevation  a  few 
hundred  feet  from  Skin  Bayou  Creek.  A  large  two-story  stone  building,  constructed  as  a 
WPA  project,  completely  encloses  the  small  log  cabin  built  by  Sequoyah  himself  about  1830 
and  contains  rooms  and  alcoves  in  which  are  exhibited  relics  and  documents  related  to  Se- 
quoyah's life  and  to  the  Cherokee  Nation.  The  surrounding  ten  acres  were  deeded  to  the 
Oklahoma  Historical  Society,  which  sponsored  the  work  of  preserving  the  site. 

Sequoyah,  whose  English  name  was  George  Gist,  was  a  half-blood  Cherokee.  A 
silversmith,  soldier,  and  manufacturer  of  salt  at  various  times  during  his  life,  he  is  better 
known  throughout  America  as  an  influential  tribal  statesman  and  an  educator  who  be- 
stowed upon  the  Cherokees  the  greatest  addition  ever  made  to  the  culture  of  a  primitive 
people.  When  Sequoyah  first  conceived  the  idea  of  his  syllabary  he  was  thought  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  evil  spirits,  and  his  fellow  tribesmen  picked  a  group  of  warriors  to  try  him.  After 
a  week  of  trial,  all  of  the  jury  had  learned  to  read  and  write  by  Sequoyah's  system,  and  he 
was  vindicated. 

As  a  leading  man  of  the  "Old  Settler"  Cherokees  who  migrated  west  before  the 
forced  removal,  Sequoyah  signed  the  Act  of  Union  with  the  "Newcomers"  on  July  12,  1839. 
He  was  voted  a  literary  pension  by  the  Cherokee  Nation  for  his  invaluable  work,  but  died 
before  he  received  the  first  payment.  The  Cherokee  Nation  also  presented  him  with  a  medal, 
which  he  wore  on  a  chain  around  his  neck  for  the  rest  of  his  life;  it  appears  in  the  portrait 
of  him  by  the  artist,  Charles  Bird  King,  now  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington. 
D.C.  The  giant  Sequoia  trees  of  California  were  also  named  for  him,  and  his  statue,  by 
George  Julian  Zolnay,  stands  in  Statuary  Hall  in  the  national  capitol  at  Washington,  D.C. 
Fittingly,  Sequoyah  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  world's  twelve  alphabet  inventors  to  be  repro- 
duced in  bronze  on  the  great  doors  of  the  Library  of  Congress  Annex  designed  by  Lee 
Lawrie,  of  New  York.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  ten  of  the  other  characters  chosen  arc 
mythological:  T'sang  Chieh,  Nabu,  Brahma,  Cadmus,  Tahmurath,  Hermes,  Odin,  Ogma. 
Itzamna,  and  Quetzalcoad. 

SALLISAW,  22.6  m.  (531  alt.,  2,140  pop.),  once  a  trading  post  and  a 
camping  site,  is  now  the  center  of  a  rich  farming  district.  French  trappers 
named  the  place  Salaison,  meaning  salt  provision  or  salt  meat,  because  of  the 
large  deposits  of  salt  near  by. 

Near  Sallisaw   in   the  Cherokee-Cookson   Hills,   the  many   spring-fed 


TOUR  2        235 

streams  afford  excellent  fishing.  Sallisaw,  Little  Sallisaw,  Big  Skin  Bayou, 
Greasy,  and  Vian  creeks  are  all  easily  accessible  and  contain  many  kinds  of 
fish,  including  the  Kentucky  or  spotted  bass,  a  bronze  and  gray  fighter.  The 
State  Game  and  Fish  Commission  has  built  a  number  of  low-water  dams 
in  this  district. 

In  Sallisaw  is  the  junction  with  US  59  (see  Tour  15). 

VIAN,  33.8  m.  (545  alt.,  941  pop.),  is  an  agricultural  community  nesded 
in  the  foothills  of  the  Cookson  Hills  area. 

At  34.9  m.  on  US  64  is  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road,  up  a  steep  slope,  is  an  old  Salt  Spring,  3.2  m.,  once  the  source  of 
supply  for  a  large  salt  factory  near  by.  In  the  vicinity  of  this  spring  is  a  ridge  road  that  over- 
looks the  Illinois  River  (see  Tour  16)  to  the  west. 

At  BOX,  8.2  m.,  a  very  small  settlement,  is  a  junction  with  a  winding  country  road. 
Right  on  this  road  to  the  summit  of  BLACK  GUM  MOUNTAIN,  10.5  m.,  where  the  Kee- 
Too-Wah  Society  of  the  Cherokee  Indians  holds  its  annual  Sacred  Fire  Ceremony  on  July  19 
(visitors  welcome).  The  ceremony  expresses  what  is  generally  accepted  as  the  original 
Cherokee  myth.  The  Great  Spirit  gave  the  sacred  fire  to  the  Cherokees,  who  were  to  keep  it 
perpetually  burning.  The  priests  or  kji-ta-ni  were  to  tend  the  flames,  but  designing  ones 
among  them  stole  it.  For  this  crime,  all  priests  were  executed;  thus  all  primal  religious  prac- 
tices were  closed  to  the  Cherokees  since  the  tenets  had  been  kept  alive  only  verbally  as 
priest  succeeded  priest.  Some  authorities  hold  the  derivation  of  the  name  Cherokee  is 
a-che-la  (fire)  and  ah-gi  (he  takes). 

The  Kee-too-Wahs,  whose  organization  is  both  ancient  and  secret,  brought  the  sacred 
fire  from  Georgia,  according  to  members  of  their  fullblood  clan,  and  have  kept  it  burning 
in  the  hills  ever  since.  Their  aim  is  to  perpetuate  tribal  tradition  and  history.  The  member- 
ship is  said  to  be  six  thousand. 

Scene  of  the  ritual  is  a  broad,  two-acre  clearing  centered  by  a  great  pile  of  ashes,  the 
accumulation  of  years  of  ceremonial  fires.  Seven  brush  arbors  surrounding  the  ash  mound 
represent  the  seven  original  clans  of  the  Cherokees,  consolidated  after  their  removal  to 
Indian  Territory.  Building  of  the  fire,  smoking  of  the  peace  pipe,  and  feasting  fill  the  day 
from  dawn  to  dusk,  when  all  circle  the  fire  in  a  lively  dance. 

Just  east  of  the  bridge,  over  the  Illinois  River,  40  m.,  stands  the  Fish 
Camp  (L),  which  is  flashed  on  the  screen  in  the  movie  version  of  Grapes  of 
Wrath,  shordy  after  the  Joads  started  their  long  trek  to  California.  Tourists 
will  be  surprised  at  the  realization  that  they  have  just  passed  through  the  area 
named  as  the  locale  of  the  beginning  of  the  Grapes  of  Wrath  tale.  For  there, 
instead  of  dust  storms  and  tenant  farming,  one  finds  well-wooded  hills,  an 
abundance  of  water,  and  not  much  farming. 

Near  the  east  bank  is  the  site  of  the  Cherokee  town,  TAHLONTEES- 
KEE  (R),  which  served  as  a  meeting  place  for  national  councils  and  law- 
making bodies  from  1828  to  1838.  This  was  an  "Old  Setder"  council  ground, 
named  for  a  former  chief. 

At  42  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  10,  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  State  10  through  a  section  dotted  with  the  cabins  of  an  isolated  group  of 
Indians.  The  majority  of  these  people  are  fullblood  Creeks  who  became  members  of  the 
Cherokee  tribe.  While  yet  in  their  eastern  homes,  they  opposed  removal  to  the  new  Indian 
Territory  and  fled  to  the  Cherokee  Nation.  Later,  when  the  Cherokees  were  also  forced  to 
move,  these  adopted  sons  and  daughters  continued  to  live  with  them.  Scattered  among  them 
are  a  few  Natchez,  members  of  a  tribe  which  is  usually  regarded  by  ethnologists  as  extinct. 


236  OKLAHOMA 

The  Natchez  were  almost  exterminated  by  the  French  in  Louisiana,  but  some  escaped, 
found  refuge  with  the  eastern  Creeks,  and  were  eventually  moved  to  Oklahoma. 

At  BRAGGS,  13  m.  (520  alt.,  392  pop.),  is  a  junction  with  the  improved  earth  road; 
(R)  here  to  the  Cookson  Hills  Playgrounds  (lodge,  cabins,  hat  lung,  boating),  16  m.,  a 
thirty-two-thousand-acre  recreation  area,  owned  by  the  Federal  government  and  supervised 
by  the  Soil  Conservation  Service  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  cabins  and  other 
buildings  are  of  native  stone  and  comfortably  modern;  the  project  was  completed  late  in 
1938. 

The  surrounding  wooded  hills  arc  an  ideal  setting  for  the  ninc-hundrcd-acre  GREEN- 
LEAF  LAKE,  which  is  the  focal  point  of  the  playground.  It  abounds  in  fish,  since  the 
several  mile-long  fingers  jutting  out  from  the  main  body  of  water  to  curl  around  the  bases 
of  the  hills  furnish  ideal  spawning  grounds.  Near-by  GREENLEAF  MOUNTAIN  has  been 
a  favorite  ball  field  for  the  Cherokees  and  Creeks  for  more  than  a  century.  The  Indian  game 
— which  combines  features  of  baseball,  basketball,  and  football — is  played  with  two  sticks, 
with  oval  netting  at  one  end.  The  player  must  catch  the  ball  in  the  net  and  pitch  it  to  hit 
the  goal  at  the  top  of  a  forty-foot  pole.  Among  the  hundreds  of  Indian  paintings  by  George 
Cadin,  nineteenth-century  artist,  there  are  several  of  this  strenuous  game. 

GORE,  42.9  m.  (480  alt.,  334  pop.),  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Arkansas 
River,  appeared  on  a  map  by  GuilHaume  de  Lille,  a  French  explorer,  as 
Mentos  or  Les  Mentous  in  1718.  A  succession  of  name  changes  followed 
when  settlement  of  this  district  took  place.  The  town  was  called  Campbell 
when  it  was  a  stop  on  the  stage  line  between  Fort  Smith  and  Fort  Gibson. 
When  the  railroad  came  through  in  1888,  the  name  was  changed  to  Illinois. 
After  statehood,  it  was  called  Gore,  in  honor  of  one  of  the  United  States 
Senators  from  Oklahoma. 

It  was  to  this  Cherokee  settlement  that  Sam  Houston  came  in  1829,  after 
his  resignation  as  governor  of  Tennessee.  By  a  special  act  of  the  Cherokee 
Council  in  1829  at  Tahlonteeskee,  Houston  was  formally  adopted  by  the  tribe. 
Houston  took  an  Indian  wife  and  remained  in  the  vicinity  several  years  (see 
Tour  8). 

Right  from  Gore  on  a  dirt  road,  to  the  Site  of  a  Salt  Works,  7  m.,  on  Saline  Creek. 
Bean  and  Sanders,  partners  in  the  business,  operated  the  works  here  in  1820.  From  the 
one  hundred  huge  kettles  of  salt  water  kept  boiling  most  of  the  time,  the  refined  salt  was 
taken  to  a  warehouse  just  above  the  falls,  where  it  was  stored  until  keel  boats  carried  it 
down  the  river  to  Arkansas  and  Louisiana.  A  few  years  later,  after  the  Cherokee  removal 
to  this  part  of  Indian  Territory,  Walter  Webber,  a  wealthy  mixed-blood  Cherokee,  acquired 
this  land  by  evicting  the  former  owners  and  took  over  the  salt  works.  A  friend  of  Sam 
Houston  and  of  the  missionaries,  he  gave  land  and  money  to  help  in  the  re-establishment  of 
D wight  Mission  (see  Tour  15). 

WEBBERS  FALLS,  44.7  m.  (479  alt.,  486  pop.),  was  named  for  Webber 
and  for  the  falls  in  the  Arkansas  River  which  are  now  hardly  more  than  a 
riffle  across  the  channel,  though  they  were  once  several  feet  high  at  a  normal 
stage  of  the  river. 

In  WARNER,  55.9  m.  (570  alt.,  391  pop.),  a  farming  community,  is 
the  Connors  State  Agricultural  College,  which  was  established  in  1908 
as  a  preparatory  school.  In  1927,  the  curriculum  was  extended  to  include 
junior  college  courses.  The  school  has  a  well-equipped  225-acre  experimental 
farm. 


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MtYKRS,  OKLAHOMA  CITY 


OIL  WELLS  IN  FRONT  OF  STATE  CAPITOL 
OKLAHOMA  CITY 


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OKLAHOMA  STATE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 


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BONE  AND  BLOOD  AND  SINEW  OF 

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TOUR  2        237 

Left  from  Warner  on  the  graveled  State  2  is  PORUM,  11  m.  (583  alt.,  502  pop.), 
once  the  home  of  Tom  Starr,  ardent  supporter  of  the  treaty  faction  during  the  turbulent 
days  of  the  establishment  of  the  Cherokee  Nation.  He  was  a  half-blood,  Irish  and  Cherokee, 
and  had  five  sons,  one  of  whom  became  the  husband  of  Belle  Starr.  Dissension  between  the 
"Old  Settlers"  and  "Newcomer"  Cherokees,  arising  from  the  fact  that  one  party  had  signed 
the  Removal  Treaty  with  the  United  States,  broke  into  open  warfare  with  a  series  of  brutal 
assassinations.  Among  those  of  the  treaty  party  who  were  killed  was  Tom's  father,  James 
Starr.  Tom  set  himself  the  task  of  killing  as  many  of  the  antitreaty  faction  as  possible.  The 
war  became  so  intense  that  the  Cherokee  government,  not  able  to  capture  or  kill  Tom,  made 
a  treaty  with  him.  Provisions  of  the  act  gave  $100,000  and  complete  amnesty  to  Tom  to  end 
his  bloody  activities.  This  is  said  to  be  the  only  treaty  with  an  individual  in  the  history  of 
the  Cherokee  Nation.  To  avoid  further  trouble,  Starr  moved  to  the  Canadian  River  near 
Briartown,  fulfilled  his  part  of  the  agreement,  and  became  a  leader  in  the  community. 

Right  from  Porum  on  a  dirt  road  to  a  junction  with  a  second  dirt  road,  4.5  m.;  left 
here  to  a  junction  with  a  third  road  8.7  m.;  right  here  to  Belle  St.\rr's  Grave,  9.7  m.  The 
crypt  is  a  small  stone  mausoleum  on  the  north  bank  of  the  broad  Canadian  River.  Though 
her  Missouri  parents  were  respectable  and  wealthy.  Belle  became  a  notorious  woman  outlaw. 
In  the  Civil  War  she  became  a  Confederate  spy,  during  which  time  she  made  the  acquain- 
tance of  the  James  and  Younger  boys.  Her  first  marriage  was  to  Jim  Reed,  one  of  Quan- 
trill's  men,  and  after  he  was  killed  by  officers  of  the  law  she  married  Sam  Starr,  son  of  Tom 
Starr,  and  setded  on  a  farm  on  the  Canadian  River  near  Eufaula  and  not  far  from  her  future 
final  resting  place.  Their  home  became  a  rendezvous  for  outlaw  friends,  and  both  met 
violent  deaths. 

At  Warner,  US  64  turns  sharply  north  (R). 

In  MUSKOGEE  (Mus-ko'-gee),  77.1  m.  (617  alt.,  32,332  pop.)  (see 
Muskogee),  are  junctions  with  US  69  (see  Tour  8)  and  US  62  (see  Tour  3), 
which  unites  westward  with  US  64  for  15.4  miles. 

Right  on  a  graveled  road  from  the  junction  of  40th  Street  and  the  Kansas- 
Oklahoma-Gulf  tracks,  to  a  V  junction  with  two  improved  roads,  2  m. 

Left  to  the  Japanese  Garden  (priuate:  apply  lo  caretaker),  1.2  m.,  where  Japanese 
plants  and  flowers  are  supplemented  by  native  Oklahoma  plants.  Gateway,  wells,  lanterns 
of  stone  and  wood,  temple  bells,  and  bridges  combine  to  create  a  picturesque  reproduction 
of  the  Far  East. 

Right  from  the  V  junction  to  the  Site  of  the  Tullahassee  School,  6  m.  This,  the 
largest  of  the  three  Creek  Nation  mission  schools,  was  established  in  1850  by  Rev.  R.  M. 
Loughridge,  a  Presbyterian  minister  who  was  under  a  contract  with  the  tribal  government; 
the  other  missions  were  at  Bixby  and  Coweta.  The  list  of  graduates  from  the  school  in  its 
prinie  reads  like  a  roll  call  of  the  future  Creek  tribal  leaders.  The  school  was  damaged 
during  the  Civil  War  when  much  of  the  surrounding  country  was  laid  waste;  but  the 
Creeks  repaired  the  plant  and  operated  it  until  it  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1880.  It  was 
then  rebuilt  and  used  by  the  Creeks  through  die  rest  of  the  tribal  period  for  the  education 
of  their  Negro  freedmen. 

TAFT,  86.9  m.  (605  alt.,  772  pop.),  is  an  all-Negro  community  which 
grew  up  because  of  the  large  number  of  Negro  freedmen  who  setded  near  the 
confluence  of  the  Arkansas  and  Verdigris  rivers  shordy  after  the  Civil  War. 
The  United  States  required  the  Creeks  to  adopt  their  former  slaves  as  citizens, 
and  many  allotments  in  this  district  were  given  to  Negroes,  who  were  thus 
listed  on  the  rolls  of  the  Creek  Nation.  The  original  townsite  was  platted  on 
sixteen  acres,  purchased  from  a  freedman,  and  named  in  honor  of  a  prominent 
Negro,  W.  H.  Twine.  Later  the  town  was  renamed  for  President  William 
Howard  Taft. 


238  OKLAHOMA 

At  87.3  m.  are  (R)  the  State  Deaf,  Blind  and  Orphans'  Home  for 
Negro  Children,  founded  in  1909;  and  the  State  Training  School  for 
Negro  Girls.  At  87.7  m.  is  the  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane  (L.), 
opened  in  1933.  All  three  organizations  were  consolidated  under  one  adminis- 
tration in  1935.  The  $500,000  hospital  building  has  twelve  wards  accommo- 
dating fifty  inmates  each.  The  four  hundred  acres  of  land  belonging  to  the 
institution  produce  a  large  part  of  the  food  supply  and  provide  pasturage  for 
the  institution's  dairy  cattle.  Peanut  butter,  broom,  and  canning  factories  are 
operated  on  the  grounds,  adding  greatly  to  the  revenue. 

At  92.6  m.,  is  the  western  junction  with  US  62;  US  64  turns  northwest. 

HASKELL,  97.6  m.  (620  alt.,  1,572  pop.),  is  an  agricultural  trade  center, 
named  in  honor  of  the  first  governor  of  Oklahoma,  Charles  N.  Haskell 
(1907-11). 

Southeast  of  Haskell  is  the  site  of  the  old  Blue  Creek  Mission  of  the 
pre-Civil  War  days.  Chief  Pleasant  Porter,  elected  head  of  the  Creeks  in  1899, 
was  born  in  this  vicinity.  President  McKinley  once  called  Porter  the  greatest 
living  Indian  of  his  time.  His  beneficent  work  among  his  people  continued 
until  his  death  in  1907. 

Right  from  Haskell  on  graveled  State  72  through  a  historic  region  of  the  former  Creek 
Indian  Nation.  The  highway  crosses  the  ARKANSAS  RIVER,  8  m.,  and  then  follows  the 
course  of  Coweta  Creek,  on  whose  banks  the  Coweta  division  of  the  tribe  settled,  to  Coweta 
Mission  Site  (R).  Here  the  Reverend  Robert  M.  Loughridge  established  the  first  of  three 
missions  in  1843;  he  preached  and  his  wife  conducted  a  boarding  school  for  the  children 
of  the  near-by  Creek  families.  The  mission  grew  in  size  and  holdings,  but  its  buildings  were 
burned  during  the  Civil  War  and  never  replaced.  Northeast  of  the  site  of  the  church, 
Loughridge,  his  young  wife,  and  their  baby,  Olivia,  are  buried  in  an  abandoned  hillside 
cemetery,  the  headstones  long  since  fallen  and  covered  with  debris. 

The  Coweta  Ceremonial  Grounds  (L)  was  the  scene  of  many  solemn  councils  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  Four  brush  arbors  for  the  accommodation  of  spectators  and  participants 
surrounded  a  square  where  the  ceremonial  fire  was  kindled.  Near  by  was  a  ball  ground 
where  men  and  women  played  the  Indian  ball  game  for  recreation,  and  also  (R)  the  ball- 
ground  reserved  for  formal,  and  always  strenuous,  games  between  towns. 

COWETA,  10.2  m.  (625  alt.,  1,455  pop.),  is  on  the  site  of  the  early  setdement  named 
by  the  Creeks  for  their  famous  town  in  Georgia  before  the  removal  to  Indian  Territory. 
At  that  time,  the  Creek  Nation  was  a  confederacy  formed  by  the  union  of  semiautonomous 
towns.  Governmental  functions  were  divided  into  "peace"  and  "war"  activities,  with  the 
towns  classified  as  "white"  or  "red"  according  to  the  function.  Coweta  was  the  leading 
"red,"  or  "war,"  town  and  the  scene  of  many  important  treaty  councils.  When  the  tribe 
migrated  to  the  West,  members  of  Coweta  Town  settled  here  in  the  valley  of  the  Arkansas; 
and  the  white  setdement  which  gradually  supplanted  it  has  perpetuated  the  ancient  name. 

The  tradition  of  the  towns  has  never  passed  from  the  memory  of  the  Creeks.  When 
they  adopted  the  white  man's  system  of  agriculture,  they  gradually  moved  out  from  these 
compact  settlements  to  individual  farms,  but  they  continued  to  recognize  the  town  organiza- 
tion as  a  social,  ceremonial,  and  governmental  unit.  Even  though  they  are  scattered  through- 
out Oklahoma  at  the  present  time,  all  Creeks  remember  their  town  affiliation. 

These  tribal  traditions  and  institutions  were  almost  completely  wiped  out  by  the  domi- 
nation of  the  white  man  and  the  adoption  of  the  Indians  into  American  citizenry.  However, 
the  Oklahoma  Indian  Welfare  Act,  passed  by  Congress  in  1936,  authorizing  groups  of 
Indians  to  incorporate  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  land  and  carrying  on  collective  activides, 
is  sympathetic  toward  the  traditional  forms.  The  ancient  Creek  town  organization  formed 
the  basis  for  the  newly  created  chartered  associations. 

Near  Coweta  (L)  is  the  Site  of  the  Coweta  District  Court,  where  the  Creeks 
dispensed  justice,  sentencing  and  punishing  almost  simultaneously.  Whipping  was  the  most 
common  punishment  for  all  offenses. 


TOUR  2        239 

At  113.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  county  road. 

Right  to  the  Site  of  Wealaka  Mission,  5  in.,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Arkansas 
River.  Founded  by  the  Creeks  in  1881  with  Rev.  R.  M.  Loughridge  as  superintendent,  the 
mission  w^as  built  on  land  once  belonging  to  Chief  Pleasant  Porter.  The  chief  is  buried  not 
far  from  the  site.  The  mission  served  as  a  Creek  tribal  school  during  and  after  Territorial  days. 

BIXBY,  114.9  m.  (649  alt.,  1,291  pop.),  established  in  1893,  quieted  down 
after  an  early  history  of  oudawry  to  become  a  prosperous  agricultural  center. 
It  was  named  for  Tarns  Bixby,  chairman  of  the  Dawes  Commission,  created 
by  Congress  in  1893  to  close  out  the  affairs  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes. 

At  131.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  41st  Street  on  the  southern  edge  of  Tulsa. 

Left  on  41st  Street  to  Tulsa's  First  Post  Office,  1.1  m.,  marked  by  a  red  granite 
stone  bearing  an  inscription  and  the  date  of  establishment,  March  25,  1879.  The  building 
(private)  originally  was  the  home  of  George  Perryman  and  was  the  headquarters  of  the 
Figure-4  Ranch.  Lumber  and  material  for  its  construction  were  hauled  in  wagons  from 
CofJeyville,  Kansas.  Though  some  changes  have  been  made  and  some  materials  replaced, 
the  moss-covered  foundation  blocks,  the  brick  flues,  sills,  wainscoting,  molding,  and  six- 
inch  flooring  still  remain.  The  sills  were  hewn  by  hand,  then  mortised;  the  walls  covered 
with  canvas,  then  papered,  when  the  building  was  first  erected. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1 878  that  the  Post  Office  Department  decided  to  extend  service 
from  Fort  Smith  westward  to  the  Sac  and  Fox  Agency.  A  post  road  was  routed  and  a  post 
rider  delivered  mail  once  a  week  to  the  Perryman  house.  Josiah  C.  Perryman,  a  brother  of 
George  and  one  of  the  most  respected  citizens  of  the  Creek  Nation,  was  appointed  post- 
master. When  the  Frisco  Railway  came  to  Tulsa  in  1882,  the  post  office  was  moved  from 
the  Perryman  home  to  a  store  near  the  tracks. 

TULSA,  135.6  m.  (700  alt.,  142,157  pop.)  (see  Tulsa),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  66  (see  Tour  1),  US  75  (see  Tour  9),  and  US  169  (see  Tour  9A). 

Section  b.  TULSA  to  ENID,  1263  m.  US  64 

West  of  TULSA,  0  m.,  are  many  towns  which  grew  from  early  Indian 
settlements.  The  highway  follows  the  Arkansas  River  for  about  twenty  miles, 
skirts  the  southern  edge  of  the  Osage  reservation,  and  crosses  the  Pawnee 
reservation  and  the  Cherokee  Outlet. 

SAND  SPRINGS,  7.6  m.  (700  alt.,  6,137  pop.),  is  an  industrial  city  (R) 
that  began  as  an  unusual  philanthropic  venture. 

The  business  section  of  Sand  Springs,  where  a  Creek  settlement  was 
located  in  1833  and  named  Adams  Springs,  in  honor  of  a  prominent  Creek 
family,  is  six-tenths  of  a  mile  (R)  from  the  main  highway.  The  sandy  springs 
in  the  near-by  Osage  Hills  gave  the  city  its  present  name. 

Washington  Irving,  in  his  Tour  on  the  Prairies,  relates  that  he  first  saw 
the  Cimarron  River  (or,  the  "Red  Fork  of  the  Arkansas  River,"  as  he  termed 
it)  from  a  hill  called  Beattie's  Knob,  north  of  present  Sand  Springs. 

In  1907,  Charles  Page,  oil  millionaire,  bought  a  160-acre  tract  of  land,  on 
which  he  built  a  home  for  widows  and  orphans,  and  connected  it  with  Tulsa 
by  an  electric  railway.  Industrial  interests  began  locating  here  and,  in  1911,  the 
city  of  Sand  Springs  was  platted.  Today  (1941),  approximately  eighty-five 
industries  operate  in  the  Sand  Springs  area,  making  it  an  important  suburb 
of  Tulsa. 


240  OKLAHOMA 

Pace  Memorial  Library  (open  weel{days:  1-9  p.m.J,  3d  and  Main 
Streets,  was  built  by  Mrs.  Page  as  a  memorial  to  her  husband,  who  died  in 
1926.  The  $100,000  structure,  buff  stucco  with  bronze  trim,  is  modern  in 
design  and  houses  ten  thousand  volumes.  Across  the  street  from  the  library 
is  Trlxngle  Park,  a  small  plot  of  ground  in  which  stands  a  life-size  bronze 
statue  of  Page,  with  smaller  figures  of  orphans  looking  up  to  him.  The  group 
is  the  work  of  Lorado  Taft. 

Right  from  Sand  Springs  on  1st  Street  to  Sand  Springs  Home  Interests,  2.1  m., 
founded  by  Page  to  provide  for  orphans  and  needy  widows  with  children.  The  property 
now  includes  sixteen  thousand  acres  of  farm  land  and  a  four-story  modern  building,  afford- 
ing accommodations  for  one  hundred  orphans  and  fifty  widows.  Many  of  the  city's  industries 
are  owned  by  the  Home  Interests,  income  derived  from  them  going  toward  the  support  of 
the  institution.  The  farms  supply  much  of  the  home's  foodstuff. 

Right,  from  the  western  boundary  of  the  Home  Interests,  on  an  oiled  asphalt  road 
through  a  gateway,  0.9  m.;  left  to  SHELL  CREEK,  3.3  m.  In  the  four  D.\lton  Caves, 
which  line  the  creek,  the  Dalton  gang  is  supposed  to  have  hidden  after  their  spectacular 
bank  and  train  robberies.  It  is  said  that  they  buried  some  of  their  loot  in  or  near  the  caves, 
but  treasure  hunters  have  never  found  it. 

At  Sand  Springs,  US  64  turns  left  at  right  angles  and  crosses  the  Arkansas 
River  bridge,  8.2  m. 

At  the  turn  a  Creek  Burl\l  Ground  (L),  more  than  one  hundred  years 
old,  has  been  enclosed  by  an  iron  fence  and  preserved  through  the  philan- 
thropy of  Charles  Page. 

KEYSTONE,  19.6  m.  (684  alt.,  406  pop.),  is  now  a  quiet  farm  com- 
munity with  the  usual  stores,  churches,  and  schools,  showing  no  traces  of  its 
saloon-infested  frontier  past. 

Keystone  was  first  settled  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Cimarron  River  at 
its  confluence  with  the  Arkansas.  The  Osage  reservation  was  to  the  north,  bor- 
dered by  the  Arkansas,  and  the  Creek  reservation  lay  just  to  the  south.  The 
white  man's  "firewater,"  abundant  in  Keystone,  attracted  cowboys,  farmers, 
and  outlaws,  as  well  as  the  prohibited  Indians. 

About  1903,  real  estate  promoters  bought  two  cornfields  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Cimarron,  just  across  from  Keystone.  In  typical  boom  fashion, 
they  laid  out  the  townsite  of  Appalachia,  pictured  in  alluring  colored  maps 
as  a  busy  river  port  reached  by  steamboat.  The  fact  that  the  Cimarron  rarely 
has  much  water  except  after  heavy  rains  was  apparently  ignored,  for  the 
new  town  began  to  spring  up  with  saloons  in  abundance.  The  enterprising 
promoters  and  saloon-keepers  built  a  rickety  swinging  footbridge  across  the 
river,  and  hundreds  of  vehicles  and  saddle  horses  waited  on  the  Keystone  side 
while  their  owners  spent  hours  in  the  new  town's  more  attractive  saloons. 
Often,  on  the  return  trip,  the  revelers  fell  into  the  chilly  waters  and  many 
sobered  up  sufficiendy  to  take  the  pledge.  Appropriately,  the  footbridge  was 
named  for  Carry  Nation,  whose  temperance  campaign  was  in  full  swing  in 
Kansas  at  the  time. 

A  U.S.  marshal  arrived  to  keep  order  at  the  height  of  Appalachia's  pros- 
perity; instead,  he  opened  a  saloon  on  the  Keystone  side.  Others  followed  his 
example,  and  .\ppalachia  was  soon  abandoned. 

Keystone  is  at  the  junction  with  State  33  (see  Tour  2.4). 


TOUR  2        241 

At  23.4  m.,  US  64  turns  left,  closely  paralleling  the  Arkansas  River,  which 
here  is  a  wide,  sandy  stream,  bordered  by  a  fringe  of  timber  and  low,  rugged 
hills. 

On  November  19,  1861,  Opothle  Yahola,  leading  a  band  of  approxi- 
mately five  thousand  Creeks  loyal  to  the  Union  government,  camped  at 
ROUND  MOUNTAIN  (R).  Here  Confederate  troops  caught  up  with  them 
and  attacked,  but  Opothle  Yahola  led  his  band  away  under  cover  of  darkness. 
Attempting  to  reach  Kansas  and  refuge,  many  died  of  starvation  and  disease 
and,  as  winter  closed  in,  others  froze  to  death.  The  survivors  reached  southern 
Kansas  about  the  middle  of  January,  1862,  destitute  and  with  greatly  depleted 
ranks. 

CLEVELAND,  3,6.9  m.  (740  alt.,  2,510  pop.),  named  for  President 
Cleveland,  was  established  by  a  townsite  company  shordy  after  the  opening 
of  the  Cherokee  Strip  in  1893.  The  Osage  reservation  was  near  by,  and 
"going  to  town"  for  thousands  of  Osages  meant  going  to  Cleveland;  the 
muddy  streets  were  usually  lined  with  their  ponies.  For  some  time  the  bridge 
across  the  Arkansas  River  at  Cleveland  was  the  only  crossing  between  the  one 
at  Tulsa  to  the  east  and  the  Kansas  Line  to  the  northwest,  where  the  river 
passes  out  of  the  state.  Cleveland  gained  the  title  "Gate  City,"  during  this 
period. 

Oil  fields  in  the  vicinity  have  produced  great  quantities  of  crude  oil  for 
many  years  and  several  gasoline  companies  are  in  operation  here,  but  Cleve- 
land has  never  had  the  boom  town  appearance. 

In  Cleveland  is  the  junction  with  State  99  (see  Tour  14),  which  unites 
westward  with  US  64  for  six  miles. 

At  48.9  w.  is  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  BLACKBURN,  6.1  m.  (798  alt.,  198  pop.),  where  the  annual 
reunion  of  the  Drouth  Survivors  of  1901  is  held  on  the  first  Thursday  in  August.  In  that 
year,  hundreds  of  people  abandoned  their  farms  and  homesteads  here.  Those  who  stayed 
banded  together  into  an  association,  and  the  group — about  two  hundred — still  meets  for 
a  reminiscent  get-together. 

Left  from  Blackburn,  5  m.,  on  a  dirt  road,  is  SKEDEE  (833  alt.,  235  pop.),  named 
for  the  Skidi  division  of  the  Pawnee  tribe,  and  once  known  as  the  Crystal  Creek  Camp- 
grounds. An  interesting  Collection  of  Indian  Curios  (open  weelydays:  9-4)  is  owned 
by  Colonel  E.  Waters;  he  was  an  auctioneer  during  the  period  of  the  million-dollar  oil 
lease  sales  in  Osage  County  (see  Tour  4)  and  participated  in  many  of  the  fabulous  deals.  A 
concrete  statue,  showing  Bacon  Rind,  an  Osage  leader,  and  Colonel  Waters  shaking  hands 
in  a  "bond  of  friendship,"  stands  on  the  Waters  grounds.  The  sculpture  bears  little  resem- 
blance to  Bacon  Rind,  who  was  perhaps  the  most  photographed  of  all  American  Indians. 

PAWNEE,  57.9  m.  (822  alt.,  2,742  pop.),  originally  a  trading  post,  was 
made  the  site  of  the  Pawnee  Agency  in  1876  when  that  tribe  was  removed 
from  their  home  in  Nebraska  to  new  lands  in  Oklahoma.  In  1893,  when  the 
Pawnees  accepted  allotments,  the  residue  of  their  land  was  opened  for  settle- 
ment, and  the  present-day  town  began  to  develop. 

Pawnee  still  retains  the  flavor  of  its  early  days,  and  blanketed  Indians 
are  a  common  sight.  On  a  broad  limestone  panel  above  the  main  entrance  of 
the  Pawnee  County  Courthouse,  erected  in  1933,  are  carvings  depicting 
scenes  of  pioneer  and  Indian  life.  The  courthouse  square  is  the  center  of 
activity  on  Saturdays  and  on  court  days  in  the  spring  and  fall. 


242  OKLAHOMA 

Tourisis  wishing  to  see  "real"  Indians  are  rarely  disappointed  when 
visiting  the  Pawnee  Agency  on  the  eastern  edge  of  town.  It  was  from  this 
center  that  (General  George  A.  Custer  recruited  Indian  scouts  to  aid  him  in 
his  campaign  against  the  wild  Plains  tribes  (see  Tour  3A).  On  June  10,  1876, 
Captain  Luther  North  sent  a  group  of  scouts  from  this  point  to  Wyoming  to 
serve  under  Custer.  Some  (who  had  been  absent  at  a  hunting  party  at  the 
time)  set  out  later;  within  a  few  days,  they  returned  to  the  agency,  reporting 
that  smoke  signals  had  told  them  that  Custer  was  dead.  Ten  days  later  the 
Pawnee  agent  received  official  word  of  Custer's  death. 

Right  from  Pawnee  on  asjihalt-pavcd  State  18  to  LAKE  PAWNEE  (swimming, 
recreational  facilities),  1  m.,  which  covers  305  acres.  Five  hundred  acres  around  the  lake 
have  been  developed  by  the  town  into  a  park  and  recreation  center,  with  a  large,  native 
stone  club-house  and  a  fish  hatchery. 

On  BLUE  HAWK  PEAK,  59.7  m.,  stands  the  rambling  brick  home  of 
Major  Gordon  W.  Little — known  as  Pawnee  Bill  —  Indian  interpreter,  fron- 
tiersman, scout,  and  originator  of  Pawnee  Bill's  Wild  West  Circus  with  which 
he  toured  widely  for  a  number  of  years.  Born  in  Illinois  in  1860,  Lillie  came 
to  Indian  Territory  in  1882  and  joined  a  catde  outfit  in  the  Cherokee  Strip. 
Shortly  after,  he  became  an  instructor  in  the  government  school  at  the  Pawnee 
Agency;  he  was  a  leader  among  the  Boomers,  the  group  of  whites  who  at- 
tempted to  settle  in  Indian  Territory  before  official  action  by  Congress  allowed 
them  to  do  so  legally.  Pawnee  Bill's  circus  ventures  took  him  abroad  to  the 
World's  Fair  at  Antwerp,  Belgium,  in  1894;  on  a  successful  tour  of  America; 
and  once  joined  him  in  partnership  with  BufTalo  Bill  ( W.  F.  Cody)  in  a  show 
called  "The  Two  Bills." 

Old  Town,  61.4  m.  (no  admission),  is  a  group  of  dilapidated  buildings 
representing  a  typical  frontier  settlement,  erected  by  Lillie  as  a  commercial 
enterprise.  It  includes  a  central  trading  post.  Pawnee  council  house,  log 
cabins,  and  a  Hopi  Indian  pueblo,  which  was  used  as  a  filling  station.  In  the 
trading  post  is  the  old  Stag  back-bar  of  solid  mahogany,  twenty  feet  long  and 
eleven  feet  high,  used  in  the  Two  Johns  saloon  in  Oklahoma  City.  The 
council  house  is  a  circular,  sod-brick  structure  with  a  tapered  roof.  The  herd 
of  bufTalo  that  once  was  quartered  here  is  gone.  The  depression  wrote  finis  to 
this  venture. 

At  73.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  40,  a  paved  highway. 

Left  on  State  40  to  STILLW.\TER  LAKE,  8.6  w.  (dancing  and  picnicking  facilities; 
boating,  50c  a  day;  fishing,  25c;  hunting,  50c) ,  which  covers  twenty -one  acres. 

HOOMER  L.'VKE,  10.1  m.  (boating  and  fishing,  50c) ,  is  the  municipal  water  supply 
for  Stillwater. 

STILLWATER,  12  m.  (886  alt.,  10,097  pop.)  (see  Stillwater),  is  at  the  junction  with 
State  51,  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  Stiite  51  to  a  junction,  9.9  ni..  with  a  graveled  road;  (R)  on  this  road  to 
LAKE  CARL  BLACKWELL,  13  m.  (swimming,  picnicking,  boating,  hunting). 

State  40  continues  to  the  Midget  Cattle  Farm  (visitors  welcome),  14.2  m.  (R), 
where  Otto  Gray  has  developed  a  small  herd  of  midget  milch  cows.  He  started  (1931)  with 
a  freak  Angus  cow,  the  four  calves  from  which  (sired  by  ordinary  Hereford  and  Jersey 
bulls)  were  all  midgets.  The  herd  in  1941  consisted  of  nineteen  midget  cows  and  the 
breed  has  held  true  for  four  generations.  One  of  them  holds  the  record  of  having  produced 


TOUR  2        243 

her  own  weight  in  milk  in  eleven  days.  Others  in  the  herd  gave  as  much  as  five  gallons 
of  milk  daily;  and  the  milk  tests  high  in  butter  fat. 

At  21.2  tn.  is  the  junction  with  State  33  (see  Tour  2A). 

PERRY,  85.7  m.  (1,005  alt.,  5,045  pop.),  is  a  center  for  the  surrounding 
agricultural  area  and  seat  of  Noble  County.  On  the  morning  of  September 
16,  1893,  the  first  of  the  Santa  Fe  special  trains  entered  the  Cherokee  Strip, 
loaded  with  eager,  shouting  land-seekers.  The  first  stop  was  at  a  station 
named  Wharton,  one  mile  south  of  the  present  Perry  station.  Clambering 
off,  the  passengers  rushed  into  the  already  platted  townsite,  which  had  been 
designed  as  a  land-office  town  by  the  Department  of  Interior  and  named  for 
a  member  of  the  Federal  Townsite  Commission.  They  drove  their  stakes 
into  the  ground,  and  the  mushroom  town  of  tents  and  clapboards  was  born. 

Sooner  Land  (1929),  by  George  Washington  Ogden,  a  native  of  Kansas, 
gives  a  colorful  description  of  the  early  days  of  Perry.  It  tells  of  the  large 
number  of  Sooners,  the  fourteen  saloons,  the  many  gamblers,  and  their 
hangers-on  which  caused  the  Federal  government  to  send  three  marshals  here 
until  a  city  government  could  be  organized.  The  wooden  buildings  of  the  old 
land  office  still  stand  in  Government  Square  Park,  but  a  modern  court- 
house, a  Carnegie  Library,  and  the  rows  of  parked  automobiles  now  border- 
ing the  square  eclipse  them — the  rip-roaring  early  days  are  forgotten. 

Perry  is  at  the  junction  with  US  77  (see  Tour  10),  which  unites  westward 
with  US  64  for  5.6  miles. 

COVINGTON,  103.9  m.  (1,141  alt.,  780  pop.),  was  named  for  John 
Covington,  an  early  settler.  When  the  Arkansas  Valley  &  Western  Railroad 
built  a  station  here,  Covington  asked  the  railroad  officials  to  grant  him  this 
honor  because,  having  no  sons,  he  wished  to  perpetuate  his  name. 

The  Knox-Mulhall  Rodeo  is  held  each  fall,  usually  in  September,  at  the 
Knox  Ranch,  104  w. 

West  of  Covington,  wheat  fields  line  the  highway  and  the  towers  of  the 
grain  elevators  in  and  around  Enid  are  visible.  This  section  is  the  most  pro- 
ductive wheat-raising  region  in  the  state.  An  oil  field,  extending  from  Coving- 
ton to  Garber  (see  Industry),  was  discovered  with  the  drilling  of  the  Hoy 
Well  in  1916. 

At  110.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  paved  State  15. 

Straight  ahead  (north)  on  State  15  is  GARBER,  3  m.  (1,148  alt.,  1,086  pop.),  where 
an  annual  celebration  is  held  on  September  16,  commemorating  the  opening  of  the  Cherokee 
Strip  on  that  day  in  1893.  Whiskers  are  coaxed  to  grow  long  in  the  early-day  fashion,  and 
pioneer  clothes  make  their  appearance  as  the  whole  town  "dresses  up"  for  the  occasion. 

ENID,  126.3  m.  (1,246  alt.,  28,081  pop.),  (see  Enid),  is  at  the  southern 
junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4)  and  US  81  (see  Tour  11). 

Section  c.  ENID  to  NEW  MEXICO  LINE,  342  tn.US64 

Between  Enid  and  the  New  Mexico  Line,  US  64  passes  through  an  agri- 
cultural section  in  which  the  leading  crops  are  wheat  and  forage;  the  land, 
especially  in  the  far  western  Panhandle  section,  is  high  and  arid.  Towns  are 
far  apart  and  comparatively  small. 


244  OKLAHOMA 

North  of  ENID,  0  m.,  US  60  and  US  81  unite  with  US  64  to  19  m., 
where  the  route  turns  sharply  west. 

At  33.7  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  at  this  point  on  a  scries  of  dirt  roads;  (R)  at  1  m.;  (h)  at  2  m.;  and  (L)  again 
at  6  m.  to  the  GREAT  SALT  PLAINS  DAM,  6.5  m..  a  $2,000,000  structure  started  in  1938 
and  scheduled  for  completion  in  1941.  The  reservoir,  created  by  the  dam  for  flood  control 
and  conservation,  has  a  storage  capacity  of  317,000  acre-feet  of  water.  When  completely 
filled,  the  lake  will  extend  ten  miles  up  the  Salt  Fork  of  the  Arkansas  River  with  a  maxi- 
mum width  of  twelve  miles,  covering  all  of  the  area  lying  within  the  Great  Salt  Plains. 
Approximately  19,400  acres — 69  per  cent  of  the  total  reservoir  bottom — is  government 
owned  and  has  been  reserved  as  a  wild-fowl  refuge  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior.  The  remaining  ground  covered  has  little  agricultural  value.  Construc- 
tion of  the  dam  reduces  the  hazard  of  flood  damage  in  the  Salt  Fork  valley  to  the  south 
and  east  as  well  as  in  the  valley  of  the  Arkansas  River.  Recreational  facilities  for  north- 
western Oklahoma  are  provided  by  the  project,  which  will  also  prove  a  refuge  for  migratory 
birds  and  other  wild  life. 

Geologists  hold  conflicting  theories  as  to  the  formation  of  the  Great  Salt  Plains.  The 
most  commonly  accepted  explanation  is  that  the  area  was  once  covered  by  a  great  prehis- 
toric sea  which  has  evaporated,  leaving  the  salt  bed.  Another,  advanced  by  a  University  of 
Oklahoma  geologist,  is  that  the  Plains  were  the  result  of  consistent  weathering  of  a  soil  that 
does  not  support  enough  vegetation  to  prevent  erosion.  The  soluble  salt,  laid  down  in 
geologic  formation  fifty  million  years  ago,  "sweated  up"  out  of  the  ground  or  crystallized 
about  salt  springs  fed  by  water  that  flowed  through  salt  beds  not  far  from  the  surface.  The 
salt  formed  a  thin,  wafer-like  crust  on  the  flat  surface  covering  approximately  sixty  square 
miles,  lower  in  elevation  than  the  surrounding  country.  The  glistening  white  crust  appeared 
to  migratory  fowl  as  a  vast  and  welcome  expanse  of  water.  When  it  rained,  the  salt  crust 
dissolved,  making  it  appear  an  ordinary  section  of  ground;  this  transformation  was  dan- 
gerous, however,  for  the  clay  and  sand  beneath  the  surface  became  quick.  Although  com- 
pletely barren,  the  plains  supported  four  forms  of  life — two  birds,  the  lestern  and  the  snowy 
plover,  and  two  insects,  the  tiger  beetle  and  a  sea  blite.  Climatic  conditions  in  the  region  are 
the  most  extreme  outside  a  desert;  ample  spring  rains  are  followed  by  a  long  and  severe 
drouth  when  114°  F.  is  not  uncommon.  Winter  often  brings  blizzards  that  force  the  tem- 
perature to  14°  below  zero.  Salt  Springs,  feeding  the  Salt  Fork  (which  winds  along  the 
north  and  east  edges  of  the  Salt  Plains  area),  flow  thousands  of  gallons  of  brine  daily. 

According  to  available  records,  the  first  white  men  to  see  the  Plains  were  those  in  the 
party  of  Major  George  C.  Sibley,  Indian  agent  from  Fort  Osage,  Missouri.  In  1811,  Sans 
Oreille,  an  Osage  Indian,  with  others  of  his  tribe,  guided  them  to  the  spot,  which  Sibley 
called  the  Grand  Saline.  The  Salt  Fork  of  the  Arkansas  River,  flowing  around  the  plain, 
was  known  to  the  Osages  as  Nescattinga  (big  salt  water).  Another  early  explorer  to  see  the 
Great  Salt  Plains  was  Captain  Nathan  Boone,  son  of  Daniel  Boone,  who  headed  a  govern- 
ment expedition  from  Fort  Gibson  into  what  is  now  central  Kansas  in  1843.  Boone  described 
the  phenomenon  as  a  "lake  of  white  water." 

In  drafting  the  treaty  which  defined  the  territory  to  become  the  soolled  permanent 
home  of  the  Cherokees  in  1828,  the  United  States  government  withheld  the  Salt  Plains 
area  with  the  provision  that,  "The  right  is  reserved  to  the  United  States  to  allow  other  tribes 
of  red  men  to  get  salt  on  the  Great  Salt  Plains  in  common  with  the  Cherokee  Tribe." 
Possession  of  the  Plains  had  probably  been  the  cause  of  many  Indian  batdes,  since  its  value 
lay  not  in  its  salt  alone  but  in  the  rich  hunting  afforded  by  the  animals  migrating  here  for 
the  salt  supply.  The  Great  Salt  Plains  have  thus  been  the  scene  of  many  Indian  councils 
both  of  war  and  peace.  A  war  council  of  Plains  Indians  was  called  to  meet  here  in  1845  to 
plan  concerted  opposition  to  immigrant  Creek  Indians,  whose  reservation  lay  farther  to  the 
cast.  Creek  diplomacy  and  emotional  appeal  resulted  in  peace  and,  thereafter,  the  councils 
held  on  this  spot  were  usually  of  a  peaceful  nature. 

The  commercial  value  of  the  salt  was  highest  during  the  earliest  days  of  the  setdemcnt 
of  the  Indian  Territory,  when  transportation  to  this  wild  country  was  difficult;  western 
Kansas  and  Texas  cattlemen  sent  wagons  here  to  haul  away  great  loads.  Near-by  farmers 
used  the  salt  for  livestock. 


TOUR  2        245 

CHEROKEE,  51.8  m.  ( 1,181  alt.,  2,553  pop.),  the  seat  of  Alfalfa  County, 
is  a  thriving  agricultural  outlet  for  the  surrounding  fertile  farm  country. 
Wheat,  alfalfa,  corn,  and  sorghum  are  profitable  crops  for  the  area,  and  mill- 
ing is  an  important  Cherokee  industry. 

Mrs.  Walter  (Lucia  Loomis)  Ferguson,  whose  daily  syndicated  column, 
A  Woman's  Viewpoint,  appears  in  many  newspapers,  formerly  lived  here. 
With  her  husband,  Walter  Ferguson  (d.  1937),  former  state  legislator  and 
son  of  the  sixth  territorial  governor,  Thompson  B.  Ferguson,  she  published 
the  Chero\ee  Republican. 

At  54.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  58,  a  graveled  road. 

Straight  ahead  on  State  58  to  a  junction  with  graded  County  Highway  15,  4.5  m.: 
(R)  here  to  the  Drumm  Monument,  7.7  m.,  marking  the  site  of  the  old  150,000-acre  U 
Ranch,  which  Major  Andrew  Drumm  (1828-1919)  established  in  1874  after  moving  here 
from  southern  Kansas.  The  ranch  lay  at  the  confluence  of  the  Medicine  River  and  the  Salt 
Fork.  Drumm  was  one  of  the  first  catdemen  to  turn  his  herds  to  graze  on  the  plains  of  the 
Cherokee  Outlet,  dependent  entirely  on  the  grass.  When  the  Cherokee  Strip  Livestock  Asso- 
ciation (see  History)  was  formed,  he  became  the  first  president.  In  1893,  the  U  Ranch,  as 
well  as  other  Cherokee  Outlet  acres,  was  opened  to  settlement.  A  part  of  Alfalfa  County  now 
covers  this  once  large  domain. 

State  Fish  Hatchery  No.  5,  12.2  ni.,  was  established  in  1929  on  an  eighty-acre 
tract  (L).  Eleven  artesian  wells  provide  water  for  the  twenty -live  culture  ponds  at  an 
average  temperature  of  60°  F.;  trout  are  being  propagated  successfully  here. 

At  70.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  asphalt-paved  US  281. 

Right  at  this  point  to  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road,  9.3  m.;  (R)  on  this  road  to  Elm 
Springs,  14.7  m.  (boating,  25c;  swimming,  50c;  and  fishing  25c).  Springs  bubble  from 
both  sides  of  a  small  canyon,  and  the  stream  thus  formed  has  been  damned  to  make  a  small 
lake.  Early  setders  and  explorers  found  Indians  camping  on  this  spot;  councils  of  war  were 
held  there  and,  sometimes,  the  weird  and  hideous  scalp  dance. 

In  1879,  Sdth  and  Walkins,  ranchers,  established  a  cow  camp  at  the  springs  and 
maintained  it  for  several  years.  The  trail,  over  which  supplies  for  the  army  were  transported 
to  Fort  Supply  (see  Tour  12)  from  the  nearest  railroad  point  (Kiowa,  Kansas),  passed 
through  Elm  Springs.  Thus  the  springs  became  a  favored  camping  place.  Following  the 
Run  of  1893,  the  site  of  Elm  Springs  was  included  in  a  homestead  allotment  and  has 
changed  ownership  several  times  since  then. 

At  71.8  m.  is  Northwestern  State  College  (L),  founded  in  1897,  the 
second  oldest  normal  school  in  the  state.  The  first  building,  constructed  at  a 
cost  of  $110,000  in  1898,  was  underwritten  by  the  citizens  of  near-by  Alva, 
then  a  town  only  a  few  years  old.  This  building,  called  "The  Casde  on  the 
Hill,"  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1935  and  sixty  thousand  volumes,  housed 
there,  were  also  lost.  Two  buildings,  Jesse  Dunn  Hall  and  a  training  school, 
have  since  been  built.  General  Hugh  S.  Johnson,  NRA  Administrator  (1933- 
34)  and  well-known  columnist,  was  graduated  here  in  1901.  His  father  was 
formerly  the  Alva  postmaster. 

In  the  college  Library  is  a  small  brown  leather  book  of  forty  pages,  con- 
taining signs  and  symbols  indicating  cattle  identification  brands  registered 
with  the  Cherokee  Strip  Livestock  Association  for  the  roundup  of  1886.  The 
book  shows  approximately  six  hundred  listings  for  three  hundred  ranches. 
Two  methods  of  branding  were  used;  one,  a  running  brand  of  letters,  figures, 


246  OKLAHOMA 

or  symbols  applied  with  a  red-hot  poker-like  iron,  and  the  other  with  an  iron 
shaped  with  the  trade  mark  of  the  rancher.  Among  the  well-known  brands 
were:  Bar-M,  Lazy  B,  101,  Bar-Turkey-Track,  and  Mule-Shoe. 

Right  from  Northwestern  State  College,  on  College  Avenue,  is  the  business  district 
of  ALVA,  0.5  m.  (1,351  alt.,  5,055  pop.),  the  seat  of  Woods  County.  Alva  was  designated 
as  one  of  the  four  land-office  towns  at  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Cherokee  Strip  (1893). 
Originally  a  Santa  Fe  Railway  stop,  it  was  named  for  Alva  Adams,  attorney  for  the  railroad 
and  later  governor  of  Colorado.  The  town,  built  around  the  courthouse  square,  serves  a 
large  area  as  a  business  and  community  center. 

Left  from  the  college  on  US  281  to  WAYNOKA,  25.8  m.  (1,475  alt.,  1,584  pop.), 
an  important  division  point  and  the  second  largest  railroad  yard  in  the  state,  with  car  and 
engine  repair  shop.  As  many  as  four  hundred  refrigerator  cars  are  serviced  here  daily  during 
the  summer  months.  Waynoka  operates  its  own  municipal  light  and  water  plants.  A  park, 
covering  approximately  twenty-seven  acres,  with  swimming  pool,  playground,  and  picnic 
grounds,  has  recently  been  completed. 

Waynoka  has  grown  from  a  railroad  siding,  known  as  Keystone,  which  was  established 
here  in  1886.  The  present  town,  platted  in  1893,  was  named  Waynoka  by  a  subchief  of  the 
Cheycnnes,  Man-On-Cloud. 

South  and  west  of  Waynoka  erosion  has  taken  its  toll;  sand  dunes,  evidence  of  cen- 
turies of  shifting  of  the  course  of  the  Cimarron  River,  extend  to  the  river  bed,  some  six 
miles  south  of  Waynoka.  Some  of  the  dunes  arc  more  than  one  hundred  yards  wide,  with 
steep  slopes  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  feet.  In  its  slow  movement,  the  sand  covers  all  vegeta- 
tion, even  large  trees.  Near  the  river,  where  the  sediment  has  been  washed  or  blown  away, 
roots  of  trees  that  sprouted  from  trunks  while  they  were  imbedded  in  sand  are  often  seen 
a  yard  or  more  above  ground.  The  tops  of  telephone  poles,  showing  from  two  to  fifteen  feet 
above  the  dunes,  indicate  an  old  line  built  along  a  road  running  here  before  the  present 
US  281  was  surveyed. 

Dull  Knife.  Northern  Cheyenne  chieftain,  camped  south  of  the  Cimarron  River  in 
1878  with  a  small  band  of  followers  in  flight  from  Oklahoma  to  their  former  home  on  the 
northern  plains.  After  the  Custer  massacre  (see  Tour  13) ,  when  the  resistance  of  the  north- 
ern Indians  had  been  broken,  Dull  Knife  and  his  band  were  brought  to  the  Cheyenne  res- 
ervation near  El  Reno,  where  they  were  promised  subsistence.  Later,  suffering  from  home- 
sickness and  illness,  the  group  pleaded  to  be  allowed  to  return  to  Dakota.  When  their 
request  was  denied,  the  band  of  eighty-nine  warriors  and  246  women  and  children,  led 
by  Dull  Knife,  set  out  in  flight  for  the  north.  A  skirmish  with  Federal  troops  sixty  miles 
from  the  reservation  resulted  in  the  death  of  three  soldiers,  .\long  the  way,  several  setders 
and  cowboys  were  killed,  houses  were  burned,  and  supplies  were  confiscated  by  the  des- 
perate Indians.  News  of  the  march  spread  to  military  outposts  and,  at  one  time,  some 
twenty-four  companies  of  cavalry  and  infantry  were  pursuing  the  fleeing  Indians.  Another 
engagement  with  troops  near  Fort  Dodge,  Kansas,  turned  into  a  rout  for  the  soldiers. 
Finally,  near  Fort  Robinson,  Nebraska,  Dull  Knife  and  his  group  were  captured  and  held 
during  the  winter.  They  broke  away  again  and  started  northward,  with  the  military  in 
pursuit.  Dull  Knife's  march  has  been  described  as  a  masterly  feat  of  military  strategy, 
although  he  met  defeat  finally  in  Dakota  when,  surrounded  in  a  snowbound  canyon,  he 
and  his  remaining  followers  were  forced  to  surrender. 

At  97.5  m.  on  the  main  route  is  a  junction  with  State  50.  an  improved 
dirt  road. 

Left  on  State  50  to  FREEDOM,  3.1  m.  (1,521  alt.,  364  pop.),  a  farming 
settlement. 

Right  from  Freedom  on  a  dirt  road,  2.4  m..  to  the  Little  S.\LT  PL.MN,  also  called 
the  Edith  Salt  Plain,  after  the  settlement  a  few  miles  northwest  on  the  Cimarron  River. 
This  Plain,  three  miles  wide  and  extending  for  twelve  miles  along  the  river,  is  smaller  than 
the  saline  deposit  at  Cherokee,  but  still  more  barren.  Except  near  its  edges,  no  life  whatever 


TOUR  2        247 

exists.  From  a  distance,  the  Plain  looks  like  a  roaring  rush  of  water  in  time  of  flood.  Gypsum- 
capped  bluffs  to  the  south  combine  with  the  Plain  to  create  a  huge  mine  of  exposed  mineral. 
Undoubtedly  the  salt  has  some  commercial  value  but,  to  date,  ventures  to  capitalize  on  it 
have  met  with  failure.  In  a  faintly  salty  tributary  to  the  east,  two  microscopic  forms  of  ocean 
life  have  been  discovered,  supporting  the  theory  that  this  spot  and  the  Plains  at  Cherokee 
once  formed  the  bed  of  a  prehistoric  sea. 

State  50  crosses  the  Cimarron  River  to  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road,  5.2  m.;  L.  here  to 
the  main  entrance  of  rugged  CEDAR  CANYON  PARK.  The  approach  is  through  prairie 
country,  but  the  park  lies  in  a  deep  valley  between  the  rough,  red-clay  walls  of  a  canyon. 
A  spring-fed  stream  tumbles  through  the  wooded  gorge.  Knives,  arrowheads,  and  primi- 
tive tools  of  volcanic  rock  have  been  found  in  the  region,  indicating  that  it  was  one  of  the 
early-day  camping  grounds  of  the  Indians. 

Just  inside  the  entrance  to  the  park  stands  a  Clubhouse  (meals  or  kitchen  and  dining- 
room  facilities,  50c).  Near  by  is  the  (so-called)  Extinct  Geyser  Field,  where  great  holes, 
mistakenly  thought  to  be  former  geyser  domes,  dot  the  hillside.  The  holes,  lined  with  solid 
rock,  are  pitted  with  pockets  probably  formed  by  water  percolating  to,  and  dissolving,  the 
gypsum.  Geologists  believe,  however,  that  these  were  formed  by  movement  of  the  deposits 
of  salt  and  gypsum  in  the  underlying  beds.  Across  a  small  canyon  is  a  Natural  Bridge, 
perched  at  an  elevation  of  nearly  nineteen  hundred  feet  above  sea  level  and  150  feet  above 
the  canyon  floor.  The  perfect  arch,  forty  feet  wide  and  thirty  feet  high,  carved  by  ancient 
rushing  waters  through  a  barrier  of  solid  gypsum,  gives  a  splendid  view  of  Cedar  Canyon's 
wonders. 

About  250  yards  northeast  of  the  clubhouse  is  the  entrance  to  the  Alabaster  Caverns 
(adm.  75c) ,  also  known  locally  as  the  Bat  Caves.  Inside  the  entrance,  a  vestibule,  lined  with 
great  slabs  and  masses  of  stone  blasted  from  the  ceiling,  is  the  start  of  the  one  and  one-half 
hour  trip  through  the  caverns,  every  foot  of  which  opens  upon  new  scenes  of  grandeur. 
During  portions  of  the  trip  the  roar  of  subterranean  waters  is  heard.  The  visitor  ascends 
gradually  to  the  upper  reaches  and  emerges  at  last  on  a  plateau,  where  there  is  a  panoramic 
view  of  the  park  and  the  Cimarron  River  country. 

Millions  of  bats  live  in  the  caves,  and  between  sunset  and  dusk  in  summer  they  pour 
out  in  a  great  funnel-shaped  black  cloud.  From  the  first  frost,  usually  in  October,  until  the 
warm  days  of  March  the  bats  remain  hanging  to  the  walls  of  the  caverns  without  suste- 
nance, waking  to  squeek  in  protest  only  if  plucked  from  their  perch.  The  brown-coated, 
flat-headed  mammal  is  of  the  Tadaria  vtdgaris  or  common  Guano  variet)'. 

Large  translucent  crystals  sparkle  from  the  roof  of  the  Milling  Chamber,  their  beauty 
enhanced  by  colored  electric  lights.  A  corridor  (R)  leads  to  the  crystal -decked  Aladdin 
Chamber,  in  which  is  a  tiny  lake  of  clear  spring  water.  In  the  Encampment  Room,  once 
used  by  the  Indians  as  a  meeting  place,  have  been  found  many  arrowheads,  lance  points, 
ornaments,  and  pieces  of  pottery. 

Other  features  of  the  caverns  are  Gun  Barrel  Tunnel,  a  round  passageway  hollowed 
out  by  a  stream  of  water  through  the  rock;  Pulpit  Hall,  a  room  decorated  with  tiny  stalac- 
tites; the  Bathtub,  a  concavity  in  a  ledge  of  solid  granite  into  which  a  thin  stream  of  water 
falls  from  a  hole  in  the  ceiling;  and  the  White  Way,  a  section  of  the  passage  lined  with 
fantastic  formadons  of  alabaster,  carved  by  water  acuon.  Cavities  resembling  geyser  vents 
are  lighted  by  electricity,  bringing  out  the  delicate  tracings  and  scroll  work. 

Blind  Fish  Cavern  is  so  called  because  crayfish,  washed  into  the  water  through  the 
vents  and  fissures  above,  become  transparent  after  a  short  time  and  many  have  a  growth 
of  skin  covering  their  eye  sockets. 

The  CIMARRON  RIVER,  crossed  at  110.4  m.,  is  almost  a  mile  wide  in 
places  and  is  bordered  by  extensive  sand  dunes.  The  high,  dry  winds  of  this 
section  carry  the  sand  out  of  the  river  bed  and  pile  it  into  white  mounds  on 
the  rolling  red  prairie. 

At  127.1  m.  is  a  junction  with  US  183  (see  Tour  12),  which  unites  south- 
ward briefly  with  US  64. 

West  of  BUFFALO,  128.5  m.  (1,791  alt.,  1,209  pop.)  (see  Tour  12),  the 
rolling  plains  are  dotted  with  clumps  of  sagebrush  and  cactus;  small  gullies 


248  OKLAHOMA 

and  ravines  break  the  smooth  fields,  exposing  the  red  clay,  which  contrasts 
sharply  with  the  green  and  gray  of  the  grass. 

At  133.6  m.  is  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  DOBY  SPRINGS,  0.3  m.,  named  for  an  early  setdcr,  Chris  Dobie, 
who  staked  his  claim  on  the  site  during  the  run  for  the  Cherokee  Strip  lands.  Dobie  estab- 
lished a  ranch  there,  and  his  house,  built  near  the  artesian  springs  and  still  standing,  was  one 
of  the  first  in  this  part  of  Oklahoma;  dugouts  were  the  most  common  abode  since  lumber 
was  difficult  to  transport.  The  town  of  Buffalo  acquired  the  site  several  years  ago,  naming  it 
Doby  Springs  Park.  The  springs  have  been  dammed  to  create  a  small  lake  which  furnishes 
the  town's  water  supply  and  is  stocked  with  game  fish  (25c  fishing  fee).  Prior  to  1874, 
when  buffaloes  were  common,  this  was  a  favorite  watering  place  for  many  herds. 

At  144  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  283  (see  Tour  13),  which  is  united 
westward  with  US  64  for  4.5  miles. 

GATE,  153.7  m.  (2,230  alt.,  243  pop.),  lies  on  the  western  slope  of  a 
basin,  which  perhaps  held  an  ancient  lake.  Northeast  of  Gate,  extensive  de- 
posits of  silica  (volcanic  dust),  nine  feet  deep  in  places,  support  the  theory  that 
a  volcano  was  once  active  in  this  area  (probably  in  the  Mt.  Capulin  region  in 
New  Mexico).  Approximately  one  hundred  carloads  of  the  mineral  are  shipped 
yearly. 

North  of  Gate  is  Horse  Creek,  where  what  is  said  to  be  an  ancient  irriga- 
tion canal,  about  twenty-five  feet  wide  and  five  feet  deep,  runs  parallel  with 
the  stream.  In  several  places  all  traces  have  been  obliterated  by  the  shifting 
creek  channel.  The  ditch  ends  abruptly  without  an  outlet,  the  method  of 
irrigation  evidently  having  been  to  allow  it  to  fill  and  overflow  the  adjacent 
cultivated  fields.  Some  authorities  believe  that  the  canal  was  constructed  by 
prehistoric  peoples. 

US  64  traverses  the  Panhandle  strip  where  the  land  is  fertile,  but  crops 
are  at  the  mercy  of  the  elements.  Wheat,  broomcorn,  and  forage  yields  are 
large  when  drouth  and  winds  temper  their  fury.  Many  of  the  acres,  particu- 
larly the  broad  plateaus  with  their  terraced  canyons,  are  used  as  grazing  land 
for  cattle.  The  familiar  "short  grass"  carpets  the  level  tablelands.  Between 
Guymon  and  the  western  border,  the  flat,  even  terrain  creates  mirages  on  a 
wavering  horizon.  Inhabitants  tell  of  standing  in  the  open  and  being  able  to 
see  towns  many  miles  away.  The  Spanish  explorer,  Coronado,  who  traveled 
through  this  section  in  1541,  spoke  with  amazement  in  his  report  of  the 
"level,  smooth  country,"  saying  that  "one  can  see  the  sky  between  the  legs  of 
the  buffalo,  and  if  a  man  lay  down  on  his  back,  he  lost  sight  of  the  ground." 

Tumbleweeds,  which  grow  profusely  here,  are  blown  about  by  the  wind 
and  pile  against  houses  and  outbuildings.  On  especially  windy  days,  sand 
swirls  over  the  fields,  burying  seeds  and  young  plants  deeply,  and  justifying 
the  term  "dust  bowl,"  with  which  the  Panhandle  has  been  tagged.  Tumble- 
weeds  (1923),  a  historical  novel  by  Hal  G.  Evarts,  describes  the  Cherokee 
Strip  and  the  Panhandle. 

This  narrow  strip  of  land  was  possessed  successively  by  various  govern- 
ments, for  awhile  ignored  and  called  No  Man's  Land,  and  finally  added  to 
Oklahoma.  Maps  of  the  state  which,  for  economy's  sake,  show  the  Panhandle 
as  a  separate  section  tacked  on  in  waste  space  to  the  side  or  bottom  are  unpopu- 


TOUR  2        249 

lar  with  the  residents;  and  many  of  the  schools  in  the  section  refuse  to  use 
them.  The  people  who  pioneered  in  the  Panhandle  probably  suffered  and 
"sweated"  more  than  those  who  broke  the  virgin  sod  in  other  parts  of  Okla- 
homa, for  theirs  was  a  constant  fight  against  the  elements.  The  progress  of 
the  whole  section  was  measured  by  inches  of  advance  as  each  man  toiled  to 
make  a  home.  A  plaintive  verse  sung  by  these  pioneers  shows  both  their 
struggle  and  the  spirit  in  which  they  met  it: 

Pickin'    up    bones    to    keep    from    starving, 
Pickin'    up    chips    to    keep    from    freezing, 
Pickin'    up    courage    to    keep    from    leaving. 
Way   out   West    in    No    Man's    Land. 

In  this  jingle,  "bones"  and  "chips"  are  relics  of  the  buffalo. 

At  180.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  270,  a  graveled  highway.  A  Monu- 
ment TO  CoRONADo  (L),  a  three-ton  granite  boulder,  has  been  erected  here  by 
the  Colonial  Dames  of  America. 

Left  on  US  270  to  BEAVER,  6.6  m.  (2,493  alt.,  1,166  pop.),  the  seat  of  Beaver  County 
and  onetime  capital  of  the  "Territory  of  Cimarron."  A  sod  building,  erected  here  in  1879, 
served  as  a  store  for  cattlemen  driving  their  herds  across  Beaver  Creek  on  the  way  to  the 
markets  of  Dodge  City,  Kansas. 

The  peculiar  conditions  which  left  the  Panhandle  without  legal  government  brought 
about  the  formation  of  the  "Territory  of  Cimarron"  in  1887 — an  earnest  effort  by  the 
people  who  had  setded  there  to  bring  a  semblance  of  law  and  order  to  No  Man's  Land. 
The  convention  for  its  formation  was  held  at  Beaver,  and  this  town  was  named  its  capital. 
The  Federal  government  never  recognized  the  territorial  organization;  the  Organic  -Act 
of  1890  automatically  dissolved  it  and  added  the  entire  section  to  Oklahoma  Territory  as 
Beaver  County.  When  Oklahoma  became  a  state,  the  Panhandle  was  divided  into  three 
counties,  with  the  eastern  one  retaining  the  name  of  Beaver  and  Beaver  as  its  county  seat. 
One  of  the  earliest  white  man's  newspapers  published  in  Oklahoma  and  the  first  in  this 
section  of  the  state  was  issued  in  this  town  in  1886  as  the  Beaver  City  Pioneer  (see  News- 
papers). 

In  1910,  the  Wichita  Falls  &  Northwestern  Railroad  bought  options  on  land  six  miles 
north  of  Beaver  with  the  intention  of  extending  their  line  to  that  point  and  of  founding  a 
town  at  the  terminus.  This  the  company  did,  creating  the  present  town  of  Forgan;  but 
Beaver  citizens,  in  the  meantime,  had  obtained  articles  of  incorporation  to  build  a  rail- 
road to  forestall  the  devastating  effect  which  the  prospective  town  would  exert  on  their 
business.  The  proposed  road  was  eventually  to  connect  with  Meade  and  Englewood  in 
Kansas;  but  its  slow  construction,  carried  on  with  small  contributions  of  both  money  and 
labor  from  practically  every  Beaver  citizen,  took  many  months  to  cover  the  six  miles  to 
Forgan.  During  this  period  the  road  was  offered  as  a  gift  several  times  to  the  Katy  corpora- 
tion, which  had  taken  over  the  Wichita  Falls  &  Northwestern,  but  the  offer  was  refused. 
Profitable  wheat  trade  during  the  first  World  War  brought  prosperity  to  the  struggling 
litde  line,  however,  and  it  was  extended  into  Texas  and  Cimarron  counties.  The  Missouri- 
Kansas-Texas  Railroad  shordy  afterwards  paid  more  than  $2,000,000  for  the  Beaver,  Meade, 
&  Englewood  Railroad,  a  line  which  had  been  offered  as  a  gift  some  fifteen  years  before. 

Beaver  is  now  an  important  shipping  center  for  the  widespread  wheat  farms  to  the 
south. 

FORGAN,  181.9  m.  (2,565  alt.,  428  pop.),  which  looms  up  on  the  clear, 
unbroken  prairie  from  miles  away,  is  a  center  for  the  farming  section  lying 
between  the  Cimarron  and  the  North  Canadian  rivers.  Most  of  the  surround- 
ing acres  are  planted  with  wheat. 

The  town  was  named  for  James  B.  Forgan,  a  Chicago  banker  who  helped 


250  OKLAHOMA 

finance  the  Wichita  Falls  &  Northwestern  Railway  (now  operated  by  the 
Missouri-Kansas-Texas),  the  first  railroad  to  enter  Beaver  County.  The  town- 
site  was  laid  out  and  its  sale  promoted  by  the  railway  company. 

TURPIN,  203.9  m..  BAKERSBURG,  212.9  m.,  and  HOOKER,  222.9 
m.  (2,984  alt.,  1,140  pop.),  are  farm  communities  surrounded  by  miles  of 
level  wheat  fields  and  isolated  houses. 

OPTIMA,  233.9  m.  (3,090  alt.,  69  pop.),  is  on  the  site  of  a  prehistoric 
village  representing  an  ancient  culture  about  which  little  is  known.  Within 
the  vicinity  are  the  privately  owned  ruins  of  at  least  six  slab-lined  pit  houses. 
Considerable  study  has  been  given  to  the  largest  of  these  by  the  department 
of  anthopology  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma,  and  a  large  collection  of  fossil 
bones  is  in  the    university's  Museum  of  Paleontology. 

Texas  County's  largest  individual  industry  is  the  General  Atlas  Carbon 
Company  Plant,  240.1  m.,  located  on  the  Rock  Island  Railway,  which  paral- 
lels the  highway  here.  The  plant  normally  produces  a  carload  a  day  of  carbon 
black,  used  in  the  manufacture  of  rubber  and  as  a  pigment  in  ink  and  paint. 

GUYMON,  242.1  m.  (3,125  alt.,  2,290  pop.),  on  a  flat  plain  in  the  ap- 
proximate center  of  the  Panhandle,  serves  the  surrounding  farm  country  as  a 
trading  center.  It  is  the  seat  of  Texas  County. 

One  of  the  largest  and  most  colorful  annual  events  of  this  section  is  the 
Pioneer  Day  Celebration  held  here  on  May  2,  the  anniversary  of  the  passage 
of  the  Organic  Act  of  1890,  which  made  the  Panhandle  a  part  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Oklahoma.  Pioneers  from  the  entire  region,  and  many  from  Kansas 
and  Texas,  gather  to  parade,  participate  in  the  rodeo,  and  eat  the  barbecued 
buffalo  meat  that  is  served  free  to  all  comers. 

An  erosion  control  project  here  under  the  supervision  of  the  U.S.  Soil 
Conservation  Service  demonstrates  proper  methods  of  soil  treatment  in  the 
Panhandle. 

Left  from  Guymon  on  paved  US  54  is  GOODWELL,  11  m.  (3,218  alt.,  360  pop.), 
home  of  the  Panhandle  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  established  as  an  agri- 
cultural school  in  1909.  The  course  of  study  was  later  extended  to  include  the  regular  college 
schedule.  The  school  owns  and  maintains  720  acres  of  land  which  it  uses  as  an  agricultural 
experiment  station.  Four  main  buildings  and  three  dormitories  (two  more  are  now  under 
construction)  comprise  the  college  plant;  640  additional  acres  are  maintained  as  a  livestock 
farm,  with  modern  dairy  equipment. 

In  the  Museum,  in  Hughes-Strong  Hall,  data  and  collections  relating  to  the  history  of 
the  Panhandle  are  displayed.  The  museum,  sponsored  by  the  No  Man's  Land  Historical 
Society,  which  took  it  over  in  1934,  is  operated  on  a  co-operative  loan  basis;  individuals 
lend  and  borrow  material  at  will. 

At  TEXHOMA,  22  m.  (3,486  alt.,  577  pop.),  just  north  of  the  Texas-Oklahoma  Line, 
a  thousand  or  more  of  the  town's  residents  and  neighboring  farmers  gather  for  an  annual 
Rabbit  Drive  in  the  third  or  fourth  week  of  October.  Forming  a  twenty-mile  circle,  they 
close  in  at  a  set  time,  corral  many  rabbits,  and  shoot  a  number  of  wolves  and  coyotes.  A 
rodeo,  barbecue,  and  a  wild-cow  milking  contest  usually  close  the  day's  events. 

Two  prominent  structures  stand  out  on  the  plains  as  one  approaches 
BOISE  CITY,  303.4  m.  (4,164  alt.,  1,144  pop.)— the  two-story,  red-brick 
Cimarron  County  Courthouse  in  the  center  of  the  town  square,  and  a  tall, 
black  water  tank  flanking  the  residential  section. 


TOUR  2        251 

Westward  the  level  Panhandle  land  gives  way  to  a  rugged  terrain,  char- 
acteristic of  New  Mexico. 

At  304.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  3,  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  State  3  to  the  intersection  with  the  old  SANTA  FE  TRAIL,  8.7  m.  Hardy 
early-day  pioneers  broke  the  trail  to  connect  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico,  with  Independence, 
Missouri,  the  starting  point  for  overland  travel  to  the  West. 

Impatient  at  its  length.  Captain  William  Becknell  set  out  in  1822  to  find  a  short  cut, 
accompanied  by  thirty  men  and  a  caravan  of  mules,  horses,  and  "prairie  schooners"  loaded 
with  merchandise.  He  was  warned  of  the  danger  of  the  Cimarron  desert — the  stretch 
between  the  Arkansas  River  in  southwestern  Kansas  and  the  Cimarron  River  in  Oklahoma 
— which  was  waterless  except  in  the  rainy  season,  when  the  shallow  creek  beds  carried  their 
temporary  burden  to  one  of  the  two  wide,  sandy  channels.  The  party's  water  supply  soon 
became  exhausted  after  leaving  the  Arkansas  and  pointing  toward  Santa  Fe.  The  men  and 
animals  were  slowly  dying  of  thirst  when  Becknell  shot  a  buffalo  and  on  cutting  into  its 
stomach  found  about  three  gallons  of  fresh  water,  indication  that  the  animal  had  drunk 
recently.  After  an  hour's  ride,  the  caravan  reached  the  Cimarron,  filled  their  water  kegs, 
and  returned  to  the  Arkansas  River  and  the  regular  route.  However,  other  travelers  and 
wagon  trains  soon  began  using  the  short  cut. 

The  government  surveyed  the  Santa  Fe  Trail  and  found  that  by  1860,  the  peak  year 
of  traffic  over  it.  three  thousand  wagons,  seven  thousand  men,  and  sixty  thousand  mules 
were  using  the  route  annually.  Heavy  traffic  continued  until  after  the  Civil  War. 

Ruts  made  by  wagons,  driven  three  abreast  as  a  defense  against  possible  surprise  attack 
by  Indians,  are  still  visible  along  portions  of  the  old  Trail.  Near  Fort  Nichols,  three  paths 
— ten  feet  in  depth  and  twenty  feet  wide — run  side  by  side,  cut  by  the  passage  of  thousands 
of  heavily  laden  wagons.  In  1875,  upon  completion  of  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  line  through 
Kansas  and  Colorado,  partially  paralleling  the  trail,  use  of  the  route  was  discontinued.  The 
old  Trail  is  described  in  Commerce  of  the  Prairies  (1844),  by  Josiah  Gregg. 

At  318.5  m.  on  US  64  is  a  junction  with  a  graded  section  line  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  a  junction  with  a  second  graded  road,  1  m.;  R.  here  through 
WHEELESS  POST  OFFICE,  6  m.,  an  isolated  postal  station  serving  the  few  residents  of 
the  surrounding  area,  to  a  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road,  8  m.:  R.  here  to  the 
Site  of  Fort  Nichols,  10.2  m.,  established  by  Kit  Carson  in  1865,  by  orders  of  the  War 
Department.  Carson  was  directed  to  locate  the  fort  in  New  Mexico  near  the  1 03d  meridian 
as  a  protection  for  the  users  of  the  Santa  Fe  Trail,  but  he  selected  a  site  (L)  on  a  high 
knoll,  on  the  banks  of  Carrizzo  Creek,  about  four  miles  east  of  the  present  Oklahoma-New 
Mexico  boundary.  Rocks  for  the  walls  and  barracks  were  brought  from  the  creek  bed;  the 
stone  floor  of  the  barracks  building  and  of  the  headquarters  building  are  still  visible.  The 
rampart  wall  is  also  still  standing,  though  it  is  now  (1941)  only  six  feet  in  height  at  the 
highest  point,  for  near-by  farmers  have  carried  away  many  of  the  smoothed  stones  for 
their  own  use.  A  pile  of  rocks  outside  the  eastern  wall  identifies  the  sentry  tower  which 
commanded  a  wide  sweep  of  the  plains  and  of  the  Santa  Fe  Trail. 

At  329.8  tn.  on  the  main  route  is  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  (following  signs)  to  HALLOCK  PARK,  (cabins,  dancing,  picnick- 
ing) 8.1  m.,  consisting  of  ten  thousand  acres  of  canyons  and  mesas,  part  of  which  has  been 
developed  for  recreation  purposes.  A  clear  creek  has  been  dammed  to  form  a  swimming 
pool.  Of  the  120  springs  which  gush  forth  here,  several  are  the  source  of  streams,  affording 
abundant  water  for  the  campsites.  Along  the  face  of  a  sandstone  bluff  (six  feet  high  and 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long),  facing  northeast,  is  a  series  of  Pictographs,  startling 
in  their  color  contrast  of  blue  paint  against  the  sandy  rock.  They  depict  Indians,  in  crude 
fashion,  at  their  various  daily  activities.  There  also  are  many  figures  of  animals;  among 
them,  bears,  deer,  antelope,  coyotes,  and  beavers  can  easily  be  discerned. 

At  330.7  m.  is  a  Dinos.\ur  Quarry  (R),  burial  ground  of  many  mighty 
monsters  who  roamed  the  earth  during  the  Jurassic  age,  more  than  ten  million 


2S2 


()  K  L  A  H  O  M  A 


years  ago.  Erosion  uncovered  the  spot  sufficiently  so  that  workers  have  been 
able  to  remove  many  fossils  intact.  A  WPA  project  has  l>een  digging,  cleaning, 
and  classifying  the  bones  before  shipment  to  the  University  of  Oklahoma  (see 
Norman),  where  they  are  reconstructed  into  skeletons  for  classwork  and  dis- 
play. Four  types  of  the  prehistoric  animals  have  been  excavated,  of  which  the 
Brontosaurus — measuring  seventy  feet  in  length  and  about  sixteen  feet  in 
height  and  weighing  some  thirty-six  tons  when  alive — is  the  largest.  This 
species  together  with  the  Stegosaurus,  almost  its  equal  in  size,  and  the  Orni- 
thopoda,  a  giant  lizard  species,  were  herbiverous,  but  the  Allosuurus — the 
fourth  type  brought  to  light — was  a  flesh-eater.  Surmounting  the  entrance  to 
the  quarry  is  a  concrete  cast  of  the  six-foot  long  femur  (upper  thigh  bone)  of 
a  Brontosaurus. 

The  Sphinx  or  Old  Maid  Rock,  331.7  m.,  200  yards  (R),  is  a  curious 
formation,  carved  by  the  elements  from  the  point  of  a  sandstone  bluff.  A 
magnificent  figure,  it  stands  out  boldly  against  the  blue  sky  above  the  mesa 
in  the  background. 

At  334.1  m.  is  a  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  the  Natural  Arch,  3>.7  m.,  in  the  bottom  of  a  wide  canyon  north 
of  the  Cimarron  River.  The  opening  of  this  white  sandstone  arch — twenty  feet  high  and 
eight  feet  wide — was  probably  formed  by  the  constant  battering  of  sand  and  wind.  There 
are  no  other  rocks  or  ledges  of  similar  color  or  composition  within  a  radius  of  eight  miles. 

At  338.3  w.,  us  64  crosses  the  Time  Zone  Boundary  Line,  dividing  line 
where  travelers  going  west  turn  back  their  watches  one  hour  for  Mountain 
Time  while  those  facing  east  add  an  hour  for  Central  Standard  Time. 

KENTON,  339.5  m.  (4,349  alt.,  250  pop.),  nestles  in  a  high  valley  under 
the  shadow  of  lava-capped  Black  Mesa  to  the  northwest.  Before  statehood, 
Kenton  was  a  roistering  saloon  town  known  as  the  Cowboy  Capital.  It  was 
platted  and  laid  out  as  a  townsite  in  1892  by  a  nephew  of  P.  T.  Barnum.  The 
name,  Kenton,  is  a  variation  of  Canton  (Ohio),  for  which  this  settlement  was 
named. 

At  a  filling  station  here  is  displayed  the  so-called  Skeleton  of  a  Pre- 
historic Basket  Maker,  estimated  to  be  more  than  a  thousand  years  old. 
The  bones  were  unearthed  in  a  near-by  cave,  which  has  since  been  called  the 
Basket  Maker's  Cave. 

Right  from  Kenton  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  a  junction  with  a  second  dirt  road 
2  ryi.;  L.  here  to  BLACK  MESA,  3.9  m.,  a  plateau  capped  by  lava  deposit  from  an  extinct 
volcano.  The  lava  cap,  underlaid  with  Dakota  sandstone,  ranges  from  twenty  to  seventy 
feet  in  thickness  and  extends  some  forty  miles  into  Oklahoma  from  the  New  Mexico  line. 
In  the  center  of  the  mesa  is  the  highest  point  in  Oklahoma,  4,987  feet  above  sea  level, 
designated  by  a  marker  of  lava  fragments  and  concrete,  and  topped  with  a  piece  of  rose- 
colored  granite  from  the  quarry  at  Granite  (see  Tour  13).  The  summit  of  this  almost  mile- 
high  plateau  was  formerly  a  camping  place  for  Indians;  many  arrowheads  have  been  found 
here. 

The  old  Penrose  Trail  to  Fort  Lyon,  Colorado,  began  at  Black  Mesa  and  extended 
northwest  into  Colorado.  In  the  fall  of  1863,  General  W.  H.  Penrose  surveyed  this  route 
for  the  purpose  of  transporting  a  ficldpiecc  for  an  assault  against  a  bandit  fortification  near 
the  Mesa,  known  as  ROBBER'S  ROOST.  Later  the  Penrose  Trail  was  used  by  adventurers, 
and,  in  the  1870's,  by  cattlemen  who  had  settled  in  the  valleys  of  the  Arkansas  and  Cimar- 


TOUR  2        253 

ron  rivers.  This  trail  and  others  of  its  kind  did  much  to  facilitate  the  settlement  of  the  West; 
along  their  routes  were  fresh-water  holes  and  sheltered  sp)ots,  without  which  neither  man 
nor  beast  could  have  endured  the  long  marches  over  the  untamed  and  ruthless  lands. 

At  4  m.  on  the  main  side  route  is  the  Devil's  Tombstone,  a  towering  slab  of  brownish 
sandstone  twenty  feet  high,  eighteen  inches  thick,  and  twelve  feet  wide.  A  hole,  worn  by 
constant  battering  of  the  elements,  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  huge  formation  and  exactly  in 
the  center.  Sightseers  frequently  photograph  each  other  peering  through  the  opening,  the 
finished  picture  making  it  appear  that  the  face  is  imbedded  in  the  rock.  The  rock  is,  accord- 
ing to  compass  findings,  set  in  true  directions;  the  flat  sides  face  north  and  south. 

At  342  m.,  US  64  crosses  the  New  Mexico  Line,  ninety -eight  miles  east 
of  Raton,  New  Mexico  (see  New  Mexico  Guide). 


j^0i^2 , ^^"l , ^^11 , ^^"J. .. ^^"J. , ^^"J. - ^^'!Z eS''^ 


Tour  2  a 


Keystone — Gushing — Langston — Guthrie;  80.3  m.,  State  33. 

Roadbed  concrete-paved. 

The  Frisco  Ry.  parallels  route  between  Keystone  and  Mannford;  the  Santa  Fe  between 

Drumright  and  Guthrie. 

Good  accommodations  at  frequent  intervals. 

State  33  crosses  the  northwestern  corner  of  the  former  Greek  Nation, 
traverses  for  some  fifteen  miles  the  old  Gushing-Drumright  oil  field,  passes 
some  of  the  hundreds  of  huge  steel  oil  storage  tanks  that  make  this  the  largest 
tank-farm  area  in  Oklahoma.  The  route  passes  through  a  region  of  low 
wooded  hills  for  some  thirty  miles,  then  climbs  to  the  prairie  upland  north 
of  the  Gimarron  River,  crosses  that  river,  and  rises  again  to  wind  through  red 
highland  farms  and  orchards. 

State  33  branches  southwest  from  its  junction  with  US  64  (see  Tour  2) 
in  KEYSTONE,  0  m.,  (684  alt.,  406  pop.)  (see  Tour  2). 

Taking  its  name  from  Mann's  Ford  on  the  Gimarron  River,  MANN- 
FORD, 6.6  m.  (740  alt.,  403  pop.),  was  built  on  land  formerly  owned  by 
Tom  Mann,  who  established  the  ford.  It  is  the  trading  point  for  a  consider- 
able farming  community. 

The  old  Berryhill  Farm,  near  the  southern  edge  of  Mannford,  opened 
up  by  a  citizen  of  the  Greek  Nation,  was  at  one  time  a  hide-out  for  the  oudaw 
Dal  ton  gang;  and  it  is  believed  locally  that  large  sums  of  money  taken  from 
banks  by  the  Daltons  are  still  buried  somewhere  on  the  farm. 

A  large  projecting  shelf  of  rock  (R)  is  known  as  D.\lton  Gave,  7.4  m. 
It  was,  according  to  local  belief,  the  place  where  a  half-blood  Greek  Indian 


254  OKLAHOMA 

named  Tom  Bartee  hid  and  fed  ihc  Daltons  when  they  were  pursued  by 
United  States  deputy  marshals  after  their  raids. 

At  21.9  m.  is  the  northern  junction  with  State  99  (see  Tour  14),  which 
unites  with  State  33  for  10.5  miles. 

At  DRUMRIGHT,  29.3  m.  (866  alt.,  4,303  pop.)  (see  Tour  14).  is  the 
southern  junction  with  State  99;  State  33  turns  sharply  west. 

GUSHING,  38.9  m.  (940  alt.,  7,703  pop.),  was  founded  in  1892  on  the 
old  Turkey  Track  Ranch  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Sac  and  Fox  territory, 
and  was  named  for  Marshall  Gushing,  private  secretary  to  John  Wanamaker, 
then  Postmaster  General  of  the  United  States.  It  was  incorporated  as  a  town 
in  1894,  and  as  a  city  in  1913. 

The  discovery  of  the  rich  Gushing  oil  field  in  1912  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  the  town's  swift  expansion;  by  the  end  of  1915  there  were  710  wells 
in  this  field  producing  seventy-two  million  barrels  of  oil  annually.  To  care 
for  this  enormous  output,  twelve  refineries  were  built  at  Gushing  and  near 
by;  on  the  prairies  of  the  region  more  than  seven  hundred  huge  steel  tanks 
capable  of  storing  nearly  thirty-nine  million  barrels  of  oil  were  erected  in 
groups  called  tank  farms.  Gushing  also  became  the  center  of  a  vast  system  of 
pipe  lines  laid  to  gather  oil  from  the  wells  and  carry  it  to  distant  refineries  — 
some  as  far  away  as  the  Adantic  seaboard. 

Gushing's  loss  of  1,598  in  population  between  1930  and  1940  was  due  to 
the  waning  importance  of  oil.  Its  present  (1941)  status  is  that  of  a  supply 
point  for  a  large  farming  and  ranching  area,  and  an  industrial  center.  Gheap 
natural  gas,  an  abundant  water  supply  from  a  three-hundred-acre  municipal 
lake,  and  a  municipal  light  and  power  plant  are  among  Gushing's  indus- 
trial assets. 

A  high  school  and  seven  grade  schools,  including  one  for  Negroes,  and 
one  parochial  school;  a  municipal  auditorium  seating  eighteen  hundred;  an 
eighteen-hole  golf  course;  fishing,  swimming,  and  tennis  courts;  a  new  flood- 
lighted athletic  field;  a  modern  gymnasium  for  the  Negro  school;  one  daily 
and  two  weekly  newspapers;  and  a  splendid  new  public  library  costing  $80,- 
000 — these  are  in  the  1941  picture  of  Gushing. 

As  echoes  from  the  roaring  boom  days  in  the  big  Gushing  oil  field  are 
heard  such  tales  as  that  of  the  drunken  tool  pusher  who  looked  the  town  over 
and  told  the  crowd  who  had  gathered  around  him,  "You  got  new  buildin's 
here;  you  got  new  stores  an'  new  churches;  an'  I'm  goin'  to  start  a 
new  graveyard!"  But  when  he  attempted  to  carry  out  his  promise,  the  ham- 
mer of  his  six-gun  caught  on  his  belt  and  he  shot  himself  in  the  leg. 

At  48.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  RIPLEY,  2.4  m.  (812  alt.,  415  pop.),  a  farming  settlement;  R. 
from  Ripley  is  the  ghost  town  of  INGALLS,  3.2  tn.,  named  for  John  J.  Ingalls,  United  States 
senator  from  Kansas  (1873-91).  The  few  remaining  buildings  arc  falling  into  ruins,  and 
the  streets  are  overgrown  with  grass.  Most  noticeable  of  the  decrepit  relics  is  the  former 
Trilby  Saloon,  the  interior  of  which  is  bulkt  scarred.  The  Doolin  and  Dalton  gangs  of 
outlaws  sometimes  retreated  to  Ingalls  after  their  raids.  Following  the  attempted  robbery 
of  two  banks  at  Coffeyville,  Kansas,  in  1892,  when  three  of  the  bandits  were  killed  by  the 
citizens  of  the  town,  Bill  Doolin  and  Bill  Dalton  came  to  Ingalls  and  then  reorganized  their 
forces  in  a  cave  near  the  Cimarron  River. 


TOUR  2A        255 
At  54  m.  on  State  33  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  PERKINS,  1  m.  (829  alt.,  728  pop.),  serving  a  farm  area.  The 
town  was  established  at  the  time  of  the  opening  of  old  Oklahoma  to  settlement  in  the  Run 
of  April  22,  1889.  An  Old  Settlers'  Celebration  is  held  here  annually,  September  22-25, 
with  dances,  barbecues,  pony  races,  and  bow-and-arrow  shoots. 

At  2  ni.,  immediately  after  crossing  the  Cimarron  River,  is  a  junction  with  an  unim- 
proved dirt  road;  L.  here  to  a  junction  with  a  second  unimproved  road,  6  m.;  R.  to  the 
Iowa  Indian  Community  House,  7  ni.,  where  the  spring  and  fall  green  corn  dances  and 
other  Iowa  Indian  dances  and  festivals  are  held;  visitors  are  admitted. 

At  54.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  40  (see  Tour  2). 

On  the  grounds  of  a  country  school,  57.9  m.,  is  a  Washington  Irving 
Marker  (L)  placed  by  citizens  of  Payne  County  to  commemorate  Irving's 
passage  in  1832.  An  actual  camp  site  of  the  Irving  party,  unmarked,  is  said 
to  be  in  the  middle  of  what  is  now  (1941)  a  field  of  alfalfa  about  1.5  miles 
northwest  of  the  marker  near  the  north  bank  of  Wild  Horse  Creek. 

It  was  here,  as  readers  of  Irving's  Tour  on  the  Prairies  will  learn,  that  the 
author  and  his  companions  had  their  first  exciting  experience  in  capturing 
wild  horses. 

State  33  crosses  the  CIMARRON  RIVER,  65.9  m. 

Once  named  Iowa  City,  COYLE,  66.5  m.  (866  alt.,  440  pop.)  was  first 
located  two  miles  northwest  of  its  present  site,  and  was  moved  when  the 
Santa  Fe  Railway  built  through  in  1900.  The  principal  street  of  the  town  is 
over-arched  by  fine  elm  trees.  Two  cotton  gins  are  supplied  by  the  cotton 
grown  in  the  good  river  bottom  farms  that  lie  between  the  town  and  the  river. 

On  the  upland  prairie,  LANGSTON,  68.1  m.  (962  alt.,  514  pop.),  is 
the  all-Negro  town  founded  in  1890  by  E.  P.  McCabe  and  named  for  the 
Negro  educator  and  member  of  Congress  (1890-91),  John  M.  Langston,  of 
Virginia. 

As  early  as  1885,  the  movement  to  establish  an  all-Negro  community  — 
possibly  a  state — was  started  by  S.  H.  Scott,  a  Negro  lawyer  of  Fort  Smith, 
Arkansas.  After  the  1889  Opening,  McCabe,  who  had  been  State  Auditor  of 
Kansas,  promoted  the  town  at  the  present  site,  and  it  is  said  that  at  one  time 
its  population  exceeded  two  thousand.  It  shrank  radically  when  the  Negroes 
who  had  been  attracted  to  the  town  by  McCabe's  enthusiastic  words  had  ex- 
hausted their  savings  and  found  it  impossible  to  earn  a  living  here.  Many' — 
including  McCabe,  who  became  deputy  auditor  of  Oklahoma  (1907-08) 
— moved  on  to  Guthrie,  the  territorial  capital. 

Langston  University  (for  Negroes;  visitors  welcome)  was  authorized 
by  the  Territorial  legislature  in  March,  1897.  Supported  by  the  state  and  by 
Federal  funds  under  the  Morrill  Act  and  the  Smith-Hughes  Act  plus  gener- 
ous grants  from  the  General  Education  Board  and  the  Rosenwald  Fund,  the 
university's  biennial  budget  has  ranged  from  $81,000  to  $397,000.  Its  aggre- 
gate enrollment  (1940-41)  was  1,050  in  the  college,  high  school,  training 
(elementary)  school,  extension  and  correspondence  courses;  the  faculty  num- 
bers seventy-six. 

Gradually  and  steadily,  the  physical  plant  of  the  university  has  grown 
and  been  improved  until  it  compares  well  with  any  other  in  the  state.  In  all, 


256  OKLAHOMA 

eighteen  buildings  are  used  for  school  work.  Trees,  which  were  lacking  for 
a  long  time,  have  been  planted  and  are  now  large  enough  to  remove  some- 
what the  impression  of  barrenness  suggested  by  the  simple  red-brick  buildings 
set  on  a  prairie  ridge.  Besides  remodeling  and  landscaping,  recent  additions 
are  a  Science  and  Agriculture  Building,  an  industrial  workshop,  two  barns, 
and  an  addition  to  one  of  the  two  men's  dormitories.  With  the  exception  of 
the  campus,  the  four  hundred  acres  owned  by  the  university  are  all  under 
cultivation. 

Dr.  G.  L.  Harrison,  who  holds  a  Ph.  D.  degree  from  Ohio  State  Univer- 
sity, is  now  (1941)  president.  He  is  successor  to  other  able  Negro  educators 
who  have  built  up  the  university  to  its  position  as  one  of  the  best  Negro 
institutions  in  the  country. 

Langston  has  consistendy  carried  out  the  program  suggested  in  the  act 
creating  the  school:  to  train  teachers,  to  give  instruction  in  industrial  arts,  and 
to  teach  the  boys  to  be  good  farmers.  Trades  and  industrial  and  electrical 
engineering  are  emphasized.  Military  instruction,  for  which  credit  in  physical 
education  is  given,  is  required  during  the  first  two  years  of  the  college  course. 

A  library  of  more  than  ten  thousand  volumes  is  housed  in  Page  Hall, 
a  two-story  stone  and  brick  building  named  in  honor  of  Langston's  first  presi- 
dent. All  the  usual  extra-curricular  activities  are  carried  on  by  the  Y's,  Greek 
letter  fraternities  and  sororities,  and  various  clubs;  The  Langston  Lion,  a 
monthly,  is  the  student  publication. 

GUTHRIE,  80.3  m.  (1,021  alt.,  10,018  pop.)  (see  Tour  10),  is  at  the 
junction  with  US  77. 


t^0^2 - ^^"JL ^  - ^^IZ ~  - e5''^2 -- ^^"J- -  - ^^"J^ -  - ^"^2 .  ^— £5"*! 


Tour  3 


(Fayetteville,  Ark.) — Muskogee — Oklahoma  City — Chickasha — Anadarko 
—HoUis— (Childress,  Tex.),  US  62. 
Arkansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  418.1  m. 

Roadbed  alternately  concrete-  and  asphalt-paved  and  graveled. 

Route  is  roughly  paralleled  between  Wcstville  and  Tahicquah  by  the  St.  Louis-San  Fran- 
cisco Ry.;  between  Muskogee  and  Taft  by  the  Midland  Valley  R.R.;  between  Boynton  and 
Henryctta  by  the  Kansas,  Oklahoma  &  Gulf  Ry.;  Harrah  to  Oklahoma  City  by  the  Rock 
Island  Ry.;  between  Bianchard  and  Chickasha  by  the  Santa  Fe  Ry.;  between  Chickasha  and 
Lawton  by  the  Rock  Island  Ry.;  between  Lawton  and  Altus,  by  the  St.  Louis-San  Francisco 
Ry.;  and  between  Altus  and  the  Texas  Line  by  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  R.R. 
Good  accommodations  available  in  cities  and  tosvns. 

No  Other  route  across  Oklahoma  passes  through  areas  setded  by  so  many 
different  nationalities  as  the  twisting  path  made  by  US  62.  And  though  racial 


TOUR  3        257 

assimilation  has  been  at  work  for  many  years,  the  essence  of  those  distinctive 
strains  still  remains.  In  the  east  are  the  hills  where  the  Cherokees  for  sixty 
years  maintained  a  self-governing  Indian  nation  and  built  a  culture  of  their 
own.  At  Fort  Gibson,  in  that  nation,  was  written  the  military  history  of  east- 
ern Oklahoma  from  the  initial  appearance  of  the  Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes,  through  its  contacts  with  the  so-called  wild  tribes  of  the  western 
plains,  and  the  turbulent  years  of  the  Civil  War  when  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  were  split  into  factions  and  both  Union  and  Confederate  forces  at 
different  times  occupied  the  post. 

Along  this  route,  too,  an  aftermath  of  the  Civil  War  is  seen  in  the  Negro 
settlements  made  by  slaves  freed  by  their  Indian  owners,  for  in  the  final  liqui- 
dation of  the  tribal  governments  these  freedmen  shared  equally  with  the 
Indians  in  the  allotment  of  land. 

US  62  crosses  the  former  Creek  Nation,  passes  through  its  capital,  then 
skirts  the  northern  boundary  of  the  reservation  to  which  the  Seminoles  came, 
reluctantly,  from  Florida. 

The  route,  like  most  long  highways  across  Oklahoma,  taps  rich  oil  fields 
and  fine  farm  lands.  In  its  western  section,  before  leaving  the  state  at  its 
southwestern  corner,  US  62  passes  through  regions  of  red  earth,  rock-pitted 
breaks  and  canyons,  high  plains,  and  short-grass  pastures  that  were  once  the 
hunting  grounds  of  the  Kiowas,  Comanches,  Apaches,  and  Wichitas.  Here, 
if  anywhere  in  Oklahoma,  may  be  seen  the  Plains  Indian  not  too  far  removed 
from  his  native  condition;  and  here,  too,  are  the  evidences  of  his  capacity  to 
adopt  the  highest  type  of  civilization. 

Section  a.  ARKANSAS  LINE  to  OKLAHOMA  CITY  215.5  m.  US  62 

US  62  crosses  the  ARKANSAS  LINE,  0  tn.,  thirty  miles  west  of  Fay- 
etteville,  Arkansas  (see  Arkansas  Guide). 

WESTVILLE,  2  m.  (1,128  alt.,  716  pop.),  is  on  the  edge  of  the  heavily 
wooded  area  of  the  Cherokee  Hills.  Fish  abound  in  the  many  near-by  creeks, 
but  it  is  advisable  to  employ  a  local  guide  (50c  to  $1.50  a  day)  to  find  the 
best  holes.  During  the  early  1900's  a  considerable  variety  of  wild  game  was 
found  in  this  section,  and  a  crusade  to  preserve  the  wild  life  was  begun  by 
thirteen  local  men.  In  1922,  a  chapter  of  the  Izaak  Walton  League  was  estab- 
lished here. 

Westville  is  at  the  junction  with  US  59  (see  Tour  15),  which  unites 
briefly  with  US  62. 

CHRISTIE,  10.8  m.  (834  alt.,  100  pop.),  is  a  marketing-place  for  the 
large  crop  of  strawberries  produced  on  near-by  farm.s.  A  co-operative  associa- 
tion acts  as  the  selling  agency;  there  is  no  other  local  government. 

PROCTOR,  15.9  m.  (788  alt.,  55  pop.),  is  a  small  settlement,  named  for 
Ezekial  Proctor,  a  Cherokee. 

At  the  Goingsnake  Schoolhouse,  which  stood  on  the  bank  of  Baron 
Fork  Creek  south  of  Proctor,  Ezekiel  Proctor  was  tried,  in  May,  1872,  in  a 
tribal  court  for  the  murder  of  Polly  Chesterton  (see  Tour  15).  This  trial  pre- 


258  OKLAHOMA 

cipitated  the  Goingsnake  Massacre.  Proctor  had  surrendered  after  the  killing 
to  the  sheriff  of  Goingsnake  District  of  the  Cherokee  Nation,  and  Blackhawk 
Sixkiller  had  been  appointed  to  try  the  case.  Dissatisfied  with  the  Cherokee 
system  of  prosecution,  Chesterton,  husband  of  the  victim,  filed  charges  against 
Proctor  in  the  United  States  court  at  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas.  Since  provisions 
of  the  government  treaty  with  the  Cherokees  had  guaranteed  to  them  the 
right  of  trial  and  punishment  of  their  own  people,  this  action  was  deeply 
resented.  When  word  was  received  that  Fort  Smith  officers  were  coming  to 
arrest  Proctor,  the  Cherokees  immediately  prepared  to  defend  their  treaty 
rights  by  force,  if  necessary.  Everyone  present  at  the  trial  in  the  schoolhouse  — 
chosen  because  it  could  be  more  easily  defended  than  the  courthouse — was 
armed  for  attack.  Without  warning,  a  posse  of  Fort  Smith  marshals  charged. 
Seven  officers  were  killed,  the  prisoner  and  the  judge  were  wounded,  and  the 
clerk  was  slain  at  his  desk. 

In  reprisal,  indictments  were  returned  by  a  Federal  grand  jury  at  Fort 
Smith  against  twenty  Cherokee  citizens,  who  had  been  at  the  trial,  and  all 
the  officers  of  the  tribal  court.  The  Cherokees  also  issued  warrants  for  a  num- 
ber of  their  own  tribesmen.  Later  all  indictments  were  dismissed  by  the 
United  States  government.  After  Proctor  recovered  from  his  wounds,  he  lived 
a  law-abiding  life  even  to  the  extent  of  being  elected  sheriff  of  the  Flint  Dis- 
trict of  the  Cherokee  Nation,  and  a  member  of  the  Cherokee  Council. 

East  of  the  ILLINOIS  RIVER  (see  Tour  16),  29  m.,  the  vegetation  is 
thick  and  green.  On  the  west  bank  is  a  cliff  called  the  Point  of  Pines;  its  top 
affords  one  of  the  most  beautiful  views  in  the  state. 

TAHLEQUAH,  31.2  m.  (864  alt.,  3,027  pop.),  was  chosen  as  the  perma- 
nent capital  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  on  July  12,  1839,  when  the  East  and  West 
Cherokees  met  at  Takotokah,  northwest  of  Tahlequah,  and  signed  the  Act 
of  Union.  Until  1843,  when  the  present  town  of  Tahlequah  was  first  platted, 
the  capital  consisted  of  a  council  ground  and  camping  site  for  the  delegates 
attending  the  conferences.  In  that  year,  three  cabins  were  constructed  in  which 
the  council,  senate,  and  treasury  were  housed. 

The  Intertribal  Council  of  1843,  which  was  called  by  the  Cherokees  and 
attended  by  representatives  of  eighteen  tribes,  was  in  session  here  for  four 
weeks  discussing  mutual  problems  arising  from  the  removal  of  the  various 
tribes  from  their  former  homes. 

On  January  8,  1845,  a  measure  was  enacted  ordering  all  houses  on  the 
Public  Square  to  be  moved  before  September  1;  on  their  removal,  the  main 
streets  were  laid  out  and  a  brick  building  was  erected  for  the  Cherokee  Su- 
preme Court.  The  Cherokee  Advocate  (see  Newspapers),  official  publication 
of  the  Cherokee  government,  was  printed  here.  During  a  fire  in  1874,  the  old 
building  was  pardy  gutted  but  was  rebuilt  shortly  after;  the  Advocate  was 
housed  in  the  Cherokee  jail  during  the  interim.  Located  just  across  the  street 
from  the  southeast  corner  of  the  public  square,  the  first  Supreme  Court 
Building  still  contains  part  (mostly  the  outside  walls)  of  the  original  ma- 
terials used  in  its  construction  in  1845.  In  the  square  also  stands  the  old 
Cherokee  Capitol,  completed  in  1869.  It  now  serves  as  the  County  Court- 
house for  Cherokee  County.  West  of  the  courthouse  and  on  the  grounds  of 


TOUR  3        259 

the  old  square  are  Statues  of  W.  P.  Adair  and  Stand  Watie,  prominent  in 
Cherokee  politics  and  war,  respectively. 

A  present-day  hotel,  across  the  street  (N)  from  the  courthouse  square, 
is  on  the  Site  of  the  National  Hotel,  erected  in  1848  as  an  inn  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  representatives  attending  council  sessions.  The  hotel  was  built 
by  a  Mormon  bishop  and  two  of  his  followers,  who  arrived  here  on  their 
way  to  Texas  in  1847.  The  Mormons  were  being  driven  out  of  the  East  at 
that  time,  but  these  three  men  had  chosen  not  to  accompany  the  main  body 
headed  for  Utah.  In  Tahlequah,  the  bishop  attempted  to  carry  on  his  church 
work  but  was  so  deeply  resented  that  he  soon  left.  In  another  building  (im- 
mediately across  from  the  north  end  of  the  west  side  of  the  square),  erected 
in  the  same  year  by  Mormons,  one  of  the  first  telephone  lines  in  Oklahoma, 
from  Tahlequah  to  Fort  Gibson,  was  installed  in  1886  by  Ed  Hicks,  a  Chero- 
kee who  still  (1941)  lives  in  Tahlequah. 

Down  Tahlequah's  main  thoroughfare,  Muskogee  Street,  in  November, 
1855,  marched  the  famous  Second  Cavalry  numbering  750  troopers  on  the 
way  from  Jefferson  Barracks  at  St.  Louis  to  Texas,  where  the  regiment  was 
engaged  in  fighting  Indians  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  In  command 
was  Colonel  Albert  Sidney  Johnson.  Lieutenant  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  sec- 
ond in  command,  had  been  detained  at  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  on  court-mar- 
tial duty  and  joined  the  regiment  after  its  arrival  in  Texas.  Among  other 
officers  of  the  regiment  were  Captain  Edmund  Kirby  Smith,  Lieutenant  John 
B.  Hood,  and  Lieutenant  J.  E.  B.  Stuart. 

In  1851,  the  Cherokees  established  two  schools  of  higher  learning — one, 
a  Male  Seminary  just  southwest  of  Tahlequah,  and  the  other,  a  Female  Semi- 
nary at  Park  Hill,  approximately  four  miles  south  of  Tahlequah.  Both  build- 
ings were  destroyed  by  fire — the  school  for  boys  in  1910,  and  the  female 
institution  in  1887.  The  latter  school,  relocated  at  Tahlequah  in  that  year, 
was  purchased  in  1909  by  the  state  of  Oklahoma  to  form  the  nucleus  of 
Northeastern  State  College.  The  plant  comprises  six  buildings  on  a  cam- 
pus of  much  natural  beauty. 

A  separate  building  on  the  grounds  houses  the  Northeastern  Histori- 
cal Museum,  in  which  numerous  Indian  relics  and  documents  are  preserved. 
Among  these  are  many  volumes  of  the  Cherokee  Advocate,  the  national  tribal 
newspaper;  leather  saddle  bags  and  other  effects  which  belonged  to  General 
Stand  Watie;  a  plow  and  ox  yoke  brought  here  by  the  Cherokees  along  the 
Trail  of  Tears  from  Georgia;  and  portraits  of  Sequoyah  and  Samuel  Houston 
Mayes,  a  Cherokee  chief.  A  church  bell,  reputed  to  be  the  oldest  in  Okla- 
homa, is  also  on  display. 

At  35.3  m.  on  US  62  is  a  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  0.5  ;».,  to  the  Jane  Ross  Meigs  House  (L),  built  more  than  one 
hundred  years  ago  for  the  daughter  of  John  Ross,  chief  of  the  Cherokees.  Jane,  unlike 
her  father,  had  come  west  with  the  first  migration;  when  he  arrived  later,  he  bought  this 
house,  which  had  been  constructed  some  years  before,  as  a  gift  for  her  and  her  husband. 

At  1  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  the  Site  of  Park  Hill  Mission,  1  m.,  established  in  1836  by  the 
Presbyterians  as  a  religious  and  educational  center  for  the  mission  and  the  schools,  homes 
for  missionaries  and  teachers,  a  boarding  hall,  gristmill,  shops,  stables,  and  a  printing  office 


260  OKLAHOMA 

and  book  bindery.  Samuel  Austin  Worcester,  the  first  missionary  here,  brought  his  printing 
press  from  Union  Mission  (see  Tour  8)  in  1837  and  published  many  works  for  both  Chcro- 
kees  and  whites.  Millions  of  pages  of  tracts,  schoolbooks,  and  extracts  from  the  Bible 
(mostly  translated  into  ("hcrokce  by  Worcester)  came  from  this  press  before  the  Mission 
was  destroyed  during  the  Civil  War. 

Just  north  of  Park  Hill  arc  the  ruins  of  the  Cherokee  Female  Seminary,  which  was 
established  by  the  national  council  in  1850.  A  disastrous  fire  in  1887  left  only  parts  of  the 
walls  and  the  foundation. 

Straight  ahead  on  the  graveled  road  to  the  Murrell  Mansion,  1.2  m.,  standing  in  a 
grove  (R)  of  oaks  and  catalpas.  Though  now  in  disrepair,  the  stately  old  building  was  con- 
sidered the  finest  residence  in  the  vicinity  in  Civil  War  days.  All  the  lumber  and  finishing 
materials  were  cut  from  the  near-by  trees,  but  most  of  the  furniture  was  imported  from 
France  or  bought  in  New  Orleans  and  shipped  up  the  Arkansas  and  Illinois  rivers  by  steam- 
boat. George  Murrell,  the  original  owner,  was  a  prominent  merchant  and  a  member  of  the 
Ross  faction  of  the  Chcrokees.  Before,  and  during,  the  Civil  War,  the  house  was  the  center 
of  social  activities  for  near-by  Fort  Gibson;  later  it  passed  rapidly  from  one  owner  to 
another,  serving  at  one  time  as  a  school.  Today  (1941)  it  is  occupied  at  intervals  by  tenant 
farmers.  The  spacious  piazzas  and  the  portico  are  gone,  but  the  sturdy  foundation  beams 
of  the  house  are  still  in  place. 

Southeast  of  the  Murrell  Mansion,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  through  a  field,  is  the  Park 
Hill  Mission  Cemetery,  where  Samuel  and  Ann  Worcester,  founders  of  the  mission,  are 
buried.  The  old  burial  ground  has  long  been  abandoned;  the  monuments  to  the  Worcesters, 
however,  are  still  standing  and  enclosed  by  an  iron  fence.  The  inscription  for  Samuel 
reads,  "To  his  labors,  the  Cherokees  are  indebted  for  their  Bible  and  hymn  book." 

At  1.5  m.  on  the  main  side  route  is  the  Grove  (L)  where  the  Cherokee  Confederate 
Treaty  was  signed  in  1861. 

In  the  Ross  Family  Cemetery,  2  m.,  stands  the  John  McDonald  Ross  Monument 
(L),  enclosed  by  a  three-foot  stone  wall  surmounted  by  iron  pickets.  A  circular  shaft  of 
white  marble,  broken  at  the  top  to  represent  life  interrupted  at  its  prime  (he  died  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one),  marks  the  grave  of  a  nephew  of  John  Ross,  leader  of  the  Union  faction  of 
Cherokees,  who  is  also  buried  here.  The  story  is  told  that  Confederate  General  Stand  Watie, 
needing  ammunition,  remembered  the  lead  balls  which  decorated  the  iron  palings  atop  the 
burial  wall  of  the  nephew's  grave  and  ordered  his  men  to  remove  them  to  make  bullets. 
Thus  the  lead  from  a  Ross  grave  was  used  to  bring  death  to  members  of  the  Ross  faction.  A 
few  of  the  ornaments  which  Watie's  men  overlooked  still  remain. 

The  Sequoyah  Indian  Training  School,  36.6  m.,  is  a  government- 
maintained  institution  for  Indian  orphans.  By  an  act  of  the  Cherokee  council 
in  1872,  the  Cherokee  Orphans'  Home  was  created  and  estabUshed  near 
Salina  (see  Tour  8).  In  1904  it  was  moved  to  this  site  and,  in  1914,  sold  to  the 
Federal  government.  From  the  original  building  and  forty  acres  (which  had 
been  occupied  by  the  Cherokee  Insane  Asylum  prior  to  1904),  the  present 
Sequoyah  institution  has  grown  into  a  well-equipped  plant  with  thirty-seven 
buildings,  425  acres  of  land,  and  an  annual  appropriation  of  $100,000  for 
operating  expense. 

At  51.1  m.  is  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  Fort  Gibson  National  Cemetery,  1.1  m.  In  the  circle  of 
officers'  graves  is  that  of  Tiana  Rogers,  Cherokee  wife  of  Sam  Houston.  The  inscription, 
perpetuating  an  old  error,  gives  her  name  as  Talihina. 

Another  woman  who  lies  in  the  officers'  circle — in  a  grave  marked  simply  "Vivia" 
— still  retains  an  aura  of  mystery,  for  her  real  story  has  never  been  told.  The  legend — 
probably  true — tells  of  a  teen-age  girl  in  love  with  a  soldier,  and  of  her  pursuit  of  him  to 
his  post  at  Fort  Gibson,  where  she  masqueraded  as  a  young  lieutenant.  Her  sex  was  not 
known  until  after  her  death.  It  is  said  that  Fort  Gibson  officials  consulted  with  Washington 
headquarters  as  to  her  disposal  and  were  told,  "Bury,  and  say  nothing." 

Captain  Billy  Bowlegs,  famous  Seminole  warrior,  lies  in  this  circle  of  men  and  women 


TOUR  3        261 

who  made  frontier  histor\ .  Monttord  Stokes,  governor  of  North  Carolina  (1830—32),  chair- 
man of  the  Indian  Commission  (1  830-34;,  and  the  only  known  Revolutionary  War  veteran 
to  be  buried  in  Oklahoma,  is  also  interred  here. 

FORT  GIBSON,  52.9  m.  (542  alt.,  1,233  pop.),  a  rural  community  on 
the  bank  of  Grand  River,  stands  on  the  site  of  the  frontier  post,  Fort  Gibson. 
This  was  one  of  the  strongest  links  in  the  chain  of  fortifications  stretching 
from  the  north  to  the  south  borders  of  the  United  States.  Until  1857  it  served 
as  the  chief  military  center  for  the  whole  of  Indian  Territory,  and  many 
treaties  with  the  Indians  were  concluded  here. 

In  October,  1806,  Lieutenant  James  B.  Wilkinson,  second  in  command 
of  the  Zebulon  M.  Pike  expedition,  was  detailed  to  explore  the  Arkansas  River. 
With  five  enlisted  men,  he  set  out  from  the  site  of  the  present  Larned,  Kansas, 
in  an  attempt  to  float  down  the  river  to  its  mouth.  Freezing-over  of  the  river 
forced  the  group  to  follow  the  banks  on  foot.  At  last  the  party  reached  the 
mouth  of  the  Verdigris  River;  then,  on  December  6,  they  came  to  an  Osage 
village,  situated  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Grand  River,  which  joins  with  the 
Arkansas  and  Verdigris  at  this  point.  This  site,  recommended  by  the  lieu- 
tenant in  his  report  as  suitable  for  a  garrison,  was  chosen  for  Fort  Gibson  in 
1824,  when  a  military  post  was  needed  to  halt  Osage  depredations  and  to 
establish  peace  along  the  frontier.  Colonel  Matthew  Arbuckle,  who  came  with 
a  part  of  his  troops  by  boat  while  others  had  traveled  overland,  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  building  of  the  fort,  which  was  to  serve  as  a  corrununication  and 
transportation  link  between  Fort  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  and  Fort  Smith, 
Arkansas. 

In  1834  an  important  intertribal  Indian  council  was  held  here.  The  fort 
was  abandoned  in  1857,  but  was  reoccupied  by  Union  soldiers  during  the 
Civil  War.  Toward  the  close  of  the  war,  six  thousand  refugee  Creeks  en- 
camped here  on  their  return  from  Kansas,  where  they  had  fled  to  seek  haven 
with  the  Union  forces.  The  Fort  also  sheltered  some  ten  thousand  other 
refugees  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  most  of  them  Union  Cherokees 
who  had  been  harried  by  the  guerilla  tactics  of  the  Confederate  Cherokee 
general.  Stand  Watie.  Watie,  master  of  this  type  of  warfare,  took  their  food 
and  stock,  pillaged  their  homes,  and  even  at  one  time  stripped  them  of  their 
clothing  so  that  the  destitute  women  and  children  of  his  own  group  might 
have  sustenance  and  cover. 

Fort  Gibson  was,  during  its  heyday,  a  busy  and  active  place,  frequented 
by  many  whose  names  are  now  famous.  Jefferson  Davis,  later  president  of  the 
Confederacy,  served  here  under  General  Zachary  Taylor,  who  was  inaugu- 
rated President  of  the  United  States  in  1849.  Washington  Irving,  accompany- 
ing an  exploring  expedition  in  1832,  camped  here,  and  it  was  from  this  spot 
that  he  started  the  trip  described  in  his  book,  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies.  The  sup- 
posed site  where  his  tent  was  pitched  is  marked  by  a  slab  made  from  two 
stones,  one  said  to  have  come  from  the  original  barracks  building  and  the  other 
from  the  house  once  occupied  by  Jefferson  Davis. 

The  old  Texas  Road,  with  its  constant  traffic  of  cattlemen,  emigrants, 
freighters,  and  traders,  passed  near  the  fort,  but  the  main  communication  for 
the  troops  and  the  residents  of  the  surrounding  country  was  by  means  of 


262  OKLAHOMA 

Steamboat  navigation  on  the  Arkansas  River.  French  fur  traders  of  the  South- 
west made  it  a  center  for  their  business  transactions,  and  supplies  for  a  large 
area  were  imported  and  dispersed  at  this  point. 

Fort  Gibson  was  finally  abandoned  in  1890,  and  the  reservation  was 
turned  over  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  Many  of  the  old  buildings  have 
since  been  restored — the  four-sided  square  stockade  was  rebuilt  by  the 
National  Fort  Stockade  Commission  and  the  barracks  by  the  Oklahoma 
Historical  Society.  The  stone  barracks  constructed  during  the  Civil  War  are 
on  a  hill  overlooking  the  stockade. 

At  53.7  m.,  the  ARKANSAS  RIVER  is  crossed.  A  few  hundred  yards 
south  of  the  bridge  is  the  approximate  Site  of  the  Old  Steamboat  Landing. 
The  first  river  boats  here  were  canoes  and  pirogues  (hollowed-out  logs);  these 
were  succeeded  by  keelboats  which  relied  on  manpower,  pulling  from  the 
bank,  for  motivation.  The  early  steamboats  coming  up  the  Arkansas  to  this 
region  usually  stopped  at  Fort  Smith  and  reshipped  their  cargoes  upstream  by 
keelboat.  In  1824,  however,  the  sixty-ton  steamboat,  Florence,  carrying  one 
hundred  recruits  for  the  new  military  post,  Fort  Gibson,  ventured  this  far. 
Three  Forks,  as  the  region  was  known  since  it  is  the  confluence  of  the  Grand 
and  Verdigris  with  the  Arkansas,  became  a  busy  trading  area  for  the  next 
fifty  years  owing  to  the  advance  of  river  traffic.  Because  of  many  shoals  in  the 
river  bed,  this  particular  landing  was  much  used  since  here  the  water  was 
deeper.  In  February,  1828,  the  steamboat  Facility  (117  tons)  ascended  to  this 
point  towing  two  keelboats  laden  with  780  emigrant  Creek  Indians;  a  new 
Creek  agency  had  just  been  established  at  Three  Forks  (see  Tour  8). 

River  traffic  continued  to  increase,  with  only  a  slight  interruption  during 
the  Civil  War,  and  in  February,  1870,  a  government  engineer  said  in  his 
official  report:  "Twenty  steamboats  now  ply  between  Fort  Gibson,  Fort  Smith, 
Little  Rock,  and  New  Orleans,  Memphis,  St.  Louis,  and  Cincinnati.  The 
amount  of  the  up  and  down  the  river  trade  received  and  shipped  at  Fort  Gib- 
son is  about  25,000  tons  annually,  exclusive  of  Government  freight.  . .  .  The 
Government  freight  received  at  the  same  point  amounts  to  about  $5,000,000 
annually  . . .  and  merchants  expect  traffic  to  double  in  the  next  eight  months." 
Two  years  later,  however,  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  built  tracks 
to  Muskogee  and  gradually  absorbed  the  traffic  which  had  been  carried  by  the 
river  and  the  Texas  Road. 

For  years,  Muskogee  and  near-by  towns  attempted  to  obtain  Federal 
funds  to  construct  a  deeper  and  more  permanent  river  bed  for  the  Arkansas, 
and  reopen  river  traffic.  The  increase  of  soil  erosion  in  the  upper  drainage 
area  of  the  Arkansas,  however,  together  with  the  utilization  of  much  of  the 
upstream  water  for  irrigation  purposes,  has  so  changed  the  character  of  the 
river  as, to  make  the  plan  impracticable. 

The  Oklahoma  School  for  the  Blind,  62.5  m.,  is  attractively  situated 
on  a  campus  (L)  of  ninety-nine  acres.  A  coeducational  school  with  an  enroll- 
ment (1941)  of  144  with  23  teachers,  it  oflfers  instruction  through  the  twelfth 
grade,  and  in  singing,  piano,  and  pipe  organ.  Emphasis  is  placed  on  physical 
and  industrial  training;  and  it  has  been  found  that  students  are  especially  apt 
at  weaving  and  piano  tuning.  There  is  a  boys'  orchestra. 


TOUR  3        263 

The  school  plant  of  twenty  buildings  includes  the  four  large  cottages, 
two  each  for  boys  and  girls,  where  the  students  live  during  the  nine  months 
of  the  school  year.  A  herd  of  Holstein  milch  cows  belongs  to  the  school,  and 
visitors  are  invited  to  watch  the  milking  at  3:30  p.m.  In  the  three  months  of 
summer  vacation,  students  not  required  to  stay  and  maintain  the  plant  are 
placed  in  such  jobs  as  they  can  do  throughout  the  state. 

In  MUSKOGEE,  63.1  m.  (617  alt.,  32,332  pop.)  (see  Musf^ogee),  are 
junctions  with  US  69  (see  Tour  8)  and  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  which  unite 
westward  with  US  62  for  15.4  miles. 

TAFT,  73  m.  (605  alt.,  772  pop.)  (see  Tour  2). 

At  78.6  m.,  US  62  turns  sharply  south  (L). 

BOYNTON,  86.1  m.  (620  alt.,  842  pop.),  was  a  farming  community 
until  oil  was  found  near  by  in  the  early  1920's.  A  refinery  and  a  brickmaking 
plant,  both  since  dismantled,  were  the  town's  largest  industries. 

In  OKMULGEE,  106.8  m.  (670  alt.,  16,051  pop.)  (see  Okmulgee),  is  the 
junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9),  which  unites  southward  with  US  62  for 
22.7  miles. 

Right  from  Okmulgee  on  paved  State  27  to  LAKE  OKMULGEE,  7  m.,  the  water 
supply  for  the  city.  The  lake  (L)  covers  720  acres  and  is  a  beautiful  recreational  spot. 

A  Rifle  Range  (R)  was  leased  by  the  United  States  in  1931  to  be  used  for  target 
practice  by  National  Guardsmen  and  civilians.  The  range  provides  a  running  deer  target 
and  facilities  for  antiaircraft  marksmanship  and  bayonet  practice. 

At  14  w.  is  a  junction  with  a  graveled  county  road;  R.  on  this  to  NUYAKA,  16  m., 
a  small  settlement  where  Nuyaka  Mission  was  established  by  the  Presbyterians  in  1884, 
when  the  village  was  a  fullblood  Creek  setdement.  Miss  Alice  Robertson,  pioneer  state  edu- 
cator, secured  funds  from  church  women  in  the  East  to  build  the  structure  and  carr>'  on  the 
religious  and  educadonal  work.  Although  the  Nuyaka  school  was  sponsored  and  pardy 
supported  by  the  Creek  Nation,  it  remained  under  the  auspices  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
until  all  Indian  schools  were  taken  over  by  the  Federal  government  in  1898.  It  was  later 
discontinued  as  an  Indian  school,  and  the  buildings  were  sold;  one  is  still  standing  and  is 
used  as  a  residence. 

In  1790,  when  the  Creek  Confederation  occupied  what  is  now  Alabama  and  a  part  of 
Georgia,  both  Spain  and  the  United  States  were  seeking  its  friendship  and  commerce.  Spain 
was  planning  to  use  the  Creeks  as  a  buffer  state  between  her  possessions  and  the  boundary 
of  the  United  States.  President  Washington,  eager  to  obtain  a  treaty  and  also  a  cession  of 
land,  invited  twenty-six  Creek  dignitaries  to  New  York  for  a  conference.  They  were  so 
impressed  with  the  city  that,  after  their  return  to  the  Creek  land,  they  named  a  town  New 
Yorker.  Since  the  Creeks  soften  and  scarcely  pronounce  the  consonant  "R,"  the  white  man 
transcribed  the  name  as  Nuyaka.  After  the  removal  to  the  West  and  the  naming  of  Nuyaka 
Mission,  the  same  spelling  persisted;  it  still  refers  to  New  York. 

Nuyaka's  square  was  the  scene  of  prolonged  councils  in  the  fall  of  1880  and,  in  the 
summer  of  1882,  insurrection  threatened  in  the  Creek  Nation,  with  this  the  starting  point. 
The  administration  of  justice  by  the  ruling  part>'  and  the  cession  of  a  small  tract  of  land  to 
the  Seminoles  was  the  source  of  friction,  with  a  group  composed  mostly  of  fullbloods 
responsible  for  the  rebellion.  Creek  soldiers  and  lighthorsemen,  sent  to  quell  the  disturbance, 
were  inadequately  provided  with  food  and  helped  themselves  liberally  to  the  surrounding 
peach  orchards — hence  the  name,  the  Green  Peach  War.  No  real  battles  occurred  and, 
although  most  of  the  insurrectionists  were  finally  captured,  they  were  soon  freed. 

HENRYETTA,  120.6  m.  (691  alt.,  6,905  pop.),  surrounded  by  low  hills, 
was  founded  in  1900  when  the  Frisco  Railway  built  to  this  point.  The  city's 
industries  include  coal  mining,  smelting,  and  glass  manufacture;  the  iron 
foundries,  smelters,  and  coal  mines  are  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 


264  OKLAHOMA 

Left  from  Hcnryctta  on  a  graveled  road,  1.5  w;.,  is  the  Jack  Nichols  Rkcreation 
Park,  a  640-acre  tract  whicli  includes  a  lake  (fishing  and  swimming);  fifty  acres  have 
been  set  aside  as  a  national  campground  for  the  Creek  Indians. 

At  129  m.  is  the  southern  junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9). 

OKEMAH,  139.6  m.  (882  alt.,  3,811  pop.),  was  opened  to  white  settle- 
ment in  1902,  when  lots  were  offered  for  sale  at  an  auction  attended  by  three 
thousand  people.  Since  there  was  no  railroad,  many  people  walked  long  dis- 
tances while  others  came  in  wagons  and  on  horseback  to  attend  the  event. 
Tents  were  erected,  and  it  was  not  until  several  months  after  the  opening  that 
the  first  building  was  constructed — a  one-story  structure  of  bark  and  poles 
built  by  Indians.  Drinking  water  had  to  be  hauled  at  twenty-five  cents  a 
barrel. 

A  barbed-wire  fence,  completely  enclosing  the  town,  was  erected  during 
these  early  days  as  protection  from  the  thousands  of  longhorn  steers  on  the 
surrounding  broad  prairies.  Strong,  self-closing  gates,  which  the  animals 
could  not  push  open,  were  placed  at  the  east  and  west  ends  of  the  present 
Broadway.  Today,  the  former  grazing  lands  have  been  plowed  and  planted 
with  pecans,  corn,  sweet  potatoes,  and  cotton — and  Okemah  is  a  modern 
town  deriving  its  business  from  agriculture  and  near-by  oil  fields. 

At  151.6  m.  is  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  the  State  Training  School  for  Negro  Boys,  L2  m.  Two  large 
brick  buildings  contain  the  classrooms  and  dormitories,  while  separate  brick  or  frame 
structures  house  the  cafeteria,  gymnasium,  stables,  and  shops  for  cobblery,  tailoring,  car- 
pentry, and  machine  work.  The  140  boys  in  the  institution  (ages  10-16)  make  their  own 
clothing  and  learn  trades  and  farming.  Class  work  is  both  academic  and  vocational. 

In  BOLEY,  154.1  m.  (859  alt.,  942  pop.),  (R)  is  the  State  Masonic 
Temple  for  Negroes.  Once  a  year,  in  August,  Negroes  from  all  parts  of  the 
state  gather  here  for  a  celebration  and  barbecue.  The  idea  of  this  all-Negro 
town  was  first  advanced  by  the  president  of  the  Fort  Smith  and  Western 
Railway  townsite  company  in  1903,  when  the  railway  was  being  extended 
westward  toward  Guthrie.  The  Fort  Smith  and  Western  roadmaster,  W.  H. 
Boley,  was  greatly  responsible  for  carrying  out  the  plan  and  was  honored  in 
the  naming  of  the  town.  The  location  of  Boley  was  particularly  chosen  because 
much  of  the  surrounding  area  had  been  allotted  to  Negro  freedmen  listed  on 
the  rolls  of  the  Creek  tribe  at  the  time  of  the  division  of  the  Indian  lands. 

PRAGUE,  164.5  m.  (992  alt.,  1,422  pop.),  a  farming  center,  was  estab- 
lished in  the  early  part  of  the  twentieth  century  by  a  group  of  Bohemians 
(Czechoslovakians)  with  the  idea  of  creating  a  village  like  those  of  their 
homeland. 

Though  the  inhabitants  have  become  completely  Americanized  in  most 
respects,  many  Bohemian  customs  have  been  retained,  largely  by  members 
of  such  organizations  as  the  Sokol  Society  and  the  Western  Bohemian  Asso- 
ciation. Prague  resembles  a  "Little  Bohemia"  when  the  two  societies  hold 
annual  celebrations  just  before  Easter,  on  the  sixth  of  July,  and  on  Thanks- 
giving Day.  Residents  appear  in  their  colorful  native  costumes  for  a  program 
beginning  with  a  noonday  feast.  Society  meetings  follow,  and  a  spirited  dance 


TOUR  3        265 

ends  the  day's  festivities.  Every  two  months  the  societies  sponsor  plays  and 
musical  programs  presented  in  the  Czech  language  and  with  "old  country" 
settings  and  costumes.  Gymnastics,  at  which  the  Bohemians  are  proficient, 
are  the  main  activity  of  the  Sokol  Society. 

Many  of  the  houses  here  are  typically  Bohemian — square  white  or  blue 
structures  in  a  setting  of  cedar  trees  which  partly  obscure  the  front.  Entrance 
is  usually  made  by  way  of  the  back  door,  since  the  front  opening  leads  into 
an  ornate  and  stiff  parlor  that  is  rarely  used  except  on  such  important  occa- 
sions as  weddings,  christenings,  or  funerals. 

Prague  is  at  the  junction  with  State  99  (see  Tour  14). 

MEEKER,  177.8  m.  (874  alt.,  502  pop.),  is  a  trading  center  for  the  sur- 
rounding fertile  farm  lands,  forming  the  divide  between  the  North  Canadian 
River  and  its  tributary  stream  to  the  north,  the  Deep  Fork.  Meeker  is  the 
home  town  of  Carl  Hubbell,  well-known  (1941)  pitcher  for  the  New  York 
Giants  baseball  club. 

HARRAH,  193.5  m.  (1,080  alt.,  620  pop.),  a  farm  village,  is  the  birth- 
place of  Paul  and  Lloyd  Waner,  star  players  (1940)  for  the  Pittsburgh  Pirates, 
National  League  baseball  team.  Paul  (Big  Poison)  and  Lloyd  (Little  Poison) 
received  their  nicknames  because,  as  heavy  hitters,  they  were  "poison"  to 
opposing  pitchers. 

Harrah  is  at  the  junction  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5),  which  unites  west- 
ward with  US  62  for  twenty-two  miles. 

At  195.6  w.  is  a  junction  with  an  oil-asphalt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  HORSESHOE  LAKE  (free  fishing),  1.2  m.,  so-named  because 
of  its  shape.  The  lake,  in  a  verdant  setting  which  has  been  made  a  State  Game  Preserve, 
furnishes  water  for  a  large  electric  generating  plant  operated  by  steam. 

At  211.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  Eastern  Avenue  (paved)  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Oklahoma  City. 

Right  on  Eastern  Avenue,  to  Lincoln  Park,  0.8  m.,  Oklahoma  City's  largest  public 
recreational  center  (picnicking  and  camping  facilities;  children's  playground;  hiking  and 
bridle  trails;  golf  fees,  50c).  This  park,  with  its  low,  tree-covered  hills  and  spring-fed  lake, 
was  purchased  by  the  city  in  1908  but  remained  unimproved  until  1925,  when  a  zoo  was 
moved  here  from  another  city  park.  The  Zoo  covers  fourteen  acres  and  contains  more  than 
five  hundred  animals.  Extensive  work  on  improvements  and  posting  of  classifications  for 
the  large  collection  of  animals  has  been  done  in  recent  years  by  CCC  and  WPA  workers. 
Monkey  Island  is  one  of  the  most  popular  spots,  for  its  chattering  population  furnishes 
entertainment  against  a  background  of  an  old  ship's  bow  projecting  above  the  surface  of 
the  ground.  The  funny  little  animals  perch  in  the  rigging  and  portholes  and  promenade  on 
the  inclined  deck.  Other  attractions  include  the  alligator  swamp,  the  bird  and  reptile  cages, 
and  the  bear  pits.  As  nearly  as  possible,  abodes  have  been  constructed  which  resemble  the 
natural  habitats  of  the  animals. 

In  OKLAHOMA  CITY,  215.5  m.  (1,194  alt.,  204,424  pop.)  (see  Okla- 
homa City),  are  the  junctions  with  US  66  (see  Tour  1),  US  77  (see  Tour  10), 
and  the  western  junction  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

Section  b.  OKLAHOMA  CITY  to  TEXAS  LINE,  202.6  m.  US  62 

Southwest  of  OKLAHOMA  CITY,  0  m.,  the  land  is  gently  rolling  and 
to  a  large  extent  cultivated.  The  farms  are  well  ordered,  and,  in  many  in- 


266  OKLAHOMA 

Stances,  the  bungalow  farmhouse  is  overshadowed  by  a  commodious  hay  barn 
and  silo,  indicative  of  the  productiveness  of  the  section. 

At  8.4  m.,  on  the  enlarged  grounds  of  the  former  Oklahoma  City  Munic- 
ipal Airport,  is  the  new  (  1941)  Army  Light  Bombardment  Training  School 
AND  Air  Base,  built  at  a  cost  of  $2,000,000.  Under  the  national  defense  pro- 
gram, this  unit  will  be  manned  by  some  350  officers  and  4,200  enlisted  men  for 
flying  duty  and  ground  personnel.  It  is  one  of  the  three  government  bases  o£ 
this  kind  in  the  United  States. 

The  nucleus  of  the  base  is  the  old  640-acre  flying  field  and  the  four  stone 
buildings  of  Indian  pueblo  design  set  in  attractively  landscaped  grounds. 

The  long  Newcastle  Bridge,  14  m.,  spans  the  South  Canadian  River. 
Most  of  the  time,  the  wide,  sandy  bed  is  broken  only  by  pools  of  muddy  water 
or,  at  best,  a  very  narrow  channel,  completely  belying  the  river's  dangerous 
character  when  rushing  waters  come  tumbling  down  its  course.  Thick 
growths  of  Cottonwood  trees  line  the  banks  and  dot  the  bed. 

Southward,  the  land  becomes  more  hilly  and  has  many  trees.  Where 
the  highway  has  cut  through  a  small  hill,  the  banks  reveal  the  rich  red  soil 
peculiar  to  this  section  of  Oklahoma. 

BLANCHARD,  28.9  m.  (1,239  alt.,  1,139  pop.),  was  named  for  W.  G. 
Blanchard,  who  assisted  in  laying  out  the  site  at  the  founding  of  the  town 
in  1906. 

Near  the  Washita  River  crossing,  45.8  m.  is  the  spot  where  the  old  Chis- 
holm  Trail  crossed  the  river  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Trail  is  practi- 
cally paralleled,  today,  by  US  81  (see  Tour  11).  During  the  1870's,  a  trading 
post,  known  as  Fred  (named  for  Colonel  Frank  Fred,  who  ran  a  series  of 
such  posts)  was  established  here.  Later  the  store  was  moved  farther  south  on 
the  Trail  to  a  point  where  a  connecting  wagon  road  brought  more  business. 

CHICK ASHA,  48.8  m.  (1,116  alt.,  14,111  pop.),  seat  of  Grady  County, 
is  a  market  place  for  a  wide  and  prosperous  farm  and  ranch  region,  the  home 
of  the  largest  college  for  women  in  the  state,  and  an  industrial  center,  where 
cotton,  grain,  and  dairy  products  are  processed. 

A  well-built,  spreading  municipality,  its  wide  downtown  streets  are  bor- 
dered by  brick  and  stone  business  buildings,  old  and  modern;  along  the  gently 
upsloping  residence  streets  radiating  out  to  the  west  and  south  arc  trees,  some 
planted  in  the  1890's.  Near  by,  to  the  north,  the  Washita  River  bottom  marks 
roughly  the  boundary  between  the  city  and  farm  lands. 

Before  there  was  a  town,  the  Rock  Island  had  a  train  stop  here  (1892). 
The  site  of  Chickasha  was  included  in  the  "Swinging  Ring"  catde  ranch 
owned  by  an  intermarried  citizen  of  the  Chickasaw  Indian  Nation,  the 
western  boundary  of  which  was  within  a  few  miles  of  the  place. 

The  first  considerable  industrial  development  at  Chickasha  was  a  cotton- 
seed oil  mill,  and  the  next  was  catde  feeding  pens  where  the  residue  from 
the  mill,  called  "cake,"  was  the  chief  fattening  feed  for  the  thousands  of  steers 
shipped  out  every  month.  At  one  time,  more  than  ten  thousand  cattle  were  in 
the  fattening  pens  there. 

When  the  new  town  was  only  a  straggling  handful  of  stores  and  shacks 
in  the  middle  of  a  cornfield,  and  corner  sports  bet  on  whether  or  not  a  team 


TOUR  3        267 

would  "pull"  the  slough  at  the  western  edge  of  the  field,  the  ChicXasha 
Express  began  publication  as  a  small,  four-page  weekly  in  a  leaky  shack. 
Today  (1941)  it  is  a  daily  of  wide  circulation,  housed  in  its  own  substantial 
brick-and-steel  building. 

Ten  years  after  its  founding,  Chickasha  had  a  population  of  6,370  and 
became  a  city  of  the  first  class.  Its  growth  was  greatly  stimulated  by  the  open- 
ing to  white  settlement  in  1901  of  the  Kiowa-Comanche  reservation,  which 
adjoined  the  former  Chickasaw  Nation  on  the  west.  The  Rock  Island  made 
the  city  a  division  point  and  established  shops  there.  More  cotton  processing 
plants — gins,  mills,  and  compress — were  located  in  Chickasha. 

After  statehood,  the  growth  of  the  city  was  steady  though  census  figures 
show  a  population  gain  of  but  twelve  between  1930  and  1940.  Only  two 
small  oil  fields,  the  Cement  and  Carter  Knox  pools  with  some  three  hundred 
oil  wells,  and  the  Chickasha  gas  field  with  272  wells  have  (as  of  1941)  been 
developed  in  the  Chickasha  area,  but  the  surrounding  farms  and  ranches 
have  continued  to  maintain  the  prosperity  of  the  city.  The  Lindsay  neigh- 
borhood, some  twenty-five  miles  to  the  southwest,  is  known  as  the  world's 
greatest  producer  of  broomcorn,  and  much  of  it  is  processed  and  marketed  at 
Chickasha. 

Recreation  is  provided  by  the  city's  Shannoan  Springs  Park,  the  munici- 
pal swimming  pool,  a  Softball  diamond,  tennis  courts,  picnic  and  croquet 
grounds,  and  public  and  private  golf  courses. 

The  modern  three-story-and-basement  Grady  County  Courthouse,  is 
a  gray  limestone  building  designed  along  severe  lines;  and  the  older  Federal 
Building  contrasts  with  it  architecturally.  The  new  Senior  High  School  is 
a  red-brick  structure  of  modified  collegiate  Gothic  design  set  in  well-land- 
scaped grounds. 

The  Oklahoma  College  for  Women,  at  the  southwestern  edge  of 
Chickasha  (S.W.  17th  St.),  is  one  of  the  few  state-supported  women's  colleges 
in  the  United  States.  Founded  in  1908  by  an  act  of  the  first  Oklahoma  state 
legislature,  the  college  grants  degrees  in  liberal  arts,  fine  arts,  and  science. 
Courses  are  also  given  leading  to  teachers'  certificates,  and  preprofessional 
courses  are  offered  in  medicine,  law,  nursing,  and  journalism.  A  teaching  and 
executive  staff  of  seventy-eight  is  required  for  the 959 students  enrolled  ( 1941 ). 

Spread  over  a  tree-shaded  campus  of  seventy-five  acres  on  top  of  a  low 
ridge,  the  college  plant  consists  of  seventeen  modern  buildings,  including  the 
big  Administration  Hall,  220  by  214  feet;  Fine  Arts,  Austin,  and  Physical 
Education  Halls,  and  eight  residence  halls.  Physical  Education  Hall  contains 
a  swimming  pool,  and  close  by  are  six  concrete-surfaced  tennis  courts,  two 
playing  fields  for  outdoor  games,  and  golf  practice  putting  greens.  On  the 
college's  140-acre  farm  an  experiment  station  is  maintained  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Biology. 

SHANNOAN  SPRINGS  PARK  {boating,  fishing),  also  in  the  south- 
western section  of  the  city,  is  a  popular  recreational  center  with  a  winding 
lake,  where  rushes  and  lilies  grow  in  profusion.  In  the  park,  too,  is  the  city's 
zoo  and  a  museum  of  pioneer  relics,  housed  in  the  old  Territorial  jailhouse. 

Chickasha  is  at  the  junction  with  US  81  (see  Tour  11). 


268  OKLAHOMA 

VERDEN,  58.4  m.  (1,136  alt.,  575  pop.),  stands  on  the  site  of  a  cotton- 
wood  grove  near  the  Washita  River  where  in  May,  1865,  an  important  inter- 
tribal council  was  held.  Because  a  majority  of  members  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  had  sided  with  the  Confederacy,  a  reckoning  had  to  be  made  with  the 
Union.  Also  fresh  outbreaks  of  trouble  with  white  outlaw  bands  and  with 
groups  of  wild  Plains  Indians,  bent  on  following  the  warpath,  made  the  call- 
ing of  the  council  almost  a  necessity. 

The  entire  present  town  of  Verden  was  included  in  the  site  chosen  for  the 
large  encampment,  called  Camp  Napoleon.  Attending  delegates  were  Con- 
federate-sympathizing members  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  and  allied  bands 
of  Caddoes,  Osages,  and  Comanches  who  came  to  treat  with  representatives 
of  the  Plains  Indians — Kiowas,  Arapahoes,  Cheyennes,  and  some  Coman- 
ches, Caddoes,  and  Anadarkos.  The  peace  pipe  was  passed,  ceremonial 
tokens  were  exchanged,  and  a  compact  was  adopted  and  signed.  What  might 
have  been  originally  intended  as  a  military  alliance  turned  out  to  be  a  league 
of  peace,  for  the  Indians  present  realized  that  their  greatest  need  was  to 
establish  strength  and  unity  within  their  own  race  in  order  to  combat  further 
white  aggression.  Solemnly,  in  their  compact,  they  recognized  their  situation; 
that  "our  vast  and  lovely  country  and  beautiful  hunting  grounds,  given  to  us 
by  the  Great  Spirit,  and  knowing  no  limit  but  the  shores  of  the  Great  Waters 
and  the  horizon  of  the  heavens,  is  now,  on  account  of  our  weakness,  being 
reduced  and  hemmed  in  to  a  small  and  precarious  country  that  we  can 
scarcely  call  our  own."  Finally  and  inevitably  they  agreed  that  if  they  were 
to  survive,  "an  Indian  shall  not  spill  an  Indian's  blood." 

This  event  has  been  commemorated  by  the  Marker  on  the  Verden  school 
grounds  (L)  facing  on  US  62,  erected  in  1931  by  the  Oklahoma  College  for 
Women;  it  reads,  "Ancient  council  fires  shall  be  kept  kindled  and  burning." 

ANADARKO,  67.5  m.  (1,190  alt.,  5,579  pop.),  seat  of  Caddo  County, 
was  named  for  the  Anadarkos,  a  kindred  tribe  affiliated  with  the  Wichita 
Indians. 

The  city  was  founded  on  August  6,  1901,  when  the  surrounding  Kiowa- 
Comanche  and  Wichita  reservations  were  opened  to  white  settlement.  On  that 
day,  some  twenty  thousand  people  arrived  at  the  previously  surveyed  townsite 
to  await  their  chance  of  occupation  of  the  adjacent  lands.  At  least  ten  thousand 
remained  for  several  months  after  which  the  population  shrank  to  three 
thousand.  Probably  the  first  business  establishment  on  the  townsite  was  a 
bank,  set  up  in  a  tent  three  weeks  before  the  official  land  opening.  It  an- 
nounced its  mission  on  a  large  piece  of  canvas  hung  in  front  of  the  tent  on 
which  the  names  of  the  directors  were  painted.  Several  days  before  the  open- 
ing, trainloads  of  liquor  had  been  shipped  into  the  town  on  the  Rock  Island 
Railway,  which  had  built  through  while  the  site  was  still  a  reservation.  For  a 
time  saloons  and  gambling  establishments  flourished,  but  the  citizens  soon 
tired  of  being  bilked  and  the  gamblers  were  chased  away.  Business  then 
adjusted  itself  and  proceeded  normally  until  the  early  1920's  when  an  oil 
flurry  brought  about  near-by  oil-field  development  and  the  subsequent  growth 
of  Anadarko  to  almost  twice  its  former  size.  The  present  business  section  has 
many  motlern  structures  contrasting  sharply  with  the  older  buildings;  one 


TOUR  3        269 

of  the  latter  is  the  red  brick  Caddo  County  Courthouse,  Broadway  and  2d 
Street,  erected  in  1907. 

Anadarko  is  an  important  trading  center  for  farmers  of  the  Washita 
valley;  alfalfa,  cotton,  wheat,  corn,  and  watermelons  are  the  chief  products; 
stock-raising,  cotton-ginning,  and  cottonseed-oil  milling  are  main  industries. 

In  1878,  the  Kiowa,  Apache,  and  Comanche  agencies  were  consolidated 
here  with  the  Wichita  office,  and  the  combined  organization  is  still  main- 
tained as  an  active  Indiax  Agexcy,  serving  about  4,600  Indians  belonging  to 
the  four  tribes  and  their  affiliates.  The  agency  is  now  (1941)  housed  in  the 
Federal  Building,  1st  Street  and  Oklahoma  Avenue  and  employs  150  per- 
sons to  handle  business  involving  approximately  $1,000,000  annually.  On  the 
walls  of  the  main  floor  of  the  buff-brick  building  are  murals  of  Indian  scenes 
and  peoples,  drawn  in  the  true  Indian  spirit  by  Mopope,  a  well-kno\Tn  Kiowa 
artist. 

The  outstanding  annual  event  is  the  American  Indian  Exposition,  (adm. 
50c)  usually  held  the  third  week  in  August  and  attended  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  full  bloods  from  many  tribes.  Dressed  in  gaudy  native  costume,  repre- 
sentatives of  Wichitas,  Caddoes,  Tawakonis,  Keechis,  Delawares,  Apaches, 
Comanches,  Lipans,  Kiowas,  and  other  tribes  make  the  four-day  celebration 
a  pageant  of  color.  Pony  races,  bow-and-arrow  shoots,  scores  of  unusual  cere- 
monial dances,  a  display  of  arts  and  crafts,  barbecues,  and  rodeos  make  up 
the  program. 

Right  from  Anadarko  on  asphalt-paved  US  281,  across  the  Washita  River,  is  the 
Riverside  Indian  Boarding  School,  1.5  m.  founded  in  1872.  About  half  of  the  2,200-acre 
reserve  (L),  controlled  by  the  government,  is  under  cultivation  by  the  pupils.  In  the  rear 
of  the  four  large  red-brick  buildings  on  the  twenty-acre  campus  are  Two  Grass  Houses, 
typical  of  those  formerly  used  by  the  Wichita  tribe.  The  primitive  abodes,  constructed  by 
students,  have  a  framework  of  trimmed  cedar  poles  imbedded  in  the  ground  at  one  end 
and  lashed  together  at  the  top  forming  a  dome.  Dried  reeds  and  grass  woven  together  are 
used  as  shingles.  The  only  opening  is  a  low,  narrow  door.  It  was  the  custom  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  people  to  live  in  each  house. 

St.  Patrick's  Mission  School,  69.7  m.,  for  Indian  children  (R),  is 
managed  by  Father  Aloysius  Hitta  under  the  supervision  of  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment. Father  Hitta's  home  houses  a  Collection  of  Indian  Art  Objects 
(shown  by  appointment  only).  The  school  was  established  in  1892,  by 
Father  Isidore  Ricklin,  on  a  hill  overlooking  the  site  of  the  agency  and  the 
future  Anadarko.  Ricklin,  a  Belgian,  was  adopted  by  the  Comanche  tribe 
during  that  same  year.  The  present  three-story  brick  edifice  was  erected  after 
the  burning  of  the  original  frame  buildings  in  1909.  A  Memorial  Ch.\pel, 
built  in  memory  of  Father  Rickin,  has  a  series  of  brilliant  murals  on  its  sloping 
ceiling.  The  panels,  outlining  the  school's  history,  were  painted  by  the  Kiowa 
Indian  artists  Asah,  Hokeah,  Mopope,  and  Auchiah,  while  they  were  students 
at  the  school. 

Near  the  mission  and  along  the  Washita  River  (R)  is  the  area  called 
TONKAWA  VALLEY  because  it  was  the  site  of  the  gruesome  massacre  of 
the  Tonkawa  Indians.  In  1862  this  tribe  was  encamped  along  the  river  just 
south  of  Fort  Cobb,  the  original  Wichita  Agency  situated  on  the  north  side 
of  the  Washita  some  seven  miles  northwest  of  this  point.  The  other  tribes, 


270  OKLAHOMA 

served  by  the  agency  and  encamped  in  the  region,  abhorred  the  Tonkawas 
because  they  were  suspected  of  cannibaHsm.  After  finding  the  dismembered 
body  of  a  Caddo  child  who  had  wandered  away  from  his  tent,  they  made 
secret  plans  to  exterminate  the  Tonkawas. 

On  the  night  of  October  23,  Osages,  Shawnees,  and  Delawares — who 
had  come  down  from  Kansas — together  with  Caddoes  from  the  agency 
started  on  a  warpath  which  ended  in  the  near  extermination  of  the  Tonkawas 
and  the  complete  destruction  of  Fort  Cobb  and  several  of  its  Confederate 
officials.  Most  of  the  Indians  at  the  agency  had  remained  loyal  to  the  Union 
and  consequently  had  no  compunction  against  aiding  the  Kansas  Indians  in 
wiping  out  the  Southerners.  The  whites  (except  for  some  who  escaped)  were 
first  killed,  then  thrown  into  the  buildings  which  were  set  afire.  The  Tonka- 
was, who  had  been  alarmed  and  started  to  flee  that  morning,  were  pursued 
to  their  camping  place  along  the  Washita  (near  the  present  Catholic  Mission) 
and  attacked  at  dawn.  Their  camp  was  completely  obliterated  except  for  the 
bones  of  the  massacred  that  lay  blanching  in  the  valley  for  years.  Fort  Cobb 
was  never  rebuilt — though  the  site  was  occupied  by  General  Philip  Sheridan 
and  his  troops  for  a  short  time  in  1868  (see  Tour  3  A) — but  a  present-day 
small  town  near  by  bears  its  name. 

APACHE,  87.4  m.  (1,300  ait.,  1,047  pop.),  is  in  the  center  of  a  rich  agri- 
cultural community  through  which  Cache  Creek  flows.  The  principal  crops 
raised  are  wheat,  corn,  alfalfa,  and  cotton.  About  35  per  cent  of  the  rural 
population  are  Indians.  Oklahoma's  newest  oil  field  (1941)  is  being  developed 
near  by. 

South  of  Apache  the  land  is  rolling  prairie,  with  only  a  few  trees  along 
the  creek  bottoms,  but  the  blue  of  the  Wichita  Mountains  dominates  the 
horizon  to  the  southwest. 

RICHARDS  SPUR,  97.1  m.  (1,199  alt.,  150  pop.),  is  a  company  village 
for  the  near-by  limestone  quarry.  Small,  bluish-gray  uniform  houses  line  the 
highway,  and  in  the  distance  (R)  is  a  great  crusher  cutting  down  a  rounded 
limestone  hill,  one  of  the  foothills  of  the  Wichitas.  Great  tilted  exposed  ledges 
of  limestone  indicate  the  force  with  which  the  mountain  mass  was  originally 
thrust  up. 

At  100.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  49  (see  Tour  3  B).  Between  101.2 
m.  and  105.4  m.,  US  62  passes  through  the  FORT  SILL  MILITARY  RES- 
ERVATION (see  Tour  3 A),  which  extends  for  several  miles  on  both  sides 
of  the  highway. 

At  104.2  m.  is  the  junction  (R)  with  the  paved  Fort  Sill  Road  (see  Tour 
3A). 

A  U.S.  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  106.5  m.,  is  one  of  the 
string  of  similar  institutions  operated  by  the  Division  of  Dry  Land  Agricul- 
ture in  the  Great  Plains  region.  The  station  (R),  established  in  1915,  con- 
sists of  several  cottages  and  barns  on  160  acres  of  land,  and  has  the  appearance 
of  a  private  farm.  The  work  done  here  is  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
what  crops  may  be  successfully  grown,  since  the  region's  rainfall  is  light  and 
uneven;  wheat,  oats,  barley,  sorghums,  and  sweet  clover  are  being  grown 
on  the  tract. 


TOUR  3        271 

The  Fort  Sill  Indian  School  and  the  Kiowa  Indian  Hospital,  106.6 
m.,  lie  within  a  thousand-acre  tract  (L)  including  both  farming  and  pasture 
land,  utiHzed  for  the  vocational  instruction  and  the  maintenance  of  both 
institutions.  Established  in  1871  under  President  Grant's  "peace  policy,"  the 
school  served  as  a  branch  of  the  Kiowa-Comanche  Agency,  operated  at  that 
time  by  the  Quaker  agent,  Lawrie  Tatum.  Since  the  opening  date,  the  capacity 
of  the  school,  one  of  twelve  Indian  boarding  schools  in  Oklahoma,  has  been 
overtaxed;  the  average  enrollment  is  250.  Primary  students  are  taught  in  a 
little  red  schoolhouse,  and  other  grades  through  high  school  are  housed  in 
modern  brick  and  native  stone  pueblo-type  buildings,  which  were  erected 
and  are  maintained  by  the  Indian  Bureau  of  the  government.  Murals  painted 
by  Kiowa  Indian  artists  decorate  the  walls  of  the  buildings. 

The  Indian  Hospital,  north  of  the  school,  is  a  commodious,  well- 
equipped  institution;  its  three  red-brick  buildings,  trimmed  in  white,  are 
modern  and  contain  a  solarium  for  the  use  of  tuberculous  patients. 

At  106.9  m.,  US  62  turns  sharply  west  (R)  to  CACHE,  121.5  m.  (1,260 
alt.,  620  pop.),  located  in  the  foothills  of  the  Wichita  Mountains. 

Right  from  Cache  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  CRATER VILLE  PARK  (camping  and 
recreational  facilities,  bridle  paths,  store,  hotel),  S  m.,  a  large  natural  amphitheater,  enclosed 
by  hills,  covered  with  grass  and  timber,  and  watered  with  clear  sparkling  springs  and  a 
mountain  brook. 

The  All-Indian  Fair  and  Exposition  was  first  organized  here  in  1924,  but  it  was 
moved  to  Anadarko  in  1935.  Many  of  the  Indians  who  live  in  the  region  still  visit  Crater- 
ville  Park  in  the  spring  and  summer  months  to  hold  powwows  and  dances.  While  here, 
they  usually  construct  and  live  in  grass  houses  and  arbors.  Footraces  among  the  young 
braves  are  often  run  on  a  half-mile  track.  Annually,  on  July  third  and  fourth,  a  rodeo  is  held. 

Left  from  the  entrance  of  Craterville  Park  to  the  Home  of  Quanah  Parker,  1  m., 
last  chief  of  the  Comanches.  Quanah  was  the  son  of  Cynthia  Ann  Parker,  a  white  woman, 
and  Peta  Nokoni,  a  Comanche  chief.  Cynthia's  story  has  been  told  in  literature  and  song; 
she  was  kidnaped  (1836),  when  nine  years  old,  by  the  Comanches  who  destroyed  the  Texas 
frontier  fort  where  her  family  had  setded.  Years  later  Cynthia  was  identified  and  urged  to 
return  to  her  own  race,  but  through  her  marriage  and  the  birth  of  her  half-Indian  children 
she  had  become  a  true  Comanche  at  heart.  Texas  Rangers  forcibly  returned  her  to  her 
family,  and  she  died  soon  after. 

Quanah,  who  had  been  born  about  1845,  was  of  superior  intelligence  and  character. 
While  principal  chief  of  his  tribe,  he  led  his  warriors  in  the  battle  on  Adobe  Walls  in  Texas, 
the  last  great  Plains  Indian  fight  against  white  buffalo  hunters.  He  rode  at  the  head  of  his 
tribe  when  they  surrendered  tribal  rule  at  Fort  Sill  in  1875,  marking  the  close  of  Indian 
warfare  in  the  region  of  southwestern  Oklahoma.  Quanah  was  later  allotted  this  tract  of 
land  on  which  he  lived  with  his  five  wives  and  built  his  eight-room  home  in  1890.  On  one 
occasion  the  old  chief  was  being  given  advice  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  on  "how  to  walk  the 
white  man's  road."  The  gist  of  the  counsel  was  that  Quanah  should  end  his  bigamous 
status  by  relinquishing  all  his  wives  except  one.  The  Comanche's  concise  answer  was, 
"You  tell  'em  which  one  I  keep!"  The  old  house,  in  which  he  lived  until  his  death  in  1911, 
is  now  occupied  (1941 )  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Neda  Birdsong. 

Right  (N)  from  the  entrance  to  Craterville  Park  is  the  south  gate,  0.5  m.,  of  the 
WICHITA  MOUNTAINS  WILDLIFE  REF[JGE(see  Tour  3B). 

On  the  main  route  is  INDIAHOMA,  128.8  m.  (1,335  alt.,  337  pop.),  a 
trading  center  for  Indians  and  farmers  of  the  surrounding  vicinity. 

Right  from  Indiahoma  on  a  dirt  road  to  a  junction  with  a  second  dirt  road,  2  m.; 
L.  on  this  road  to  the  old  Post  Oak  Mission-,  5  m.,  founded  in  1894  by  the  Mennonite 


272  OKLAHOMA 

Brethren  Home  Mission  Society.  Lumber  for  its  construction  was  hauled  from  Marlow, 
some  sixty  miles  distant  and  the  nearest  railroad  station  at  that  time. 

In  the  mission  cemetery  are  the  Graves  of  Cynthia  and  Quanah  Parker.  Cynthia 
Ann's  body  had  first  been  interred  at  Stevens,  Texas,  but  was  removed  here  for  reburial  in 
1910  at  her  son's  behest.  Quanah  Parker  was  buried  beside  his  mother,  as  was  his  wish,  in 
1911;  and  on  May  30,  1930,  before  a  crowd  of  five  thousand  people,  a  seventeen-foot 
granite  monument,  purchased  with  a  Congressional  appropriation,  was  raised  above  the 
chief's  grave. 

SNYDER,  140.8  m.  (1,360  alt.  1,278  pop.),  is  the  center  of  a  diversified 
farming  area.  Three  years  after  its  founding  in  1902,  Snyder  was  almost  com- 
pletely demolished  by  one  of  the  severest  storms  ever  to  occur  in  this  part  of 
the  state.  The  courageous  townspeople  rebuilt  and,  today,  Snyder  is  a  modern 
municipality.  The  terrible  destruction  of  that  early-day  storm,  however,  is  still 
vividly  remembered;  most  residents  have  constructed  cyclone  cellars  in  the 
rear  of  their  homes.  Granite,  of  unusual  hardness  and  distinctive  coloration,  is 
quarried  and  processed  near  by. 

Snyder  is  at  the  junction  with  US  183  (see  Tour  12). 

HEADRICK,  152.3  m.  (1,361  alt.  174  pop.),  is  a  farm  community  which 
remains  a  busy  trading  center  despite  several  unfortunate  fires  and  a  cyclone, 
each  having  almost  destroyed  the  town's  buildings. 

Just  west  of  Headrick  is  an  unusual  rock  formation  (R)  rising  abrupdy 
in  a  near-by  level  field.  The  side  sloping  toward  the  highway  looks  like  a 
gigantic  hand,  the  thumb  and  fingers  seeming  to  grasp  the  lower  end  of  a 
rock  crescent. 

ALTUS,  163.4  m.  (1,389  alt.  8,593  pop.),  an  oil  and  cotton  marketing 
center  and  seat  of  Jackson  County,  was  founded  in  the  spring  of  1891  at  the 
height  of  a  flood.  Near-by  Bitter  Creek  had  overflowed  suddenly  and  inun- 
dated the  surrounding  territory.  Setders  seized  what  household  possessions 
they  could  and  rushed  up  the  slope  of  the  hill  on  which  the  city  now  stands. 
Here  they  established  a  camp  out  of  reach  of  the  waters  and  called  it  Altus, 
since  one  of  their  number  declared  the  name  meant  "higher  ground."  Inured 
to  hardship,  they  lived  in  dugouts  until  lumber  could  be  hauled  over  the 
rutted  wagon  roads  and  "rustled"  wood  for  their  fuel  from  the  Indian  reser- 
vation across  the  North  Fork  of  the  Red  River,  some  fifteen  miles  away. 
Church  services  were  held  in  the  dugouts  or  under  arbors  constructed  of 
brush  and  young  saplings  laboriously  hauled  up  the  creek.  School  children 
assembled  wherever  convenient — once  in  the  livery  stable — and  the  length 
of  the  academic  term  was  governed  by  the  length  of  time  in  which  the  setders 
could  provide  a  teacher  with  board,  room,  and  a  litde  cash. 

In  the  city  square  is  a  concrete  marker  designating  the  spot  where  the 
Community  Pump  once  stood.  Today  (1941)  water  is  supplied  by  the  munic- 
ipally owned  Lake  Altus  waterworks  at  Lugert  (see  Tour  IS)  on  the  North 
Fork  of  the  Red  River. 

Two  hundred  bales  of  cotton  were  ginned  here  in  1897  by  a  sixty-saw 
gin  run  by  a  threshing  machine  engine;  in  1937,  the  number  of  bales  had 
grown  to  110,000  and  the  quantity  is  steadily  increasing.  Jackson  County,  in 
which  Altus  is  located,  is  termed  a  one-variety  cotton  region  where  all  the 
growers  obtain  a  higher  price  by  producing  a  uniform  fiber.  Oil  development 


TOUR  3        273 

of  the  surrounding  vicinity  started  when  a  well  was  drilled  two  miles  north- 
west of  the  town  in  1908.  Since  then  production  has  increased  rapidly,  and 
gas  has  recently  been  found  at  a  depth  of  seventeen  hundred  feet. 

Altus  is  at  the  junction  with  US  283  (see  Tour  13). 

West  of  Altus,  trees  are  fairly  numerous  since  the  route  is  through  the 
valley  formed  by  the  Red  River  and  its  forks.  The  prairie  is  dotted  with 
graceful,  shrub-like  growths  of  mesquite. 

At  175.4  m.  the  highway  crosses  a  steel  and  concrete  bridge  over  a  dry, 
sandy  river  bed.  Westward  the  prairie  is  broken  by  valleys  and  long  curving 
hills;  much  of  this  sandy  land  is  covered  with  short  grass,  and  is  used  for 
pasturage. 

DUKE,  177  m.  (1,417  alt.,  412  pop.),  is  surrounded  by  cotton  fields; 
approximately  7,500  bales  are  ginned  here  annually.  A  silver-domed  water 
tower  overlooks  the  two-block  business  district  through  which  the  highway 
passes. 

The  route  proceeds  through  a  rocky  area,  covered  with  clumps  of  brush 
and  cactus. 

Just  northeast  of  GOULD,  189.3  w.  (1,621  alt.,  391  pop.),  are  the  base 
marks  from  which  the  one  hundredth  meridian  was  located  by  the  United 
States  Geodetic  Survey. 

The  terrain  becomes  more  barren  between  Gould  and  HoUis;  trees  are 
few,  and  wind-swept  tumbleweeds  are  packed  against  the  fences  in  great, 
bushy  walls. 

MOLLIS,  197.6  m.  (1,615  alt.,  2,732  pop.),  is  situated  in  the  extreme 
western  part  of  old  Greer  County  (now  Harmon),  the  Red  River  territory 
which  Texas  claimed  prior  to  a  Supreme  Court  decision  in  1896.  Cattle-raising 
is  the  chief  industry  of  the  area. 

At  202.6  m.  US  62  crosses  the  Texas  Line,  twenty-six  miles  northeast  of 
Childress,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


^0^: ^  ^ :^il/»;: ^  „ ^n^^ , ^0/f: _, ^^/ijr Mi)z ^ , jjOliz ^ ,. jjfl/i: 


Tour  3  a 


Junction  US  62 — Fort  Sill  —  Junction  with  US  62;  6.2  m..  Fort  Sill  Road. 

Roadbed  paved  throughout. 

No  accommodations  in  Fort  Sill;  available  at  near-by  towns. 

A  part  of  the  FORT  SILL  MILITARY  RESERVATION  is  always 
open  to  visitors  except  during  times  of  national  emergency.  (Visitors  must 


274  OKLAHOMA 

not  photograph  armed  units  in  maneuvers;  no  civilian  visitors,  except  personal 
guests  of  officers,  allowed  anywhere  on  reservation  except  at  points  mentioned 
below.) 

The  reservation  proper  covers  51,242  acres,  varying  in  topography  from 
rolling  open  prairie,  marked  by  several  abrupt  hills  on  the  east,  to  the  rugged, 
granite  peaks  of  the  Wichita  Mountains  on  the  west.  This  tract  of  ground, 
set  aside  for  national  military  purposes,  is  shaped  much  like  the  figure  7,  the 
short  arm  pointing  north.  The  area  is  watered  by  Medicine  Bluff  and  Cache 
creeks.  Medicine  Bluff  (R)  is  a  granite  and  porphyry  formation  about  three 
hundred  feet  high.  Indians  once  invested  it  with  supernatural  powers,  often 
leaving  their  sick  on  its  top  either  to  recover  or  die. 

The  Wichita  Indians  were  the  first  people  known  to  have  inhabited  the 
region;  it  has  been  established  that  a  group  of  them  built  a  village  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  near  the  mouth  of  Medicine  Bluff  Creek, 
where  it  enters  into  Cache  Creek.  Some  of  their  grass  houses  stood  where  the 
post  polo  fields  are  today.  Osage  depredations  and  attacks  caused  them  to 
move  to  a  site  on  the  North  Fork  of  the  Red  River  west  of  the  Wichita  Moun- 
tains. It  was  there  that  they  were  found  by  Colonel  Henry  Dodge  and  his 
regiment  of  dragoons  in  1834.  Dodge  and  his  men  had  been  sent  out  from 
Fort  Gibson  (see  Tour  3)  to  establish  friendly  relations  with  the  wild  Plains 
Indians  so  that  Santa  Fe  Trail  travelers  might  be  protected  and  peace  assured 
to  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  following  their  removal  from  the  East.  Treaties 
with  the  United  States  were  signed  the  following  year  as  a  result  of  Dodge's 
friendly  expedition,  on  which  he  made  successful  overtures  to  the  Wichitas 
and  to  a  band  of  Comanches  who  were  then  occupying  the  site  of  the  former 
Wichita  village  on  the  western  half  of  the  present  fort.  The  Colonel  first  saw 
the  Comanche  village  when  he  and  his  company  topped  a  hill,  later  named 
after  him,  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  present  Fort  Sill  area.  The  dragoons 
camped  on  the  east  side  of  Cache  Creek  across  from  the  Comanches,  not  com- 
pletely trusting  their  hosts.  Soon  after  making  camp,  they  were  amazed  to 
see  the  Stars  and  Stripes  raised  over  the  lodge  of  the  Indians'  chief. 

The  only  white  habitation  in  this  region  during  this  period  was  the  trad- 
ing post  established  by  an  agent  of  the  Chouteau  interests  in  1837.  Nothing 
is  known  about  it  except  that  it  was  located  on  the  west  bank  of  Cache  Creek 
a  little  south  of  where  the  present  road  leading  from  Post  Field  joins  US  62. 

Since  the  Dodge  expedition  also  established  peaceful  relations  with  the 
warring  Osages,  the  Wichitas  were  enabled  to  move  back  to  the  site  of  Fort 
Sill.  Here  they  lived  until  1850  when,  because  of  a  malarial  infection,  they 
migrated  east  to  near  the  present  site  of  Rush  Springs  (see  Tour  11).  The 
region  of  Fort  Sill  was  deserted  for  several  years  although,  in  1852,  the  mili- 
tary and  exploratory  expedition  of  Captain  R.  B.  Marcy  arrived  and  camped 
for  a  few  days  where  the  post  now  stands.  Marcy  had  been  told  to  explore  the 
country  north  of  the  Red  River,  and  his  company  accomplished  their  task  in 
a  systematic  manner,  making  a  geological  survey,  classifying  the  natural  life, 
marking  the  meridians,  and  making  a  map.  The  captain  noted  the  desirability 
of  the  Fort  Sill  site  for  use  as  a  military  post,  but  it  was  not  until  1868  that  a 
fort  was  established  there. 


TOUR  3A        275 

General  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  of  Civil  War  fame,  was  assigned  the  task 
of  pacifying  the  Plains  Indians  and  placing  them  on  reservations;  in  1868,  at 
the  start  of  his  campaign,  he  established  his  troops  at  the  site  of  the  burned 
and  abandoned  Fort  Cobb  (see  Tour  3),  some  thirty  miles  to  the  north  of 
present  Fort  Sill.  His  purpose  was  also  to  protect  the  agency  there  and  to  keep 
the  peaceful  Indians  away  from  the  warring  ones  so  that  what  had  been 
gained  toward  final  harmony  might  not  be  lost.  The  lack  of  adequate  food 
and  shelter  in  this  camp  became  so  acute  that  late  in  1868  Sheridan  sent  Colo- 
nel Benjamin  H.  Grierson  on  a  reconnaissance  trip  to  Medicine  Bluff  to  de- 
cide on  a  new  camp  site.  Grierson  had  explored  there  before,  and  now  con- 
firmed his  former  recommendation.  When  Sheridan  arrived  in  January,  1869, 
he  decided  to  erect  a  permanent  fort  at  Camp  Wichita,  as  it  was  then  called. 

At  first  the  troops — the  Tenth  and  Seventh  (Custer's)  Cavalry,  and  the 
Nineteenth  Kansas  Cavalry  (Volunteers),  lived  at  various  places  over  the 
post  area  in  brush-roofed  dugouts.  Headquarters  for  the  Fort  Cobb  Indian 
agency  were  moved  to  Camp  Wichita,  and  many  of  the  roaming  Indians  were 
brought  in  to  live  on  the  reservation.  Sheridan  left  Camp  Wichita  in  Febru- 
ary, eventually  to  rise  to  the  position  of  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  United 
States  Army  in  1884.  Grierson,  the  new  post  commander,  aided  by  the  troops 
left  at  the  fort  after  Sheridan's  departure,  began  construction  of  permanent 
buildings.  Logs  were  cut  from  the  surrounding  stand  of  timber. 

On  August  1,  1869,  the  post  was  officially  named  Fort  Sill  by  General 
Sheridan,  in  memory  of  Brigadier  General  Joshua  W.  Sill,  who  had  been 
Sheridan's  West  Point  classmate  and  a  fellow  officer  during  the  Civil  War. 
By  1870,  the  building  program  was  well  under  way.  Stone  was  found  in 
Quarry  Hill,  southeast  of  the  post,  and  lime  for  mortar  was  prepared  in  rude 
ovens  along  the  banks  of  Cache  Creek.  Most  of  the  work  was  done  by  the 
soldiers,  though  some  artisans  were  imported.  In  early  1871  the  quarters  were 
finished  and  a  lookout  post,  the  Blockhouse  (visible  from  the  highway), 
was  erected  on  Signal  Mountain  in  the  western  section  of  the  reservation. 
The  remaining  construction  work  was  carried  on  intermittently  for  the  next 
five  years. 

The  careers  of  three  Kiowa  warrior  chiefs  —  Satanta,  Satank,  and  Big 
Tree — interlaced  closely  with  the  development  of  Fort  Sill  during  this  time 
and  for  several  years  after.  The  quick-witted  Satanta,  called  the  "Orator  of 
the  Plains,"  first  came  in  contact  with  the  military  when  he  was  arrested  in 
1868  after  the  Battle  of  the  Washita.  He  was  released  by  Sheridan  at  Camp 
Wichita  in  1869  after  promising  to  keep  his  followers  at  peace.  In  1871,  he 
played  a  leading  part  in  the  Jacksboro  wagon-train  massacre  in  Texas,  an 
event  which  brought  swift  reprisal  from  General  W.  T.  Sherman,  who  was 
visiting  Fort  Sill  on  an  inspection  tour  at  the  time.  Satanta,  whose  moral  out- 
look was  that  of  a  statesman  at  war  but  whose  keenness  was  sometimes  ex- 
ceeded by  his  vanity,  boasted  in  connection  with  the  massacre,  "I  did  it.  If  any 
other  Indian  claims  the  honor,  he  will  be  lying;  for  I  did  it  myself,"  thereby 
practically  placing  a  rope  around  his  own  neck. 

Satanta,  Satank,  and  Big  Three  were  arrested  and  placed  in  the  old 
guardhouse  in  which  Geronimo  later  spent  many  days.  The  three  were  loaded 


276  OKLAHOMA 

into  wagons  and  senf  to  Texas  (where  the  massacre  had  occurred)  for  trial; 
Satank  was  killed  along  the  way  as  he  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  escape. 
The  others  were  sentenced  to  hang,  later  given  commutations  to  life  imprison- 
ment, and  were  finally  promised  pardons  at  a  conference  at  Washington, 
D.C.,  on  condition  that  their  people  should  fulfill  certain  peace  agreements. 
Following  parole  in  1873,  after  being  again  lodged  at  the  Fort  Sill  guard- 
house, Satanta  immediately  reverted  to  his  warrior's  role  and  took  part  in 
several  raids.  Finally  he  surrendered  and  was  brought  to  Fort  Sill  in  1875  in 
chains,  to  be  confined  again  in  the  Huntsville,  Texas,  prison,  from  which  he 
had  been  paroled.  When  he  found  that  there  was  no  chance  of  being  set  free, 
he  committed  suicide  by  plunging  head  first  from  his  second-story  cell — the 
fulfillment  of  an  early  and  prophetic  utterance  made  by  him,  "When  I  settle 
down,  I  grow  pale  and  die." 

Indian  outbreaks  continued,  though  usually  on  a  much  smaller  scale 
than  in  the  days  before  Sheridan's  campaign  of  dissuasion.  The  forays  finally 
led  to  a  discontinuance  in  1874  of  the  Quaker  Peace  Policy  (see  Tour  i  j  of 
handling  the  Indians  at  Fort  Sill.  Finally,  by  use  of  sterner  methods  and  under 
military  command,  Indian  resistance  was  virtually  broken  in  1875.  After 
1876,  the  Fort  Sill  garrison  found  it  necessary  in  many  instances  to  protect 
rather  than  fight  the  Indians,  for  swarms  of  unscrupulous  whites  drifted  into 
the  section  to  plunder  the  subdued  foe. 

Agriculture  had  been  introduced  meanwhile  to  the  Indians  camped  at 
Fort  Sill.  The  Wichitas  and  the  Caddoes  needed  little  training  in  farming  for 
they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  raising  much  of  their  foodstuff,  but  the  Kiowas 
and  Comanches  found  it  difficult  to  learn  the  rudiments  of  horticulture, 
though  they  liked  its  products.  Logically  enough,  to  them,  their  method  of 
plunder  seemed  much  more  convenient  than  the  orthodox  routine  of  grow- 
ing. The  agent  once  sent  a  party  of  Comanches  to  the  agency  at  Anadarko  to 
drive  back  eleven  head  of  cattle,  to  be  used  for  rationing  at  Fort  Sill.  On  their 
return,  the  wily  Indians  passed  a  melon  field  and  promptly  traded  five  of  the 
beeves  for  some  of  the  melons.  When  the  agent  took  the  group  to  task,  the 
Comanches,  both  hurt  and  surprised,  explained  that  they  had  only  been  trying 
to  act  in  the  "white  man's  way"  by  paying  a  good  price  for  what  they  wanted 
rather  than  stealing  it.  The  agent  perforce  exonerated  them. 

In  1891,  when  the  last  Indian  disturbance  occurred,  quartermaster  Lieu- 
tenant Hugh  L.  Scott  and  a  faithful  Kiowa  assistant,  I-see-o,  managed  to  keep 
the  Fort  Sill  Indians  from  taking  the  warpath.  This  near-rebellion — the 
Ghost  Dance  or  "Messiah  Craze" — covered  most  of  the  western  part  of  the 
United  States  and  was  in  part  an  outgrowth  of  the  misfortunes  which  had 
befallen  the  Indians.  John  Wilson,  a  Piute  Indian  of  Nevada,  had  fathered 
the  religion  which  involved  a  mystic  conception  of  a  Messiah  who  had  thrown 
over  the  white  people  for  the  red,  and  whose  coming  would  be  synonymous 
with  the  return  of  the  almost-extinct  buffalo.  Many  self-appointed  prophets 
sprang  up  and  acquired  converts  and  tribute  through  a  type  of  spiritual  mes- 
merism. The  Ghost  Dance,  the  main  ceremonial  of  the  faith,  began  with  the 
believers'  forming  a  circle  in  which  they  moved  slowly  while  chanting.  The 
medicine  man  in  the  center  strove  by  exhortation  to  induce  a  hypnotic  trance 


TOUR  3A        277 

in  which  the  dancer  would  fall  in  a  stupor  and  experience  visions  of  the 
Utopia  to  come.  An  Arapaho  named  Sitting  Bull  agitated  the  craze  among 
the  Fort  Sill  Indians.  To  deal  with  a  situation  that  promised  to  develop  into 
an  uprising,  Scott  kept  watch  unobtrusively  through  I-see-o  and  allowed  the 
obsession  to  fall  of  its  own  weight.  Scott  later  appointed  I-see-o  a  sergeant  for 
life,  and  the  respected  old  Indian  was  given  military  burial  with  full  honors 
at  death. 

Fort  Sill  was  a  busy  and  crowded  place  in  1901  when  the  surrounding 
land  was  thrown  open  to  white  occupation.  While  awaiting  the  results  of  the 
drawing  at  El  Reno,  people  converged  from  all  directions  to  camp  at  the 
post.  Finally  in  1909,  after  the  fort  had  been  in  danger  of  abandonment,  work 
was  begun  on  the  construction  of  a  new  post,  northwest  of  the  group  of  old 
buildings.  A  School  of  Fire  for  field  artillery  was  established  here  in  1911 
and  in  1917  the  field  artillery  unit  and  its  equipment  was  increased  tremend- 
ously for  the  duration  of  the  World  War.  A  field  officers'  advance  course  was 
inaugurated  in  1922;  since  then  courses  have  been  given  for  regular  army 
officers,  National  Guard,  Citizens'  Military  Training  Corps,  Reserve  officers, 
and  enlisted  specialists.  In  1930,  the  fort  was  made  a  permanent  location  of 
the  Field  Artillery  School,  whose  maintenance  is  its  main  purpose. 

The  Selective  Service  Act  passed  by  Congress  in  September,  1940,  as  a 
part  of  the  nationwide  defense  program,  gave  renewed  importance  to  Fort 
Sill.  An  extensive  building  program  (estimated  at  $1,500,000)  and  the  addi- 
tion of  some  twenty  thousand  acres  to  the  reservation  is  now  (1941)  being 
carried  out  to  accommodate  the  men  inducted  into  service  for  training. 

The  Fort  Sill  Road  branches  right  (N.W.)  from  its  junction,  0  m.,  with 
US  62  (see  Tour  3),  16.8  miles  south  of  Apache  (see  Tour  3).  The  Polo 
Fields  (L)  are  kept  smoothly  level  with  velvety,  short-cropped  grass.  New 
barracks,  built  hastily  at  the  start  of  the  national  defense  program,  line  both 
sides  of  the  route. 

The  Old  Corral,  0.3  m.,  is  a  loopholed,  stone-walled  structure  (R), 
built  by  Colonel  Grierson  in  1870  to  protect  the  fort  livestock  from  the  Indians. 

The  buildings  in  the  square  comprising  the  Old  Post,  0.6  m.,  are  of 
white  stucco  and  limestone.  The  Old  Chapel,  0.8  m.,  is  a  small  ivy-covered 
structure  (R)  of  native  stone  with  six  windows  and  a  heavy,  iron  bell  with  a 
pull  rope.  Built  in  1870,  the  chapel  has  a  fine  fireplace  and  is  furnished  with 
dark,  wooden  pews;  a  reed  organ  occupies  the  choir  at  the  rear.  It  is  now 
(1941)  used  by  the  Catholics  of  the  post. 

Between  the  Old  Post  and  US  62  is  the  Site  of  the  Prison  in  which 
some  one  hundred  Indians  were  incarcerated  from  December,  1874,  to 
March,  1875.  These  were  the  captives  taken  in  the  last  big  campaign  during 
which  Indian  resistance  was  finally  broken.  The  prisoners  were  mostly  sub- 
chiefs  and  warriors  who  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  battles.  They  were 
moved  from  here  to  the  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  military  prison,  from  which 
they  were  released  in  1878.  Only  the  floor  of  the  old  structure,  later  used  as 
an  icehouse  and  a  blacksmith  shop,  is  still  visible. 

A  white  stone,  two-story  residence  on  the  north  side  of  the  square  has 
been  used  as  the  Post  Commandant's  Quarters  since  the  early  days,  although 


278  OKLAHOMA 

new  quarters  were  built  in  1936.  It  was  here  that  an  attempt  on  the  life  of 
General  W.  T.  Sherman  was  made  by  an  Indian  named  Stumbling  Bird. 

Opposite  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Old  Post  Parade  ground  is  the 
Museum  (open  8-11:30  a.m.,  1-4  p.m.  weekdays,  1-5  p.m.  Sun.),  1  m.,  in  the 
old  guardhouse,  where  Geronimo  was  sometimes  confined  while  at  the  post. 
The  Apache  chief  and  other  prisoners  of  his  band  had  been  sent  here  in  1894 
after  being  quartered  in  Florida  and  Alabama  from  the  time  of  their  capture 
in  1886.  At  Fort  Sill,  Geronimo  was  subject  to  military  control,  but  was  free 
to  roam  at  will  over  the  reservation.  The  old  chief,  who  was  addicted  to  spirits, 
was  of  necessity  often  confined  to  the  guardhouse  in  an  effort  to  sober  him. 
Fort  Sill  inhabitants  of  those  days  grew  familiar  with  the  sight  of  the  notori- 
ously bloodthirsty  Indian  recovering  from  a  hangover  while  splitting  wood 
at  the  rear  of  the  jail.  Geronimo  was  much  in  demand  for  traveling  fairs  and 
shows;  since  he  liked  being  stared  at,  he  obtained  leave  for  this  purpose  as 
much  as  possible.  He  died  of  pneumonia  on  February  17,  1909,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Apache  cemetery  near  Cache  Creek  on  the  post  grounds;  the 
other  Apaches  were  returned  to  Arizona. 

The  museum  was  founded  in  1934  and  contains  a  comprehensive  col- 
lection of  old  carbines,  field  guns,  uniforms,  medals,  flags  of  various  epochs 
and  units,  Indian  weapons,  dresses,  and  peace  pipes. 

The  Administration  Building,  1.2  m.,  a  large  three-story  brown  stucco 
structure  (R)  contains  the  library,  the  lecture  rooms  of  the  Field  Artillery 
School,  and  the  administrative  offices  of  the  post.  North  of  the  Administra- 
tion Building  are  the  Station  Hospital  (visiting  hours,  2-4  p.m.  and  6-8 
p.m.).  Nurses'  Quarters,  Officers'  Quarters,  and  the  Academic  Area 
where  the  brown  stucco  officers'  quarters  line  both  sides  of  a  wide  parked 
driveway. 

At  1.4  fn.  is  a  junction  with  a  side  road. 

Right,  0.1  m.,  to  the  Horseshoe  Ring,  where  in  normal  times  an  annual  horse  show 
is  held  in  the  late  spring  or  early  summer;  animals  from  the  post  and  from  outside  stables 
are  exhibited. 

The  route,  which  follows  the  four  sides  of  the  New  Post  Parade  Ground, 
turns  right  at  1.9  w.  to  parallel  the  east  side. 

Used  by  the  Protestants,  the  New  Chapel,  2  m.,  is  a  narrow,  brown- 
brick  structure  (R)  designed  in  a  pseudo-Gothic  style;  near  by  is  (R)  the 
white  stucco  Liberty  Theater  (civilians  not  admitted),  with  a  tile  roof. 

At  2.2  m.  Fort  Sill  Road  turns  left  to  parallel  the  north  side  of  the  Parade 
Ground,  with  quarters  for  officers  (R).  Near  Medicine  Bluff  Creek,  to  the 
northeast,  is  the  site  on  which  Custer  and  the  Seventh  Cavalry  camped  at  the 
founding  of  the  fort  in  January  and  February,  1869.  Depressions  marking 
the  sites  of  their  brush-roofed  dugouts  are  still  visible. 

Turning  left  again,  2.7  m.,  the  route  passes  along  the  west  side  of  the 
Parade  Ground,  which  is  bordered  (L)  by  the  cream  stucco  barracks  of  a 
Field  Artillery  Regiment,  and  (R)  by  the  gun  sheds  and  garages  of  the 
same  unit.  The  Field  Artillery  is  motorized  and  equipped  with  75  mm.  guns; 
the  other  outfits  use  75  mm.'s  and  155  mm.  howitzers. 

Again  turning  left,  at  2.9  m.,  the  route  (here  called  Randolph  Road)  runs 


TOUR  3A        279 

along  the  south  side  of  the  Parade  Ground.  On  the  left  are  more  field  artillery 
barracks.  This  regiment  is  equipped  with  one  battalion  of  truck-drawn  155 
mm.  howitzers.  Additional  barracks,  the  Post  Exchange  (only  post  personnel 
permitted  to  trade  here),  the  Guardhouse,  Signal  Office,  and  Quarter- 
master's Office  are  R.  Gun  sheds  and  stables  for  field  artillery  units  are 
south  of  these  buildings.  Directly  across  the  road  from  the  Guardhouse  and 
on  the  edge  of  the  Parade  Ground  is  the  Headquarters  Building.  In  front  is 
the  Flagpole,  3.2  m.,  where  the  retreat  ceremony  is  held  daily  (5:15  p.m. 
winter;  5:00  p.m.  summer).  Bugles  sound,  the  retreat  gun  is  fired;  all  present 
stand  at  attention  while  giving  the  hand  salute  as  Old  Glory  is  slowly  lowered. 

Leaving  the  Parade  Ground,  the  route,  again  Fort  Sill  Road,  turns  right 
3.4  m.  and  passes  (L)  a  quarry,  3.7  m.,  from  which  rock  is  taken  for  camp 
construction. 

Between  the  quarry  and  Post  Field  is  the  former  summer-camp  site  of 
the  Oklahoma  National  Guard  (R).  The  area  (approximately  a  square  mile) 
is  now  (1941)  occupied  by  units  quartered  here  in  connection  with  the  na- 
tional defense  program.  An  enormous  number  of  barracks  and  tents  stretch 
row  on  row. 

Fort  Sill  Road  turns  left,  4.8  m.,  and  passes  through  Post  Field,  5.2  m., 
the  aviation  field  established  in  1917.  It  was  named  for  Sergeant  Henry  B. 
Post,  Twenty-fifth  Infantry,  who  was  killed  in  1914  while  attempting  to  set 
an  altitude  record  at  San  Diego,  California.  An  observation  "blimp"  usually 
sways  some  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  feet  above  the  field;  from  it  officers 
observe  artillery  fire.  Buff  stucco  hangars  and  barracks  are  on  both  sides  of 
the  road  throughout  Post  Field. 

At  6.2  m.  is  the  South  Gate  of  the  Fort  Sill  reservation  and  the  junction 
with  US  62  (see  Tour  3). 


^^ifj. ^ , jjl^i ^ , ^^M , ^^fij, ^, ^^/tji ^ ^f\iiz ^f^fiji ^^n" 


Tour  3  b 


Junction  US  62 — Medicine  Park — Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife  Refuge — 
Indiahoma;  State  49,  Meers  Highway,  Scenic  Highway;  31.8  m. 

State  49  asphalt-paved;  Scenic  Meers  Highway  graveled. 

Good  resort  accommodations  at  Medicine  Park;  tourist  camps  at  East  and  South  gates  of 

Refuge;  camping  and  picnicking  facilities  within  Refuge. 

This  tour  passes  through  the  resort  and  national  forest  areas  of  the  Wich- 
ita Mountains,  a  region  closely  packed  with  low  but  rugged  mountains,  clear 
streams,  and  small,  oddly-shaped  lakes  that  are  easily  reached. 


280  OKLAHOMA 

State  49,  a  paved  highway,  branches  west  (R),  0  m.,  from  its  junction 
with  US  62  (see  Tour  3)  at  a  point  13.4  miles  south  of  Apache  (see  Tour  3). 

At  the  beginning  of  the  mountainous  area  is  MEDICINE  PARK,  6.6  m. 
( 1,765  alt.,  25  pop.),  a  popular  summer  resort.  LAKE  LAWTONKA  (fishing, 
swimming,  boating),  extending  from  the  northern  edge  of  town,  covers  ap- 
proximately fourteen  hundred  acres.  A  dam,  60  feet  high  and  375  feet  long, 
was  constructed  across  Medicine  Bluff  Creek  at  the  mouth  of  a  steep  gorge  to 
form  this  reservoir  for  the  city  of  Lawton  and  the  Fort  Sill  Military  Reserva- 
tion (see  Tour  3 A). 

West  of  Medicine  Park,  the  route  crosses  a  wagon  bridge  and  passes 
through  the  East  Gate,  7.4  m.,  of  the  WICHITA  MOUNTAINS  WILD- 
LIFE REFUGE  (adm.  free;  no  guides  necessary),  an  area  comprising  61,480 
acres.  This  range  of  mountains,  extending  northwest  and  lying  completely 
within  Comanche  County,  is  sixty  miles  in  length  and  twenty  to  thirty  miles 
wide.  The  rounded  summits  of  the  granite  peaks  average  650  to  700  feet  in 
height.  According  to  geologists,  these  mountains  are  among  the  oldest  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  crumbling  rocks  and  general  disintegration  of  the 
strange  formations  bear  out  this  theory  to  the  layman's  eye.  Interveining  of 
quartz  with  the  prevailing  granite  results  in  shadings  from  purple  to  red. 
The  water  has  an  alkaline  substance,  yet  is  clear  and  limpid.  Scrubby  white 
oak  predominates,  but  the  valleys  have  many  leafier  trees,  such  as  ash,  cotton- 
wood,  and  willow. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  only  inhabitants  of  this 
area  were  Indians.  The  onetime  presence  here  of  a  tribe  of  Wichita  Indians 
has  been  substantiated,  and  remains  of  other  tribal  lodges  have  been  found. 
In  the  extreme  northwestern  section  of  the  Refuge  is  Cutthroat  Gap,  scene 
of  the  hideous  massacre  of  a  band  of  Kiowas  by  Osages  in  1833.  The  Kiowa 
camp  was  occupied  on  this  tragic  day  only  by  the  young  and  old,  for  the 
warriors  were  all  away  hunting.  The  Osages  struck  suddenly,  first  slitting 
the  throats  of  their  victims,  then  cutting  off  their  heads,  which  they  placed 
in  the  convenient  buckets  of  the  Kiowas  as  an  offering  to  their  gods.  One  of 
these  buckets,  found  standing  in  the  ruins  of  the  village  after  the  disaster,  is 
in  the  Fort  Sill  Museum  (see  Tour  3 A). 

When  this  section  of  Indian  land  was  opened  for  white  settlement  in 
1901,  Congress  set  aside  the  Wichita  Mountains  as  a  forest  reserve  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  When  it  was  transferred  to 
the  Forest  Service  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  1905,  along  with  all 
national  reserves,  it  was  designated  a  game  preserve  by  proclamation  of 
President  Theodore  Roosevelt.  After  several  changes  of  name  and  jurisdic- 
tion, the  area  was  given  its  present  name,  the  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife 
Refuge  in  1935.  Five  years  later  it  was  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Fish  and  Wildlife  Service  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

The  alarmingly  rapid  disappearance  of  the  buffalo  was  responsible  for 
the  Roosevelt  proclamation  of  1905.  A  herd  of  fifteen  buffaloes  was  donated 
to  the  government  by  the  New  York  Zoological  Society,  which  had  been  mak- 
ing a  determined  effort  to  perpetuate  the  breed,  and  Congress  appropriated 
$15,000  to  fence  eight  thousand  acres  in  the  Wichitas  as  a  pasture  for  the 


TOUR  3B        281 

animals.  By  1940  the  original  fifteen  buffaloes  had  grown  in  number  to  439, 
including  a  record  crop  of  111  calves  in  1939.  One  of  the  original  herd,  weigh- 
ing 2,800  pounds,  was  the  largest  of  the  breed  ever  recorded.  Since  the  acre- 
age of  the  pasture  limits  the  size  of  the  herd,  some  have  been  given  away; 
among  the  recipients  were  the  governments  of  Mexico  and  Uruguay.  Mes- 
quite,  bufifalo,  and  bluestem  grass  furnish  grazing  in  the  area  set  aside  for 
the  bison,  and  the  surrounding  rock-capped  hills  and  red  granite  cliffs  afford 
shelter. 

Other  wild  life  being  conserved  in  the  Refuge  are  elk,  white-tailed  deer, 
Texas  longhorns,  wild  turkeys,  and  birds;  the  elk  numbered  200  in  1939;  the 
deer,  750;  the  longhorns,  123;  the  turkeys,  400;  and  there  were  about  62  dif- 
ferent species  of  birds.  The  first  elk  was  placed  here  in  1911  and  the  turkey 
brood  was  started  in  1912.  The  longhorn  catde  are  descendants  of  domesti- 
cated animals  brought  to  this  continent  by  the  Spanish  in  1521.  By  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War,  Texas  was  overrun  with  this  type  of  cattle  that  had  been 
allowed  to  run  wild.  With  settlement  of  the  range  and  consequent  increase 
in  value  of  land,  the  longhorns  had  to  give  way  to  improved  breeds  and  were 
rapidly  becoming  extinct.  Upon  the  government's  initiative,  a  few  were  found 
along  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Gulf  Coast  and  brought  to  the  Wichita  Refuge 
in  1927,  where  they  have  since  increased  to  their  present  number.  An  attempt 
was  also  made  to  establish  the  antelope  here,  since  this  is  its  natural  habitat, 
but  the  only  ones  available  were  from  conservation  herds  at  Yellowstone 
National  Park  and  in  Canada.  They  had  become  acclimated  to  those  locations, 
and  the  sudden  change  to  the  variable  Oklahoma  weather  proved  fatal  to 
most  of  them. 

Some  twelve  hundred  head  of  privately  owned  livestock  graze  on  sections 
of  the  Wichita  Refuge  not  needed  for  the  conservation  herds;  this  privilege 
is  granted  by  government  permits. 

Oak  trees — white,  blackjack,  and  post  oak — comprise  most  of  the  natu- 
ral stand  of  timber  in  this  area,  but  tree  plantings  of  various  other  varieties 
have  been  made  under  government  auspices.  In  1913,  juniper,  bois  d'arc 
(osage  orange),  black  and  honey  locust,  black  walnut,  and  mulberry  trees 
were  set  out  on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  mountains.  These  plantings  have 
grown  to  such  an  extent  that  they  play  a  large  part  in  making  the  Refuge  an 
attractive  haven  for  birds.  Those  most  commonly  seen  are  the  cardinal,  differ- 
ent types  of  wrens,  titmouse,  chickadee,  and  bluebird.  Thirty-three  varieties 
of  wild  flowers  grow  here;  among  them  are  the  colorful  yellow  coreopsis, 
calliopsis,  and  black-eyed  Susan,  mingling  with  the  purple-shaded  larkspur, 
and  verbena. 

State  49  passes  through  the  tree-shaded  Mount  Scott  Campgrounds  (fire 
grates  and  water),  8.4  m.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  south  of  the  camp  ground  is 
LAKE  THOMAS  (free  swimming),  an  artificial  lake  named  for  Elmer 
Thomas,  who  has  represented  Oklahoma  for  fourteen  years  in  the  United 
States  Senate  (1941).  Senator  Thomas  was  formerly  the  owner  of  the  land 
on  which  Medicine  Park  stands  and  still  maintains  his  home  here.  A  broad 
driveway  leading  across  the  top  of  the  dam  offers  an  excellent  view  of  the  lake. 

At  9.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  the  graveled  Mount  Scott  Scenic  Road. 


282  OKLAHOMA 

Right  on  this  winding,  looping  road,  3  m.,  to  the  summit  of  MOUNT  SCOTT  (2,400 
alt.  1,000  ft.  above  the  base),  named  for  General  Winficld  Scott,  of  Mexican  War  fame. 
Scott  also  conducted  a  part  of  the  removal  of  the  Cherokee  Indians  from  the  East  to  their 
new  home  in  what  is  now  Oklahoma.  Construction  of  the  scenic  highway,  completed  in 
1935,  necessitated  blasting  through  granite  walls  twenty  to  sixty  feet  high.  From  LOOK- 
OUT POINT  on  the  top  there  is  a  wide  view  of  the  surrounding  country.  A  foot  trail  winds 
over  the  summit. 

The  Indians  say  that  the  Great  Spirit  appeared  on  Mount  Scott  after  a  devastating 
flood;  here  He  called  all  Indians  to  Him  and  provided  them  with  the  means  to  survive. 
Other  legends  tell  of  the  gold  which  Spaniards  supposedly  mined  here  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  An  old  trail,  connecting  the  Spanish  possessions  east  of  the  Mississippi  with  their 
Southwest  holdings,  is  said  to  have  skirted  the  base  of  this  mountain.  Rusty  knives,  pieces  of 
armor,  and  other  relics  have  been  found  here,  giving  some  credence  to  the  tale. 

At  12.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  Meers  Highway  (graveled). 

Right  here  to  MOUNT  ROOSEVELT  (1,800  alt),  1.1  m.,  named  for  President 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  On  the  south  flank  of  the  mountain  is  the  Easter  Holy  City  (see  below). 

A  quarry,  at  the  base  of  MOUNT  SHERIDAN  (2,000  alt.),  1.6  m.,  produces  and 
ships  a  carload  of  blue-granite  slabs  each  week.  On  the  mountain's  northeastern  slope,  a 
knob-shaped  peak  of  solid  granite  juts  out  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  feet  from  a  perpen- 
dicular wall  of  rock. 

At  1.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  here  to  CEDAR  PLANTATION,  0.2  m.,  a  seventeen-acre  government  nursery 
from  which  young  fifteen-foot  cedar  trees  are  transplanted  each  year  to  other  parts  of  the 
Refuge.  After  the  seasonal  thinning,  there  are  usually  approximately  fifteen  thousand  trees 
left  in  the  plantation. 

At  2  ni.  is  the  North  Gate  to  the  Refuge. 

Left  on  Meers  Highway,  now  the  main  route,  to  the  junction  with  Rush 
Lake  Trail,  a  graveled  road,  12.3  m. 

Right  on  the  Trail  to  the  Easter  Holy  City,  0.8  m.,  site  of  the  annual  Easter  Pageant 
and  Passion  Play  (3:30  a.m.  to  dawn;  free  adm.) ,  presented  by  the  citizens  of  Lawton.  On 
the  slope  of  the  small  hill  is  a  natural  amphitheater  which  seats  an  audience  of  approximately 
150,000.  Buildings  of  red  sandstone,  constructed  by  WPA  workers  on  the  flank  of  the 
opposite  hill,  are  used  as  dressing  rooms  by  the  two  thousand  persons  who  participate  in 
the  pageant.  The  six-hour  program  is  broadcast  over  a  national  radio  chain.  The  Garden  of 
Gethsemane,  the  Tomb,  and  the  Court  of  Pilate  have  all  been  reproduced  out  of  natural 
rock  as  the  setting  and  are  an  effective  background  for  the  floodlighted  performance. 

At  2.1  m.  are  LAKE  RUSH  (fishing)  and  Blue  Beaver  Dam. 

At  12.5  m.  on  Meers  Highway  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  here  is  LAKE  JED  JOHNSON  (picniclyiiig;  no  camping),  0.2  m.,  one  of  the 
many  artificial  lakes  which  have  been  created  in  the  Refuge. 

The  route  leaves  the  Refuge,  13.6  m.,  and  re-enters  it  at  14.9  m. 
At  15.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  INDIAN  HILL  LAKE  (locally  known  as  Crater  Lake),  0.5  m. 
On  a  rock  butte,  which  projects  from  a  near-by  hill  into  the  water,  are  traces  of  rock  fortifi- 
cations said  to  have  been  erected  by  Indian  war  parties. 

At  15.7  m.  is  the  "Y"  junction  with  the  Scenic  Highway. 

Left  on  the  Scenic  Highway  to  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road,  1.7  m. 
Left  here  to  the  Pecan  Springs  Campground  and  Wading  Pool,  0.2  m.,  a  shallow 
pool  affording  safe  swimming  and  wading  for  children. 


tj^fl/to  ^HA"  __  _,»t.ftrf»  „— SSl'lU-^,— iS0^2_^  , sjOfJj _  ;t(l/1; j^l)/)-* 


Along  the  Highway 


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MONUMENT  TO  GEN.  STAND  WATIE         HIGHEST  POINT  IN  OKLAHOMA,  4,778  FEET 
THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL,  AS  SEEN  FROM  U  S  HIGHWAY  64 


WHITE    :    WPA 


Dl\  ISION    01-    STATE    PAKK^ 


BEAVERS  BEND  STATE  PARK,  NEAR  BROKEN  BOW 


BUFFALO  IN  WICHITA  MOUNTAINS  WILDLIFE  REFUGE 

NEW  YORK  ZOOLOGICAL  PARK 


^K'i^. 


^t-r  M-. 


DIVISION  OF  STATE  PARKS 

ON  THE  WAY  TO  BEAVERS  BEND  STATE  PARK 


SCENE  ON  MOUNTAIN  FORK 


DIVISION  OF  STATE   PARKS 


'.    >• 


H.  A.  GOTTHOI 


OIL  AND  WHEAT,  NEAR  EDMOND 


STATE  FISH  HATCHERY,  NEAR  DURANT 

'-TAI  E   GAME  AND   FISH  DEPARTMENT 


'■'^i^ 


^^ 


LEE   F-RHARD     :    TULSA  WORLD 

will  rogers  memorial,  claremore 

Custer's  battlefield,  two  miles  west  of  cheyenne 

WHITE     :    WPA 


z.-*^ 


ZINC  MINE  AT  PICHER 


ROTHSTEIN     :    RESETTLEMENT    ADMINISTRATI' 


GYPSUM  PLANT,  NEAR  SOUTHARD 

WHITE    :    WPA 


COAL  MINE  AT  HENRYETTA 


GRAND  RIVER  DAM,  LOOKING  NORTH 


OKLAHOMA  PLBLISHING  COMPANY 


DIVISION   OF    STATE   PAIK 

TUCKER  TOWER,  LAKE  MURRAY 

QUARTZ  MOUNTAIN  STATE  PARK,  NEAR  MANGUM 


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^^^^ 


TOUR  3B        283 

The  route  passes  through  the  South  Gate  of  the  Refuge,  1.9  m.,  and  proceeds  to 
CACHE,  5.4  m.  (1,260  alt.,  620  pop.)  (see  Tour  3A),  at  the  junction  with  US  62  (see 
Tour  3). 

Right  from  the  "Y"  junction  on  Scenic  Highway,  now  the  main  route, 
to  a  junction  with  a  graveled  road,  16.1  m. 

Left  here  to  the  Quanah  Parker  Dam  and  Lake,  0.8  m.,  named  in  honor  of  the  last 
chief,  whose  home  and  grave  are  not  far  from  here  (see  Tour  3).  The  dam,  the  largest  in 
the  Refuge,  is  semicircular,  with  a  siphon  spillway,  and  measures  seventy  feet  from  summit 
to  base.  Steps  at  each  end  enable  visitors  to  walk  across  the  top;  below  the  spillway  is  a 
small  auxiliary  dam.  The  lake  covers  eighty-six  acres. 

At  16.6  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  the  Seminole  Beach 
Trail. 

Left  on  this  trail  to  the  Quanah  Parker  Campgrounds,  also  named  for  the  Comanche 
chief,  and  Seminole  Beach,  0.3  m.  All  work  on  the  extensive  beach,  the  one-hundrcd-foot 
diving  pier,  and  the  surrounding  native-stone  buildings  was  done  by  the  CCC.  Some  of  the 
large,  flat  slabs  of  red  granite  used  in  the  construction  of  the  buildings  are  ten  feet  in 
height;  the  tawny  red  of  the  igneous  rock  is  colorfully  highlighted  by  the  velvety  green  of 
clinging  moss  and  lichens.  The  main  structure,  the  Community  House,  has  an  arched 
ceiling  of  white  pine,  scorched  to  reveal  the  beauty  of  the  grain;  the  walls  are  finished  with 
rough  plaster,  and  the  huge  fireplace  carries  out  the  prevailing  theme  of  granite.  The  fifteen- 
foot  mantel  is  inlaid  with  an  Indian  pictograph  of  arrowheads  and  pines.  The  near-by 
bathhouses  are  square  stone  structures  built  in  Spanish  style;  their  dressing  rooms  (no 
charge)  open  into  a  patio. 

A  footbridge  spans  the  western  arm  of  Quanah  Parker  Lake  here,  and  a  foot  trail 
leads  one  mile  west  over  Mount  Baldy  to  LAKE  OSAGE.  On  the  eastern  shore  a  large 
mound  of  rock  rises  almost  perpendicularly  from  the  water  to  form  a  jagged  peninsula. 

At  19.3  m.  on  Scenic  Highway  is  the  junction  with  the  Lost  Lake- 
Boulder  Campgrounds  Trail. 

Left  here  to  LOST  LAKE,  1.1  m.,  which  legends  say  was  at  one  time  the  site  of  a 
natural  lake.  Once,  after  an  absence  of  three  years,  Indian  hunters  returned  to  find  that  the 
body  of  water  had  completely  dried — hence,  its  name.  Lawton  citizens  subscribed  funds  for 
the  creation  of  the  present  artificial  lake  and  campgrounds  and  dedicated  the  recreational 
improvements  to  the  National  Forest  Service  on  May  31,  1926.  Upstream  there  is  a  chain 
of  fish  culture  dams. 

At  2.  tn.  is  a  junction  with  a  foot  trail. 

Left  here  over  a  cement  bridge  and  up  a  steep  hill  to  Boulder  Canyon  View,  0.3  m. 
This  point  provides  a  thrilling  view  of  the  Narrows,  the  sheer  one-hundred-foot  granite 
walls  which  imprison  West  Cache  Creek  just  before  it  breaks  through  into  the  plains.  Red- 
tailed  hawks  build  their  nests  high  on  the  steep  cliffs,  and  in  the  morning  and  evening 
skim  up  and  down  the  canyon  in  their  search  for  food.  The  rugged,  massive  walls,  reflect- 
ing the  ever-changing  colors  caused  by  the  play  of  light  and  shadow  on  the  stream  below, 
make  the  canyon  a  miniature  Garden  of  the  Gods. 

Camp  Boulder  (tables,  benches,  fire  grates) ,  2.5  m.,  is  the  scene  of  an  annual  course 
in  nature  study  given  by  the  Wild  Life  Institute,  sponsored  by  the  University  of  Oklahoma 
and  other  organizations  interested  in  biological  research. 

In  Pr.\irie  Dog  Town,  20.5  m.,  where  some  four  thousand  prairie  dogs 
have  dug  their  dens,  the  little  brown  animals — about  the  size  of  small  pup- 
pies— whisk,  in  and  out  of  their  holes  so  rapidly  that  they  defy  observation. 
They  usually  emerge  at  dusk  or  early  in  the  morning  to  seek  food,  but  dodge 


284  OKLAHOMA 

back  into  their  holes  at  the  slightest  sound.  They  are  strictly  vegetarians,  and 
because  of  their  proclivity  for  burrowing  and  the  consequent  destruction  of 
crops,  farmers  regard  them  as  nuisances. 

Westward,  the  Exhibition  Pastures  (L)  cover  a  large  area  of  gently 
rolling  prairie  land  surrounded  by  high,  round-topped  hills  and  red  granite 
cliffs  and  ridges.  Small  groups  of  elk,  bison,  deer,  and  Texas  longhorns  are 
pastured  here  so  that  visitors  may  watch  them  graze.  The  majority  of  the 
animals  making  up  the  vast  Refuge  herds  roam  far  from  the  traveled  roads, 
but  magnificent  specimens  may  be  seen  here.  The  pastures,  extending  along 
the  route  for  about  a  mile,  are  covered  with  an  abundant  growth  of  mesquite, 
bufifalo  grass,  and  bluestem,  and  groves  of  blackjack  and  post  oaks  grow  at 
the  bases  of  the  hills  and  cliffs.  Visitors  are  forbidden  to  enter  the  exhibition 
pens,  and  any  molestation  of  the  animals  is  rated  a  Federal  offense. 

At  21.4  m.  is  a  "Y"  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Straight  ahead  on  this  road  to  Refuge  Headquarters  (maps  and  descriptive  pam- 
phlets), 0.2  m.,  which  comprises  the  main  office,  the  superintendent's  home,  and  the  resi- 
dences of  the  other  Refuge  workers.  In  the  main  office  (open  to  visitors)  is  a  Collection 
OF  Wildlife  Specimens:  heads  of  deer,  elk,  antelope,  longhorn  steers,  water  buffalo,  and 
coyote.  There  are  also  mounted  squirrels  and  birds;  the  skins  of  three  enormous  rattle- 
snakes with  more  than  thirty  rattles  apiece;  and  a  section  of  a  petrified  tree.  Wild  turkeys 
wander  about  in  the  yards  of  the  buildings  here;  squirrels  dart  through  the  trees  and  even 
hang  to  the  window  screens;  glistening,  black,  fat  crows  stalk  about  unafraid;  and  the 
deer  come  in  herds  at  dawn  to  be  fed  personally  by  the  superintendent. 

At  1.6  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  FRENCH'S  LAKE,  0.4  m.,  named  for  a  former  superintendent  of 
the  Refuge.  There  is  a  large  spiral  fish  ladder  at  the  dam,  and  downstream  from  the  lake 
proper  is  a  long  line  of  fish  culture  ponds  extending  as  far  as  Lost  Lake.  A  hiking  trail, 
beginning  on  the  left  side  of  French's  Lake,  follows  the  stream  to  that  point. 

Coundess  bats  live  in  BAT  CAVE  MOUNTAIN,  3.1  m.  The  mouth  of  the  cave  is 
about  thirty  feet  above  the  base  of  the  small  red  granite,  moss-covered  mountain  (R). 

The  main  route  turns  sharply  left  (south)  to  the  junction  with  graveled 
Treasure  Mountain  Road,  24.1  m. 

Right  here,  0.2  m.,  to  TREASURE  MOUNTAIN,  where  scores  of  hunters  have  dug 
for  gold  said  to  have  been  cached  here  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  Spaniards.  At  the 
mountain  is  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  across  Post  Oak  Creek  to  Treasure  Tree,  0.2  m.,  estimated  to  be  more  than 
five  hundred  years  old.  Only  a  few  limbs  remain,  for  the  seekers  of  the  legendary  gold 
have  hacked  at  the  tree  in  addition  to  digging  many  gaping  holes  at  its  base.  Near  the  tree 
is  an  Old  Cabin,  which  probably  originally  served  as  headquarters  for  bandits  or  rusdcrs. 
But  the  wretched  hovel  is  believed  by  each  new  treasure-seeker  to  have  been  a  hiding  place 
for  Spanish  gold;  the  floor  boards  have  been  ripped  up  and  scattered  about. 

At  0.3  m.  on  the  Treasure  Mountain  Road  is  a  cement  culvert  spanning  a  dry  creek 
bed;  L.  here  to  the  SPANISH  CAVE,  0.5  m.,  which  opens  from  the  side  of  a  canyon  wall. 
Inside,  the  walls  are  of  yellow  stone,  spotted  with  a  clinging  olive-hued  moss.  The  floor, 
stained  by  countless  campfires,  is  a  solid  ledge  of  red  granite  flecked  with  a  blue  substance. 
Forming  the  other  side  of  the  canyon  opposite  the  entrance  of  the  Spanish  Cave  is  a  huge, 
round  rock,  balanced  high  on  a  pile  of  jagged  boulders.  The  canyon  abrupdy  terminates 
in  a  curious  formation  resembling  a  gigantic  chair. 

The  Post  Oak  Campgrounds  (tables,  benches,  fire  grates),  1.4  m.,  lie  on  one  side  of 
POST  OAK  LAKE  (swimming  permitted,  but  no  facilities).  A  rugged  mountain  rises 
above  the  deep  lake  on  the  opposite  shore;  a  siphon  spillway  dam  holds  the  twenty  to  fort>' 
foot  depth  of  water. 


TOUR  3B        285 

TREASURE  LAKE  (diving  board  and  wire  depth  line;  no  other  facilities),  2  m., 
shares  in  the  tradition  of  Treasure  Mountain  and  Treasure  Tree;  fanatical  diggers,  with 
so-called  ancient  treasure  maps  as  standard  equipment,  are  not  unusual  in  this  vicinity.  One 
legend  of  buried  gold  arose  from  a  story  told  by  Indians  some  years  ago  about  a  band  of 
Comanches  who  had  robbed  an  army  paymaster  and  buried  the  stolen  money  near  the  lake. 
Racketeers  immediately  made  and  sold  more  than  250  maps,  each  one  of  which  was  the 
"original  map."  According  to  another  tale,  a  "Catholic  pope  was  killed  in  Mexico  and 
buried  near  the  lake;  in  the  grave  was  also  buried  a  golden  calf,  weighing  100  pounds." 
Rangers  are  on  the  lookout  at  all  times  to  enlighten  the  credulous  treasure-seeker,  appearing 
with  a  shovel  on  his  shoulder,  a  wild  gleam  in  his  eye,  and  the  quest  of  a  buried  fortune  in 
mind. 

The  main  route  passes  out  of  the  Refuge  at  the  Southwest  Gate,  24.6  m., 
and  proceeds  southward  to  INDIAHOMA,  31.8  m.  (1,335  alt.,  337  pop.) 
(see  Tour  3),  at  the  junction  with  US  62  (see  Tour  3). 


^(i/ljl ^ , ^d/lj, ^  , j5il)/»2 ^ j5>0/»2 ^, ^f^lj. ^  , ^^"J. .  - ^^IZ .  - ^^1J- 


Tour  4 


(Seneca,  Mo.) — Bartlesville — Ponca  City — Enid — (Canadian,  Tex,);  US  60, 
Missouri  Line  to  Texas  Line,  360.1  m. 

Alternately  concrete  and  asphalt  paved  and  graveled  roadbed  between  Missouri  Line  and 
Fairview;  graveled  and  graded  earth  between  Fairview  and  Texas  Line. 
The  Frisco  Ry.  roughly  parallels  US  60  between  Seneca,  Mo.,  and  Vinita;  the  Katy  between 
Bartlesville  and  Pawhuska;  the  Rock  Island  between  Ponca  City  and  Tonkawa;  and  be- 
tween Pond  Creek  and  Meno;  and  the  Santa  Fe  between  Cleo  Springs  and  Fairview. 
Good  accommodations  between  Missouri  Line  and  Enid;  at  longer  intervals  between  Enid 
and  Texas  Line. 

Crossing  from  Missouri,  US  60  continues  for  a  short  distance  among  the 
rocky,  wooded  ridges  and  narrow  valleys  of  the  northwestern  slopes  of  the 
Ozark  range,  a  region  where  in  mid-April  dogwood  blossoms  make  vivid 
white  splashes  against  the  dark  leafless  oaks.  It  then  passes  through  a  section 
of  alternate  forest  and  grassland,  where  the  remnants  of  a  number  of  small 
Indian  tribes  live.  The  route  crosses  Grand  River,  then  traverses  open  country 
fairly  evenly  divided  between  farms  and  pastures. 

Westward  is  the  northern  portion  of  the  former  Cherokee  Nation,  near 
the  western  edge  of  which  scattered  wells  of  the  first  extensive  shallow  oil 
fields  developed  in  Oklahoma  are  still  (1941)  producing. 

Next  the  route  bisects  the  Osage  Indian  reservation,  an  area  of  blackjack 
oak  woods  and  rich  upland  pastures  where  gusher  oil  wells  and  fine  Hereford 
cattle  have  brought  wealth  to  these  lucky  Indians  and  to  the  white  ranchmen 
who  lease  their  grazing  land. 


286  OKLAHOMA 

Beyond  the  country  of  the  Osages  the  route  touches  the  lands  of  the 
Ponca  and  Tonkawa  Indians.  It  crosses  the  richest  wheat-growing  region  of 
the  state  east  and  west  of  Enid,  then  a  part  of  the  arid,  dust-blowing  high 
plains  broken  by  gypsum-crusted  formations  that  suggest,  on  a  giant  scale, 
five-and-ten-cent-store  decorations.  Near  the  Texas  Line,  the  desert  motif  is 
emphasized  by  the  appearance  of  the  graceful,  drought-resistant  yucca  plants. 

Section  a.  MISSOURI  LINE  to  BARTLESVILLE,  89.7  m.  US  60 

US  60  crosses  the  MISSOURI  LINE,  0  w.,  at  a  point  0.8  miles  west  of 
Seneca,  Missouri  (see  Missouri  Guide)  and  winds  for  a  few  miles  through  the 
Oklahoma  Ozarks.  Numerous  streams  have  cut  narrow,  V-shaped  valleys 
in  the  plateau,  forming  broad,  flat-topped  hills  from  six  hundred  to  thirteen 
hundred  feet  high.  Post  oak,  hickory,  Cottonwood,  and  walnut  are  abundant 
in  both  hills  and  valleys  and,  in  the  spring,  the  bright  redbud  and  the  white, 
wild  plum  blossoms  splash  young  blue-green  prairie  grass  with  color. 

WYANDOTTE,  7.5  m.  (754  alt.,  348  pop.),  was  named  for  the  Wyan- 
dotte Indians,  whose  reservation  included  this  area  after  the  land  was  ceded 
to  the  United  States  by  the  Senecas  in  1867.  Today  (1941),  Indians  make  up 
the  greater  part  of  the  population  of  the  village  and  the  vicinity.  The  heavily 
wooded  country  is  unsuitcd  to  agriculture  except  along  the  creek  bottoms; 
most  of  Wyandotte's  activities  are  dependent  on  the  near-by  Seneca  Indian 
School. 

Right  from  Wyandotte  on  a  graveled  road  to  the  Semeca  Indian  School,  0.5  m. 
(visitors  welcome),  founded  by  the  Quakers.  The  first  building,  a  log  cabin  north  of  the 
present  site,  was  erected  in  1869;  now  a  dozen  brick  and  frame  structures  comprise  the 
plant,  occupying  a  high  bluff  overlooking  Lost  Creek.  The  institution,  which  is  under  gov- 
ernment supervision,  is  open  to  members  of  all  the  northeastern  Oklahoma  tribes  coming 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Quapaw  Agency,  and  has  an  annual  enrollment  of  275.  The 
school  museum  contains  a  collection  of  Indian  relics. 

The  town  of  FAIRLAND,  15.6  m.  (828  alt.,  781  pop.),  was  originally 
about  two  and  one-half  miles  east  of  the  present  site  and  was  called  Prairie 
City.  The  first  settlement  moved  to  the  present  spot  and  changed  its  name 
to  Fairland  when  the  postmastership  was  obtained  by  an  early-day  store- 
keeper on  this  location. 

Fairland  is  in  the  center  of  a  cattle-raising  section,  which  also  produces 
hay  and  grain.  The  large  consolidated  school,  municipally  owned  water  sys- 
tem, and  modern  business  section  will  aid  in  making  the  town,  which  is 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  newly  created  (1941)  Grand  Lake,  a  resort  center. 

Northwest  of  here  are  large  deposits  of  tripoli — a  rock  which  is  ground 
into  a  flour  used  as  an  abrasive  and  a  polisher  in  metal-working  trades,  for 
foundry  facing,  and  as  a  filter.  Most  of  the  refining  of  the  raw  mineral  is 
done  at  mills  located  at  Seneca,  Missouri. 

At  19.7  m.,  the  route  unites  southwestward  with  US  66-69  (see  Tours  1 
and  8)  for  twenty-five  miles. 

At  22.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  59  (sec  Tour  15). 

AFTON,  23.9  m.  (790  alt.,  1,261  pop.)  (sec  Tour  1). 


TOUR  4        287 

VINITA,  39.5  m.  (702  alt.,  5,685  pop.)  (see  Tour  1). 

At  43.5  m.  is  the  western  junction  with  US  69;  at  44.5  that  with  US  66. 

At  66.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  a  Delaware  Church,  3.2  tn.,  built  in  1871  by  Rev.  Charles 
Journeycake,  the  last  chief  of  the  Delaware  Indians.  South  of  the  church  is  a  monument  to 
the  old  chief. 

Near  the  bridge  across  the  Verdigris  River  at  GOODY'S  BLUFF,  62.5 
m.  (648  alt.,  64  pop.),  is  a  log  cabin  that  has  been  standing  since  pioneer 
days.  The  town  was  named  for  a  Cherokee  Indian  family. 

An  unusual  method  of  oil  extraction  has  been  used  in  this  area  since 
1937 — the  use  of  water  pressure  in  order  to  produce  enough  oil  from  stripper 
wells  to  warrant  their  being  operated.  Water  is  forced  down  a  well  drilled 
to  the  same  depth  as  several  surrounding  wells;  it  makes  its  way  through 
the  minute  crevices  and  channels  of  the  oil  sands  in  which  pockets  of  crude 
have  been  left  in  the  normal  process  of  drilling  and  pushes  that  crude  toward 
the  various  holes,  from  which  it  can  easily  be  retrieved  by  pumps.  This  re- 
pressuring  method  has  brought  about  a  "five-spot"  appearance  to  the  fields, 
since  the  original  wells  were  fairly  regularly  spaced,  one  to  every  ten  acres 
of  drilling  land;  now  a  water  well  usually  occupies  the  center  of  each  forty- 
acre  tract.  A  central  powerhouse  and  reservoir  furnishes  water  and  power 
for  as  many  as  five  of  the  forty-acre  divisions.  The  process  was  first  instituted 
because  geologists  estimated  that  only  two  thousand  barrels  had  been  re- 
moved from  each  potential  forty-thousand-barrel  acre. 

The  turreted  and  spired  houses  of  NOWATA,  68.5  m.  (707  alt.,  3,904 
pop.),  with  their  ornamental  lattices,  carved  banisters,  and  porch  posts  are 
typical  of  the  "turn-of-the-century"  architecture.  In  1868,  this  area  was  in- 
cluded in  the  land  sold  by  the  Cherokee  Indians  to  the  Kansas  Delawares. 
From  the  trading  post,  which  was  established  a  short  time  later,  a  setdement 
grew  up  to  become  the  town  of  Nowata.  When  the  railroad  built  through, 
two  company  surveyors  are  said  to  have  named  it  Noweta  at  the  suggestion 
of  a  Cherokee  woman  who  said  that  the  word  meant,  "We  welcome  you  to 
come."  The  spelling  was  later  changed  in  the  records  of  the  Post  Office 
Department. 

Nowata  is  at  the  junction  with  US  169  (see  Tour  16). 

At  87.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9). 

BARTLESVILLE,  89.7  m.  (694  alt.,  16,267  pop.)  (see  Bartlesville). 

Left  from  Bartlesville  on  graveled  State  23  to  the  Frank  Phillips  Ranch  (admission 
only  by  appointment  with  Phillips  Petroleum  Co.,  Bartlesville) ,  12  m.,  the  country  home 
of  Frank  Phillips,  president  (1941)  and  founder  of  the  widespread  Phillips  Petroleum  Com- 
pany. A  rustic  arched  gateway  marks  the  beginning  of  the  winding  drive  through  the  ranch 
grounds  to  the  Woolaroc  Lodge  and  Museum,  synthetically  named  for  the  words  "woods," 
"lake,"  and  "rock."  The  ranch,  consisting  of  one  thousand  acres,  is  a  private  game  preserve, 
and  has  seven  lakes  stocked  with  game  fish.  The  entire  estate  is  fenced,  enclosing  the  vast 
pastures  on  which  numerous  species  of  animal  and  fowl,  both  native  and  foreign  to  Okla- 
homa, are  kept. 

The  ranch  buildings  are  situated  on  a  hill  overlooking  Oudaw  Gulch  and  the  largest 
of  the  lakes.  Steps  of  native  stone  lead  to  the  lake's  edge  where  there  are  bathhouses,  bathing 


288  OKLAHOMA 

beach,  picnic  grounds,  barbecue  pits,  an  Indian  tepcc,  and  an  old  prairie  schooner.  The 
Lodge  is  a  rambling,  twelve-room,  log  structure.  In  the  reception  room  the  furnishings 
carry  out  the  rustic  theme;  the  piano  and  phonograph  arc  covered  with  a  veneer  of  bark, 
and  on  the  walls  are  stuffed  animals,  trophies,  and  many  paintings. 

The  museum  was  dedicated  by  Phillips  to  the  Osage  Indian  tribe,  of  which  he  is  the 
only  white  man  to  be  an  honorary  member.  A  native-stone  structure,  it  contains  a  varied 
and  valuable  collection,  including  the  airplane,  "Woolaroc,"  which  Phillips  furnished  Art 
Goebel  for  his  prize-winning  flight  to  Honolulu  in  the  Dole  race  of  1927.  Fossils,  relics, 
Indian  costumes  and  trophies,  shrunken  human  heads  excavated  in  Central  America,  and 
gem-studded  saddles  are  also  displayed.  Many  oil  paintings — mosdy  western  and  Indian 
subjects — are  hung  against  backgrounds  of  animal  skins.  John  Noble's  famous  painting, 
"The  Run,"  depicting  the  Cherokee  Strip  opening  of  1893,  is  probably  the  most  notable  of 
the  collection.  A  large  album  lists  the  approximately  seventy-five  thousand  documents  mak- 
ing up  the  Frank  Phillips  collection  of  historical  papers  at  the  University  of  Oklahoma 
Library  (see  Norman). 

Right  from  Bartlesville  on  a  dirt  road  to  the  barren  summit  of  ROUND  MOUNTAIN, 
L8  m.,  from  which  there  is  a  widespread  view  of  the  surrounding  countryside.  Atop  the 
hill  is  a  beacon  for  air  navigation. 

Section  b.  BARTLESVILLE  to  ENID,  134.3  m.  US  60 

Between  BARTLESVILLE,  0  m.,  and  Ponca  City,  US  60  traverses 
the  confines  of  the  old  Osage  Nation,  now  Osage  County.  Indian  teepees 
once  dotted  the  rocky  hills  but  today  they  have  been  replaced  by  "stripper 
wells"  and  "pumping  jacks."  The  high-rounded  Osage  Hills  encompass 
well-watered  valleys,  both  blanketed  in  the  spring  and  summer  with  many 
wild  flowers. 

In  1872,  the  Osage  Indians  were  removed  from  Kansas  to  Silver  Lake 
(see  Tour  9),  and  then  to  this  tract  of  almost  1,500,000  acres,  which  they 
purchased  from  the  Cherokee  Nation.  They  had  been  paid  $9,000,000  by  the 
Federal  government  for  their  Kansas  land,  and  since  they  lived  on  the  inter- 
est from  their  money,  they  were  known  as  the  wealthiest  Indians  in  the 
country.  Their  new  lands  were  composed  of  hills  and  prairies,  which  was 
much  to  their  liking,  for  they  were  naturally  hunters  and  fighters  rather 
than  farmers.  Many  leased  their  lands  for  pasture;  others  adopted  the  white 
man's  way  and  became  ranchers  themselves. 

The  Osage  roll,  which  was  approved  in  1908,  listed  2,230  persons  receiv- 
ing an  allotment  of  657  acres.  All  mineral  rights  were  reserved  for  the  benefit 
of  the  tribe,  each  individual  headright  to  receive  a  pro  rata  share  of  the 
income.  The  discovery  of  oil  and  gas  in  the  southwest  corner  of  the  nation 
in  1903  and  the  subsequent  development  of  the  vast  field  catapulted  the 
Osages  into  an  even  greater  luxury.  By  1916,  each  member  of  the  tribe  was 
receiving  annual  amounts  ranging  from  $2,200  to  $15,000,  and  those  who 
had  inherited  headrights  had  a  still  larger  income.  Total  royalty  and  lease- 
bonus  payments  received  by  the  tribe  for  their  oil  by  1934  amounted  to  some 
$252,700,000. 

On  the  closing  date  for  enrolling  the  Osages,  some  unique  names  were 
given  to  newborn  babes,  whose  arrival  might  mean  another  headright  for 
its  family.  One  boy,  born  at  11:50  on  the  last  night  before  the  closing  of  the 
rolls,  received  the  title  of  Johnny-On-The-Spot;  while  a  luckless  girl  baby, 


1 


TOUR  4        289 

who  came  into  the  world  half  an  hour  after  midnight,  was  dubbed  Mary- 
Too-Late. 

During  the  period  of  luxury  for  the  Osages,  it  was  not  unusual  to  see 
a  blanketed  Indian — braids  down  his  back  and  a  Stetson  on  his  head — at 
the  wheel  of  an  expensive  automobile,  while  his  wife  and  family,  also  color- 
fully blanketed,  occupied  the  back  seat.  Today  (1941),  because  of  the  depres- 
sion years  and  a  partially  depleted  oil  basin,  the  value  of  the  Osage  head- 
rights  is  considerably  smaller  but  it  is  still  appreciably  larger  than  the  income 
of  the  average  white  citizen.  The  Osage  per  capita  wealth  is  now  estimated 
at  $4,700. 

The  OSAGE  HILLS  STATE  PARK  (cabins,  picnicking,  swimming, 
and  fishing  facilities),  11.4  m.,  is  a  roUing,  wooded  area  of  720  acres  which 
has  only  recently  been  developed  as  a  recreational  area.  Civilian  Conserva- 
tion Corps  workers,  under  the  supervision  of  the  National  Park  Service,  have 
constructed  hiking  and  bridle  trails,  picnic  areas,  shelters,  a  bathhouse,  swim- 
ming pool,  and  natural-stone  cabins.  Sand  Creek  (boats  50c  per  day),  a  clear- 
water  stream  winding  throughout  the  park,  is  stocked  with  several  varieties 
of  game  fish.  The  gorges,  glens,  and  bluffs  furnish  an  ideal  sanctuary  for  the 
wild  game  protected  here. 

The  recreation  area  was  originally  developed  by  citizens  of  the  near-by 
city  of  Bartlesville,  when  they  contributed  money  to  build  cabins  for  city 
Boy  Scout  troops.  Now  (1941),  scouts  from  eight  counties,  and  other  organi- 
zations including  the  YWCA,  YMCA,  and  Girl  Reserves  use  the  site  as  a 
summer  camping  ground. 

At  23.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  graded  County  Road  No.  7. 

Left  on  this  road  to  PAWHUSKA  INDIAN  VILLAGE,  0.8  m.,  home  of  many  mem- 
bers of  the  "D\veIlers-in-the-Thorny-Thickets"  (see  Tour  14)  division  of  the  Osage  tribe. 
Chief  Bacon  Rind's  Home  is  a  grey,  two-story  structure  with  four  gables;  it  has  been 
allowed  to  deteriorate  since  the  death  of  the  famous  chief  in  1932.  Bacon  Rind,  or  Wah-she- 
hah,  was  born  in  1853  of  a  family  long  important  in  the  tribal  government.  His  brilliance, 
fine  physique,  and  ability  as  an  orator  in  the  Osage  tongue  (though  he  spoke  little  English) 
made  him  one  of  the  best-liked  Indians.  After  his  death,  Bacon  Rind  lay  in  state  in  his  home, 
face  painted  in  ceremonial  fashion  and  body  clothed  in  Indian  costume.  The  funeral  was 
a  strange  mixture  of  traditional  Christian  and  Indian  burial  rites;  weirdly  singing  mourners 
were  employed  and  the  guests  feasted  following  the  interment.  A  statue  of  him  has  been 
erected  at  Skedee  (see  Tour  2). 

A  dance  to  commemorate  the  removal  of  the  Osages  from  Kansas  is  held  in  the  village 
in  the  latter  part  of  September  (visitors  welcome);  invitations  are  sent  to  neighboring  tribes 
to  attend  the  ceremonies.  The  dancing  continues  for  four  days  with  rites  honoring  past 
chiefs.  Other  powwows  and  feasts  are  held  in  the  arbor  here  during  fair  weather,  but  during 
rainy  seasons  the  "round  house"  at  Grayhorse  is  used.  One  annual  dance,  around  the 
American  flag,  celebrates  the  day  (October  14)  on  which  the  tribe  received  from  President 
Calvin  Coolidge  a  certificate  of  thanks  for  Osage  participation  in  the  World  War. 

The  use  of  peyote,  a  dried  cactus  "button,"  as  a  sacrament  figures  largely  in  the  elab- 
orate night-long  Osage  religious  ceremonials.  As  early  as  the  Spanish  conquest,  certain 
Mexican  tribes  employed  peyote  in  religious  rituals,  and  gradually  its  use  spread  northward 
until  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  when  it  became  popular  among  the  Indians  of 
Oklahoma.  It  was  introduced  on  the  Osage  reservation  in  1898  by  John  Wilson,  a  Caddo- 
Delaware.  In  1911,  a  charter  for  the  incorporation  of  the  Native  American  Church  was 
obtained  from  the  state  by  Oklahoma  Indians — the  articles  specif>'ing  the  use  of  peyote 
as  a  sacrament. 

The  Osages  hold  their  church  meetings  on  Saturday  nights  in  octagonal  lodge  houses 


290  OKLAHOMA 

with  earthen  floors  and  cement  altars.  About  sixty  feet  from  the  church  door  is  a  sweat- 
bath  house  in  which  tlic  ceremonial  participants  purify  themselves  physically  with  a  buckeye 
root  emetic  while  taking  the  bath.  After  purification,  the  Indians  are  led  into  the  clcanswcpt 
church  by  the  "Road  Man"  or  leader;  all  scat  themselves  on  blankets  placed  on  the  dirt 
floor  and  observe  silence  while  the  leader  makes  and  lights  a  corn-shuck  cigarette  and  prays 
aloud  for  the  whole  world.  After  the  prayer  the  cigarette  is  placed  on  the  "Road,"  and  the 
"Road  Man"  continues  during  the  night,  admonishing,  exhorting,  and  pointing  out  the 
right  road  to  the  worshipers,  who  throughout  the  ritual  use  the  peyote  both  in  its  original 
form  as  a  cactus  button  and  steeped  in  a  tea.  The  rhythms  of  a  drum  and  gourd  heighten 
the  emotions  until  the  end  of  the  services  on  Sunday  morning  when  the  participants  partake 
of  a  feast. 

The  Grave  of  Bacon  Rind,  1  »;.,  is  located  on  the  hilltop  (L)  in  traditional  Osage 
fashion. 

PAWHUSKA,  25.2  m.  (885  alt.,  5,443  pop.),  is  the  seat  of  Osage 
County,  the  largest  county  in  the  state,  and  the  tribal  capital.  The  town, 
which  still  has  the  traditional  Indian  atmosphere,  was  named  for  a  famous 
Osage  chief.  Pahu-^ka,  or  White  Hair,  received  his  name  from  an  incident 
in  the  battle  known  as  St.  Clair's  Defeat,  fought  during  Washington's  admin- 
istration. The  Osage,  then  a  youth,  wounded  an  ofBcer  wearing  a  powdered 
wig.  He  started  to  scalp  his  quarry  when,  to  his  amazement,  the  whole  scalp 
came  off  and  the  victim  escaped,  leaving  the  Osage  standing  with  a  fluffy, 
white  wig  grasped  in  his  fingers.  Believing  that  the  wig  had  supernatural 
powers,  the  warrior  henceforth  wore  it  fastened  to  his  roach. 

The  original  White  Hair  was  chief  of  the  Osage  tribe  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  position  which  he  is  said  to  have  usurped  from 
the  lawful  heir,  Clermont,  through  the  influence  of  the  Chouteau  family 
(see  Tour  8).  This  action  brought  about  a  division  of  the  Osage  Nation, 
Clermont's  band  separating  entirely.  Both  White  Hair  and  his  son,  also 
known  as  Chief  White  Hair,  were  presented  with  medals  by  Lieutenant 
Zebulon  M.  Pike  (see  Tour  3). 

On  the  site  of  the  first  station  here  for  the  disbursing  of  funds  to  the 
Osage  tribe  is  the  Flatiron  Building,  Ki-he-kah  Avenue  and  Main  Street. 
A  hitching  rail  originally  enclosed  the  area;  later,  Pawhuska  businessmen 
purchased  the  triangular  plot  and  erected  the  modern  building.  The  fabulous 
oil  lease  auctions  of  the  Osage  lands  were  held  where  the  Ki-he-kah  Theater, 
Ki-he-kah  Avenue  and  Main  Street,  now  stands.  The  yearly  lease  sales  ranged 
from  one  to  fourteen  million  dollars  from  1916  to  1928,  with  the  exception 
of  1926.  On  one  occasion,  an  opening  bid  of  $500,000  started  a  series  of  sales 
which  closed  at  a  total  of  more  than  $3,000,000. 

Rising  above  the  business  district  is  Agency  Hill;  at  its  foot  is  the  City 
Hall,  Main  and  Grandview  Streets,  formerly  the  Osage  Council  House.  At 
the  top  of  the  hill  are  the  stone  and  frame  buildings  of  the  Osage  Agency, 
on  a  104-acre  tract.  Here  the  tribal  business  is  conducted  by  the  superintend- 
ent, aided  by  a  council  composed  of  the  chief  of  the  Osages,  assistant  chief, 
and  eight  councilmen  and  a  secretary  elected  by  the  tribe. 

The  Osage  Tribal  Museum  and  Auditorium  (free  adm.  1:15  to  4  p.m. 
workdays;  2  to  5  p.m.  Sundays),  constructed  of  native  sandstone,  occupies  the 
site  of  the  first  agency  building  on  the  hill.  Its  erection  in  1938  was  sponsored 
by  the  Osage  tribal  council  in  order  to  preserve  linguistic  and  mythological 


TOUR  4        291 

data  relating  to  the  Osage  Indians.  The  museum  houses  several  extensive 
collections,  the  most  outstanding  of  which  are  the  Chief  Bacon  Rind  and  the 
John  Bird  accumulations  of  tribal  costumes,  paintings,  bead  and  feather 
artcraft,  treaties,  and  valuable  documents.  Bacon  Rind's  collection  was  willed 
by  him  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington,  D.C.,  but  with  the 
building  of  the  Osage  Museum  the  institution  loaned  the  historical  objects 
to  the  tribe  for  an  indefinite  period.  There  are  also  old  photographs,  voice 
recordings  in  the  tribal  language,  and  other  materials  necessary  to  trace  a 
complete  history  of  the  tribe. 

Pawhuska  is  the  home  of  Mary  Todd  Aaron,  contemporary  Oklahoma 
artist;  Lemuel  Jennings  Childers  (b.  1898),  composer  of  works  using  authen- 
tic Indian  themes;  and  John  Joseph  Mathews  (b.  1895),  of  Osage  blood, 
whose  books  have  received  wide  acclaim. 

Herbert  Hoover,  President  of  the  United  States  (1928-32),  spent  several 
boyhood  summers  here  with  his  uncle.  Major  Laban  J.  Miles,  who  became 
Osage  agent  in  1878.  Some  Pawhuskans  remember  the  interest  of  the  orph- 
aned boy  visitor  in  the  rocks  of  the  surrounding  Osage  Hills — an  interest 
which  later  blossomed  into  a  mining  and  engineering  career. 

In  the  hills  near  the  city  are  widespread  grazing  lands  on  which  as  many 
as  four  hundred  thousand  cattle  are  pastured  in  one  season.  Approximately 
two-thirds  of  the  herds  are  owned  by  Osage  ranchers;  the  remaining  third  is 
shipped  in  from  Texas  and  other  states,  during  March  and  April,  to  be  fat- 
tened for  July  and  August  markets.  Agricultural  products  of  the  ranches  are 
corn,  cotton,  oats,  hay,  fruit,  and  berries. 

Pawhuska  is  at  the  junction  with  State  99  (see  Tour  14). 

Right  from  Pawhuska  on  the  graveled  Osage  Highway  to  the  Barnard-Chapman 
Ranch  (visitors  welcome),  15.4  m.,  which  covers  one  hundred  thousand  acres  of  rolling, 
prairie  hills  on  which  more  than  sixteen  thousand  head  of  Hereford  cattle  graze.  The  ranch 
house  is  a  sprawling,  twelve-room,  brick  building  with  a  tile  roof  and  many  porches.  The 
ranch  has  its  own  shipping  pens  and  station  located  on  the  main  line  of  the  Midland  Valley 
Railroad,  which  runs  through  the  far-flung  acres.  When  the  ranch  was  first  established, 
cattle  were  allowed  the  right  of  way  and  gates  were  put  up  across  the  highway  so  that  they 
might  saunter  from  one  side  to  another  at  will.  There  were  some  thirty-seven  gates  across 
roads  leading  from  Tulsa  to  the  Barnard-Chapman  Ranch  at  that  time.  With  increasing 
travel,  however,  the  gates  were  removed  and  notices  of  the  catde  crossings  posted,  warning 
the  motorist  to  slow  down.  In  addition  to  the  grass-covered  pastures,  Sand,  Dog,  Buck,  and 
Bird  creeks  cut  across  the  ranch  and  afford  a  plentiful  supply  of  water.  It  is  said  that  there 
are  more  grass-fattened  cattle  shipped  from  here  annually  than  from  any  other  point  in  the 
United  States. 

Right  from  Pawhuska  on  an  unimproved  dirt  road  is  the  Chief  Saucy  Chief  Home- 
stead, 3.6  m.  Nellie,  the  daughter  of  the  chief,  was  the  first  Osage  to  be  given  Christian 
burial.  She  contracted  pneumonia  in  1885  at  the  Carlisle  Indian  School  in  Pennsylvania 
and  was  sent  home,  where  she  died.  Major  Laban  J.  Miles,  the  Osage  Agent  at  that  time, 
persuaded  her  parents  to  conduct  the  Christian  rites  rather  than  their  customary  procedure 
of  burying  the  dead  in  a  sitting  posture  on  the  summit  of  a  hill.  However,  the  Indians  kept 
their  own  mourning  customs,  the  chief  wearing  only  a  white  sheet,  moccasins,  and  breech- 
clout  for  a  three-and-a-half-month  period,  despite  the  snow-covered  ground.  In  preparation 
for  the  three-day  dance  which  was  to  end  the  mourning  observance,  the  funeral  party  rode 
out  solemnly  to  capture  the  scalp  of  a  town  merchant  who  had  ingratiatingly  decided  to 
submit  himself  to  a  mock  scalping;  he  allowed  the  Indians  to  cut  off  his  forelock,  minus 
the  traditional  accompaniment  of  skin.  Major  Miles  was  accorded  the  honor  of  leading  the 


292  OKLAHOMA 

group — much  to  the  amazement  of  Pawhuska  citizens,  who  saw  him  riding  into  town 
holding  the  scalp-pole  with  the  hair  flying  from  its  top.  After  Saucy  Chief  had  been  bathed 
and  dressed  in  warm  blankets,  the  dance  began.  Nellie's  death  had  been  properly  observed, 
and  her  spirit  sent  on  its  journey  with  the  blessing  of  both  the  white  and  red  man's  ritual. 

At  46.9  m.  is  the  western  junction  with  State  18,  a  graveled  road. 

Left  on  State  18  to  Fairfax,  9.6  m.  (841  alt.,  2,327  pop.),  located  in  the  center  of 
large  oil  fields. 

Left  from  Fairfax  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  the  Grave  and  Statue  of  Chief 
Ne-ka-wa-she-tun-ka,  4.3  m.,  the  last  Osage  chieftain  to  receive  the  complete  Osage  burial 
ceremony.  This  included  the  killing  of  his  favorite  horse  and  the  placing  of  a  human  scalp 
on  his  grave  at  the  end  of  the  mourning  period  to  allow  his  spirit  to  enter  the  Happy  Hunt- 
ing Ground.  The  scalp  secured  in  this  case  was  that  of  a  Wichita  chief,  A-sa-wah,  and  its 
taking  precipitated  an  intertribal  incident  which  caused  the  government  to  forbid  all  future 
scalp-hunting.  The  Osages  finally  settled  the  score  by  making  large  payments  of  money  and 
goods  to  the  Wichitas. 

Left  from  Fairfax  on  graveled  State  20  to  a  junction  with  a  county  road,  3  m.;  L.  on 
this  road  to  GRAYHORSE,  4.5  m.,  where  the  "Dwellers-on-the-Hilltop"  division  (see  Tour 
14)  of  the  Osage  Indians  hold  tribal  dances  and  gatherings  in  the  "round  house"  in  inclem- 
ent weather. 

State  18  continues  south  from  Fairfax  to  the  Site  of  an  Old  Osage  Rfver  Ford,  15.7 
m.,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Arkansas  River,  just  across  from  the  small  town  of  RALSTON, 
15.9  m.  When  the  river  at  this  point  divided  the  Osage  and  Pawnee  Nations,  charges  of 
stealing  and  the  raids  of  scalping  parties  caused  many  skirmishes  between  the  two  tribes  at 
the  ford. 

In  the  early  history  of  Oklahoma,  there  were  many  attempts  to  establish  a  trade  route 
up  the  Arkansas  River  past  Fort  Gibson  (see  Tour  3),  at  which  point  ascending  navigation 
became  dangerous.  In  1878,  one  small  steamer  managed  to  go  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the 
Walnut  River  in  Kansas;  and  in  the  1880's,  a  flour  carrier,  "Kansas  Millers,"  successfully 
made  the  trip  from  Arkansas  City,  Kansas,  to  the  Arkansas  Line.  In  1885,  a  steamer 
unloaded  merchandise  at  the  Kaw  Indian  Agency  (northwest  of  this  point),  and  in  1898, 
the  "Minnie"  made  the  last  attempt  to  ascend  farther  than  this  landing.  Loaded  with  walnut 
logs  to  fill  a  contract  for  gunstock  lumber,  she  went  aground  on  a  sand  bar  just  southwest  of 
this  ford;  her  cargo  was  unloaded  and  hauled  to  its  destination  by  wagon.  In  the  early 
1900's,  a  small  steamboat  made  several  trips  between  Ralston  and  Tulsa.  Though  the  ship, 
using  a  threshing  machine  engine  for  power,  was  not  much  more  than  a  flatboat,  it  pro- 
vided a  means  of  transporting  merchandise  to  towns  having  no  transportation  facilities  other 
than  freight  wagons  and  stage  coaches. 

BURBANK,  49.1  m.  (935  alt.,  329  pop.),  until  the  discovery  of  oil 
brought  a  boom  to  the  town,  was  primarily  an  Osage  settlement.  The  near-by 
blufls  on  which  cockleburs  grow  in  profusion  are  said  to  have  furnished  the 
inspiration  for  the  town's  name,  suggested  by  railroad  men  when  the  Santa 
Fe  established  a  station  here  in  1903. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Burbank  field  in  May,  1920,  the  sale  of  leases 
brought  less  than  $10  an  acre,  but  after  production  was  well  under  way,  leases 
sold  for  as  high  as  $10,000  an  acre.  The  rush  for  leases  in  the  Burbank  boom 
brought  fabulous  prices  for  land  which  had  sold  for  as  litde  as  $800  a  quarter 
section  prior  to  1920.  In  June,  1921,  the  sale  of  fourteen  leases  brought 
$3,256,000,  while  in  a  December  sale  of  that  year,  eighteen  sold  for  $6,250,000. 
By  1922,  two  leases  sold  for  $1,335,000  and  $1,160,000,  respectively.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  bonuses  paid  to  the  Indians  for  the  right  to  drill,  all  contracts  with 
them  call  for  a  special  royalty  on  the  production.  The  ordinary  royalty  is  one- 


TOUR  4        293 

eighth  of  the  oil  and  gas  produced,  but  the  Osages  receive  one-sixth  on  leases 
producing  less  than  one  hundred  barrels  a  day  and  one-fifth  where  the  yield 
is  more. 

At  67.9  m.  US  60  crosses  the  Arkansas  River, 

At  68.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  77  (see  Tour  10),  which  unites  south- 
westward  with  US  60  for  4.2  miles. 

PONCA  CITY,  69.4  m.  (1,003  alt.,  16,794  pop.)  (see  Ponca  City). 

At  80.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  177,  a  paved  highway. 

Right  on  this  road  to  BLACKWELL,  11  tn.  (1,020  alt.,  8,537  pop.),  the  second  largest 
municipality  in  Kay  County  and  the  center  of  a  rich  farming  region.  Extending  from  the 
southwest  bank  of  the  Chikaskia  River  to  and  beyond  US  177,  which  is  its  main  north  and 
south  street,  Blackwell  spreads  over  four  square  miles  of  flat  land. 

This  prairie  city  came  into  existence  at  the  opening  to  settlement  of  the  Cherokee  Out- 
let in  the  Run  of  September  16,  1893.  A.  J.  Blackwell,  an  adopted  citizen  of  the  Cherokee 
Nation,  who  asserted  his  right  to  occupy  and  use  land  assigned  to  the  tribe  as  an  outlet  to 
hunting  grounds,  platted  the  site,  set  up  a  provisional  town  government  with  himself  at  the 
head,  and  sold  lots.  A  group  of  families  from  Winfield,  Kansas,  were  the  first  permanent 
residents. 

Even  before  the  opening,  however,  a  tent  city  of  some  fifteen  hundred  of  Payne's 
"boomers"  (see  History)  was  established  just  across  the  river  from  the  present  city.  The 
trespassing  colonists  lived  there  in  the  summer  of  1884,  until  United  States  troops  drove 
them  out,  and  published  a  little  newspaper  called  the  Oklahoma  War  Chief  (see  News- 
papers) . 

For  a  considerable  time  after  Blackwell  was  established,  its  founder  continued  his 
practically  one-man  government.  His  despotic  attitude  caused  resentment,  and  when  he 
undertook  to  bring  in  Negro  workmen  in  defiance  of  the  unofficial  but  strict  ban  on  their 
residence  or  employment  in  town,  the  tent  they  occupied  was  fired  upon  at  night.  Some 
were  killed,  and  others  were  wounded,  and  neither  Blackwell  or  anyone  else  made  further 
attempts  in  that  direction. 

As  town-builder  and  boss,  Blackwell  had  a  tumultous  career.  In  his  role  of  self- 
ordained  Baptist  picacher,  he  earned  the  title  of  "prophet";  as  a  hot-tempered  frontiersman, 
he  twice  drew  indictments  for  murder,  neither  of  which  resulted  in  conviction. 

With  the  founder's  passing,  the  town  setded  into  a  period  of  steady  growth  as  the 
market  for  a  good  wheat-growing  section.  Then,  to  serve  the  needs  of  cattlemen  of  the 
Tonkawa  and  Ponca  reservations  region  to  the  south  and  southeast,  a  packing  plant  was 
established,  and  its  products  still  (1941)  find  a  market  in  northern  Oklahoma  and  southern 
Kansas.  During  the  first  World  War  a  zinc  smelter  was  built,  where  for  a  time  650  work- 
men treated  some  seven  thousand  tons  of  ore  monthly.  After  being  shut  down  for  years, 
this  smelter  was  reopened  in  1941  in  response  to  demands  for  zinc  and  lead  due  to  the 
second  World  War.  Other  industries  are  an  oil  refinery,  a  glassmaking  factory,  a  brickmaking 
and  two  cabinetmaking  plants,  a  cheese  factory,  and  two  that  turn  out  other  dairy  products. 

An  excellent  public  library,  in  a  tile-roofed,  red-brick,  one-story  building,  grew  out  of 
a  small  Chautauqua  collection  of  books  housed  in  a  single  room  over  a  bank  in  1903.  Among 
its  more  than  thirteen  thousand  volumes  are  many  autographed  copies  of  books  by  Okla- 
homa writers,  a  considerable  collection  of  material  on  the  state's  history,  and  thirty  pictures 
by  Oklahoma  Indian  artists  donated  by  Mrs.  Laura  Clubb,  of  Kaw  City  (see  Tour  10).  In 
the  library  is  a  minature  theater  for  presentation  of  puppet  plays.  The  building  was  erected 
in  1931  at  a  cost  of  $35,000  for  building  and  furniture;  this  sum  came  from  a  fund  accumu- 
lated from  a  two-mill  municipal  levy  for  library  purposes  imposed  in  1921.  The  library's 
current  annual  budget  of  some  $7,700  is  provided  from  a  continuing  levy. 

There  is  an  airport  west  of  the  city,  and  Wheeler-Huston  Athletic  Park  (lighted;  dog 
racing)  is  at  its  southern  edge. 

Named  for  the  Tonkawa  Indians  who  once  owned  the  land  surrounding 
it,  TONKAWA,  82.6  m.  (1,003  alt.,  3,197  pop.),  is  today  a  busy  oil  city. 


294  OKLAHOMA 

Wells  in  the  vicinity  have  been  producing  since  1921  and  are  covering  an 
ever-widening  area. 

In  1879,  Chief  Joseph  and  his  band  of  Nez  Perce  Indians  were  brought 
as  prisoners  and  exiles  from  their  home  in  Idaho  and  placed  on  a  reservation 
located  at  the  Yellow  Bull  crossing  on  the  Salt  Fork  of  the  Arkansas  River, 
just  a  few  hundred  yards  west  of  the  present  main  street  of  Tonkawa.  The 
crossing  received  its  name  from  the  Nez  Perce  chief.  Yellow  Bull,  who  built 
a  log  house  near  by.  Here  they  stayed  for  several  years,  always  longing  to 
return  to  their  former  home,  and  finally  they  were  allowed  to  remove. 

The  Tonkawas,  who  were  few  in  number,  seem  to  have  originated  in 
Texas;  but  during  the  Civil  War  they  were  encamped  on  the  Washita  River 
near  Anadarko  (see  Tour  3)  where,  because  they  were  suspected  of  cannibal- 
ism, the  tribe  was  almost  exterminated.  During  their  wanderings,  these  so- 
called  "Ishmaels  of  the  Plains"  were  successively  thinned  by  war,  massacre, 
and  disease,  before  they  finally  found  a  home  here  on  the  Salt  Fork  of  the 
Arkansas.  It  is  said  that  the  meaning  of  the  name,  Tonkawa,  is  "They  all  stay 
together."  They  accepted  allotments  in  1891  and  sold  the  remainder  of  their 
land  to  the  United  States;  it  was  opened  for  settlement  along  with  the  Chero- 
kee Strip  in  1893.  At  present  (1941)  the  only  available  count  of  the  Tonkawas 
lists  eighteen  persons. 

Tonkawa  was  platted  the  year  after  the  Run,  and  in  1901  was  chosen  as 
the  site  for  the  present  Tonkawa  University  Preparatory  School  and 
Junior  College  (five  blocks  L.  from  junction  of  US  60  and  Grand  Avenue), 
by  the  Territorial  legislature  then  in  session.  The  state-owned  institution  is 
housed  in  five  buildings  in  the  center  of  a  twenty-acre  tract;  the  oldest  struc- 
ture, ivy-covered  Central  Hall,  contains  workshops,  the  business  school,  and 
classrooms.  Wilkins  Hall,  which  is  the  newest  of  the  buildings,  has  an  impos- 
ing entrance  supported  by  two  massive  Corinthian  columns.  North  Hall  and 
the  Gymnasium  complete  the  college  group. 

Since  the  vicinity  was  included  in  the  Cherokee  Strip  opening,  Tonkawa 
citizens  join  a  number  of  other  Oklahomans  in  the  annual  celebration  of  Sep- 
tember 16,  anniversary  of  the  Run.  The  day  begins  with  a  parade  and  repro- 
duction of  the  stirring  chase  for  land,  the  participants  dressing  in  authentic 
costumes  of  1893.  The  Old  Settlers  program  in  the  afternoon  includes  Indian 
dances,  reels,  and  fiddling  contests. 

LAMONT,  97.9  m.  (997  alt.,  577  pop.),  named  for  Daniel  Lamont, 
Secretary  of  War  (1893-97),  is  near  the  sandy  lowlands  of  the  Salt  Fork, 
where  unusually  large  and  delicious  watermelons  are  grown.  Annually  in 
September,  the  residents  celebrate  their  harvest  with  a  Watermelon  Festival, 
when  they  boast  that  they  serve  ten  tons  of  the  fruit  free  to  visitors.  A  huge 
concrete  pit,  which  was  constructed  back  of  the  Community  House  especially 
for  storage  of  the  melons,  is  the  center  of  the  day's  events;  these  include  a 
football  game,  horseshoe  pitching,  terrapin  derby,  dancing,  and  the  corona- 
tion of  the  festival  queen. 

POND  CREEK,  112.4  m.  (1,050  alt.,  1,019  pop.)  (see  Tour  11),  is  at 
the  eastern  junction  with  US  81  (see  Tour  11),  which  unites  southward  with 
US  60  for  twenty-two  miles. 


TOUR  4        295 

At  116.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  64,  which  unites  with  US  60  and 
US  81  to  Enid. 

ENID,  134.3  m.  (1,246  alt.,  28,081  pop.)  (see  Enid),  is  at  the  southern 
junction  with  US  81  and  US  64;  US  60  again  turns  sharply  west. 

Section  c.  ENID  to  TEXAS  LINE,  136.1  m.  US  60 

West  of  ENID,  0  m.,  US  60  passes  through  wide-stretching  wheat  fields, 
where  grain  elevators  occasionally  tower  like  skyscrapers  above  the  level  land. 
In  the  high,  dry  country  west  of  the  North  Canadian  River,  towns  are  seen 
at  a  great  distance  because  of  the  clarity  of  atmosphere.  Overgrazing  and 
overcultivation  in  addition  to  prolonged  years  of  drouth  have  caused  this  sec- 
tion of  Oklahoma  to  suffer  in  recent  years;  but  a  farseeing  program  of  contour 
farming,  reforestation,  and  planting  of  soil-binding  crops  is  checking  the  Dust 
Bowl  encroachment. 

At  8.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  DRUMMOND,  8.1  m.  (1,213  alt.,  245  pop.) ;  just  west  of  the  town 
are  flats  which  fill  with  water  during  the  rainy  season  in  the  fall,  affording  excellent  hunting 
for  ducks,  geese,  and  other  migratory  wild  fowl. 

The  largest  community  of  Mennonites  in  Oklahoma,  and  probably  of  the 
Southwest,  live  on  farms  near  MENO,  18.2  m.  (1,300  alt.,  180  pop.),  which 
serves  as  a  trade  center.  The  sect  has  a  church  here,  with  eight  hundred  mem- 
bers, and  a  grade  school,  high  school,  and  college.  In  accordance  with  their 
age-old  custom,  many  of  the  older  men  still  wearing  undipped  beards,  and 
black-capped  old  ladies  wearing  picturesque  white  neckpieces  and  black 
shawls,  may  be  seen  on  the  street. 

At  22.2  7W.  is  the  junction  with  State  58,  a  graveled  highway. 

Left  on  State  58  to  RINGWOOD,  1  m.  (1,307  alt.,  288  pop.),  named  for  the  ring  of 
woods  encircling  the  town.  The  site  was  homesteaded  in  1895,  and  the  township  platted 
and  lots  sold  at  auction  in  1901. 

At  33.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  8,  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  State  8  to  CLEO  SPRINGS,  1  w.  (1,242  alt.,  386  pop.),  which,  according  to 
legend,  was  named  for  an  Indian  maiden  and  the  near-by  presence  of  clear-water  springs. 
There  is  a  large  swimming  pool  (free),  fed  by  the  limpid  spring  water,  in  the  town. 

The  wide,  sandy  CIMARRON  RIVER,  34.3  m.,  is  typical  of  all  river 
beds  in  the  western  part  of  Oklahoma;  shifting  sands  allow  the  channel 
to  change  course  frequently,  and  gypsum  deposits  have  given  the  banks  a 
bare  and  desolate  air. 

ORIENTA,  36.2  m.  (1,245  alt.,  37  pop.),  a  farming  hamlet,  is  at  the 
junction  with  State  15,  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  from  Orienta  on  State  15  are  the  gypsum-covered  buttes  of  the  GLASS  MOUN- 
TAINS, 5  ni.,  so  named  because  their  surface  is  covered  by  millions  of  tiny,  sparkling  selenite 
crystals.  The  abrupdy-rising,  fancifully-shaped  hills  are  a  part  of  the  Blaine  Escarpment,  a 
great  gypsum  formation  which  extends  across  most  of  western  Oklahoma.  Geologists  believe 


296  OKLAHOMA 

that  water,  through  the  centuries,  has  worn  away  the  softer  shales  and  clays,  leaving  the 
resistant  gypsum  to  form  a  hard,  protecting  top.  Gradual  erosion  has  left  strange  forma- 
tions— appearing  to  be  feudal  castles,  or  minarets,  or  human  profiles — carved  in  solid  caps 
of  the  gypsum,  four  to  five  feet  thick.  Large  quantities  of  the  sclenitc  crystals  and  bands 
of  satin  spar  cover  the  Glass  Mountains,  which  range  in  height  from  a  few  feet  to  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  valley  floor.  Chunks  of  the  crystal,  clear  as  processed  glass,  may  be 
picked  up,  but  will  crumble  into  powder  when  light  pressure  is  applied. 

One  towering,  crystalline  rock,  CATHEDRAL  MOUNTAIN  (300  alt.),  5.8  m. 
stands  out  from  the  rest — shaped  like  a  great  cathedral,  with  portals  and  towers.  From  a 
distance  its  thick  layer  of  gypsum,  which  has  been  streaked  a  gray-green  by  the  weather, 
gives  the  appearance  of  varicolored  and  mullioned  windows.  Westward  from  there,  sand 
dunes  have  piled  up  on  the  edges  of  the  mountains,  covering  some  of  the  smaller  peaks. 
Because  the  vicinity  is  so  desert-like,  there  are  few  houses;  even  the  perennial  filling  station 
has  been  routed. 

US  60  is  the  main  street  of  FAIRVIEW,  42.8  m.  (1,302  alt.,  1,913  pop.), 
the  seat  of  Major  County.  The  town  is  located  on  a  flat  plain  in  an  agricultu- 
ral section,  with  the  Glass  Mountains  to  the  northwest  and  the  Cimarron 
River  valley  to  the  east,  making  a  setting  of  natural  beauty.  Because  of  the 
presence  of  gypsum  in  the  water  underlying  the  townsite,  the  city  supply  is 
piped  from  a  source  northeast  of  the  Cimarron  River.  The  water  and  electrical 
systems  are  both  municipally  owned. 

West  of  Fairview,  many  of  the  farms  seen  for  the  first  few  miles  belong 
to  members  of  a  separate  sect  of  the  Mennonites.  This  group,  called  the  Church 
of  God  in  Christ  Mennonites,  are  descendants  of  German-Russians  who  first 
followed  the  teaching  of  Menno  Simons  (1492-1559),  a  Catholic  priest  who 
discarded  the  Roman  faith  to  join  the  Anabaptists  and  then  formed  a  new 
sect  which  eventually  took  his  name.  Their  emblem  is  the  cedar  tree — chosen 
for  its  sturdy  and  resistant  qualities — and  their  homes  may  be  easily  distin- 
guished, for  the  yards  are  usually  dotted  with  evergreens.  The  simple  life  is 
their  creed,  and  they  believe  in  a  doctrine  of  nonparticipation  in  civil  or  mili- 
tary activities.  They  boast  that  none  of  their  members  has  ever  registered  as 
a  relief  client;  the  financial  status  of  each  individual  is  under  supervision  of 
the  church  at  large,  its  approval  being  necessary  before  debt  can  be  incurred. 

SEILING,  75.2  m.  (1,760  alt.,  629  pop.),  was  named  for  the  original 
homesteader  of  the  townsite.  It  is  located  in  the  fertile  valley  between  the 
North  and  South  Canadian  rivers,  with  big-scale  wheat  raising  as  its  main 
agricultural  activity.  In  the  spring  and  fall,  races  are  held  at  the  near-by  Neck- 
lace Downs,  earning  for  the  town  the  sobriquet  of  "The  little  Louisville  of 
the  Southwest." 

Amos  Chapman,  famous  army  scout  in  the  days  of  the  settlement  of  Ok- 
lahoma, lived  at  Selling  after  his  retirement  and  was  buried  in  the  family 
cemetery  east  of  town.  Chapman  was  the  hero  of  the  Buffalo  Wallow  fight 
(see  Texas  Guide)  when  he  lost  a  leg  attempting  to  save  a  soldier.  His  wife 
was  a  relative  of  Chief  Black  Kettle,  the  Cheyenne  chief.  General  W.  T.  Sher- 
man's aide-de-camp.  Colonel  Richard  Dodge,  said  in  his  book,  Our  Wild 
Indians,  that  Amos  Chapman  was  "one  of  the  best  and  bravest  scouts  ...  I 
have  ever  known." 

Seiling  was  also  for  a  short  period  the  home  of  the  prohibition-crusader, 
Carry  A.  Nation.  It  was  probably  from  here  that  she  started  many  of  her  lee- 


TOUR  4        297 

ture  tours  and  hatchet-wielding  forays  through  the  saloon-infested  parts  of 
Oklahoma  Territory.  Later  she  moved  to  Guthrie,  where  in  1905  she  began 
to  publish  her  newspaper,  The  Hatchet  (see  Tour  10). 

In  Seiling  are  the  junctions  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5)  and  US  183  (see 
Tour  12),  which  unite  with  US  60  for  two  miles.  The  route  continues  almost 
due  west  from  this  point  to  the  Texas  Line,  traversing  a  high  flat  country  in 
which  timber  grows  only  along  the  streams.  Cattle-raising  was  once  the  dom- 
inant activity  of  the  section,  but  agriculture  (particularly  wheat-raising)  has 
gained  ascendancy. 

Near  VICI,  96.2  tn.  (2,253  alt.,  617  pop.),  a  cattle  and  farming  center, 
are  large  quantities  of  bentonite,  a  clay  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cosmetics. 
The  substance  is  also  used  in  refining  crude  oil. 

Westward,  the  rolling  plains  are  covered  with  tumbleweed  and  yucca  or 
soapweed — a  sturdy  plant  of  many  sword-shaped  leaves  thrusting  skyward 
abruptly  from  the  earth,  and  adorned  with  tall  spikes  of  creamy,  drooping, 
bell-shaped  flowers.  The  yucca  withstands  the  most  adverse  weather  condi- 
tions because  of  its  long,  tough  roots;  farmers  dig  and  boil  them  to  make  a 
thick  soap,  and  one  commercial  soap  product  is  made  entirely  from  the  plant. 
In  some  places,  the  highway  has  been  cut  through  red-clay  hills;  piles  of 
brush,  weighted  with  logs  and  stone,  line  the  slopes  to  prevent  dirt  slides. 
Scattered  clumps  of  scrub  oak  have  been  left  infrequently  to  serve  as  wind- 
breaks, but  most  of  the  small  frame  houses  have  no  protection  or  shade. 

At  122.7  m.  is  the  eastern  junction  with  US  283  (see  Tour  13),  which 
unites  westward  with  US  60  for  6.6  miles. 

In  the  center  of  the  ARNETT  123.2  m.  (2,460  alt.,  529  pop.),  town 
square  is  the  Ellis  County  Courthouse;  also  in  the  square  is  the  public  library. 
Near  the  town  are  several  large  ranches;  one,  the  Berryman  Ranch,  has  a 
herd  of  purebred  cattle  and  a  wildlife  refuge  stocked  with  quail  and  prairie 
chicken. 

At  124.1  m.  US  60  crosses  the  old  Indian  Buffalo  Trail,  which  ran 
from  old  Fort  Supply  (see  Tour  12)  to  a  huge  buffalo  wallow  northeast  of 
the  Antelope  Hills  (see  Tour  13)  in  a  bend  of  the  South  Canadian  River. 
Many  Indian  hunting  parties  once  filed  along  this  trail,  and  General  George 
A.  Custer  and  the  Seventh  Cavalry  marched  south  on  it  from  Fort  Supply  to 
the  Washita  River  when  they  met  the  Cheyennes  and  allied  tribes  in  the 
Battle  of  the  Washita  (see  Tour  13). 

At  129.3  m.  is  the  western  junction  with  US  283. 

Left  at  this  point  on  a  series  of  graded  dirt  roads;  R.  at  5.4  m.,  L.  at  6.4  m.,  R.  at  7.5 
m.,  and  L.  again  at  8.3  m.  to  the  Burnett  Gristmill,  12.8  m.,  built  by  W.  F.  Burnett  on 
his  homestead  about  1900,  and  run  by  the  waters  of  near-by  Little  Robe  Creek.  The  mill  was 
abandoned  in  1925,  then  used  for  several  years  as  a  canning  factory;  today  (1941),  the 
board  walls  are  warped  and  peeling,  the  floor  is  sagging  with  the  weight  of  stored  baled  hay 
and  rusty  mill  machinery,  and  the  huge  paddle  wheel  is  broken.  The  sturdy  axle,  which 
turned  the  wheel  for  many  years,  was  originally  hewn  from  a  single  tree  and  still  is  in 
place. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  battle  between  Texas  Rangers  and  a  band  of  Comanches  that  sup- 
posedly took  place  near  the  site  of  the  old  mill.  In  the  late  spring  of  1858,  a  detachment  of 
Rangers,  accompanied  by  friendly  Tonkawa  Indian  scouts,  came  up  the  Red  River  and 
attacked  a  Comanche  village  which  was  then  on  Little  Creek.  Prohebits  Quasho   (Iron 


298  OKLAHOMA 

Jacket),  the  band's  war  chief,  rode  out  to  greet  the  attackers,  mounted  on  an  iron-gray 
horse  and  wearing  a  rusty  coat  of  mail — armor  which  had  probably  been  taken  from  a 
Spanish  explorer  some  generations  before  and  handed  down  to  each  succeeding  Comanche 
chieftain  as  an  insignia  of  leadership  and  invulnerability.  Iron  Jacket  courageously  braved 
the  fire  of  the  rangers,  the  bullets  having  no  effect  other  than  to  cause  him  to  swerve  back 
and  forth.  He  passed  unscathed  through  the  barrage,  warranting — even  to  some  of  the 
Rangers — the  Comanches'  belief  that  he  bore  a  charmed  life.  But  the  bullet  of  one  of  the 
Tonkawa  scouts  found  its  mark  in  his  neck,  exposed  for  a  moment  as  he  abruptly  turned 
his  horse,  and  Iron  Jacket  fell  dead.  The  Comanches  were  easily  routed  after  the  death  of 
their  leader. 

US  60  crosses  the  Texas  Line  at  136.1  m.,  twenty-seven  miles  northeast 
of  Canadian,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


Mii^ ^  ^ j^O/^^ j^O/?^ ^ , jtsOiii ... ^^"i . .. ^^11 . , v^^"i . . ^^/H 


Tour  5 


Junction    US    271 — McAlester  —  Oklahoma    City  —  Watonga  —  Seiling; 
299.5  m.  US  270. 

Roadbed  alternately  paved  and  graveled. 

The  Rock  Island  Ry.  parallels  the  route  between  Junction  US  271  and  Watonga. 

Accommodations  available  chiefly  in  towns  and  cities;  few  tourist  camps. 

Both  in  the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  state,  US  270  passes  through 
rugged  country — mountainous  and  wooded,  bald  and  hilly.  In  the  middle 
section  are  fertile  valleys  where  busy  cities  have  grown  steadily  from  Terri- 
torial villages  or  shot  up  abruptly  after  the  discovery  of  oil. 

Constantly  changing,  too,  are  the  racial  strains  of  the  people.  At  its  east- 
ern end,  where  US  270  tops  the  northern  edge  of  the  peaceful,  green  Winding 
Stair  mountain  range,  the  Choctaw  Indians  once  established  a  republic. 
Earlier,  intrepid  French  explorers  had  left  their  stamp  in  the  naming  of  the 
Fourche  Maline  and  the  Sans  Bois  foothills.  Later,  swarthy  Italians  came  to 
mine  the  valuable  coal  deposits  of  the  section.  West  of  Mc.\lcster,  US  270 
passes  through  land  formerly  belonging  to  the  unhappy  and  sometimes  tur- 
bulent Seminoles,  the  hospitable  Creeks,  and  the  smaller  groups  of  Shawnees, 
Potawatomis,  and  the  recalcitrant  Kickapoos.  Here  the  route  crosses  one  of 
the  greatest  oil  fields  of  the  state. 

Northwest  of  El  Reno  are  strange  formations  of  bare  gypsum  hills, 
through  which  the  North  Canadian  River  cuts  a  gash  to  reveal  peculiarly 
bcautilul  red  soil,  heightened  and  contrasted  by  growths  of  cedar  trees.  The 
Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Indians  once  ranged  there,  and  later  the  abstaining 


TOUR  5        299 

Amish,  Dunkard,  and  River  Brethren  flocks  made  their  homes  in  isolated 
communities.  Calm  and  unchanged,  they  adhere  to  the  tenets  and  customs 
of  their  forefathers. 

Section  a.  JUNCTION  US  271  to  McALESTER,  59.9  m.  US  270 

US  270  branches  west  from  its  junction,  0  w.,  with  US  271  (see  Tour  7) 
at  a  point  14.3  miles  southwest  of  Poteau  (see  Tour  7). 

Plans  have  been  drawn  for  the  construction  of  a  dam  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Fourche  Maline  and  the  Poteau  rivers  a  few  miles  southeast  of  this  junc- 
tion, creating  a  large  lake  which  would  parallel  the  highway.  No  definite 
action  (1941)  has  been  taken,  however. 

In  the  nineteenth  century,  this  wooded  and  mountainous  section  was 
dotted  with  many  Choctaw  setdements,  but  today  only  scattered  piles  of  stone 
mark  their  sites.  After  the  coming  of  the  railroads,  coal  mining  was  an  im- 
portant industry,  but  with  the  decreased  demand  for  coal  and  the  concerted 
development  of  more  productive  areas,  these  mines  are  being  worked  on  only 
a  small  scale.  Agriculture  and  tourist  trade  are  the  industrial  mainstays  of 
the  region. 

RED  OAK,  14.2  m.  (590  alt.,  484  pop.),  is  a  small  farming  center  which 
was  named  for  a  large  red  oak  tree  that  stood  in  the  center  of  the  town 
when  this  region  was  the  Choctaw  Nation.  The  Indians  held  district  court 
there  and  used  the  oak  as  a  whipping  post. 

The  most  serious  political  disturbance  in  the  history  of  the  Choctaw 
Nation  had  its  finale  at  Red  Oak  when  Silan  Lewis  was  executed  for  his  part 
in  the  Nationalist  uprising  at  Antlers  (see  Tour  7),  following  the  election  of 
1892.  The  fuUblood  Lewis,  who  had  once  been  sheriff  of  his  own  district, 
upheld  the  traditional  Choctaw  honor  when  he  came  striding  in  from  his 
woodland  home  on  the  appointed  day,  November  5,  1894,  and  quietly  sat 
with  back  against  the  tree  to  await  his  death  from  the  firing  squad. 

WILBURTON,  27.1  m.  (657  alt.,  1,925  pop.),  was  named  for  Will 
Burton,  a  contractor  employed  in  the  construction  of  the  Choctaw,  Oklahoma, 
and  Gulf  Railroad  (now  Rock  Island)  through  this  vicinity  in  1890.  After 
completion  of  the  railroad,  coal  mines  were  opened  near  Wilburton  and  much 
coal  was  shipped  from  here  for  a  number  of  years;  today  (1941),  mining 
operations  have  greatly  decreased. 

Right  from  Wilburton  on  State  2,  a  graveled  highway,  is  the  CHOCTAW  INDIAN 
COMMUNITY  SETTLEMENT  PROJECT,  1.7  m.,  established  in  1933  as  a  rehabilitation 
measure.  The  settlement,  which  is  operated  under  the  colony  plan,  was  built  on  2,200  acres 
of  unsold  mineral  land  belonging  to  the  Choctaws.  The  community  hall  and  offices  are 
grouped  at  the  south  end  of  the  area,  and  the  cottage  homes  are  located  on  twenty-acre 
tracts;  the  construction  work  was  done  co-operatively  by  the  Indians,  who  share  their  farm 
implements  and  other  equipment.  The  project  is  supervised  by  the  Indian  agent  at  Wilburton. 

ROBBER'S  CAVE  STATE  P.VRK,  -4.3  m.,  a  mountainous  tract  of  8,400  acres,  is  one 
of  the  largest  recreation  areas  owned  by  the  state.  The  canyons,  pine-covered  hills,  streams, 
and  huge  rocks  of  the  Sans  Bois  range  are  visible  from  the  winding  highway  and  the  many 
foot  trails.  Six  miles  of  the  sparkling,  clear  Fourche  Maline  Creek,  running  swiftly  over 
rock  bottom,  are  within  the  park;  in  places,  the  stream  has  cut  deep  gorges,  lofty  cliffs,  and 
imposing  bluffs.  The  Fourche  Maline  has  been  damned  to  form  Lake  Carlton,  a  fifty-two- 


300  OKLAHOMA 

acre  basin;  work  on  the  lake,  the  grounds,  and  recreation  facilities  was  done  by  CCC  workers 
under  the  direction  of  the  National  Park  Service.  The  entire  area  is  enclosed  with  a  seven- 
foot,  all-steel  fence  because  the  park  has  been  designated  as  a  game  refuge. 

In  the  center  of  the  park  is  the  Tom  Hai.k  Boy  Scout  Camp  (No  trespassing;  permis- 
sion to  camp  tnay  he  obtained  from  caretaker  at  headquarters  building) ,  7.6  m.,  covering 
140  acres  adjoining  Fourchc  Maline  Creek.  The  camp  was  named  for  Tom  Hale,  a  generous 
contributor  to  welfare  projects  for  the  young  people  of  southeastern  Oklahoma,  and  has 
accommodations  for  175  boys.  The  buildings  were  constructed  of  native  stone  at  an  esti- 
mated cost  of  $50,000. 

Just  north  of  the  scout  camp  is  Robber's  Cave,  for  which  the  park  was  named.  Steps 
have  been  carved  to  the  mouth  one  hundred  feet  up  the  side  of  a  sandstone  cliff.  Within  the 
cave  are  many  chambers,  tunnels,  and  labyrinths  supposed  to  have  been  used  as  hiding  places 
by  outlaws.  Legend  has  it  that  loot  once  cached  by  early-day  robbers  and  highwaymen  is 
still  buried  in  the  cave,  and  many  treasure-seekers  visit  here  yearly.  One  story  is  told  of 
"Fiddlin'  Jim,"  an  admirer  of  the  notorious  Belle  Starr  (see  Tour  2)  who  was  slain  here 
by  a  jealous  rival  as  he  sat  playing  his  fiddle  at  the  entrance  of  the  cave.  Natives  say  that  a 
weird  melody  is  heard  when  the  harvest  moon  shines — "Fiddlin'  Jim"  is  playing  again. 

At  28.9  m.  on  US  270  is  the  western  junction  with  State  2. 

Left  on  State  2  to  the  Spanish  War  Veterans'  Colony,  8  m.,  founded  in  1936  and 
controlled  by  the  Oklahoma  group  of  the  United  Spanish  War  Veterans.  The  760-acre  tract 
is  owned  by  the  organization,  which  retains  the  deed  to  the  land  although  a  veteran  and 
his  family  may,  for  a  $5.00  fee,  build  a  house  here  and  remain  for  life.  More  than  thirty 
houses,  a  large  administration  building,  and  a  central  office  building  have  been  constructed 
of  native  stone  and  pine.  Individual  gardens,  a  communal  orchard,  wild  fruit  and  berries, 
good  fishing  streams,  and  free  pasturage  for  their  cattle  provide  the  colonists  the  most  needed 
foodstuff. 

The  Eastern  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College, 
30.1  m.,  is  a  state  junior  college  (R),  founded  in  1909  as  a  School  of  Mines 
and  Metallurgy.  Wilburton  citizens  gave  sixty  acres  of  land  to  establish  the 
school,  which  was  a  mining  engineering  institution  until  it  was  closed  for 
two  years  during  the  first  World  War.  After  the  war,  the  Federal  govern- 
ment operated  it  for  several  years  as  an  industrial  training  school  for  dis- 
abled veterans.  In  1927,  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Eastern  Oklahoma 
College,  and  a  general  college  curriculum  was  established  in  addition  to  voca- 
tional secondary  work.  In  1935,  the  state  legislature  authorized  the  school  to 
care  for  and  educate  dependent  youths  and  orphans;  many  counties  are  now 
taking  advantage  of  this  benefit  and  sending  deserving  youths  to  the  school. 
The  name  of  the  college  was  changed  again  in  1939  to  conform  to  the  specific 
courses  now  being  offered  in  addition  to  the  regular  program.  A  270-acre 
farm,  well-equipped  machine  shop,  men's  and  women's  dormitories,  admin- 
istration building,  and  dairy  barn  comprise  the  campus  unit. 

GOWEN,  38.2  m.  (691  alt.,  633  pop.),  a  coal-mining  center,  was  once 
the  home  of  the  popular  Negro  screen  actor,  Stcpin  Fctchit  (Lincoln  Perry). 
The  one-mile  walk  from  his  home  to  the  school  here  was  "jes  too  much,"  so 
the  story  goes,  and  he  rarely  attended;  but  he  so  successfully  capitalized  his 
laziness  that  he  rose  from  a  $3-a-week  job  with  a  medicine  show  to  his  pres- 
ent (1941)  status  as  a  well-known  movie  character  actor.  His  screen  name 
has  evolved  from  the  consistent  answer  he  makes  to  a  request  for  action,  "I'll 
stcp'n  fetchit  purty  soon." 

At  45  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  narrow  lane. 


TOUR  5         301 

Right  on  this  lane  to  the  Jones  Academy,  0.5  m.,  an  Indian  boys'  school  established 
by  the  Choctaw  tribe  in  1891  as  a  companion  school  to  the  Tuskahoma  Female  Academy 
(see  Tour  7).  The  institution  was  named  for  Wilson  N.  Jones,  then  principal  chief  of  the 
Choctaws,  and  became  the  most  important  of  the  tribal  boys'  schools  after  the  Spencer 
Academy  near  Soper  (see  Tour  6)  burned  in  1896.  The  Choctaw  Indians  still  own  the 
buildings  and  grounds,  but  the  academy  is  at  present  (1941)  supported  by  Federal  appro- 
priations. The  course  includes  vocational  and  agricultural  training. 

In  this  vicinity,  Bernard  de  la  Harpe,  the  French  explorer,  camped  in 
1719  during  his  expedition  to  the  Arkansas  River,  where  he  hoped  to  make 
treaties  with  Indian  tribes. 

HARTSHORNE,  45.4  m.  (705  alt.,  2,596  pop.),  and  HAILEYVILLE, 
47.3  m.  (612  alt.,  1,183  pop.),  were  both  established  about  1890  and  platted 
in  1902,  and  both  have  coal  mining  as  their  principal  industry.  Hartshorne 
was  named  for  Dr.  Hartshorne,  an  early  setder,  and  Haileyville  for  Dr.  David 
Morris  Hailey  (1841-1919),  who  emigrated  to  Oklahoma  from  Louisiana 
after  the  Civil  War.  Dr.  Hailey  assisted  in  sinking  the  first  coal  mine  shaft 
in  the  McAlester  district  of  the  large  Pittsburg  County  field.  His  portrait 
hangs  in  the  State  Confederate  Memorial  Hall  of  the  Oklahoma  Historical 
Society  Building  in  Oklahoma  City. 

Since  both  towns  have  depended  almost  entirely  on  coal  mining  for  live- 
lihood, populations  and  community  wealth  have  decreased  since  the  cessation 
of  large-scale  mining  activities.  Between  Hartshorne  and  Haileyville,  resi- 
dences and  shops  line  the  highway,  and  an  interurban  service  is  maintained 
for  the  short  distance.  Farming,  lumbering,  and  livestock-raising  have  to  a 
certain  extent  replaced  the  mining  industry  in  the  district. 

A  pioneer  coal-mining  setdement,  ALDERSON,  55.3  m.  (680  alt.,  340 
pop.),  was  the  scene  of  an  unusual  labor  situation  in  1894.  The  Choctaw 
Nation  required  the  mining  corporations  to  pay  a  small  monthly  tax  for  each 
employee.  As  the  result  of  a  strike  by  the  miners  over  a  25  per  cent  wage  re- 
duction, the  company  refused  to  pay  the  tax;  and  the  workers  thereby  auto- 
matically became  intruders  in  Indian  Territory.  The  Choctaw  Chief  then 
asked  that  the  miners  be  removed  from  his  nation  since  the  tribe  received  no 
royalties  when  the  mines  were  closed.  The  appeal  passed  through  the  offices 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and 
finally  to  President  Cleveland,  who  approved  it.  Three  companies  of  infantry 
and  two  of  cavalry  were  dispatched  to  deport  the  group;  Alderson  was  desig- 
nated as  troop  headquarters  and  all  arrested  miners  were  brought  here.  Ap- 
proximately two  hundred  workers  and  their  families  were  loaded  into  box- 
cars and  taken  to  Jenson,  Arkansas,  the  nearest  town  outside  of  Indian  Terri- 
tory from  this  point. 

The  governor  of  Arkansas  protested  against  the  action,  and  Italy  and 
Great  Britain,  since  many  of  the  evicted  miners  were  citizens  of  these  coun- 
tries, also  protested  through  the  State  Department.  But  the  strike  was  broken, 
mines  resumed  operations  shordy,  and  royalties  once  more  poured  into  the 
Choctaw  treasury. 

KREBS,  58.4  m.  (715  alt.,  1,436  pop.),  was  built  in  the  midst  of  coal 
mines  that  are  now  (1941)  abandoned,  and  great  piles  of  waste  rock  may  still 


302  OKLAHOMA 

be  seen  throughout  the  town.  Many  ItaHan  miners,  who  first  came  when  the 
mines  were  flourishing,  are  engaged  in  farming  today. 

Wide  differences  in  the  background  of  these  early  settlers  and  the  con- 
fusing circumstances  of  rule  by  Choctaw  law.  Federal  courts,  and  the  Indian 
agent  gave  the  town  an  unsavory  reputation  during  Territorial  days.  Legal 
restrictions  regarding  the  importation,  sale,  and  manufacture  of  liquor  dif- 
fered and  allowed  so  many  loopholes  for  violation  that  Krcbs  became  known 
for  its  production  of  a  drink  called  Choctaw  or  "choc"  beer,  made  of  hops, 
tobacco,  fishberries,  barley,  and  alcohol.  In  1895,  Congress  enacted  a  law 
which  was  sufficiently  comprehensive  to  override  all  previous  judgments,  and 
"choc"  beer  was  finally  made  illegal. 

A  drug  store,  established  here  in  1888,  is  still  operating.  It  has  been  the 
scene  of  many  emergency  treatments,  for  in  Indian  Territory  days  there  were 
no  hospitals,  and  numerous  injuries,  gas  burns,  and  explosions  occurred  in 
the  near-by  mines.  Vaseline  was  stocked  in  five-hundred-pound  quantities, 
raw  linseed  oil  in  fifty-barrel  lots,  and  iodoform  in  ten-pound  lots.  One  par- 
ticular explosion  caused  by  blackdamp  in  1892  kept  the  store  open  day  and 
night  for  two  weeks.  A  story  is  told  about  the  tattered  clothes  of  an  Italian 
victim  of  this  tragedy;  in  their  haste,  rescuers  hung  the  articles  on  a  fence, 
where  they  flapped  in  the  wind  for  days  until  the  brother  of  the  man  identi- 
fied them  and,  upon  examination,  found  $975  sewed  in  the  ragged  jumper. 

McALESTER,  59.9  m.  (718  alt.,  12,401  pop.),  started  as  a  tent  store  at 
the  crossroads  of  two  well-traveled  Indian  Territory  roads,  the  California 
Trail  and  the  Texas  Road.  The  heavy  traffic  of  the  Texas  Road,  used  until 
1872  when  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  built  tracks  almost  parallel 
with  it,  and  the  influx  of  adventurers  along  the  California  Trail  after  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  1849  made  a  flourishing  business  for  James  J.  McAlester, 
who  established  the  crossroads  store  in  1870. 

McAlester  is  also  given  credit  for  the  discovery  of  coal  in  Pittsburg 
County.  A  geologist's  memorandum  book,  telling  of  rich  deposits  of  the 
mineral,  had  fallen  into  his  hands  and  this  resulted  in  his  coming  to  Indian 
Territory.  After  his  arrival,  McAlester  married  a  Chickasaw  girl  and  thus 
became  a  citizen  of  the  Choctaw  Nation,  since  by  the  treaties  of  1837  and 
1855  the  two  tribes  owned  their  land  in  common  and  enjoyed  full  citizenship 
rights  in  either  nation.  When  the  coming  of  the  railroad  made  mining  opera- 
tions possible,  he  and  other  Choctaw  citizens  began  extracting  the  coal  under 
a  Choctaw  constitutional  provision  allowing  a  citizen  the  right  to  mine  for 
a  mile  in  every  direction  any  mineral  discovered  by  him.  Controversy  resulted 
when  the  Choctaw  government  claimed  the  royalty  which  McAlester's  group 
began  to  receive  from  the  lessees.  Legality  of  the  transaction  was  approved 
by  the  tribal  court,  but  Chief  Coleman  Cole  expressed  his  opposition  to  the 
mines  by  sentencing  McAlester  and  three  of  the  co-owners  to  death.  They 
escaped,  however,  with  the  aid  of  their  guard,  and  a  compromise  later  settled 
the  affair  by  giving  half  the  royalty  to  the  Choctaw  Nation  and  the  other 
half  to  the  mine  owners.  McAlester  later  became  lieutenant  governor  of 
Oklahoma  (1911-15). 

The  town  which  grew  up  around  the  founder's  store  is  now  called  North 


TOUR  5        303 

McAlester;  the  main  part  of  present-day  McAlester  developed  later  when  the 
Rock  Island  Railway  built  to  a  junction  with  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas 
line.  The  city  is  laid  out  over  a  series  of  hills,  with  the  main  business  district 
on  one  hill.  US  270,  which  becomes  Grand  Avenue,  one  of  McAlester's  im- 
portant thoroughfares,  passes  the  Pittsburg  County  Courthouse,  Grand 
Avenue  and  2d  Street,  and  the  chief  hotels.  The  red-brick  courthouse  is  con- 
structed in  a  U-shape  around  an  elevated  concrete  court  and  sits  flush  with 
the  street. 

The  Ohoyahoma  Clubhouse,  North  Main  Street  and  Park  Avenue,  is 
an  unpretentious  frame  building  with  porch,  lean-to,  and  stone  chimney.  It 
was  built  in  1876  and  served  as  the  Tobucksy  County  Courthouse  in  the  days 
of  the  Choctaw  Nation.  After  the  absorption  of  the  Choctaws  into  United 
States  citizenry,  the  building  fell  into  disuse;  recently  it  was  purchased  and 
restored  by  the  Ohoyahoma  Club,  a  local  organization  of  Indian  women.  The 
club  maintains  a  Museum  (free)  in  the  building  with  a  large  collection  of 
authentic  Indian  articles  on  display. 

The  Indian  Scottish  Rite  Consistory,  Adams  Avenue  and  2d  Street, 
one  of  the  two  consistories  in  Oklahoma,  is  a  huge,  block-long,  cream-colored 
brick  and  stone  building  elaborately  decorated  with  algonite  and  Carthage 
stone.  A  great  copper  sphere,  rising  fifty  feet  above  the  roof,  contains  multi- 
colored lenses  and  when  lighted  may  be  seen  for  several  miles.  Will  Rogers 
received  Scottish  Rite  degrees  here  in  1908. 

Meat  packing,  cotton-oil  milling,  macaroni  manufacture,  lumbering, 
and  dry  gas  drilling  make  up  the  city's  important  commerce. 

McAlester  is  at  the  junction  with  US  69  (see  Tour  8). 

Right  from  McAlester  on  the  graveled  Rainbow  Highway  to  the  Oklahoma  State 
Penitentiary  (9-11:30  a.m.  and  1-3  p.m.  Tues.  and  Fri.;  guide  provided),  1  m.,  where 
more  than  three  thousand  prisoners  are  confined  in  the  ten-acre  tract  enclosed  by  a  fourteen- 
foot  concrete  wall.  The  main  structures  within  the  wall  spread  out  fanwise  from  the  large 
Administration  Building  facing  south.  The  1,985-acre  farm  west  of  the  penitentiary  is 
worked  by  the  inmates.  There  is  a  branch  of  the  Central  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane  (see 
Norman)  on  state-owned  land  adjoining  the  penitentiary;  only  senile  dementia  cases  are 
treated  here.  Rainbow  Highway  parallels  the  east  wall  of  the  penitentiary  and  curves  around 
a  long  hill  to  a  gateway,  2.4  m. 

Right  through  this  gateway  to  LAKE  NO.  1  (camp  sites,  fishing),  0.2  m.;  LAKE 
NO.  2  is  separated  from  it  by  a  small  dam. 

The  main  side  route  continues  to  a  junction  with  a  graveled  road,  8  m.;  L.  here  a 
short  distance  at  the  top  of  a  steep  hill,  overlooking  Lake  McAlester,  are  the  Rainbow 
Gardens  (apply  for  adm.,  319  E.  Grand,  McAlester) ,  on  a  beautifully  landscaped  seventy- 
five-acre  estate  owned  and  controlled  by  the  girls'  organization,  the  Order  of  the  Rainbow. 
This  international  character-building  society  for  girls  from  thirteen  to  twenty  years  of  age 
was  founded  in  1922  by  Rev.  W.  Mark  Sexson,  of  McAlester,  under  the  sponsorship  of  the 
Order  of  the  Eastern  Star.  The  supreme  Office  of  the  Rainbow  order  is  in  McAlester;  in 
addition  to  the  United  States  units,  Canada,  Australia,  Alaska,  and  the  Canal  Zone  have 
chapters. 

The  dining  hall,  kitchen,  sleeping  quarters,  counselor's  home,  bathhouses,  and  the 
caretaker's  cottage  are  all  built  of  native  stone  and  provide  accommodations  for  fifty  girls. 
The  gardens  are  set  in  the  natural  rock  formations  of  the  hilly  tract,  with  many  transplanted 
flowers  dotting  the  available  spaces  of  soil  between  the  sloping  ledges.  From  the  Temple  of 
Silence,  a  stone  clubhouse  in  which  the  floors  are  painted  with  a  giant  rainbow,  the  Path 
of  Initiation  skirts  a  hill,  leads  into  the  heart  of  a  canyon,  and  then  passes  over  the  shoulder  of 


304  OKLAHOMA 

another  hill  to  a  place  representing  (in  ritual)  the  House  of  Gold.  For  ten  days,  while  in 
camp,  the  initiate  spends  a  portion  of  her  time  tracing  a  symbolic  journey  along  the  pathway. 
A  dirt  road  (impassable  in  wet  weather)  starts  at  Lake  McAlester  Dam,  9.1  m.,  and 
encircles  the  thirty-iivc  mile  shore  line  of  LAKl-^  McALl-^STER  (fishing,  50c  a  day).  The  road 
is  fringed  with  cabins,  stores,  and  minnow  ponds,  and  the  lake  is  kept  stocked  with  several 
varieties  of  game  fish  by  the  city  of  McAlester,  which  maintains  culture  ponds  near  by.  The 
best  fishing  is  said  to  be  from  boats  in  the  center  of  the  2,500-acrc  lake. 

Section  b.  McALESTER  to  HARRAH,  112  m.  US  270 

From  McALESTER,  0  m.,  US  270  angles  to  the  northwest,  passing 
through  widespread  oil  fields,  including  the  Seminole  and  Oklahoma  City 
areas,  the  two  largest  in  the  state.  Drilling  rigs — mosdy  the  slim  130-foot 
steel  derricks — oil-field  camps,  and  tool  shops  are  seen  frequently  on  both 
sides  of  the  highway. 

The  huge  whitewashed,  stone  chimney  of  White  Chimney,  16  m.,  a  log 
house  (R)  said  to  have  been  constructed  in  1828,  served  as  a  guidepost  on  an 
old  wagon  road  through  this  vicinity.  An  Indian  named  Honubby  built  it, 
but  after  he  moved  away  it  became  a  rendezvous  for  outlaws.  Numerous 
bullet  holes  are  visible  in  the  walls  and  posts,  substantiating  the  story  that 
many  crimes  were  committed  in  the  house;  a  recent  tenant  is  said  to  have 
unearthed  human  bones  while  digging  a  cellar. 

At  31.1  m.  is  the  southern  junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9),  which 
unites  with  US  270  as  the  route  makes  an  abrupt  turn  north.  At  40.8  m.,  the 
northern  junction  with  US  75,  US  270  turns  sharply  westward. 

HOLDENVILLE,  49.1  m.  (866  alt.,  6,632  pop.),  the  seat  of  Hughes 
County,  is  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Greater  Seminole  oil  field.  Farm  trade 
also  contributes  to  the  town's  business  activities. 

A  small  combination  store  and  post  office  called  Fentress  was  operated 
about  two  miles  from  the  site  of  the  present  town  when  the  Choctaw,  Okla- 
homa, and  Gulf  Railroad  (now  Rock  Island)  surveyed  the  townsite  in  1895. 
When  the  survey  was  completed,  the  Post  Office  Department  designated  the 
new  site,  Fentress,  and  so  it  was  called  for  a  short  time  until  the  name  of 
Holdenville  was  approved. 

The  Hughes  County  Courthouse,  a  native  stone  structure,  housed  a 
Federal  court  in  Indian  Territorial  days  and  has  served  as  the  county  govern- 
mental building  since  statehood. 

Left  from  Holdenville  on  asphalt-paved  State  68  to  LAKE  HOLDENVILLE  (fishing, 
boating),  4.5  m.,  a  550-acre  body  of  water  (L),  with  a  well-timbered  fourteen-mile  shore 
line. 

At  6  n2.  is  the  Site  of  Fort  Holmes  (R),  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Litde  River 
near  its  confluence  with  the  South  Canadian.  Fort  Holmes  or  Fort  Edwards,  as  it  later  came 
to  be  known,  was  established  in  1834  under  the  supervision  of  Lieutenant  Theopolis  Hunter 
Holmes,  an  officer  of  the  dragoon  expedition  that  had  been  sent  out  from  Fort  Gibson  (see 
Tour  3)  to  meet  the  Plains  Indians  and  make  treaties  with  them.  Fort  Holmes  was  soon 
abandoned  but  a  firm  of  traders,  Edwards  and  Shelton,  established  a  trading  post  just  across 
the  river  and  for  years  it  flourished  as  Edwards'  Settlement  and  Trading  House  or  Fort 
Edwards.  Jesse  Chisholm,  half-blood  Cherokee  and  famous  guide  and  scout  for  whom  the 
well-travticd  Chisholm  Trail  (see  Tour  11)  was  named,  married  Edwards'  daughter  and 
lived  at  the  post  for  a  time.  It  was  on  the  busy  California  Trail  and  was  also  a  favorite 
trading  place  for  many  of  the  southwestern  Indian  tribes  who  not  only  brought  furs  and 


TOUR  5        305 

pelts  to  trade  but  also  white  prisoners.  The  Comanche  Indians,  in  particular,  trafficked  in 
human  beings,  usually  kidnapping  the  whites  at  isolated  settlements  in  Texas  and  ex- 
changing them  for  merchandise  at  trading  posts  or  for  ransom  at  Fort  Gibson. 

Between  Holdenville  and  Wewoka  there  are  many  field  camps  of  the 
oil  companies  of  the  Greater  Seminole  Field.  The  comparatively  shallow  wells 
are  equipped  with  shorter  derricks  than  those  seen  in  the  Oklahoma  City 
Field  (see  Oklahoma  City). 

WEWOKA,  60.4  m.  (788  alt.,  10,315  pop.),  the  seat  of  Seminole  County, 
was  named  for  one  of  the  former  Creek  tribal  towns  in  the  East;  when  the 
Seminole  Indians,  who  were  affiliated  for  a  time  with  the  Creek  confederacy, 
branched  from  the  league,  they  also  had  an  eastern  Wewoka  town,  and 
transferred  the  name  to  this  site  in  Indian  Territory  at  the  time  of  their 
removal. 

A  controversy  developed  in  1845  over  the  Seminoles'  migration  to  the 
Territory.  They  agreed  to  settle  on  Creek  land  and  under  Creek  government; 
but  the  comparatively  free  status  of  their  Negro  slaves  was  distasteful  to  the 
Creeks,  whose  own  slaves  were  held  in  stricter  bondage.  The  Negroes  among 
the  Seminoles  had  a  status  similar  to  that  of  renters  or  sharecroppers  of 
today;  they  lived  in  separate  villages  and  enjoyed  equal  liberty,  paying  a  por- 
tion of  their  crops  for  the  use  of  the  Seminole  land.  They  could  even  own 
land  on  which  their  masters  made  no  claim.  When  the  United  States  Gen- 
eral Thomas  S.  Jesup  was  conducting  his  campaign  to  subdue  the  Seminole 
tribe  in  Florida,  he  had  promised  the  Creek  Indians  that  they  might  have  all 
the  Seminole  slaves  they  could  capture.  But  the  Federal  Attorney  General 
later  ruled  that  all  Negroes  taken  under  Jesup's  order  were  to  be  restored  to 
the  Seminoles,  and  286  Negroes  from  Florida  were  accordingly  delivered  to 
a  group  of  Seminole  chiefs  at  Fort  Gibson  in  January,  1849. 

The  Creek  Indians  were  resentful  over  the  decision  and  passed  a  law 
declaring  that  no  town  of  free  or  limited  slavery  Negroes  could  exist  in  their 
country  and  also  forbidding  the  possession  of  arms  by  slaves.  The  Negroes 
had  already  settled  in  the  vicinity  of  present  Wewoka  and,  aware  of  the  hos- 
tility of  the  Creeks,  had  armed  themselves.  On  June  24,  1849,  an  armed  party 
of  Creeks,  with  some  whites  and  Cherokees,  came  to  Wewoka  to  seize  several 
Negroes  whom  they  claimed  were  rightfully  their  slaves.  Many  of  the  Semi- 
nole Indians  prepared  to  aid  in  the  defense  of  the  Negro  town,  but  troops 
from  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas,  intervened  in  time  to  stop  the  battle.  A  council 
was  held,  and  a  few  of  the  Negroes  claimed  by  the  Creeks  were  turned  over 
to  them;  the  threat  of  a  real  war  between  the  two  tribes  subsided. 

As  an  aftermath  of  the  dispute  and  in  accordance  with  a  treaty  signed  in 
1856  by  the  Creeks,  the  Seminoles,  and  the  United  States,  the  Seminole  tribe 
was  assigned  a  separate  domain.  When  they  purchased  their  present  tract  of 
land  in  1866,  a  mistake  was  made  in  surveying  the  boundary  line  but  it  was 
not  discovered  until  after  Wewoka,  which  straddles  the  line,  had  been  estab- 
lished as  the  Seminole  capital.  The  boundary  between  the  Creek  and  Semi- 
nole nations  has  remained  a  subject  of  friction  even  since  allotment,  mainly 
because  of  public  improvements,  like  schools,  which  were  built  by  the  Sem- 
inoles on  land  found  later  to  belong  to  the  Creeks.  Present-day  Seminole 


306  OKLAHOMA 

Street  (one-half  block  east  of  Main  Street)  in  Wevvoka  was  the  last-named 
true  boundary  between  the  two  nations. 

The  government  set  up  by  the  Seminoles  in  their  new  land  in  1866  was 
the  most  primitive  of  those  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes.  The  principal  chief, 
his  assistant,  the  treasurer,  and  the  superintendent  of  schools  were  elected  by 
the  people,  and  a  council,  composed  of  fourteen  clan  chiefs,  assumed  both 
the  legislative  and  judicial  duties.  The  only  record  of  law  was  written  in  a 
book  kept  by  the  chief.  Twenty  "lighthorsemen"  performed  police  duty  and 
also  officiated  at  floggings  and  executions. 

The  chief  and  the  treasurer  personally  owned  trading  posts  where  they 
extended  credit  to  enrolled  citizens  in  anticipation  of  the  per  capita  payments 
due  them. 

The  railroad  through  Wewoka  was  constructed  in  1899,  and  a  townsite 
laid  out  shortly  after,  but  white  settlers  did  not  arrive  until  1902.  Though  oil 
was  first  discovered  there  in  1912,  the  region  of  the  Greater  Seminole  Field 
was  not  developed  until  1926.  Wewoka's  population  doubled  within  sixty 
days  at  that  time,  and  for  several  years  it  ranked  as  one  of  the  principal  oil 
towns  of  the  state. 

Seminole  County  and  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Wewoka  is  the  foremost 
corn-growing  region  of  Oklahoma;  it  has  won  first  prize  almost  consistently 
at  the  State  Fair  since  1926,  when  the  Oklahoma  Silvermine  species  was  first 
produced  in  the  county.  It  is  estimated  that  fifteen  hundred  bushels  of  Silver- 
mine  seed  have  been  shipped  to  other  states  and  foreign  countries  since  that 
year;  some  of  the  seed  corn  has  sold  for  as  high  as  $5.00  a  bushel. 

The  County  Courthouse,  Wewoka  Avenue  on  Courthouse  Square,  is 
a  modern,  three-story  brick  building;  similar  in  design  is  the  City  Hall, 
204  South  Wewoka  Avenue. 

An  old  pecan  tree.  Courthouse  Square,  was  used  as  a  Tribal  Whipping 
Post  from  1899  until  statehood  (1907);  it  replaced  the  original  "execution 
tree,"  the  stump  of  which  is  now  (1941)  on  exhibition  in  the  Oklahoma  His- 
torical Society  Building  (see  Oklahoma  City). 

Right  from  Wewoka  on  paved  State  56,  1  m.,  to  the  last  Council  Hocse  of  the 
Seminoles,  now  used  as  a  residence  on  the  Youngblood  farm.  It  was  built  about  1890  and 
replaced  the  brush-covered  arbor  that  had  previously  served  as  the  tribal  capitol.  Here,  too, 
were  the  campgrounds  and  the  big  spring  of  the  Seminoles. 

Right  from  the  former  Council  House  to  the  old  "Line  Store,"  1  w.,  built  about  1867 
by  Ard  Brothers  to  serve  the  traffic  on  the  route  westward  from  Fort  Smith  to  a  terminus 
on  the  Wichita  Indian  reservation.  Present-day  Lawton  is  on  the  site  of  this  terminus. 

At  62  tn.  is  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  LAKE  WEWOKA  (swimming,  fishing,  free  campgrounds, 
recreational  facilities).  \A  m.  The  lake,  three  miles  long,  supplies  water  for  Wewoka. 

In  the  valley  midway  between  the  North  and  South  Canadian  rivers  is 
SEMINOLE,  72.4  m.  (863  alt.  11,547  pop.),  named  for  the  Seminole  Indians, 
who  originally  were  a  branch  of  the  Creek  confederation.  Their  habit  of  liv- 
ing apart  gave  them  the  name  Seminole,  which  means  "wild"  or.  literally, 
"those  who  camp  at  a  distance." 

When  the  Mekusukey  Mission  was  built  three  miles  southwest  of  the 


TOUR  5        307 

site  of  the  present  city  in  1890,  shipments  of  freight  for  the  mission  were  billed 
to  a  "Mr.  Tidmore,"  and  until  the  Post  Office  Department  officially  named 
it  Seminole,  the  sleepy  little  settlement  was  called  Tidmore.  Cattlemen  of 
the  surrounding  territory  made  it  a  trading  center,  but  from  statehood  until 
1926  Seminole  remained  just  a  small  agricultural  community. 

In  that  year  one  of  the  greatest  oil  pools  in  the  history  of  the  nation  was 
tapped.  Overnight  the  population  jumped  to  several  thousand,  and  the  usual 
meager  country  town  facilities  were  strained  to  the  utmost  to  care  for  the 
influx  of  people — many  slept  under  pool  tables  while  the  click  of  balls  went 
on  ceaselessly,  others  slept  in  motion  picture  houses,  and  thousands  walked 
the  streets;  the  water  supply  was  soon  depleted  and  no  one  bathed,  for  the 
precious  fluid  had  to  be  hauled  from  a  distance  and  the  price  was  exorbitant; 
fabulous  rentals  ranged  from  |400  a  month  for  a  basement  and  $200  for  a 
barn  to  $50  for  one  room  in  a  smokehouse;  farm  produce  was  scarce  and 
commanded  "Klondike  Gold  Rush"  prices,  for  farmers  had  exchanged  the 
plow  for  the  drilling  rig. 

For  six  months  during  1926,  the  Rock  Island  Railway  did  more  than  a 
million  dollars  worth  of  business  in  Seminole;  it  was  claimed  that  only  the 
great  shipping  center  at  Chicago  exceeded  the  town  in  volume  of  freight 
during  that  period. 

Vice  and  crime  became  the  boom  town's  biggest  problem,  since  gamblers 
and  riffraff  from  every  section  of  the  country  had  been  lured  to  Seminole  by 
the  plentiful  "black  gold."  W.  A.  Bishop,  an  attorney  who  had  lived  peace- 
fully in  a  big  house  on  the  edge  of  town,  suddenly  found  that  a  suburb  called 
Bishop's  Alley  had  mushroomed  at  his  doorstep — and  Bishop's  Alley  soon 
became  known  far  and  wide  for  its  "49er's  Dance  Hall,"  the  "Big  C,"  and  the 
"Palace."  Bootlegging,  dope-peddling,  brawls,  hijacking — with  an  occasional 
mysterious  murder — were  daily  fare  along  the  street.  After  the  killing  of  a 
state  peace  officer,  a  crusade  was  started  by  Seminole  citizens,  backed  by  the 
state  press  and  officials,  and  the  lawless  element  vanished. 

Today  (1941),  Seminole  is  a  substantial  and  civic-minded  city — the 
hectic  days  are  over  for  the  oil  flow  has  been  steadied  by  proration,  a  check 
on  production  and  price  regulation  first  introduced  because  of  the  immense 
reservoir  discovered  in  this  field,  and  later  embodied  in  a  compact  between 
the  oil  states.  Some  scars  from  the  roaring  twenties  still  remain — next  door 
to  beautiful  modern  homes  stand  clapboard  shacks,  thrown  up  in  a  few  hours 
in  the  housing  exigency  of  1926.  The  more  than  fifteen  thousand  people  who 
live  in  company  camps  within  a  ten-mile  radius  of  the  city  make  Seminole  a 
busy  place.  The  oil  field  continues  to  be  the  main  industry;  but  agriculture  is 
also  important  in  this  fertile  region. 

The  Seminole  High  School,  501  N.  Timmons  Street,  a  large  buff  build- 
ing of  concrete  and  stone,  also  houses  the  Semixole  Juxior  College.  This 
coeducational  college  has  an  annual  enrollment  of  approximately  eighty  and 
is  supported  entirely  by  tuition  fees.  It  is  operated  in  connection  with  the  city 
public  schools  and  is  under  the  supervision  of  the  city  superintendent. 

Southwest  from  Seminole  to  the  Site  of  Mekusukey  Mission,  3  m.,  built  in  1890  by 
the  Seminole  Indians  as  part  of  their  tribal  school  system  and  supervised  by  the  Presbyterian 


308  OKLAHOMA 

Church  until  the  Federal  government  took  over  the  Indian  schools  in  1906.  The  institution 
was  closed  in  1930.  The  red  sandstone  brick  used  in  the  construction  of  the  buildings  was 
hauled  overland  by  oxen  from  Muskogee.  An  unexpected  bonus  of  $35  per  capita  was  paid 
to  each  enrolled  member  of  the  tribe  in  1934  when  oil  was  discovered  on  the  school  grounds 
to  which  the  Seminole  tribe  still  retained  the  title.  The  wells  arc  producing  today  (1941), 
though  on  a  minor  scale. 

Seminole  is  at  the  junction  with  State  99  (sec  Tour  14). 
SHAWNEE,  90  m.  (1,008  alt.,  22,053  pop.)  (see  Shawnee). 

Left  from  Shawnee  on  paved  State  18  to  a  cluster  of  buildings,  2.5  m.,  the 
Shawnee  Indian  Sanitorium  (L),  the  Shawnee  Indian  Agency  (R,)  the  old  Shawnee 
Quaker  Mission  (L),  and  the  Mission  Cemetery  (R).  The  entire  center  started  when  the 
Society  of  Friends  built  the  tiny,  white,  frame  Shawnee  Quaker  Mission  in  1885.  Their 
missionaries  had  previously  held  services  in  log  cabins  in  the  Shawnee  lands  until  one  of 
them,  Franklin  Elliot,  completed  this  single-room  church,  set  facing  east  on  a  hill.  The 
lumber  was  hauled  from  Independence  and  Coffcyville,  Kansas,  over  a  route  that  was  un- 
broken much  of  the  way.  The  heavy  iron  bell,  still  hanging  in  the  open  belfry,  was  brought 
overland  in  the  same  manner.  After  white  infiltration  into  the  surrounding  vicinity,  the  two 
races  worshiped  in  the  old  mission  until  it  was  abandoned  in  1924.  Since  then,  it  has  been 
opened  only  once  for  the  wedding  of  the  granddaughter  of  Anthony  Bourbonnais,  one  of 
the  three  Indian  men  who  hauled  the  original  lumber.  In  co-operation  with  the  Quaker 
Church,  which  still  retains  the  title  to  the  accompanying  three  and  one-half  acres  of  land, 
the  Pottawatomie  County  Historical  Society  has  restored  the  old  landmark  and  the  near-by 
Mission  Cemetery. 

A  school  was  conducted  as  a  part  of  the  early  work  of  the  old  Quaker  Mission;  the 
supervision  was  later  transferred  to  the  government,  which  continued  to  maintain  it  as  an 
educational  institution  until  1918.  In  1925,  the  Department  of  the  Interior  decided  to  utilize 
the  plant  as  a  sanitarium  to  combat  the  ever-growing  prevalence  of  tuberculosis  among  the 
Indians.  Accordingly,  the  Shawnee  Indian  Sanitorium  was  established  on  the  site  of  the 
school  and  the  240  acres  of  surrounding  land.  Materials  from  the  old  buildings  were  used 
in  construction  of  the  present  plant  of  fifteen  units,  centering  around  a  large,  modern,  fire- 
proof, brick  infirmary. 

The  Shawnee  Indian  Agency,  which  ministers  to  the  1,107  enrolled  Indians,  was 
established  by  the  Federal  government  on  government-owned  land  near  by;  the  white  frame 
structures  include  an  administration  building,  stores,  and  living  quarters  for  employees. 

At  93  m.  on  US  270  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  drive. 

Right  on  this  drive  is  St.  Gregory's  College  for  Young  Men,  0.3  m.,  a  large,  red- 
brick and  white-stone,  five-story  structure  considered  one  of  the  best  examples  of  Tudor 
Gothic  design  in  the  Southwest.  Turrets  surmount  the  four  corners  of  the  square  tower. 
Part  of  the  hundred-acre  campus  is  cultivated  for  the  institution's  food  supply. 

The  school,  which  offers  accredited  junior  college  and  high  school  courses  to  the  ap- 
proximately one  hundred  students,  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  work  of  the  Benedictine  Fathers 
of  Sacred  Heart  Abbey  (see  Tour  14)  in  the  southern  part  of  Pottawatomie  County.  The 
Abbey,  which  was  established  in  1876  on  a  land  grant  from  the  Potawatomi  Indians,  was 
burned  in  1901 ;  it  was  rebuilt  and  is  now  (1941 )  used  as  a  home  for  the  fathers  in  their  old 
age.  The  early  school  work  of  the  order  was  perpetuated  in  the  founding  of  St.  Gregory's 
here  in  1915. 

The  Gerrer  Museum  and  Art  Gallery  (open  to  public  during  school  terms,  1-5 
P.M.  Sun.)  has  an  outstanding  display  of  paintings  and  art  objects  which  have  been  collected 
over  a  period  of  twenty-five  years  by  Rev.  Gregory  CJerrer.  Father  Gerrer,  who  is  a  dis- 
tinguished artist,  painted  the  official  portrait  of  Pope  Pius  X  which  hangs  in  the  Vatican  at 
Rome.  Although  he  was  the  youngest  of  the  six  famous  artists  invited  to  paint  the  Pope's 
portrait  in  1902,  his  work  was  chosen  as  the  finest;  it  was  later  exhibited  at  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  Exposition  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  in  1904,  and  at  the  Century  of  Progress  World's 
Fair  in  Chicago,  Illinois,  in  1933-34.  A  replica  of  the  brilliantly  colored  and  expressive  like- 


TOUR  5        309 

ness  is  in  the  art  gallery  here.  Seventy-three  of  the  176  paintings  exhibited  in  St.  Gregory's 
east  and  west  parlors  were  executed  by  Father  Gerrer;  his  other  subjects  include  Indian  por- 
traits, landscapes,  and  still-life  pictures  done  in  Oklahoma  and  during  his  travels  in  the 
United  States  and  abroad. 

The  gallery  has  priceless  canvases  by  the  Renaissance  artists  II  Guercino,  Raphael, 
Murillo,  Aretino  Spinello,  Guido  Rcni,  Jose  de  Ribera,  and  others.  One  is  the  famous  paint- 
ing, "The  Adoration  of  the  Magi,"  by  Giulio  Romano,  pupil  of  Raphael.  Whisder  and 
Rembrandt  are  among  those  represented  in  the  group  of  etchings;  several  works  by  the 
Kiowa  Indian  artists — ^Mopope,  Asah,  and  Auchiah,  of  Anadarko  (see  Tour  3) — are  also 
on  display. 

The  museum  contains  a  comprehensive  and  varied  collection  of  four  thousand  speci- 
mens, art  objects,  and  curios  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Egyptian  mummies; 
skulls;  strange  and  ancient  seeds  and  nuts;  old  copies  of  newspapers;  specimens  of  minerals 
(many  representative  of  Oklahoma  formations);  native  and  foreign  woods,  shown  in  cross 
section;  mounted  and  classified  rare  birds,  mammals,  and  reptiles;  antique  and  modern  fire- 
arms and  medieval  armor;  primitive  utensils,  Indian  handicraft,  rare  Oriental  art  works, 
and  antiques  of  Babylonian,  Greek,  Roman,  Aztec,  and  Toltec  origin  are  included  in  the 
various  sections. 

DALE,  100  w.  (1,037  alt.,  372  pop.),  a  farm  trade  center,  was  first  estab- 
lished in  1889  as  King's  Post  Office  since  it  was  located  on  the  allotment  of 
an  Indian  named  John  King.  In  1890,  it  was  moved  two  miles  east  and  named 
Dale,  in  honor  of  Judge  Frank  Dale,  a  Federal  Territorial  Judge  of  Guthrie 
(see  Tour  10),  noted  for  his  stern  treatment  of  Territorial  bad  men.  When 
the  Choctaw,  Oklahoma,  and  Gulf  Railroad  (now  Rock  Island)  was  built 
through  this  vicinity  in  1895,  Dale  was  moved  to  its  present  location;  the 
buildings  were  loaded  on  wagons  and  moved  intact. 

On  a  hilltop  about  one  mile  from  Dale  is  said  to  be  the  site  of  a  Civil  War 
encampment  from  which  Confederate  raiders  made  forays  into  Kansas.  Well- 
defined  trenches  of  the  earthwork  fortification  still  remain.  Cartridge  cases 
have  been  found  near  by. 

In  a  rich  farming  section  on  the  bank  of  the  North  Canadian  River  is 
McLOUD,  104.4  m.  (1,058  alt.,  616  pop.),  established  at  the  time  of  the  ex- 
tension of  the  railroad  and  named  for  John  W.  McLoud,  railway  attorney. 

Right  from  McLoud  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  the  junction  with  a  second  dirt  road, 
3  m.;  R.  here  to  KICKAPOO  VILLAGE,  3.5  m.,  where  the  Kickapoo  Indians  hold  a  cere- 
monial dance  (small  adm.  fee)  annually  during  the  latter  part  of  July.  This  well-defined 
tribal  ritual  was  formerly  a  war  dance;  only  elaborately  costumed  men  performers  take  part. 

The  Kickapoos,  closely  related  to  the  Sac  and  Fox  tribe,  were  driven  out  of  their 
former  home  in  Illinois  to  the  Southwest  by  the  inexorable  advance  of  the  white  man  about 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century;  a  band  of  them  drifted  into  Mexico,  where  they  made 
frequent  raids  across  the  border  into  Texas.  In  order  to  solve  this  international  problem,  the 
United  States  persuaded  them  to  return  in  1873  and  settled  the  tribe  on  a  small  reservation 
in  this  vicinity  to  become  the  peaceful  neighbors  of  the  Sax  and  Fox  tribe,  the  Seminoles, 
the  Potawatomis,  the  Shawnccs,  and  the  lowas.  Rut  after  the  opening  of  near-by  land  in 
1889,  white  setders  made  a  practice  of  cutting  timber  on  the  Kickapoo  reservation  and  driv- 
ing cattle  there  to  graze,  so  angering  the  Indians  that  they  were  apparendy  ready  to  take  to 
the  warpath.  Wild  rumors  reached  the  citizens  of  newly  founded  Oklahoma  City  to  the 
northwest,  and  for  a  few  days  hurried  and  frenzied  preparations  were  made  for  defense  of 
the  sodhouse  and  tent  settlement.  A  Federal  order  prohibiting  white  men  from  encroaching 
on  the  Kickapoo  reservation  checked  the  rumored  revolt,  however,  and  the  scare  was  over. 
When  the  government  proposed  to  open  their  land  for  setdement  in  1895,  the  tribe 
strenuously  objected — since  their  treaty  had  made  no  provision  for  such  action — and  earned 
the  name  of  the  "Kicking  Kickapoos."  The  majority  of  the  remaining  tribesmen  now  live 
on  their  allotments  on  the  old  reservation. 


310  OKLAHOMA 

HARRAH,  112  w.  (1,080  alt.,  620  pop.)  (see  Tour  S),  is  at  the  junction 
v^khUS  62  (see  Tour  S). 

Section  c.  HARRAH  to  SEILING,  127.6  m.  US  270 

West  of  Harrah,  US  270  passes  through  a  well-populated  section  until  it 
turns  northwest  into  the  Gypsum  Hills — "Gyp  Hills"  as  they  are  termed  by 
cattlemen.  Where  erosion  has  worn  away  the  top  soil,  ledges  of  dead-white 
gypsuni  stand  out  as  though  drawn  with  chalk.  The  hills,  with  bold,  f^at- 
topped  knobs  rising  at  intervals,  extend  for  some  one  hundred  miles  across 
Blaine,  Dewey,  and  Woodward  counties.  The  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Indians 
roamed  in  this  section  before  it  was  assigned  to  them  as  a  reservation  (see 
Tour  1). 

Westward  from  HARRAH,  0  m.,  US  270  unites  with  US  62  to  OKLA- 
HOMA CITY,  24.1  m.  (1,194  alt.,  204,424  pop.)  (see  Oklahoma  City). 

In  Oklahoma  City  is  the  junction  with  US  66  (see  Tour  1 )  which  unites 
with  the  route  westward  for  33.3  miles. 

At  57.4  m.  is  the  western  junction  with  US  66;  US  270  turns  abruptly 
north  (R). 

CALUMET,  60.3  m.,  is  a  small  agricultural  community  in  the  fertile 
valley  of  the  North  Canadian  River. 

At  67.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  COYOTE  BUTTE,  1.5  m.,  formed  by  a  ledge  of  white  dolomite 
and  affording  an  excellent  view  of  the  North  Canadian  River  valley.  Since  dolomite  is  a 
harder  and  more  resistant  substance  than  sandstone,  the  butte  is  striking  evidence  of  erosion 
through  the  years.  This  spot  was  a  favorite  meeting  place  for  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho 
Indians,  whose  present  tribal  center  is  only  a  few  miles  east  at  Concho  (see  Tour  11).  Many 
gatherings  took  place  here  in  1890  during  the  "Ghost  Dance"  or  "Messiah"  craze  (see  Tour 
3A).  The  fanatical  belief  of  the  devotees  was  that  the  Indian  Messiah  was  coming,  and 
anticipatory  preparations  for  his  arrival  needed  to  be  made;  consequently  the  group  meeting 
at  this  spot  placed  an  iron  bedstead,  equipped  with  springs,  mattress,  and  blankets,  on  the 
summit  of  the  butte.  The  Indians'  logical  explanation  of  the  action  was,  "When  the  white 
man's  God  came  to  visit  His  children,  He  was  a  poor  man.  He  had  no  house.  He  had  no 
bed.  He  had  no  money.  The  little  bird  had  a  nest  in  the  tree,  the  coyote  had  a  hole  under 
a  rock,  but  white  man's  God  had  no  place  to  sleep.  We  are  better  than  white  man.  When 
our  God  comes  He  will  find  that  we,  His  people,  have  bed  ready  for  Him." 

Although  named  in  honor  of  Ed  Guerricr,  a  pioneer  settler,  this  busy, 
farm  trade  center  early  became  known  as  GEARY,  73.3  m.  (1,499  alt.,  1,634 
pop.).  The  community  was  first  established  in  1898  on  land  which  had  be- 
longed to  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Indians  until  it  was  thrown  open  to 
setdement  on  April  19,  1892. 

Since  this  is  an  important  wheat-growing  region,  the  flour  mill  located 
here  is  the  prime  industry;  a  cheese  factory  has  also  been  established  in  Geary 
recendy.  The  town  has  a  $25,000  civic  recreation  park  with  a  large  swimming 
pool,  baseball  field,  tennis  and  croquet  courts.  Near  by  is  a  Soil  Conservation 
Camp,  one  of  the  Oklahoma  soil-control  units  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Soil  Conservation  Service  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 

GREENFIELD,  80.8  m.  (1,455  alt.,  303  pop.),  is  a  farming  town  named 
for  William  Greenfield,  an  early  settler.  Many  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  In- 


TOUR    5  311 

dians  accepted  their  allotments  and  have  continued  to  live  near  by;  although 
their  children  attend  the  local  public  schools,  the  native  tongue  is  spoken  in 
most  of  the  homes,  and  the  tribal  members  gather  often  to  hold  ceremonials 
and  dances. 

Right  from  Greenfield  on  a  graveled  road  to  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road,  4.5  m.;  R. 
here  to  a  farmhouse,  5.6  m.;  in  the  pasture  near  the  house  is  Jesse  Chisholm's  Grave,  on  the 
side  of  a  sloping  knoll.  Chisholm  was  the  Cherokee  half-blood  who  laid  out  the  famous 
Chisholm  Trail,  now  followed  approximately  by  US  81  (see  Tour  11).  His  grave  is  marked 
by  a  simple  wooden  cross  on  which  his  name  is  inscribed. 

Between  Greenfield  and  Watonga,  the  route  lies  close  to  the  North  Cana- 
dian River  (R)  and  makes  a  long  curve  around  the  Red  Hills,  a  short  out- 
cropping of  white  dolomite  and  shale;  at  88.4  m.  the  wide,  sprawling,  lazy 
river  is  crossed. 

Named  for  an  Arapaho  chief,  WATONGA,  89.9  m.  (1,515  alt.,  2,828 
pop.),  the  seat  of  Blaine  County,  was  first  established  in  1892.  Many  Chey- 
enne and  Arapaho  Indians  still  live  in  or  near  the  town;  and  the  older  mem- 
bers of  the  tribes  retain  their  traditional  dress,  the  women  in  blankets  and 
moccasins  and  the  men  with  their  hair  in  long  black  braids  interwoven  with 
gaily  colored  ribbons. 

An  important  feature  of  the  early  history  of  Watonga  was  the  publica- 
tion of  its  first  newspaper,  the  Watonga  Republican  (see  Newspapers).  Its 
editor,  Thompson  B.  Ferguson,  was  appointed  by  President  Theodore  Roose- 
velt as  governor  of  Oklahoma  Territory  in  1901. 

Three  cotton  gins  and  three  grain  elevators  make  Watonga  the  commer- 
cial center  for  the  chief  activity  of  the  region,  agriculture. 

Right  from  Watonga  on  graveled  State  8  is  ROMAN  NOSE  STATE  PARK  (pic- 
nicking, trailer  camp,  boating,  swimming) ,  6.1  m.,  named  for  Chief  Henry  Roman  Nose, 
the  last  warrior-chief  of  the  Cheyennes.  Although  the  surrounding  area  is  open  prairie,  the 
520  acres  comprising  the  park  consists  of  rolling  hills  gashed  by  canyons  and  streams.  The 
site  served  as  a  favorite  camping  ground  for  the  Cheyenne  Indians  when  they  roamed  freely 
through  the  region,  and  at  the  time  of  allotment  Chief  Roman  Nose  chose  his  160-acre 
tract  here.  Near  the  dugout  in  which  he  lived  was  the  "Spring  of  Everlasting  Water,"  which 
today  (1941)  feeds  the  four-acre  lake  and  swimming  pool.  Roman  Nose,  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  Battle  of  the  Washita  (see  Tour  13)  as  a  member  of  Black  Kettle's  band,  died 
here  about  1917,  but  his  many  descendants  still  live  near  by. 

An  old  military  trail  from  Fort  Reno  (see  Tour  1 )  to  Fort  Cantonment,  northwest  of 
the  park,  led  through  this  area,  and  the  sparkling,  clear  spring  was  usually  chosen  as  a 
camping  site  by  the  Federal  troops.  Local  legend  tells  of  several  Territorial  oudaw  bands 
who  found  the  hills  and  canyons  an  ideal  hiding  place  both  for  themselves  and  their  loot. 

The  park  land,  marked  irregularly  by  lines  of  exposed,  white  gypsum,  was  bought 
by  the  city  of  Watonga  and  deeded  to  the  state,  which  developed  the  tract  as  a  game  sanc- 
tuary and  recreational  ground.  The  springs  have  a  total  flow  of  eight  hundred  gallons  per 
minute  and  provide  water  for  the  several  small  streams,  the  newly  created  lake,  and  the 
concrete  swimming  pool.  Recent  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  area  by  CCC  workers 
under  the  supervision  of  the  National  Park  Service.  Many  squirrels  and  opossums  inhabit 
the  elms,  cottonwoods,  and  cedars  dotting  the  canyons,  and  native  bushes  afford  shelter  for 
the  wild  fowl. 

Between  Watonga  and  Seiling,  the  main  route  traverses  an  undulating 
plain  with  scattered  growths  of  scrub  oak  and  blackjack.  During  the  winter, 


312  OKLAHOMA 

snow  fences  may  be  seen  a  short  distance  from  the  highway  wherever  the 
fields  are  rolling  in  character;  for  although  snow  is  on  the  ground  for  only 
short  periods,  the  intense  winds  would  otherwise  pile  great  drifts  on  the 
road.  The  rust-red  fences,  not  familiar  to  most  Oklahomans,  look  like  grass 
matting,  so  closely  are  the  thin,  narrow  laths  placed  together;  in  summer 
they  are  easily  rolled  up  for  storage. 

The  route  again  crosses  the  North  Canadian  River,  94.8  m.,  bordered 
here  by  high  sand  dunes;  the  district  is  sparsely  settled. 

At  99.8  tn.  is  the  junction  with  State  33,  a  graveled  highway.  US  270 
turns  sharply  northwest  here. 

Left  on  State  13>  is  THOMAS,  12.1  m.  (1,513  alt.,  1,220  pop.),  an  agricultural  town 
platted  in  1902  on  land  which  had  been  homesteaded  by  Joseph  W.  Morris  in  the  Run  open- 
ing the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  territory  ten  years  before.  Extensive  sweet  potato  fields 
furnish  the  town  with  an  unusual  industry,  for  the  plants  grown  are  of  such  excellence  that 
seedlings  are  shipped  from  this  point  to  all  parts  of  the  United  States;  a  cannery  makes 
the  surplus  crop  marketable.  There  is  also  a  Farmers'  Co-operative  grain  elevator  to  handle 
the  large  wheat  production  of  the  surrounding  farm  lands. 

Near  Thomas  arc  the  homes  and  community  settlements  of  three  religious  groups, 
the  Amish,  the  Dunkards,  and  the  River  Brethren — all  similar  in  general  character  and 
purpose  with  the  Mennonites,  though  only  the  Amish  are  an  actual  branch  of  that  sect. 

The  Amish,  popularly  called  the  "Hook-and-eye  Dutch,"  first  came  to  America  from 
Holland  and  Switzerland  in  the  seventeenth  century,  hoping  to  setde  where  they  might  be 
free  from  all  hindrances  in  following  their  customs  and  institutions.  They  emigrated  to  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  where  they  settled  near  the  Quakers.  Later,  when  the  eastern  United 
States  began  to  become  heavily  settled,  some  of  them  came  to  their  present  home  in  Okla- 
homa. The  forefathers  of  the  Amish  were  among  the  first  persons  in  America  to  protest 
against  slavery.  The  present-day  church  still  uses  the  German  language  in  its  services. 
Originally,  the  Amish  did  not  permit  private  ownership  of  land,  but  today  it  is  counte- 
nanced; they  tend  to  marry  within  their  sect  and  meet  in  their  homes  in  small  groups  to 
worship,  observing  a  fixed  order  of  service.  They  consider  color  and  style  in  clothing  friv- 
olous and  unworthy;  both  men  and  women  wear  dull  brown  or  rusty  black,  often  in  home- 
spun materials,  and  all  cut  by  a  certain  pattern — the  women  in  long,  full-skirted,  high- 
necked,  long-sleeved  dresses  and  modest  poke  bonnets  of  the  same  color,  and  the  men  in 
straight  sack  coats,  blunt-toed,  high-laced  shoes,  and  flat,  widebrimmed  hats  with  uncreased 
crowns.  Neckties  are  never  worn,  nor  are  buttons  used;  the  original  European  Amish  began 
using  the  traditional  hook-and-eye  fastener  as  a  protest  against  what  they  considered  an 
unfair  tax  on  buttons.  The  absence  of  whiskers  on  the  smooth  faces  of  the  Amish  men,  with 
the  exception  of  the  distinctive  rim  around  the  chin,  also  began  as  a  protest  against  taxation. 
The  children  are  counterparts  of  their  parents  in  appearance.  Saturday  is  their  market  day, 
and  the  streets  of  Thomas  are  usually  crowded  with  horse-drawn  vehicles  as  whole  families 
come  to  trade  produce  for  merchandise. 

The  Dunkards  or  the  Church  of  the  Brethren,  as  they  prefer  to  be  known,  are  an 
outgrowth  of  the  widespread  church-reform  movement  in  Europe  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  this  sect  originated  in  Germany,  vowing  to  found  a  new  church  by 
baptism,  and  later  the  entire  group  emigrated  to  the  United  States.  They  observe  the  dis- 
tinctive ritual  of  washing  one  another's  feet,  commemorating  the  act  of  Christ  and  His 
Disciples  at  the  Last  Supper.  Besides  the  feet-washing  ceremony,  they  observe  the  kiss  of 
charity  and  the  feast  of  love  and  lead  a  generally  austere  life,  aloof  from  politics  or  current 
world  upheavals.  The  sect  is  not  as  strict  in  matters  of  dress  and  custom  as  are  the  Amish, 
but  the  women  observe  certain  conventions  of  dress:  they  use  no  cosmetics,  arrange  their 
hair  in  tight  buns  at  back  or  on  top  of  their  heads,  and  wear  tiny,  plain  poke  bonnets  of 
black  silk  or  satin  perched  straight  on  the  top  of  their  heads  and  held  in  place  by  chin  straps. 
The  Dunkards  are  progressive  farmers  and  have  accepted  many  of  the  conveniences  made 
available  by  present-day  inventions. 

The  River  Brethren  (or  Brethren  in  Christ)  probably  originated  in  Pennsylvania  when 
the  first  group  began  the  practice  of  immersion  in  the  Susquehanna  River.  Their  church 


TOUR  5        313 

tenets  suggest  a  Mennonite  origin,  although  they  have  no  definite  creed,  merely  stressing 
plain  living,  spiritual  regeneration  and  sanctification.  The  Thomas  church  was  founded 
by  a  missionary  from  Indiana  who  persevered  until  a  church  had  been  built,  and  several 
missions  in  the  region  and  the  Jabbok  Bible  School  and  Orphanage  had  been  established. 
The  school  continued  caring  for  orphans,  both  Indian  and  white,  until  1925,  when  this  part 
of  the  work  was  dropped;  a  dairy,  run  by  the  students,  provides  the  chief  source  of  revenue. 

At  119.5  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  State  51,  a  graveled 
highway. 

Right  on  State  51  to  a  junction  with  a  second  graveled  road,  11.2  m. 

Left  on  this  road  to  the  Cheyenne-Arapaho  Subagency,  2.8  m.,  on  the  site  of  old 
Fort  Cantonment.  The  fort  was  established  in  the  spring  of  1879  and  troops  were  billeted 
here  to  control  the  Cheyennes  during  the  Plains  Indian  campaign  (see  Tour  3A).  The  fort 
was  located  just  sixty  miles  due  northwest  of  the  old  Darlington  Agency  near  the  present 
Fort  Reno  (see  Tour  1),  which  also  served  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes;  but  the  establish- 
ment of  Cantonment  was  considered  necessary  because  of  the  hostile  feeling  between  the 
Southern  Cheyennes,  who  were  in  home  territory,  and  the  Northern  Cheyennes,  who  had 
been  brought  south  from  Nebraska  and  the  Dakotas.  Not  long  after  the  fort  had  been 
founded,  a  number  of  stone  buildings  were  erected,  three  of  which  are  still  standing.  After 
the  dissatisfied  Northern  Cheyennes  returned  to  their  original  home,  the  necessity  for  Fort 
Cantonment's  existence  decreased,  and  it  was  abandoned  in  1882.  The  plant  was  then  turned 
over  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  which  contracted  with  Mennonite  missionaries  to 
open  a  school  for  the  Plains  Indians. 

The  Mennonites  conducted  the  school  for  a  few  years  before  erecting  a  private  institu- 
tion, and  in  1898  the  government  took  over  the  supervision  of  the  Cantonment  school, 
which  it  has  maintained  until  the  present  time  (1941).  It  is  now  a  day  school  for  children 
of  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  tribes. 

The  subagency  was  established  in  1903,  when  the  jurisdiction  of  the  old  Darlington 
Agency  was  divided.  Ceremonial  dances  of  the  two  tribes  are  frequendy  held  here,  and 
the  ritual  of  the  Peyote  Dance,  despite  the  absence  of  the  forbidden  peyote,  is  often  observed. 

Straight  ahead  on  State  51  to  CANTON,  12.9  m.  (1,590  alt.,  775  pop.),  an  agricul- 
tural and  cattle-raising  center  which  came  into  being  as  a  result  of  the  proximity  of  the  old 
fort  and  the  Indian  school.  The  many  Indians  who  lived  near  by  trade  in  Canton  and  on 
Saturdays  and  holidays  crowd  the  narrow  streets. 

Construction  has  begun  on  a  $15,000,000  dam  across  the  North  Canadian  River  at 
a  point  one  mile  north  of  Canton  and  present  (1941)  plans  call  for  its  completion  by  1942. 
The  structure,  three  miles  in  length,  will  span  the  river  at  the  turn  of  a  sharp  bend  and  will 
provide  flood  control,  irrigation,  and  better  water  supply  for  the  surrounding  region. 

Right  from  Canton  on  State  51,  now  a  graded  road,  to  the  United  States  Gypsum 
Company  Plant  (guides  available) ,  19.2  m.,  comprising  mines  and  mills  which  have  been 
operated  by  the  company  since  1912.  Although  totals  vary  according  to  business  conditions, 
annual  shipments  of  gypsum  are  esdmated  at  from  four  to  five  thousand  barrels;  in  addi- 
tion, plaster  board,  partition  tile,  stucco  plaster,  gypsum  plaster,  and  plate  glass  are  manu- 
factured. The  entire  property  embraces  one  thousand  acres  of  gypsum  beds. 

SEILING,  127.6  m.  (1,760  alt.,  629  pop.)  (see  Tour  4),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  60  (see  Tour  4)  and  with  US  183  (see  Tour  12). 


z^f\iJ2. ^  , z^f^iiz ^  , :^f\i!i. ^ . j!;I)/»2 ^. i^^'li . , i^^^jl ^  . t^^ll .  ^ ^f\l* 


Tour  6 


(De    Queen,    Ark.) — Hugo — Durant — Ardmore — (Burkburnett,    Tex.); 
US  70.  Arkansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  268.5  m. 

Intermittently  paved  roadbed  of  various  types,  also  graveled  and  unimproved  stretches. 
Texas,  Oklahoma  &  Eastern  R.R.  parallels  route  between  the  Arkansas  Line  and  Broken 
Bow;  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  between  Idabel  and  Ardmore;  Santa  Fe,  between  Ardmore 
and  Ringling. 
Good  accommodations  in  larger  towns. 

Passing  between  rich  cotton  lands  to  the  south  and  what  was  once  an 
area  heavily  timbered  with  pine  and  other  marketable  lumber  trees,  the  route 
bisects  the  oldest  Choctaw  Indian  settlements  in  Oklahoma.  It  is  approxi- 
mately the  trail  beaten  out  by  the  Choctaws  as  they  pushed  westward  from 
their  first  settlement  in  the  new  land  to  which  they  were  exiled  from  their 
Mississippi  homes  in  1831-33. 

Between  Idabel  and  Madill,  US  70  roughly  parallels  the  north  bank  of 
the  Red  River,  keeping  to  the  high  ground  above  the  wide  river  bottoms  that 
are  sometimes  inundated  at  flood  stage.  West  of  Durant,  the  highway  crosses 
the  old  Chickasaw  Nation  and  completes  its  course  in  the  southern  edge  of 
the  former  Kiowa-Comanche  reservation. 

Thus  US  70  throughout  its  course  in  Oklahoma  is  reminiscent  of  Indian 
history.  Along  it  were  established  the  first  schools  and  churches  for  the  immi- 
grant Choctaws  and  Chickasaws,  their  first  mills  and  trading  posts,  and  the 
few  big  plantations  owned  by  enterprising  mixed  bloods.  Beside  it  live  the 
descendants  of  slaves  freed  by  the  Civil  War  from  Indian  masters,  a  consider- 
able Negro  population  that  for  the  most  part  cultivates  small  patches  of  cotton 
and  corn  in  the  cutover  sections  of  the  southern  Kiamichi  mountain  slopes. 
Along  this  highway,  if  anywhere  in  Oklahoma,  can  be  seen  relics  of  the  life 
lived  by  the  Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  more  than  a  century  ago.  On 
inconspicuous  roads  leading  off  from  the  main  highway  live  what  are  known 
locally  as  "pure  strain"  Indians,  full  bloods  who  seem  to  have  lagged  a  hun- 
dred years  behind  the  world  and  who  regret  their  backward  state  not  at  all! 

US  70  crosses  the  ARKANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  8  miles  west  of  De  Queen, 
Arkansas  (see  Arl^ansas  Guide). 

EAGLETOWN,  6.7  m.  (400  alt.,  300  pop.),  was  the  site  chosen  by  one 
of  the  three  district  chiefs  of  the  Choctaws,  on  the  removal  of  the  tribe  to 
Indian  Territory  in  1831-33,  as  the  principal  town  of  the  Upper  Town  people. 
The  Choctaw  name,  Apukshunnubbee,  was  that  of  a  chief  who  died  just  be- 
fore the  removal.  The  old  district  courthouse  stands  on  the  spot  where  the 

314 


TOUR  6        315 

exiles'  first  building  was  erected;  and  there,  too,  is  the  big  tree  to  which  offend- 
ers against  Choctaw  laws  were  bound  and  whipped.  On  July  1,  1834,  Eagle- 
town  was  named  a  post  office,  one  of  the  first  to  be  established  in  Indian  Ter- 
ritory, and  the  missionary  Loring  S.  Williams  was  made  postmaster. 

From  the  first,  the  town  was  given  added  importance  as  a  station  on  the 
military  road  from  the  East  to  Fort  Towson  and  Doaksville;  much  later  it 
was  a  headquarters  for  Texas  cattlemen;  and  still  later  it  was  known  as  a  ren- 
dezvous for  outlaws — Indian,  Negro,  and  white. 

At  8.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  country  lane. 

Right  on  this  lane  is  a  farmhouse,  0.2  m.;  R.  here  on  foot  trail  to  a  Cypress  Tree, 
0.4  m.,  on  the  south  bank  of  Mountain  Fork  River  in  the  midst  of  pines  and  sycamores.  This 
ancient  cypress  is  fifty-six  feet  in  circumference  and  ninety  feet  high;  the  trunk  is  carved 
with  many  initials,  hearts,  flowers,  and  other  devices.  A  Hghtning  rod  has  been  fixed  in  its 
top  as  protection  against  electric  storms. 

West  of  Eagletown  some  small  pastures  and  barnyards  are  enclosed  by 
old  zigzag  rail  (worm)  fences,  and  the  dooryards  have  palings  made  by  split- 
ting six-foot  lengths  of  logs  with  a  mallet  and  frow,  an  old-fashioned  tool 
for  riving  shakes,  clapboards,  and  barrel  staves. 

At  8.5  m.  US  70  crosses  Mountain  Fork  River,  a  well-stocked  fishing 
stream,  one  of  the  clearest  and  most  beautiful  of  the  Kiamichi  mountain  re- 
gion. It  plunges  down  to  Little  River  over  riffles  and  falls  and  between  rock 
cliffs  overhung  by  willows  and  tall  gum  trees.  North  of  the  highway,  Hoff- 
man's Camp  {cabins,  boats,  fishing  gear),  a  two-story  stone  building  (R),  is 
a  favorite  meeting  place  for  sportsmen. 

BROKEN  BOW,  15.4  m.  (467  alt.,  2,367  pop.),  center  of  the  state's 
largest  timbered  area,  was  named  by  the  Dierks  Brothers,  pioneer  lumber- 
men, for  their  Nebraska  home;  the  mill  they  erected  still  turns  out  its  daily 
thousands  of  feet  of  white  pine  and  hardwood  lumber — hickory,  walnut, 
and  gum.  Throughout  the  year,  the  aroma  of  fresh-cut  pine  fills  the  air  and 
mingles  with  the  acrid  smell  of  coal  smoke  from  the  mill's  tall  stacks. 

On  Saturdays,  the  wide  streets  become  a  parade  ground  for  the  farmers 
of  the  region,  among  them  overall-clad  Choctaws  and  their  families,  who 
come  to  trade  produce  for  groceries.  An  annual  tomato  festival  is  held  here 
by  the  growers. 

A  few  hundred  feet  west  of  the  lumber  mill  (L)  is  the  tall  steel  lookout 
tower  of  the  State  Forestry  Service  (open),  where  a  ranger  is  constantly 
on  duty. 

Broken  Bow  is  at  the  junction  with  State  21  (see  Tour  15 A). 

Westward,  cotton  fields  lie  on  both  sides  of  the  road;  and  in  the  fall 
families  of  cotton  pickers — Indians,  Negroes,  and  whites — may  be  seen  at 
work  between  the  white-boiled  rows  or  camped  near  the  scene  of  their  sea- 
sonal employment.  "Clearin's"  or  "burnin's,"  new  fields  carved  out  of  the 
forest  area,  in  places  border  these  cotton  patches;  and  high  up  among  the 
branches  of  surrounding  trees — elm,  hickory,  gum,  and  cottonwood — mis- 
tletoe grows  in  such  abundance  that  the  farmers  make  Christmas  money 
gathering  and  shipping  it  to  markets  in  northern  states. 


316  OKLAHOMA 

IDAREL,  27.8  m.  (504  alt.,  3,689  pop.),  seat  of  McCurtain  County,  on 
the  divide  separating  the  valleys  of  Little  and  Red  rivers,  was  at  first  named 
Mitchell,  then  renamed  for  the  daughters,  Ida  and  Belle,  of  a  Choctaw  citizen 
on  whose  land  the  town  was  built.  Farming  and  lumbering  are  the  principal 
supports  of  the  town;  and  here  is  the  main  office  of  a  big  lumber  and  coal 
company. 

GARVIN,  37  m.  (500  alt.,  170  pop.),  was  one  of  the  towns  laid  out  when 
the  Frisco  railroad  was  built  through  this  region.  The  first  bank  in  the  county 
was  opened  here,  and  here  sat  the  first  U.  S.  Commissioner's  Court  in  the 
southeastern  section  of  the  state.  The  little  town  is  supported  almost  entirely 
by  farming. 

MILLERTON,  41.7  m.  (519  alt.,  225  pop.),  is  one  of  the  first  towns 
established  in  the  Choctaw  Nation. 

Right  from  Millcrion  on  a  graded  road  to  Wheelock  Academy,  1.9  m.,  founded  in 
1832  for  the  education  of  Indian  girls  by  the  missionary  Alfred  Wright,  who  helped  to 
reduce  the  Choctaw  language  to  writing.  On  top  of  a  small  hill  near  the  present  school  arc 
the  ruins  of  one  of  the  original  log  buildings  occupied  by  the  United  States  soldiers  who 
conducted  the  first  Choctaw  exiles  from  their  homes  in  Mississippi. 

The  academy  was  named  for  Eleazcr  Wheelock,  founder  and  first  president  of  Dart- 
mouth College,  Hanover,  New  Hampshire.  South  of  the  Academy  site  is  the  stone 
Wheelock  Mission  Church,  said  to  be  the  oldest  church  building  in  the  state,  erected  by 
Presbyterian  missionaries  in  1842.  Near  by  is  the  old  missionary  cemetery  where  Wright 
was  buried. 

Since  its  founding  Wheelock  Academy  has  been  rebuilt,  added  to,  and  remodeled. 
The  plain  wooden  buildings,  attractive  in  their  simplicity,  house  one  of  the  most  complete 
institutions  of  its  kind  in  Oklahoma — a  school  for  orphan  Choctaw  girls,  maintained  by  the 
Federal  government.  Its  centennial  celebration,  in  1932,  included  an  elaborate  pageant 
illustrating  one  hundred  years  of  Choctaw  history. 

At  44.5  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  Valliant's  Waterworks,  0.5  m.,  where  an  old  water  mill  is 
enclosed  by  the  waterworks  building.  The  mill  was  installed  for  grinding  corn  meal  in  1834 
by  Joel  Kemp,  a  rich  plantation  owner  who  had  one  thousand  acres,  worked  by  one  hun- 
dred slaves.  At  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  an  Indian  farmer  named  Okiabbi  got  possession 
of  it  and  installed  a  turbine  in  place  of  the  undershot  drive;  later  he  turned  it  into  a  cotton 
gin.  The  crude  press  was  operated  by  horse  power,  and  seven  bales  a  day  was  maximum 
output. 

The  natural  dam  near  by,  connecting  with  one  of  concrete  to  impound  the  water,  is 
a  ledge  one  hundred  feet  long  formed  almost  entirely  of  fossil  shells.  A  swimming  pool  has 
been  built  here. 

VALLIANT,  46.3  tn.  (522  alt.,  551  pop.),  is  a  center  for  lumbering  and 
farming. 

The  Alice  Lee  Elliott  Memorial  School  (Negro)  here  was  founded 
as  Hill  School,  then  called  the  Oak  Hill  Industrial  Academy,  and  finally, 
about  1902,  on  receiving  a  special  gift  in  memory  of  Alice  Lee  Elliott,  it  was 
given  its  present  name. 

In  the  period  from  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  to  1885,  former  slaves  of  the 
Choctaws  had  no  legal  status  in  the  nation,  and  the  United  States  government 
failed  to  carry  out  its  promise  to  remove  them.  It  was  in  this  period  that  mis- 
sionaries undertook  to  provide,  in  whatever  meager  way  they  could,  for  the 


TOUR  6        317 

education  of  the  freedmen's  children;  and  Oak  Hill  came  into  existence  as  a 
Presbyterian  chapel-school.  After  1885,  freedmen  as  adopted  citizens  of  the 
Choctaw  Nation  were  schooled  by  the  tribe. 

Right  from  Valliant  on  a  series  of  dirt  roads;  R.  to  WRIGHT  CITY,  12.3  m.  (520  alt., 
573  pop.);  R.  to  a  junction,  16.9  m.;  then  L.  to  ALIKCHI,  21.6  m.,  where  it  is  said  that 
the  last  tribal  execution  of  an  Indian  in  McCurtain  County  took  place  in  1902.  Tried  by  a 
jury  of  fellow  Choctaws,  he  was  convicted  of  murder;  then,  according  to  an  old  custom, 
was  allowed  to  go  home  until  the  day  of  his  execution;  and  on  the  appointed  day  he  pre- 
sented himself  to  be  shot  to  death. 

At  56.2  m.  on  US  70  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  are  the  Ruins  of  the  Original  Fort  Towson,  0.5  m.  The  fort  was 
established  in  1824  to  protect  the  Choctaws  who  were  induced  by  the  Federal  government 
to  emigrate  voluntarily  from  their  Mississippi  homes  both  from  the  raiding  western  Plains 
Indians  and  the  outlaws  that  made  their  headquarters  along  the  north  bank  of  Red  River. 
Soldiers  sent  to  Fort  Towson  had  little  military  work  to  do  and  were  occupied  mainly  in 
building  roads;  and  in  1829  the  post  was  abandoned.  It  was  re-established,  however,  when 
enforced  removal  of  the  Choctaws  began  in  1831.  Abandoned  again  in  1854,  it  was  used  as 
a  Choctaw  Indian  Agency  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  when  it  was  taken  over  by 
the  Confederates.  In  1864  the  fort  was  headquarters  for  General  S.  B.  Maxey;  and  here  in 
June,  1865,  two  months  after  the  official  ending  of  the  war,  the  Cherokee  Confederate 
General  Stand  Watie  surrendered. 

It  is  said  that  Sam  Houston  met  representatives  of  the  Pawnee  and  Comanche  tribes 
at  Fort  Towson  in  December,  1832,  to  negotiate  treaties  of  peace  between  them  and  the 
tribes  then  being  removed  from  east  of  the  Mississippi;  and  that  from  this  meeting  Houston 
went  on  to  begin  the  four-year  campaign  that  ended  with  the  wresting  of  the  Province  of 
Texas  from  Mexico. 

All  that  remains  of  the  commodious  hewn-log  barracks  and  lathed  and  plastered 
officers'  quarters,  ample  for  the  accommodations  of  four  companies,  are  scattered  stones 
and  traces  of  the  foundations  of  some  of  the  buildings. 

FORT  TOWSON,  56.8  m.  (448  alt.,  501  pop.),  named  for  the  old  mili- 
tary trading  post,  is  a  trading  place  for  farmers. 

A  970-acre  flood  control  and  recreational  lake  is  (1941)  under  construc- 
tion just  north  of  Fort  Towson;  and  the  site  of  the  old  fort  will  be  at  the  top 
of  a  seventy-five  foot  bluff  overlooking  the  new  reservoir. 

Right  from  Fort  Towson  on  a  dirt  road  is  the  Site  of  Doaksville,  1  m.  Established  in 
1821  by  the  Doaks  brothers,  fur  traders,  the  settlement  became  an  important  center  for 
trappers  and  Indian  and  white  setders  as  the  frontier  pushed  farther  and  farther  west. 
Shallow-draft  steamboats  on  Red  River  and  overland  freight  served  the  place;  in  1833, 
seventeen  boats  discharged  cargoes  for  Doaksville  of  such  varied  items  as  powder  and  shot, 
churns,  and  cloth,  and  loaded  peltry  and  cotton  for  the  return  voyages. 

By  a  treaty  made  at  Doaksville  in  1837,  the  Choctaw  Nation  agreed,  for  a  considera- 
tion of  $530,000,  to  grant  equal  rights  in  their  country  to  the  Chickasaws;  and  the  boun- 
daries of  a  Chickasaw  District  were  defined.  In  1855  the  tribes  agreed  to  formal  separation, 
and  the  Chickasaw  District  became  the  Chickasaw  Nation.  From  1850  to  1863,  Doaksville 
was  the  Choctaw  capital.  Its  decline  and  disappearance  were  due  to  the  war,  removal  of 
the  capital,  discontinuance  of  river  traffic.  Nothing  remains  of  the  old  town  but  two  ruined 
log  buildings  and  the  cemetery  which  contains  many  pre-Civil  War  gravestones. 

Near  Doaksville,  two  girls'  schools  were  located;  Goodwater,  founded  in  1837  by  the 
missionary  Ebenezer  Hotchkin;  and  Pine  Ridge,  opened  in  1845. 

SAWYER,  63.4  m.,  came  into  existence  about  1900  when  the  Arkansas 
and  Choctaw  Railroad  (later  the  Frisco)  built  its  branch  line  between  Tex- 


318  OKLAHOMA 

arkana,  Arkansas,  and  Ardinore  to  provide  an  outlet  for  the  lumber  and  cot- 
ton produced  in  tliis  district. 

At  66.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  1.5  m.  to  the  Rose  Hii.l  Cemetery  (R),  where  Captain  Robert  M. 
Jones,  perhaps  the  most  notable  figure  in  the  history  of  the  neigliborhood,  is  buried.  He  was 
a  half-blood  Choctaw,  who  established  a  store  here  as  one  of  his  many  enterprises,  including 
stores  at  Scullyville  (see  Tour  7)  and  Lukfata,  and  six  plantations  with  five  hundred  slaves. 
One  of  the  plantations,  which  he  called  Lake  West,  consisted  of  some  five  thousand  acres 
of  rich  Red  River  bottom  land  planted  to  cotton;  the  others,  strung  along  Red  River,  were 
called  Boggy,  Rose  Hill,  Root  Hog,  Shawneetown,  and  Walnut  Bayou.  To  carry  his  produce 
to  market  and  bring  in  stocks  for  his  stores,  he  also  owned  and  operated  two  steamboats. 

The  cemetery  is  on  the  site  of  the  old  Rose  Hill  plantation,  which  was  Captain  Jones' 
home  in  the  days  when  he  lived  in  truly  southern  opulence.  The  house  was  elaborately 
finished  in  oak,  maple,  walnut,  and  mahogany,  furnished  largely  from  France  (as  was 
customary  among  rich  ante  bellum  plantation  owners);  it  burned  in  1912,  long  after  it  had 
been  abandoned  and  had  fallen  into  decay.  Today,  only  a  small  tenant  house,  some  cedar 
trees,  and  other  plantings  remain.  Jones  was  ruined  by  the  Civil  War  and  died  at  Rose  Hill 
in  1873.  The  cemetery,  with  its  impressive  tombstones,  has  been  enclosed  with  a  rock  wall 
and  otherwise  restored  as  a  WPA  project. 

HUGO,  71.1  m.  (549  alt.,  5,909  pop.),  seat  of  Choctaw  County,  was 
named  by  Mrs.  W.  H.  Darrough,  whose  husband  surveyed  the  original  town- 
site,  in  honor  of  Victor  Hugo,  her  favorite  author.  Its  growth  was  stimulated 
when  the  Arkansas  and  Choctaw  Railroad,  building  westward,  crossed  the 
tracks  of  the  Frisco.  After  that  first  mild  boom  and  considerable  real  estate 
speculation,  the  town  settled  down  to  steady  development  as  the  center  of  a 
productive  farming  region.  It  has  a  pecan-cracking  mill,  a  peanut  butter  fac- 
tory, and  one  of  the  largest  creosoting  plants  in  the  state. 

Hugo  is  at  the  junction  with  US  271  (see  Tour  7),  which  unites  west- 
ward with  US  70  for  7.2  miles. 

SOPER,  83.5  m.  (551  alt.,  481  pop.),  is  in  a  productive  farming  area. 

BOSWELL,  94  m.  (580  alt.,  962  pop.),  grew  up  on  the  site  of  a  much 
older  settlement  of  Choctaws  and  the  region  has  remained  largely  Indian  in 
character.  Here  in  a  modified  form  is  still  followed  the  old  custom  of  holding 
a  Funeral  Cry  twenty-eight  days  after  the  burial  of  a  Choctaw.  Formerly,  on 
the  day  of  the  burial,  the  surviving  head  of  the  family  cut  twenty-eight  small 
sticks  representing  the  duration  of  the  lunar  month,  and  each  morning  one 
stick  was  taken  from  the  bundle  and  broken.  When  only  seven  sticks  re- 
mained, he  sent  invitations  to  kinsmen  and  friends  to  come  for  the  cry  on 
the  day  the  last  stick  was  broken.  Each  family  brought  its  own  provisions  of 
corn  meal,  fiour,  beef,  and  vegetables  and  camped  near  the  burying  ground. 
The  Cry  began  with  the  recital  by  a  close  relative  of  the  good  qualities  of  the 
deceased,  and  as  he  proceeded  the  mourners,  gathered  aroimd  the  grave  with 
heads  covered,  started  to  cry.  This  ceremony  sometimes  lasted  several  days. 
In  bad  weather,  it  was  held  in  the  church,  lighted  at  night  by  candles. 

Right  from  Boswel!  on  a  dirt  road  is  the  Site  of  Mayhew  Courthouse,  4  m.,  where 
the  Choctaws  held  tribal  court,  generally  four  sessions  each  year.  The  courthouse  was  a 
one-room  building  in  which  offenders  received  whipping  or  death  sentences.  All  that 
remains  is  an  old  picket  fence  and  a  four-room  house  of  logs  and  slabs. 


TOUR  6        319 

BENNINGTON,  105.2  m.  (615  alt.,  513  pop.),  an  old  Choctaw  settle- 
ment on  a  part  of  the  route  that  coincides  with  the  original  road  from  Doaks- 
ville  to  the  west,  is  the  trade  center  of  a  rich  farming  and  grazing  area.  The 
town  grew  up  around  a  church,  organized  in  1848  by  the  Presbyterian  Mission 
Board.  Still  standing  on  the  spot  known  locally  as  Old  Bennington,  the 
church  has  a  burying  ground  near  by. 

Best  remembered  of  the  old  church's  ministers  was  Rev.  W.  J.  B.  Lloyd, 
who  preached  there  after  the  Civil  War.  It  was  Mrs.  Lloyd  who  told  the  story 
illustrating  early  banking  practices.  One  day  in  the  seventies  she  rode  on  a 
visit  to  the  home  of  Wilson  N.  Jones,  later  chief  of  the  Choctaws.  As  she  pre- 
pared to  return,  Jones  came  out  and  tied  a  small,  heavy  bag  to  her  saddle, 
saying,  "This  is  $10,000  in  gold;  take  it  home  and  keep  it  until  I  come  for  it. 
I'm  afraid  of  being  robbed  here,  but  no  one  would  think  of  robbing  a  preach- 
er!" It  is  said  that  Mrs.  Lloyd  kept  the  bag  of  gold,  hidden  in  the  foot  of  a 
feather  bed,  for  five  years  before  Jones  claimed  it. 

Some  Choctaws  live  in  BOKCHITO,  111.9  m.  (615  alt.,  581  pop.),  trade 
center  of  a  farming  region. 

Right  from  Bokchito  on  a  dirt  road  are  the  ruins  of  Armstrong  Academy,  2.3  m.  In 
1844,  two  years  after  the  Choctaw  Nation  had  provided  for  a  school  system,  the  academy 
was  built  to  serve  the  western  portion  of  the  Pushmataha  District,  placed  under  the  super- 
vision of  R.  D.  Potts,  a  Baptist  missionary,  and  named  for  the  popular  Choctaw  agent, 
William  Armstrong. 

Instruction  for  adults  was  undertaken  on  week  ends;  and  toward  sunset  on  Friday 
evenings  wagons  bearing  families  began  arriving  at  the  campground  in  the  clearing  around 
the  school.  From  Saturday  morning  to  Sunday  evening  classes  for  men  and  women  were 
held  in  which  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  were  taught  along  with  religious  instruction. 

The  academy  site,  renamed  Chata  Tamaha  (Choctaw  Town),  served  as  capital  of  the 
Choctaws  from  1863  to  1883,  when  the  tribal  lawmakers  removed  it  to  Tuskahoma  (see 
Tour  7).  Closed  in  the  Civil  War,  Armstrong  Academy  was  reopened  in  1882  by  the  Pres- 
byterians, under  contract  with  the  Choctaw  Nation,  and  continued  as  a  school  for  orphan 
boys  until  it  was  burned  in  1921.  Some  of  the  old  buildings,  now  ruins,  are  still  standing. 

At  119  m.  US  70  crosses  Blue  River.  On  the  east  bank  is  Philadelphia 
{brotherly  love)  Church,  erected  in  1840,  and  housing  the  oldest  functioning 
Baptist  congregation  in  Oklahoma.  The  minutes  of  the  church  for  1850  re- 
cord the  reception  and  baptism,  among  others,  of  a  Choctaw  named  Yokme- 
tubbe,  who  had  been  tried  for  murder  and  sentenced  to  death.  On  his  convic- 
tion he  was  placed  in  charge  of  an  officer  of  the  church  and  urged  to  repent 
and  prepare  his  soul;  the  record  says  that  "he  prayed  for  forgiveness  of  his 
sins — and  though  compelled  to  sufler  the  penalty  of  the  law  of  his  country, 
we  trust  he  will  escape  the  severe  penalty  of  God's  law  through  mediation  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

For  many  years  the  church  had  only  Choctaw  ministers,  and  the  congre- 
gation is  still  almost  exclusively  Indian.  Its  male  quartette  gives  concerts 
throughout  southern  Oklahoma. 

Seat  of  Bryan  County  and  metropolis  of  the  Red  River  Vallev  section  of 
Oklahoma,  DURANT,  162.2  m.  (643  alt.,  10,027  pop.),  was  first  setded  by 
the  Choctaw  family  of  that  name  in  1870  and  built  on  the  Dixon  Durant 
ranch.  The  present  (1941)  principal  chief  of  the  tribe  is  W.  A.  Durant,  also 
of  the  same  family. 


320  OKLAHOMA 

Lying  in  a  region  somewhat  broken  and  roughly  terraced  by  nature, 
Durant  has  grown  to  its  position  of  local  importance  through  service  to  a 
variety  of  agricultural  needs,  and  as  a  seat  of  two  colleges,  one  maintained  by 
the  state  and  the  other — for  women — by  the  Presbyterian  denomination. 

Cotton  is  the  principal  crop  to  contribute  to  the  city's  market  activities, 
though  the  region  is  also  productive  in  livestock,  grain,  potatoes,  hay,  and 
peanuts.  Two  peanut  warehouses  built  in  1940  by  the  Bryan  County  growers' 
co-operative  were  filled  at  harvest  time  with  2,800  tons,  to  be  held  for  a  better 
market  under  a  Federal  government  guarantee  of  a  minimum  price.  The  crop 
of  wild  pecans  is  also  important — as  it  was  in  1834  when  a  Choctaw  tribal 
law  forbade  the  cutting  of  pecan  and  hickory  trees.  A  pecan  cracking  and 
picking  plant  in  the  city  has  sent  out  in  one  year  forty-eight  carloads  of  the 
nut  kernels  to  be  used  in  confectionery  factories.  Two  peanut  processing 
plants  and  a  cottonseed-oil  mill  are  evidences  of  Durant's  dependence  on  the 
soil. 

Unusual  among  industrial  enterprises  is  the  factory  established  here  for 
utilizing  the  wood  of  the  bois  d'arc  (Osage  orange),  most  commonly  known 
as  a  hedgerow  bush  and  valued  in  the  old  days  by  the  Indians  as  material  for 
bows.  It  grows  abundantly  in  the  Durant  area,  and  the  factory  has  fashioned 
paving  blocks  and  wagon  felloes  from  the  tough  and  durable  wood;  has  util- 
ized smaller  bits  for  insulator-supports  on  telegraph  and  telephone  lines;  and 
out  of  the  sawdust  and  ground-up  waste  has  produced  a  valuable  yellow  dye 
which  is  sold  as  far  away  as  eastern  Europe 

A  free  County  Fair,  and  Farmers'  Sales  Day,  make  for  close  co-operation 
between  Durant  and  the  surrounding  farms. 

One  daily  newspaper,  the  Durant  Democrat,  is  the  survivor  of  ten  that 
have  been  published  there  at  different  times. 

Characteristic  of  Durant's  architecture  are  the  galleried  residences,  with 
high  ceilings  and  big  windows,  that  reflect  the  influence  of  the  old  southern 
plantation  owners'  "town  houses." 

Southeastern  State  College,  with  an  enrollment  (1941)  of  1,064  and 
a  faculty  and  administrative  stafT  of  sixty-three,  is  one  of  the  six  training 
schools  for  teachers  in  Oklahoma.  Opened  in  June,  1909,  its  plant  has  grown 
to  include  seven  buildings  devoted  to  college  work,  a  stadium  and  athletic 
field,  and  an  amphitheater  capable  of  seating  three  thousand  persons.  These 
are  on  a  campus  of  thirty-eight  acres  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  city.  Concrete 
walks  connect  the  buildings,  and  the  grounds  are  landscaped  and  planted  to 
flowers  and  ornamental  shrubs. 

Connected  with  the  college  is  the  Russell  Training  School,  a  labora- 
tory for  advanced  college  students,  with  elementary  department  and  junior 
and  senior  high  school  courses.  There,  embryo  teachers  are  given  demonstra- 
tions in  the  best  teaching  practices  on  each  grade  level  and  later  permitted  to 
teach  under  the  direction  of  a  supervisor.  Music,  art,  and  physical  education 
are  among  the  branches  taught  in  the  training  school. 

On  an  elevated  tableland  at  the  western  edge  of  Durant,  the  Oklahoma 
Presbyterian  College  for  Girls  occupies  a  twenty-two-acre  campus.  Its 
work  is  carried  on  in  a  three-story  brick  main  building,  which  also  provides 


TOUR  6        321 

dormitory  space  for  seventy-five  girls.  Another  dormitory,  modern  and  well 
furnished,  is  connected  with  the  main  building  by  a  covered  passageway. 
With  a  teaching  staff  of  seven  and  an  enrollment  (1940)  of  forty-eight  col- 
lege, and  twenty  preparatory,  students,  the  school  attempts  (in  the  words  of 
its  circular)  to  make  of  its  graduates  "well  rounded  young  women,  prepared 
in  mind,  soul,  and  body  for  consecrated  leadership  in  activities  properly  be- 
longing to  women."  Approximately  half  of  the  students  are  Indian  girls 
whose  expenses  are  paid  by  the  Federal  government.  The  college  has  a  swim- 
ming pool,  gymnasium,  library,  and  a  pipe  organ  in  the  main  building. 

Nearest  city  to  the  site  of  Denison  Dam,  Durant  has  received  a  new  impe- 
tus as  supply  base  for  the  builders;  and  when  the  lake  comes  into  existence 
(probably  in  1944),  plans  will  be  carried  out  for  making  the  region  around 
the  reservoir  an  extensive  recreation  area,  with  shelters  and  piers  for  sailboats 
and  other  craft. 

In  Durant  is  the  junction  with  US  69  (see  Tour  8). 

Just  west  of  Durant,  US  70  crosses  the  boundary  line  between  the  former 
Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  nations.  When  the  Denison  Dam  is  completed  a 
section  of  the  highway  will  be  inundated,  and  it  will  be  necessary  to  reroute 
it  to  Madill. 

MADILL,  154.2  m.  (775  alt.,  2,594  pop.),  named  for  an  attorney  of  the 
Frisco  railroad,  is  the  seat  of  Marshall  County.  Around  it  is  a  farming  and 
livestock  growing  area,  dotted  with  the  pump  jacks  of  the  shallow  oil  field 
which  was  opened  here  in  1907  and  is  still  producing  oil  of  very  high  gravity. 
The  town,  however,  has  never  experienced  an  oil  boom  comparable  to  those 
at  other  Oklahoma  towns  and  cities,  although  a  new,  productive  field  is  being 
developed  near  by.  Madill's  first  bank  was  known  locally  as  the  Cottonwood 
National,  because  it  was  built  of  boards  sawed  out  of  cottonwood  trees. 
School  desks,  and  pecan  cracking,  shelling,  and  packing  machinery  are  man- 
ufactured here.  In  Marshall  County  are  many  groves  of  wild  and  paper-shell 
pecans. 

Madill  is  at  the  junction  with  State  99  (see  Tour  14). 

At  174.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  graveled  State  18. 

Right  on  State  18  to  a  junction  with  a  graded  farm-to-market  road,  18  m.;  R.  here 
to  OIL  SPRINGS,  22.5  m.  This  is  an  old  resort  for  swimming,  camping,  and  fishing  and 
was  named  for  the  trace  of  oil  found  on  the  water  that  gushed  from  the  spring.  There  has 
been  no  commercial  oil  development  in  the  neighborhood,  however. 

At  175.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  Oak  Hill  Farm  (visitors  admitted),  2.5  m.,  one  of  the  largest 
establishments  in  the  world  for  the  breeding  of  show  ring  horses,  especially  three-gaited 
and  five-gaited  saddle  horses;  in  addition,  entries  in  the  fine  harness  classes  are  sent  to  the 
annual  shows  throughout  the  Southwest  and  at  Kansas  City,  St.  Louis,  and  Louisville. 

On  the  farm's  three  thousand  acres,  and  in  its  commodious  barns  —  the  largest  324 
by  54  feet,  with  concrete  stalls  for  fifty-four  animals — are  kept  more  than  fifty  registered 
brood  mares;  five  pedigreed  stallions;  some  Thoroughbreds;  some  standardbreds;  a  few 
Percherons;  a  small  herd  of  registered  Durham  cattle;  and  three  hundred  Angora  goats. 
About  fifty  colts  a  year  are  foaled  here,  to  be  trained  for  the  show  ring. 


322  OKLAHOMA 

ARDMORE,  182.3  m.  (872  alt.,  16,886  pop.)  (see  Ardmore),  is  at  the 
Junction  with  US  77  (see  Tour  10). 

RINGLING,  210.5  m.  (846  alt.,  902  pop.),  was  named  for  one  of  the 
brothers  who  operated  the  old  Ringling  Brothers-Barnum  and  Bailey  circus. 
The  story  is  that  in  the  early  1900s  a  young  lawyer  named  Jake  L.  Hamon 
boarded  the  circus  train  that  lay  on  a  siding  at  Ardmore  and  presented  his 
card  to  John  Ringling,  who  said,  "I'm  afraid  we  can't  do  anything  for  you; 
our  legal  business  is  already  taken  care  of." 

Hamon  answered,  "I  don't  want  your  legal  business,  I  want  three  dol- 
lars. Several  years  ago  I  worked  as  a  roustabout  for  this  circus,  and  when  I 
was  paid  off  you  beat  me  out  of  that  amount." 

Ringling  liked  the  young  man's  nerve,  invited  him  to  stay  for  dinner, 
they  became  friends;  and  in  1914  when  oil  was  found  on  Hamori^s  leases  west 
of  Ardmore  he  induced  Ringling  to  enter  the  field  and  build  twenty  miles  of 
railroad  to  their  holdings.  That  road  was  extended,  and  at  its  western  termi- 
nus is  the  town  named  for  the  circus  man. 

In  1916,  most  of  the  residents  of  Cornish,  a  small  town  one  mile  south, 
moved  to  Ringling,  leaving  only  an  orphans'  home  on  the  old  site. 

At  233.2  m.  is  the  Y  junction  with  US  81  (see  Tour  11). 

WAURIKA,  234.2  m.  (873  alt.,  2,458  pop.),  is  a  town  that  in  layout  re- 
sembles a  stadium,  its  residence  section  spread  out  and  overlooking  an  arena 
of  business  buildings.  Like  many  other  Oklahoma  towns,  it  has  in  its  short 
history  changed  names.  When  first  laid  out  in  1892,  the  railroad  station  was 
called  Monika.  It  became  the  seat  of  Jefferson  County  in  1908  after  a  year's 
fight  with  the  near-by  town  of  Ryan  (see  Tour  11).  Besides  farm  trade,  Wau- 
rika  is  also  dependent  on  the  Rock  Island  shops  at  the  southern  edge  of  town. 

West  of  Waurika  are  hill  pastures  covered  with  nutritious  buffalo  grass; 
in  the  days  of  the  trail  drives  cattle  were  allowed  to  linger  here  in  order  to 
put  on  fat  quickly. 

This  varied  range  and  farm  country  was  a  part  of  the  Kiowa-Comanche 
reservation,  opened  to  white  settlement  in  1901.  Where  once  stolen  Coman- 
che ponies  ranged,  graded  white-face  cattle  now  (1941)  graze.  Stretches  of 
flat  alkali-whitened  land  alternate  with  rolling  pastures,  wheat  fields,  and  the 
frayed-thread-like  timber  borders  of  small  creeks.  Farmhouses,  with  wind 
chargers  whirling  above  the  roofs,  indicate  by  their  size  and  state  of  repair 
a  wide  range  of  prosperity. 

Where  the  route  comes  close  to  the  Red  River  bottoms  there  are  patches 
of  good  timber,  mesquite,  tamarack,  irregular  windrows  of  blown  sand,  some 
small  farms,  and  one  extensive  peach  orchard,  which  suggests  one  of  the 
possibilities  of  the  region. 

RANDLETT,  261  m.  (1,248  alt.,  327  pop.),  a  collection  of  neat  houses 
extending  for  a  considerable  distance  along  the  route,  is  a  farm  trading  center. 

South  to  Red  River  is  level  land,  poor  soil,  buffalo  grass,  and  mesquite. 
Some  wheat,  however,  is  grown  in  the  region. 

US  70  crosses  over  a  long  bridge  spanning  a  wide  expanse  of  river-bed 
sand  and  a  narrow  stream  to  the  TEXAS  LINE,  268.5  m.,  at  a  point  2.5  miles 
northeast  of  Burkburnett,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


^Oiij ^ , sji)if: ^ , ^il/ij, ^  „ jjO/y ., jjDii: ^ , ^^ii ^ , jjO/'i ^ .. ^t)/!" 


Tour  7 


(Fort  Smith,  Ark.) — Poteau — Talihina — Antlers — Hugo — (Paris,  Tex.); 

US  271. 

Arkansas  Line  to  Texas  Line  165  m. 

Roadbed  graveled  throughout. 

Kansas  City  Southern  Ry  parallels  route  between  Spiro  and  Poteau;  the  Frisco  Ry.  between 

Poteau  and  Paris,  Tex. 

Accommodations  limited  to  the  larger  towns. 

Ch  ah  ta  Okja  i  Min\o  sia  hash  himmaka  okla  kflna  hokeya,  pi  yaJ{ni 
illappa  ietanotvt't  nine  chito  micha  boke  oka  achuhjna,  yakpmi  }{a  o\la  pisat 
itanowa  chi  }{a  ashliha  illappa  pit  achile  hoke." 

Translation:  "As  chief  of  the  Choctaw  people,  I  do  hereby  extend  a 
welcome  and  an  invitation  to  all  who  wish  to  visit  the  Indian  country  and 
view  the  mountains  and  the  many  beautiful  fishing  streams." 

— W.  A.  Durant,  present  (1941)  Principal  Chief  of  the  Choctaws. 

US  271  winds  through  the  rugged  hills  and  narrow  valleys  that  were 
once  the  home  of  the  Choctaws.  Driven  from  the  East,  they  labored  to  re- 
create the  traditional  strength  of  their  nation  in  this  area  of  verdant  beauty. 
Log  and  brick  buildings  and  forgotten  piles  of  stone,  now  standing  amid  the 
upland  forests  of  pine  and  oak,  testify  to  tribal  decisions  that  school  children 
of  today  recite  as  history. 

For  a  few  miles  along  the  most  eastern  portion  of  US  271  in  Oklahoma 
the  Chickasaws,  too,  once  beat  out  their  Trail  of  Tears,  and  not  long  after- 
wards there  passed  over  it  the  turbulent  remnant  of  the  fierce  Seminoles,  who 
had  fought  so  desperately  in  Florida  to  protect  their  homes  against  white 
aggression. 

The  old  Fort  Towson  Road,  along  which  processions  of  troops  and  sup- 
plies from  Fort  Smith  were  routed  to  Fort  Towson,  nearly  parallels  US  271; 
deep  ruts  made  by  the  heavy  wagon  wheels  are  still  visible  in  places.  Piles  of 
stone,  from  chimneys  long  in  disuse,  indicate  the  buildings  that  once  were 
havens  of  rest  and  refuge  for  hardy  early-day  stagecoach  passengers.  Across 
this  region  from  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  state,  up  the  divide  between 
the  Litde  and  Kiamichi  rivers,  across  the  latter  stream  near  Tuskahoma,  and 
on  to  the  northwest  went  Bernard  de  la  Harpe,  exploring  for  the  glory  of 
France  in  1718. 

The  highway  passes  through  the  beautiful  game-stocked  region  of  the 
Ouachita  National  Forest  and  crosses  clear,  plunging  streams  in  which  there 
is  good  fishing.  Over  the  Winding  Stair  and  Kiamichi  mountains  and  through 
the  regular  rows  of  the  Potato  Hills  US  271  twists  and  dips. 

323 


324  OKLAHOMA 

US  271  crosses  the  OKLAHOMA  LINE,  0  m.,  six  miles  west  of  Fort 
Smith,  Arkansas  (see  Arf^ansas  Guide). 

BRADEN,  7  m.  (423  alt.,  150  pop.),  lies  in  the  wooded  valley  formed  by 
the  confluence  of  the  Arkansas  and  Poteau  rivers.  Much  of  the  rich  bottom 
land  has  been  cleared  to  form  a  fertile  farming  district. 

The  almost  completely  deserted  village  of  SCULLYVILLE,  11.2  m.,  was 
established  in  1832,  when  the  Choctaws  were  being  removed  from  their  east- 
ern homes.  The  site  was  chosen  by  the  Indian  agent  as  a  center  where  annu- 
ities due  the  Choctaws  were  to  be  paid — hence  the  name,  derived  from  the 
Choctaw  word  is^uli,  meaning  money.  A  part  of  the  old  Agen'cy  Building, 
erected  from  hand-hewn  logs  on  a  four-foot  stone  foundation,  is  still  standing. 
Appropriately  and  succinctly,  the  Choctaws  called  it  the  "pay  house." 

It  was  here  that  Moshulatubbee,  important  political  figure  of  the  Choc- 
taw Nation,  lived  while  serving  as  chief  of  the  northern  district,  of  which 
Scullyville  was  the  capital. 

Although  today  (1941)  there  are  only  a  few  buildings  left  standing  in 
Scullyville,  a  century  ago  it  was  an  educational,  social,  and  political  center 
for  the  Choctaw  Nation.  The  artist,  George  Catlin,  visited  there  in  1834  and 
painted  his  virile  canvas,  "TuUock-chisk-ko,"  using  as  a  model  the  most  dis- 
tinguished ballplayer  in  the  nation;  the  picture  is  in  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion at  Washington,  D.C.  Catlin  told  of  watching  a  ball  game  (the  subject  of 
another  of  his  famous  paintings),  on  a  site  southwest  of  the  town,  with  some 
three  thousand  cheering  and  betting  Indians  in  attendance.  The  games  were 
usually  played  between  teams  of  the  diflferent  districts,  with  much  rivalry 
and  sometimes  a  riot.  The  game  is  still  played  by  Choctaw  boys  in  various 
Indian  schools. 

In  1844,  New  Hope,  the  most  noted  of  the  schools  established  for  Choc- 
taw girls,  was  located  here.  The  institution  was  closed  during  the  Civil  War, 
reopened  in  1870,  and  continued  in  operation  until  it  was  burned  in  1897. 
The  custom  of  the  Choctaws  at  the  time  was  to  send  some  of  this  school's 
graduates  to  an  eastern  college  at  the  expense  of  the  nation.  Only  fragments 
of  the  foundation  of  this  important  seminary  remain. 

When  the  famous  Butterfield  Overland  mail  route  was  established  be- 
tween St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco  in  1858,  Scullyville  was  made  one  of  the 
stations  on  the  line.  The  nearness  of  the  town  to  the  Arkansas  River  (some 
five  miles  northwest)  also  made  it  a  busy  trading  post  for  river  traffic;  the 
Scullyville  boat  landing  served  both  this  settlement  and  Fort  Coffee. 

The  Choctaw  cemetery  there  is  the  final  resting  place  of  many  of  the 
early  leaders  of  the  nation,  including  members  of  the  McCurtain,  Folsom,  and 
Ward  families.  Some  lie  in  unmarked  graves  and  some  in  graves  with  half- 
fallen  stones,  dating  back  to  1830. 

In  1863,  Union  forces  captured  Scullyville  and  held  it  until  the  end  of 
the  Civil  War,  leaving  devastated  fields  and  ruined  homes  behind  them  and 
bringing  about  the  early  decline  of  this  once  important  town.  One  residence, 
the  Tom  Ainsworth  home,  survived  the  war  and  is  still  in  good  repair. 

At  13.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  a  junction  with  a  second  graded  dirt  road,  4.3  m. 


I 


TOUR  7        325 

Right  here,  1  m.,  to  the  Spiro  Indian  Mounds  (200  yds.  L),  the  best-known  archeo- 
logical  site  in  Oklahoma.  The  mounds  were  leased  by  the  University  of  Oklahoma  in  1934 
for  excavation,  which  has  been  done  as  a  WPA  project  under  the  direction  of  the  university's 
department  of  anthropology.  The  workers  have  dug  up  ornaments  whose  carvings  indicate 
Aztec  origin;  pearls  and  beads  of  shell,  copper,  wood,  and  stone;  vases  in  the  shapes  of  owls 
and  frogs;  ceremonial  maces,  arrowheads,  bone  fragments,  and  woven  cloth.  The  bodies 
of  ancient  chiefs  had  been  placed  on  beds  of  sand  with  their  ornaments  and  weapons  ar- 
ranged around  them  according  to  the  ceremonial  burial  custom  of  this  ancient  civilization. 
There  are  three  mounds,  which  had  been  partially  despoiled  by  souvenir-hunters  before  the 
university  acquired  the  excavation  privileges.  Scientists  estimate  that  the  burial  mounds 
antedate  the  coming  of  Columbus,  and  that  the  builders  were  members  of  a  southwestern 
group  of  Indians.  Another  archeological  theory  is  that  these  sites  are  the  traces  of  a  Lower 
Mississippian  Indian  civilization  which  existed  about  750  years  ago. 

At  5  m.  on  the  main  side  route  is  the  junction  with  a  second  dirt  road;  R.  here  to  a 
farm  home,  0.5  m.,  which  has  been  built  (L)  on  the  site  of  the  quadrangle  of  Fort  Coffee. 
The  post  was  established  in  1 834  and  named  in  honor  of  General  Coffee,  who  was  a  close 
friend  of  President  Andrew  Jackson  and  aided  in  the  removal  of  the  Choctaws  from  the 
East.  Fort  Coffee  was  a  busy  and  important  military  post  during  the  removal  years.  It  was 
built  on  a  high  bluff  on  the  south  bank  of  Arkansas  River,  the  one-story  buildings  grouped 
to  form  a  hollow  square  in  the  manner  of  pioneer  fortifications.  The  barracks  were  con- 
structed of  rough  slabs,  with  battened  doors  and  window  shutters,  and  with  a  natural  stone 
fireplace  and  chimney  at  each  end.  The  post  faced  in  the  direction  of  the  river,  with  a  watch 
tower — commanding  a  sweeping  view  of  the  stream — perched  on  the  tip  of  a  rocky 
promontory  on  the  bank.  The  Scullyville  boat  landing  was  also  located  at  this  strategic  point. 

After  the  abandonment  of  Fort  Coffee  in  1838,  an  academy  for  Choctaw  boys  was 
established  there  in  1844  and  remained  in  operation  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War. 
Today,  nothing  remains  of  the  buildings  except  the  large  blocks  of  sandstone  which  formed 
the  foundation. 

SPIRO,  15.2  m.  (494  alt.,  1,041  pop.),  was  founded  about  1895  when  the 
Kansas  City  Southern  Railway  was  built  through  this  region.  At  that  time, 
the  majority  of  the  few  inhabitants  still  at  Scullyville  after  its  devestation 
during  the  Civil  War  moved  to  this  new  town.  A  few  years  later,  the  Fort 
Smith  and  Western  Railway  also  built  to  Spiro,  making  it  a  shipping  point 
for  the  adjacent  area.  Today  (1941),  four  cotton  gins  are  located  there  and, 
in  addition,  Spiro  is  an  important  marketing  center  for  potatoes,  a  crop  por- 
ticularly  suited  to  the  Arkansas  River  bottom  land  which  surrounds  the  town. 

At  18.3  m.  is  the  northern  junction  with  US  59  (see  Tour  15),  which 
unites  with  US  271  for  17.2  miles. 

PANAMA,  23.3  m.  (490  alt.,  880  pop.),  like  Spiro,  was  established  about 
1895  as  a  result  of  the  extension  of  the  Kansas  City  Southern  Railway  through 
this  part  of  the  state.  The  name  was  chosen  because  of  the  interest  of  the  resi- 
dents in  the  Panama  Canal,  the  reconstruction  of  which  was  being  planned 
at  that  time. 

Panama  is  primarily  a  coal-mining  town,  but  farming  and  stock-raising 
are  additional  commercial  interests. 

SHADY  POINT,  25.6  m.,  is  an  outgrowth  of  an  early  Choctaw  setde- 
ment  about  one  mile  west,  known  today  as  "Old  Town."  A  well-known 
Choctaw  politician,  Jacob  B.  Jackson,  once  made  his  home  there.  In  Old 
Town  is  an  early-day  Choctaw  church  with  the  familiar  shingle-and-brush- 
sheltered  graves  of  its  cemetery  surrounding  it.  The  ancient  tribal  burial 
customs,  including  the  "burial  cry"  (see  Tour  6),  are  observed  here,  as  in 
former  years,  whenever  rites  are  conducted  for  the  older  Choctaws, 


326  OKLAHOMA 

Near  this  settlement,  in  the  days  of  the  stagecoach  route  on  the  Military 
Trail  to  Fort  Towson,  was  a  stop  called  Ikazil  Station. 

POTEAU,  31.5  m.  (483  alt.,  4,020  pop.),  seat  of  LeFlore  County,  was 
founded  in  1898  and  named  for  the  Poteau  River  near  by.  The  town  is  located 
in  a  valley  which  lies  between  the  Cavanal  and  Sugar  Loaf  mountains,  the 
latter  (2,600  alt.)  being  one  of  the  highest  in  the  Ouachita  region.  Because  of 
the  mountainous  terrain,  the  streets  of  Poteau  wind  and  dip,  paying  no  par- 
ticular attention  to  definite  direction.  Only  one  home  in  the  town  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  in  line  with  a  cardinal  point  of  the  compass;  it  faces  due  west. 

Coal-mining  was  the  primary  industry  of  Poteau  until  production  slack- 
ened in  that  field;  since  then  lumbering,  cotton-raising,  truck  gardening,  and 
glass  manufacturing  have  become  important. 

Within  ten  miles  of  the  city  are  more  than  a  dozen  large  lakes  and  streams 
in  which  bass,  bluegill,  crappie,  channel  cat,  and  bream  are  plentiful.  Fourche 
Maline  and  Poteau  rivers,  which  join  south  of  the  town  to  half-circle  it  to  the 
east,  are  good  fishing  spots.  A  canyon  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Cavanal  has  be- 
come known  as  a  miniature  Royal  Gorge,  for  its  jagged  rock  cliffs  and  tum- 
bling water  falls  resemble  that  famous  and  beautiful  site  in  Colorado. 

At  35.5  m.  is  the  southern  junction  with  US  59  (see  Tour  15). 

WISTER,  41.3  m.  (510  alt.,  763  pop.),  was  first  known  as  Wister  Junc- 
tion because  two  important  railroads,  the  Rock  Island  and  the  Frisco,  crossed 
at  this  point. 

At  45.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

Turning  sharply  southwest,  US  271  passes  through  the  region  of  the 
Winding  Stair  Mountains  of  the  Ouachita  Ts'ational  Forest,  with  the  contrast- 
ing beauty  of  the  dark-green  pines  and  the  lighter-hued  oaks  against  a  back- 
ground of  red-tinged  soil  on  every  side. 

At  70.1  m.  is  an  old  Choctaw  Cemetery  (R). 

TALIHINA,  73.1  m.  (688  alt.,  1,057  pop.),  was  a  small,  unnamed  mis- 
sionary settlement  in  this  valley  in  the  Winding  Stairs  Mountains  when,  in 
1888,  the  Frisco  Railway  built  across  the  mountains  from  Fort  Smith,  Arkan- 
sas, to  Paris,  Texas.  The  name  Talihina  dates  back  to  this  event,  for  in  the 
Choctaw  language  it  means  "Iron  Road." 

As  the  road  crews  laid  the  shining  steel  rails,  the  Indians  looked  on  in 
superstitious  wonder.  In  the  diary  of  one  of  the  missionaries,  present  at  the 
time,  are  recorded  the  words  of  a  chief  who  had  once  been  on  a  train:  "I  have 
ridden  on  the  railroads  east  of  the  Mississippi.  They  have  little  houses  on 
wheels  which  can  be  shut  up  and  locked.  If  we  allow  these  railroads  to  come, 
the  white  men  will  invite  all  the  full  bloods  to  a  picnic  and  get  the  men  to  go 
off  and  play  ball.  Then  they  will  get  our  women  to  go  into  the  little  houses 
on  wheels  and  lock  them  up  and  run  off  with  them  into  Texas  or  Missouri. 
Then  what  will  we  do  without  our  women?" 

Despite  the  objections  of  the  Indians,  the  railroad  was  completed  and 
the  missionary  settlement  grew  into  the  present  town.  Until  1919,  Talihina 
remained  almost  inaccessible  except  by  rail.  At  that  time  a  highway  was  built 
through  the  near-by  forest  by  convict  labor.  Since  then  highways  have  been 
constructed  through  the  valley  to  the  west  and  eastward  toward  Hot  Springs, 


TOUR  7        327 

Arkansas.  Many  streams  for  fishing,  and  consistent  wildlife  protection  by 
Federal  and  state  governments  have  made  this  section  a  popular  playground 
for  sportsmen.  Practically  all  of  the  business  activity  at  Talihina  is  dependent 
on  lumbering.  Large  oak,  pine,  and  hickory  forests  surround  the  town. 

Right  from  Talihina  on  asphalt-paved  State  63  to  a  V  junction,  2  m.,  with  two 
graveled  roads. 

Right  (following  signs)  to  the  State  Tuberculosis  Sanitorium,  1.5  7n.,  built  in 
1921.  Set  down  among  the  oaks  and  pines  on  the  side  of  a  mountain  that  protects  it  from 
north  winds,  the  sanitorium  has  the  appearance  of  a  summer  resort,  for  many  of  the  patients 
are  housed  in  two-room  cottages  and  the  long,  white  ward  building  is  completely  covered 
on  one  side  with  screened-in  porches.  The  Administration  Building,  constructed  of  brick 
in  a  design  of  medieval  simplicity,  contains  the  dining  room,  kitchen,  operating  rooms,  and 
laboratories.  The  grounds  and  structures  of  the  institution  are  enclosed  by  a  rail  fence. 

Straight  ahead  (following  signs)  to  the  Choctaw-Chickasaw  Tuberculosis  Sani- 
torium, 3  tn.  The  hospital  was  first  established  here  in  1916  with  $50,000  furnished  by  the 
Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  Indian  tribes  and  built  under  the  supervision  of  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment. Originally  only  tuberculous  patients  were  admitted,  but  in  1936  Congress  appro- 
priated money  to  enlarge  the  hospital  so  that  general  medical  service  might  be  offered.  The 
present-day  $1,000,000  plant  includes  a  huge,  rambling  building  of  native  stone,  built 
around  an  open  court;  nurses'  quarters  designed  in  tourist-camp  style,  four  rock  residences 
and  five  frame,  used  by  doctors  and  employees.  The  main  building  contains  air-conditioned 
X-ray  and  operating  rooms,  and  corridors  decorated  in  tasteful  colors  rather  than  the  usual 
hospital  white. 

ALBION,  81.9  m.  (678  alt.,  240  pop.),  is  a  lumbering  town. 

KIAMICHI  (Ki'-a  mish'-e),  87.0  m.,  is  a  small  settlement  named  from 
the  Kiamichi  River,  which  flows  near  by,  paralleling  the  highway  for  six 
miles.  In  a  report  made  in  1805  by  Dr.  John  Sibley,  United  States  explorer,  he 
speaks  of  a  tributary  to  the  Red  River,  "which  is  called  by  the  Indians 
Kiomitchie."  Fishing  is  excellent  in  these  waters,  crappie  and  catfish  being 
abundant. 

At  91.  m.  is  the  site  of  Springs  Station,  a  stop  on  the  old  Fort  Towson 
Military  Road  from  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas,  named  for  John  Springs,  an  in- 
fluential Choctaw,  whose  home  was  there.  Near  by,  in  a  field,  is  the  unmarked 
grave  of  William  Bryant,  principal  chief  of  the  Choctaws  from  1870  to  1874. 

The  present  town  of  TUSKAHOMA,  93  m.,  came  into  existence  with  the 
coming  of  the  railroad.  Long  before,  however,  it  was  the  political  capital  of 
the  Choctaws.  As  early  as  1838,  representatives  of  that  nation  first  met  to 
legislate  for  the  people  in  their  new  home.  Today,  as  citizens  of  a  nation 
embracing  all  races,  descendants  of  those  same  Choctaws  live  in  and  around 
Tuskahoma. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Dancing  Rabbit  Creek,  made  in  Mississippi  in  1830, 
the  Choctaws  were  promised  many  things  in  return  for  their  land;  one 
provision  was  that  funds  would  be  appropriated  for  the  erection  of  a  new 
council  house  in  the  approximate  center  of  the  land  that  they  would  hence- 
forth occupy.  The  site  selected  was  on  a  mound  about  one  and  one-half  miles 
northwest  of  the  present  Tuskahoma.  This  was  in  1834,  but  it  was  1838  before 
the  pine-log  house  was  erected  and  ready  for  the  first  council  meeting  in  the 
new  capital,  Nunih  Wayah;  the  name  had  been  brought  from  the  East,  where 


328  OKLAHOMA 

a  sacred  mound,  which  figured  in  the  legends  pertaining  to  the  Choctaw 
origin,  was  also  named  Nunih  Wayah. 

Because  of  factional  disputes,  the  scat  of  government  was  located  at 
various  places  until  1883,  when  the  council  appropriated  funds  to  erect  a 
building  on  a  permanent  site  about  two  and  one-half  miles  northeast  of  the 
original  capital,  Nunih  Wayah.  The  new  structure,  built  of  wood  from  the 
surrounding  forests  and  of  red  bricks  from  native  clay,  remained  the  capitol 
of  the  nation  until  tribal  government  was  ended  in  1906. 

In  1888,  the  Frisco  Railway  built  through  the  region,  but  the  Choctaw 
Council  refused  to  pay  the  excessive  bonus  demanded  by  the  company  for 
building  a  station  near  the  capital.  A  town  gradually  grew  near  the  railway 
stop  some  two  miles  south,  however,  and  thus  the  present  Tuskahoma  came 
into  being. 

Right  from  Tuskahoma  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  a  junction  0.5  m.,  with  a  second 
county  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  the  Site  of  Nunih  Wayah,  1  m.,  which  is  unmarked  but  easily 
located  by  the  large  pile  of  rocks  (L)  that  was  once  the  chimney  of  the  old  log  capitol.  An 
early-day  Choctaw  Burial  Ground  is  near  by. 

At  2  m.  is  the  junction  with  graveled  State  2;  R.  on  State  2  to  the  Site  of  the 
Tuskahoma  Female  Academy,  3.3  m.,  which  was  established  in  1891  to  serve  as  a  com- 
panion school  for  the  Jones  Academy,  Choctaw  boys'  institution  at  Hartshorne  (see  Tour  5). 
The  main  building  burned  in  1927  and  a  home  (R),  built  partially  of  its  ruins,  now  stands 
on  the  spot — the  residence  of  Dr.  Anna  Lewis,  a  well-known  historian  of  Choctaw  blood, 
who  once  attended  the  academy. 

At  2  m.  on  the  main  side-tour  road  is  the  Choctaw  Council  House  (L),  a  solid 
rectangular  red-brick  building  of  two  stories  and  a  mansard  garret  third  story,  erected  in 
1883.  In  1934,  the  Choctaws  drafted  plans  to  restore  the  building  and  to  purchase  one 
thousand  acres  around  it  for  use  as  a  park  and  for  farm  lands,  the  proceeds  from  the  latter 
to  be  used  to  maintain  the  historic  site  permanently.  In  June,  1938 — one  hundred  years  after 
the  first  council  meeting  at  Nunih  Wayah — the  Tuskahoma  Council  House,  last  of  the 
Choctaw  Capitols,  was  rededicated  as  a  historical  and  educational  institution.  Each  year,  in 
May  or  June,  a  meeting  of  general  tribal  interest  is  held  here. 

North  of  the  Council  House  is  an  old  Burying  Ground,  where  many  well-known 
Choctaws  rest.  In  this  spot  are  the  graves  of  Jackson  McCurtain,  who  was  chief  of  the 
nation  when  the  council  building  was  erected;  of  his  wife,  Jane,  most  prominent  and  cap- 
able of  the  few  Choctaw  women  who  took  an  active  part  in  politics;  and  of  Peter  Hudson, 
brilliant  educator  and  writer,  who  used  his  talents  to  keep  alive  Choctaw  histor>'  and  tradi- 
tion. A  few  feet  from  the  Council  House  stands  the  McCurtain  Home,  built  at  about  the 
same  time  as  the  capitol,  where  many  prominent  tribesmen  were  entertained  while  the 
council  was  in  session. 

LAKE  CLAYTON,  99.3  m.  (R),  is  named  for  the  near-by  village  of 
Clayton.  The  lake,  which  covers  one  hundred  acres,  was  completed  and 
stocked  in  1936  and  affords  abundant  fishing. 

The  route  continues  to  wind  through  the  sparsely  settled  rough  slopes 
of  the  Kiamichi  Mountains,  roughly  following  Cedar  Creek,  one  of  the  fine 
fishing  streams  of  the  region. 

FINLEY,  123.6  m.,  lies  in  a  fertile  valley  just  south  of  the  Kiamichi 
mountain  range.  Stock-raising  and  lumbering  comprise  the  industry  of  the 
town  and  vicinity. 

ANTLERS,  133.8  m.  (511  alt.,  3,254  pop.),  was  so  named  because  of  the 
Indian  custom  of  fastening  a  set  of  anders  to  a  tree  to  mark  the  site  of  a  spring; 
a  large  spring  near  the  town  had  been  marked  in  this  way.  The  chief  industry 


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TOUR  7        329 

of  this  district  is  lumbering,  and  a  large  lumber  and  planing  mill  is  one  of  the 
town's  most  prominent  structures. 

During  the  winter  of  1892-93,  Antlers  was  the  scene  of  a  political  insur- 
rection still  known  locally  as  the  "Locke  War."  Congress  had  voted  to  pay 
$2,943,050  in  settlement  of  a  land  claim  to  the  Choctaw  Nation,  and  bitter 
strife  developed  between  the  citizens  as  to  the  handling  of  this  money.  The 
question  became  the  main  issue  in  the  election  of  1892,  when  the  voters  were 
to  cast  their  ballots  for  principal  chief.  The  two  main  political  parties,  Nation- 
alist and  Progressive,  had  as  their  respective  candidates  Jacob  B.  Jackson,  an 
influential  full  blood  who  had  received  a  college  education  and  had  held 
numerous  tribal  offices,  and  Wilson  N.  Jones,  a  wealthy  ranchman  then  serv- 
ing as  chief.  The  vote  was  very  close,  but  the  party  in  power,  which  canvassed 
the  returns,  decided  in  favor  of  Jones.  The  Nationalists  formed  armed  bands 
with  the  intention  of  marching  against  the  capitol  and  seizing  the  govern- 
ment. Most  of  them  were  dispersed  with  little  bloodshed  by  the  tribal  militia, 
but  about  150  of  the  insurrectionists  barricaded  themselves  at  Antlers  under 
the  leadership  of  Victor  M.  Locke,  an  intermarried  white  man,  and  prepared 
to  defy  the  administration.  Chief  Jones'  militia  attacked  their  stronghold,  but 
few  casualties  resulted  since  neither  side  was  willing  to  engage  in  a  pitched 
battle.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Choctaw  people.  Federal  troops 
were  called  in  to  restore  order,  and  a  United  States  commissioner  finally  per- 
suaded the  leaders  of  the  two  factions  to  make  peace.  Jones  served  out  his 
term  without  further  incident,  but  the  log  stockade  in  which  the  Nationalists 
had  barricaded  themselves  at  Antlers  remained  standing  for  many  years  as  a 
grim  reminder  of  the  most  serious  political  disturbance  in  the  history  of  the 
Choctaw  Republic. 

FORNEY,  148.3  m.  (609  alt.,  50  pop.),  a  small  setdement,  is  at  the 
western  junction  with  US  70  (see  Tour  6),  which  unites  eastward  with  US 
271  to  HUGO,  155  m.  (549  alt.,  5,909  pop.)  (see  Tour  6). 

At  156.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  the  Goodland  School,  2.3  m.  In  1848,  the  Indian  Presbytery  was 
petitioned  by  the  Choctaws  living  in  this  vicinity  to  send  a  teacher.  In  1850,  Rev.  O.  P. 
Stark  and  his  wife  settled  at  Goodland  and  established  a  mission  and  school  in  their  log 
cabin  home.  A  church  was  soon  built,  and  the  school  was  conducted  in  this  building  for  a 
number  of  years.  Until  1890,  the  institution  depended  largely  on  the  support  of  the  com- 
munity; this  was  obtained  mostly  through  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Carrie  LeFlore,  wife  of  Basil 
LeFlore,  the  chief  of  the  district.  In  memory  of  her  and  her  husband,  their  home  has  been 
moved  to  the  campus  and  dedicated  as  a  Museum  (open  to  fisitors)  of  Indian  and  mission 
history.  The  institution  is  now  a  public  school  supported  and  supervised  by  the  state.  A 
dormitory  on  the  grounds  operated  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  cares  for  Indian  orphans; 
Hugo  social  service  organizations  aid  in  its  upkeep.  Eight  modern  buildings  on  430  acres 
of  land  comprise  the  school  plant,  where  regular  scholastic  courses  throughout  high  school 
grades  are  given. 

GRANT,  159.7  m.  (573  alt.,  309  pop.),  which  was  established  at  the  time 
the  Frisco  Railway  built  through  this  region,  is  a  marketing  town  for  the 
surrounding  agricultural  lands  of  the  Red  River  bottom. 

ORD,  164.7  m.  (ill  alt.,  206  pop.),  was  named  for  a  town  in  Nebraska. 

At  165  m.,  US  271  crosses  Red  River  at  the  Texas  Line,  fifteen  miles 
north  of  Paris,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


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Tour  8 


(Columbus,  Kans.) — Vinita — Muskogee — McAlester — Atoka — Durant — 

(Denison,  Tex.);  US  69. 

Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  272.2  m. 

Roadbed  intermittently  paved  with  concrete  and  asphalt;  also  graveled. 

The  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  R.  R.  parallels  the  route  throughout. 

Good  accommodations  at  short  intervals;  hotels  chiefly  in  cities;  numerous  tourist  camps. 

Probably  as  significant  historically  as  any  route  throughout  Oklahoma, 
US  69  follows  almost  exactly  the  old  Texas  Road,  over  which  fur  traders, 
trappers,  freighters,  emigrants,  and  pioneer  settlers  traveled.  From  the  Kan- 
sas Line  to  Muskogee,  the  Three  Forks  district,  it  follows  the  old  Osage  Trace, 
along  which  the  Osage  Indians  frequendy  sent  hunting  parties  into  the  wilder- 
ness region.  Records  have  established  the  trail's  use  as  far  back  as  the  opening 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Soon  after  came  the  establishment  of  trading  posts,  missions,  and  the 
military  outpost  of  Fort  Gibson;  then  the  Trace  developed  into  a  road  advanc- 
ing rapidly  toward  Texas  and  other  points  to  the  southwest.  The  heavy  traffic 
that  followed  left  ruts  that  are  still  visible  today.  A  count  taken  in  March, 
1845,  showed  that  one  thousand  wagons  crossed  from  what  is  now  Oklahoma 
over  the  Red  River  into  Texas  in  a  period  of  six  weeks. 

Indians  and  early  pioneers  surveyed  skillfully,  even  though  they  did  not 
have  twentieth-century  knowledge  and  equipment;  when  the  inevitable  rail- 
road and  highway  were  laid  out,  they  followed  the  rutted  old  road  very 
closely. 

Many  Indians  still  live  along  the  route,  for  some  of  the  areas  traversed 
belonged  at  various  times  to  the  Osages,  the  Cherokees,  the  Creeks,  the 
Choctaws,  the  Chickasaws,  and  the  Caddoes.  Though  Washington  Irving's 
description  of  the  Osages  as  ". . .  stately  fellows,  stern  and  simple  in  garb  and 
aspect"  and  the  Creeks  as  "gaily  dressed,"  does  not  fit  the  appearance  of 
present-day  Indians,  much  of  their  former  colorful  array  may  still  be  seen  in 
museums  and  displays  along  the  way. 

Section  a.  KANSAS  LINE  to  MUSKOGEE,  114.2  m.  US  69 

US  69  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  at  a  point  13.1  miles  south  of 
Columbus,  Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide). 

Here  the  route  passes  through  the  lead  and  zinc  mines  of  the  Tri-State 
area  (see  Tour  1).  The  mines  are  now  (1941)  operating  on  a  full-time  basis 

330 


TOUR  8        331 

adding  to  the  many  huge  piles  of  chat  that  are  reminders  of  the  boom  days  of 
the  first  World  War.  In  some  places  board  or  stone  barricades  protect  the 
highway  from  the  encroaching  man-made  hills. 

In  PICHER,  1.6  m.  (820  alt.,  5,848  pop.),  houses  have  been  located  in  a 
hit-and-miss  fashion  in  the  spaces  about  the  great  shaft  openings  and  the 
sprawling  chat  piles.  The  small  houses  in  which  the  miners  live  are  built 
impermanently,  for  approximately  the  entire  townsite  is  leased  to  the  mining 
companies,  making  the  buildings  subject  to  removal  when  mine  operations 
require  it.  Picher's  business  district  is  composed  of  a  dozen  or  so  one-story 
brick  structures  facing  the  highway. 

Mining  in  the  Tri-State  area  is  of  the  shaft  type,  the  shafts  sometimes 
extending  into  the  earth  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a  mile  with  octopus-like  arms 
branching  off  in  many  directions.  The  miners  work  by  the  light  of  carbide 
lamps  attached  to  their  caps  as  they  follow  the  veins — drilling,  blasting  with 
dynamite,  picking,  and  shoveling  the  ore  into  cars  drawn  by  well-trained 
mules.  The  animals  often  spend  most  of  their  lives  underground  drawing  the 
cars  from  the  workings  to  the  elevators  that  haul  the  raw  ores  to  the  top.  The 
ore  is  next  crushed  in  huge  mills  and  separated  from  the  accompanying  rock; 
then,  as  a  "concentrate",  it  is  transported  to  the  smelters  for  refining. 

CARDIN,  2.7  m.  (813  alt.,  437  pop.),  formerly  named  Tar  River,  came 
into  existence  as  a  mining  camp  in  the  boom  years  of  this  area.  It  was  incor- 
porated in  1918  and  named  for  W,  C.  Cardin,  who  laid  out  the  townsite. 
Some  farming  is  done  in  the  surrounding  prairie  land,  but  the  chief  com- 
mercial activity  is  lead  and  zinc  mining. 

The  recendy  built  Eagle-Picher  Central  Mill  (open  8  a.m.  to  4  p.m.; 
visitors  must  register  at  office),  4.2  m.,  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  modern 
in  the  world,  milling  approximately  eight  hundred  tons  of  ore  daily.  In  recov- 
ering the  lead  and  zinc  from  the  rock,  much  chert  and  limestone  is  extracted, 
and  this  substance,  called  chat  when  crushed,  is  used  widely  as  road  surfacing 
material. 

COMMERCE,  5.7  m.  (805  alt.,  2,422  pop.)  (see  Tour  1),  is  at  the  junc- 
tion with  US  66  (see  Tour  1),  which  unites  southwestward  with  US  69  for 
thirty-nine  miles. 

At  20.6  m.  is  the  eastern  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4),  which  unites 
with  the  route  southwestward  for  24.1  miles. 

At  23.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  59  (see  Tour  15). 

AFTON,  24.8  m.  (790  alt.,  1,261  pop.)  (see  Tour  1). 

VINITA,  40.2  m.  (702  alt.,  5,685  pop.)  (see  Tour  1). 

At  44.7  m.  is  the  western  junction  with  US  66  (see  Tour  1);  US  69  turns 
sharply  south. 

BIG  CABIN,  50.7  m.  (720  alt.,  270  pop.),  is  a  farm  and  poultry  center 
named  for  the  frame  cabin  belonging  to  the  settler  who  first  occupied  the  site. 

Cabin  Creek  (L),  which  runs  almost  parallel  with  US  69  between  Vinita 
and  its  confluence  with  the  Grand  River  near  Langley,  was  the  scene  of  two 
important  Civil  War  battles.  Approximately  eight  miles  east  of  the  highway 
there,  where  the  old  Texas  Road  crossed  Cabin  Creek,  the  Confederates  at- 
tacked a  Union  supply  train  of  two  hundred  wagons  on  July  1  and  2,  1863. 


332  OKLAHOMA 

Food  supplies  tor  Fort  Gibson  {sec  Tour  3),  held  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
war  by  Federal  troops,  were  being  brought  from  Fort  Scott  and  Baxter 
Springs,  Kansas,  for  the  many  soldiers  and  Indian  refugees  who  had  been 
existing  at  the  fort  on  half  rations.  The  Confederates,  numbering  about  fifteen 
hundred  under  command  of  the  Cherokee  General  Stand  Watie,  were  trying 
to  blockade  the  garrison,  but  the  attack  was  beaten  oil  and  the  train  reached 
Fort  Gibson  safely. 

In  the  battle  on  the  same  spot  in  the  following  year  the  Confederate 
General  R.  M.  Gano  and  General  Stand  Watie  captured  a  Federal  supply 
train  valued  at  $1,500,000.  The  295  wagons,  several  ambulances,  and  260  men 
en  route  from  Fort  Scott  to  Fort  Gibson  and  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas,  were  at- 
tacked by  the  Confederates  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  September  19  by 
artillery  pieces,  hidden  in  the  timber.  Only  130  wagons  were  taken  away;  the 
others,  including  ricks  carrying  some  three  thousand  tons  of  hay,  were  de- 
stroyed by  order  of  General  Gano.  In  addition  to  clothing  and  food,  the 
wagons  contained  a  quantity  of  whisky  on  which  the  Confederate  troops  are 
said  to  have  become  quite  drunk  after  the  fighting  was  over.  Watie  stopf)ed 
the  drinking  by  ordering  the  remaining  whisky  poured  into  the  near-by  creek. 

ADAIR,  60.2  m.  (682  alt.,  407  pop.),  was  named  for  the  prominent 
Cherokee  Indian  Adair  family.  The  town  was  a  center  for  the  surrounding 
rich  grazing  lands,  which,  after  allotment,  were  cut  into  small  farms  whose 
produce  and  livestock  are  marketed  there  today  (1941). 

In  July,  1892,  the  Dalton  gang  of  outlaws  (see  Tour  11)  committed  one 
of  their  most  daring  robberies  at  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  station 
in  Adair.  A  shipment  of  $17,000  in  currency  was  carried  by  the  express  due 
to  stop  there,  but  the  plans  of  the  Daltons  had  become  known  and  a  posse  of 
deputy  marshals  was  also  on  the  train.  Despite  the  hot  gunfire,  the  gang 
managed  to  escape  with  the  money,  which  they  are  said  to  have  buried  in  the 
Dalton  caves  near  Sand  Springs  (see  Tour  2). 

Left  from  Adair  on  a  graveled  road  is  PENSACOLA,  8.5  m.  (681  alt.,  109  pop.), 
built  on  the  Site  of  Hopefield  Mission,  a  branch  of  the  old  Union  Mission  near  Chouteau. 
Hopefield  was  originally  established  for  the  Osage  Indians  farther  south  on  the  Grand  River, 
but  the  Cherokee -Osage  treaty  of  1828  placed  that  site  in  Cherokee  country;  hence  the 
mission  was  moved  there,  where  it  remained  a  busy  and  helpful  organization  for  several 
years. 

East  of  Pensacola,  at  the  great  bend  in  the  Grand  River,  is  the  Grand  River  Dam 
(see  Tour  1);  highways,  railroad  right  of  ways,  and  even  entire  townsites  were  moved  as 
the  shore  line  of  the  immense  new  Grand  Lake  lengthened. 

PRYOR,  70.8  m.  (627  alt.,  2,501  pop.),  was  given  its  present  name  in 
honor  of  Nathaniel  Pryor,  who  served  as  a  scout  with  the  Lewis  and  Clark 
expedition  and  as  a  captain  in  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans.  In  1819,  after  hon- 
orable discharge  from  the  army,  Pryor  obtained  a  license  to  trade  with  the 
Osage  Nation  and,  by  1820,  he  had  established  a  trading  post  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Verdigris  River.  Later,  he  built  a  post  southeast  of  Pryor  on  the  creek 
which  was  also  named  for  him. 

The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  has  an  experiment  station 
here  and  is  sponsoring  the  construction  of  diversion  ditches  and  terraces 


TOUR  8        333 

throughout  some  fifty  thousand  acres  of  surrounding  farm  land.  The  pro- 
gram also  includes  reforestation,  soil  testing,  and  restoration  of  worn-out 
land.  Mineral  water  is  plentiful  in  near-by  springs  but  is  not  commercially 
marketed.  In  Pryor  there  is  a  mineral-water  Swimming  Pool  (adm.  25c). 

Left  from  Pryor  on  graveled  State  20  to  SALINA,  11.2  m.  (618  alt.,  687  pop.),  a 
modern  town  built  on  the  Site  of  the  Chouteau  Trading  Post,  established  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century  by  the  famous  French  family  that  figured  in  the  founding  of  St.  Louis, 
Missouri. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Chouteaus  possessed  the  license  to  trade 
with  the  Osage  Indians,  then  living  in  the  present  limits  of  Missouri,  but  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernor cancelled  their  privilege  and  granted  it  to  Manuel  Lisa,  a  Spaniard.  The  Chouteau 
brothers  decided  to  retain  the  trading  business  without  official  sanction,  however,  and 
accordingly  Major  Jean  Pierre  Chouteau  set  out  at  the  close  of  the  century  to  establish  new 
posts  and  cement  the  family's  relation  with  the  Indians.  The  expedition  brought  him  to  this 
ideal  location  on  a  wide,  navigable  river,  the  Grand,  known  as  the  Neosho  in  Kansas, 
bounded  by  well-wooded  hills  on  the  east  and  level  lands  to  the  west;  near  by  were  both 
clear-water  and  salt-water  springs.  He  set  up  a  trading  post  here  (exact  date  is  a  matter  of 
controversy),  but  the  establishment  was  not  really  active  until  1802,  when  Chouteau  per- 
suaded some  three  thousand  Osage  Indians  with  whom  he  had  traded  for  a  number  of  years 
to  remove  to  this  area.  He  appointed  a  new  chief  for  the  emigrants — Cashesegra  or  Big 
Track — and  became  a  benevolent  but  firm  dictator  of  his  self-made  empire.  Since  the  coun- 
try was  rich  in  furs,  fowl,  tallow,  wild  honey,  and  many  other  marketable  products,  he 
enriched  the  family  coffers. 

Auguste  Pierre  Chouteau,  son  of  Jean  Pierre,  took  charge  of  the  post  some  twenty 
years  after  his  father  first  arrived;  he  built  a  pretentious  home  here,  which  Washington 
Irving  visited  in  1832  and  described  in  his  Tour  on  the  Prairies  as  a  large,  t\vo-story  log 
structure  filled  with  valuable  furnishings  and  surrounded  with  trees,  shrubberies,  and 
flowers.  Smaller  houses  dotted  the  river  bank  and  the  woods.  Texas  Road  travelers  found 
gracious  hospitality  at  this  frontier  palace,  where  lived  Auguste  and  his  numerous  children 
by  his  two  wives  (one,  a  cousin;  the  other,  an  Osage  Indian).  He  also  had  a  large  retinue  of 
Indians  and  Negroes. 

Auguste  died  in  1838  at  Fort  Gibson  while  engaged  on  a  government  diplomatic  mis- 
sion with  the  Indians.  He  was  heavily  in  debt,  and  his  slaves,  stock,  and  merchandise  were 
mostly  attached  or  stolen.  John  Ross  (see  Tour  3),  chief  of  the  Cherokee  tribe,  and  his 
brother  Lewis  acquired  many  of  the  Chouteau  holdings  and  built  a  brick  mansion  on  the 
site  now  occupied  by  the  Saiina  High  School  gymnasium.  In  one  corner  of  the  schoolyard 
still  stands  a  Blockhouse,  built  by  Ross,  enclosing  one  of  the  springs  used  since  the  founding 
of  the  Chouteau  Trading  Post. 

The  setdement  then  became  known  as  Grand  Saline  and  served  as  an  important  point 
on  one  of  the  California  trails.  A  marked  depression  near  the  bridge  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Grand  River  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  the  wagons  of  the  many  emigrants  who  traveled 
to  California  in  1849  and  later.  Traffic  became  so  heavy  that  a  p)ost  office  was  established  on 
June  11,  1849.  In  1872,  the  Lewis  Ross  home  and  surrounding  farm  lands  were  purchased  by 
the  Cherokee  Nation  for  the  establishment  of  the  Cherokee  Orphan's  Home,  which  oper- 
ated there  until  the  building  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1903  and  the  institution  moved  near 
Tahlcquah  (see  Tour  3). 

In  recognition  of  the  significance  of  the  site,  a  Stone  Marker  has  been  erected  in  the 
center  of  Salina's  main  street,  commemorating  the  dates  of  the  trading  post,  the  Cherokee 
town,  and  the  orphan  asylum.  The  state  legislature  proclaimed  October  10,  the  birth  anni- 
versary of  Major  Jean  Pierre  Chouteau,  as  "Oklahoma  Historical  Day"  and  in  1940  the  first 
observance  of  the  date  was  held  at  Saiina. 

Some  three  miles  south  of  Saiina  a  small  creek  flows  from  the  east  into  the  Grand  River 
at  the  foot  of  a  range  of  rocky  bluffs.  High  on  the  cliffs  is  the  spot  which  Cherokee  Indian 
legends  say  is  the  home  of  the  "Little  People"  who  have  been  a  part  of  Cherokee  traditional 
lore  since  ancient  times.  When  the  tribe  lived  in  the  East,  they  believed  in  the  "Little 
People,"  who  were  supposed  to  be  no  more  than  knee-high,  but  well-formed,  handsome, 
and  exceedingly  clever.  They  lived  far  back  in  the  mountains  and  were  never  seen  except 
at  dusk  or  by  solitary  individuals. 


1 


334  OKLAHOMA 

Some  Cherokecs,  at  the  time  of  the  Removal,  still  believed  in  the  legendary  figures  and 
moved  their  "Little  People"  to  the  new  nation  and  to  this  site.  Tribal  members  would  stop 
fishing  at  a  certain  spot  in  the  Grand  River  if  stones  happened  to  roll  down  the  bluffs  into 
the  water,  usually  with  the  remark,  "Let's  move  downstream,  I  sec  the  'Little  People'  live 
here  and  want  the  fish  for  their  own  use." 

State  20  continues  to  SPAVINAW,  13  m.  (668  alt.,  255  pop.)  (see  Tour  15),  and  the 
Spavinaw  Hills  Park. 

Whitaker  State  Orphans'  Home,  71.5  m.,  was  first  established  in  1879 
for  the  orphans  of  Indian  Territory.  In  1908,  the  state  took  over  the  institu- 
tion, and  today  (1941)  it  represents  an  investment  of  $500,000,  occupies  six 
hundred  acres,  and  provides  a  home  and  school  for  more  than  three  hundred 
children. 

The  business  district  (R)  of  the  town  of  CHOUTEAU,  79.4  m.  (627  alt., 
400  pop.),  which  was  named  for  the  Chouteau  family,  is  a  market  center  for  a 
considerable  farm  area;  east  of  the  town  is  the  big  $80,000,000  powder  plant 
to  be  built  (1941-42)  as  a  part  of  the  national  defense  program. 

At  84.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  across  railroad  tracks,  0.9  m.;  R.  here  3.5  m.;  then  L.  to  the  Site 
OF  Union  Mission,  5.2  m.,  indicated  by  a  stone  marker  at  the  top  of  a  wooded  hill  near  the 
road.  All  that  remains  of  the  twenty  buildings  formerly  comprising  the  old  mission  are  a 
few  foundation  stones  placed  around  the  spring  (300  yds.  S.E.  of  the  marker)  about  which 
the  buildings  were  originally  grouped. 

Epaphras  Chapman,  a  Presbyterian  missionary,  located  the  site  in  1819  and  obtained 
permission  from  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  and  the  Osage 
Indian  tribe  to  set  up  a  mission  here  in  the  Osage  territory.  On  November  5,  1820,  Chap- 
man and  his  caravan  of  nineteen  men,  women,  and  children  (two  had  died  along  the  way) 
reached  the  remote  wilderness  station  after  suffering  much  hardship  and  sickness  on  the 
long  journey  from  New  York.  They  cultivated  about  one  hundred  acres  of  the  surrounding 
land  and,  in  1821,  opened  the  Union  Mission  school,  which  they  continued  to  operate 
until  1832-33.  In  addition  to  the  Osages,  some  twenty  Creeks,  who  were  destined  to  play 
an  important  part  in  tribal  life,  enrolled  in  1830.  Prcsbyterianism  spread  among  the  Creek 
tribe  from  this  start.  The  Cherokee-Osage  treaty  of  1828,  however,  placed  Union  in  Chero- 
kee country  and,  since  the  mission  had  been  established  primarily  for  the  Osages,  the  work 
was  necessarily  curtailed.  This  circumstance  brought  about  the  founding  of  the  Hopefield 
Mission  near  Adair  (see  above). 

In  1835  the  Presbyterian  minister,  Rev.  Samuel  Austin  Worcester  {see  Literature), 
came  from  Georgia,  installing  his  printing  press  in  Union's  vacant  buildings.  The  press  had 
been  retrieved  once  along  the  way  when  the  boat  carrying  it  sank  in  the  Arkansas  River. 
Worcester  printed  the  first  publication  issued  in  what  is  now  Oklahoma,  said  to  be  The 
Child's  Book,  or  /  stutsi  in  Naktsok.v  (Creek  or  Muskhogean);  it  was  written  by  John  Flem- 
ing, of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  and  James  Perryman, 
prominent  Creek  Indian,  who  together  reduced  the  Creek  language  to  writing.  In  June, 
1837,  the  press  was  moved  to  Park  Hill  (see  Tour  3),  where  many  publications  in  the 
Cherokee,  Creek,  and  Choctaw  languages  were  printed;  several  volumes  from  this  press  are 
now  preserved  in  the  Library  of  Congress  in  Washington,  D.C. 

A  monument  here  marks  this  Site  of  Oklahoma's  First  Printing  Press.  .Across 
the  road  from  the  marker  is  the  Union  Mission  Cemetery,  where  the  founder  of  the 
mission,  Rev.  Epaphras  Chapman,  who  died  in  1825,  is  buried.  Near  by,  in  a  grove  of 
black  locust  trees,  is  an  old  French  Cemetery  where  growing  crops  almost  cover  the 
toppled  and  broken  headstones  that  once  marked  the  graves  of  early  French  traders. 

A  short  distance  north  of  Union  Mission  site  is  the  Saline  Si'Ring,  mentioned  in  a 
report  made  by  Major  .\mos  Stoddard  in  1806  concerning  the  natural  resources  of  the 
Louisiana  Territory.  Later  the  Osages  came  here  to  make  salt,  frequently  borrowing  from 
the  Union  missionaries  kettles  in  which  to  boil  the  water.  Two  men,  named  Campbell  and 
Earhart,  acquired  the  property  and  built  a  furnace  (one  hundred  feet  long)  to  quicken  the 


TOUR  8        335 

boiling-water  process  of  extracting  the  salt;  many  people  were  employed  by  them  to  cut 
the  wood  necessary  for  fuel.  The  spring  is  still  active,  but  there  are  no  remains  of  the  old 
furnace;  one  of  the  huge  kettles  said  to  have  been  used  then  is  at  present  (1941)  on  display 
at  the  Brooks  Hotel  in  Wagoner. 

MAZIE  (cabins,  camp  sites,  boats),  85.1  m.  (620  alt.,  200  pop.),  a 
popular  stopping  place  for  sportsmen  as  the  Grand  River  near  by  (L),  offers 
exceptionally  fine  fishing  for  bass,  perch,  and  channel  cat;  natives  tell  of  a 
ninety-pound  catfish  taken  from  the  Grand  in  this  vicinity. 

At  92.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Left  here,  3.5  m.;  then  R.  to  a  Fishing  Camp  (cabins),  3.8  m.,  on  the  Grand  River. 
Quail  and  squirrel  hunting  is  permitted  in  season. 

WAGONER,  95.7  m.  (588  alt.,  3,535  pop.),  serving  an  agricultural  area, 
was  established  when  the  Arkansas  Valley  and  Kansas  Railroad  built  to  a 
junction  here  with  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  line  in  1886.  It  is  said  that  the 
town  was  named  for  a  popular  train  dispatcher,  "Bigfoot"  Wagoner,  of 
Parsons,  Kansas. 

In  the  Carnegie  Library  (open  weekdays:  9  a.m.  to  6  p.m.)  is  a  Museum 
(free)  where  relics  of  the  Civil  War  and  many  Indian  articles  are  on  display. 
At  the  American  National  Bank  is  exhibited  a  copy  of  a  Cranmer  Bible,  a 
reprint  of  the  famous  edition  issued  in  1539-40  under  authority  of  Henry 
VIII.  This  copy  carries  the  date  1585  and  the  name  of  Christopher  Baker, 
printer  for  Queen  Elizabeth.  It  contains  an  almanac  computing  the  special 
feast  days  and  seasons  for  a  period  of  fifty  years  (1580-1631).  The  first  entry 
in  the  family  records  chronicles  a  birth  in  1751  at  "Port  Glasgow,  North 
Britain." 

Left  from  Wagoner  on  graveled  State  51  are  (R)  prehistoric  Indian  Mounds,  6.5  m., 
which  were  excavated  as  a  WPA  project  (1936)  under  the  supervision  of  the  Department 
of  Anthropology  of  the  University  of  Oklahoma.  Two  connected  double-mound  units,  two 
single  mounds,  and  traces  of  an  ancient  village  were  found.  Digging  exposed  postholes 
indicating  a  fortification  measuring  about  150  feet  square.  Baked  clay  floors  of  the  former 
dwellings,  about  twenty-five  feet  long  and  fifteen  feet  wide,  revealed  shallow,  circular  fire 
pits  with  raised  brims  and  postholes  in  which  the  supports  for  the  crossbeams  of  the  thatched 
roofs  stood.  The  articles  unearthed  include  burial  bundles,  pottery,  stone  pipes,  sheet-copper 
breastplates,  solid  copper  and  copper-coated  ceremonial  sticks,  flint  knives  and  scrapers, 
projectile  points,  shell  beads,  and  fresh- water  pearls;  they  are  now  on  display  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oklahoma. 

BLUE  MOUND,  98.7  m.,  was  so  named  because  of  the  hue  appearing 
over  its  summit  (R)  in  the  early  morning  light. 

For  a  few  months  in  1871,  while  the  Arkansas  River  to  the  south  was 
being  bridged,  GIBSON,  102  m.  (534  alt.,  110  pop.),  was  the  southern  ter- 
minus of  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad.  Like  other  railroad  outposts 
it  acquired  a  wild  and  unsavory  reputation.  Even  after  the  line  built  south  to 
Muskogee,  Gibson  was  an  important  shipping  center,  for  prairie  freighters 
and  stagecoaches  connected  it  with  the  Cherokee  capital  at  Tahlequah  and 
the  army  post  at  Fort  Gibson.  Its  importance  declined  after  the  Arkansas 


336  OKLAHOMA 

Valley  and  Kansas  Railroad  established  a  junction  with  the  Missouri-Kansas- 
Texas  at  Wagoner  in  1886. 

OKAY,  105.2  m.  (510  alt.,  322  pop.),  is  approximately  a  half-mile  north 
of  the  site  of  one  of  the  oldest  white  setdements  in  Oklahoma.  The  firm  of 
Brand  and  Barbour  set  up  a  trading  post  at  this  point  in  the  first  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  and  in  1819  sold  their  property  to  Colonel  A.  P.  Chouteau, 
who  had  already  established  a  post  at  Salina.  Creole  carpenters  were  brought 
from  New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis  to  build  the  keelboats  in  which  the  French 
traders  shipped  their  furs  down  the  Arkansas  and  Mississippi  rivers  to  New- 
Orleans,  where  the  boats  and  peltries  were  exchanged  for  supplies.  The  site 
was  a  busy  shipping  and  trading  point  for  it  stood  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Arkansas,  the  Grand  (Neosho),  and  the  Verdigris,  whereby  it  gained  the 
name  Three  Forks.  At  one  time  the  Osage  Indians  claimed  the  section;  later 
it  was  transferred  by  treaty  to  the  Cherokees,  and  then  the  Creek  Indians 
setded  on  a  part  of  the  area.  In  1828,  Chouteau's  holdings  were  bought  by  the 
government  for  use  as  a  Creek  agency. 

When  Washington  Irving  made  the  trip  described  in  his  Tour  on  the 
Prairies,  he  stopped  over  night  here;  he  wrote  of  the  stern  Osages,  the  gay 
Creeks,  trappers,  hunters,  half-bloods,  Creoles,  Negroes,  and  frontiersmen, 
who  made  the  place  one  of  "complete  bustle." 

The  busy  little  setdement  was  known  by  several  names — Falls  City, 
Verdigris  Falls,  Verdigris  Landing,  Three  Forks,  Creek  Agency,  and  Sleepy- 
ville.  The  buildings  were  burned  in  whole  or  in  part  half  a  dozen  times  in 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century;  and  the  bitter  guerrilla  fighting  be- 
tween the  Northern  and  Southern  factions  that  divided  both  the  Creeks  and 
Cherokees  devastated  the  area  during  the  Civil  War.  With  the  coming  of 
the  railroad  in  1871,  the  settlement  moved  north  to  the  present  site  and  was 
known  successively  as  Coretta  Switch,  North  Muskogee,  Rex,  and  finally 
Okay. 

Blows  of  hard  luck  struck  the  town  successively,  one  bringing  about  the 
last  change  of  name  by  which  the  inhabitants  attempted  to  create  a  boom. 
Discovery  of  natural  gas  near  by  shortly  after  the  first  World  War  led  to  the 
construction  of  a  gas-stove  factory,  a  native  stone  building  at  the  eastern  end 
of  the  bridge  over  which  US  69  crosses  the  Verdigris.  This  is  said  to  be  on 
almost  the  exact  site  of  the  old  Chouteau  post.  When  the  stove  venture  failed, 
the  plant  was  sold  to  a  designer  and  manufacturer  of  plows,  who  in  turn 
went  bankrupt  and  sold  the  factory  to  a  company  manufacturing  OK  trucks. 
The  consequent  employment  of  many  laborers  and  skilled  workmen  increased 
the  population,  and  the  town  enthusiastically  changed  its  name  to  Okay.  This 
enterprise,  too,  failed  as  did  the  airplane  factory  that  took  its  place.  A  hard- 
wood planing  mill  and  a  packing  plant  met  the  same  fate.  Even  the  elements 
have  done  their  share  to  down  Okay;  in  1911  the  town  was  swept  by  a  deva- 
stating tornado,  in  1927  by  wind  and  flood,  in  1936  by  fire. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  Verdigris  River  Bridge,  106  m.,  the  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution  have  erected  a  Three  Forks  Marker  (R),  com- 
memorating "the  important  and  ancient  trail,"  the  Texas  Road,  which 
crossed  at  this  spot;  the  old  trading  post  and  the  Three  Forks  landing;  the 


TOUR  8        337 

Osage  and  Creek  agencies;  the  arrival  of  the  first  party  of  emigrating  Creek 
Indians  in  February,  1828;  Washington  Irving's  visit  in  1832;  and  the  near-by 
home  of  Sam  Houston  (see  Tour  2),  who  lived  in  this  area  in  1829-32. 

South  of  the  bridge  US  69  parallels  the  Verdigris  River  where,  before 
the  Civil  War,  numerous  trading  posts  stood  on  both  banks.  The  old  Texas 
Road  followed  almost  the  exact  route  of  US  69  for  a  few  miles  north  of  the 
Arkansas  River  crossing.  A  branch,  however,  went  southeasterly  six  miles 
to  Fort  Gibson.  Midway  on  this  road  was  the  Site  of  Wigwam  Neosho,  the 
log  house  built  by  Sam  Houston  in  1830  and  occupied  by  him  until  1832, 
when  he  started  on  his  Texas  adventure.  It  was  here  that  he  lived  with  his 
Cherokee  wife,  Tiana  Rogers. 

South  of  the  Arkansas  River  crossing,  109.8  m.,  is  the  site  (L)  of  the 
council  which  Bernard  de  la  Harpe,  the  French  explorer,  held  on  September  3, 
1719,  with  some  seven  thousand  Indians,  representing  the  Tawakonis  and 
the  Wichitas  and  allied  tribes.  In  his  report  of  the  expedition,  which  crossed 
from  the  southeastern  section  of  what  is  now  Oklahoma  to  this  point,  he 
stated  that  he  gave  fifteen  hundred  pounds  of  gifts  to  the  assembled  Indians 
on  that  day. 

At  111.0  m.  is  the  northern  junction  with  US  62  (see  Tour  3),  which 
unites  briefly  with  US  69. 

At  113.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  oiled  asphalt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  through  the  college  gateway  to  Bacone  College,  0.7  m.,  a  junior 
college  maintained  exclusively  for  Indians.  The  school  was  named  for  Professor  Almon  C. 
Bacone,  the  founder,  who  came  to  Indian  Territory  to  teach  in  the  Cherokee  Male  Seminary 
at  Tahlequah  (see  Tour  3).  In  1879,  he  received  permission  to  establish  a  university  for  In- 
dians of  all  tribes  under  the  supervision  of  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society;  the 
Baptist  Mission  House  at  the  Cherokee  capital  served  as  the  first  home  of  this  Indian  uni- 
versity. 

This  society,  the  Woman's  American  Home  Mission  Society,  and  individual  donors 
support  the  institution.  In  1885,  with  the  consent  of  the  Creek  tribal  council,  the  school  was 
moved  to  its  present  location,  strategic  because  of  its  proximity  to  Muskogee,  the  govern- 
mental center  for  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes.  The  junior  college  curriculum  was  instituted  in 
1927. 

Bacone  occupies  a  unique  place  in  state  education,  for  in  addition  to  the  regular  cur- 
riculum, it  strives  to  keep  alive  the  ancient  Indian  arts.  Patrick  J.  Hurley,  Secretary  of  War 
(1929-33)  under  President  Hoover,  graduated  here  in  1905. 

The  plant  is  on  a  campus  of  166  acres,  eighty  of  which  are  under  cultivation.  The 
eleven  college  buildings  (open  during  school  hours)  include  Samuel  Richards  Memorial 
Hall,  a  three-story  brick  building  of  Norman  design,  erected  in  1921  by  an  oil-rich  Creek; 
the  Sally  Journi  ycake  Memorial,  constructed  of  native  stone  by  student  labor  and 
named  for  a  famous  Delaware  Indian  woman;  the  native-stone  Arts  and  Crafts  building; 
Memorial  Hall  (now  under  construction,  1941),  on  the  site  of  the  first  school  structure; 
the  Indian  Cottage,  a  typical  modern  log  cabin  of  the  type  recently  built  by  many  Indians 
on  their  rural  holdings  and  used  as  a  unit  of  the  home  economics  department  of  the  college; 
and  the  Art  Lodge  (open  to  visilors  only  on  the  first  Sunday  of  the  month) ,  which  serves 
as  the  school  recreational  center.  The  lodge  is  built  of  native  stone  and  lumber  and  is  furn- 
ished throughout  with  handmade  Indian  furniture  and  rugs.  In  the  Museum  Room,  relics, 
beadwork,  wood  carvings,  and  pottery  are  displayed.  The  fireplace  was  constructed  of  hun- 
dreds of  stones  gathered  from  various  Indian  reservations  and  places  of  historical  interest. 

The  MiLLY  Francis  Monument,  in  front  of  the  Art  Lodge,  was  erected  in  1933  by  the 
faculty  and  students  of  Bacone  in  honor  of  "Oklahoma's  Pocahontas,"  the  Indian  woman 
who  was  awarded  the  first  Congressional  medal  ever  granted  to  a  woman.  Milly  saved  the 
life  of  Duncan  McKrimmon,  a  Georgia  militiaman  stationed  at  Fort  Gadsden,  Georgia, 


338  OKLAHOMA 

during  the  border  warfare  between  the  United  States  and  Spanish  Florida  in  1817-18. 
Cajitain  McKriminon  had  been  cajnurcd  by  Seminole  Indians  and  was  about  to  be  killed 
when  Milly's  eloquent  pleading  saved  him,  on  condition  that  he  shave  his  head  and  live 
ann)ng  his  captors.  Two  years  later  he  was  sold  to  Spanish  traders  for  a  barrel  of  whisky. 
It  is  said  that  the  young  soldier  returned  shortly  thereafter  and  asked  Milly  to  become  his 
wife,  but  she  refused.  Later  Milly  Francis  was  captured  along  with  a  number  of  Seminoles 
and  finally  came  west  to  live  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Gibson,  where  Colonel  Ethan  Allen 
Hitchcock  learned  her  story.  He  petitioned  Congress  to  recognize  her  deed,  and  an  act  was 
passed  on  June  17,  18-^4,  granting  her  an  annual  pension  of  $96.  The  act  further  provided 
for  a  medal,  but  oflicial  Washington  did  not  push  the  matter  and  Milly  died  in  1848  without 
having  received  it.  Her  heirs,  however,  later  were  given  the  award. 

The  MuRROW  Indian  Orphans'  Home,  on  the  campus,  is  a  group  of  modern  stone  and 
brick  buildings  where  homeless  Indian  children  are  cared  for.  The  institution  was  moved 
here  from  Atoka  where  it  was  known  as  the  Atoka  Baptist  Academy. 

The  Site  of  Fort  Davis,  a  Confederate  fort  established  for  a  short  time  during  the 
Civil  War,  is  also  on  the  college  grounds.  A  tract  approximately  550  feet  square  has  been 
given  to  the  Fort  Davis  Memorial  Association,  which  plans  to  restore  the  site.  At  the  top  of 
a  mound  is  the  place  where  the  flagstaff  stood,  and  near  by  is  an  old  well  which  served  the 
fortification. 

MUSKOGEE,  114.2  m.  (617  alt.,  32,332  pop.)  (see  Muscogee),  is  at 
the  junction  with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  and  the  southern  junction  with  US  62 
(see  Tour  3). 

Section  b.  MUSKOGEE  to  TEXAS  LINE,  159  m.  US  69 

South  of  MUSKOGEE,  0  m.,  the  route  passes  through  towns  and  coun- 
ties bearing  the  names  of  chieftains  and  leaders  of  the  Creek  Indians  who 
peopled  this  area  after  their  removal  from  the  East.  Just  east  of  the  railroad 
tracks  the  ruts  of  the  old  Texas  Road  are  still  discernible.  Herds  of  cattle 
being  driven  north  from  Texas  along  this  route  had  to  make  way  frequently 
for  the  long  lines  of  emigrants'  wagons  headed  south. 

OKTAHA,'l5.6  m.  (591  alt.,  233  pop.),  is  a  small  farming  center  (L) 
named  after  Oktarharsars  Harjo,  leader  of  a  conservative  faction  among  the 
Creeks.  The  town  began  as  a  station  on  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad 
in  1872. 

On  the  banks  of  ELK  CREEK,  18  m.,  is  the  Site  of  the  Battle  of 
Honey  Springs  (L),  the  most  important  Civil  War  battle  in  Indian  Territory. 
In  the  summer  of  1863,  several  thousand  Confederates  under  the  command 
of  Gen.  Douglas  H.  Cooper  were  stationed  at  Honey  Springs,  a  stop  on  the 
Texas  Road,  from  which  point  they  planned  to  attack  Fort  Gibson,  key  to 
the  whole  of  Indian  Territory.  Union  scouts,  however,  reported  the  proposed 
movement  to  Fort  Gibson,  and  on  the  morning  of  July  17  the  Union  forces, 
under  General  James  G.  Blunt,  marched  from  the  fort  and  met  the  Con- 
federates at  Honey  Springs.  Outclassed  in  equipment  and  ammunition  by 
the  Federal  troops,  the  Confederates  retreated  down  the  Texas  Road,  leaving 
two  hundred  dead  and  wounded  lying  amid  the  smoking  ruins  of  their  ware- 
houses, which  they  fired  to  facilitate  retreat.  This  turning  point  in  the  Indian 
Territory  theater  of  war  occurred  only  a  few  days  after  the  fall  of  Gettysburg 
and  Vicksburg,  completing  the  geographical  line  of  defeat  resulting  in  the 
dissolution  of  the  Confederacy. 


TOUR  8        339 

The  remains  (L)  of  the  abutments  of  an  old  bridge  over  which  the  Texas 
Road  crossed  are  still  discernible.  The  bridge  was  the  focal  point  of  the  battle- 
field on  the  day  of  the  Honey  Springs  rout.  This  and  other  bridges  on  near-by 
streams  were  built  by  citizens  of  the  Creek  Nation,  who  then  levied  tolls  on 
travelers  and  freighters  using  the  Texas  Road. 

CHECOTAH,  24.2  m.  (638  alt.,  2,126  pop.),  the  trade  center  for  an 
agricultural  and  stock-raising  area,  was  named  for  Samuel  Checote,  a  great 
fullblood  statesman.  Checote,  who  had  been  educated  in  a  Methodist  mission 
school  in  xAJabama,  was  elected  principal  chief  of  the  Creeks  when  a  new 
constitution  was  adopted  by  the  tribe  in  1867.  But  the  conservatives  objected 
to  his  introduction  of  constitutional  procedures  modeled  after  those  of  the 
white  man,  and  under  the  leadership  of  Oktarharsars  Harjo  they  carried  on 
a  series  of  insurrections  against  the  tribal  government.  Although  sinister  and 
grasping  whites  fanned  the  flame,  the  leaders  entered  into  a  harmonious 
agreement  in  the  fall  of  1871.  The  settlement  proved  to  be  transitory — the 
difficulty  finally  culminated  in  the  Green  Peach  War  (see  Tour  3) — but 
the  railroad  building  through  the  Creek  country  during  the  temporary  peace 
named  the  stations  of  Oktaha  and  Checotah  in  honor  of  the  two  leaders. 

The  Odd  Fellows'  Home,  for  old  people  of  that  order,  is  a  two-story, 
brick  structure  on  a  160-acre  tract,  given  to  the  lodge  by  William  Gentry,  a 
mixed-blood  Creek  citizen. 

US  69  crosses  the  NORTH  CANADIAN  RIVER,  35.7  m.,  where  Alex- 
ander Lawrence  Posey  (1873-1908),  well-known  Creek  writer  and  poet  (see 
Literature),  was  drowned.  Posey,  the  son  of  a  Scotch-Irish  father  and  a  full- 
blood  Creek  mother,  spoke  only  the  Creek  language  until  he  was  twelve. 
After  attending  Bacone  College,  he  started  on  a  career  of  leadership  among 
his  people  and  literary  achievement  in  the  white  man's  language.  He  held 
a  number  of  tribal  offices,  and  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Creek  government 
by  the  Dawes  Commission  he  became  city  editor  of  the  Muscogee  Times  (see 
Newspapers).  He  is  best  known  for  his  published  poems  and  for  the  "Fuss 
Fixico"  newspaper  column  where  in  Indian-English  dialect  he  loosed  his 
satirical  arrows  at  members  of  the  Dawes  Commission  and  other  Federal 
office-holders  of  the  Indian  Territory. 

EUFAULA,  37.2  w.  (613  alt.,  2,355  pop.),  the  seat  of  Mcintosh  County, 
is  a  few  miles  west  of  the  confluence  of  the  North  and  South  Canadian  rivers. 
The  development  of  the  present-day  town  began  with  the  coming  of  the  rail- 
road in  1872,  when  residents  of  North  Fork  Town,  a  thriving  Creek  center 
approximately  two  miles  east,  moved  there  to  be  near  transportation  facilities. 

North  Fork  Town,  taking  its  name  from  the  North  Fork  of  the  Cana- 
dian, had  been  settled  by  the  Creeks  shortly  after  their  migration  from  the 
East  in  1836  and  had  become  an  important  tribal  community.  It  was  the 
scene  of  the  treaty-making  between  the  Confederates  and  the  Creeks,  Choc- 
taws,  and  Chickasaws  in  1861.  Two  important  trails,  the  Texas  Road  and  a 
branch  of  the  California  Road,  crossed  at  North  Fork  Town,  making  it  a 
center  of  industry  and  traffic.  In  1853  a  post  office  was  established  under  the 
name  Micco,  the  Creek  word  for  chief. 

Northeast  of  Eufaula  is  the  site  of  Asbury  Mission,  a  boarding  school 


340  OKLAHOMA 

established  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1849  under  a  contract  with 
the  Creek  Council.  It  was  housed  in  a  large  brick,  building  accommodating 
one  hundred  pupils,  and  during  its  existence  made  a  definite  contribution  to 
the  culture  and  progress  of  the  tribe. 

Another  early  Creek  school,  the  Eufaula  Indian  Girls'  Boarding 
School,  was  opened  in  Eufaula  in  1892  and  is  still  active.  First  established  by 
the  Creeks  as  a  part  of  the  tribal  educational  system,  it  was  taken  over  by  the 
Federal  government  in  1899.  The  plant  is  owned  by  the  Indians,  but  the 
United  States  pays  for  the  maintenance.  The  school  now  has  an  enrollment  of 
two  hundred.  The  vocational  department,  in  an  imposing  two-story  building, 
offers  courses  in  interior  decorating,  handicraft,  and  the  household  arts. 

The  oldest  surviving  newspaper  in  the  state,  the  Indian  Journal  (see 
Newspapers),  is  published  here.  It  was  founded  at  Muskogee  as  a  tribal 
organ  in  1876. 

A  Boy  Scout  Camp,  40.3  m.,  is  on  the  bank  (R)  of  a  bend  in  the  South 
Canadian  River.  The  wide,  sandy  stream  formerly  served  as  the  boundary 
between  the  old  Choctaw  Nation  on  the  south  and  the  Creek  Nation  on  the 
north. 

McALESTER,  66.3  m.  (718  alt.,  12,401  pop.),  (see  Tour  5).  is  at  the 
junction  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

Between  McAlester  and  the  Texas  Line  the  route  traverses  country  cut 
by  many  streams  and  rivers;  the  towns  are  small  and  agriculture  is  the  main 
occupation.  Throughout  the  region  are  sites  where  events  of  historical  impor- 
tance took  place  when  the  land  belonged  to  the  Choctaw  Nation. 

At  71.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  the  Site  of  Perryville,  0.3  m.,  a  trading  post  and  stage  station 
established  on  the  Texas  Road  about  1838  by  James  Perry,  member  of  a  prominent  Choctaw- 
Chickasaw  family.  A  post  office  was  opened  here  in  1841;  and  in  1858,  when  John  Butter- 
field  was  awarded  the  contract  to  carry  mail  in  stagecoaches  across  the  continent,  the  route 
intersected  the  Texas  Road  at  this  station.  Colbert  Institute,  a  Chickasaw  school,  was 
founded  here  by  the  Methodist  Church  in  1852,  but  when  the  boundary  line  between  the 
two  tribes  was  fixed  a  few  years  later,  the  place  fell  on  the  Choctaw  side;  consequently  the 
school  was  moved  about  fifty  miles  southeast  where  it  was  re-established  as  Collins  Institute. 
Perryville  became  the  seat  of  Tobucksy  County  of  the  Choctaw  Nation  in  1855. 

During  the  Civil  War  the  Confederates  used  Perryville  as  a  military  post  and  supply 
depot,  and  it  was  to  this  refuge  that  General  Douglas  H.  Cooper  retreated  from  the  Honey 
Springs  rout  fifty  miles  north.  Brigadier  General  William  Steele  met  him  here  with  addi- 
tional forces,  but  despite  the  combination  they  were  again  beaten  by  Union  forces  under 
Major  General  James  G.  Blunt  in  August,  1863.  After  several  men  had  been  killed  in  the 
Battle  of  Perryville,  Cooper  realized  the  futility  of  resistance  and  evacuated  the  town,  first 
dumping  salt  in  the  water  wells.  The  Union  soldiers  confiscated  what  they  could  and  then 
completed  the  destruction  of  Perryville  by  burning  the  buildings. 

A  reproduction  of  ^T^E  OLD  ST.^GE  STAND  (adm.  free)  has  been  erected  on  the 
site;  many  relics  of  the  Battle  of  Perryville  are  on  display. 

In  1880,  SAVANNA,  75.4  m.  (679  alt.,  525  pop.),  was  a  thriving  coal- 
mining town  with  approximately  eight  times  its  present-day  population.  But 
after  a  disastrous  explosion  in  1887,  when  a  number  of  miners  were  killed, 
the  operators,  blaming  the  great  quantity  of  gas  in  the  mines  for  the  accident, 
moved  their  machinery  and  buildings  to  another  location.  Savanna  never 
again  reached  its  early-day  size. 


TOUR  8        341 

KIOWA,  83.7  m.  (650  alt.,  802  pop.),  was  founded  in  1872  when  the 
Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  was  extended  southward;  it  was  known  then 
as  Kiowa  Switch. 

Left  from  Kiowa  on  a  dirt  road  to  White's  Cave,  5.9  m.,  where,  according  to  local 
legend,  bullion  was  sealed  in  the  walls  many  years  ago  by  Spaniards  who  mined  in  this  area. 
The  cave  was  named  for  a  pioneer  settler. 

A  break  in  the  limestone  ridge  at  this  point  was  responsible  for  the 
naming  of  LIMESTONE  GAP.  93.2  m.  (642  alt.,  15  pop.),  a  settlement 
through  which  the  old  Texas  Road  passed  before  swinging  to  the  southwest. 
Buck  Creek  (L)  was  spanned  by  a  toll  bridge  at  that  time,  operated  by  Cap- 
tain Charles  LeFlore,  a  member  of  the  prominent  Choctaw  family.  LeFlore's 
old  home  (R),  a  white  frame  two-story -structure  inclosed  in  a  plank-fenced 
and  flower-filled  yard,  is  still  standing. 

CHOCKIE,  95.6  m.  (669  alt.,  59  pop.),  an  old  Choctaw  village,  was 
first  named  Chickiechockie  in  honor  of  Captain  LeFlore's  daughters,  who 
had  in  turn  been  named  for  the  respective  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw  national- 
ities of  their  mother  and  father.  Chickie,  who  became  the  wife  of  Lee  Cruce, 
Oklahoma's  second  governor,  died  early  in  the  twentieth  century  and  her 
name  was  removed  from  the  depot  sign — but  "Chockie"  has  remained  to  the 
present  day. 

First  a  stage  stop  on  the  Fort  Smith  to  Red  River  Road,  later  an  impor- 
tant lumber-shipping  point  when  the  railroad  was  built  through,  STRING- 
TOWN,  104.1  m.  {596  alt.,  718  pop.),  is  today  (1941)  an  agricultural  com- 
munity. 

ATOKA,  111.3  w.  (582  alt.,  2,548  pop.),  is  the  seat  of  the  county  of  the 
same  name,  both  of  which  were  named  for  a  subchief  of  the  Choctaw  Nation. 
He  is  buried  about  twenty  miles  east  of  town  near  the  little  settlement  of 
Farris.  When  the  section  was  surveyed,  the  chief's  resting  place  was  found 
to  be  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  but  the  body  was  never  moved. 

Rev.  J.  S.  Murrow,  a  Baptist  missionary,  founded  Atoka  in  1867.  Shordy 
afterwards,  he  established  the  Atoka  Baptist  Academy,  which  eventually  was 
absorbed  into  the  Murrow  Indian  Orphans'  Home  on  the  Bacone  College 
campus  north  of  Muskogee. 

The  Atoka  Agreement,  between  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  nations 
and  the  Dawes  Commission,  providing  for  the  surrender  of  tribal  govern- 
ment and  the  allotment  of  lands,  was  signed  at  Atoka  in  1897. 

Atoka  is  at  the  junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9). 

At  112.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  the  junction  with  a  second  dirt  road,  4.6  m.;  L.  here  to  Site  of 
Boggy  Depot,  9.7  m.,  an  important  old  Choctaw-Chickasaw  town  which  grew  from  an 
Indian  log  cabin  built  in  1837  to  a  flourishing  trade  center  and  Civil  War  army  post.  The 
name  of  the  town  comes  from  that  of  Clear  Boggy  Creek  about  one  mile  west;  the  Clear 
Boggy,  Muddy  Boggy,  and  North  Boggy  streams  seem  to  have  been  given  their  names  by 
early  French  traders  who  called  them  Vazztires  (vaseuse,  miry  or  boggy).  Americans 
adopted  the  translation  probably  about  the  time  of  the  exploratory  expedition  made  in  1805 
by  Dr.  John  Sibley,  who  wrote  in  his  report,  ". . .  we  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Vazzures, 
or  Boggy  River  . . ."  "Depot"  was  added  after  the  Choctaw-Chickasaw  treaty  of  1837,  when 


342  OKLAHOMA 

the  Chickasaws  emigrated  from  the  East  and  were  paid  annuities  at  the  "depot  on  the 
Boggy."  The  Post  Otlicc  Department  officially  named  the  town  in  1849;  a  boundary  treaty 
in  1855  placed  it  in  the  Choctaw  Nation. 

When  a  post  route  was  established  in  1850,  Boggy  Depot  became  an  important  town 
and  several  large  two-story  residences  were  erected.  The  settlement  was  at  the  junction  of 
the  Texas  Road  and  one  of  the  trails  from  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas,  to  the  West  and  did  a 
thriving  business.  The  town  church,  built  by  Rev.  Cyrus  Kingsbury  in  1840,  served  as  the 
Choctaw  capitol  in  1858  when  Chief  Basil  LeFlore  ordered  the  national  council  to  meet 
there  temporarily  during  a  factional  dispute.  The  Confederates  made  Boggy  Depot  a  military 
post  during  the  Civil  War,  and  the  Confederate  banner  floated  from  a  flagpole  in  the  center 
of  the  town  for  four  years.  Incongruously,  the  Indian  troops  fighting  for  the  South  would 
gallop  at  high  speed  around  the  flag  whooping  and  yelling  and  singing  the  Choctaw  war 
song.  One  of  the  first  Masonic  lodges  to  be  established  in  what  is  now  Oklahoma  was 
started  there  by  Rev.  J.  S.  Murrow  about  1872.  When  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Rail- 
road was  built  through  the  area,  the  route  missed  Boggy  Depot,  and  the  town  declined. 

Today  (1941)  traces  of  the  main  streets  of  the  old  town  are  still  visible,  as  are  the 
tr«e-choked  foundations  of  some  of  the  houses;  fallen  sandstone  markers  with  dates  indicate 
early  graves  in  the  old  cemetery;  and  abandoned  wells  and  cement  cisterns  show  the  loca- 
tions of  former  residences.  The  Home  of  Chief  Allen  Wright  (open  by  appointment) , 
built  in  1860  out  of  wood  from  the  great  oaks  growing  about  the  place,  is  still  standing  and 
in  good  repair.  Wright  (1826-95)  served  two  terms  as  principal  chief  of  the  Choctaw 
Nation  and  translated  several  books  into  the  Choctaw  language.  It  was  he  who  named 
Oklahoma,  for  in  1866  he  suggested  the  name  for  the  proposed  Indian  territory.  The  word 
is  a  Choctaw  phrase  meaning  "Red  People"  and  had  occurred  frequently  in  the  Treaty  of 
Dancing  Rabbit  Creek  when  reference  was  made  to  the  Choctaws.  After  that  the  name  was 
in  common  use  and  was  finally  officially  given  to  Oklahoma  Territory  and  the  state.  Chief 
Wright,  Rev.  Cyrus  Kingsbury,  and  other  prominent  pioneers  are  buried  in  the  abandoned 
cemetery  here. 

CADDO,  131.8  m.  (591  alt.,  954  pop.),  located  on  a  small  branch  of  the 
Blue  River,  is  named  for  the  Caddo  Indians  who  occupied  this  region  before 
the  coming  of  the  Choctaws.  It  then  became  a  Choctaw  court  town,  and  was 
filled  on  the  first  Monday  of  each  month  with  many  tribal  members  who 
came  to  air  their  grievances  or  to  stand  trial.  Caddo  was  later  an  important 
station  on  the  trail  between  Fort  Smith  and  Fort  Sill  but  declined  when  the 
railroads  offered  a  more  convenient  routing. 

At  Maytubby  Springs  (R)  in  Caddo  three  different  kinds  of  mineral 
water  flow  from  separate  oudets  only  three  feet  apart.  The  springs  were  named 
for  Captain  Peter  Maytubby,  a  Choctaw  leader  who  settled  near  the  town. 

South  of  Caddo  is  a  hilly  region  where  a  battle  was  fought  in  1806  be- 
tween the  Caddoes,  who  occupied  the  territory  at  the  time,  and  the  Choctaws, 
who  were  then  living  in  Mississippi.  The  latter  tribe  hunted  on  the  plains  of 
the  present  Oklahoma  long  before  the  nineteenth  century,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion a  hunting  party  of  the  eastern  Indians  was  surprised  by  the  resident 
Caddoes.  Many  bones  and  arrows  were  later  found  in  the  hills.  It  was  from 
these  hunting  trips  that  the  Choctaws  learned  much  of  the  land  which  they 
selected  here  before  Removal.  Pushmataha,  one  of  the  Choctaw  chiefs  who 
consummated  the  exchange  of  territory  with  General  Andrew  Jackson  at 
Doak's  Stand,  boasted  that  though  the  western  land  was  supposed  to  have 
been  unknown  to  him  at  the  time,  actually  he  knew  it  well  for  on  "big  hunts" 
he  had  been  chased  by  Comanches  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other. 
The  Washita  River  gained  its  name  from  these  early  expeditions,  for  the 
Choctaw  words  otva  chito  mean  "big  hunt." 


TOUR  8        343 

At  the  State  Fish  Hatchery  (visitors  welcome),  138.8  m.,  on  the  Blue 
River  (R),  126  acres  of  water  are  used  as  spawning  grounds.  Many  streams 
of  this  and  other  Oklahoma  districts  are  stocked  from  the  game  fish  propa- 
gated here.  Channel  catfish  have  been  successfully  bred  as  have  "Texas  straw- 
berry bream,"  a  species  of  game  fish  new  to  Oklahoma. 

At  139.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  here  to  a  junction  with  graveled  State  22,  1.2  m.;  R.  on  State  22  to  a  junction 
with  a  third  graveled  road,  2.6  m. 

Right  (N)  here  to  NAIL'S  CROSSING,  1.6  m.,  where  the  Texas  Road  crossed  the 
Blue  River,  named  for  a  prominent  Choctaw  family.  The  Nail  house  is  still  standing — its 
logs  held  together  firmly  by  the  wooden  pegs  used  in  the  original  construction  about  1847. 
Near  by  is  a  family  cemetery  that  has  been  well  kept  through  the  years. 

On  the  south  bank,  of  the  Blue  is  the  Site  of  Fort  McCulloch  (L),  established  in 
1862  by  General  Albert  Pike  and  named  for  Brigadier  General  McCulloch,  who  com- 
manded the  Confederate  forces  in  Indian  Territory  the  first  year  of  the  Civil  War.  The  com- 
plicated intrigues  that  distracted  the  military  command  of  this  region  soon  brought  about 
Pike's  resignation  and  the  abandonment  of  the  fort,  but  the  places  where  the  bastions  and 
redoubts  were  erected  are  still  plainly  visible.  Some  remnants  of  a  bridge  built  across  the 
Blue  at  that  time  also  remain. 

State  22  continues  to  a  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road,  9.6  m.;  L.  here  to  a 
junction,  with  a  graveled  road,  9.9  m.;  R.  to  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road,  13.4 
m.  and  R.  to  the  Site  of  Fort  Washita,  14.9  m.  This  important  military  outpost,  the  first 
of  a  series  of  forts  on  the  Washita  River  (see  Tours  3  and  10) ,  was  established  in  1842  by 
General  Zachary  Taylor,  later  to  become  President  of  the  United  States.  The  purpose  of 
Fort  Washita  was  to  protect  the  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws  from  border  raids  by  the  wild 
tribes  of  the  Southwest.  The  Marcy  Trail  to  California  ran  through  this  point,  and  the  site 
became  a  refuge  where  emigrants  might  gather  to  await  fellow  travelers  before  starting  on 
the  more  dangerous  portion  of  their  trip.  The  United  States  abandoned  the  fortification  in 
1861,  however,  and  it  was  never  again  occupied  except  by  the  Confederates  for  a  short  time 
during  the  Civil  War. 

Today  ( 1941 ),  Fort  Washita  is  a  ghost  fortress  overgrown  with  post  oaks,  but  the  well- 
preserved  remains  of  many  of  the  buildings  and  sites  clearly  show  the  plan  of  the  former 
stronghold.  The  ruins  of  massive-chimneyed  barracks  are  still  here,  for  the  Goodland  lime- 
stone quarried  near  the  site  has  successfully  withstood  the  elements;  the  straight  chimneys  of 
the  old  tavern  built  just  outside  the  quadrangle  rise  like  silent  sentries;  and  water  still 
flows  from  the  stone  springhouse. 

North  of  the  fort  is  the  old  Military  Cemetery,  used  partly  now  as  a  community 
burying  ground.  The  marker  placed  at  the  grave  of  General  William  Belknap,  former  com- 
mander of  the  southwestern  forces  of  the  United  States  Army  who  died  there  in  1851,  is 
still  erect;  the  body,  however,  was  moved  to  the  Fort  Gibson  National  Cemetery  (see  Tour 
3)  and  later  to  Washington,  D.C. 

DURANT,  144.2  m.  (643  alt.,  10,027  pop.)  (see  Tour  6),  is  at  the  junc- 
tion with  US  70  (see  Tour  6). 

CALERA,  149.8  m.  (643  alt.,  597  pop.),  an  agricultural  center,  was  one 
of  the  first  townsites  in  which  white  men  could  purchase  lots  and  get  tides  for 
the  land  directly  from  the  Indian  tribes.  The  lot  sale  there  took  place  in  Sep- 
tember, 1899. 

In  the  fertile  Red  River  valley  area,  COLBERT,  156.8  m.  (661  alt.,  602 
pop.),  serves  as  a  trade  center  for  the  surrounding  farm  lands. 

Right  from  Colbert  on  a  graveled  road  to  the  Denison  Dam,  5  m.,  a  structure  three 
miles  long  and  140  feet  high,  planned  for  completion  in  1944.  Approximately  at  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Washita  with  Red  River,  the  dam  when  full  will  impound  water  covering 


344  OKLAHOMA 

some  120,000  acres  in  Oklahoma  and  22,000  in  Texas.  The  primary  purpose  of  the 
$50,000,000  project  is  flood  control  in  Oklahoma,  Texas,  Arkansas,  and  Louisiana.  Army 
engineers  estimate  that  more  than  138,000  acres  of  rich  farm  land  would  have  been  saved 
from  flooding  when  the  Red  River  went  out  of  its  banks  in  1935  if  there  had  been  such  a 
reservoir.  In  addition,  hydroelectric  power,  generated  at  the  dam,  will  be  available  for  a 
large  area. 

The  free  bridge  over  the  Red  River,  159  w.,  was  the  cause  of  the  so-called 
Red  River  Bridge  War  in  1931.  For  many  years  previously  the  Texas  Toll 
Bridge  Company  had  operated  a  toll  bridge  at  this  crossing,  but  in  1929  Te.xas 
and  Oklahoma,  with  the  consent  of  Congress,  began  the  construction  of  a  free 
bridge.  The  company  stockholders  then  secured  an  injunction  from  the 
Federal  District  Court  to  prevent  the  opening  of  the  free  bridge,  and  the 
Lone  Star  governor  thereupon  ordered  barricades  erected  at  its  south  end. 
On  July  23,  1931,  however,  Oklahoma's  governor,  William  H.  ("Alfalfa 
Bill")  Murray,  ordered  the  State  National  Guard  to  clear  the  bridge  and  let 
traffic  flow  undisturbed;  he  had  discovered  a  previous  Supreme  Court  decision 
placing  both  banks  of  the  river  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Oklahoma.  He  also 
ordered  the  highway  approaching  the  north  end  of  the  toll  bridge  plowed  up 
and  the  paving  removed.  A  judgment  against  Oklahoma  was  granted  the 
company,  but  the  Federal  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  reversed  the  decision,  and 
the  Red  River  Bridge  War  was  ended. 

US  69  crosses  the  TEXAS  LINE,  159  m.,  at  a  point  five  miles  north  of 
Denison,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide.) 


j$l)/t2 ^ , j^O/i: ^  , ^'^"1 ^  - ^^i!l .- ^^11 ^  .. ^^"J. ^  , jS''^2 . , ^^"J. 


Tour  9 


(Independence,  Kans.) — Bardesville — Tulsa — Okmulgee — Calvin — Atoka; 

US  75 

Kansas  Line  to  Atoka,  231.2  m. 

Roadbed  alternately  concrete-paved  and  graveled. 

The  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  Railway  parallels  the  route  between  the  Kansas  Line 
and  Tulsa;  the  St.  Louis-San  Francisco  between  Tulsa  and  Wetumka;  the  Missouri-Kansas- 
Texas  between  Coalgate  and  Atoka. 
Good  accommodations  available  at  convenient  distances. 

This  north-south  road  through  eastern  Oklahoma  crosses  rich  range 
country  in  northern  Oklahoma,  skirts  the  eastern  border  of  the  earliest  and 
most  extensive  shallow  oil-field  development  in  the  state,  bisects  the  old  Creek 
Nation,  and  ends  in  the  heart  of  the  former  Choctaw  Nation.  In  this  region 


i 


TOUR  9        345 

are  coal  diggings  that  began  as  early  as  1880  and  declined  almost  to  the  van- 
ishing point  after  the  development  of  Oklahoma's  rich  fields  of  oil  and  fuel 

Almost  at  the  route's  halfway  mark  is  the  region  in  which  the  first  gusher 
oil  field  of  the  state,  the  Glenn  Pool,  was  developed;  there,  in  the  sandy, 
blackjack-studded  hill  country,  illiterate  Creek  Indian  full  bloods  were  made 
millionaires  by  chance  and  oil-boom  towns  provided  a  melodramatic  chapter 
in  the  state's  history. 

With  its  view  of  livestock,  general  and  cotton  farming,  peanuts,  pecans, 
oil,  and  coal,  and  its  dip  into  cosmopolitan  Tulsa,  US  75  offers  a  rather  com- 
plete summary  of  Oklahoma's  resources,  occupations,  and  landscapes. 

US  75  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  two  miles  south  of  Caney, 
Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide). 

COP  AN,  8.1  m.  (776  alt.,  549  pop.),  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  the 
old  Cherokee  Nation,  was  setded  in  the  1880's,  growing  up  on  the  prairie 
around  a  store  built  to  serve  the  Cherokee,  Delaware,  and  Osage  Indian 
trade.  With  the  coming  of  the  railroad,  in  1898,  the  place  gained  some  popu- 
lation; and  the  later  development  of  an  extensive  shallow  oil  field  toward  the 
east  caused  it  to  experience  a  mild  boom.  With  the  decline  of  oil  in  the  region, 
Copan  became  the  trading  point  of  a  farming  community. 

DEWEY,  15.3  m.  (700  alt.,  2,114  pop.),  was  founded  in  1898  by  J.  H. 
(Jake)  Bardes,  who  had  previously  founded  Bartlesville  (see  Bartlesville), 
and  named  in  honor  of  Admiral  George  Dewey,  whose  victory  at  Manila  Bay 
was  fresh  in  everyone's  mind. 

When  the  Santa  Fe  purchased  the  grade  of  the  projected  Kansas,  Okla- 
homa and  Southwestern  Railroad,  which  Bartles  had  surveyed  and  con- 
structed from  Caney,  and  began  laying  rails,  this  enterprising  trader  under- 
took to  move  a  store  from  Silver  Lake  (see  below)  to  the  site  of  the  new  town. 
In  order  to  do  this,  he  built  a  road  north  from  Bartlesville.  Because  of  mud  in 
the  Caney  River  bottoms,  through  which  his  oxen  could  only  with  the  utmost 
difficulty  drag  the  store  building,  constructed  of  heavy  walnut  lumber,  the 
removal  required  five  months.  Meanwhile,  however,  business  went  on  in  the 
store  as  it  rested  on  log  rollers  in  the  road  or  was  inched  forward  by  the 
struggling  oxen.  The  building,  on  West  8th  Street,  is  used  as  a  cafe,  and  the 
furniture,  of  heavy  walnut  also,  was  made  out  of  lumber  from  a  mill  built 
by  Bardes  at  Bartlesville  and  torn  down  in  1915. 

The  Dewey  Portland  Cement  Company  Plant  at  the  northeastern 
edge  of  the  town,  one  of  the  largest  in  the  state,  employs  some  five  hundred 
workers,  many  of  whom — Negroes  and  Mexicans — live  in  a  close-packed 
group  near  by. 

Dewey's  annual  round  up  (rodeo),  which  occurs  in  Fourth  of  July  week, 
is  one  of  the  oldest,  most  popular,  and  interesting  exhibitions  of  its  kind  in 
Oklahoma.  There  is  also  an  annual  Free  Fair  at  the  Dewey  fairgrounds  in 
September. 

Right  from  Dewey  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  junction  with  another  dirt  road,  3 
m.;  R.  to  junction  with  a  third  dirt  road,  4.2  m.:  and  L.  to  BAR  DEW  LAKE,  5  m.,  a 
212-acre  reservoir  made  by  damming  a  branch  of  the  Caney  River.  At  the  dam  is  a  ten-acre 


346  OKLAHOMA 

recreational  area,  developed  by  the  WPA,  which  is  popular  not  only  with  residents  of  Dewey 
but  also  with  those  of  Bartlesville.  The  State  Game  and  Fish  Ck)mmission  has  a  fish 
hatchery  here. 

BARTLESVILLE,  18.7  w.  (694  alt.,  16,267  pop.)  (see  Bartlesville). 

At  21.7  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4). 

The  original  Jake  Bartles  trading  post,  23.3  m.,  called  SILVER  LAKE, 
was  also  the  site  of  the  former  Osage  Indian  Agency.  When  an  accurate  sur- 
vey of  the  tract  bought  by  the  United  States  government  from  the  Cherokees 
for  occupation  of  the  Osages,  removed  from  Kansas  in  1872,  showed  that 
Silver  Lake  was  outside  the  boundaries,  the  Osage  agent  was  required  to 
remove  as  near  to  the  center  of  the  reservation  as  feasible.  It  was  then  that  the 
agency  was  established  at  Pawhuska  (sec  Tour  4).  hs  3i  settlement,  Silver 
Lake  survived  until  Bartles  started  his  store  on  its  five  months'  journey  to 
Dewey. 

OCHELATA,  31.4  m.  (570  alt.,  333  pop.),  was  given  the  Indian  name 
of  Charles  Thompson,  principal  chief  of  the  Cherokees,  1875-79,  when  the 
Santa  Fe  Railway  built  a  station  there  in  1899.  The  town  is  a  supply  point  for 
farmers  and  ranchmen. 

Left  from  Ochelata  on  a  dirt  road  to  the  Ellen  Howard  Miller  Bird  Sanctuary,  7 
tn.,  on  an  island  formed  by  the  branching  of  Caney  River.  It  was  founded  by  a  former  resi- 
dent of  the  town,  Mrs.  Howard  Miller,  under  whose  supervision  practically  all  species  of 
birds  native  to  Oklahoma  were  gathered.  The  limits  of  the  refuge  are  plainly  marked  by 
signs  warning  visitors  against  disturbing  the  birds  or  their  nests. 

RAMONA,  38.9  m.  (703  alt.,  574  pop.),  grew  from  the  depot  erected 
there  in  1900  by  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  and  was  named  for  the  heroine  of 
Helen  Hunt  Jackson's  widely  read  novel  about  the  Indians  of  California, 
Ramona.  Later  three  older  trading  posts  —  Old  Ringo,  Austin,  and  Hillside 
Mission — merged  with  the  town. 

Like  other  settlements  of  this  region,  Ramona  had  a  temporary  boom 
due  to  the  discovery  and  development  of  oil  in  the  V^erdigris  shallow  field; 
and  like  them  became  merely  a  farm  and  ranch  trading  place  after  this 
activity  died  down. 

VERA,  45.8  m.  (645  alt.,  208  pop.),  occupies  a  site  which  was  once  a 
part  of  the  allotment  of  W.  C.  Rogers,  the  last  elected  principal  chief  of  the 
Cherokee  Nation.  He  donated  the  land  to  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  when  a 
station  was  established  in  1900,  and  earlier  town-builders  moved  there  from  a 
site  they  had  occupied  two  miles  north.  Vera  now  serves  the  people  of  an 
area  given  over  largely  to  cattle  pastures. 

At  47.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  the  Site  of  Hillside  Mission,  6  m.,  where  a  mission  was  opened 
in  1884  by  John  Murdock,  a  missionary  sent  out  by  the  Society  of  Friends  (Quakers)  of 
Philadelphia  to  work  among  the  Osages,  Cherokees,  and  Dclawares  who  lived  within  driv- 
ing distance  of  the  place.  Substantial  buildings  of  walnut  lumber  were  erected,  one  of  which, 
a  house  of  twenty-four  rooms,  is  standing.  When  John  Watson  was  sent  to  relieve  Murdock 
at  the  mission,  he  carried  with  him  a  shoot  froin  the  ancient  elm  under  which  William  Penn 
signed  the  treaty  with  the  Delaware  Indians  in  1682.  It  was  planted  in  the  mission  grounds 
and  is  now  a  big  tree. 


TOUR  9        347 

In  the  cemetery  across  the  road  from  the  mission  site  a  stone  marks  the  grave  of  Chief 
Rogers  (see  above). 

COLLINSVILLE,  53.9  m.  (621  alt.,  1,927  pop.)  (see  Tour  9A),  is  at 
the  junction  with  US  169  (see  Tour  9A),  which  unites  with  US  75  for  21.3 
miles. 

In  TULSA,  73.2  m.  (700  alt.,  142,157  pop.)  (see  Tulsa),  are  junctions 
with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  and  US  66  (see  Tour  1),  which  unites  southward 
with  US  75  to  SAPULPA,  90.9  m.  (712  alt.,  12,249  pop.)  (see  Tour  1). 

South  of  Sapulpa  is  the  region  in  which  the  first  spectacularly  productive 
oil  field  in  the  state  was  developed  in  1905-06.  The  discovery  well  came  in 
— December  1,  1905 — on  land  southeast  of  Sapulpa  owned  by  Ida  E.  Glenn, 
a  Creek  citizen,  and  the  field  became  known  as  Glenn  Pool.  Initial  production 
was  from  a  depth  of  1,475  feet  and  amounted  to  seventy-five  barrels  a  day. 
The  second  well  drilled  was  a  dry  hole,  but  the  third  well  was  a  thousand- 
barrels-a-day  gusher;  and  the  fourth  went  up  to  2,500  barrels  a  day.  The  wells 
drew  national  attention  to  Indian  Territory  as  a  possible  new  center  of  oil 
production;  and  because  Tulsa  had  already  become  the  headquarters  of  the 
companies  and  individuals  who  were  exploiting  the  Red  Fork  field  (see 
Tulsa),  that  city  rather  than  the  near-by  Sapulpa  benefitted  by  the  rush  of 
thousands  to  the  new  field.  Interest  was  stimulated  by  the  mystery  surround- 
ing the  drilling  of  the  discovery  well;  it  was  so  well  guarded  that  only  the 
men  working  on  it  were  allowed  to  approach  the  rig. 

As  more  gushers  came  into  production,  there  were  neither  facilities  for 
shipping  the  oil  to  refineries  nor  sufficient  steel-tank  storage  for  it,  and  in 
desperation  operators  began  damming  ravines  to  hold  the  flood  from  the 
wells  which  they  did  not  then  know  how  to  control.  Millions  of  barrels,  of 
course,  were  wasted  before  adequate  tank  storage  could  be  built  or  pipe  lines 
laid  in  to  connect  with  refineries. 

Many  of  the  most  productive  wells  of  the  old  Creek  Nation  were  drilled 
on  the  land  of  Indians  who,  resisting  allotment  of  the  communal  lands  of  the 
tribe,  had  refused  to  select  allotments  themselves  and  had  been  arbitrarily 
given  acreage  in  the  worthless  blackjack  covered  hills  which  other  tribesmen 
did  not  want.  One  of  these,  whose  name  became  known  nationally  because 
of  the  long  drawn  out  litigation  following  his  marriage  to  a  white  woman, 
was  Jackson  Barnett,  an  illiterate  full  blood  who  was  declared  incompetent, 
and  whose  millions  (literally)  of  income  from  oil  were  controlled  by  the 
Indian  Bureau  and  doled  out  as  his  appointed  guardian  willed.  Others,  like 
Katie  Fixico,  another  incompetent  whose  money  built  the  new  County  Court- 
house at  Okmulgee,  and  Enos  Wilson,  were  examples  of  Creeks  made  rich 
from  the  Glenn  Pool.  Guardianship  of  these  illiterate  full  bloods,  declared  by 
local  courts  to  be  incompetent,  became  rich  plums  eagerly  sought  by  enter- 
prising lawyers  and  sometimes  led  to  scandals  and  prolonged  litigation. 

Producers,  too,  became  principals  in  true  stories  of  quick  wealth,  men 
like  Robert  McFarlin  and  James  E.  Chapman,  the  first  a  small-town  banker 
and  the  other  a  small-ranch  cattleman.  From  an  investment  of  $700  in  a  first 
lease,  these  partners  ran  their  holdings  up  within  eleven  years  to  an  aggregate 
of  leases,  wells,  stored  oil,  and  pipe  lines  which  they  sold  to  a  major  company 


348  OKLAHOMA 

for  $35,000,000;  and  it  was  said  that  the  stock  they  received  in  payment  imme- 
diately rose  in  value. 

KIEFER,  98.3  m.  (686  alt.,  330  pop.),  before  the  opening  of  Glenn  Pool, 
was  only  a  siding  on  the  Frisco.  Then,  because  it  was  the  nearest  unloading 
point  for  machinery  needed  in  the  oil  field,  houses  and  stores  were  built;  and 
one  of  the  first  casing-head  gas-treating  plants — for  extracting  gasoline  from 
wet  gas — was  located  here. 

In  the  semilegendary  history  of  Kiefer  it  is  recorded  that  it  became  one 
of  the  toughest  of  all  tough  oil  towns;  and  that  a  near-by  creek  whose  waters 
were  covered  by  a  thick  film  of  waste  oil  and  whose  bottom  was  deep  mud 
was  the  secret  graveyard  of  many  victims  of  the  town's  pistoleers. 

BEGGS,  112.6  m.  (690  alt.,  1,283  pop.),  gave  its  name  to  one  of  the 
richest  oil  fields  ever  opened  up  in  the  state.  As  development  spread  from  the 
Glenn  Pool  area  west  and  south,  in  the  period  from  1910  to  1915,  this  town 
began  to  boom,  and  by  1920  was  an  important  supply  point  and  residence 
center  for  oilmen.  Production  in  the  Beggs  field  is  still  (1941)  heavy. 

OKMULGEE,  124.1  m.  (670  alt.,  16,051  pop.)  (see  0\tnulgee),  is  at  the 
junction  with  US  62  (see  Tour  3),  which  unites  southwestward  with  US  75 
for  24.7  miles. 

At  128.2  m.  are  (R)  the  Fidelity  Laboratories  (open  during  wording 
hours),  a  link  in  an  interesting  process  for  the  treatment  of  hog  cholera.  In 
the  neighborhood  are  a  number  of  fine  swine  farms  and  a  packing  plant. 
Blood  from  hogs  butchered  at  the  packing  plant  is  utilized  at  the  laboratories 
in  making  the  anticholera  serum,  which  is  marketed  throughout  the  world. 

HENRYETTA,  138.9  m.  (691  alt.,  6,905  pop.)  (see  Tour  3). 

WELEETKA,  154.2  m.  (690  alt.,  1,904  pop.),  trade  center  of  a  good 
farming  section,  contains  many  Creek  families  and  serves  many  others.  In 
watermelon  time,  the  streets  are  crowded  with  wagons  and  trucks  of  the 
Indian  and  white  growers,  and  by  buyers  of  the  fine  melons  produced  near  by. 
At  other  seasons,  Saturday,  market  day  for  the  farmers  of  the  countryside,  is 
the  time  to  see  the  town  and  the  people  who  support  it. 

On  the  banks  of  Coal  Creek,  fifteen  miles  east  of  Weleetka,  is  the  site  of 
the  Old  Hickory  Stomp  Grounds,  where  in  1901  the  fuUblood  Creek  leader 
Chitto  Harjo  (known  to  the  whites  as  Crazy  Snake)  gathered  his  numerous 
fuUblood  faction  in  a  rump  session  of  the  tribal  council  to  legislate  against 
division  of  the  Creek  Nation  by  allotment.  In  justifying  his  action,  he  said: 
"He  [the  Federal  Government]  told  me  [the  Creek  Nation]  that  as  long 
as  the  sun  shone  and  the  sky  is  up  yonder  these  agreements  will  Ix:  kept  .  .  . 
He  said,  ']ns\.  as  long  as  you  see  light  here,  just  as  long  as  you  see  this  light 
glimmering  over  us,  shall  these  agreements  be  kept,  and  not  until  all  these 
things  cease  and  pass  away  shall  our  agreement  pass  away.'  That  is  what  he 
said,  and  we  believed  it." 

Not  until  United  States  Marshal  Leo  Bennett  came  with  an  armed  force 
and  haled  Chitto  Harjo  and  a  number  of  his  followers  to  the  white  man's 
court  (where  they  received  suspended  sentences  for  obstructing  allotment) 
was  the  full  blood's  faith  in  treaties  completely  destroyed.  Eight  years  later, 
in  an  attempt  to  arrest  him  by  authorities  of  Mcintosh  County.  Chitto  Harjo 


TOUR  9        349 

was  shot  through  the  hips  and  died  at  the  home  of  a  Choctaw  Indian  who 
was  shehering  him  from  the  white  man's  law  that  had  declared  him  to  be 
an  outlaw  rebel. 

WETUMKA,  164.8  m.  (770  alt.,  2,340  pop.),  in  the  Creek  Indian  lan- 
guage means  noisy  or  sounding  water.  The  town  was  settled  by  a  band  of  the 
tribe  soon  after  their  removal  from  the  town  of  the  same  name  they  had 
occupied  in  Alabama.  To  Wetumka  the  exiles  brought  not  only  the  name 
but  living  fire  from  the  old  communal  hearth.  On  the  long  road  of  banish- 
ment, two  men  were  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  keeping  the  fire.  At  each 
camping  place,  the  coals  were  blown  up  anew,  cooking  done,  and  when  the 
march  was  resumed  new  coals  were  carried  forward.  At  the  site  of  this 
western  Wetumka,  a  new  communal  hearth  was  dedicated,  and  the  head  man 
of  the  band  said,  "Here  is  our  town,  we  shall  go  no  farther  west." 

Some  20  per  cent  of  the  town's  people  are  Indian. 

CALVIN,  184.8  m.  (716  alt.,  589  pop.),  (see  Tour  5),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

South  of  Calvin,  the  highway  curves,  dips,  and  rises  among  scrub- 
forested  hills,  follows  briefly  narrow  valleys,  and  passes  by  occasional  small 
farmhouses  and  two  or  three  more  pretentious  dwellings  belonging  to  ranch- 
men whose  livestock  range  the  hill  pastures.  In  this  region,  too,  hidden  from 
sight  of  the  traveler  on  US  75,  live  numbers  of  fullblood  Choctaws  described 
as  "conservatives"  by  the  whites  and  mixed  bloods  because  they  like  the  old 
way  of  life. 

COALGATE,  217  m.  (622  alt.,  2,118  pop.),  was  once  a  thriving,  pros- 
perous coal-mining  center  but  began  to  decline  to  its  present  status  as  a  supply 
point  for  the  surrounding  farming  area  when  oil  and  fuel  gas  developments 
made  extensive  coal  mining  unprofitable.  Under  lease  from  the  Choctaw 
Nation,  the  first  coal  mine  was  opened  in  1882  within  one  hundred  feet  of 
what  is  now  Main  Street.  The  first  vein  tapped  was  so  close  to  the  surface 
that  it  was  stripped  by  the  miners  with  plows  and  scrapers  and  removed  with 
sledges,  steel  coal  pins,  and  shovels. 

LEHIGH,  222.3  m.  (599  alt.  519  pop.),  is  another  mining  center  in  the 
old  Choctaw  Nation,  where  coal  was  first  mined  in  1880.  The  settlement  was 
named  for  Pennsylvania's  coal-mining  city.  It  was  hardly  more  than  a  com- 
pany commissary  and  a  huddle  of  shacks  until  1887,  when  a  mine  disaster 
at  Savanna  (see  Tour  8)  caused  the  closing  of  mines  there  and  the  removal 
to  Lehigh  of  mining  equipment  and  135  houses. 

In  1912,  a  destructive  fire  swept  the  town;  and  today  (1941)  gray-black 
ruins,  including  a  large  heat-distorted  bank  vault,  are  evidences  of  Lehigh's 
palmy  days  when  its  population  was  three  thousand,  and  the  miners'  pay  rolls 
amounted  to  $75,000  a  month.  A  few  small  mines  are  still  operating,  and 
some  four  thousand  tons  of  coal  were  mined  and  shipped  out  by  truck  in 
the  year  1939. 

Right  from  Lehigh  on  a  dirt  road  to  the  junction  with  another  dirt  road,  2.5  ni.:  L. 
here,  4.3  m.,  to  the  Birthplace  of  Patrick  J.  Hurley,  Secretary  of  War  (1929-33) 
under  President  Hoover.  His  father  was  a  coal  miner  and  farmer  of  this  district,  and  young 
Hurley  satisfied  his  early  thirst  for  books  at  the  home  of  a  neighbor,  Ben  Smallwood,  a 


350  OKLAHOMA 

cultivated  mixed  lilood  who  was  for  a  time  principal  chief  of  the  Choctaw  Nation.  The  old 
Hurley  home  was  burned  some  years  ago,  and  a  tenant  house  stands  on  the  site. 

ATOKA,  231.2  m.  (582  alt.,  2,548  pop.)  (see  Tour  S),  is  at  the  junction 
wkhUS  69  (see  Tour  8). 


«^i)/i^ rtjO/i^ j*i)/^2 tjO^i ^, jtO^i . ^lii: ^ , jjO/j2 ^ , £j1(!2 


Tour  9a 


(CoffeyviUe,  Kans.)—CoIlinsville— Tulsa;  72.2  m.,  US  169 

Intermittently  paved  roadbed  of  various  types;  also  graveled. 

Missouri  Pacific  R.R.  parallels  route  between  Kansas  Line  and  Oologah;  the  Santa  Fe  be- 
tween Collinsville  and  Owasso. 

Good  accommodations  at  frequent  intervals. 

This  route  passes  through  an  area  originally  largely  settled  by  the  Dela- 
ware Indians  who  in  1867  used  tribal  funds  to  purchase  equal  rights  with  the 
Cherokees  in  the  Cherokee  Nation.  Now  (1941)  mainly  occupied  by  white 
farmers  and  ranchmen,  this  upland  prairie  region  is  dotted  with  small  power 
plants,  housed  in  galvanized  iron  shacks;  each  plant  operates  five  or  more 
pump  jacks  at  shallow  "stripper"  oil  wells.  The  route  bisects  an  extensive 
shallow  oil  field,  one  of  the  first  to  be  developed  in  the  state;  many  of  the 
wells  have  been  on  the  pump  for  more  than  thirty  years,  producing  from  half 
a  barrel  to  two  or  three  barrels  a  day. 

US  169  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m..  3.8  miles  south  of  Coffey ville, 
Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide) . 

SOUTH  COFFEYVILLE,  0.6  m.  (740  alt.,  364  pop.),  with  its  scatter- 
ing of  homes,  beer,  pool,  and  dance  halls,  garages,  and  stores,  was  once  a 
notoriously  wild  border  town  where  bootleggers  flourished  since  both  Indian 
Territory  and  Kansas  were  dry.  When  United  States  marshals  arrived  to  raid 
the  whisky  joints,  their  proprietors  hastily  moved  the  stock  of  liquor  out  of 
the  back  doors  a  few  yards  across  the  Kansas  Line.  At  times,  outraged  Kan- 
sans  disregarded  legal  barriers  to  burn  saloons  and  destroy  whisky,  but  South 
Coffeyville's  defiant  boodeggers  always  restocked  and  carried  on  under  brush 
arbors  until  they  could  rebuild. 

The  name  of  LENAPAH,  10.7  m.  (759  alt.,  395  pop.),  is  a  variation  of 
the  ancient  name  of  the  Delaware  Indian  tribe,  Lenape.  The  town  is  the 
center  of  a  district  formerly  occupied  by  these  Indians  and  by  their  ex-slaves. 

East  from  the  town  lie  productive  cotton  fields;  many  of  the  Negroes 


TOUR  9        351 

of  Lenapah  and  the  surrounding  district  work  either  as  tenants  or  hired 
hands.  West  of  the  highway  in  this  region  pastures  predominate. 

Lenapah's  population  is  roughly  divided  by  its  one  east  and  west  busi- 
ness street,  with  the  Negroes  on  the  north  side  and  the  whites  on  the  south. 
In  sharp  contrast  with  the  general  appearance  of  the  town  are  its  two  modern 
consolidated  schools. 

DELAWARE,  15.8  w.  (716  alt.,  542  pop.),  named  for  the  original  In- 
dian setders,  is  a  livestock  shipping  and  trading  point  for  the  ranchmen  west 
of  town  and  the  cotton  and  corn  farmers  of  the  region  to  the  east,  between 
the  town  and  the  Verdigris  River.  Its  small  business  district  (R)  lies  between 
the  highway  and  the  Missouri  Pacific  tracks. 

At  the  height  of  the  boom  in  the  extensive  shallow  oil  field  surrounding 
Delaware,  after  1907,  the  little  town  became  a  highly  congested  resort  for 
drillers,  roustabouts,  pipe-line  workers,  pumpers,  lease  hounds,  gamblers, 
bootleggers,  and  "entertainers"  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  easy  money.  In 
one  block  were  fourteen  saloons  and  gambling  joints — all,  of  course,  illegal 
— where  brawls  were  common  and  killings  not  unknown. 

From  this  era  of  Delaware's  history  dates  the  story  of  the  teamster  who 
went  into  an  explosives  magazine  near  the  town  to  get  nitroglycerine  with 
which  to  "shoot"  an  oil  well.  There  was  a  terrific  explosion,  and  no  trace 
whatever  of  the  man  or  team  was  found  until,  months  later,  they  turned  up 
in  New  Mexico;  and  the  teller  of  the  tale  may  say  solemnly,  "him  an'  his 
team  both  was  blown  clean  across  Oklahoma  an'  the  Panhandle  of  Texas!" 

NOWATA,  21.7  m.  (707  alt.,  3,904  pop.)  (see  Tour  4),  is  at  the  junction 
Wit\i\JS  6Q  (see  Tour  4) . 

At  39.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

A  marker  (L)  in  the  shape  of  a  cowskin  framed  by  poles  bears  the 
inscription,  "Two  miles  east  is  the  birthplace  of  Will  Rogers,  the  Oklahoma 
cowboy,  who  by  way  of  Broadway,  Hollywood,  and  the  public  press  won 
his  way  to  the  hearts  of  the  American  people." 

Left  on  the  graveled  road  is  Will  Rogers'  Birthplace  (open) ,  2.6  m.  His  father, 
Clem  V.  Rogers,  a  blood  citizen  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  and  a  prosperous  cattleman  promi- 
nent in  tribal  affairs,  was  one  of  the  pioneer  settlers  in  this  region.  He  built  his  house  at  the 
foot  of  an  oak-crowned  sandstone  bluff  and  could  overlook,  from  its  south  windows,  the 
broad  expanse  of  Verdigris  bottom  farm  land  that  he  put  under  fence.  Later,  as  open  range 
ceased  to  exist,  the  Rogers  pastures  were  fenced  on  the  prairie  that  spreads  westward. 

The  house  was  originally  built  of  logs  which  later  were  covered  with  weatherboarding, 
painted  white.  With  slight  additions,  it  stands  (1941)  as  it  was  when  Will  was  born  in 
1879,  a  commodious,  dignified,  two-story  ranch  dwelling  dominating  the  group  of  out- 
buildings^ — -smokehouse,  blacksmith  shop  and  toolhouse,  cribs,  machinery  sheds,  and  barn 
— and  stock  corrals  to  the  east  and  south. 

OOLOGAH,  40.7  m.  (658  alt.,  236  pop.),  is  Will  Rogers'  authentic  home 
town  and  the  post  office  address  of  the  Rogers  ranch,  although  Claremore 
(see  Tour  1 )  is  commonly  referred  to  as  Rogers'  home.  Oologah  is  merely  a 
half  dozen  or  so  one-story  business  buildings  and  a  scattering  of  modest  resi- 
dences that  grew  up  around  the  depot  of  the  Kansas  and  Arkansas  Valley 
Railroad  (now  the  Missouri  Pacific)  when  the  road  built  through  in  1887, 
A  miniature  Replica  (L)  of  the  Rogers  ranch  house  is  near  the  railway 


352  OKLAHOMA 

Station.  Another  memorial  to  Will  is  a  granite  marker  also  near  the  little 
station  on  the  site  of  the  baseball  diamond  where  he  used  to  play. 

COLLINSVILLE,  50.9  m.  (621  alt.,  1,927  pop.),  took  its  name  from  a 
Dr.  Collins,  who  in  anticipation  of  the  building  of  the  Santa  Fe  Railway 
through  the  region  in  1900  gave  land  for  a  townsite.  The  railroad,  however, 
passed  a  mile  to  the  west,  whereupon  the  town  moved  over  to  its  present  site. 
Demand  for  zinc  in  the  first  World  War  led  to  the  erection  of  one  of  the 
largest  zinc  smelters  in  the  country,  but  the  postwar  business  depression 
caused  it  to  close  down.  The  town  is  mainly  dependent  on  the  farm  and  ranch 
population  of  the  surrounding  territory.  A  few  oil  and  gas  wells,  however,  are 
still  producing  at  the  southern  edge  of  the  big  shallow  field  that  extends 
southward  almost  from  the  Kansas  Line. 

Collinsville  is  at  the  northern  junction  with  US  75  (see  Tour  9),  which 
unites  with  US  169  for  21.3  miles. 

A  trading  center  for  a  farm  community,  OWASSO,  58.4  m.  (592  alt., 
371  pop.),  lies  like  a  fringe  on  both  sides  of  the  highway  east  of  the  Santa  Fe 
station. 

At  61.2  m.  is  the  southern  junction  with  US  75. 

At  61.8  m.  is  the  northern  entrance  to  Mohawk  Park,  Tulsa's  2,400-acre 
recreational  area  through  which  Bird  Creek  flows  between  high  banks  over- 
hung by  thick  tree  growths. 

At  62.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road  which  leads  to  the  prin- 
cipal attractions  of  Mohawk  Park. 

Left  on  the  gravel  road  0.7  m.,  to  Mohawk  Park  Polo  Field  (L). 

Mohawk  Boathocse  (boats,  recreational  facilities),  1.1  m.,  a  building  (R)  of  native 
brown  sandstone  and  big  beams,  is  in  a  grove  beside  a  canoe  lagoon.  North  of  the  boathouse 
is  Recreation  Lake  (stvimming,  boating,  fishing;  free). 

The  Zoo  (Refectory)  1.7  m.,  is  a  closely  grouped  series  of  exhibits;  some  of  the 
animals  are  shown  in  rough  stone  structures  with  heavy  hewn  beams  and  some  in  small 
paddocks.  The  outstanding  attraction  of  the  zoo  is  Monkey  Island,  a  large  artificial  hill  of 
rocks  surrounded  by  a  moat  whose  outer  walls  slope  inward  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the 
monkeys.  In  the  rocks  of  the  island  are  the  dens  for  the  animals.  Adjoining  the  zoo  on  the 
south  arc  the  birdhouses,  the  lake  refuge  for  wild  fowl,  botanical  display  and  greenhouse. 

The  road,  keeping  to  the  north  side  of  the  canoe  lagoons,  enters  the  main  Picnicking 
Area  (stone  shelter  houses,  tables  and  ovens),  3.3  tn. 

The  old  buildings  (R)  of  the  Mashed-O  Ranch  (private),  64.5  m.,  are 
across  Bird  Creek  in  a  bend  of  the  stream.  This  ranch  once  included  a  large 
part  of  the  range  northward  to  Bartlesville  and  eastward  from  the  border  of 
the  Osage  reservation  to  the  Verdigris  River.  It  was  W.  E.  Halsell,  of  Vinita 
(see  Tour  1),  an  intermarried  citizen  of  the  Cherokee  Nation,  who  came  up 
from  Texas  about  1880  with  his  first  herd  of  longhorns  and  turned  them  out 
on  the  good  grass  of  this  region.  The  Bird  Oeek  ranch,  which  includes  a  mod- 
ern dairy,  is  still  ( 1941)  an  important  part  of  the  extensive  pasture  holdings  in 
Oklahoma,  Kansas,  and  Texas  of  the  Halsell  family. 

At  65.8  m.  US  169  crosses  a  lagoon.  On  both  sides  of  the  highway  are  free 
picnicking  areas. 

At  66.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 


I 


TOUR  9A        353 

Left  on  this  road  is  the  well-kept  eighteen-holc  Mohawk  Municipal  Golf  Course 
(grass  greens;  fee,  $1),  0.6  m. 

MOHAWK  LAKE  AND  SEQUOYAH  LAKE  (boating,  fishing),  66.7 
m.,  are  auxiliary  reservoirs  (R)  for  Tulsa's  water  supply. 

In  TULSA,  72.2  m.  (700  alt.,  142,157  pop.)  (see  Tulsa),  are  junctions 
with  US  66  (see  Tour  1).  US  75  (see  Tour  9),  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  and  State 
33  (see  Tour  2A). 


^^n-^ , ^^t<z . ^^fi_l .  . ^^fil ... ^^fil . ., ^^I}1 . .. jjOi: ^  , j5()/)2 


Tour  10 


(Arkansas  City,  Kans.) — Ponca  City — Oklahoma  City — Ardmore — (Gaines- 
ville, Tex.);  US  77. 
Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  266.6  m. 

Roadbed  paved  throughout. 

The  Santa  Fe  Ry.  parallels  the  route. 

Tourist  accommodations  at  short  intervals. 

Dividing  the  state  almost  exactly  in  half  from  north  to  south,  US  77 
crosses  a  gready  varied  country.  From  the  farm  and  range  land  of  the  old 
Cherokee  Outlet,  it  passes  into  the  red  orchard  land  surrounding  the  first 
Oklahoma  Territory  capital,  crosses  the  rich  bottoms  of  the  Canadian  and 
Washita  rivers  where  it  is  said  locally  —  and  proudly — that  the  biggest  alfalfa 
fields  in  the  world  are  to  be  seen.  It  taps  areas  of  wild  pecan  groves,  rises  to 
rounded  heights  in  the  Arbuckle  Mountains'  cattle-raising  region.  Then,  in 
its  last  fifty  miles  in  Oklahoma,  it  dips  across  pastures,  farm  lands,  and  the 
sandy,  timbered  approach  to  Red  River. 

Over  stretches  in  the  north,  now  paved  with  concrete,  the  white  settlers 
of  Oklahoma  Territory  made  their  frenzied  races  for  homesteads,  first  in  1889 
and  again  in  1893;  and  out  of  that  varied,  adventurous  population  emerged 
men  and  women  who  in  unusual  and  sometimes  bizarre  fashion  left  their 
imprint  on  the  nation's  life  —  showmen,  a  temperance  crusader,  an  art  col- 
lector, politicians,  movie  stars,  and  outlaw-catchers. 

Within  the  limits  of  Oklahoma  City,  US  77  skirts  the  greatest  gusher 
oil  field  ever  developed  in  the  state;  at  other  points  also,  north  and  south  of 
the  capital,  oil  touches  the  highway  and  has  to  some  extent  affected  the  lives 
of  communities  and  individuals.  The  University  of  Oklahoma,  at  Norman, 
and  one  of  the  state's  teachers'  training  colleges,  at  Edmond,  are  also  on  this 
route.  US  77  is,  in  fact,  a  chief  artery  through  which  flows  almost  all  that  is 


354  OKLAHOMA 

most  Oklahoman  in  setting  and  population  —  Indian,  Negro,  and  white; 
farmer,  ranchman,  oilman,  politician,  educator,  and  sportsman  have  con- 
tributed to  the  history  of  the  region.  Its  story  is  compressed  into  a  few  years 
and  admirably  epitomizes  the  young  state. 

Section  a.  KANSAS  LINE  to  OKLAHOMA  CITY,  U0.2  m. 

Where  US  77  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m.  4  miles  south  of  Arkan- 
sas City  (see  Kansas  Guide),  a  large  granite  Monument  (R)  commemorates 
the  opening  to  settlement  in  1893  of  the  Cherokee  Outlet. 

CHILOCCO,  I  m.  (1,147  alt.)  is  only  a  railroad  station  and  two  houses 
for  employees. 

At  1.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  asphalt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  Chilocco  Indian  School  (open:  guide  on  request  at  superin- 
tendent's office) ,  1.6  m.,  established  by  an  act  of  Congress  in  1882  as  a  nonrcservation  board- 
ing school  for  children  of  the  Plains  tribes  in  the  western  part  of  Indian  Territory.  After  the 
breakup  of  the  tribal  governments  preceding  statehood  and  the  dissolution  of  their  educa- 
tional system,  the  Five  Tribes  began  sending  many  students  to  Chilocco.  They  now  con- 
tribute more  than  two-thirds  of  the  total  enrollment  of  seven  hundred;  the  remaining  stu- 
dents come  from  thirty  other  tribes,  practically  all  living  in  Oklahoma. 

Chilocco — called  "the  School  of  Opportunity" — is  perhaps  the  outstanding  educational 
institution  for  Indians  in  the  country.  The  girls  are  taught  cooking,  dressmaking,  and  other 
branches  of  home  economics,  as  well  as  subjects  of  junior  college  grade.  The  boys  have 
thorough  training  on  the  more  than  eight  thousand  acres  of  the  school's  good  prairie  land 
in  general  farming,  dairying,  livestock  breeding  and  care,  experimental  work  in  agriculture, 
fruit  growing,  the  breeding  and  care  of  poultry;  they  are  also  taught  trades. 

Six  modern  dormitories,  known  as  "Homes,"  house  the  students.  Set  about  a  quad- 
rangle, the  buildings  range  from  the  three-story,  gabled,  turrcted  and  ivied  types  of  the 
nineties  to  the  plain  but  impressive  gray  of  Home  Five  for  girls.  All  the  main  buildings  are 
of  light  limestone.  The  plant  also  includes  a  modern  four-unit  shop  building,  gymnasiums, 
music  studios,  an  auditorium,  and  a  library  containing  four  thousand  books — in  fact  every 
facility  for  the  operation  of  a  well-equipped  school  of  this  size.  Enormous  horse,  catde, 
sheep,  and  dairy  barns,  machinery  sheds,  and  a  big  poultry  plant  are  part  of  the  school's 
equipment.  All  expenses  of  the  students  are  met  by  the  government  both  during  the  school 
term  and  in  the  summer  vacations. 

NEWKIRK,  7.6  m.  (1,149  alt.,  2,283  pop.),  seat  of  Kay  County,  came 
into  existence  after  the  opening  of  the  Outlet.  It  profited  considerably  from 
the  development  of  a  shallow  oil  field  south  of  town  in  1923;  today  (1941) 
the  red-clay  soil  is  still  spotted  with  oil-black,  and  pump  jacks  dip  and  rise 
in  the  cornfields  and  wheat  fields  near  by. 

At  19.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  asphalt-paved  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  Wentz  Education  Camp  (20  cabins:  mess  hall)  and  Pool,  2.5 
m.  Given  to  the  people,  with  the  children  especially  in  mind,  by  Lew  Wentz  (see  Ponca 
City),  this  160-acre  tract  has  become  a  popular  resort  used  by  the  YMCA  and  YWCA,  the 
Boy  Scouts,  the  Camp  Fire  Girls  and  Girl  Scouts,  and  the  general  public.  There  is  a  small, 
well-stocked  game  preserve. 

The  Pool,  one  hundred  by  fifty  feet,  has  electric  lights  at  the  bottom,  elaborate  diving 
tower,  dressing  quarters,  and  wide  tiers  of  stone  and  marble  seats  rising  from  one  side  and 
flanked  by  towers^ — all  brilliantly  light-.-d  at  night.  From  the  top  of  one  of  the  eighty-foot 
towers,  reached  by  ladders,  the  visitor  gets  a  long  view  of  Ponca  City  and  of  the  valley  of 
the  Arkansas  River  beyond.  Wentz  had  artesian  wells  sunk  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  five  miles 
away,  and  water  pumped  to  the  pool. 


i 


TOUR  10        355 

With  its  lights  and  seating  arrangements,  this  is  a  favorite  place  for  water  sports,  races, 
and  exhibition  diving.  Here,  too,  is  held  the  yearly  bathing  beauty  revue  for  "young  ladies 
under  the  age  of  five,"  and  another  for  those  under  twelve — the  donor's  ironic  comment 
on  other,  and  different,  much  publicized  bathing  beauty  contests. 

In  KAW  CITY,  12.5  m.  (1,009  alt.,  809  pop.),  is  the  L.\ura  A.  Clubb  Art  Collec- 
tion (open  at  all  hours:  free),  housed  in  the  Clubb  Hotel,  a  plain  red-brick,  three-story 
structure.  The  collection  includes  many  excellent  canvases,  exquisite  old  laces,  and  rare 
books. 

Among  the  two  hundred  or  more  paintings  hung  in  the  lobby  and  the  hallways  are 
a  Titian,  a  Sully,  a  Sir  Peter  Lely,  a  Gainsborough,  a  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  a  Hoppner,  a 
Constable,  two  Corots,  two  Daubignys,  two  Bouguereaus,  a  Seignac,  a  Benjamin  West,  a 
Gilbert  Stuart  portrait  of  Washington,  a  Winslow  Homer,  a  Wyant,  two  canvases  by  Inness, 
and  what  is  perhaps  the  best  extant  collection  of  Thomas  Moran's  paintings. 

For  unsophisticated  visitors  the  star  of  the  exhibition  is  Kirchbach's  "Christ  and  the 
Children,"  an  enormous  canvas,  twelve  by  fifteen  feet,  that  covers  almost  the  whole  of  one 
wall  of  the  hotel  lobby;  it  was  at  one  time  assessed  in  England  for  taxation  purposes  at 
$125,000  and  received  an  honorable  mention  at  the  Paris  Salon  exhibition  in  1895. 

A  former  school  teacher  who  married  a  cattleman,  Mrs.  Clubb  began  buying  paintings 
after  oil  came,  in  1922,  to  enrich  the  family.  When  she  bought  her  first  painting,  Van 
Marke's,  "In  the  Pastures,"  for  $12,500,  it  is  said  that  her  husband  protested,  "I  could  have 
bought  a  trainload  of  cattle  for  that!" 

At  20.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  the  Americ.\n-  Legion  Home,  1.6  tn.,  the  only  institution  of  its 
kind  in  the  country,  a  home  for  the  children  of  deceased  and  disabled  veterans  of  the  first 
World  War.  They  are  cared  for  in  a  main  administration  building  and  three  billets,  all  of 
Spanish  design,  set  in  a  120-acre  tract  that  has  been  beautifully  landscaped.  In  these  quarters 
one  hundred  children  are  given  general  and  vocational  education  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Oklahoma  Department  of  the  Legion. 

At  21.3  m.  is  the  entrance  (L)  to  the  former  Estate  of  E.  W.  Marland. 
Near  by,  at  the  center  of  a  landscaped  circle  from  which  a  tree-bordered 
avenue  leads  to  the  former  Marland  home,  is  the  heroic  bronze  statue  of  the 
Pioneer  Woman,  standing  on  a  broad  base  of  native  limestone.  In  the  period 
of  his  greatest  prosperity  as  an  oilman  (see  Ponca  City),  Marland  conceived 
the  idea  of  this  memorial  to  the  pioneer  women  of  the  West,  provided  for  its 
financing,  and  asked  for  models  from  sculptors  throughout  the  country. 
Bryant  Baker's  was  selected  by  popular  vote,  and  the  statute  was  dedicated  on 
April  22,  1930. 

At  22.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  asphalt-paved  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  LAKE  PONCA  (fishing,  boating,  picnicking) ,  4  m.  Built  as  a 
WPA  project  at  a  cost  of  $560,000,  Ponca  City's  source  of  water  supply  has  become  a  popu- 
lar resort  for  fishermen,  speedboat  drivers,  and  one-day  visitors  from  the  region. 

West  of  PONCA  CITY,  23  m.  (1,003  alt.,  16,794  pop.)  (see  Ponca  City), 
US  60  (see  Tour  4)  unites  with  US  77  for  4.2  miles. 

At  33  m.  is  the  101  Ranch  (R),  a  striking  symbol  of  that  changing  West 
which  brought  fortune  to  men  and  took  it  away  with  no  more  than  a  shrug 
of  regret. 

In  the  early  seventies,  a  shrewd  trader  named  George  W.  Miller  left 
Kansas  with  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  bacon  to  exchange  for  whatever 
could  be  sold  at  a  profit.  He  arrived  in  San  Saba  County,  Texas,  in  the  spring 


356  OKLAHOMA 

with  enough  bacon  to  trade  for  four  hundred  longhorn  steers.  These  he 
herded  back  over  the  good-grass  trail  to  a  range  in  the  northeastern  corner 
of  Indian  Territory  belonging  to  the  Quapaw  Indians  and  sold  them  when  fat 
at  a  handsome  profit.  In  order  to  obtain  more  range  for  the  enlarged  herds  he 
meant  to  own,  he  went  out  to  the  Cherokee  Outlet  and  found  grassland  in 
plenty.  His  first  lease  was  sixty  thousand  acres.  Then,  going  back  to  Texas, 
he  found  that  he  could  buy  a  steer  for  $3.00  in  gold  instead  of  for  $6.00  in 
bacon. 

Miller's  next  step  was  to  induce  the  small  tribe  of  Ponca  Indians,  then 
living  temporarily  with  the  Quapaws,  to  accept  a  reservation  near  his  leased 
land  and  allow  him  to  graze  his  cattle  on  it  for  one  cent  per  acre  annually. 
He  was  a  good  friend  to  the  Indians,  an  excellent  cattleman,  a  tireless  hustler; 
and  the  earnings  of  his  ranch  grew  enormously.  When  it  became  possible  to 
buy  Indian  land,  he  acquired  more  and  more;  and  when  his  sons,  Joe,  George 
Jr.,  and  Zack,  grew  up,  they  too  joined  in  pushing  forward  the  enterprise. 

George  Miller  died  in  1903,  in  the  dugout  that  had  been  ranch  head- 
quarters, just  before  the  first  "White  House" — three  stories  and  a  basement 
— was  completed.  Before  his  death,  he  saw  thirteen  thousand  acres  of  the 
ranch  sown  to  wheat,  three  thousand  planted  in  corn,  and  three  thousand  acres 
devoted  to  forage  crops;  he  was  paying  $32,500  annually  in  rentals  to  the 
Indians,  and  running  expenses  amounted  to  $75,000  a  year.  But  income 
ranged  from  $400,000  to  $500,000  a  year,  and  the  problem  was  how  to  employ 
these  earnings  profitably.  Then,  to  make  the  story  better,  oil  was  found  on 
the  101  Ranch  holdings. 

It  was  the  Miller  sons  who  thought  of  the  101  Ranch  Wild  West  Circus; 
and  the  first  tryout  was  staged  at  Ponca  City  on  April  14,  1908,  with  two 
hundred  performers.  For  eight  years  the  show  made  money,  and  the  Miller 
sons  devoted  more  and  more  time  to  it,  and  therefore  less  time  to  the  legiti- 
mate business  of  the  ranch.  After  1916,  the  tide  turned;  in  1921,  owing  to 
losses  and  extravagance,  it  became  necessary  to  reorganize.  Then,  in  1927, 
Joe  Miller  died  of  monoxide  gas  poisoning;  two  years  later  his  brother  George 
was  killed  in  an  automobile  accident.  Oil  prices  dropped,  the  show  failed  and 
closed;  and  Zack  Miller  found  himself  facing  an  indebtedness  of  $700,000. 
In  August,  1931,  the  ranch  was  placed  in  receivership,  and  against  the  roared 
protests — backed  by  a  loaded  shotgun — of  Zack,  a  man  from  the  Federal 
courts  was  placed  in  charge.  The  guest  register  at  the  "White  House,"  with 
its  scores  of  names  of  the  well-advertised  in  almost  every  line  of  endeavor, 
reflects  the  Miller  sons'  absorbing  passion  for  publicity.  Under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  receiver,  much  of  the  ranch  has  been  cut  up  into  small  subsistence 
holdings,  in  a  rehabilitation  project. 

At  35  m.  is  the  White  Eagle  Monument,  erected  by  the  Miller  brothers 
in  the  former  reservation  of  the  Ponca  Indians  to  the  memory  of  a  chief  of 
that  tribe  whom  their  father  induced  to  select  this  place  as  a  reservation  in 
1879.  On  a  hill  which  was  once  a  signal  station  of  the  Indians,  the  monument 
of  native  red  stone  stands  twenty  feet  high,  twelve  feet  in  diameter,  bearing 
a  huge  white  figure  of  an  eagle  at  the  top. 

This  Ponca  chief  was  a  principal  figure  in  a  drama  of  tribal  exile  quite 


TOUR  10        357 

as  tragic  though  not  as  well  known  as  the  removal  of  the  Five  Tribes  over 
what  has  come  to  be  known  as  "The  Trail  of  Tears." 

In  1868,  after  the  Federal  government  had  induced  the  Poncas  to  make 
two  cessions  of  land  along  the  Missouri  River  in  Dakota  and  had  solemnly 
confirmed  them  in  the  possession  of  what  remained,  a  treaty  with  the  Sioux 
included  a  clause  giving  them  every  acre  of  the  Ponca  reservation.  The  Poncas 
refused  to  give  up  their  ancient  homes,  and  warfare  between  the  tribes  fol- 
lowed, in  which  the  more  powerful  Sioux  killed  a  fourth  of  the  Poncas. 

Nine  years  later,  the  government  acted  to  save  the  Poncas,  not  by  giving 
back  their  land  and  otherwise  satisfying  the  Sioux,  but  by  ordering  them  off. 
They  still  objected  to  removal,  whereupon  an  official  from  Washington  came 
to  escort  ten  Ponca  chiefs  to  Kansas  and  Indian  Territory  so  that  they  could 
select  a  new  home.  They  reached  the  country  of  the  Osages  in  the  fall  of  1876, 
and,  as  one  of  the  chiefs  said,  "We  .  . .  found  it  stony  and  broken  and  not  a 
country  that  we  thought  we  could  make  a  living  in.  We  saw  the  Osages  . . . 
without  shirts,  their  skin  burned,  and  their  hair  stood  up  as  if  it  had  not  been 
combed  since  they  were  little  children." 

Arriving  at  Arkansas  City,  Kansas,  without  having  induced  the  Poncas 
to  choose  a  new  location,  the  government  man  lost  patience  with  the  chiefs 
and  deserted  them.  So  they  went  back,  five  hundred  miles,  on  foot.  Then, 
in  the  summer  of  1877,  soldiers  came  to  gather  them  up  and  march  them 
to  the  Quapaw  reservation  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  Indian  Territory. 
It  was  here  that  George  Miller  found  them,  and  from  that  region  induced 
them  to  remove  to  land  adjoining  his  lease. 

In  their  new  reservation — optimistically  described  by  the  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs  as  "in  all  respects  ...  far  superior  to  their  old  location  in 
Dakota" — 158  of  the  tribe  died  within  a  short  time.  To  make  their  situation 
more  bearable,  the  government  gave  help  in  building  homes  and  establishing 
schools,  but  in  the  winter  of  1879  Standing  Bear  led  a  party  back  to  the  reserva- 
tion of  the  Omahas,  their  kinsmen,  in  Nebraska,  who  gave  them  refuge  and 
supplied  them  with  seed  to  plant  in  the  spring.  But  before  they  could  plant, 
soldiers  came  to  arrest  Standing  Bear;  and  he  and  thirty  of  his  followers  were 
imprisoned  at  Fort  Omaha. 

Through  the  intervention  of  citizens  of  Omaha,  led  by  a  newspaperman, 
the  case  of  the  Poncas  came  to  trial  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  sworn  out  to 
secure  their  release.  They  were  successful  and  returned  to  the  Omaha  reserva- 
tion, where  they  were  joined  later  by  some  two  hundred  others  who  came  up 
from  Indian  Territory.  The  greater  number  of  the  Poncas,  some  seven  hun- 
dred, remained  on  the  land  assigned  to  them  in  the  Cherokee  Outlet. 

At  the  trial  of  Standing  Bear,  in  which  government  attorneys  contended 
that  an  Indian  was  not  entitled  to  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  because  he  was  not 
a  "person  within  the  meaning  of  the  law,"  the  old  chief  said,  "The  people  of 
the  devil  . . .  have  tried  to  make  me  believe  that  God  tells  them  what  to  do, 
as  though  God  would  put  a  man  where  he  would  be  destroyed !  . . .  They  have 
destroyed  many  already,  but  they  cannot  deceive  me.  God  put  me  here,  and 
intends  for  me  to  live  on  the  land  they  are  trying  to  cheat  me  out  of." 

MARLAND,  35.6  m.  (1,001  alt.,  257  pop.),  was  named  for  E.  W.  Mar- 


358  OKLAHOMA 

land,  whose  extensive  oil  leases  covered  the  site,  and  who  served  as  governor 
of  Oklahoma  from  1935  to  1939. 

CERES,  48.6  m.  (1,036  alt.,  10  pop.),  is  a  setdement  of  two  stores  and  a 
filling  station.  Named  for  the  Greek  goddess  of  harvest,  it  is  in  the  center  of 
a  farming  and  fruit-growing  area.  Peaches  do  especially  well  here. 

In  PERRY,  61.3  m.  (1,005  alt.,  5,045  pop.)  (sec  Tour  2),  is  the  junction 
with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  which  unites  westward  with  US  77  for  5.6  miles. 

At  75.7  m.  a  Geological  Survey  post  marks  the  line  from  which  settlers 
made  the  Run  into  "Old  Oklahoma"  from  the  north  when  it  was  opened  in 
1889,  and  from  the  south  into  the  Cherokee  Oudet  in  1893. 

ORLANDO,  76.6  m.  (1,078  alt.,  332  pop.),  though  near  an  oil  field,  has 
not  experienced  the  usual  oil-field  town  boom.  It  has  remained  since  its 
founding  in  1889  a  trade  center  for  the  substantial,  progressive  farmers  who 
settled  in  the  neighborhood.  Twice,  however,  its  calm  has  been  broken,  when 
the  mad  race  into  the  Cherokee  Strip  took  place  on  September  16,  1893,  and 
again  in  1896  when  swindlers  by  salting  a  diggings  with  ore  that  assayed  $185 
to  the  ton  duped  a  number  of  Orlando  men  into  believing  that  gold  had  been 
found  on  a  farm  southwest  of  town. 

MULHALL,  83.2  m.  (936  alt.,  406  pop.),  named  for  "Uncle  Zack" 
Mulhall,  a  showman  who  came  into  the  country  in  1889  as  a  rancher  and 
livestock  agent  for  the  Santa  Fe  Railway,  is  now  (1941)  a  supply  point  for 
farmers.  In  the  prosperous  days  of  "Uncle  Zack"  it  was  headquarters  for 
eighty  thousand  acres  of  ranch  land  in  "Old  Oklahoma"  and  across  the  line 
in  the  Cherokee  Oudet,  the  home  of  his  rodeo,  and  a  notable  center  of  hos- 
pitality. Out  of  the  Mulhall  rodeo  forces  emerged  two  well-known  figures  in 
the  entertainment  world,  his  own  daughter  Lucille,  who  starred  as  the  world's 
first  "cowgirl,"  and  the  even  better  known  Will  Rogers. 

Like  the  Millers  (see  above),  the  Mulhalls  failed  in  ranching,  the  family 
scattered,  and  the  last  to  occupy  the  old  house  was  Lucille,  who  died  just 
after  Christmas  in  1940. 

The  489  remaining  acres  of  the  Mulhall  Ranch  (open),  immediately 
west  of  the  little  town,  lie  around  the  low,  spreading  ranch  house  (R)  near 
the  highway.  Its  wide  porches  are  characteristic  of  early  Oklahoma  homes. 

South  of  89.2  m.,  the  highway  parallels  the  Cimarron  River  (L)  for  four 
miles  where  it  breaks  through  the  red  sandstone  region  known  as  the  Pali- 
sades. Huge  moss-covered  boulders,  young  trees,  and  a  tangle  of  shrubbery 
make  an  interesting  background  for  the  wide,  and  usually  almost  completely 
sand-covered  bed  of  the  river. 

GUTHRIE,  96.5  m.  (1,021  alt.,  10,018  pop.),  described  by  its  citizens 
both  as  "the  Birthplace  of  Oklahoma"  and  "the  Fraternal  Capital  of  the 
Southwest,"  with  its  broad  streets,  wide  walks,  and  the  residential  area  merg- 
ing easily  into  the  business  section,  was  the  capital  of  Oklahoma  from  the 
time  of  the  organization  of  the  Territory  in  1890  to  1910,  when  it  was  removed 
to  Oklahoma  City.  In  appearance  and  population,  Guthrie  has  changed  little 
in  the  thirty  years  since  its  loss. 

The  city  came  into  existence  overnight,  attracting  some  fifteen  thousand 
persons  to  the  site  on  the  day  of  opening.  Within  three  weeks,  what  had  been 


TOUR  10        359 

only  a  brown-painted  Santa  Fe  depot  had  developed  into  a  prairie  metropolis 
with  a  functioning  chamber  of  commerce  and  three  newspapers.  A  water- 
works system  was  operating  in  two  months;  the  streets  were  electrically 
lighted  within  four  months;  and  schools,  churches,  and  hospitals  were  soon 
established. 

Among  those  who  have  claimed  Guthrie  as  home  were  such  well-known 
early  residents  as  General  J.  B.  Weaver,  candidate  for  President  on  the  Green- 
back ticket  in  1880;  General  }.  C.  Jamieson,  who  fought  with  Walker  in 
Nicaragua;  Fred  G.  Boniils,  later  publisher  of  the  Denver  Post;  Cassius 
M.  Barnes,  a  Territorial  governor  of  Oklahoma;  John  I.  Dille,  Chancellor  of 
Iowa  State  University;  Cora  V.  Diehl,  first  woman  to  be  elected  to  office  in 
Oklahoma;  and  Will  Rogers,  Lon  Chaney,  and  Tom  Mix,  movie  stars.  Wil- 
liam Wrigley  made  his  first  package  of  chewing  gum  at  113  North  Division 
Street.  Bill  Tilghman,  the  marshal  who  ruled  Dodge  City,  Bill  Fossett,  secret 
service  operator  and  the  Southwest's  first  G-man,  and  Chris  Madsen,  soldier 
of  fortune  and  Indian  fighter,  were  all  early-day  setders  in  Guthrie;  and  Ed- 
ward P.  Kelly,  later  vice-president  of  the  Rock  Island  railway,  was  first  city 
marshal.  Guthrie  was  also  for  a  time  the  home  of  hatchet-wielding  Carry  (the 
family's  spelling)  Nation.  She  began  her  magazine-publishing  experience  at 
Guthrie  in  July,  1905,  with  The  Hatchet,  after  being  divorced  on  the  ground 
of  desertion  by  her  husband,  David  Nation  (lawyer,  preacher,  and  editor). 
From  Guthrie,  Carry  sallied  out  to  smash  saloon  bars,  attain  wide  notoriety, 
and  tour  Europe  with  the  announced  intention  of  suppressing  liquor,  beer, 
narcotics,  and  tobacco  in  all  foreign  countries. 

As  a  trade  center  for  a  large  farming  district,  and  a  pleasant  residence 
city,  Guthrie  has  maintained  itself  well  and  has  become  in  a  sense  the  state 
capital  of  Masonry.  The  Scottish  Rite  Temple  (open  8-5  weekdays:  10-5 
Sun.),  is  the  largest  structure  of  its  type  in  Oklahoma  and  is  said  to  be  the 
largest  in  the  world  devoted  exclusively  to  Masonic  uses.  Designed  by  J.  C. 
Parr,  Oklahoma  City,  and  built  at  a  cost  of  $2,500,000,  this  light-yellow  brick 
structure  of  Greek  Doric  design  is  set  in  a  ten-acre  park  near  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  city.  Its  auditorium,  with  a  stage  sixty-two  feet  wide  and  ninety  feet 
deep,  has  seats  for  3,500;  the  dining  room  accommodates  fifteen  hundred; 
and  the  lobby  is  52  by  190  feet. 

In  Guthrie,  too,  are  the  Grand  Lodge  Temple,  the  State  Masonic  Home 
FOR  the  Aged,  Harrison  Avenue  between  Broad  and  Ash  Streets,  and  the 
State  Masonic  Children's  Home,  Elm  and  College  Streets. 

The  City  Hall,  304  W.  Oklahoma  Avenue,  is  a  red-brick,  three-story 
structure  designed  by  J.  A.  Foquart,  erected  in  1902.  The  hall  on  the  second 
floor  was  the  meeting  place  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1906-07;  and 
in  the  time  when  the  Territorial  and  the  state  capital  was  at  Guthrie,  was  the 
scene  of  many  official  balls  and  banquets. 

The  old  Federal  Jail,  corner  of  Warner  Avenue  and  Second  Street,  was 
built  as  a  private  investment  and  rented  to  the  government.  It  has  been  re- 
modeled and  is  used  by  the  Nazarenes  as  a  church  building. 

The  Carnegie  Library,  402  E.  Oklahoma  Avenue,  constructed  of  brick, 
stone,  and  marble,  with  a  silver  dome  to  draw  the  eye,  was  a  gift  from  Andrew 


360  OKLAHOMA 

Carnegie.  Inside,  golden  oak  paneling  and  pillars  supp>orting  the  dome  are  set 
on  plates  of  Bedford  limestone,  with  hases  of  green  and  maroon  tile.  In  the 
building  also  are  clubrooms  and  a  gymnasium. 

On  the  library's  front  steps,  C.  N.  Haskell,  the  state's  first  governor,  took 
the  oath  of  office,  and  there  a  symbolic  marriage  ceremony  uniting  Oklahoma 
and  Indian  Territories  took  place. 

Jelsma  Field  and  City  Stadium,  Harrison  Avenue  and  E.  Springer 
Street,  is  the  largest  municipal  athletic  field  and  stadium  in  the  state.  The 
grounds  cover  an  area  of  four  hundred  by  seven  hundred  feet,  and  the  stadium 
seats  five  thousand. 

MINERAL  WELLS  PARK,  0.5  m.,  at  the  southern  border  of  the  city 
(R),  is  notable  for  several  artesian  mineral  wells.  Here,  in  1893,  when  the 
park  was  only  a  grove  of  trees,  Jacob  S.  Coxey,  who  later  led  "Coxey's  Army" 
in  a  march  to  Washington,  made  one  of  his  vehement  speeches;  here,  too, 
William  Jennings  Bryan  twice  addressed  large  audiences. 

At  the  entrance  to  the  park  is  the  rectangular  Shakespeare  Garden,  a 
gift  to  the  city  from  the  Guthrie  Shakespeare  Club.  Three  sides  are  bordered 
by  privet  hedges;  the  west  end  is  bordered  by  a  hedge  of  spirea  that  is,  in 
turn,  banked  with  flowering  masses  of  crape  myrtle,  mock  orange,  redbud, 
Japanese  quinces,  forsythia,  red  hollyhocks,  and  five  varieties  of  juniper.  The 
waterlily  pool,  lined  with  red  and  white  brick,  has  a  white  stone  bench  on 
each  side,  and  climbing  roses,  beds  of  hyacinths,  chrysanthemums,  and  ver- 
benas are  a  mass  of  red  and  white  when  in  bloom.  In  the  pergola  is  a  repro- 
duction of  Roubiliac's  bust  of  Shakespeare. 

Guthrie  is  at  the  junction  with  State  33  (see  Tour  2A). 

Right  from  Guthrie  on  State  33  to  Catholic  College  of  Oklahoma,  2  m.,  z  Bene- 
dictine institution  for  women.  Housed  in  a  commodious  four-story  red-brick  building  set  in 
the  midst  of  a  pleasant  tree-shaded  campus  of  seventy  acres,  this  affiliate  of  the  Catholic 
University  of  America  offers  the  usual  cultural  courses.  The  college  is  an  outgrowth  of  St. 
Joseph  Academy,  established  at  Guthrie  in  1892. 

At  112.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  66  (see  Tour  1),  which  unites  with 
US  77  for  17.9  miles. 

EDMOND,  116.3  m.  (1,200  alt.,  4,002  pop.)  (see  Tour  1). 

Memorial  Park,  120.1  m.,  is  a  cemetery  (L)  of  135  acres,  surrounded  by 
brick  walls.  The  TOWER  OF  MEMORIES  (Chimes),  near  the  center  of  the 
cemetery,  is  approached  by  a  flower-bordered  boulevard  and  is  the  park's  out- 
standing feature;  it  is  built  of  dressed  limestone  and  rises  to  a  height  of 
seventy-two  feet.  The  bells  are  usually  rung  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  Near 
the  tower  are  a  fountain  and  a  p)ool.  Wiley  Post,  noted  aviator,  who  made  a 
record  round  the  world  flight  and  a  nonstop  flight  from  Brooklyn  to  Berlin, 
is  buried  in  the  park. 

OKLAHOMA  CITY,  130.2  m.  (1,194  alt.,  204,424  pop.)  (see  Oklahoma 
City). 

Left  from  Oklahoma  City  on  S.  Robinson  and  S.E.  29th  Streets  to  the  new  Am  Corps 
Service  Depot,  4.5  m.  There,  on  a  tract  of  1,440  acres,  960  acres  of  which  were  given  by 
Oklahoma  City,  the  United  States  War  Department  is  planning  (1941)   to  spend  some 


TOUR  10         361 

$16,000,000  for  storage  and  other  facilities  for  air  operations.  When  completed,  the  depot 
will  accommodate  a  total  personnel  of  60  officers,  170  enlisted  men,  and  approximately 
2,500  skilled  civilian  workers,  and  will  have  facilities  for  overhauling  three  hundred  air- 
plane motors  per  month. 

Section  b.  OKLAHOMA  CITY  to  TEXAS  LINE,  136.4  m. 

South  of  OKLAHOMA  CITY,  0  m.,  the  route  crosses  the  southern  por- 
tion of  old  Oklahoma  Territory  and  continues  through  the  former  Chickasaw 
Nation.  The  region  through  which  it  passes  becomes  increasingly  produc- 
tive, gives  way  for  a  time  to  mountain  pastures,  then  to  an  area  producing  such 
widely  varying  staples  as  cotton  and  crude  oil. 

Established  in  1887,  MOORE,  10  m.  (1,250  alt.,  499  pop.),  was  named 
for  an  engineer  of  the  Santa  Fe  Railway.  On  the  grounds  of  the  consolidated 
school  is  a  monument  to  Washington  Irving  who,  it  is  said,  camped  on  the 
spot  when  he  visited  this  region  in  1832. 

NORMAN,  19.2  m.  (1,160  alt.,  11,429  pop.)  (see  Norman). 

LEXINGTON,  35.2  m.  (1,030  alt.,  1,084  pop.),  on  the  north  side  of  the 
South  Canadian  River  and  almost  in  the  shadow  of  Purcell,  is  a  local  supply 
point  for  the  fine  farms  of  the  river  valley. 

Historically,  the  neighborhood  is  interesting  as  the  site  of  one  of  the  first 
military  camps  and  trading  posts  established  so  far  west  in  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory. Here,  in  the  late  summer  of  1835  at  a  place  called  Camp  Mason,  was 
held  the  great  council  between  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  and  the  Plains 
Indians  to  agree  on  terms  of  peace.  Five  thousand  met  together  and  worked 
out  a  treaty  which  lasted  until  the  Civil  War.  Nothing  remains  of  either  the 
camp  or  the  trading  post  which  the  Chouteaus  established  after  the  great 
council  of  1835. 

In  1889,  after  the  opening,  the  Sand  Bar  Saloon  was  built  on  stilts  as  near 
as  possible  to  the  Indian  Territory  (prohibition)  side,  and  a  long  footbridge 
led  to  dry  territory.  At  flood  stages,  the  saloon  was  washed  away,  but  was,  of 
course,  rebuilt  time  after  time. 

US  77  crosses  the  Canadian  River  into  PURCELL,  36.4  m.  (1,029  alt., 
3,116  pop.),  on  a  bridge  built  in  1938.  The  first  bridge,  put  across  in  1910,  was 
a  toll  bridge  and  for  a  time  the  toll  was  $10.  With  increased  traffic,  it  was 
lowered  finally  to  |1;  in  1931,  when  the  operating  company's  charter  expired, 
the  legislature  refused  to  renew  it;  the  state  took  over  and  the  toll  was 
abolished. 

The  town  tops  the  steep  red  bluff  beside  the  river,  and  its  streets,  shaded 
by  fine  mistletoe-hung  maples,  elms,  and  gnarled  cottonwoods,  slope  toward 
Walnut  Creek  on  the  south.  At  its  southern  edge  are  cotton  gins. 

At  this  point,  the  river  marks  the  northern  boundary  of  the  old  Chicka- 
saw Nation.  Few  Indians,  however,  lived  in  this  portion  of  the  nation,  and 
even  before  statehood  the  country  was  occupied  mainly  by  white  men  and 
their  families  who  leased  land  from  the  Chickasaws.  The  town  was  settled  in 
1887,  when  the  Santa  Fe  came  through,  and  was  named  for  the  engineer  who 
surveyed  the  railroad's  right  of  way  through  the  region. 

At  57  m.  the  route  crosses  the  Washita  River;  near  here  freighters  on  the 


362  OKLAHOMA 

old  Boggy  Depot-Fort  Sill  road,  over  which  great  quantities  of  supplies  for 
the  western  Plains  Indians  were  transported  by  wagon  train,  forded  the 
stream. 

PAULS  VALLEY,  59  m.  (880  alt.,  5,104  pop.),  is  the  center  of  the 
region  described  as  the  garden  spot  of  the  Washita  Valley.  When  the  town 
was  incorporated  in  1899,  it  was  named  for  Smith  Paul,  on  whose  land  it  was 
laid  out.  In  the  midst  of  fine  fields  of  alfalfa,  cotton,  broomcorn,  grain  sor- 
ghums, corn;  with  fine  orchards  of  pecans;  and  with  an  alfalfa  mill  for  reduc- 
ing that  excellent  fodder  to  meal,  Pauls  Valley  is  a  solid,  tree-embowered  town 
of  well-built  residences  and  old  fashioned  business  structures. 

The  State  Training  School  (Reformatory)  For  Boys  (visited  by  ap- 
pointment), 62.6  w.,  on  a  tract  (L)  four  hundred  acres  making  up  the  school's 
plant,  is  supplemented  by  the  leasing  of  four  hundred  additional  acres  used 
by  the  225  boys  in  training  here.  The  thirty-one  red-brick  buildings  of  the 
school  are  set  wide  apart  on  a  rather  bare  campus. 

WYNNE  WOOD,  67.9  m.  (847  alt.,  2,318  pop.),  is  the  center  of  a  farm- 
ing region  in  which  are  produced  excellent  cotton,  alfalfa,  and  the  wild  crop 
for  which  southern  Oklahoma  is  noted — pecans.  It  is  also  a  shipping  point 
for  livestock  and  poultry.  At  the  southern  border  of  town  is  a  large  cottonseed- 
oil  mill  and  a  small  oil  refinery.  For  the  enjoyment  of  the  citizens  who  live 
along  its  well-shaded  streets  there  is  a  spacious  city  park,  a  municipal  swim- 
ming pool,  and  a  baseball  park.  At  the  northern  edge  of  the  town  is  a  CCC 
camp. 

DAVIS,  78.1  m.  (838  alt.,  1,698  pop.),  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Washita 
River,  was  born  when  the  Santa  Fe  came  through  in  1887.  It  is  set  at  the  foot 
of  the  rocky  northern  foothills  of  the  Arbuckle  Mountains  and  is  the  center  of 
a  good  range  country.  The  two-story  Nelson  Chigley  House  is  a  fine 
example  of  the  best  dwellings  built  by  prosperous  Chickasaws  in  Territorial 
days. 

In  Davis  is  the  junction  with  State  22  (see  Tour  10 A) 

Right  on  State  22  to  the  Arbuckle  Store,  7  m.,  where  a  cement  marker  (R)  indicates 
the  location  (one  mile  south)  of  the  Initial  Point,  the  spot  from  which  all  surveys  of  Okla- 
homa after  the  Civil  War,  except  the  three  Panhandle  counties,  were  made.  The  north  and 
south  line  through  that  point  is  called  the  Indian  Meridian.  A  marker  at  the  point  proper 
is  only  a  large  boulder,  difficult  to  find  without  a  guide. 

Right  from  the  store  on  an  improved  dirt  road,  7.1  m.,  to  the  Site  of  Fort  Arbuckle 
(visitors  permitted  upon  request).  This  fort  was  established  to  keep  order  among  the  Plains 
Indians,  to  protect  the  immigrant  Chickasaws  from  their  raids,  and  to  provide  assistance  to 
California-bound  travelers.  Its  construction  was  supervised  by  Captain  Randolph  B.  Marcy, 
who  had  escorted  parties  of  California  gold-seekers.  Completed  in  1851,  the  fort  was  named 
for  General  Matthew  Arbuckle,  who  commanded  in  the  Indian  country  for  many  years,  and 
for  whom  the  low  mountain  range  south  of  the  fort  was  also  named.  Somewhat  later,  the 
troops  from  Fort  Towson  (see  Tour  6)  were  sent  to  Fort  Arbuckle. 

One  of  the  log  buildings  (L)  of  the  fort  has  been  covered  with  siding  and  now  (1941) 
forms  a  portion  of  the  residence  of  C.  W.  Grant.  The  old  quartermaster  building,  of  rough- 
sawed  boards,  is  used  as  the  Grant  barn.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  west  on  G.\RRISON  CREEK 
is  the  never-failing  spring  that  once  supplied  water  for  the  fort. 

South  of  Davis,  US  77  winds  across  the  Arbuckle  Mountains,  a  low 
range  of  rounded  limestone  hills,  rather  sparsely  covered  with  red  cedar, 


TOUR  10        363 

soapberry,  and  blackjack  oak  trees,  and  supplying  excellent  short-grass  pas- 
turage. The  section  was  a  part  of  the  former  Chickasaw  Nation,  and  its 
earliest  white  settlers  were  catdemen  who  leased  pastures  from  the  Indian 
owners. 

To  geologists  the  Arbuckles  are  exceptionally  interesting.  They  are  one 
of  the  oldest  ranges  in  the  country  and  provide  a  chance  to  study  the  type  of 
rock  formations  encountered  in  drilling  for  oil  in  other  parts  of  Oklahoma 
and  in  Kansas  and  Texas. 

At  82.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Camp,  1.5  m.,  first  opened 
in  1941  and  built  by  Oklahoma  City  funds  on  a  tract  of  220  acres  in  the  midst  of  the  Ar- 
buckle  Mountain  region.  A  lake  covering  thirty-five  acres  has  been  created  by  damming  Lick 
Creek;  and  here  swimming,  boating,  fishing,  and  water  sports  are  provided.  Marked  trails 
for  hikers  lead  off  northward,  westward,  and  southward  through  the  hills. 

Twenty  cabins  built  of  native  stone,  each  with  room  for  ten  boys,  are  grouped  about 
a  central  dining  hall,  which  has  a  wide  screened  porch  along  its  front.  Inside,  two  enormous 
fireplaces  have  been  constructed  of  geological  specimens,  fossils,  and  petrified  wood  from 
the  Arbuckle  Mountains  region. 

The  camp  takes  two  hundred  boys  at  a  time  for  two  weeks;  and  when  not  in  use  by 
the  boys,  it  is  available  for  leadership  training  conferences  and  other  men's  religious  groups. 

Left  on  the  graveled  road  to  a  Y  junction  0.1  m.;  R.  here  to  PRICE'S  FALLS  (camp- 
ing and  picnicking  facilities;  fishing:  cabins),  2.7  m.,  a  popular  resort  from  which  such 
other  points  of  interest  as  Seven  Sisters  Falls,  Burning  Mountain,  White  Mound,  and  Oil 
Springs  may  be  visited  (road  directions  from  caretaker  at  Price's  Falls.) 

Right  from  Price's  Falls  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  Swimming  Pool,  3.7  m.,  a  clear 
basin  in  the  rock  bed  of  a  small  stream,  sixty  feet  long  and  about  fourteen  feet  wide.  Below 
the  pool  is  a  lake  created  by  a  group  of  sportsmen.  Certain  small  feeders  of  this  lake  are 
called  spouting  springs. 

At  4  m.  is  the  Baptist  Assembly  Grounds  (cabins,  tents,  lots  for  rent;  tennis  courts; 
swimming  pool;  office  building;  post  office) ,  a  tract  of  180  acres  containing  an  open  taber- 
nacle for  summer  meetings. 

CEDARVALE,  84.4  m.,  is  a  popular  camp  (cabins,  stvimming  pool, 
store)  under  the  shadow  of  the  high  sheer  blufif  (L)  of  Honey  Creek. 

The  Methodist  Assembly  Grounds  (L)  (cabins,  dining  hall,  pavilion, 
stvimming  pool),  84.9  m.,  a  gift  to  the  church  by  a  citizen  of  Davis,  are  used 
by  various  religious  groups  during  the  summer.  Hiking  trails  lead  out  over 
the  Arbuckles  toward  the  east.  Vesper  Hill,  on  the  summit  of  which  a  cross 
has  been  erected,  is  the  site  of  many  out-of-doors  religious  services. 

At  85.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road  into  TURNER  FALLS  PARK  (free  camp  sites,  ovens,  tables, 
wood),  owned  by  the  city  of  Davis  and  maintained  in  part  by  the  State  Park  Service.  CCC 
workers  finished  the  road  through  the  area  which  had  been  begun  by  convicts  in  1926 
and  constructed  trails. 

BLUE  HOLE,  0.1  m.,  has  been  blasted  from  the  rock  in  the  bed  of  Honey  Creek  and 
is  filled  by  the  cool  water  of  that  stream. 

The  road  continues  along  the  creek  between  high  steep  cliffs  dotted  with  cedars  to  a 
parking  place  (L),  0.4  m.  From  this  point  a  footpath  with  steps  cut  in  the  rocks  leads  to 
TURNER  FALLS,  0.6  m.,  where  the  water  of  Honey  Creek  tumbles  through  a  rock  gorge 
into  a  clear  deep  pool. 

From  another  parking  place,  0.9  m.,  above  the  falls,  there  is  a  fine  view  of  the  sur- 
rounding mountain  country. 


364  OKLAHOMA 

At  Observation  House  (cafe,  filling  station),  (1,389  alt.),  86.2  m,  also 
overlooking  Turner  Falls,  may  be  seen  the  peculiar  striped  effect  of  hillsides 
due  to  uneven  weathering  of  the  upthrust  strata  of  rocks  characteristic  of  this 
region.  South  from  this  point,  roadside  signs  placed  by  the  Lions  Club  of 
Ardmore  indicate  the  geological  formations,  from  the  Mississippian  to  the 
Ordovician  and  Cambrian,  that  have  been  exposed  to  study  by  the  ancient 
upthrust. 

AT  91.9  m.,  US  77  leaves  the  rough  mountain  country  to  descend  to 
rolling  pastures,  grazing  Hereford  cattle,  loading  pens,  branding  chutes,  and 
windmills.  For  three  miles  the  highway  runs  through  one  ranch,  the  Lazy  S. 

SPRINGER,  93.5  m.,  is  a  farm  center. 

Right  from  Springer  on  a  graveled  road  to  WOODFORD,  8.1  m.  (1,014  alt.,  100 
pop.);  R.  from  Woodford  on  a  mountain  road  to  .^rdmore  Mountain  Lake  (boats;  over- 
night or  week.-end  camping  not  allowed),  locally  called  Hickory  Creek  Lake,  9.3  m.,  which 
covers  215  acres  and  supplies  water  for  the  city  of  Ardmore  (see  Ardmore).  The  State  Game 
and  Fish  Commission  keeps  the  lake  stocked  with  largemouthed  and  smallmouthed  bass, 
bream,  crappie,  and  perch. 

At  101.9  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  Carter  Academy,  0.6  m.,  a  group  of  gray  stone  buildings. 
Founded  near  Durant  (see  Tour  6)  in  1852  by  the  Chickasaws,  it  was  originally  known  as 
Bloomfield,  a  name  suggested  by  a  Chickasaw  ex-chief  because  of  the  profusion  of  flowers 
in  the  surrounding  fields.  The  school  might  well  have  been  named  for  George  Washington, 
however,  for  at  one  time  it  annually  received  $1,000,  a  portion  of  the  interest  derived  from 
funds  appropriated  by  the  First  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  pay  General  Washington 
for  his  Revolutionary  War  services.  Washington  refused  to  accept  the  money  and  had  it  set 
aside  for  educational  purposes. 

In  the  fall  of  1852  the  school  was  officially  opened,  and  twenty-five  girls  were  enrolled. 
They  were  taught  English,  botany,  spelling,  reading,  and  history  during  the  regular  school 
hours,  and  in  the  afternoons,  sewing,  mending,  cooking,  baking,  housework,  drawing, 
painting,  and  singing.  During  the  Civil  War,  Chickasaw  soldiers  camped  near  by,  using  the 
schoolroom  as  a  hospital  and  a  small  building  in  the  yard  as  a  doctor's  office.  The  academy 
was  closed  in  May,  1863;  reopened  in  1876  as  a  girl's  school  of  high-school  rank,  the  gov- 
ernment took  it  over  along  with  all  other  Chickasaw  tribal  schools  in  1906.  After  a  fire  had 
destroyed  most  of  the  buildings,  Bloomfield  was  removed  to  its  present  site  in  1914.  Sup- 
ported by  Federal  funds,  the  school  is  quartered  in  sixteen  buildings  and  has  a  student 
enrollment  of  150. 

ARDMORE,  102.2  m.  (872  alt.,  16,886  pop.)  (see  Ardmore),  is  at  the 
junction  with  US  70  (see  Tour  6). 

Right  from  the  corner  of  Main  and  Washington  Streets,  in  Ardmore,  south  on  Wash- 
ington Street,  to  LAKE  MURRAY  ST.VTE  PARK  (cabins,  swimming,  boating,  fishing, 
camp  sites),  3.9  m.,  an  area  of  about  twenty  thousand  acres  including  a  reservoir  which 
when  full  will  cover  5,600  acres.  The  park  is  a  center  for  fishing,  swimming,  and  water 
sports  of  all  kinds.  It  is  the  largest  park  in  the  State  Parks  system.  The  residence  cabins  are 
built  of  sandstone,  with  shingled  roofs  and  steel  casement  windows,  paneled  inside  with 
pine  and  walnut,  with  massive  stone  fireplaces  in  which  are  placed  swinging  iron  cranes. 
The  rangers'  cabins  are  furnished  with  hand-rubbed  walnut,  some  of  the  pieces  being 
antiques  and  the  others  reproductions.  The  cabins  are  set  back  in  clearings,  almost  hidden 
by  growths  of  pine  and  hickory.  One  area,  including  a  model  camp,  is  reserved  for  Negroes. 

At  the  entrance  gate  lodge  is  a  Y-junction  of  the  park  circulation  road. 

Right  to  a  Civilian  Conservation  Corps  camp,  10.2  m.;  a  second  camp,  11.7  m.;  and 


TOUR  10        365 

Tucker  Tower,  13.7  m.,  set  on  the  top  of  a  rocky  crag  that  juts  into  the  lake,  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  spots  in  the  park.  When  the  lake  is  filled  (probably  in  1942),  eighty-five  feet 
of  water  will  lie  directly  under  the  long  porch  of  the  tower  building.  South  of  the  tower, 
and  northeast  of  the  Lake  Murray  Dam,  15.2  m.,  is  the  lake  area  where  motorboat  races 
are  held. 

The  Confederate  Home,  105.8  m.,  was  established  (R)  in  Territorial 
days  at  McAlester,  under  the  sponsorship  of  Dr.  D.  M.  Hailey,  founder  of 
Haileyville  (see  Tour  5),  and  J.  J.  McAlester,  founder  of  McAlester  (see  Tour 
5).  Public  subscriptions  were  received  by  the  Confederate  Association,  but 
shortly  after  statehood  it  was  found  that  the  donations  were  inadequate.  It 
was  made  a  state -supported  institution  and  was  moved  to  its  present  site  in 
1910,  A  broad,  tree-lined  drive  leads  across  the  well-improved  grounds  to 
the  home.  It  was  closed  in  1941. 

MARIETTA,  121.1  w.  (846  alt.,  1,837  pop.),  a  farm  center,  is  the  seat 
of  Love  County.  The  nucleus  of  the  town  was  a  little  shack  that  served  as  the 
station  of  the  Santa  Fe  Railway,  which  built  its  tracks  through  in  1887.  The 
site  of  Marietta,  and  the  surrounding  area,  was  then  in  the  possession  of  two 
Chickasaws,  Jerry  and  Bill  Washington;  Jerry  Washington's  wife  was  named 
Marietta,  and  it  was  in  her  honor  that  the  Santa  Fe  named  the  town. 

At  134.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  the  old  Refuge  Spring,  1.2  m.,  the  burial  ground  of  early  Texas 
oudaws.  The  white  cedar  trees,  set  out  about  1840,  formed  an  approximate  boundary  be- 
tween Texas  and  Oklahoma.  When  an  outlaw,  fleeing  from  Texas,  reached  this  spot  he  was 
safe;  but  for  many  of  them,  especially  those  who  had  been  severely  wounded  by  pursuing 
posses,  it  proved  only  a  temporary  sanctuary. 

US  77  crosses  Red  River  to  the  TEXAS  LINE,  136.4  m.,  on  a  long  bridge, 
eight  miles  north  of  Gainesville,  Tex.  (see  Texas  Guide). 


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Tour  10a 


Davis — Sulphur — Piatt  National  Park — Junction  with  US  70;  43.2  m.  State 
22,  State  18,  Perimeter  Blvd. 

Roadbed  asphalt-paved  and  graveled. 

Oklahoma  Transportation  Co.  Bus  Line  follows  route  between  Davis  and  Sulphur. 

Excellent  accommodations  at  Sulphur;  free  campgrounds  in  park,  but  no  cabins. 

East  of  DAVIS,  0  m.  (838  alt.,  1,698  pop.)  (see  Tour  10),  State  22  pro- 
ceeds eastward  from  its  junction  with  US  77  (see  Tour  10)  and  passes  through 


366  OKLAHOMA 

rolling  hilly  country  to  SULPHUR,  9  m.  (976  alt.,  4,970  pop.),  a  pleasure  and 
health  resort  with  something  of  the  appearance  of  a  continental  spa.  Rock 
Creek  flows  through  the  town  and  divides  it  into  East  and  West  Sulphur, 
each  section  having  its  own  business  and  residential  sections.  In  East  Sulphur 
are  the  city  hall  and  many  of  the  large  hotels;  in  West  Sulphur  are  the  court- 
house and  county  offices.  The  streets  in  both  sections  are  paved  with  crushed 
rock,  principally  chert  from  near-by  quarries.  Mineral  water,  with  sulphur 
and  iron  content,  is  plentiful  and  is  used  in  many  of  the  numerous  swimming 
pools.  The  town's  entire  water  supply  comes  from  deep,  flowing  wells. 

At  9.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  18,  which  the  tour  follows  south  (R) 
through  PLATT  NATIONAL  PARK  (jree  camping).  The  park,  lying 
south  of  the  junction,  covers  an  area  of  848  acres.  There  are  thirty-one  large 
springs  (faucets;  water  is  free) — eighteen  sulphur,  four  iron,  three  bromide, 
and  six  fresh  water — and  several  smaller  ones.  The  tract  was  formerly  in- 
cluded in  the  territory  of  the  Chickasaw  Nation,  and  a  large  part  of  it  was 
purchased  from  the  Indians  by  the  Federal  government  in  1902,  the  year  in 
which  the  park  was  established.  First  named  Sulphur  Springs  Reservation,  it 
was  renamed  in  1906  for  U.S.  Senator  Orville  Hitchcock  Piatt,  of  Connecticut, 
member  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs  (1879-1905). 

From  early  spring  to  late  fall  colorful  wild  flowers  are  abundant  here — 
Spanish  larkspur,  Virginia  creeper,  primrose,  blue  salvia,  goldenrod,  redbud, 
and  the  pink-flowered  brier  or  cat's  claw,  locally  known  as  gander's  teeth. 
Five  or  six  varieties  of  cactus,  native  to  the  state  and  the  Southwest,  grow 
among  the  rocks  on  the  hillsides,  and  in  the  creek  valleys  are  numerous  trees. 
Wrens,  herons,  cardinals,  meadow  larks,  horned  larks,  sparrow  hawks,  brown 
thrashers,  and  many  other  birds  frequent  the  region  seasonally,  and  raccoons, 
opossums,  skunks,  rabbits,  and  squirrels  are  found  in  or  near  the  park. 

TRAVERTINE  CREEK,  9.6  m.,  is  crossed  on  a  stone  bridge. 

At  9.7  m.  is  the  junction  with  Perimeter  Boulevard,  over  which  the  route 
continues  due  west  (R)  making  an  elongated  circle  through  the  park  and 
returning  to  this  junction. 

Travertine  Creek  (R),  which  parallels  Perimeter  Boulevard  for  a  short 
distance,  is  spanned  by  Lincoln  Bridge,  9.8  m.,  a  footbridge  constructed  of 
white  limestone  blocks,  with  turrets  at  each  end.  Across  the  bridge  is  Flower 
Park,  comprising  live  acres  of  cleared  land;  a  small,  shallow  stream,  formed 
by  diverting  the  overflow  from  Vendome  Plunge,  a  swimming  pool  near  by, 
flows  through  the  area. 

The  boulevard  crosses  ROCK  CREEK,  9.9  m.,  the  largest  stream  in  the 
park;  it  has  been  stocked  by  the  State  Game  and  Fish  Commission  with  bass, 
catfish,  perch,  crappie,  and  bream.  On  the  summit  of  a  small  knoll  (R),  just 
west  of  the  Rock  Creek  bridge,  are  Black  Sulphur  Springs,  which  have  an 
extremely  strong  sulphur  content.  The  spring's  pavilion,  constructed  of  stone 
covered  with  rough  stucco,  is  hexagonal  in  shape,  with  open  sides  and  slender 
pillars  supporting  the  sloping  roof. 

A  large  open  pavilion  (L)  at  Bromide  Springs  Area,  10.7  m.,  houses 
medicinal  springs.  CCC  workers  built  the  red-brick  structure  surrounded  by 


TOUR  lOA        367 

a  flagged  terrace.  The  varieties  of  mineral  water  obtainable  here  are  indicated 
by  labels  on  the  faucets. 

The  Bromide  Camp  Grounds  (trailer  and  tent  accommodations,  pic- 
nic}{ing  facilities),  within  the  area  (R),  are  well  shaded. 

South  of  the  paviHon,  a  trail  leads  across  a  long  steel  footbridge  over  Rock  Creek  to 
the  bottom  of  Bromide  Cliff  (1,050  alt.),  which  rises  140  feet  above  the  creek.  CCC 
workers  have  built  banked  trails,  with  bridges  and  retaining  walls  from  this  point  along 
the  sides  and  to  the  summit  of  the  cliff.  At  the  foot,  temporary  structures  are  erected  each 
year  to  seat  the  thousands  of  visitors  who  come  to  view  the  Easter  Pageant.  Near  by  are 
three  springs  that  supply  water  to  the  pavilion;  a  larger  spring  boils  up  in  the  center  of  Rock 
Creek. 

Perimeter  Boulevard  again  crosses  Rock  Creek,  10.8  m.,  winds  around 
the  western  side  of  the  cliff,  and  ascends  to  the  top  of  the  hill  forming  the 
precipice. 

At  11.1  w.  is  a  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  VETER.\NS  LAKE  (state  fishing  license;  no  fee)  0.1  m.,  which 
covers  115  acres  and  has  a  maximum  depth  of  eighty  feet;  the  lake  is  stocked  yearly  with 
thousands  of  fingerlings. 

A  Parking  Area  (L)  11.2  m.,  is  near  the  highest  point  in  the  park. 
Several  foot  trails  lead  from  here  across  the  summit  of  Bromide  Cliff  to 
Council  Rock,  locally  called  Robbers'  Roost,  offering  a  wide  view  of  the  park 
and  the  town  of  Sulphur.  Here  various  Indian  tribes  lighted  their  signal  fires 
or  held  councils  of  war  or  peace.  A  hiking  trail  leads  from  the  rock  down  the 
cliff  to  Bromide  Springs  Pavilion. 

The  Buffalo  Pasture  (no  trespassing),  12.2  m.,  is  a  large  area  (L) 
where  a  small  herd  of  buffalo  is  maintained. 

At  12.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  18.  The  route  continues  east  on 
Perimeter  Boulevard  and  climbs  a  ridge.  At  the  top,  12.7  w.,  is  a  view  of  the 
Oklahoma  Soldiers'  Tubercular  Sanitarium  (R),  a  group  of  brick,  cottage- 
like buildings  trimmed  with  white,  except  the  administration  building,  which 
is  a  square  limestone  structure.  The  grounds  are  landscaped,  with  well-kept 
lawns,  and  cedars. 

The  road  descends  a  slope  to  Travertine  Creek  (L),  which  it  parallels 
for  two  miles.  Wild  flowers  grow  in  profusion  and  dense  growths  of  oak  and 
elm  trees  shade  the  valleys. 

TRAVERTINE  ISLAND  (L),  14.1  m.,  was  formed  by  the  "looping" 
of  Travertine  Creek.  At  the  eastern  end  of  the  island  is  Little  Niagara,  a 
waterfall  over  a  rock  formation  in  the  creek. 

Buffalo  Springs  (picnicking  facilities),  15  m.,  is  one  of  the  two  sources 
of  Travertine  Creek.  The  springs  (L)  boil  up  through  a  bed  of  sand,  flecked 
with  patches  of  green  moss.  Curving  to  the  left  in  a  hairpin  turn.  Perimeter 
Boulevard  rounds  the  springs  to  parallel  the  north  side  of  the  creek  and  con- 
tinues westward.  Antelope  Springs,  15.4  m.,  the  other  source  of  Travertine 
Creek,  flows  from  a  small  hill  (L).  Both  Antelope  and  Buffalo  Springs  are 
fresh  water  sources  and  are  often  dry. 


368  OKLAHOMA 

Travertine  Island,  16.1  m.,  is  passed  again  (L)  as  the  road  proceeds 
southwestward. 

Two  adjoining  Swimming  Pools,  16.5  m.,  have  been  made  by  damming 
the  creek.  The  near-by  Cold  Springs  Campgrounds,  15.6  m.,  has  floodlight 
illumination  at  night. 

In  the  bend  of  the  creek  (L)  is  the  Negro  Area  (campgrounds),  17.2  m. 

At  17.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  18,  which  now  again  becomes  the 
route. 

Left  on  State  18  to  Pavilion  Springs,  17.7  m.,  where  there  is  a  pavilion 
(L)  of  native  stone  and  handhewn  timbers  used  for  community  gatherings. 
The  Administration  Building  (R)  houses  an  extensive  herbarium  where 
some  six  hundred  species  of  eighty-four  families  of  plants  found  in  the  park 
have  been  identified.  North  of  the  winding,  flagged  walk  leading  to  the 
building  are  Hillside  Springs,  from  which  a  large  volume  of  water  flows. 

South  of  the  South  Gate,  18.3  m.,  of  Piatt  National  Park,  State  18  con- 
tinues to  a  junction  with  US  70  (see  Tour  6)  at  43.2  m. 


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Tour  11 


(Caldwell,  Kans.) — Enid — El  Reno — Chickasha — (Ringgold,  Tex.);  US  81. 
Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  233.2  m. 

Roadbed  concrete-paved. 

The  Rock  Island  Ry.  parallels  the  route. 

Good  accommodations  at  short  intervals. 

Throughout  its  course  in  Oklahoma,  US  81  has  for  historical  background 
the  old  Chisholm  Trail,  the  best  known  of  the  several  trails  beaten  out  by  the 
millions  of  Texas  longhorns  driven  to  Kansas  railroads  and  more  northern 
Indian  reservations  in  the  two  and  one-half  decades  following  the  Civil  War. 
Beginning  with  a  mere  thirty-five  thousand  head  of  cattle  sent  up  the  trails  in 
1867,  the  number  rose  year  by  year  to  a  peak,  in  the  eighties,  of  more  than 
five  hundred  thousand  a  season. 

First  laid  out  by  a  trader  named  Jesse  Chisholm  who,  in  1865,  conducted 
a  trading  expedition  from  Wichita,  Kansas,  to  the  Indians  living  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  Wichita  Mountains  of  Indian  Territory,  the  Chisholm  Trail  proved 
to  be  the  most  feasible  for  drivers  who  sought  plentiful  water  and  good  graz- 
ing for  their  northbound  herds.  Also  as  an  advertisement  printed  in  1871 
pointed  out,  it  was  shorter  than  others;  the  streams  were  "narrow  and  more 


TOUR  11        369 

easily  forded  than  other  trails;  . . ,  and  as  the  trail  is  through  thinly  settled 
country,  drovers  are  not  subject  to  molestation  by  settlers,  have  no  taxes  to 
pay,  and  ...  no  ferriage  is  necessary." 

So  long  was  this  trail  used  that  a  great  body  of  tradition  grew  up  around 
it  and  there  was  hot  controversy,  after  trail  driving  had  become  history,  as  to 
its  exact  route  and  the  man  for  whom  it  was  named.  That  favorite  cowboy 
song  which  opens  with  the  couplet, 

Come  along,  boys,  and  listen  to  my  tale, 

I'll  tell  you  a  story  of  the  old  Chisholm  Trail, 

is  known  wherever  cowboy  lore  is  known  and  loved — and  that  is  throughout 
the  country.  Two  other  couplets  of  that  endless  jog-trot  classic  express  the 
ambition  of  the  tired  cowboy  after  the  herd  had  been  loaded  on  the  cars  in 
Kansas, 

I'm  goin'  down  south,  not  a-jokin'  nor  a-lyin' 
I'm  goin'  down  south  just  a-whoopin'  an'  a-flyin' 

I'm  goin'  down  south  for  to  marry  me  a  squaw. 
An'  live  on  the  bank  of  the  Little  Washitaw. 

With  the  opening  of  old  Oklahoma  to  setdement,  in  1889,  and  the  south- 
ward building  of  the  Rock  Island  Railway,  which  reached  Texas  in  1892,  the 
trail  ceased  to  function  as  a  cattle  highway.  Today,  few  traces  of  the  wide- 
spreading  and  rutted  paths  made  by  the  longhorns  are  anywhere  visible. 

US  81  serves  a  varied  and  prosperous  section  of  Oklahoma.  In  the  north 
are  the  broad,  level  wheat  fields  in  the  old  Cherokee  Outlet  that  justify  the 
description  of  the  area  around  Enid  as  the  state's  breadbasket.  Farther  south 
is  the  territory  in  which  many  of  the  border  disputes  between  white  pioneers 
and  Indians  led  to  batdes  and  skirmishes,  and  where  the  farmer  gained  foot- 
hold against  the  ranchman  and  finally  supplanted  him.  Somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Chickasha,  wheat  gives  way  to  cotton,  corn,  sorghum  grains, 
orchards,  alfalfa,  and  vineyards.  There  is  rough  country  between  the  Ar- 
buckles  and  the  Wichitas.  Then,  as  the  route  comes  nearer  to  the  Red  River 
bottom,  the  land  is  again  well  adapted  to  cotton. 

Less  than  half  a  century  has  sufficed  to  change  completely  the  character 
of  the  country  and  of  the  people  along  US  81.  The  Indian-Pioneer  phase  has 
passed  and  is  already  only  a  dramatic  memory. 

US  81  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  2.7  miles  south  of  Caldwell, 
Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide),  and  continues  south  through  the  west  central 
portion  of  the  state. 

MEDFORD,  15.1  m.  (1,087  alt.,  1,121  pop.),  seat  of  Grant  County,  is  at 
the  northern  edge  of  the  most  productive  wheat-growing  region  in  the  state. 

Out  of  the  town  and  into  national  prominence  as  fliers  came  the  brothers 
Apollo  and  Zeus  Soucek;  as  lads  of  ten  and  twelve,  about  1918,  they  con- 
structed a  homemade  glider  plane  and  started  it  in  flight  by  mule  power.  In 
1930,  as  an  officer  of  the  naval  air  force,  Apollo  established  an  American 
record  for  altitude,  43,165  feet.  His  brother  Zeus,  also  a  navy  flier,  designed 
some  of  the  equipment  used  in  his  flights. 


370  OKLAHOMA 

The  small  farming  center  of  JEFFERSON,  22.1  m.(  1,047  alt.,  299  pop.), 
when  hrst  laid  out  was  given  the  name  of  Pond  Creek.  The  name  was  changed 
when  the  settlement  four  miles  south  proved  its  claim  to  being  the  site  of 
Pond  Creek,  station  on  the  old  stage  route  from  Kansas  to  Fort  Sill. 

At  22.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  ROCK  ISLAND  PARK,  0.2  m.,  marked  by  tall  elm  and  cotton- 
wood  trees.  Originally  it  was  an  eighty-acre  allotment  taken  by  a  Cherokee  in  the  Outlet  and 
later  turned  over  to  a  townsite  company.  When  the  railroad  came,  however,  the  station  was 
built  too  far  away  to  make  the  townsite  valuable,  and  its  few  residents  moved  to  Jefferson. 

A  marker,  22.8  m.,  indicates  the  Site  of  Sewell's  Stockade  (L),  three- 
fourths  of  a  mile,  which  was  one  of  the  stopping  places  for  trail  drivers.  In 
the  early  seventies,  Sewell  built  the  stockade  for  protection  against  Osage 
Indian  mourning  parties  and  war  raiders;  the  Osage  Black  Dog  war  trail 
crossed  the  Salt  Fork  of  the  Arkansas  one  mile  south. 

It  was  an  Osage  custom  to  bury  with  a  tribesman  the  scalps  he  had 
taken;  and  to  send  a  warrior  to  the  next  world  without  at  least  one  scalp  was 
considered  a  tragedy.  However,  as  intertribal  warfare  waned,  the  problem  of 
getting  a  scalp  to  bury  with  a  dead  man  became  more  and  more  acute  and  the 
custom  arose  of  sending  out  secretly  what  were  called  mourning  parties  to 
bring  in  a  scalp.  To  waylay  and  kill  a  Pawnee  or  other  Indian  might  lead  to 
war;  and  so  scalps  of  isolated  white  men  were  in  demand. 

US  81  crosses  the  Salt  Fork  of  the  ARKANSAS  RI\'ER,  24  m..  which 
drains  the  Great  Salt  Plains  (see  Tour  2). 

At  25.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  across  the  railroad  tracks,  0.3  m.;  in  a  field  (L)  is  the  Site  of  the 
Pond  Creek  Stage  Station  on  the  Chisholm  Trail.  In  the  days  of  the  cattle  drives  there 
was  a  broad,  deep  lake  here,  but  a  short  time  before  the  opening  of  the  Cherokee  Outlet 
(1893)  to  settlement  cattlemen  who  had  the  area  under  lease  drained  the  lake.  Still  later, 
it  was  filled  in. 

On  a  little  knoll  about  two  hundred  yards  R.  from  the  stage  station  site  are  the  Gr.wes 
OF  Two  Pioneers.  One  of  them,  Tom  Best,  was  slain  by  an  Osage  funeral  party  in  1872; 
the  other.  Chambers,  was  an  Osage  victim  in  1874.  Their  graves  were  marked  in  1889. 

POND  CREEK,  26.3  m.  (1,050  alt.,  1,019  pop.),  at  the  time  of  the 
opening  of  Old  Oklahoma  to  setdement  in  1889  was  the  southern  terminus 
of  the  Rock  Island  Railway  and  was  known  as  Round  Pond.  As  the  day  of 
the  opening,  April  22,  drew  near,  the  Rock  Island  engaged  D.  R.  Green, 
owner  of  a  half-dozen  rickety  old  stagecoaches,  to  carry  those  who  meant  to 
make  the  Run  to  the  border.  One  of  the  last  trains  to  arrive  before  the  opening 
was  from  Chicago,  and  Green,  in  his  "Lcadville  Cannon  Ball'  stagecoach, 
with  a  long  caravan  of  coaches,  wagons,  hacks,  buggies,  and  buckboards 
drawn  up  behind  him,  awaited  the  unloading  of  the  train.  Then  came  the  rush 
to  the  border,  nearly  forty  miles  away.  Though  railway  workers  had  repaired 
somewhat  the  rutted  prairie  road,  that  ride  was  a  memorable  experience. 

In  Pond  Creek  is  the  northern  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4),  which 
unites  with  US  81  for  twentv-two  miles. 


TOUR    11  371 

South  of  Pond  Creek  the  highway  crosses  a  long  stretch  of  undulant 
territory  in  the  center  of  a  great  wheat-growing  district.  On  these  nearly  level, 
deep-loam  acres,  the  stretches  of  wheat  are  like  a  vast  carpet  of  green  through 
the  winter;  with  the  coming  of  spring  they  grow  quickly  to  a  knee-deep 
luxuriance  of  green;  and  by  June  harvest  time  they  are  a  tapestry  of  golden 
yellow.  Only  around  the  farmhouses  are  there  any  trees.  To  the  south,  the 
great  gray  concrete  towers  of  grain  elevators  and  three  city  skyscrapers  at 
Enid  rise  impressively  out  of  the  flat  landscape. 

At  30.7  m.  is  the  northern  junction  with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  which 
unites  with  US  81-60  for  17.9  miles. 

ENID,  48.3  m.  (1,246  alt.,  28,081  pop.)  (see  Enid)  is  at  the  southern 
junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4)  and  US  64  (see  Tour  2). 

WAUKOMIS,  57.7  m.  (1,264  alt.,  397  pop.),  lies  in  the  center  of  the 
wide  wheat-growing  belt  and  is  a  farm  trading  point. 

HENNESSEY,  70.1  m.  (1,162  alt.,  1,342  pop.),  was  laid  out  in  1889  and 
named  for  a  freighter  on  the  Chisholm  Trail.  On  July  2,  1874,  Patrick  Hen- 
nessey's two-wagon  outfit  was  attacked  by  Indians  at  Bullfoot  Springs,  at  the 
southern  edge  of  the  present  town.  Hennessey  was  killed  and  his  wagons, 
loaded  with  oats  for  cavalry  mounts  at  Fort  Sill,  were  burned.  His  grave  (R), 
three  blocks  from  the  highway,  is  enclosed  by  an  iron  fence,  and  a  rough- 
stone  memorial  in  the  form  of  a  lighthouse  twenty-four  feet  high  has  been 
erected.  One  block  L.  is  the  Site  of  the  Old  Stage  Station;  the  building 
was  burned  on  the  day  Hennessey  was  killed,  and  another  was  erected  near  by. 

Roy  Cashion,  of  Hennessey,  a  trooper  in  the  First  United  States  Volun- 
teer Cavalry  (Rough  Riders)  in  the  Spanish-American  War  of  1898  who  was 
killed  at  San  Juan  Hill,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  Oklahoma  youth  to  give 
his  life  for  his  country  on  foreign  soil. 

Known  for  a  time  during  the  trail  drives  as  Red  Fork  Ranch,  DOVER, 
79.4  m.  (1,033  alt.,  390  pop.),  was  a  stage  station  where  freighters  on  the 
Chisholm  Trail  changed  teams.  It  was  then  no  more  than  a  stockade  inside 
of  which  lived  a  stock  tender  named  Chapin.  Among  those  who  stopped  here 
was  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan  on  his  way  to  Fort  Supply  (see  Tour  12). 

Freighters  hauling  supplies  to  Indian  Territory  forts  over  the  Chisholm 
Trail  route  were  compelled  so  often  to  detour  to  avoid  the  herds  being  driven 
north  that  a  separate  freight  trail  was  beaten  out  which  branched  southwest 
at  Red  Fork  Ranch  for  some  miles,  then  turned  south  to  forts  Reno,  Cobb, 
and  Sill. 

Near  the  spot  where  US  81  crosses  the  CIMARRON  RIVER,  81.5  m., 
occurred  in  September,  1906,  one  of  Oklahoma's  most  serious  railroad  wrecks. 
A  Rock  Island  passenger  train,  with  the  exception  of  the  sleeping  cars, 
plunged  through  a  wooden  bridge  into  the  river;  some  of  the  train  crew, 
passengers,  and  the  train  itself  were  lost.  Ordinarily  almost  dry,  with  its  wide 
bed  little  more  than  a  stretch  of  blowing  sand,  the  Cimarron  is  like  most 
western  Oklahoma  rivers,  treacherous  with  quicksands  and  apt  to  become  a 
devastating  torrent  after  heavy  rainfalls.  The  bridge  which  replaced  the 
wrecked  one  is  of  steel  construction  and  its  piers  are  sunk  to  bedrock. 

The  parents  of  the  notorious  Dalton  Boys,  outlaws  whose  exploits  have 


372  OKLAHOMA 

been  widely  publicized  in  print  and  on  the  screen,  were  among  the  home- 
steaders near  Dover;  the  mother  was  living  on  the  farm  at  the  time  two  of 
her  sons  were  killed  and  another  seriously  wounded  during  an  attempted 
bank  robbery  at  Coffey ville,  Kansas,  on  October  5,  1892. 

A  cattleman  named  King  Fisher  gave  his  name  to  KINGFISHER,  88.4 
m.,  (1,060  alt.,  3,352  pop.),  where  he  also  operated  a  stage  line  and  maintained 
a  stage  station.  The  name  was  also  selected  for  one  of  the  five  original  counties 
comprising  old  Oklahoma.  Locally,  the  town  is  known  as  "the  buckle  of  the 
wheat  belt." 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Kingfisher  the  Chisholm  Trail  was  deeply  rutted 
through  the  level  prairie.  At  the  time  of  the  Run,  April  22,  1889,  these  ruts 
were  still  so  deep  and  narrow  that,  overgrown  with  grass  as  they  were, 
vehicles  engaged  in  the  race  for  homesteads  were  wrecked  and  many  horses' 
legs  were  broken.  An  old-timer,  describing  some  of  the  biggest  herds  that 
made  such  ruts,  has  said  that  more  than  once  as  a  boy  he  watched  one  herd 
passing  his  father's  home  from  sunrise  to  sunset. 

Between  Kingfisher  and  the  Texas  Line  curves  on  US  81  are  sharply 
banked. 

At  113.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  asphalt-paved  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  CONCHO,  2.2  m.,  the  administrative  center  of  the  Cheyenne  and 
Arapaho  Indian  reservation  of  5,280  acres.  The  twenty-six  frame  and  brick  buildings  com- 
prising the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Agency  form  a  rectangular  group  overlooking  a 
wooded  canyon  which  was  once  a  favorite  camping  place  for  freighters  because  of  its 
springs.  First  established  in  1869  at  a  point  2.5  miles  southeast  of  the  present  location  near 
the  North  Canadian  River,  the  place  was  known  as  the  Darlington  Agency,  so  named  for 
Brinton  Darlington,  a  Quaker  appointed  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  combined  tribes. 
Darlington  also  opened  a  school  there  for  the  Arapahoes. 

Although  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Indians  had  been  associated  in  war  together,  they 
desired  separate  schools;  hence  an  institution  expressly  for  the  Cheyennes  was  founded  in 
1879.  It  was  located  at  Caddo  Springs  (now  Concho). 

In  1909  the  Darlington  Agency  was  abandoned  and  the  office  moved  to  Concho, 
which  had  been  named  by  the  railroad  in  establishing  a  switch  there.  Its  site  is  now  the 
State  Game  Farm  (visitors  admitted) ,  of  125  acres  on  which  quail  and  wild  turkey  are 
propagated.  In  1935  an  electric  hatchery,  with  a  capacity  of  twenty  thousand  quail  eggs, 
and  a  smaller  hatchery  and  incubator  for  the  turkey  eggs,  was  installed.  The  fowl  are  used 
to  restock  Oklahoma's  hunting  areas. 

The  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Boarding  School,  near  the  agency,  is  reached  by 
following  a  winding  road  which  crosses  the  deepest  part  of  the  canyon  by  means  of  an 
elevated  footbridge.  The  canyon  valley  (not  open  to  visitors  except  by  special  permission  of 
superintendent)  has  been  developed  into  a  park  and  recreation  area. 

This  is  the  only  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  educational  institution  operating  today.  A 
faculty  of  twenty-nine  teachers,  all  civil  service  employees,  instruct  the  two  hundred  Indian 
boys  and  girls  enrolled  there.  In  addition  to  the  regular  school  curriculum,  trades,  home 
economics,  and  farming  are  taught;  a  large  experimental  farm  is  maintained.  Help  offered 
to  the  adult  Indians  by  the  agency  includes  conservation  and  farming  aid  to  the  men,  and 
domestic  science  and  nursing  for  the  women.  There  is  a  hospital  which,  in  addition  to  the 
one  at  Clinton,  serves  all  members  of  the  two  tribes. 

Approximately  five  thousand  Indians  assemble  at  Concho  for  two  annual  events,  the 
May  Day  Celebration  and  the  Labor  Day  Festival  (visitors  admitted  to  both  events).  On 
May  Day  a  pageant,  depicting  tribal  history,  is  staged  by  the  school.  The  Labor  Day  Fes- 
tival, sponsored  by  the  superintendent  of  the  agency,  is  centered  about  a  feast  for  which 
whole  beeves  are  barbecued.  Baseball  games  and  speeches  are  scheduled  for  the  afternoon, 
with  the  night  reserved  for  the  dances,  in  which  the  weird  Owl  Dance,  the  gay  Rabbit 


TOUR  11        373 

Dance,  and  the  light  and  fast  Kick  Ball  Dance  are  featured.  Painted  bodies  and  vivid 
costumes  make  the  performance  a  colorful  display  of  rhythm  and  grace,  effectively  done  to 
the  throbbing  beat  of  the  tom-toms  and  the  clapping  of  hands.  Other  dances  are  held  during 
July  and  August  at  various  points  near  the  agency  {advance  information  from  superinten- 
dent)  . 

The  legendary  Sun  Dance,  a  symbolic  religious  ritual,  has  been  practiced  in  various 
forms  by  most  of  the  Plains  tribes,  but  because  of  the  self-mutilation  which  was  a  part  of 
the  original  ceremony,  its  presentation  was  prohibited  by  the  government.  As  done  today 
(adm.  50c,  inquire  at  agency  for  time  and  place),  the  Sun  Dance  retains  the  religious 
significance  but  not  the  torture  of  the  former  rite  in  which  volunteer  warriors  inserted 
sticks  through  open  gashes  in  their  skin  and  dragged  behind  them  heavy  burdens  tied  to 
the  sticks  with  lariat  ropes.  The  purpose  of  the  self-sacrifice  was  to  display  to  the  Great 
Spirit  the  willingness  of  the  brave  young  warriors  to  bear  the  burdens  and  sorrows  for  the 
weaker  and  older  members  of  the  tribe.  The  chief's  call  upon  the  Great  Spirit  to  watch  the 
proceeding  was  directed  to  the  sun,  which  served  as  an  intercessor.  The  Cheyennes  and 
Arapahoes  have  never  performed  the  dance  at  a  set  time;  but  only  as  the  fulfillment  of  a 
vow,  or  at  a  time  when  the  need  of  a  spiritual  reawakening  was  apparent. 

EL  RENO,  117.7  m.  (1,363  alt.,  10,078  pop.)  (see  Tour  1),  is  at  the 
junction  with  US  66-270  (see  Tours  1  and  5). 

South  of  EI  Reno,  the  country  is  somewhat  more  broken;  and,  instead  of 
wheat,  livestock  and  cotton  are  staple  products. 

Set  on  the  tree-studded  slope  (R),  UNION,  122.4  m.  (1,321  alt.,  400 
pop.),  seems  to  nesde  between  a  tall  sheet-metal  grain  elevator  and  a  cotton 
gin.  The  town  is  a  trading  point  for  farmers  and  small  ranchmen. 

At  123.7  m.  the  route  crosses  the  curving  red-banked  South  Canadian 
River  into  the  old  Chickasaw  Nation,  then  skirts  its  extreme  western  edge. 
Few  of  the  tribe  ever  lived  so  far  west,  however,  and  the  region  was  occupied 
before  allotment  by  catdemen;  a  few  of  the  latter  had  married  Chickasaw 
wives  and  thus  became  adopted  citizens,  but  most  of  them  operated  ranches 
on  leases  or  were  intruders  brazenly  defying  tribal  laws  intended  to  regulate 
white  intercourse  with  Indians. 

MINCO,  128.6  m.  (1,538  alt.,  921  pop.),  lies  in  the  valley  of  a  small 
stream  and  spreads  fanlike  on  either  side  of  the  highway.  Upland  pastures 
alternating  with  prairie  farms  suggest  the  neighborhood's  range-land  past. 

Left  from  Minco  on  asphalt-paved  and  graveled  State  37  is  TUTTLE,  8.6  m.  (1,296 
alt.,  940  pop.),  where,  at  the  eastern  edge  of  town,  stands  the  huge  twelve-ton  boulder 
marking  the  course  of  the  Chisholm  Trail  and  the  Site  of  Silver  City  Trading  Post.  A 
bronze  tablet  states  that  the  community's  first  school  and  burying  ground  were  two  miles 
north.  "Dedicated  to  ranchmen,  cowboys,  early  settlers,  and  their  descendants,"  the  tablet 
bears  the  names  of  112  pioneers;  it  was  placed  there  by  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution. 

Left  from  Tuttle  on  an  improved  dirt  road  to  a  store,  L6  m.,  near  the  south  bank 
of  the  South  Canadian  River;  here  is  the  Site  of  Silver  City,  one  of  the  important  halts 
and  trading  points  on  the  old  cattle  trail.  Early  ranchmen  in  the  neighborhood  found  it 
necessary  to  herd  their  cattle  and  horses,  and  pen  them  at  night,  to  prevent  them  from  being 
drifted  away  by  grazing  buffalo  herds.  It  is  said  that. they  also  employed  Negro  or  Indian 
herders  rather  then  white  cowboys  because  white  scalps  were  preferred  by  the  raiding 
Comanche  and  Kiowa  Indians. 

Named  for  a  village  in  Massachusetts,  POCASSET,  137.3  m.  (1,197  alt., 
128  pop.),  was  the  point  at  which  Al  Jennings — successively  lawyer,  train 
robber,  convict,  candidate  for  governor  of  Oklahoma,  amateur  evangelist,  and 


374  OKLAHOMA 

author — once  led  his  gang  in  the  holdup  of  a  train.  In  attempting  to  blow 
open  the  safe  in  the  baggage  and  express  car,  the  job  was  bungled  and  the 
whole  car  blown  up.  Not  wanting  to  go  away  empty  handed,  Al  and  his 
fellows  robbed  the  passengers  of  jewelry  and  some  $400  in  cash;  then,  salvag- 
ing from  the  wrecked  car  a  bunch  of  bananas  and  a  two-gallon  jug  of  whisky, 
they  rode  away. 

Where  US  81  crosses  the  WASHITA  RIVER,  146  m..  the  stream  is  nar- 
row and  the  valley  is  forested  with  oaks,  elms,  cottonwoods,  and  other  trees. 

At  146.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  62  (see  Tour  3). 

CHICKASHA,  148.2  m.  (1,116  alt.,  14,111  pop.)  (see  Tour  3). 

At  152  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  19,  an  improved  earth  highway. 

Left  on  this  road  is  the  Site  of  the  Stage  Station,  I  m.,  where  the  Boggy  Depot- 
Fort  Sill  road  crossed  the  Chisholm  Trail.  This  stand,  known  as  Fred,  was  a  trading  point 
and  an  overnight  stop;  it  was  at  first  located  on  the  Washita  River  at  the  Trail  crossing  (see 
Tour  3). 

A  favorite  camping  place  for  trail  drivers,  RUSH  SPRINGS,  168  m. 
(1,291  alt.,  1,422  pop.),  got  its  name  from  the  springs  which  form  the  source 
of  Rush  Creek  near-by.  One  of  these  fine  springs  is  at  the  center  of  the 
Municipal  Park.  The  town  is  the  market  place  for  a  farming  district  in  which 
watermelons  are  a  principal  crop. 

Five  miles  southeast  of  Rush  Springs,  on  October  1,  1858,  occurred  one 
of  the  tragedies  of  the  conflict  between  the  whites  and  the  Indians.  At  the 
urging  of  Wichita  Indians,  who  were  friendly  with  the  whites,  a  considerable 
body  of  Comanches  were  on  the  way  to  Fort  Arbuckle  to  discuss  peace  terms 
with  the  whites.  While  in  camp,  the  Comanches  were  attacked  at  dawn  by  a 
force  of  cavalry  under  Captain  Van  Dorn  from  Fort  Belknap,  Texas,  sup- 
ported by  one  hundred  friendly  Indian  scouts.  Surprised  and  outnumbered, 
the  Comanches  lost  practically  all  of  their  warriors,  ninety  in  number.  Five  of 
Van  Dorn's  command  were  killed  and  a  number  wounded.  In  the  Captain's 
defense  it  was  said  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  mission  on  which  the 
Comanches  were  bound;  and  that  he  was  under  orders  to  find  and  exterminate 
these  tribesmen  who  had  been  raiding  in  Texas. 

Although  MARLOW,  176.9  m.  (1,308  alt.,  2,899  pop.),  is  now  a  peace- 
ful law-abiding  center  for  a  prosperous  farming  community,  with  wide  streets, 
a  municipal  power  plant,  light,  and  water  system,  pleasant  parks,  good  homes, 
and  modern  schools,  it  was  named  for  a  family  of  outlaws. 

In  the  early  1880's  five  Marlow  brothers  lived  in  a  dugout  in  the  brush 
on  Wildhorse  Creek  in  what  is  now  the  townsite,  near  the  Chisholm  Trail. 
It  was  the  nocturnal  custom  of  the  Marlow  boys  to  raid  the  herds  being  driven 
up  from  Texas  and  drive  ofif  longhorns  to  the  timber  twelve  or  fifteen  miles 
east  of  the  trail,  then  in  a  day  or  two  drive  the  cattle  back  to  the  herd  pre- 
tending to  have  found  them  straying  or  in  possession  of  cattle  thieves.  For  a 
long  time  they  were  successful  in  collecting  rewards,  but  the  cattlemen, 
victimized  too  often,  became  suspicious,  set  a  trap  for  them,  and  wiped  out 
the  band  . 

With  the  coming  of  the  Rock  Island  railroad,  about  1892,  a  station  was 
established  here,  and  at  the  request  of  men  living  near  by  it  was  called  Marlow. 


■  ^()»>  ^fl^->  ^(1y       „— ^0^2— ^^— sS'^i— ^       ^^^'*  ^% ^  ^— sS^^ 


Some  Oklahomans 


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AT  EASE 


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A  RELIGIOUS  RALLY 

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AN  OIL  FIELD  WORKER  AT  HOME 


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BEHIND  THE  EBB  OF  THE  FRONTIER 


PLAY  AFTER  WORK 

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HBiriB    W 


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A  PIE  supper;  cook  and  guest 


FARM  BOYS  AT  A  PLAY  PARTY 


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LEF.     :     FSA 


FARM  FAMILIES  AT  A  COMMUNITY  GATHERING 


INDIAN  TRIBAL  MEETING 

U.  S.  INDIAN  SERVICE 


ASSOCIATED  PRESS  WIREPHOTO 

WILL  ROGERS  AND  WILEY  POST 


A  PIONEER  OF  "tERRACINg":  J.  J,  BROWN  (aT  RIGHt) 


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A  WOMAN  S  PLACE 


A  MAN  S  WORLD 

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TOUR  11        375 

At  177  m.,  in  a  triangle  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  highway  with  State 
29,  is  a  Monument  to  All  Oklahoma  Peace  Officers.  Its  erection  was  in- 
spired by  the  killing  of  Sheriff  W.  A.  Williams  near  the  spot  in  1930.  The 
pear-shaped  memorial  was  cut  from  pink  granite  quarried  in  the  Wichita 
Mountains  (see  Tour  SB). 

DUNCAN,  187.8  m.  (1,131  alt.,  9,207  pop.),  was  named  for  a  trader, 
Willian  Duncan,  once  a  tailor  at  Fort  Sill,  who  settled  near  by  in  1879  after 
marrying  a  citizen  of  the  Chickasaw  Nation.  In  1889,  when  it  became  known 
that  the  Rock  Island  Railway  was  coming  through  from  the  north,  Mrs.  Dun- 
can, acting  under  her  tribal  rights,  selected  as  a  farm  a  five-hundred-acre  tract 
in  the  path  of  the  rails.  Three  years  later,  with  the  depot  built  and  the  townsite 
laid  out,  Mrs.  Duncan  sold  lots  on  the  understanding  that  when  it  became 
possible  to  give  title  legally  she  would  do  so.  The  promise  was  carried  out 
after  allotment,  and  when  the  Kiowa-Comanche  reservation  was  opened  to 
setdement  in  1901  an  additional  tract  of  540  acres  was  added  to  the  original 
townsite. 

The  business  section  of  the  city  lies  on  a  small  plateau,  from  which  the 
residence  streets  drop  off  toward  the  north,  west,  and  south  and  end  in  the 
somewhat  rough  red  land  out  of  which  Stephens  County  pastures  and  farms 
have  been  carved. 

Duncan's  growth  has  been  based  on  stock-raising,  agriculture,  and  oil. 
It  is  one  of  the  largest  primary  markets  for  cream  in  the  state,  buying  more 
than  two  million  pounds  annually;  its  cotton  gins  turn  out  from  twenty-five 
to  thirty  thousand  bales  a  year,  and  there  are  two  cottonseed  oil  mills.  The 
city  is  the  central  supply  point  for  an  area  in  which  more  than  nineteen  hun- 
dred producing  oil  wells  have  been  drilled  since  the  first  one  came  in,  on 
March  10,  1918,  for  two  hundred  barrels  a  day.  Some  $6,000,000  annually 
passes  into  the  hands  of  stockmen  and  farmers  in  exchange  for  products 
marketed  in  Duncan. 

To  serve  the  oil  industry,  six  supply  houses  have  quarters  in  the  city,  and 
there  is  a  refinery  with  a  daily  capacity  of  6,500  barrels.  The  Halliburton  oil 
well  cementing  process  for  safeguarding  wells,  which  is  used  throughout  the 
world,  was  originated  and  developed  here.  The  processing  plant  employs 
an  average  of  340  workers,  with  an  annual  payroll  of  more  than  $600,000. 
Branches  are  operated  in  eleven  other  oil-producing  states,  in  South  America, 
and  in  several  European  countries. 

A  new  and  modern  high  school  is  the  apex  of  a  system  of  district  schools 
whose  attendance  exceeds  2,500,  with  a  teaching  staff  of  fifty-six.  There  are, 
also,  a  high  school  and  an  elementary  school  for  Negroes,  and  a  privately 
operated  business  college.  The  city  light  and  power  plant  and  its  water  supply 
system  are  municipally  owned.  Fuqua  Park,  named  for  Duncan's  first  mayor, 
is  a  tract  of  thirty-two  acres  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  city.  There  is  a  munici- 
pal swimming  pool  in  the  park,  and  also — at  the  southwestern  corner  facing 
US  81  —  Duncan's  recently  erected  (1941)  armory. 

COMANCHE,  197.4  m.  (983  alt.,  1,533  pop.),  is  a  wide-spreading  town 
that  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  an  oil  field  in  which  may  still  be  seen  ( 1941)  the 
pump  jacks  which  serve  the  wells.  Before  the  coming  of  the  railroad  in  1892 


376  OKLAHOMA 

it  was  called  Wilson  Town  in  honor  of  a  member  of  the  Chickasaw  tribe.  The 
town  originated  as  a  trade  center  for  a  large  area  of  ranch  territory  in  both 
the  old  Chickasaw  Nation  and  the  Kiowa-Comanche  reservation  in  which 
cattlemen  leased  range  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  cents  per  head  of  cattle.  After 
allotment,  settlers  came  in,  and  the  region  became  primarily  one  of  farms. 

A  market  town  for  farmers,  ADDINGTON,  206.2  m.  (915  alt.,  250 
pop.),  is  made  up  of  one  block  of  brick  business  buildings  and  scattered 
residences. 

At  212.6  w.  is  the  Y-j unction  with  US  70  (see  Tour  6). 

An  old  town  fighting  stubbornly  for  existence  is  the  way  RYAN,  222.8 
m.  (833  alt.,  1,115  pop.),  has  been  described.  Many  of  its  residences  and  busi- 
ness buildings  present  a  dilapidated  appearance;  and  perhaps  the  largest 
structure  in  town  is  an  abandoned  chicken  hatchery.  In  1908  Ryan  lost  its 
year-long  light  with  Waurika  (see  Tour  6)  for  the  seat  of  Jefferson  County. 

TERRAL,  231.5  m.  (849  alt.,  521  pop.),  was  named  for  a  preacher  who 
was  responsible  for  laying  out  the  townsite  when  the  railroad  came  through 
in  1892. 

At  233.2  m.  US  81  crosses  Red  River,  the  Oklahoma-Texas  Line,  four 
miles  north  of  Ringgold,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


j^sOfi^ ^ ., E^O/»i ^ , s^O^i ^  - j5'''!2 ., ^^"2 ^  , ^'^"Jl ^ , ^^'!Z ^  - ^^"J. 


Tour  12 


(Ashland,    Kan.) — Woodward — Seiling — Frederick — (Vernon,    Tex.);    US 

183. 

Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  222.2  m. 

Roadbed  alternately  asphalt-  and  concrete-paved  and  graveled. 

No  train  service  between  Kansas  Line  and  Arapaho;  between  Arapaho  and  Texas  Line  the 

route  is  paralleled  by  the  Frisco  Railway. 

Accommodations  limited  to  larger  towns. 

South  of  the  Kansas  Line,  US  183  passes  through  the  old  Cherokee  Out- 
let, a  thinly  settled  area  of  rolling  country  dotted  with  sagebrush  and  soap- 
weed,  and  broken  by  deep  gullies.  The  soil  is  loose  and  sandy,  and  dunes  lie 
like  rough  windrows  along  the  road  and  in  the  wide  stream  beds.  A  few  of 
the  largest  catde  ranches  in  the  state  here  produce  the  finest  grade  of  beef 
cattle.  On  scattered  farms  some  grain  is  grown  but  forage  and  broomcorn  are 
the  principal  crops.  Where  cultivation  is  careless,  much  of  the  land  is  badly 
eroded. 


TOUR  11        377 

The  long  section  of  the  route  between  Seiling  and  the  Texas  Line  roughly 
parallels  the  old  Western  Trail,  the  cattle  trail  which  was  beaten  out  by  Texas 
herds  after  conditions  on  the  Chisholm  Trail  (see  Tour  11)  made  that  route 
too  difficult.  Fences  across  the  old  trail  built  by  white  cattlemen  who  leased 
from  the  Chickasaw  Nation,  and  a  tax  of  ten  cents  per  head  levied  for  a  time 
on  all  cattle  driven  through  that  nation,  led  to  the  establishment  of  this  more 
western  trail.  How  many  cattle  went  to  market  over  it  no  one  knows.  One 
estimate  is  that  in  1882,  the  peak  year,  four  hundred  thousand  were  driven 
up  to  Kansas,  and  that  during  the  nineteen  years  it  was  used  the  total  was 
seven  million.  Other  historians  cut  the  total  to  fewer  than  two  million.  What- 
ever the  truth  is,  certain  setdements  along  this  route  began  life  as  "cow  towns." 

The  region  between  the  southern  edge  of  the  former  Cherokee  Outlet, 
near  the  present-day  Seiling,  and  the  Texas  Line  comprised  both  the  old  Chey- 
enne and  Arapaho  reservation,  opened  to  whites  in  1892,  and  that  of  the 
Kiowas  and  Comanches,  opened  in  1901.  It  is  highlighted  historically  by 
echoes  of  border  warfare  and  tales  of  hidden  Spanish  treasure. 

Along  its  southern  Oklahoma  section,  US  183  serves  small  cities  and 
towns — some  of  them  outgrowths  of  Indian  trading  posts — that  thrive  on 
abundant  cotton  crops,  dairying,  and  the  quarrying  of  high-grade  granite. 
It  crosses  upland  country  where  the  air  is  dry,  healthful,  exhilarating,  and 
where  the  people,  somewhat  hard  hit  by  the  dry  years  in  the  1930's,  maintain 
their  belief  in  the  excellence  of  their  heritage. 

US  183  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  twenty  miles  southeast  of 
Ashland,  Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide). 

At  10.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  which  unites  with 
US  183  to  Buffalo. 

Seat  of  Harper  County,  BUFFALO,  12.3  m.,  (1,791  ah.,  1,209  pop.),  was 
founded  in  1907  when  Oklahoma  became  a  state.  Surrounding  the  town  is 
an  area  devoted  to  farms  along  the  creeks,  and  to  ranches  on  the  upland  on 
which  are  raised  high-grade  Hereford  cattle  that  find  markets  among  breeders 
in  other  states.  The  county  has  been  certified  by  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  as  free  from  bovine  tuberculosis. 

The  area  is  well  known  to  sportsmen  for  small  game,  quail,  prairie 
chickens,  and  especially  doves;  and  Buffalo  is  headquarters  for  many  hunters 
in  season.  At  the  southern  edge  of  town  is  a  park  and  a  municipal  swimming 
pool  (10c). 

SUPPLY,  31.4  m.  (1,994  alt.,  414  pop.),  first  came  into  existence  as  Fort 
Supply  in  1867.  It  was  an  army  base  of  operations  against  the  Plains  Indians, 
especially  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes.  At  different  times  it  was  field  head- 
quarters for  generals  Miles,  Sheridan,  Custer,  and  Sully,  all  well-known  com- 
manders in  the  protracted  border  warfare  following  the  Civil  War. 

In  1894,  the  United  States  gave  the  old  military  reservation  to  the  Terri- 
tory of  Oklahoma;  and  in  1903  the  Territory  authorized  the  establishment 
there  of  the  Western  Oklahoma  Hospital,  an  institution  for  the  mentally 
deficient.  A  granite  marker  on  the  hospital  grounds  commemorates  the 
officers  and  troop  units  that  were  stationed  at  Fort  Supply. 


378  OKLAHOMA 

The  town,  true  to  its  name,  is  still  the  supply  point  for  neighboring  farms 
and  the  hospital. 

At  WOLF  CREEK,  33.7  m.,  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes  were  de- 
feated in  1837  by  the  allied  forces  of  the  Kiowas,  Comanches,  and  Apaches. 
Two  years  later  permanent  peace  was  made  among  these  tribes. 

WOODWARD,  45.1  m.  ( 1,916  alt.,  5,406  pop.),  is  the  seat  of  Woodward 
County,  which  was  carved  out  of  the  Cherokee  Outlet,  and  is  the  metropolis 
of  a  wide  area  of  ranch  and  farm  lands. 

An  upland  plains  city,  its  wide  streets,  trim  brick  business  buildings,  and 
the  solid  residences  built  by  its  citizens  and  by  ranchmen  who  have  established 
homes  in  town  because  of  school  facilities  for  their  children,  give  Woodward 
a  neat  and  substantial  appearance.  In  Central  Park,  one  of  four  city  parks, 
are  the  city  hall,  Community  House,  American  Legion  Hall,  and  the  Carne- 
gie Library  with  some  twelve  thousand  volumes.  A  new  and  modern  Court 
House,  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $100,000,  is  the  outstanding  feature  of  West 
Park. 

Woodward  Junior  College,  part  of  the  public  school  system,  has  a  sixty- 
piece  band  that  participates  in  contests  throughout  the  state,  and  a  strong 
debating  team. 

One  daily  newspaper,  the  Daily  Press,  and  three  weeklies,  survive  from 
this  breeding  ground  for  western  Oklahoma  journalists.  Pioneering  in  the 
newspaper  field,  the  Woodward  Jeffersonian  appeared  seven  days  after  the 
opening  and  reported  that  "the  first  man  to  arrive  . . .  was  David  Jones,  one 
of  the  good  men  from  the  Panhandle  of  Texas  whose  horse  had  more  wind 
than  the  average  newspaper  man."  In  the  first  year  another  paper,  the  Wood- 
ward Advocate,  was  launched.  Then  came  the  Woodward  Democrat,  the 
Dispatch,  and  the  News.  This  last  became  the  News-Bulletin,  which  is  pub- 
lished weekly. 

Like  other  cities  created  overnight  in  the  Outlet,  Woodward  acquired 
between  noon  and  sunset  of  September  16,  1893,  a  population  of  five  thous- 
and; and  that  night  a  voluntary  committee  on  law  and  order  sent  around  the 
warning,  "if  you  must  shoot,  shoot  straight  up!"  While  all  lots  on  the  town- 
site  were  staked  instantly  by  the  swarming  invaders,  160-acre  homesteads  in 
the  new  county  were  less  in  demand  because  the  land  was  thought  to  be  too 
arid  for  farming.  A  week  after  the  Opening,  contrary  to  previous  experience, 
many  homesteads  had  not  been  staked  —  including  some  that  turned  out  to 
be  excellent  farms. 

Woodward  is  an  important  market  for  livestock  and  agricultural  and 
dairy  products.  From  the  county  come  milo,  kaffir,  broomcorn,  hay,  vege- 
tables, and  certain  small  fruits.  Among  the  city's  industries  are  a  chicken 
hatchery,  a  packing  plant,  an  ice  manufacturing  plant,  an  ice  cream  factory, 
a  cotton  gin  to  handle  the  product  of  some  fifteen  hundred  acres  of  fine  cotton 
land,  and  a  factory  where  fifty  dozen  brooms  are  turned  out  daily.  In  the  big 
Livestock  Sales  Pavilion,  an  average  of  $86,000  monthly  is  paid  for  the 
cattle,  horses,  mules,  and  hogs  placed  on  sale. 

At  the  northwestern  edge  of  the  city  is  the  Thurber  Earthen  Products 
Plant,  where  clay  is  mined  by  steam  shovels,  dried,  crushed,  and  shipped  as 


TOUR  12        379 

Fuller's  Earth  to  oil  refineries  for  clarifying  purposes.  Average  output  is  forty 
carloads  a  month. 

Adjoining  the  town  on  the  southwest  is  the  U.S.  Great  Plains  Field  and 
Experiment  Station,  where  on  a  tract  of  nine  hundred  acres  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  workers  are  engaged  in  studying  the  problem  of 
range  rehabilitation  and  suitable  crops  for  the  region. 

Notable  among  the  pioneer  citizens  of  Woodward  was  Temple  Houston, 
son  of  Sam  Houston  who  won  Texas  from  Mexico,  was  its  first  president,  and, 
when  Texas  became  a  state  of  the  Union,  its  first  governor.  Temple  Houston 
was  a  lawyer  specializing  in  criminal  practice  and  a  flamboyant  orator,  who 
wore  his  hair  long,  dressed  spectacularly,  and  left  a  memory  of  his  talents  and 
idiosyncracies  so  vivid  that  he  served  as  a  principal  character  in  Edna  Ferber's 
well-known  Oklahoma  story,  Cimarron. 

Right  from  Woodward  on  a  graveled  road  to  Crystal  Beach  Park  (swimming, 
boating),  1.7  m.,  a.  tract  of  246  acres,  which  includes  a  modern  airport,  a  stand  for  band 
concerts,  a  race  track,  the  scene  of  an  American  Legion  race  meet  held  July  2-4  annually, 
and  a  lake  supplied  from  an  artesian  well  that  spouts  mineral  water.  Adjoining  the  airport 
is  the  Rodeo  Arena,  where,  about  the  middle  of  September  each  year,  the  widely  known 
Elk's  rodeo  is  held.  A  concrete  grandstand  seats  six  thousand  persons. 

Contestants  and  visitors  come  to  the  rodeo  from  nearly  every  western  state.  Nowhere 
in  Oklahoma  are  such  rodeo  events  as  steer-roping,  bronco-riding,  steer -bulldogging,  and 
calf-roping  more  experdy  performed;  nowhere  will  the  visitor  see  better-trained  horses. 

Left  from  Woodward  on  a  graveled  road  to  a  junction  with  a  second  graveled  road, 
L5  m.;  R.  to  Boiling  Springs  Park  (swimtning,  cabins,  picnicking) ,  6  m.,  a  720-acre 
tract  of  woods  and  hills  on  the  north  bank  of  the  North  Canadian  River.  The  park,  named 
for  a  large  spring  that  surges  up  through  sand,  was  a  well-known  watering  place  in  pioneer 
days.  Springs  provide  water  for  a  four-acre  lake  where  a  commodious  bathhouse  has  been 
erected.  Reforestation  work,  started  here  by  CCC  workers  under  the  National  Forest  Service, 
will  be  carried  on;  a  wildlife  sanctuary  has  the  greatest  concentration  of  quail  of  any  place 
in  the  state.  There  is  a  community  meeting  house  for  tourists  and  neighborhood  groups. 

In  the  thirty  miles  southeast  of  Woodward  the  route  passes  through  the 
range  area  south  of  the  North  Canadian  River  and  enters  a  region  where 
broomcorn  is  a  valuable  crop. 

In  SEILING,  80.2  m.  (1,760  alt.,  629  pop.)  (see  Tour  4),  are  junctions 
with  US  270  (see  Tour  5)  and  US  60  (see  Tour  4),  which  unites  westward 
with  the  route  for  two  miles.  At  82  m.,  US  183  turns  sharply  south. 

A  bridge,  89.3  m.,  spans  the  South  Canadian  River,  one  of  the  quicksand- 
trapped  streams  of  western  Oklahoma  that  becomes  treacherous  in  times  of 
flood.  Before  the  day  of  bridges,  travelers  were  often  forced  to  make  long 
detours  in  order  to  find  safe  fords,  and  many  tales  are  told  of  horses  and 
wagons  that  were  lost  in  the  five  to  eight  feet  of  quicksand  in  the  river  bed. 
All  but  one  of  the  twenty-one  spans — each  sixty  feet  in  length — of  an  earlier 
bridge  were  washed  from  their  foundation  piers  by  a  flood  and  now  lie 
beneath  the  smooth  surface  of  the  sand. 

Right  from  the  bridge  on  a  dirt  road  that  parallels  the  south  bank,  to  the  Wagon- 
Road  Crossing,  12  m.,  used  by  early-day  freighters  from  Fort  Supply  to  Fort  Sill  and  as  a 
ford  for  cattle  driven  over  the  Western  Trail. 


380  OKLAHOMA 

South  for  about  forty  miles,  the  soil  is  sandy  and  shows  evidences  on  the 
slopes  of  serious  erosion. 

TALOGA,  89.8  m.  (1,708  alt.,  533  pop.),  was  made  seat  of  "D"  County 
after  the  United  States  government  survey  of  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho 
reservation  in  1891  prior  to  its  opening  in  1892  to  settlement.  The  county  did 
not  acquire  the  name  Dewey  until  after  the  battle  of  Manila  Bay  in  1898. 

On  the  south  bank  of  the  South  Canadian  River,  Taloga  is  the  central 
point  of  a  considerable  stock-farming  area.  In  the  neighborhood,  too,  are  fields 
that  lie  in  shallow  valleys  sheltered  from  the  dry,  blowing  winds  of  this  edge 
of  the  dust  bowl.  Here  is  grown  much  of  the  broomcorn  that  makes  the  region 
rank  second  in  the  state  in  the  production  of  this  staple. 

PUTNAM,  102.6  m.  (1,959  alt.,  142  pop.),  is  a  trading  point  for  farmers 
and  stockmen  whose  fields  and  pastures  lie  on  the  high  backbone  between  the 
South  Canadian  and  Washita  rivers. 

Seat  of  Custer  County,  ARAPAHO,  122.4  m.  (1,540  alt.,  401  pop.),  is 
known  locally  for  its  success  in  the  long-drawn  fight  made  by  Clinton  (see 
Tour  1),  the  metropolis  of  the  county  with  a  population  more  than  sixteen 
times  as  great,  to  gain  the  county  seat.  A  new  and  modern  county  courthouse, 
erected  as  a  WPA  project,  a  new  school  building,  and  a  new  municipal  build- 
ing testify  to  the  optimism  of  the  town's  citizens  in  the  face  of  a  7.5  per  cent 
loss  in  population  between  1930  and  1940.  Stock-raising,  wheat  farming,  and 
scattered  fields  of  alfalfa  represent  the  resources  of  the  region  surrounding  the 
town. 

In  Clinton,  126.5  m.  (1,564  alt.,  6,736  pop.),  (see  Tour  1),  is  the  junction 
with  US  66  (see  Tour  1). 

At  131  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  Mohawk  Lodge,  4  m.,  where  a  practical  and  successful  experiment 
in  preserving  the  distinctive  Indian  arts  and  crafts  of  the  Cheyennes,  Arapahoes,  and  other 
western  Plains  tribes  is  being  carried  on.  Authentic  Indian  art  work  is  for  sale  here. 

Established  in  1898  with  funds  obtained  by  Mi.  and  Mrs.  Walter  C.  Roe,  missionaries, 
working  on  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  reservation,  as  a  center  for  domestic  instruction  of 
Indian  women,  the  commodious  Lodge  building  developed  into  a  workshop  and  a  market 
center  for  the  Indians'  buckskin  work,  beadwork,  blankets,  and  basketry.  Now  (1941)  on 
a  self-supporting  basis,  the  Lodge  provides  a  market  oudet  not  only  for  the  Cheyennes  and 
Arapahoes,  but  for  the  Apaches  of  the  Fort  Sill  and  Mescalero,  New  Mexico,  bands;  the 
Northern  Cheyennes  of  Montana;  the  Navahos  of  Arizona;  and  the  Rocky  Boy  band  of 
Crees  and  Chippewas  of  Minnesota. 

CORDELL,  143.1  m.,  (1,565  alt.,  2,776  pop.),  the  center  of  a  good  farm- 
ing area,  is  the  seat  of  Washita  County,  with  its  business  district  close  about 
Courthouse  Square.  For  ten  years  after  the  opening  of  the  Cheyenne  and 
Arapaho  lands  to  setdement.  Cloud  Chief,  some  eight  miles  east  of  Cordell, 
was  the  county  seat,  but  when  the  Frisco  Railway  built  through  the  region, 
old  Cordell,  a  mile  east  of  the  present  city,  moved  to  the  rails  and  soon  became 
the  county  seat. 

Three  banks,  four  cotton  gins,  a  flour  mill  and  three  grain  elevators;  a 
well-attended  weekly  community  auction;  a  $10,000  Carnegie  Library,  built 
in  1911;  a  weekly  newspaper,  the  Beacon — these  summarize  the  activities  of 
this  center  of  a  good  cotton-growing  region. 


TOUR  12        381 

ROCKY,  153.5  m.  (1,560  alt.,  442  pop.),  grew  from  a  store  building 
made  of  rocks  hauled  to  the  railroad  by  a  trader  among  the  Kiowas.  The 
town,  named  when  a  post  ofl&ce  was  opened  in  the  store,  is  a  trading  point  for 
a  diversified  farming  region. 

At  162.7  m.  is  the  junction  with  asphalt-paved  State  9. 

Right  here  to  HOBART,  1.7  m.  (1,550  alt.,  5,177  pop.),  named  for  Vice-President 
Garrett  A.  Hobart  (1897-99).  The  seat  of  Kiowa  County,  and  known  locally  as  "The  City 
of  Iris,"  Hobart  serves  a  rich  and  highly  diversified  farming  area,  especially  along  Elk 
Creek,  two  miles  west.  Here,  on  the  opening  to  settlement  of  the  Kiowa-Comanche  lands  in 
1901,  many  Kiowa  Indians  took  their  allotments,  which  are  mostly  farmed  by  white  men. 
The  valley  lands  produce  heavy  crops  of  alfalfa,  cotton,  and  forage  grains  of  different 
varieties;  dairying  and  poultry-raising  are  also  important.  On  the  uplands  small  grains, 
kaffir  and  sorghum  crops  are  raised;  and  the  pastures  support  many  catde  and  sheep.  Initial 
development  of  a  shallow  (1,000  to  1,100  feet)  oil  field  near  Hobart  has  indicated  a  con- 
siderable productive  area. 

The  city  centers  around  Courthouse  Square,  on  which  face  a  modern  Federal  Build- 
ing and  the  Carnegie  Library;  and  four  blocks  north  is  the  Kiowa  County  High  School- 
JuMiOR  College  Building,  with  its  attractive  campus  and  athletic  field.  At  the  southeastern 
corner  of  the  city,  where  the  tracks  of  the  Rock  Island  and  Frisco  railroads  cross,  are  cotton 
gins,  compresses,  and  an  oil  mill.  Near  by  are  stock  feeding  pens. 

Named  in  honor  of  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt  by  a  man  who  served 
with  the  Rough  Riders  in  the  Spanish-American  War,  ROOSEVELT,  174.6 
m.  ( 1,460  alt.,  744  pop.),  is  a  farm  supply  point  on  a  branch  of  Otter  Creek. 

MOUNTAIN  PARK,  186.8  m.  (1,376  alt.,  441  pop.),  is  dependent  on 
granite  quarrying  and  farm  crops  from  the  near-by  Otter  Creek  valley.  Here, 
in  the  shade  of  the  trees  fringing  the  creek,  "singing  conventions"  are  held  in 
summer  by  setders  from  Kansas  and  Texas.  These  are  all-day  Sunday  meet- 
ings at  which  only  religious  songs  are  sung.  Picnic  lunches  are  brought  along, 
and  if  the  weather  is  bad  the  meeting  is  held  in  a  near-by  church. 

At  Mountain  Park  is  told  the  story  of  Anton  Sarekup,  a  Bohemian-born 
citizen,  who  arrived  in  1915  and  bought  160  acres  of  land  ostensibly  for 
farming,  though  most  of  it  lay  on  the  rugged  slopes  of  Mount  Radziminski 
and  was  fit  only  for  goat-raising.  Anton,  therefore,  acquired  goats;  and  from 
time  to  time  bought  more  of  the  mountain — as  he  said,  for  pasture.  When 
he  had  title  to  the  whole  mountain,  he  wired  a  fellow  Bohemian,  Frank 
Svobada,  a  granite-finisher  of  Omaha,  Nebraska,  who  had  financed  the  pur- 
chase. Svobada  soon  began  extensive  exploitation  of  the  enormous  granite 
pile  that  is  Mount  Radziminski;  as  many  as  five  hundred  granite-cutters  have 
been  employed. 

A  thirty-acre  municipal  park,  containing  a  swimming  pool  (free)  made 
by  damming  Otter  Creek,  offers  fine  picnic  and  recreational  facilities. 

Right  from  Mountain  Park  on  a  series  of  unimproved  roads:  R.  at  4  m.,  L.  at  5  m., 
R.  at  6  m.,  L.  at  7  m.,  L.  at  12  m.,  and  R.  at  13  m.,  a  short  distance  to  the  Wilbur  Miller 
farmhouse  (L).  Left  here  on  a  road  through  the  farmyard  to  a  Giant  Pecan  Tree,  13.5  m. 
on  the  north  bank  of  the  North  Fork  of  Red  River.  So  far  as  is  known,  this  pecan  tree  is  the 
largest  of  its  kind  in  the  world;  it  is  thirty  feet  in  circumference  six  inches  above  the  ground 
and  more  than  130  feet  high. 

The  Site  of  Camp  Radziminski  (R)  is  on  the  southeast  bank  of  Otter 
Creek  between  Mountain  Park  and  Snyder.  The  camp  was  established  in  1858 


382  OKLAHOMA 

by  Captain  Earl  Van  Dorn  and  named  for  a  lieutenant  of  his  regiment  who 
had  lately  died.  It  was  from  this  palisaded  camp  that  Van  Dorn  moved  his 
troops  to  attack  the  Comanches  near  the  site  of  Rush  Springs  (see  Tour  11). 
With  the  construction  of  Fort  Cobb  (see  Tour  3)  in  1859,  Camp  Radziminski 
was  abandoned  by  the  United  States  troops  and  occupied  immediately  by  a 
body  of  Texas  Rangers,  who  remained  there  for  more  than  a  year  patrolling 
the  border  and  indulging  in  skirmishes  with  the  Indians.  In  recent  years, 
many  hundreds  of  credulous  visitors  have  come  to  the  site  of  the  camp  seeking 
for  buried  Spanish  treasure. 

SNYDER,  189.3  m.  (1,360  alt.,  1,278  pop.)  (see  Tour  3).  is  at  the  junc- 
tion with  US  62  (see  Tour  3). 

In  MANITOU,  200.5  m.  (1,254  alt.,  258  pop.)  is  a  ten-acre  park  with  a 
swimming  pool  (free). 

At  207.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  the  Hollomam  Gravel  Pit,  0.3  m.,  on  the  Holloman  Farm.  The 
pit  covers  three  acres,  but  the  formation  is  far  more  extensive.  Here  have  been  found  clay 
balls  inside  of  which,  say  local  reporters,  were  living  frogs.  Bones  of  prehistoric  animals  and 
stone  age  implements  have  also  been  taken  from  the  pit. 

FREDERICK,  208.4  m.  (1,289  alt.,  5,109  pop.),  seat  of  Tillman  County, 
was  one  of  the  towns  that  came  into  existence  when  the  Kiowa-Comanche 
reservation  was  opened  to  settlement  in  1901.  Hard  durum  wheat  and  cotton 
are  the  staples  of  the  good  farming  region  surrounding  Frederick.  Two  cot- 
ton compresses  with  a  combined  capacity  of  forty-five  thousand  bales  a 
season;  a  cottonseed  oil  mill  that  operates  ten  months  in  the  year;  seven  gins; 
and  a  cottonseed  delinting  plant  help  to  account  for  the  city's  aspect  of  pros- 
perity. Wide,  well-kept  streets,  substantial  homes,  churches,  and  excellent 
schools  characterize  the  city.  A  Carnegie  Library,  with  more  than  eight 
thousand  volumes,  a  business  college,  a  floodlighted  football  stadium,  and 
a  swimming  pool  are  in  the  town.  Near  the  city  is  Burts  Lake  (fishing,  swim- 
ming, boating,  and  picnicking). 

In  November,  Frederick  is  host  to  an  annual  Cotton  Carnival,  to  which 
visitors  from  all  the  big  southwestern  cotton-growing  areas  come. 

The  city  points  with  pride  to  a  sixteen-year  record  of  no  ad  valorem  taxes 
for  municipal  purposes.  It  is  supported  by  revenues  from  city-owned  public 
utilities  which  maintain  lower  rates  for  light  and  power  than  the  Federal 
Power  Commission's  average  for  the  state. 

It  was  from  Frederick  that  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  started  on 
April  8,  1905,  on  a  wolf  hunt  that  became  famous  because  Jack  Abernathy,  a 
young  ranchman  of  the  region,  caught  a  coyote  with  his  bare  hands  and 
Roosevelt  wrote  about  the  feat.  Later,  after  leaving  his  job  as  United  States 
marshal,  Abernathy  repeated  his  coyote-catching  stunt  for  the  movies. 

In  the  A.  H.  Holloman  home,  421  North  12th  Street,  is  a  Collection 
OF  Fossils  and  Stone  Implements  (open  by  appointment)  taken  from  the 
Holloman  Gravel  Pit. 

DAVIDSON,  220.5  m.  (1,160  alt.,  507  pop.),  called  Texawa  at  its  found- 
ing on  the  opening  of  the  Kiowa-Comanche  reservation,  is  a  farm  community. 


\ 


TOUR  12        383 

At  222.2  m.,  US  183  crosses  a  bridge  over  the  Red  River,  the  Texas  Line, 
sixteen  miles  northeast  of  Vernon,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


^\D/i'< jjD/f2 jjOifj , jj()^2 ^, jj()^2 >  - ^^"J. .  - ^^"J. .  - s^^^Zi 


Tour  13 


(Englewood,  Kans.) — Arnett — Sayre — Altus — (Vernon,  Tex.),  US  283. 
Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  204.9  m. 

Roadbed  mostly  graveled;  intermittent  stretches  of  paving  and  improved  dirt. 

No  railway  parallels  this  route;  busses  between  Mangum  and  Altus,  and  between  Altus  and 

Vernon,  Texas. 

Accommodations  in  the  larger  towns. 

Except  for  a  small  area  toward  the  southern  end,  US  283  crosses  high 
level  upland.  It  serves  a  "dust  bowl"  area,  where  the  hot  winds  blow  and  the 
light  soil  is  carried  away.  It  penetrates  the  former  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho 
country  and  comes  near  the  timbered  breaks  of  the  Washita  where  the  mas- 
sacre of  Black  Kettle's  band  in  the  dawn  of  a  freezing  winter  day  helped  to 
establish  the  military  glory  of  General  Custer.  In  its  southern  section,  US  283 
crosses  the  once-disputed  Greer  County,  which  was  joined  to  Oklahoma  after 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  decided  it  was  not  in  Texas. 

With  the  boundary  dispute  settled,  this  arid  section  of  the  state  is  intent 
on  the  greater  problems  of  water  supply  and  reforestation;  and  generous 
Federal  help  is  promised.  x\mong  a  number  of  irrigation  projects  planned  for 
the  western  half  of  Oklahoma  is  the  Altus-Lugert  reservoir,  which  will  cover 
some  fifteen  thousand  acres  and  supply  water  for  seventy  thousand  acres  of 
semiarid  land. 

More  general,  and  less  cosdy,  are  the  shelter-belt  plantings  in  the  region 
through  which  US  283  passes.  Here,  in  the  five  years  1935-40,  an  aggregate  of 
2,500  miles  of  ten-row  belts  were  planted  on  more  than  four  thousand  farms. 
As  worked  out  in  this  area,  a  cross  section  of  a  ten-row  shelter  belt  shows 
successive  rows  of  shrubs,  cedars,  pines;  then  larger  semipermanent  growths 
like  nut  trees,  hackberry,  ash,  catalpa,  American  elm;  and  finally  four  rows 
of  fast  growing  trees  for  early  protection,  such  as  honey  locust  and  black 
locust,  Chinese  elm,  coffee  trees,  cottonwood,  Osage  orange,  and  Russian 
olive.  Sometimes  flowering  willow,  walnut,  and  other  varieties  are  used.  The 
species  chosen  is  determined  by  the  soil,  and  no  planting  is  done  in  soil  where 
there  is  slight  chance  for  the  trees  to  survive. 

In  the  agreement  between  the  United   States  Forest   Service  and  the 


384  OKLAHOMA 

farmer,  it  is  required  that  the  trees  be  cultivated  until  they  grow  big  enough 
to  shade-kill  weeds.  The  percentage  of  survivals  of  planted  trees  in  the  Okla- 
homa section  of  the  shelter  belt  has  exceeded  65,  even  in  the  drought  years 
1935-37.  Under  favorable  conditions,  fast-growing  trees  reach  a  height  of  ten 
feet  within  a  year,  and  twenty-four  feet  in  three  years.  At  that  stage,  they 
serve  effectively  to  lift  most  of  the  searing  winds  above  the  level  of  planted 
crops. 

Three  miles  south  of  Englewood,  Kansas,  US  283  crosses  the  KANSAS 
LINE,  0  m. 

At  12.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  which  unites  east- 
ward with  the  route  for  4.5  miles. 

ROSSTON,  14  m.  (2,139  alt.,  143  pop.),  a  small  farming  community,  lies 
entirely  to  the  right  of  the  highway. 

At  16.7  m.  is  the  eastern  junction  with  US  64;  US  283  turns  sharply 
south. 

LA  VERNE,  23.8  m.  (2,104  alt.,  816  pop.),  is  in  the  productive  valley  of 
the  Beaver  River,  the  trading  point  for  ranchmen,  and  for  farmers  who 
har\'est  wheat,  alfalfa,  wild  hay,  broomcorn,  and  sorghum  crops.  A  beginning 
has  been  made  in  this  region  in  irrigation  from  underground  water  sources 
that  lie  only  a  little  way  beneath  the  surface. 

At  29.9  tn.  is  the  junction  with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

SHATTUCK,  54.1  m.  (2,237  alt.,  1,275  pop.),  was  setded  in  1904  by 
descendants  of  German-Russians  who  first  came  to  the  United  States  in  the 
1870's  and  settled  chiefly  in  Nebraska.  Originally  German,  the  group  lived 
for  a  century  in  Russia  where  it  enjoyed  freedom  from  taxation  and  military 
service.  When  these  advantages  ended,  the  German-Russians  emigrated  to 
America.  The  Shattuck  pioneers  first  engaged  in  general  farming,  but  more 
recently  broomcorn  has  been  a  principal  crop. 

At  63.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4),  which  unites  eastward 
with  US  283  for  6.6  miles. 

ARNETT,  69.9  m.  (2,560  alt.,  529  pop.)  (see  Tour  4). 

At  70.5  m.,  US  283  again  turns  abruptly  south. 

At  82.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  is  GRAND,  1.5  m.,  a  ghost  town  whose  broad  unpaved  main  street 
was  once  busy  with  the  traffic  of  farmers  and  merchants.  In  the  first  World  War,  when  the 
price  of  wheat  rose  to  $2.00  and  more  per  bushel,  the  land  around  Grand  was  broken  and 
seeded,  and  a  prosperous  community  grew  up.  But  as  wheat  prices  declined  and  the  soil 
blew  away,  farmers  were  starved  out,  and  the  town  ceased  to  have  any  reason  for  existence. 
Its  vacant  buildings  are  weather-beaten,  and  their  foundations  banked  with  great  drifts  of 
sand. 

South  of  Grand,  across  the  South  Canadian  River,  arc  the  ANTELOPE  HILLS,  six 
conspicuous,  irregular  gypsum  peaks  that  rise  out  of  the  level  plain.  The  river  loops  around 
the  northern  edge  of  the  hills,  and  on  its  bank  grow  scattered  trees  and  sparse  vegetation. 
From  the  top  of  the  hills  there  is  a  panoramic  view  of  the  countryside. 

CHEYENNE,  108  m.  (1,932  alt.,  1,070  pop.),  came  into  existence  when 
the  Federal  government  established  a  Cheyenne  Indian  agency  there  in  1891, 
a  year  before  the  reservation  was  opened  to  settlement. 


TOUR  13        385 

Right  from  Cheyenne  on  a  road  extending  from  Main  Street  to  a  junction  with  an 
improved  dirt  road,  1  m.;  R.  to  a  second  junction  at  1.5  m.;  R.  here  to  a  granite  marker 
(R),  1.8  m.,  which  commemorates  the  Battle  of  the  Washita.  In  the  bitter  winter  of 
1868,  General  George  A.  Custer  (see  Tour  3A),  later  killed  by  the  Sioux  in  the  Custer 
Massacre,  led  his  cavalry  some  seventy  miles  from  Fort  Supply  (see  Tour  12)  to  the  Washita 
River,  and  in  the  night  closed  in  on  three  sides  of  a  Cheyenne  Indian  encampment  under 
Chief  Black  Ketde.  At  dawn  he  charged  and  scattered  the  totally  unprepared  Indians;  his 
troopers  killed  and  wounded  some  two  hundred  men,  women,  and  children,  with  negligible 
losses  to  his  own  command. 

SAYRE,  130.3  m.  (1,810  alt.,  3,037  pop.)  (see  Tour  1),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  66  (see  Tour  1),  which  unites  southward  briefly  with  US  283, 

WILLOW,  151.4  m.  (1,735  alt.,  248  pop.),  was  named  for  Will  O'Con- 
nell,  the  town's  first  settler  and  postmaster.  It  lies  within  a  cotton  producing 
area,  and  some  four  thousand  bales  are  ginned  here  annually. 

BRINKMAN,  154.4  m.  (1,694  alt.,  164  pop.),  established  in  1910  on  the 
line  of  the  Wichita  Falls  and  Northwestern  Railway  (now  the  Missouri- 
Kansas-Texas)  and  first  named  Kell,  for  an  official  of  the  road,  changed  its 
name  to  honor  a  man  who  helped  to  finance  the  townsite.  It  is  said  that  more 
wheat  is  shipped  from  Brinkman  than  from  all  the  other  markets  in  Greer 
County  combined,  and  that  from  three  to  five  thousand  bales  of  cotton  are 
ginned  yearly. 

Right  from  Brinkman  on  an  unimproved  dirt  road  to  the  town  of  Jester,  12  m.  (pop. 
550);  L.  here,  through  a  pasture,  to  a  Natural  Cave,  15.5  m.,  on  a  creek  bank.  Only  par- 
tially explored,  the  cave  is  believed  to  extend  for  miles.  A  few  hundred  feet  from  the 
entrance  the  ceiling  is  low,  and  water  prevents  further  advance.  The  cave  is  a  refuge  for 
rabbits  and  other  small  animals,  and  at  dusk  myriads  of  bats  fly  out  on  their  nighdy  quest 
for  insects. 

At  159.7  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  northern  junction  with  asphalt- 
paved  State  9. 

Left  on  State  9  in  GRANITE,  7  m.  (1,618  alt.,  1,058  pop.),  the  center  of  a  quarrying 
industry.  The  main  streets  of  the  town  end  abrupdy  against  a  towering  cliff  of  granite. 

The  State  Reformatory,  8.2  m.,  is  for  first  offenders  who,  because  of  their  youth, 
are  not  confined  to  a  penitentiary.  Inside  the  sixteen-foot  walls  of  rough-hewn  granite  is  the 
ten-acre  tract  on  which  the  five  large  buildings  of  the  prison  stand — cell  blocks,  workshops, 
and  offices.  Outside  the  walls  near  the  highway  are  cottages  and  a  two-story  lodging  house 
for  the  accommodation  of  officials  and  employees.  An  adjoining  farm 'of  twelve  hundred 
acres  is  worked  by  the  inmates. 

State  9  unites  southward  with  US  283  to  161.9  m. 

Right  on  State  9,  a  graveled  road,  is  REED,  11  m.  (1,744  alt.,  125  pop.);  L.  from  Reed 
on  an  unimproved  dirt  road  to  Cave  Creek,  2.5  m.  Along  the  banks  are  many  tunnels  and 
grottoes  known  locally  as  the  Bat  Caves  because  of  the  thousands  of  bats  that  emerge  after 
sunset.  One  cavern  with  a  six-foot  high  ceiling  can  be  penetrated  for  half  a  mile.  It  is  neces- 
sary, of  course,  to  carry  a  lantern  or  flashlight  in  the  cave. 

Jay  Buckle  Springs,  14  m.,  was  an  early-day  camp  site  of  the  Kiowa  Indians;  and 
after  statehood  became  a  watering  place  for  ranchmen.  The  springs  supply  people  living 
within  a  radius  of  five  miles. 

At  23  m.  is  VINSON,  (1,883  alt.,  188  pop.),  a  small  back-roads  town;  R.  from  Vin- 
son on  a  dirt  road  is  the  Natur.al  Bridge,  26.4  m.,  a  great  rock  formadon  nearly  one  hun- 


386  OKLAHOMA 

dred  feet  hij^h,  that  overlooks  an  area  pitted  with  rock  caves.  Many  of  the  caves  contain 
springs,  and  the  water  keeps  the  interior  cool  on  the  hottest  day. 

MANGUM,  162.9  m.  (1,588  alt.,  4,193  pop.),  was  named  for  Captain 
A.  S.  Mangum,  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  townsite  in  what  was  then  known 
as  Greer  County,  Texas. 

Greer  County,  so  long  a  disputed  territory,  was  reorganized  in  1860  under 
an  act  of  the  Texas  legislature  signed  by  Governor  Sam  Houston.  In  1881, 
after  the  lands  of  Greer  County  had  been  apportioned,  one-half  to  the  schools 
of  Texas  and  the  rest  to  the  service  of  the  state  debt,  certain  veterans  of  the 
war  for  Texas  independence  were  given  land  here.  By  1884,  Mangum,  H.  C. 
Sweet,  and  J.  R.  Crouch  had  come  in  against  the  wishes  of  cattlemen  who  used 
the  ranges.  The  issue  was  raised  that  the  county  was  not  Texas  land,  but  was 
in  fact  a  part  of  Indian  Territory.  When  Oklahoma  Territory  was  created  in 
1890,  however,  Greer  County  was  not  included;  not  until  1896  was  the  issue 
finally  settled  by  a  decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  Meanwhile, 
the  governor  of  Texas  succeeded  in  getting  the  Federal  government  to  recog- 
nize the  titles  of  the  Texas  veterans  to  the  townsite  of  Mangum. 

The  city  is  the  center  of  a  large  farming  district  lying  between  the  Red 
River  and  the  North  Fork  of  the  Red  River. 

At  175.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  graveled  State  44. 

Left  on  State  44,  across  the  North  Fork  of  Red  River,  1.7  m. 

Left  at  this  point,  0.5  m.,  on  a  graveled  road  is  the  entrance  to  QUARTZ  MOUN- 
TAIN STATE  PARK  (fishing,  swimming  and  picnicking  facilities,  overnight  cabins), 
closed  temporarily,  under  lease  (1941)  to  the  United  States  Reclamation  Service  for  the 
building  of  a  $5,500,000  dam  south  of  the  present  Lake  Altus  dam  across  the  North  Fork. 
The  new  construction  will  impound  water  for  irrigation. 

This  park  is  a  3,300-acre  tract  broken  by  red  granite  and  quartz  hills  and  ledges 
varying  in  height  from  six  hundred  to  eight  hundred  feet;  the  slopes  are  covered  with  great 
lichen-crusted  boulders.  There  are  five  miles  of  graveled  roads,  and  the  hillsides  are  covered 
with  live  oak,  white  oak,  pin  oak,  mesquite,  and  cedar.  In  early  spring,  rcdbud  trees  make 
a  fine  showing.  The  park  is  a  bird  refuge  and  shelters  quail,  blue  jays,  redbirds,  mocking- 
birds, and  many  other  species  native  to  the  state. 

Lake  Altus  and  Lugert  Dam,  within  the  park,  provide  the  water  supply  for  the  city 
of  Altus  (see  Tour  3).  The  dam  is  458  feet  long,  and  37  feet  high.  A  tunnel  under  it  runs 
from  bank  to  bank  of  the  North  Fork. 

At  4  m.  on  State  44  is  LUGERT,  a  town  with  only  a  half-dozen  houses  and  a  grain 
elevator  clustered  about  the  small  red  station  of  the  Santa  Fe.  South  of  Lugert,  at  the  mouth 
of  Devil's  Canyon,  early  Spanish  explorers,  according  to  legend,  established  a  settlement 
from  which  they  carried  on  extensive  gold-mining  operations  in  the  Wichita  Mountains. 
The  story  is  that  they  were  driven  out  by  hostile  Indians,  who  herded  them  all  into  a 
near-by  canyon  and  slaughtered  them.  Ruins  of  the  adobe  houses  and  copper  and  iron 
implements  and  artifacts  tend  to  confirm  the  tale  of  Spanish  gold  diggers.  Quantities  of 
human  bones  have  been  uncovered  in  the  valley. 

BLAIR,  180.3  m.  (1,462  alt.,  570  pop.),  is  known  as  the  litde  town  in 
the  Oklahoma  cotton  and  alfalfa  belt  that  survived  a  tornado  in  1928  and 
eleven  subsequent  years  of  depression  caused  by  ruinously  low  prices  for 
cotton  and  crop  failures,  and  then  came  back  stronger  than  ever.  This  re- 
covery has  been  due  to  intelligent  diversification  of  crops  and  improvements 
of  livestock  on  the  surrounding  farms.  Blair's  modern  brick  schoolhouse  has 


A 


Tour  13        387 

a  capacity  of  four  hundred  grade  and  high  school  students,  and  the  school  dis- 
trict is  almost  free  of  debt.  The  town  is  in  the  newly  formed  Lugert-Altus 
irrigation  district  to  be  supplied  from  the  new  dam  across  the  North  Fork. 

ALTUS,  189.9  m.  ( 1,389  alt.,  8,593  pop.)  (see  Tour  3),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  62  (see  Tour  3). 

South  of  Altus,  US  283  traverses  an  almost  level  plain  for  ten  miles.  Here 
the  fields  are  plowed  along  contour  lines  to  prevent  excessive  washing  away 
of  the  soil;  and  the  distant  ends  of  the  contour  ridges  meet  the  horizon.  South 
of  these  fields  lie  sandy,  badly  eroded  bottom  lands.  Just  before  Red  River 
is  reached,  are  irregular  mounds  (L)  of  blown  sand  on  which  grow  scrub 
cedar  and  desert  weeds. 

US  283  crosses  Red  River,  204.9  m.,  which  at  this  point  is  a  narrow  stream 
formerly  called  Prairie  Dog  Town  Fork,  over  a  bridge  twenty  miles  north  of 
Vernon,  Texas  (see  Texas  Guide) . 


t<!l),1;> ^!)/1J ^ jjO/fJ ^!j/1J ^, jjD/t» , j^l)^2 ^  , jS''^2 >  , Ej% 


Tour  14 


(Sedan,  Kans.)  —  Hominy  —  Drumright  —  Ada  —  Tishomingo  (Denison, 

Tex.);  State  99. 

Kansas  Line  to  Texas  Line,  246.2  m. 

Roadbed  alternately  paved  and  graveled. 

The  Santa  Fe  Railway  parallels  the  route  between  Bigheart  and  Pawhuska,  and  between 

Madill  and  Woodville;  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad  between  Wynona  and  Hallet; 

the  Oklahoma  City-Ada-Atoka  Railway  between  Konawa  and  Ada. 

Accommodations  at  frequent  intervals. 

Starting  in  the  Osage  Indian  country  and  touching  every  phase  of  that 
tribe's  comparatively  brief  experience  in  their  present  location,  this  route 
passes  successively  through  the  former  Creek,  Sac  and  Fox,  Shawnee,  Pota- 
watomi,  Seminole,  and  Chickasaw  reservations.  It  is  edged  by  missions  and 
churches,  some  still  existent  and  some  merely  ruins  and  sites,  erected  by 
zealous  friends  of  the  exiled  races  for  their  consolation  and  education. 

Agriculturally,  this  highway  from  Kansas  to  Texas  is  typically  Okla- 
homan.  First,  pasture  and  livestock,  then  corn  and  wheat,  then  orchards  and 
wild  pecan  groves  and  fields  of  peanuts;  then  cotton.  It  is  oil-smeared  at  inter- 
vals throughout  its  course  in  Oklahoma.  In  the  northern  third  of  State  99's 
course,  it  splits  the  first  large-area  oil  pool  developed  in  Oklahoma,  beginning 


388  OKLAHOMA 

in  1912,  and  toward  its  southern  extremity  bisects  the  last  of  such  extensive 
fields  to  be  opened  up  (1934). 

From  rolling  bluestem  upland  pasture  land,  State  99  passes  to  fertile 
river  bottoms,  mounts  again  to  prairie  ridges,  winds  through  wooded  hills 
where  the  traveler  may  still  see  little  log  cabins  built  by  Indians,  and  emerges 
on  the  bank  of  Red  River  ( 1941 )  at  a  point  that  will  be  many  feet  under  water 
when  the  Denison  Dam  project  (see  Tour  6)  is  completed  (perhaps  in  1944). 

This  tour  might  be  termed  a  panoramic  view  of  Oklahoma  at  work. 

State  99  crosses  the  KANSAS  LINE,  0  m.,  8.2  miles  south  of  Sedan, 
Kansas  (see  Kansas  Guide). 

CANEY  RIVER,  2.2  m,  drains  broad  rich  bottoms  that  produce  abun- 
dant crops  of  corn. 

At  4.5  m.  the  route  crosses  Pond  Creek,  a  small  tributary  of  the  Caney; 
local  legend  has  it  that  one  of  the  last  funeral  parties  sent  out  by  the  Osages 
in  search  of  a  scalp  to  bury  with  a  dead  warrior  came  upon  two  loggers  in  camp 
here.  Jack  Wimberly  and  Al  Gifford.  The  Osages  were  not  interested  in 
Wimberly's  red  hair  but  craved  a  bit  of  Gifford's  scalp,  and  offered  him 
twenty  ponies  for  a  narrow  strip  just  above  the  forehead.  Gifford,  of  course, 
refused  to  deal  with  them,  whereupon  they  took  the  strip  by  force — and  next 
morning  the  twenty  ponies  were  duly  delivered. 

The  settlement  of  BIGHEART,  10.2  m.  (832  alt.,  13  pop.),  once  an 
Indian  trading  center,  was  named  for  an  Osage  chief,  James  Bigheart.  Only 
three  or  four  houses  and  a  small  store  remain.  This  is  a  region  of  upland 
limetsone  where  grass  is  good;  and  in  the  big  summer  pastures  of  ranchmen 
who  lease  from  the  Osages  range  herds  of  graded  Hereford  cattle. 

Beyond  ROCK  CREEK,  13.2  m..  the  rounded  hills  rise  beside  the  high- 
way in  rugged  ledges  sparsely  clothed  by  scrub  oaks.  This  nearly  worthless 
timber  and  the  scant  grass  coverage  have  caused  this  section  to  be  called  the 
"strip  range." 

At  20.2  m.  the  highway  begins  its  descent  to  the  Sand  Creek  bottoms  that 
lie  under  the  shadow  of  a  range  of  hills.  Among  the  pecan  and  persimmon 
trees  that  flourish  in  the  sandy  loam  were  camps  of  the  old  "Thieves  Path," 
overnight  stopping  places  in  the  1890's  for  men  who  had  stolen  horses  in 
Texas  and  were  driving  them  to  Kansas  for  sale. 

At  20.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  60  (see  Tour  4),  with  which  State 
99  unites  southward  to  PAWHUSKA,  26.5  m.  (885  alt.,  5,443  pop.)  (see 
Tour  4). 

The  center  of  a  shallow  oil  field,  WYNONA,  35.9  m.  (887  alt.,  810  pop.), 
is  one  of  the  smaller  boom  towns  that  shrank  after  the  peak  of  development 
had  passed. 

Wynona  is  at  the  approximate  center  of  the  old  Osage  Indian  culture, 
and  for  a  long  time  ancient  customs  and  rites  could  best  be  studied  there.  One 
of  these,  the  "Sending  Away  the  Spirit,"  was  held  the  fourth  day  after  the 
death  of  a  warrior  at  a  selected  tree,  the  bark  of  which  was  cut  away  by  the 
master  of  ceremonies  and  the  surviving  warriors.  When  the  tree  trunk  stood 
bare  it  was  stained  red  and,  as  a  symbol  of  the  spirit  of  the  dead  man,  was 
bidden  to  travel  with  the  God  of  Day  on  its  endless  journey. 


TOUR  14        389 

Another  ceremony  for  the  dead  warrior  took  place  on  the  return  of  the 
war  party  to  the  town.  Within  sight  and  sound  of  the  tepees,  they  sat  down 
in  a  circle  and  began  to  wail  for  their  lost  companion.  Then  from  the  town 
came  the  master  of  ceremonies  and  the  people;  and  in  the  smoke  of  fragrant 
cedar  boughs  the  warriors,  their  cast-aside  clothes,  weapons,  saddles — even 
their  horses — were  purified.  All  their  discarded  property  was  then  distributed 
to  those  of  the  three  clans  of  the  Osages  who  took  part  in  the  rites.  As  a  final 
precaution,  the  returning  warriors  marched  in  procession  around  the  encamp- 
ment in  order  to  establish  a  line  across  which  the  spirit  of  death  could  not  pass. 

Near  Wynona,  at  the  end  of  October  or  the  beginning  of  November, 
usually  occurs  the  annual  wolf  hunt,  which  lasts  four  or  five  days.  Organized 
by  dog  owners,  it  is  primarily  a  field  trial  for  wolf  dogs,  and  from  seventy-five 
to  one  hundred  owners  enter  an  average  of  125  contestants.  Five  mounted 
judges  follow  the  dogs,  which  are  sent  out  to  start  a  wolf  at  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  Dog  owners  and  visitors  camp  out  during  the  trials,  and  at 
night  bench  shows,  fiddlers'  tourneys,  and  cow-horn  blowing  contests  are 
held.  About  the  same  time  of  year  a  country-wide  hunt,  starting  from  a  point 
ten  miles  west  of  Wynona,  is  undertaken  by  ranchmen  and  farmers  to  rid  the 
ranges  and  pastures  of  coyotes  that  kill  calves  and  sheep. 

At  45.4  m.  is  an  Osage  Indian  Graveyard  (R),  where  American  flags 
wave  on  tall  poles  set  up  at  the  graves.  It  is  said  that  this  custom  dates  from  the 
death  in  1845  of  a  leader  called  Tom  Big  Chief,  who  wished  to  be  so  honored; 
it  was  generally  adopted  after  1873,  when  the  custom  of  raising  the  scalp  of 
an  enemy  on  a  pole  was  renounced.  According  to  local  history,  the  last  scalp 
so  exhibited  was  that  of  a  Wichita  Indian  chief,  and  its  taking  all  but  pre- 
cipitated war  between  the  tribes.  Gifts  by  the  government  of  flags  to  be  dis- 
played at  the  graves  of  tribal  members  who  fell  in  the  Spanish-American  War 
and  the  first  World  War  further  encouraged  the  flag  practice.  Tattered  flags 
are  replaced  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  After  the  coming  of  oil  riches  to  the  tribe, 
many  pretentious  monuments  were  placed  in  this  cemetery. 

Established  as  a  subagency  for  the  Osages  in  1874,  HOMINY,  46.5  m. 
(780  alt.,  3,267  pop.),  became  a  trading  point  for  the  Indians  who  lived  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  reservation.  These,  according  to  legend,  are  descendants 
of  the  Dwellers  in  the  Upland  Forest;  that  is,  the  people  who  fled  into  a  forest 
a  long  time  ago  from  a  great  flood.  Others  sought  safety  on  a  hill,  and  became 
known  as  Dwellers  on  the  Hilltop,  whose  modern  center  is  Gray  Horse  (see 
Tour  4),  in  the  western  part  of  Osage  County;  a  third  band,  caught  in  flight 
among  thorn  trees,  earned  the  title  of  Dwellers  in  the  Thorny  Thickets,  and 
Pawhuska  (see  Tour  4)  is  their  central  town. 

Oil  wealth  is  almost  wholly  responsible  for  this  modern,  predominantly 
Indian  town,  with  its  municipal  hospital,  twenty-acre  recreational  park, 
municipally  owned  power,  light,  and  water  plants,  country  club  and  nine-hole 
golf  course,  floodlighted  baseball  park,  eleven-acre  athletic  field.  National 
Guard  Armory  for  Battery  D,  160th  Field  Artillery,  and  good  schools.  A 
cottonseed-oil  plant,  gin,  feed  mill,  hatchery,  poultry  farm,  stockyards,  and 
feeding  pens  for  fattening  beef  animals  indicate  its  industrial  status. 

Veterans  of  the  first  World  War  observe  Armistice  Day  at  the  cere- 


390  OKLAHOMA 

monial  Roundhouse  in  the  old  Indian  section  of  Hominy  with  a  ceremony 
called  the  Feast  of  Peace.  In  deference  to  the  elders  of  the  tribe,  it  is  conducted 
in  the  Osage  tongue.  The  roundhouse  is  also  the  scene  of  various  other  tribal 
rites,  dances,  and  feasts  during  the  year. 

Between  Hominy  and  Cleveland,  State  99  winds  among  rugged  wooded 
hills,  though  nowhere  is  the  grade  of  the  highway  steep. 

CLEVELAND,  56.3  m..  (740  alt.,  2,510  pop.)  (see  Tour  2),  is  at  the 
junction  with  US  64  (see  Tour  2),  with  which  State  99  is  united  for  si.x  miles 
westward. 

At  63.3  m.,  State  99  turns  sharply  south  (L). 

A  small  town  that  had  a  brief  boom  due  to  oil,  HALLETT,  66.3  m. 
(740  alt.,  159  pop.),  is  a  trading  point  for  a  farm  community. 

On  the  George  Fleming  Farm,  68.2  m.,  are  hundreds  of  evergreen  trees 
fantastically  trimmed  to  simulate  dogs,  horses,  deer,  household  and  other 
objects. 

JENNINGS,  69.7  m.  (918  alt.,  453  pop.),  in  the  former  Cherokee  Oudet, 
is  near  the  northern  edge  of  the  old  Creek.  Nation  and  was  named  for  the 
allotee  on  whose  land  the  town  was  built. 

In  the  triangle  formed  by  State  99  and  the  Arkansas  and  Cimarron  rivers, 
which  unite  twenty  miles  east  of  Jennings,  lie  heavily  wooded,  rugged  hills, 
steep  gullies,  creek  bottoms,  and  natural  caves  that  became  the  refuge  of  such 
bank-robbing  oudaws  as  the  Daltons,  the  Doolins,  Matt  Kimes,  Wilbur 
Underbill,  and  Ray  Terrill,  well  known  to  the  people  who  lived  there.  As  a 
matter  of  policy  the  outlaws  refrained  from  committing  local  robberies. 

The  Cimarron  River  is  crossed  just  north  of  OILTON,  77  m.  (818  alt., 
1,225  pop.).  This  town  marks  the  approximate  northern  limit  of  the  famous 
Gushing  Field  that  in  1912  and  for  a  number  of  years  thereafter  made  this  the 
richest  field  in  the  world.  It  is  still  (1941)  an  important  gasoline  shipping 
point,  some  two  thousand  cars  annually  being  sent  out.  The  first  river-bed  oil 
well  in  Oklahoma  was  drilled  in  the  near-by  Cimarron. 

The  site  of  Oilton  was  a  cornfield  in  1915  when  it  was  platted  as  the  oil 
boom  was  reaching  its  crest.  Lots  sold  at  first  for  $500  each,  and  within  a  week 
one  hundred  houses  had  been  erected.  Owners  of  lots  on  Main  Street  boosted 
their  asking  price  to  $4,000,  which  seemed  excessive  even  to  the  most  opti- 
mistic businessmen.  So  buyers  sought  lots  a  block  north,  and  there  further 
development  centered.  On  what  was  meant  to  be  the  principal  street  there 
remains  only  one  crumbling  stone  business  building  that  once  housed  a  drug- 
store. 

South  of  Oilton,  State  99  climbs  to  the  backbone  of  a  low  ridge  through 
a  forest  of  oil  derricks;  under  most  of  them  well-pump  beams  dip  and  rise. 

At  77.6  m.  is  the  eastern  junction  with  State  3i  (see  Tour  2A),  which 
unites  with  State  99  southward  for  10.5  miles. 

DRUMRIGHT,  85.1  m.  (866  alt.,  4,303  pop.),  began  its  career  as  Ful- 
kerson,  but  was  renamed  for  the  owner  of  the  land  on  which  the  townsite  was 
laid  out  in  1913.  For  nearly  three  years  its  tents,  lean-tos,  and  ramshackle 
wooden  buildings,  set  amid  three  hundred  or  more  oil  derricks  over  richly 
producing  wells,  sheltered  bootleggers,  highjackers,  gamblers,  and   nearly 


TOUR  14        391 

every  other  variety  of  boom-town  outlaw  along  with  the  decent  population. 
Then,  in  1916,  the  town  made  "Fighting  Jack"  Ary  chief  of  police.  He 
promptly  moved  against  the  leader  of  the  criminal  element,  a  half-blood 
Creek  Indian  named  Creekmore;  and  after  he  was  in  prison  the  other  bad 
boys  either  left  town  or  followed  him  to  jail. 

Drumright's  principal  street  runs  over  steep  Tiger  Hill,  on  which  in  the 
early  period  of  the  neighboring  oil  field's  development  many  spectacular 
wrecks  of  mule-drawn  trucks  loaded  with  heavy  equipment  furnished  thrills 
for  the  people  of  the  town. 

A  municipal  swimming  pool,  built  by  WPA  labor,  was  opened  to  the 
public  in  1940. 

Immediately  west  of  Drumright  on  the  route,  is  the  former  Sac  and  Fox 
reservation. 

At  88.1  m.,  the  western  junction  with  State  33,  the  route  turns  sharply 
south. 

STROUD,  105  m.  (905  alt.,  1,917  pop.)  (see  Tour  1),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  66  (see  Tour  1). 

At  110.5  m.  is  the  Site  of  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indian  School.  Established 
by  the  Quakers  in  1872  with  tribal  funds,  the  school  was  closed  in  1919,  when 
the  affairs  of  the  tribe  began  to  be  administered  jointly  with  those  of  the  Shaw- 
nees,  Kickapoos,  Potawatomis,  and  lowas  from  the  combined  agency  at 
Shawnee  (see  Shawnee). 

At  HI  m.  is  the  abandoned  Sac  and  Fox  Agency,  where  the  business 
affairs  of  the  tribe  were  cared  for  from  1872  until  the  closing  of  the  agency. 

This  small  remnant  of  a  powerful  Indian  tribe  that  once  occupied  an 
extensive  territory  in  northern  Illinois  and  southern  Wisconsin  was  removed 
from  the  neighborhood  of  Lawrence,  Kansas,  making  the  nineteen-day  jour- 
ney in  the  middle  of  the  winter  and  arriving  at  the  new  location  December 
14,  1869.  The  rest  of  the  winter  they  lived  in  tents  supplied  by  the  govern- 
ment and  worked  at  erecting  permanent  homes  and  putting  land  under  the 
plow. 

PRAGUE,  123.4  m.  (992  alt.,  1,422  pop.)  (see  Tour  3),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  62  (see  Tour  3). 

In  the  neighborhood  of  the  North  Canadian  River,  129.9  w.,  a  num- 
ber of  Caddoan  Indian  mounds  (see  Early  0\lahomans)  have  been  found. 

South  of  the  river.  State  99  leaves  the  Sac  and  Fox  country  and  enters 
the  former  Seminole  Indian  Nation. 

SEMINOLE,  141.9  m.  (863  alt.,  11,547  pop.),  (see  Tour  5),  is  at  the  junc- 
tion with  US  270  (see  Tour  5). 

BOWLEGS,  146.9  m.  (840  alt.,  500  pop.),  was  named  for  a  member  of 
the  Seminole  tribe  on  whose  allotment  the  town  was  built.  The  first  oil  well 
drilled  in  the  Seminole  Field  in  1924  was  also  on  land  owned  by  a  Bowlegs, 
a  grandson,  according  to  local  report,  of  that  tribal  chief,  Billy  Bowlegs,  who 
fought  against  the  removal  of  the  tribe  from  Florida. 

KONAWA,  157.7  m.,  (962  alt.,  2,205  pop.),  is  an  active  trading  center 
and  shipping  point  for  a  fertile  and  productive  farming  area. 


392  OKLAHOMA 

Rij;ht  from  Konawa  on  a  graveled  road,  4  m.;  R.  on  an  improved  dirt  road  is  St. 
Mary's  Academy,  6  m.,  a  convent  school  for  Indian  girls.  Founded  in  1884  by  four  Sisters 
of  Mercy  from  Illinois,  who  came  at  the  invitation  of  Benedictine  Fathers  to  teach  white 
and  Indian  girls  in  day  and  boarding  school,  it  has  received  students  from  practically  all  of 
the  Five  Tribes  and  from  many  of  the  Plains  tribes.  Enrollment  (1941)  is  110. 

Established  in  1876  by  Father  Isidore  Robot,  of  the  Benedictine  Order,  Sacred 
Heart  Mission,  which  sponsored  St.  Mary's  Academy,  occupied  a  tract  of  640  acres  in  this 
locality  given  by  the  Potawatomi  and  Shawnee  tribes  (see  Tour  5).  The  Abbey,  a  two-story 
building  surmounted  by  a  cross,  is  still  in  use,  as  are  the  stables,  a  bakery,  and  other  utility 
structures  now  (1941)  under  the  care  of  St.  Gregory's  College  at  Shawnee  (see  Tour  5). 

At  163  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  asphalt-surfaced  State  56. 

Left  at  this  point  to  the  old  John  F.  Brown  Home,  8  m.,  a  huge  two-story  frame  build- 
ing painted  dark  yellow  erected  by  a  rich  Seminole  chief  when  there  was  a  settlement  and 
trading  post  near  by  called  Sasakwa.  Across  perhaps  one  hundred  feet  of  the  house's 
L-shaped  front,  a  first-floor  porch  and  a  second  story  veranda,  both  with  ornamental  balus- 
trades, suggest  a  strange  opulence  in  the  midst  of  a  bleak  sand-hill  and  scrub-oak  region. 

On  the  Seminole  Indian  Church  and  Camp-Meeting  Grounds,  8.4  m.,  are  a  score 
or  more  large  brush  arbors  under  which  families  and  groups  camp  during  the  summer 
religious  meetings.  In  good  weather,  the  meetings,  which  last  for  several  days,  are  held  out 
of  doors;  the  small,  well-built,  frame  meeting  house  is  used  when  it  rains. 

SASAKWA,  10.2  m.,  (839  alt.,  532  pop.),  superseded  the  older  settlement  of  the  same 
name  near  the  old  Brown  home;  L.  here  on  a  dirt  road  to  SPEARS  HILL  12.1  m.,  site  of  the 
encampment  of  one  hundred  or  more  tenant  farmer  participants  in  the  so-called  Green  Corn 
Rebellion  of  1917. 

Syndicalist  propaganda,  and  agitation  to  resist  the  first  World  War  draft  in  this 
neighborhood  and  in  adjoining  counties,  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Working  Class  Union. 
In  August  some  five  hundred  members  armed  themselves  and,  as  a  protest  against  the  draft, 
began  damaging  railroad  bridges,  cutting  fences,  and  turning  livestock  into  the  fields.  In 
camp,  this  mixed  force  of  whites,  Indians,  and  Negroes  lived  largely  on  barbecued  beef  and 
the  old  Indian  green-corn  dish  called  "tomfullcr."  This  item  of  their  diet,  plus  the  fact  that 
it  was  the  season  of  the  annual  green-corn  dance  of  the  neighboring  Shawnees,  fixed  the 
name  on  this  abortive  effort  to  take  over  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

The  movement  was  of  so  little  importance  that  local  authorities  were  able  to  stop  the 
aimless  destruction  and  disperse  the  rebels.  Only  three  men  lost  their  lives,  and  two  of 
these  deaths  were  accidental.  Eighty-six  men  were  tried  and  sentenced  to  serve  prison  terms 
ranging  from  one  to  five  years. 

At  163.6  m.,  State  99  crosses  the  South  Canadian  River  and  enters  the  old 
Chickasaw  Nation,  which  extended  southward  to  the  Texas  border. 

Seat  of  Pontotoc  County,  ADA,  175  m.  (1,027  alt.,  15,143  pop.),  was 
named  for  the  daughter  of  Jel^  Reed,  pioneer  mail  carrier,  who  in  1889  erected 
the  first  building  on  the  site,  a  combination  log  store  and  dwelling.  A  post 
office  was  located  here  in  1891;  and  the  first  railroad  into  Ada  came  in  De- 
cember, 1900. 

The  city  grew  rapidly  as  the  industrial  and  trading  center  of  an  extensive 
territory.  Its  population  was  4,349  in  1910;  it  almost  doubled  by  1920  and 
again  almost  doubled  by  1940.  This  increase  was  due  only  in  part  to  the 
opening  of  a  number  of  very  productive  oil  fields  near  by  in  1934;  Ada's 
citizens  are  apt  to  say  that  the  city  was  bound  to  forge  ahead  because  of  its 
natural  advantages,  material  and  educational. 

This  attitude  of  self-assurance  is  illustrated  by  modern  Ada's  reaction  to  a 
descriptive  piece  by  a  "humorous"  reporter  in  a  New  York  magazine.  The 


TOUR  14        393 

writer  drew  upon  his  imagination  to  picture  a  banner  strung  across  a  little 
town's  main  street  saying,"  This  is  Ada.  Ada's  not  a  lady,  but  . . ."  As  an 
added  "Oklahoma  touch,"  he  went  on  to  describe  the  town  residence  of  a 
mythical  fullblood  Seminole  Indian  woman,  to  whom  seven  million  dollars 
in  oil  money  had  been  paid,  as  overrun  with  pigs,  chickens,  dogs,  and  goats. 
When  newsmen  asked  Ada's  Chamber  of  Commerce  for  a  statement  refuting 
the  wise-cracking  New  York  reporter,  they  were  told,  "We  have  nothing  to 
say.  Why  dignify  such  nonsense  by  comment?" 

The  city  is  an  excellent  example  of  a  community  based  on  a  healthy  bal- 
ance of  resources — industrial,  commercial,  agricultural,  and  educational.  Its 
flouring  mills  find  an  exceptionally  wide  market  and  in  the  city,  too,  is 
one  of  the  largest  cement  plants  in  the  country.  Near  Ada  are  some  of  the  best 
fine-stock  ranches  in  the  state,  and  the  farms  of  Pontotoc  County,  mostly 
carved  out  of  forested  land,  yield  generously.  Cotton  is  the  principal  crop,  but 
corn,  wheat,  oats,  sorghum  cane,  and  hay  are  important  farm  products. 

Negroes,  who  make  up  about  4  per  cent  of  the  population,  live  in  a 
well-kept  section  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  city,  where  a  consolidated  school, 
which  also  takes  students  from  the  surrounding  countryside,  has  an  enroll- 
ment (1941)  of  286.  The  Negroes  support  four  churches  in  Ada. 

The  Ada  News,  which  began  publication  as  a  tiny  weekly  in  1900,  the 
first  year  of  Ada's  existence,  became  a  small  daily  in  1903  and  passed  into  the 
control  of  a  stock  company  in  1910.  By  1941,  the  News  owned  its  own  build- 
ing, was  issuing  both  a  morning  and  an  afternoon  edition,  with  a  combined 
circulation  of  more  than  seven  thousand,  and  a  weekly  edition  for  farm 
readers.  Its  editor  (1941)  has  served  the  paper  since  1914.  Another  weekly,  the 
Bulletin,  has  both  city  and  country  circulation. 

Largest  and  most  interesting  of  the  oil  fields  near  Ada  is  the  Fitts,  ten 
miles  southeast  of  the  city,  where  the  deepest  wells,  approximately  5,200  feet, 
penetrate  nine  oil  horizons.  At  its  peak,  around  1936,  this  field  had  more  than 
one  thousand  producing  wells.  In  five  and  one-half  years  the  Fitts  Field  pro- 
duced eighty-seven  million  barrels  of  crude  oil.  Less  extensive  but  highly 
profitable  are  the  Bebee,  Jesse,  and  Allen  fields  that  extend  in  a  sort  of  arc 
from  northeast  to  southwest  of  the  city. 

Radio  station  KADA,  1,230  kc,  has  the  distinction  (1941)  of  being  the 
only  one  in  the  United  States  located  in  a  city  as  small  as  Ada  that  receives 
broadcasts  from  two  national  chains  (NBC  and  MBS). 

East  Central  State  College,  Main  Street  and  Francis  Avenue,  forms 
a  solid  and  impressive  eastern  border  to  the  city,  with  seven  commodious 
buildings  dotted  about  its  forty-one-acre  campus,  and  its  expanding  athletic 
plant  lying  under  the  slope  beyond.  It  is  the  third  largest  college  in  the  state, 
with  an  average  enrollment  of  about  one  thousand  during  the  regular  term 
and  more  than  that  number  in  its  summer  session.  Its  teaching  staff  of  sixty- 
five  is  augmented  by  twelve  administrative  oflScers. 

Created  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature  in  1909,  the  school  began  as  a 
teachers'  training  institution  and  was  known  as  East  Central  State  Normal 
School.  In  1919,  the  course  of  study  was  increased  to  four  years  of  college 
work,  the  granting  of  degrees  was  authorized,  and  the  name  was  changed  to 


394  OKLAHOMA 

East  Central  State  Teachers  College.  In  1939,  with  a  shift  of  emphasis  from 
normal  to  general  college  work,  its  present  (1941)  title  was  assumed.  How- 
ever to  quote  the  current  catalog,  "the  primary  purpose  for  which  the  East 
Central  College  exists  is  the  education  of  teachers."  Special  instruction  is 
offered  to  teachers  in  the  summer  sessions,  and  in  the  Horace  Mann  Training 
School  and  senior  and  junior  high  schools  that  are  maintained  as  departments 
of  the  college. 

At  the  entrance  to  the  college  grounds,  Main  Street  and  Francis  Avenue, 
is  a  giant  Callixylon,  the  fossilized  stump  of  a  tree  that  dates  back  to  the 
Devonian  period.  It  was  found  by  John  Pitts,  for  whom  the  Pitts  oil  field  was 
named,  placed  in  its  present  position  by  him,  and  dedicated  to  the  memory  of 
David  White,  noted  plant  paleontologist  and  at  one  time  chief  geologist  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey.  When  found,  this  enormous  stump  was 
somewhat  shattered,  but  practically  all  the  pieces  were  recovered  and  cemented 
together  to  form  one  of  the  most  impressive  exhibits  of  fossilized  wood  in  the 
United  States. 

East  Central's  plant  centers  about  old  Science  Hall,  facing  the  entrance, 
a  spacious  buff-brick,  four-story  building  with  a  wide  white-pillared  front 
erected  in  1909.  South  of  it  is  the  burnt-brick,  three-story  utilitarian  Adminis- 
tration Building,  the  Health  Building,  the  president's  comfortable  two- 
story  residence,  and  six  concrete-surfaced  tennis  courts.  East  of  the  tennis 
courts,  overlooking  the  athletic  area,  are  Knight  Hall,  where  175  women 
students  live,  and  Fentem  Hall,  for  men  students.  Dining  facilities  for  both 
women  and  men  students  are  in  Knight  Hall.  The  modern  and  spacious 
Education  Building,  of  red  brick,  is  at  the  north  end  of  the  campus. 

The  City  Library,  E.  14th  Street  and  Rennie  Avenue,  is  a  small  Colonial- 
type  brick  building,  noticeably  different  from  the  usual  "Carnegie"  style  of 
structure  in  Oklahoma  cities.  Although  the  city  charter  authorized  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  city  library  in  1912,  it  was  not  until  1935  that  quarters  and  an 
appropriation  of  $4,500  were  provided.  Then  the  old  city  hall  was  remodeled, 
and  an  annual  budget  of  $4,000  was  assigned.  Since  then,  more  space  has  been 
added,  and  the  collection  of  books  has  grown  well  past  the  point  where  the 
borrowers'  register  showed  more  names  than  there  were  volumes  in  the 
library.  A  popular  feature  is  the  childrens'  room.  Another  is  the  growing 
collection  of  exhibits,  including  paintings  of  native  Oklahoma  flowers  by 
Mrs.  C.  O.  Barton,  and  material  concerning  the  early  history  of  Ada  and  of 
Pontotoc  County. 

The  United  States  Post  Office  and  Courthouse,  E.  12th  and  Constant 
Streets,  is  a  modern  massive  building  of  limestone;  from  the  third  story  sun 
deck  the  visitor  gets  a  long  view  westward  across  the  city  and  hills. 

The  Central  Fire  Station,  E.  12th  Street  and  Broadway,  is  a  striking 
small,  modern  building.  Monolithic  in  appearance  and  simple  in  line,  it  houses 
the  city's  up-to-date  fire-fighting  equipment. 

Left  from  Ada  on  State  12  to  the  Valley  View  Hospital,  0.2  ni.,  a  community  insti- 
tution erected  in  1936-37  on  a  ten-acre  tract  that  overlooks  a  broad  valley.  It  was  made 
possible  by  joint  contributions  of  the  city  and  tiie  Commonwealth  Fund  of  New  York.  This 
well-equipped  hospital  offers  free  service  to  needy  patients  within  a  radius  of  twenty-five 


TOUR  14        395 

miles  up  to  25  per  cent  of  its  capacity.  Postgraduate  fellowships  have  been  provided  for  ten 
medical  students,  and  for  students  of  hospital  administration,  nursing,  laboratory,  X-ray 
technique,  and  related  services.  A  Nurses'  Home  is  part  of  the  institution's  plant. 

Right  from  Ada  on  State  12  to  Roy  Turner  Ranch  (visitors  welcome),  24  m.,  a 
million-dollar  plant  (L),  occupying  some  ten  thousand  acres,  on  which  are  bred  registered 
Hereford  cattle.  At  the  ranch's  last  sale  (1941),  one  of  its  show  herd  bulls  sold  for  $10,000. 
Maintained  at  the  utmost  limit  of  efficiency,  the  ranch  plant,  as  well  as  its  purebred  stock, 
is  worth  visiting. 

Just  beyond  the  southern  edge  of  Ada  is  Wintersmith  Park  (swimming, 
boating,  fishing)  a  rugged  tract  (L)  of  137  acres  surrounding  a  lake  that 
provided  Ada's  water  supply  before  Byrd's  Mill  Spring  was  acquired.  Bridle 
paths,  hiking  trails,  a  large  and  luxuriously  outfitted  native-stone  bathhouse, 
and  a  tree-shaded  amphitheater  seating  three  thousand  persons  are  the  park's 
outstanding  features. 

At  186.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  Byrd's  Mill  Spring,  2.7  m.,  the  source  of  Ada's  water  supply. 
Out  of  this  enormous  natural  spring,  protected  by  a  covering  of  concrete,  spouts  an  almost 
unbelievable  volume  of  clear,  sweet  water — from  ten  to  twenty  million  gallons  a  day.  The 
spring  was  a  favorite  meeting  and  camping  place  for  the  Indians  and  was  named  for  a 
former  chief  of  the  Chickasaws  who  operated  a  gristmill  there  with  water  power  supplied 
from  the  spring. 

FITTSTOWN,  187.4  w.  (990  alt.,  150  pop.),  is  composed  almost  wholly 
of  corrugated  iron  or  frame  houses  occupied  by  oil-field  workers.  It  was  named 
for  John  Fitts,  the  geologist  who  was  responsible  for  the  development  of  the 
rich  Fitts  oil  pool. 

PONTOTOC,  196  m.  (976  alt.,  325  pop.),  once  a  widely  known  Indian 
trading  post,  is  the  center  of  a  good  cotton-growing  region,  and  its  main  in- 
dustry is  ginning. 

At  205  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  61,  a  graveled  road. 

Left  on  State  61  to  WAPANUCKA,  12.6  m..  (620  alt.,  730  pop.),  where  one  of  the 
first  schools  in  the  Chickasaw  Nation  was  opened  in  1852.  It  was  first  called  the  Wapanucka 
Female  Manual  Labor  School.  Its  limestone  building  was  condemned,  and  the  school  closed, 
in  1901.  Reopened  in  1903  as  a  boys'  school,  after  the  building  was  repaired,  it  was  again 
closed  in  1907.  The  building  stands  in  a  ruinous  condition  on  the  bank  of  Delaware  Creek. 

Near  Wapanucka,  in  June  of  1865,  occurred  a  little-known  battle  between  Comanches 
and  Chickasaws.  The  Comanches,  350  strong,  swept  in  from  the  west  and  for  four  days 
raided  farms  and  ranches  and  rounded  up  a  big  herd  of  stolen  horses.  Before  they  could  get 
back  to  their  own  territory,  however,  the  Chickasaws,  armed  with  rifles  and  pistols,  over- 
took them.  The  Comanches,  with  only  bows  and  arrows,  were  severely  punished  and  many 
were  killed,  including  a  chief.  The  Chickasaws,  having  recovered  their  horses,  took  no 
prisoners  and  permitted  the  Comanches  to  go  home.  No  report  was  made  of  the  fight. 

At  208.7  m.  on  the  main  tour  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  Ballard's  Park  (swimming,  cabins,  recreational  facilities),  5 
m.,  the  site  of  former  Chickasaw  summer  gatherings  for  sport  and  amusement.  It  lies  in  a 
wooded  area  threaded  by  small  streams.  Adjoining  the  park  is  a  U.S.  Fish  Hatchery. 

At  210.8  m.  on  State  99  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road. 


396  OKLAHOMA 

Rijjht  here  to  a  natural  park  called  Devil's  Den  (private,  adm.  25c,  fishing,  camping, 
cabins),  2  m.,  through  which  Pcnninjjton  Creek  flows  in  a  series  of  rapids,  cataracts,  and 
falls.  It  is  a  rugged,  bouldcr-strcwn  area,  in  which  the  Devil's  Den  proper — a  cave-like 
recess — is  formed  by  the  overhead  joining  of  two  enormous  rocks.  Other  features  of  the 
park  are  a  great  balanced  rock  known  as  the  Devil's  Chair;  Dead  Man's  Cave,  a  cavern  in 
the  rocks  containing  grotesque  formations;  and,  high  up  on  the  one  of  the  canyon  walls  is 
a  curiously  shaped  rock  known  both  as  the  Devil's  Coffin  and  the  Witch's  Tomb.  One  and 
one-half  miles  down  Pennington  Creek  is  the  old  site  of  Harley's  Institute,  Chickasaw 
Boys'  Boarding  School,  now  the  site  of  the  Tishomingo  Golf  Club. 

TISHOMINGO,  214.6  m.  (670  alt.,  1,951  pop.),  seat  of  Johnston  County, 
was  named  for  a  beloved  Chickasaw  leader  and  was  capital  of  the  Chicka- 
saw Nation  from  its  formation  as  an  independent  nation  in  1856  until  state- 
hood. It  is  now  (1941)  a  trade  center  for  a  productive  farming  region  lying 
along  the  bends  of  Pennington  Creek  and  the  Washita  River,  and  for  the 
ranch  country  to  the  north  and  northwest. 

After  the  Chickasaws  effected  their  formal  separation  from  the  Choctaws 
by  treaty  in  1855,  their  own  government  was  organized  and  the  tribal  capitol 
installed  in  a  small  log  building,  which  still  stands  in  the  northwestern  part 
of  the  town.  The  second  capitol  was  built  of  brick  hauled  from  Paris,  Texas. 
After  being  gutted  by  fire,  this  brick  building  was  torn  down  and  replaced  by 
a  two-story  structure  of  native  granite,  which  has  been  used  as  the  Johnston 
County  Courthouse  since  1907, 

Before  the  Chickasaw  capital  was  located  here,  the  place  was  known  by 
the  Indians  as  a  fine  camp  site  and  was  called  Good  Springs.  In  1850,  a  resi- 
dence was  built  near  the  springs  by  Jackson  Frazier,  an  Indian,  and  soon 
afterwards  two  stores  began  business.  Tishomingo,  the  name  given  in  1856, 
became  a  post  office  in  1857.  One  of  Oklahoma's  governors,  William  H. 
("Alfalfa  Bill")  Murray  (see  History),  came  to  the  town  when  a  young  man, 
married  the  niece  of  a  Chickasaw  governor,  Douglas  Johnston  (for  whom  the 
county  was  named),  and  started  his  career  as  a  lawyer-politician.  He  presided 
over  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1906-07. 

At  one  time,  Tishomingo's  population  was  more  than  twice  the  1940 
figure.  After  1920,  it  began  to  decline  because  of  drought,  depression,  and 
fires. 

The  first  Oklahoma  state  legislature,  in  1908,  authorized  the  establish- 
ment at  Tishomingo  of  the  Murray  State  School  of  Agriculture,  which 
attained  junior  college  rank  in  1924.  The  two-year  college  course  emphasizes 
agriculture,  dairying,  animal  husbandry,  science,  mechanical  arts,  home  eco- 
nomics, and  education. 

On  a  twenty-acre  campus  at  the  southern  corner  of  the  city,  and  on  270 
acres  of  farm  land  owned  by  the  school  plus  260  acres  leased,  the  450  students 
receive  practical  instruction  and  experience.  Fifteen  acres,  of  which  ten  are 
irrigated,  are  given  over  to  truck  farming.  With  the  planting  of  trees  and 
shrubs,  the  campus  has  become  an  interesting  setting  for  the  wide-spaced 
buildings  which  include  nine  major  units  and  a  number  of  other  small  utility 
structures.  The  two  men's  dormitories,  Douglas  Johnston  and  Chickas.\w 
Halls,  which  together  accommodate  155  students,  are  almost  identical  three- 


TOUR  14        397 

story  brick  and  stucco  structures  of  attractive  southern  mansion  design.  Haskell 
Lucas  Hall,  another  men's  dormitory,  was  opened  for  the  school  year  1941-42. 

In  Betty  Fulton  Hall,  a  solid  brick  building  erected  in  1924,  live  more 
than  one  hundred  women  students.  A  two-story  brick  building  approximately 
at  the  center  of  the  campus  houses  the  manual  arts  department.  One  of  the 
newest  buildings  (1941)  is  the  Armory-Gymnasium,  of  roughly  dressed 
stone,  with  quarters  for  one  National  Guard  unit,  drill  space,  rifle  range, 
locker  rooms,  and  classrooms.  The  drill  floor  is  also  used  as  the  school's  gym- 
nasium. The  three-story  brick  Administration  Building  is  largely  used  for 
academic  work  and  also  houses  the  library  of  more  than  eight  thousand 
volumes. 

When  the  Denison  Dam  Project,  on  the  Red  River,  is  completed  and  the 
reservoir  is  full,  the  water  will  come  to  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  Tisho- 
mingo's southern  limit,  with  one  arm  reaching  up  Pennington  Creek  through 
the  city. 

MADILL,  227.3  m.  (775  alt.,  2,594  pop.)  (see  Tour  6),  is  at  the  junction 
with  US  70  (see  Tour  6),  with  which  State  99  unites  briefly. 

Established  as  a  trading  post  in  1883,  WOODVILLE,  246.2  m.  (598  alt., 
364  pop.),  was  named  for  a  Federal  judge  in  pre-statehood  days  and  serves  an 
area  of  Red  River  bottom  farm  land. 

At  246.2  m.,  State  99  crosses  over  Red  River  thirteen  miles  north  of  Deni- 
son, Texas  (see  Texas  Guide). 


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Tour  15 


Junction  with  US  66-69 — Jay — Westville — Sallisaw — Heavener — (Mena, 
Ark.);  US  59;  198  m. 

Roadbed  graveled  throughout. 

The  Kansas  City  Southern  Ry.  roughly  parallels  the  highway  between  Watts  and  the  Arkan- 
sas Line. 
Accommodations  at  convenient  intervals. 

This  route  passes  through  country  that  is,  in  effect,  a  visual  summary  of 
a  century  of  Cherokee  Indian  history  and  a  seventy-five-mile  glimpse  of  old 
Choctaw  backgrounds.  Except  for  a  few  miles  of  flat  farm  land  south  of  Afton 
and  occasional  short  stretches  across  timber-encircled  grassland  areas  which 
the  Indians  used  to  call  "old  fields,"  US  59  in  Oklahoma  threads  the  narrow 
valleys  and  winds  across  the  ridges  of  one  of  the  most  eye-filling  sections  of 
the  state.  Caves,  waterfalls,  a  natural  bridge;  the  Spavinaw  and  Grand  River 


398  OKLAHOMA 

lakes;  ruins  and  still-standing  buildings  of  the  first  missions  established  in 
the  West  by  those  valiant  soldiers  of  the  Lord  who  came  out  of  New  England 
early  in  the  1800's;  a  one-hundred-mile  April  trail  of  dogwood,  wild  plum 
blossoms,  and  redbud — these  are  some  of  the  features  the  traveler  over  US 
59  will  remember. 

It  is  a  comparatively  poor  region,  where  farms  are  small  and  far  apart. 
Much  of  the  way  the  timber  is  all  but  worthless  commercially;  and  where 
there  were  once  fine  stands  of  pine  the  problem  of  reforestation  is  more  press- 
ing than  that  of  marketing  the  sawmills'  output. 

Almost  from  end  to  end,  US  59  in  Oklahoma  provides  for  the  fisherman, 
the  squirrel  hunter,  the  history  scout,  and  folklore  collector;  the  plain  vaca- 
tionist has  access  here  to  beautifully  clear  streams,  rugged  hills,  ancient  cabins, 
and  good  camp  sites.  Toward  its  southern  end,  the  tour  penetrates  the  north- 
ern border  of  the  Winding  Stair  and  Kiamichi  Mountains  (see  Tour  ISA), 
where  the  United  States  Forest  Service,  the  CCC  camps,  and  the  state  are  co- 
operating to  open  the  region  to  visitors. 

Against  its  attractions,  for  some,  will  be  set  the  inevitable  dust  of  this 
highway  and  the  chiggers  and  wood  ticks  that  can  make  summer  picnicking 
and  camping  miserable  for  those  not  provided  with  preventive  lotions  or 
powders. 

US  59  branches  south  from  its  junction  with  US  66-69  (see  Tours  1  and 
8),  0  m.,  one  mile  east  of  Afton  (see  Tour  1),  and  then  trends  southeastward 
across  an  area  of  prairie  farms  to  a  crossing  of  GRAND  RIVER,  8.5  m.,  where 
it  is  widened  by  the  waters  backed  up  from  Grand  Lake  (see  Tour  1).  The 
route  then  enters  wooded  country  which  grows  more  and  more  rugged. 

Roughly  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  old  Cherokee  Indian  country, 
GROVE,  13.1  m.  (757  alt.,  1,093  pop.),  is  a  trading  center  for  scattered  farms 
and  a  shipping  point  for  locally  grown  apples,  peaches,  grapes,  and  berries. 
Southward,  the  route  crosses  clear,  fish-stocked  streams  and  cuts  through  oak 
woods  covering  the  flint-rock  hills. 

Eight  miles  northeast  of  Grove  are  the  ruins  of  a  town  called  Cayuga, 
promoted  and  almost  entirely  built  by  a  Wyandotte  Indian  named  Mathias 
Splitlog.  The  site  of  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  and  other  land  near  by,  was  in 
possession  of  the  Wyandottes  before  they  were  removed  to  the  small  reserva- 
tion they  now  (1941)  occupy  in  northeastern  Oklahoma.  While  still  in  Kan- 
sas, Splitlog,  born  in  Canada  in  1813,  developed  a  keen  business  sense  and 
acquired  considerable  wealth  as  a  flour  miller,  builder,  and  real  estate  dealer. 
After  coming  to  the  Indian  Territory,  he  resumed  his  building  operations  on 
the  banks  of  Cowskin  Creek,  and  his  creation,  Cayuga,  became  the  first  town 
in  Delaware  County.  Extending  his  operations  to  Missouri,  he  built  a  railroad 
(see  below)  to  serve  his  own  flour  and  saw  mills,  his  wagon-building  works, 
and  his  mines. 

Splidog  died  in  1893,  and  his  creations  have  practically  disappeared;  only 
the  ruins  of  a  three-story  millhouse  mark  the  site  of  Cayuga.  That  and  Split- 
log  Street  in  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  and  a  small  Missouri  town  named  Splidog 
are  the  only  reminders  of  this  pioneer  Indian  tycoon. 

At  18  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graded  road. 


TOUR  15        399 

Left  on  this  road  to  Polson  Cemetery,  6  m.,  where  the  Cherokee  Confederate  Briga- 
dier General  Stand  Watie  is  buried.  In  Cherokee  history,  this  part-Indian  loomed  large  as 
one  among  the  insignificant  minority  of  the  tribe  who  signed  the  spurious  "treaty"  under 
which  the  Federal  government  acted  in  removing  them  from  Georgia  and  Tennessee  in 
1838.  Three  other  signers — Elias  Boudinot,  Watie's  brother;  Major  Ridge;  and  his  son 
John — were  killed,  after  the  removal,  by  Cherokecs  who  regarded  them  as  traitors.  From 
that  time  on  Stand  Watie  became  a  bitter' opponent  of  Chief  John  Ross,  titular  head  of  the 
tribe  for  almost  forty  years,  whom  he  accused  on  no  better  evidence  than  unfriendly  gossip 
of  instigating  the  killings.  Many  other  killings  followed,  and  at  one  time  Watie  gathered  a 
force  to  overthrow  the  Ross  government. 

Committing  himself  and  his  adherents  to  the  Confederate  cause  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  Watie  recruited  a  regiment  of  Cherokecs,  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Pea  Ridge, 
Arkansas,  was  made  brigadier  general  and  put  in  command  of  an  Indian  brigade.  Accord- 
ing to  local  history,  he  was  the  last  Confederate  officer  to  surrender,  two  months  and  more 
after  Appomattox.  At  one  time  during  the  Civil  War  he  laid  claim  to  the  office  of  chief  of 
the  Cherokecs,  but  his  right  to  the  office  was  recognized  only  by  his  own  limited  following. 

Immediately  north  of  the  Stand  Watie  Grave  are  those  of  members  of  the  Ridge 
family,  including  Major  Ridge. 

Named  for  Jay  Washburn,  a  nephew  of  Stand  Watie,  JAY,  29.6  m. 
(1,035  alt.,  741  pop.),  is  the  seat  of  Delaware  County,  having  won  that  dis- 
tinction from  Grove  in  a  special  county-seat  election  on  December  8,  1908. 
The  removal  of  the  county  seat  to  Jay  was  followed  by  a  comic  opera  war 
between  two  factions  of  the  litde  town's  promotors,  each  of  whom  strove  to 
have  the  county  records  stored  in  its  own  courthouse.  From  their  sketchy 
entrenchments,  the  forces  of  old  and  new  Jay  faced  each  other  for  several 
days,  some  wild  firing  was  done  (the  only  casualty  a  stray  mule),  and  then  the 
war  was  called  off. 

Built  on  land  cleared  of  forest  growth,  the  town  is  supported  by  the  trade 
of  farmers  and  fruit  and  berry  growers.  Undeveloped  deposits  of  lead,  zinc, 
and  iron  are  believed  to  exist  near  by;  and  gray  limestone  is  quarried.  There 
are  several  churches  and  a  Cherokee  Indian  Community  House.  Jay  is  one 
of  the  three  county-seat  towns  in  Oklahoma  which  has  never  been  served  by 
a  railroad. 

At  31.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  20,  a  graveled  road. 

Right  at  this  point  to  SPAVINAW,  15  m.  (668  alt.,  255  pop.),  once  one  of  the  north- 
ern towns  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  and  the  center  of  a  region  broken  by  flint-rock  hills  and 
gorges  through  which  clear  streams  plunge.  The  original  town  was  purchased  by  Tulsa  in 
1922,  when  Spavinaw  Creek  was  dammed  to  provide  a  water  supply  for  that  city,  and 
moved  to  higher  ground.  Lake  Spavinaw  (boats  and  tacJile  for  hire)  now  covers  the  old 
site,  where  once  a  five-story  gristmill  and  a  sawmill  served  the  needs  of  the  Indians. 

Surrounding  Lake  Spavinaw  is  Spavinaw  Hills  Park  (cabins,  picnic  facilities)  a 
sixteen-hundred-acre  tract  acquired  by  Tulsa  to  protect  the  lake  from  pollution  and  as  a 
refuge  for  wildlife.  If  he  is  lucky,  the  visitor  who  tramps  the  trails  of  this  park  may  see  wild 
turkeys  (no  open  season)  and  he  is  almost  sure  to  see  squirrels,  rabbits,  and  quail.  Fisher- 
men take  bass,  channel  catfish,  crappie,  and  bream  from  the  lake,  which  is  periodically 
restocked  from  the  hatcheries  of  the  State  Game  and  Fish  Commission  and  those  maintained 
by  the  city  of  Tulsa.  CCC  workers  have  improved  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake  for  public 
recreation.  Two  private  clubs,  the  Tulsa  Ozark  and  the  Tulsa  Spavinaw,  are  on  the  northern 
and  southern  sides  of  the  lake. 

Fort  Wayne  Store  (R)  was  named  for  an  outpost  of  old  Fort  Wayne,  the  actual  site 
of  which  is  now  at  the  bottom  of  the  lake. 

SALINA,  28  m.  (618  alt.,  687  pop.)^^^^-  Tour  8). 


400  OKLAHOMA 

At  34.2  m.  is  the  house  (R)  which,  it  is  said,  was  occupied  by  Stand 
Watie's  family  during  the  Civil  War.  Behind  it  is  a  steep-walled  ravine  which, 
some  three  hundred  yards  below,  is  spanned  by  a  natural  bridge. 

At  34.5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  unimproved  dirt  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  on  the  north  bank  of  Spavinaw  Creek  almost  at  the  Arkansas  Line, 
is  the  Site  of  Fort  Wayne,  9.3  m.  The  founding  of  this  border  outpost  dates  back  to 
1832;  it  was  from  this  headquarters  that  Captain  Nathan  Boone,  a  son  of  Daniel  Boone, 
conducted  some  of  the  early  Indian  Territory  boundary  surveys.  In  1842,  its  importance  as 
a  military  post  having  passed,  the  garrison  was  removed.  Until  1846  the  fort  stood  unoccu- 
pied. Then  the  old  buildings  became  the  rendezvous  for  the  force  of  malcontents  whom 
Stand  Watie  gathered  and  proposed  to  lead  against  John  Ross,  chief  of  the  Cherokees;  and 
again,  in  1861,  Watie  used  Fort  Wayne  as  a  recruiting  base  for  his  Confederate  Indian  troops. 

Now  (1941)  there  is  hardly  a  trace  of  the  old  fort,  even  the  foundation  stones  having 
been  taken  away — as  so  often  has  happened  at  historic  sites — for  use  as  building  material 
by  neighborhood  residents. 

At  51  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  graveled  State  33. 

Right  on  State  33  to  KANSAS,  1.4  m.  (1,000  alt.,  163  pop.),  a  trading  point  for  a 
restricted  farming  area,  and  to  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road,  4  m. 

Left  here  to  OAKS,  6.6  m.  (800  alt.,  93  pop.),  a  Cherokee  setdement  that  grew  out 
of  the  establishment  of  a  Danish  Lutheran  school  in  1902.  Right  from  Oaks  on  an  unim- 
proved dirt  road  to  the  Site  of  New  Springplace  Moravian  Mission,  7.1  m.  There,  in 
1842,  Moravian  missionaries  to  the  Cherokees  erected  a  combination  log  schoolhouse  and 
church.  Situated  at  a  ford  on  the  beautifully  clear  Spring  Creek,  crossed  by  a  branch  of  the 
old  military  road  from  Fort  Gibson  (see  Tour  3)  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  at  St.  Louis,  Mis- 
souri, the  mission  grew  and  prospered  until  the  fierce  sectional  strife  of  the  Civil  War  com- 
pelled its  closing.  After  the  war,  the  Moravians  reopened  the  school  and  mission  and  con- 
tinued the  work  until  1898,  when  the  allotment  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  in  severalty  de- 
prived them  of  the  land  they  had  used. 

A  pastor  of  the  Danish  Lutheran  church,  Rev.  N.  L.  Nielson,  took  over  in  part  the 
mission's  preaching,  and  the  establishment  of  the  school  followed.  It  has  been  built  up  to 
an  enrollment  of  more  than  sixty  Cherokee  boys  and  girls. 

What  remains  of  the  solidly  built  old  mission  are  a  stone  chimney  and  foundation  sills. 
The  rest  was  taken,  with  the  approval  of  the  Indian  agent,  to  repair  the  barn  of  the  Cherokee 
who  owned  the  land  on  which  it  stood. 

In  the  neighborhood,  beadwork,  bows  and  arrows,  and  bright-hued  baskets  of  Indian 
design  and  making  may  be  purchased  at  a  number  of  Cherokee  homes. 

At  its  junction  with  State  33,  US  59  makes  a  right-angle  turn  and  pro- 
ceeds eastward. 

A  Roadside  Park  (picnic  facilities),  53.1  m.,  is  maintained  by  the  State 
Highway  Department. 

At  the  summit  of  a  hill,  57.4  m.,  is  a  fine  view  of  some  thirty  miles  of 
timbered  hills  and  fertile,  farm-dotted  valleys. 

FLINT,  56.2  m.  (1,197  alt.,  25  pop.),  now  (1941)  only  a  tiny  settlement. 
was  important  in  the  first  years  of  Cherokee  occupancy  of  the  neighborhood. 
Here  in  1838  a  water-wheel  gristmill  and  a  sawmill  were  set  up.  Millstones  for 
the  gristmill  were  sent  from  France,  coming  by  water  to  Van  Buren,  Arkan- 
sas, and  from  that  landing  on  the  Arkansas  River  by  ox  team.  The  mill  was 
long  ago  moved  from  its  original  site;  it  is  said  that  the  original  French 
"burrs"  are  still  in  use. 


TOUR  15  401 

In  1872,  Polly  Chesterton,  wife  of  the  miller,  was  killed  by  an  Indian 
named  Ezekiel  Proctor,  who  meant  the  shot  for  her  husband.  Proctor's  trial 
led  to  the  so-called  Goingsnake  District  Courthouse  massacre  (see  Tour  3). 

A  welcome  refuge  from  summer  dust  and  heat.  Dripping  Springs  (adtn. 
10c,  cabins),  60.6  m.,  is  a  compact  resort  area  (R)  centered  about  a  descending 
series  of  falls  over  which  a  small  stream  sometimes  sends  a  rushing  flow  of 
water  but  which  usually  is  so  scant  that  visitors  may  enter  the  recesses  of  the 
rock  behind  the  dripping  waterfalls  without  getting  wet. 

A  first  waterfall  drops  seventy-five  feet,  the  second,  thirty  feet;  and 
finally  there  is  a  cascade  of  fifteen  feet.  In  order  to  reach  the  bottom  of  this, 
where  greenery  and  coolness  and  seats  await,  the  visitor  crosses  a  deep  gorge 
on  a  swinging  footbridge  some  175  feet  in  length.  Then  from  the  wooded 
grove  in  which  the  resort's  rustic  cabins  are  set  and  where  picnic  facilities  are 
provided,  steep  but  safe  paths  descend  to  the  canyon  floor  and  the  pools  in 
which  grow  many  water  plants. 

At  63  m.,  US  59  turns  sharply  southward  to  the  junction  with  an  unim- 
proved dirt  road,  68.8  m. 

Left  on  this  road  is  LAKE  FRANCIS  (boats  for  fishing,  and  for  trips  down  the  Illinois 
River,  $1  per  day)  (see  Tour  16),  0.3  m.,  extending  southward  along  the  border  between 
Oklahoma  and  Arkansas  for  five  miles. 

South  of  the  Illinois  River,  US  59  passes  through  Watts,  69  m.  (958  alt., 
307  pop.),  a  rendezvous  for  hunters  and  for  fishermen,  many  of  whom  obtain 
from  the  town  boats  and  guides  for  the  Illinois  River  float. 

At  73.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  Site  of  Cherokee  Baptist  Mission  ("Breadtown"),  0.9  m., 
established  in  1 839  by  Rev.  Evan  Jones,  a  missionary  who  had  been  active  among  the  Chero- 
kees  of  North  Carolina  for  years  before  their  removal.  So  closely  had  Jones  become  identi- 
fied with  the  tribe  that  he  was  chosen  by  Chief  John  Ross  in  1838  to  lead  one  contingent  of 
emigrants  to  the  new  home  of  the  Cherokees  in  Indian  Territory.  It  was  with  the  help  of 
another  leader,  the  Cherokee  Bushyhead  who  was  afterwards  chief  justice  of  the  Cherokee 
Nation,  that  the  missionary  established  the  new  Baptist  Mission. 

The  site  of  this  mission  was  called  "Breadtown"  because  it  was  one  of  the  places  at 
which  rations  to  the  newly  arrived  exiles  were  issued  by  contractors,  most  of  them  white 
men  who  cheated  shamelessly  and  were  never  checked  by  the  Federal  government  that 
hired  them  to  feed  the  Indians. 

Generally  known  for  years  simply  as  "Baptist,"  this  mission  under  the  vigorous  and 
militant  Evan  Jones  and  his  son,  John  B.  Jones,  became  the  center  of  education  and  Chris- 
tianization;  and  the  roll  of  twelve  hundred  members,  practically  all  full  bloods,  of  the  six 
Baptist  churches  and  four  branches  in  the  Cherokee  Nation  closely  rivaled  the  Methodists' 
membership  at  six  missions. 

The  second  printing  press  set  up  in  the  Cherokee  Nation  was  at  "Baptist,"  and  here 
in  1844  appeared  the  first  issue  of  The  Cherok.ee  Messenger — printed,  of  course,  in  the 
Cherokee  characters  invented  by  Sequoyah  (see  Newspapers  and  History). 

An  aggressive  Unionist,  Evan  Jones  was  driven  out  of  the  Cherokee  country  during 
the  Civil  War  by  Stand  Watie's  Confederate  forces. 

In  WESTVILLE,  78.9  m.  (1,128  alt.,  716  pop.)  (see  Tour  3),  is  the  junc- 
tion with  US  62  (see  Tour  3),  which  unites  westward  with  US  59  for  two 
miles;  US  59  now  turns  sharply  south. 


402  OKLAHOMA 

A  charcoal-burning  kiln  at  BARON,  87.9  m.  (904  alt.,  150  pop.),  is  said 
to  be  the  only  one  in  the  state.  A  tomato-canning  establishment,  four  stores,  a 
crack  sandlot  baseball  team,  fine  hshing  in  Baron  Fork  Creek  (bait  provided 
for  fishermen,  if  requested  in  advance  of  arrival,  address  postmaster),  and  a 
cluster  of  modest  residences  make  up  the  town. 

Baron  Creek,  in  the  old  days,  was  a  favorite  fishing  resort  for  the  Chero- 
kees,  who  sometimes  took  great  numbers  of  fish  by  stup)efying  them  with  the 
juice  of  certain  roots.  The  roots  were  bruised  and  thrown  into  the  water;  the 
drugged  fish  were  caught  with  the  hands,  with  gigs,  or  shot  with  arrows,  and 
the  fish  that  were  not  taken  soon  recovered  completely  from  the  effects  of  the 
juice. 

STILWELL,  94.3  m.  (1,108  alt.,  1,717  pop.),  is  the  seat  of  Adair  County 
and  the  center  of  a  district  that  contains  a  higher  percentage  of  Indian  popula- 
tion than  any  other  in  the  state.  Here  is,  in  fact,  the  heart  of  the  district  first 
setded  by  the  immigrant  Cherokees  in  1839  and  earlier. 

The  town  is  largely  dependent  upon  farming,  fruit-growing,  and  lumber- 
ing for  its  growth.  It  has  a  five-acre  town  park  and  a  county  fairgrounds.  Two 
churches  maintained  by  Cherokees  are  near  by,  the  Fairfield  Baptist,  north- 
west, and  the  Cherry  Tree  Baptist,  south,  of  town. 

Annually  in  June,  the  Cherokees  meet  at  Stillwell  for  a  cornstalk  shoot. 
In  this  tournament,  bundles  of  cornstalks  are  set  up  at  a  certain  distance  from 
the  shooters  armed  with  bows  and  arrows;  and  the  winner  is  the  bowman 
whose  arrow  has  pierced  most  stalks  in  a  bundle.  The  game  is  one  of  the  most 
ancient  played  by  the  men  of  the  tribe. 

Right  from  Stilwell  on  graveled  State  51  to  Bidding  Mill,  12.4  m.,  one  of  the  very  few 
remaining  gristmills  run  by  water  power.  The  first  mill  here,  with  a  crude  undershot  wheel, 
was  built  in  the  late  sixties  or  early  seventies.  About  a  decade  later  it  was  acquired  by  Doctor 
Nicholas  Bitting,  who  rebuilt  the  old  wheel;  this  in  turn  gave  way,  under  a  later  ownership, 
to  the  more  modern  overshot  wheel  of  steel  which  is  still  (1941)  in  operation.  The  name 
Bitting,  applied  to  the  mill,  has  become  corrupted  to  Bidding,  the  spelling  used  by  the 
United  States  postal  authorities  for  the  tiny  setdement. 

Along  this  eastern  fringe  of  Oklahoma — especially  from  Stilwell  to  the 
Arkansas  River — US  59  is  called  "The  Dogwood  Trail."  It  should,  if  pos- 
sible, be  traveled  in  the  last  three  weeks  of  April,  when  not  only  the  white 
blaze  of  the  large-petaled  dogwood  under  the  tall  oaks  can  be  seen,  but  the 
pink  of  the  redbud  trees  and  the  fragrant  wild  plum  blooms  along  the  small 
streams  are  at  their  best. 

At  117.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  graveled  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  MARBLE  CITY,  6.1  m.  (628  alt.,  214  pop.),  site  of  Dwight 
Mission,  which  is  still  in  operation.  Along  with  old  "Baptist,"  this  Presbyterian  center  of 
education,  of  religious  teaching,  and  of  humanitarian  interest  in  the  Indians  was  outstand- 
ing. First  established  in  Arkansas  about  1820,  when  a  minority  of  the  Cherokees  emigrated 
voluntarily  to  lands  in  that  Territory — as  usual  "guaranteed"  by  the  Federal  government 
for  their  occupation  as  long  as  grass  grows  and  water  runs — it  was  removed  to  its  present 
site  in  1829  when  the  United  States  forced  the  Cherokees  out  of  Arkansas.  As  conceived  and 
administered  by  Rev.  Cephas  Washburn,  the  mission  was  both  a  school  for  boys  and  girls 
and  a  church  for  everybody.  In  the  1840's,  the  mission  occupied  some  thirteen  commodious 


TOUR  15        403 

log  buildings;  there  were  a  dozen  workers  and  more  than  sixty  students  lived,  studied,  and 
worked  there.  It  became  a  notable  training  school  for  native  Cherokee  teachers  and  gave 
great  impetus  to  education  in  the  Cherokee  Nation. 

Right  from  Marble  City  on  an  unimproved  dirt  road  to  a  Y-junction,  7.1  m.;  L.  here 
to  a  junction  with  a  county  dirt  road,  11.2  m.;  R.  here  to  Crystal  Caves  (open  June-Septem- 
ber; adm.  $1),2S.2  m.,at  the  head  of  a  glen  in  which  are  picnic  grounds  and  a  swimming 
pool.  Studded  with  stalactites  and  stalagmites,  and  with  formations  of  white,  yellow,  and 
brown,  the  caverns  extend  more  than  a  mile  under  the  hills,  but  only  one-half  mile  can 
be  seen  by  visitors. 

US  59,  proceeding  southward,  descends  from  the  hills  and  emerges  upon 
flat,  sticky  land  which  is  apt  to  become  troublesome  to  the  motorist  after  hard 
rains.  Here  it  skirts  the  western  edge  of  a  hill,  south  of  the  Cookson  Hills, 
which  is  known  locally  as  Wildhorse  Mountain. 

SALLISAW,  124.2  m.  (513  alt.,  2,140  pop.)  (see  Tour  2),  is  at  the  junc- 
tion with  US  64  (see  Tour  2). 

US  59  crosses  the  ARKANSAS  RIVER,  134.9  m.,  into  the  old  Choctaw 
Nation.  South  for  some  miles  the  route  is  likely  to  be  difficult  after  heavy  rains. 

At  146.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  271  (see  Tour  7),  which  unites  with 
US  59  for  17.2  miles. 

POTEAU,  160.2  m.  (483  alt.,  4,020  pop.)  (see  Tour  7). 

Between  Poteau  and  the  Arkansas  Line,  US  59  passes  through  rough 
country;  though  the  route  is  constantly  being  graded  and  cleared,  rains  cause 
falls  of  rocks  and  other  debris,  and  the  driver  is  advised  to  be  careful.  In  places, 
the  roadbed  is  elevated,  and  there  is  danger  of  skidding  into  the  ditches.  Also, 
loggers  use  the  road,  and  their  trucks  must  be  watched  for. 

In  the  valley  of  the  Poteau  River,  HEAVENER,  172.4  m.  (561  alt., 
2,215  pop.),  lies  at  the  northern  limit  of  the  Ouachita  mountain  range.  Fer- 
tile farms  and  fine  pastures  are  near  by;  the  immediate  area  was  known  to  the 
Choctaw  Indians  as  the  Prairie  of  the  Tall  Grass.  The  town  was  named  for  Joe 
Heavener,  a  white  man  who  had  lived  among  the  Choctaws  a  long  time  and 
owned  the  land  on  which  it  was  laid  out.  So  well  liked  by  the  Indians  was 
Heavener  that  at  times  he  served  as  arbitrator  of  disputes  and  as  peacemaker 
among  them. 

The  town  is  a  division  point  on  the  Kansas  City  Southern  Railway,  a 
part  of  which  was  built  by  the  wealthy  Wyandotte  Indian,  Mathias  Splidog 
(see  above),  and  for  some  years  the  road  was  known  as  "The  Splitlog." 

Looming  over  Heavener  to  the  northeast  is  the  mass  of  a  hogback  ridge 
called  Poteau  Mountain,  with  an  elevation  above  the  town  of  some  twelve 
hundred  feet.  Under  it  lie  undeveloped  veins  of  coal,  and  on  its  slopes  are 
stands  of  hardwood  timber. 

The  Heavener  chapter  of  the  Isaak  Walton  League  has  been  successful 
in  getting  a  Fish  Hatchery  built  on  the  bank  of  the  nearby  Black  Fork  River. 
Here,  on  a  196-acre  tract,  thirty-six  acres  have  been  set  aside  for  propagating 
ponds;  and  six  of  the  ponds  have  been  stocked  with  black  bass,  bluegill, 
bream,  and  crappie.  A  dam  across  the  river  250  feet  long  and  80  feet  high  pro- 
vides water  for  the  hatchery  ponds. 

At  190.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  dirt  road  (see  Tour  15A). 


404  OKLAHOMA 

PAGE,  191.9  m.  (922  alt.,  698  pop.),  is  in  the  heart  of  the  Ouachita 
National  Forest,  which  takes  in  parts  of  the  Winding  Stair  Mountains  to 
the  west  and  the  Kiamichi  Mountains  to  the  south.  Page  is  a  well-known  out- 
fitting point  for  campers  and  fishermen  who  follow  the  trails  and  streams,  and 
for  the  many  hunters  who  invade  the  Kiamichis  annually  in  the  brief  open 
season  on  deer. 

The  summit  (R)  of  RICH  MOUNTAIN,  194.2  m.,  is  on  the  Oklahoma- 
Arkansas  Line.  On  this  mountain,  it  is  said  by  naturalists  and  timber  experts, 
may  be  found  forty-seven  varieties  of  trees,  twenty-seven  species  of  wild  fruit, 
seventeen  kinds  of  medicinal  plants,  and  more  than  one  hundred  different 
flowers  besides  many  mosses  and  ferns,  some  of  which  are  subtropical.  At  the 
top  of  the  mountain,  at  an  elevation  of  two  thousand  feet  above  the  valley 
floor,  is  a  small  farm  and  an  abandoned  inn. 

US  59  crosses  the  ARKANSAS  LINE,  198  w.,  fifteen  miles  northwest 
of  Mena,  Arkansas  (see  Arkansas  Guide). 


^0/)2 . ^'^t ^  - ^'^"J. . , ^^"J. -- ^^"J. >  - ^^"J. ~  - j5''(!2 ^  , Sj1l2 


Tour  15  a 


Junction  with  US  59 — Big  Cedar — Bethel  —  Broken  Bow — Junction  with 
US  70;  73.3  m.;  unnumbered  road.  State  21. 

Roadbed  natural  gravel;  steepest  gradient  12  per  cent.  After  flooding  rain,  advisable  to  wait 

a  few  hours  for  the  run  ofF. 

Accommodations  limited  to  Smithville  and  Broken  Bow. 

The  route  crosses  the  southern  half  of  the  Ouachita  National  Forest,  then 
enters  the  equally  rugged  and  interesting  area  which  has  been  included  by 
the  Division  of  Forestry  of  the  Oklahoma  Planning  and  Resources  Board  in 
a  fire  protection  unit.  This  means  that  the  whole  region  is  under  special  care 
by  either  the  Federal  or  state  government,  that  the  CCC-built  roads  are  well 
maintained,  that  game  is  properly  protected,  that  the  streams  are  stocked  with 
fish,  and  that  the  visitor  is  provided  with  every  reasonable  facility  for  his  con- 
venience and  enjoyment.  In  return  the  hunter,  fisherman,  camper,  or  passing 
tourist  is  urged  to  co-operate  wholeheartedly  in  the  effort  to  prevent  fires. 
From  strategically  placed  lookout  towers,  to  which  visitors  are  generally 
welcome,  rangers  keep  the  entire  area  under  observation  at  all  times. 

This  is  essentially  a  route  for  sportsmen  and  experienced  campers.  It 
penetrates  the  best  hunting  and  fishing  region  in  the  state,  which  is  also  the 
roughest  and  most  trying  to  the  driver  unused  to  mountain  roads.  In  the 


TOUR  15A        405 

woods  and  valleys  of  the  Winding  Stair  and  Kiamichi  Mountains  are  found 
deer,  ducks,  quail,  and  squirrels;  and  there  are  open  seasons  on  all.  Here,  too, 
the  wild  turkey  may  be  seen,  but  there  is  no  open  season  on  this  game  bird. 
Beautiful  natural  swimming  pools  are  plentiful,  and  camp  sites  easy  to  reach. 
From  such  streams  as  the  Kiamichi,  Mountain  Fork,  Glover,  Big  Eagle, 
Eagle  Fork,  and  smaller  creeks  fishermen  take  smallmouthed  and  rock  bass, 
channel  catfish,  sunfish,  goggle-eyed  perch,  drum,  and  buffalo;  and  in  doing 
so  they  pass  down  shadowed  canyons,  scramble  through  cliffside  underbrush 
and  over  high-piled  rocks  that  give  character  to  this  southeastern  corner  of 
the  state. 

The  timber  resources  of  this  area  are  still  considerable,  and  lumbering 
is  a  principal  industry,  though  far  less  important  than  it  once  was.  The 
operations  of  lumber  companies,  and  destruction  due  to  fires  over  more  than 
a  generation,  have  almost  exhausted  the  fine  stands  of  pine  and  radically 
depleted  the  hardwoods — oaks,  hickories,  elms,  hard  maples,  and  sycamores. 
The  problem  faced  in  the  Ouachita  National  Forest  is  one  of  reforestation; 
and  here,  as  well  as  in  the  state  fire  protection  unit,  the  lumbering  interests 
now  co-operate  intelligently  and  wholeheartedly  in  fire  prevention  by  adopt- 
ing modern  practices  in  the  disposal  of  waste. 

In  the  valleys  are  farms  whose  owners  generally  supplement  their  income 
from  crops  by  work  in  the  logging  camps,  at  the  "groundhog"  (small  local) 
sawmills,  and  in  the  cooperage  plants  and  shingle  mills  of  the  region.  Out  of 
the  timber  of  these  mountains,  too,  come  such  other  varied  forest  products 
as  crossties,  telephone  poles,  fence  posts,  mine  timbers,  ax  handles,  and 
firewood. 

Westward  from  its  junction  with  US  59,  0  m.  (see  Tour  15),  0.7  miles 
northeast  of  PAGE  (922  alt.,  698  pop.)  (see  Tour  15),  the  route  proceeds 
along  an  unnumbered  road  built  by  the  CCC  to  a  junction  with  a  second 
natural  gravel  road,  4.5  m. 

Straight  ahead  on  this  road  to  Winding  Stair  Tower  (visitors  welcome),  1.5  m., 
one  of  the  lookout  towers  of  the  Ouachita  National  Forest  that  affords  a  long  view  of  the 
northern  reaches  of  forests  and  crags  of  the  Ouachita  and  Winding  Stair  ranges. 

The  main  route  turns  sharply  south  (L)  and  skirts  the  western  edge  of 
the  Rich  Mountain  hogback,  a  part  of  the  Ouachita  system. 

A  supply  point,  BIG  CEDAR,  10.8  m.  (964  alt.,  30  pop.),  has  two  stores 
at  which  groceries,  fishing  tackle,  and  useful  local  information  may  be 
obtained. 

The  KIAMICHI  RIVER,  12.8  m.,  is  the  most  important  stream  of  the 
southeastern  Oklahoma  mountain  region.  South  of  the  river,  the  route  climbs 
up  the  main  range  of  the  Kiamichis,  reaching  the  SUMMIT,  14.8  m.  From 
this  point  can  be  seen  miles  of  timbered  ridges  and  valleys  spotted  with  small 
farms  and  pocked  by  smoke  from  scattered  "groundhog"  sawmills. 

At  15.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  CCC-built  skyline  drive. 

Left  on  this  drive  to  CROW'S  NEST,  7  m.,  another  lookout  tower  of  the  Forest  Ser- 
vice, from  which  there  is  a  fine  view  of  the  Lynn,  Blue  Bouncer,  Pine,  Rich,  and  Walnut 
mountains,  Turkey  Snout  Ridge,  and  some  of  the  Arkansas  Ouachita  range. 


406  OKLAHOMA 

South  of  the  summit  is  the  valley  through  which  flows  Cucumber  Creek, 
and  a  second  valley  drained  by  the  united  Big  Eagle  and  Eagle  Fork  creeks. 
Here,  close  to  the  McCurtain  County  northern  border,  near  Boktukola  Moun- 
tain and  in  the  rough  breaks  at  the  head  of  Eagle  Fork  in  the  old  Choctaw 
Nashoba  (Wolf)  County,  the  Kiamichis  are  at  their  wildest.  Deer  are  most 
plentiful  here.  Bait-casting  fishermen  seek  the  deep  pools  and  sinkholes,  and 
shotgun  hunters  find  squirrels,  quail,  and  ducks  in  season. 

Cucumber  Creek,  crossed  at  20.1  m.,  is  a  stream  that  has  been  generously 
stocked  with  smallmouthed  bass.  The  name  of  this  creek  comes  from  the 
curiously  curved  and  thickened  branch-ends  of  the  magnolia  trees  on  its  banks. 

SMITHVILLE,  30.2  m.  (700  alt.,  290  pop.),  is  a  favorite  outfitting  and 
starting  place  for  sportsmen,  campers,  and  those  who  make  a  floating  trip 
down  the  Mountain  Fork  River  to  and  on  Little  River.  According  to  pioneers, 
it  was  in  this  region  that  in  the  old  days  the  Choctaws  found  game  and  fish 
most  plentiful,  fishing  when  "the  rabbit  hollered"  or  "the  Peter  bird  sang," 
using  as  bait  almost  anything  from  bread  dough  to  foot-long  fishworms,  one 
of  which  was  Judged  ample  for  catching  twenty  fish. 

It  was  the  Indian  squirrel-shooter,  too,  who  established  the  vogue  of  the 
"still  hunt,"  still  popular  in  the  Kiamichis.  With  the  idea  of  obtaining  game 
with  the  least  amount  of  effort,  the  still  hunter  goes  out  at  daybreak,  when  no 
breeze  is  blowing  to  ruffle  the  leaves  of  the  trees.  Finding  a  likely  spot,  he  halts 
and  stands  immobile  watching  the  tree-tops,  where  any  movement  of  a 
squirrel  will  attract  the  eye.  Then  the  shot,  which  must  be  quick  and  accurate. 

At  Smithville  is  the  junction  with  State  21,  a  graveled  highway,  over 
which  the  tour  continues. 

On  the  bank  of  one  branch  of  Glover  Creek,  BETHEL,  44.7  m.  (750 
alt.,  37  pop.),  is  a  trading  point  for  scattered  farm  families  and  mill  workers, 
and  a  favorite  rendezvous  for  deer  hunters  in  the  short  open  season.  More 
than  twelve  hundred  deer  hunters  come  to  the  Kiamichis  each  year;  some 
three-thousand  deer  are  reported,  with  perhaps  six  hundred  bucks  of  an  age 
to  shoot.  An  average  bag  for  all  hunters  is  three  hundred  bucks,  many  with 
twelve  to  sixteen  points,  that  weigh  from  150  to  200  pounds. 

Glover  Creek  is  one  of  the  best  streams  in  the  state  for  buffalo  fishing. 
To  take  the  buffalo,  it  is  suggested  that  a  gallon  or  so  of  cornmeal  or  shorts 
be  tied  in  a  bag,  and  the  bag  sunk  in  a  large  hole  six  to  seven  feet  deep  a  few 
days  before  the  hole  is  to  be  fished.  The  recommended  bait  is  a  marble-size 
pinch  of  this  soaked  cornmeal,  mixed  with  flour  dough,  pressed  on  the  hook. 
The  buffalo  does  not  swallow  the  bait,  but  nibbles  at  it,  and  the  fisherman 
snags  the  fish  in  the  gills  when  he  feels  the  nibbling.  The  buffalo  is  a  big 
fish,  ranging  in  weight  from  thirty  to  ninety  pounds. 

At  47.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved,  CCC-built  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  a  STATE  G.\ME  PRESERVE,  8.1  m.,  comprising  14,720  acres 
of  densely  wooded  land  lying  across,  and  adjacent  to,  the  Mountain  Fork  River,  which  has 
been  stocked  with  perch,  bass,  sunfish,  drum,  buffalo,  and  other  species  of  fish.  Behind  the 
fence  which  (1941)  is  under  repair  arc  many  deer. 

In  this  section  the  route  twists  and  turns,  dips  downhill  and  rises  abrupt- 
ly, and  the  driver  is  advised  to  keep  his  car  in  gear  on  the  grades. 


TOUR  15A        407 

Topping  the  highest  peak  (L)  of  the  southern  Kiamichis,  Carter 
Mountain  Tower  (visitors  welcome),  53.6  m.,  is  a  lookout  for  state  fire 
wardens.  From  an  elevation  of  1,974  feet,  plus  the  height  of  the  tower,  the 
visitor  who  climbs  the  tower  stairs  is  rewarded  by  a  view  extending  fifteen 
miles  and  more  in  every  direction. 

The  route  makes  a  sharp  turn,  55.2  m.,  to  the  top  of  a  bluff  over  which, 
in  the  old  days,  Indians  used  to  run  deer  to  their  destruction. 

At  60.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  CCC-built  natural  gravel  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  MOUNTAIN  FORK  RIVER,  4  m.,  where  it  is  feasible  to  launch 
a  boat  or  a  float,  and  where  there  is  good  fishing.  Across  the  river  at  HOCHATOWN,  a 
country  school  marks  the  site  of  the  old  Choctaw  settlement. 

At  64.1  m.  on  the  main  route  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  CCC- 
built  road. 

Left  on  this  road  to  BEAVERS  BEND  STATE  PARK,  3  m.,  a  1,250-acre  tract  of  wild 
beauty.  The  clear,  fast-flowing  Mountain  Fork  River  bisects  the  park,  running  between  high 
and  rugged  banks.  There  are  deep  canyons  down  the  sides  of  which  water  cataracts;  great 
masses  of  tumble  rocks;  a  great  variety  of  trees  and  wild  flowers;  and  squirrels,  some  deer, 
quail,  wild  turkeys,  and  the  gone-wild  "razorback"  hogs  of  more  or  less  distant  farmers. 
Trails  lead  through  the  park. 

From  Mountain  Fork  River  the  fisherman  may  take  channel  cat,  white  perch,  bass, 
and  crappie;  a  low-water  dam  across  the  river  backs  the  water  up  to  form  a  mile-long  lake 
(boats,  camp  site,  picnicking) . 

The  park  area,  it  is  said,  contains  the  greatest  variety  of  birds  to  be  found  in  the  state. 
Among  the  wild  flowers  are  bird-foot  and  dogtooth  violets,  wild  hyacinth,  iris,  plum, 
trillium,  bloodroot,  honeysuckle,  trumpet  creeper,  and  the  profusely  growing  wild  rose. 

State  21  descends  gradually  from  this  point  to  BROKEN  BOW,  73.3  m. 
(467  alt.,  2,367  pop.)  (see  Tour  6),  at  the  junction  with  US  70  (see  Tour  6). 


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Tour  16 


Lake  Francis  Dam  (Watts) — Tahlequah — Cookson — Junction  with  US  64; 
Illinois  River,  approximately  107.  m.  (all  mileages  are  approximate). 

Accommodations  limited  to  towns  near  the  river  banks;  cabins  and  camping  facilities  at 
various  points  on  the  river.  Between  Watts  and  Tahlequah,  vegetables  may  be  purchased 
from  farmers;  between  Tahlequah  and  Gore,  the  region  is  thinly  settled,  and  the  small 
farms  are  at  considerable  distances  from  the  stream.  A  state  fishing  license  (nonresident, 
10  days  $1.25;  resident,  $1.25  per  yr.)  may  be  obtained  at  Lake  Francis  Dam,  at  Tahlequah, 
or  at  the  large  camps  along  the  river. 


408  OKLAHOMA 

This  Tour  is  a  drifting  voyage  down  the  Illinois,  a  picturesque  stream 
that  twists  its  way  in  a  southerly  and  slightly  westerly  direction  through  the 
hills  of  the  old  Cherokee  country  at  the  eastern  edge  of  Oklahoma.  The  river 
penetrates  a  region  known  as  the  last  retreat  of  the  full  bloods.  At  places  it  is 
broken  by  portages  that  vary  from  a  few  feet  to  a  mile,  though  none  is  difficult 
under  ordinary  conditions.  Throughout  almost  the  length  of  the  tour,  the 
river  runs  between  rugged  flint-rock  blulTs  that  range  in  height  from  50  to 
150  feet.  The  water  is  generally  deep,  and  the  stream  bed  either  rock  or  coarse 
gravel;  occasionally  it  is  covered  with  silt  washed  in  from  upland  farms.  Those 
who  choose  the  fall  to  drift  down  the  Illinois  will  find  rich  color  among  the 
trees  and  shrubs  that  cling  to  the  steep  bluffs  and  crowd  to  the  water's  edge, 
with  brilliant  reds  and  yellows  predominating. 

Fishermen  may  make  the  tour  at  any  time,  though  it  is  least  advisable  at 
the  midsummer  low-water  stage.  The  best  seasons  are  early  spring  and  late 
fall.  The  river  and  its  tributaries  are  stocked  annually  from  the  fish  hatcheries 
maintained  by  the  State  Game  and  Fish  Commission,  which  has  also  con- 
structed more  than  three  hundred  low-water  dams  in  feeder  streams  in  order 
to  regulate  the  volume  of  the  Illinois  and  to  provide  year-round  fishing. 

The  Illinois  is  free  of  rapids,  whirlpools,  and  undertows,  flowing  swiftly, 
but  always  smoothly  except  during  brief  periods  following  heavy  rains.  The 
entire  "float"  may  occupy  the  leisurely  fishermen  for  nine  days,  but  for  one 
with  fewer  days  to  spend  on  the  water  it  can  be  done  rather  easily  in  four; 
and  a  still  more  hurried  floater  may  arrange  to  take  either  the  upper  section 
from  Lake  Francis  to  Tahlequah,  or  the  lower  from  Tahlequah  to  Gore. 

At  the  western  end,  0  m.,  of  Lake  Francis  Dam,  1.6  miles  north  of 
WATTS  (958  alt.  307  pop.)  (see  Tour  15),  filling  station  attendants  will 
supply  boats,  with  the  services  of  the  necessary  guide  included,  for  approxi- 
mately $10  per  week.  Here  the  voyager  gets  into  fishing  clothes  —  commonly 
shirt  and  trousers  of  denim,  sneakers,  and  a  battered  hat,  with  an  old  coat  to 
wear  in  the  cool  of  the  evening;  he  stows  in  the  boat  the  blankets  needed  at 
night,  and  changes  of  clothing.  Also  he  checks  such  necessary  camping  equip- 
ment as  a  frying  pan,  coffee  pot,  tin  plates,  and  a  large  all-purpose  pocket 
knife.  Luxury  equipment  on  the  river  are  such  items  as  tent,  wading  boots, 
and  rifles.  Dry  fly  fishermen  and  plug  casters  are  outnumbered  two  to  one  by 
those  who  cut  willow  switch  poles  and  bait  their  hooks  with  live  bait  obtain- 
able along  the  stream.  Signs  along  the  way  offering  minnows  for  sale  are 
frequent.  Below  the  mouth  of  Baron  Fork  Creek,  southeast  of  Tahlequah, 
however,  it  is  well  to  have  a  minnow  seine  in  the  boat. 

Most  commonly  taken  in  the  Illinois  are  crappie,  largemouthed  and 
spotted  bass,  blue  channel  catfish  (which  sometimes  attain  enormous  size), 
mountain  and  black  perch.  Red  horse,  a  delicious,  hard-fighting  fish,  varying 
in  size  from  three  to  eight  pounds,  is  seldom  taken  except  during  "shoalings." 

The  floater  fortunate  enough  to  be  on  the  river  just  after  a  period  of  high 
water  and  just  before  it  has  subsided  to  the  normal  stage  may  see  a  shoaling, 
a  local  term  used  to  describe  the  taking  of  red  horse.  The  flood  carries  them 
downstream  over  shoals  to  the  deep  pools,  and  as  the  water  subsides  they 
(like  salmon)  fight  back  upstream.  In  that  period,  a  stretch  of  shoal  water 


TOUR  16        409 

will  sometimes  seem  to  be  choked  with  them.  Then  local  shoaling  parties  rush 
to  the  scene  with  long  heavy  lines  to  which  large  hooks  are  attached  at 
intervals  of  about  six  inches.  The  lines  are  thrown  into  the  water  in  big 
loops  and,  though  the  hooks  are  not  baited,  the  red  horse  take  them  or  are 
caught  by  the  gills  as  the  lines  are  pulled  in. 

For  practically  all  of  the  entire  trip,  the  fly  caster  will  stick  to  the  boat 
because  the  banks  are  too  rugged  and  thicket-covered  to  permit  fishing  from 
the  land.  Recommended  to  the  bass  fishermen  are  dark  flies  and  live  min- 
nows; the  water  is  so  clear  that  brilliantly  colored  flies  and  spinners  are  not 
required.  Good  flies  to  use  on  this  water  are  the  black  gnat,  Nez  Perces, 
black  hackle,  black  spider,  a  fly  known  locally  as  "yellow  Sally,"  and  other 
small  yellow  or  brown  varieties.  For  casting,  experienced  fishermen  choose 
the  small  dark  river  runt,  the  Al  Foos,  or  similar  shimmy  wigglers. 

At  25  m.,  downstream,  is  Sullivan's  Camp,  with  four  cabins  and  ample 
camping  space.  A  store  here  is  stocked  with  fishing  equipment  and  groceries. 
Adjoining  the  camp  on  the  south  is  a  Recreation  Ground  (free  water,  picnic 
facilities),  maintained  by  the  State  Game  and  Fish  Commission. 

Northwest  of  the  camp  are  the  buildings  and  grounds  of  the  Northeast 
Outing  Club  (private). 

At  27.  m.  is  Hanging  Rock  Camp  (private);  and  near  it  is  a  Roadside 
Park  (open  to  tourists)  (R)  extending  from  the  west  bank  of  the  river  to 
State  10. 

Northeastern  Teachers  Camp,  39  m.,  is  privately  owned,  but  floaters 
are  usually  permitted  to  camp  here.  A  mile  downstream  is  the  little  town  of 
ELLERVILLE,  and  at  41  m.  is  Martin's  Camp  (open  to  the  public).  In  this 
section  the  river  banks  of?er  good  camp  sites,  and  at  near-by  farmhouses 
country  produce  may  be  bought. 

At  Mac's  Camp,  43  m.,  in  the  great  bend  of  the  river,  where  it  turns  to 
flow  northeast  for  several  miles,  are  six  cabins,  a  store,  and  a  cafe  and  dance 
hall.  Immediately  west  of  it,  and  near  State  10,  is  a  tourist  camp. 

At  54  w.  is  the  Bridge  over  which  US  62  (see  Tour  3)  crosses  the  river; 
Tahlequah  (864  alt.,  3,  027  pop.)  (see  Tour  3)  is  3.2  miles  west.  North  of  the 
bridge,  at  the  highway,  is  Riverside  Park,  owned  and  maintained  by  the  city 
of  Tahlequah,  equipped  with  complete  facilities  for  floaters. 

For  the  floater  who  wishes  to  vary  his  voyage  by  leaving  the  river  to 
hunt  (State  license,  $1.25,  and  land  owners'  permission  required) ,  the  Cook- 
son  Hills  south  of  Tahlequah  offer  the  best  opportunity.  Here,  cottontail 
rabbits  (no  closed  season)  and  red  and  gray  squirrels  (closed  season  Jan.  1  to 
May  1)  are  fairly  plentiful  in  the  woods.  The  country  is  too  thickly  wooded 
and  has  too  few  clearings  to  tempt  the  quail  hunter;  and  the  only  wild  ducks 
seen  are  occasional  teal  that  linger  for  a  time  after  early  October. 

On  this  section  of  the  river  it  is  unprofitable  for  the  fishermen  to  explore 
the  small  tributary  streams,  for  they  are  uniformly  shallow,  clear,  and  devoid 
of  large  rocks  or  sunken  logs  to  provide  hiding  places  for  the  fish. 

However,  BARON  FORK  CREEK,  59  tn.,  is  a  good  fishing  stream  (L),  accessible  by 
boat  for  twenty  miles  or  more  from  its  mouth.  Besides  the  varieties  found  in  the  Illinois,  the 
fisherman  in  this  beautiful,  canyon-confined  stream  may  take  excellent  miniature  brown 


410  OKLAHOMA 

bass,  a  game  fish  that  prefers  the  cold  spring-fed  creek  to  the  warmer  expanses  of  the  river. 
The  creek,  varying  in  width  and  depth,  has  cut  its  way  through  rugged  hills,  has  a  rock- 
and-gravel  bottom,  and  is  shaded  for  most  of  the  day  by  the  high,  nearly  sheer  cliffs  that  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  distance  rise  on  cither  side. 

Hubbard's  Camp  and  Sharon's  Camp,  both  on  Baron  Fork  close  to  the  Illinois,  arc 
well  equipped  to  care  for  the  floater.  Sharon's  consists  of  a  twenty-acre  tract  on  which  are 
eight  cabins  and  adequate  facilities  for  campers. 

At  66  m.  the  river  makes  a  wide  horseshoe  bend,  flowing  rather  swiftly 
under  the  shadow  of  a  limestone  bluf?  (L)  that  rises  some  one  hundred  feet 
above  the  water.  At  the  middle  of  the  bend  is  a  similar  cliff  (R),  its  sheer 
surface  bare  and  deeply  eroded.  Trees  at  the  tops  of  these  clififs  grow  so  near 
the  edge  that  their  shadows  are  cast  upon  the  water. 

At  69  w.  the  blufl  slopes  so  gradually  that  near-by  farmers  have  cut  a 
road  down  to  the  river  (L)  over  which  they  haul  water  for  livestock. 

Left  on  this  road  to  BARBER,  2.5  m.,  a  tiny  country  setdement  grouped  about  a  small 
church  in  which  services  are  conducted  in  the  Cherokee  language;  the  Sunday  sermon  is 
usually  (1941)  preached  by  Jackson  Standing  Deer  Larvin,  a  North  Carolina-born  Chero- 
kee who  came  to  Indian  Territory  at  the  age  of  nine.  The  Indian  congregation  gives  the 
church  good  support  and  resort  to  such  white  country  people's  devices  as  pie  suppers  and 
cake  sales  to  raise  money  to  pay  the  preacher. 

The  Cherokee  Cemetery,  3  m.,  is  worth  a  visit  on  Decoration  Day.  The  evening 
before,  Indians  come  from  miles  around  on  foot,  on  horseback,  by  wagon  and  automobile 
and  camp  at  Tom  Fixon's  Place  near  by.  Here  the  evening  is  spent  in  singing  songs  in 
Cherokee.  In  the  morning  they  march  in  procession  to  the  burying  ground  and  hold  a 
service,  after  which  they  re-form  to  march  slowly  among  the  graves  scattering  flowers 
indiscriminately  upon  all  graves.  Most  of  the  flowers  are  made  of  crepe  paper,  but  some 
are  gathered  from  roadsides  and  pastures.  At  noon  a  communal  meal  is  spread  on  plank 
trestle  tables,  in  which  the  characteristic  Cherokee  dishes  of  conutchcie  (a  hominy  made  of 
corn  and  nuts),  bean  bread,  and  lye-treated  hominy  are  served. 

Many  white  residents  of  Barber  and  the  surrounding  neighborhood  belong  to  a 
religious  sect  called  the  True  Followers  of  Christ.  They  have  no  church  building  and  no 
ordained  minister,  but  meet  on  Sunday  afternoons  at  the  home  of  a  member,  where  services 
are  conducted  by  various  adherents.  The  True  Followers'  faith  teaches  them  to  rely  upon 
"the  power  of  the  Word,"  and  to  refuse  all  medical  aid  when  ill.  Instead,  the  elders  of  the 
congregation  assemble  at  the  home  of  the  patient  and  pray  for  his  recovery. 

Members  of  the  sect  habitually  greet  one  another  with  the  "holy  kiss"  and  observe  the 
feet-washing  ritual  at  Sunday  services.  Women  members  are  forbidden  to  bob  their  hair, 
use  cosmetics,  or  wear  beads,  rings,  and  other  ornaments.  Severe  simplicity  of  dress  is 
demanded,  though  no  uniform  has  been  adopted.  They  profess  to  be  in  constant  communica- 
tion with  God  and  declare  that  messages  come  from  Him  directing  each  small  detail  of  their 
lives. 

COOKSON,  77  m.  (592  alt.,  50  pop.),  is  the  old  Cherokee  setdement 
(L)  from  which  the  Cookson  Hills  were  named.  Here,  at  St.^tton's  Store 
and  Camp,  the  floater  may  secure  supplies  and  accommodations.  In  this  region 
there  is  a  striking  succession  of  bloom  from  early  spring  to  late  fall  beginning 
with  dogwood  and  redbud  and  extending  to  wild  asters  and  goldenrod.  In 
between  come  the  clumps  of  Cherokee  wild  rose,  wild  ginger,  honeysuckle, 
dogfennel,  and  horehound. 

Along  this  part  of  the  river  the  water  flows  swiftly  between  high  and 
precipitous  banks,  and  there  are  few  landing  places.  In  the  deep  water  here 
are  found  the  best  of  the  big  blue  channel  catfish.  Local  fishermen  put  out 


TOUR    16  411 

trotlines,  usually  at  night,  but  in  any  case  weighted  to  a  depth  to  prevent 
being  caught  by  a  passing  boat.  The  floater  is  advised  to  seek  a  quiet  deep 
pool  and  use  chicken  liver  or  dough  soaked  with  chicken  blood  for  bait. 

At  107  m.  is  a  bridge  over  which  US  64  (see  Tour  2)  crosses  the  Illinois 
River. 

Congress  has  authorized  the  construction  of  a  dam  across  the  Illinois 
River  at  this  point  (approximately  three  miles  above  its  confluence  with  the 
Arkansas  River).  It  is  a  part  of  the  projected  $44,000,000  Mississippi  River 
flood  control  project  and  will  be  known  as  the  Tenkiller  Ferry  Reservoir. 
When  completed,  it  will  have  a  capacity  of  some  nine  hundred  thousand  acre 
feet  and  storage  for  more  than  11  per  cent  of  the  waters  from  the  Illinois 
River  drainage  area.  The  importance  of  the  proposed  project  is  indicated  by 
army  engineers'  estimate  that  about  30  per  cent  of  the  waters  which  caused 
the  disastrous  Mississippi  floods  in  1927  came  from  three  Oklahoma  rivers 
— the  Illinois,  the  Grand,  and  the  Verdigris. 

Right  from  the  bridge  on  US  64  is  GORE,  1.7  m.  (480  alt.,  334  pop.)  (see  Tour  2). 


.^11^2 - ^^'^j. ^^IJ. ^  - ^^1z .- i^^li - , ^^'H .  - £^"'12 , , sjfl'i: 


PART  IV 

Appendices 


rjy^s — '      ziij^ r^ij^    '      JS[|^^    '     zii^^    '  ~    rp\j^      "    ijy^    '      r^o^i* 


^^0,^2 . ^^"J. .  - ^^11 ^  , ^^IZ .- ^^"J ^  , ^^'H «  - £^"^2 ^  . S^^^J. 


Chronology 


1541  Francisco  Vasquez  de  Coronado  crosses  western  Oklahoma  in  search 
of  the  golden  city  of  Quivira;  claims  land  for  Spain  but  makes  no  per- 
manent settlement. 
Hernando  de  Soto  explores  along  present  eastern  border  of  Oklahoma. 

1650  Don  Diego  del  Castillo  spends  six  months  in  the  Wichita  Mountains 
prospecting  for  gold  and  silver. 

1682  Robert-Rene  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  La  Salle  claims  for  the  King  of  France 
all  lands  drained  by  the  Mississippi  River  (including  Oklahoma)  under 
the  name  of  Louisiana. 

1719  Bernard  de  la  Harpe  crosses  southeastern  Oklahoma  from  the  Red  River 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  present  Muskogee. 

Claud  Charles  de  Tisne  visits  Pawnee  villages  near  the  present  site  of 
Chelsea. 

1762  Louisiana  (including  Oklahoma)  is  ceded  to  Spain  by  France. 

1800  Louisiana  is  retroceded  to  France  by  Spain. 

1802  United  States  makes  a  compact  with  Georgia  to  remove  the  Creeks  and 
Cherokees  from  the  state  as  soon  as  it  can  be  done  "peaceably  and  on 
favorable  terms." 

Pierre  Chouteau  induces  some  of  the  Osages  to  remove  from  Missouri 
to  northeastern  Oklahoma  and  opens  up  a  profitable  trade  with  them. 

1803  United  States  purchases  Louisiana  from  France. 

President  Thomas  Jefferson  draws  up  a  proposal  for  exchanging  land 
occupied  by  Indians  in  the  eastern  states  for  "equivalent  portions"  in 
Louisiana. 

1804  All  of  Louisiana  north  of  the  thirty-third  parallel  is  designated  as  the 
District  of  Louisiana  and  placed  under  the  administration  of  Indiana 
Territory;  William  Henry  Harrison  thus  becomes  the  first  American 
governor  of  Oklahoma. 

1805  District  of  Louisiana  is  organized  as  the  Territory  of  Louisiana  with  the 
seat  of  government  at  St.  Louis. 

1806  Lieutenant  James  B.  Wilkinson  descends  the  Arkansas  River  crossing 
northeastern  Oklahoma. 

1808  Several  Cherokee  chiefs  and  headmen  inform  President  Jefferson  that 
a  portion  of  the  tribe  wishes  to  emigrate  to  the  West. 

415 


416  OKLAHOMA 

1811  Territory  of  Louisiana  is  organized  as  the  Territory  of  Missouri. 

George  C.  Sibley,  United  States  Indian  agent,  explores  the  Great  Salt 

Plains  near  the  present  Cherokee. 
1817  Cherokees  sign  the  first  removal  treaty  obtaining  land  in  the  present 

state  of  Arkansas,  and  the  movement  of  one-third  of  the  tribe  to  the  new 

location  begins. 

Fort  Smith  is  established  on  the  present  border  of  Oklahoma  to  protect 

the  immigrant  Indians. 

1819  That  portion  of  the  Territory  of  Missouri  south  of  36°30'  is  organized 
as  the  Territory  of  Arkansas,  including  all  of  Oklahoma  except  a  strip 
along  the  present  northern  boundary. 

Thomas  Nuttall,  English  naturalist,  visits  Oklahoma  studying  flora  and 
fauna. 

Boundary  between  the  United  States  and  the  Spanish  possessions  is 
fixed  at  the  Red  River  and  the  one-hundredth  meridian,  thus  establish- 
ing the  southern  and  western  limits  of  Oklahoma. 

1820  Choctaws  purchase  the  area  south  of  the  Canadian  and  Arkansas  rivers 
— the  first  eastern  Indian  tribe  to  acquire  land  in  Oklahoma — but  few 
remove  to  the  new  location. 

Arkansas  legislature  passes  an  act  creating  Miller  County  in  southeast- 
ern Oklahoma  and  establishing  the  Miller  Courthouse,  the  first  court 
within  the  present  state. 

1821  Rev.  Epaphras  Chapman  founds  Union  Mission  on  Grand  River  among 
the  Osages — the  first  Protestant  mission  in  Oklahoma. 

Sequoyah  completes  the  Cherokee  alphabet. 

1824  First  post  office  in  Oklahoma  is  opened  at  Miller  Courthouse. 

Fort  Gibson — the  first  fort  in  Oklahoma — is  established  on  the  Grand 
River;  Fort  Towson  is  established  on  the  Red  River  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Kiamichi. 

1825  Treaty  with  the  Choctaws  fixes  the  present  eastern  boundary  of  Okla- 
homa from  Fort  Smith  to  the  Red  River. 

1826  Creeks  purchase  a  tract  of  land  in  Oklahoma,  and  a  portion  of  the  tribe 
prepares  to  emigrate. 

Military  road  is  constructed  from  Fort  Gibson  to  Fort  Smith,  the  first 
road  established  in  Oklahoma. 

1828  First  immigrant  Creeks  arrive  in  Oklahoma  and  begin  to  lay  out  farms 
in  the  Arkansas  valley. 

Cherokees  in  Arkansas  exchange  their  land  for  a  tract  in  Oklahoma;  the 
boundary  established  by  this  treaty  fixes  the  remainder  of  the  present 
eastern  boundary  of  the  state. 

1829  Arkansas  Cherokees  begin  their  removal  to  Oklahoma;  Sequoyah  set- 
tles in  the  present  Sequoyah  County;  Dwight  Mission,  established  by 
the  Presbyterians  for  the  Arkansas  Cherokees,  is  removed  to  Oklahoma. 
Sam  Houston,  after  resigning  as  governor  of  Tennessee,  setdes  near 
Fort  Gibson  and  is  granted  full  citizenship  rights  by  the  Cherokee 
Council. 


CHRONOLOGY  417 

President  Andrew  Jackson  in  his  message  to  Congress  advises  removal 
of  all  Indians  remaining  in  the  East. 
1830  Indian  Removal  Act  is  passed  by  Congress. 

Choctaws  cede  the  remainder  of  their  land  in  Mississippi  and  prepare 
to  remove  to  Oklahoma,  the  main  removals  taking  place  during  the  suc- 
ceeding three  years. 

A  Presbyterian  church  is  organized  among  the  Creeks  in  the  Arkansas 
valley. 

1832  Cherokee  Council  provides  for  the  opening  of  five  schools,  the  first 
school  law  enacted  in  the  present  state  of  Oklahoma. 

Washington  Irving  accompanies  United  States  rangers  on  an  expedi- 
tion from  Fort  Gibson  to  the  present  site  of  Norman,  recording  his 
experiences  in  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies. 

Creeks  cede  the  remainder  of  their  land  in  the  East,  thus  paving  the  way 
for  the  removal  of  the  succeeding  four  years. 

A  Presbyterian  church  is  organized  among  the  immigrant  Choctaws 
at  Wheelock,  and  a  Baptist  church  among  the  Creeks. 

1833  Seminoles  are  tricked  into  signing  a  removal  treaty,  which  is  followed 
by  the  long  and  exhausting  Seminole  War  and  the  final  colonization 
of  the  tribe  in  Oklahoma. 

1834  United  States  Commissioners  draw  up  a  territorial  form  of  government 
for  the  immigrant  Indians,  the  first  of  many  futile  attempts  to  create 
an  Indian  state  of  Oklahoma. 

Leavenworth-Dodge  Expedition  from  Fort  Gibson  visits  southwestern 
Oklahoma  and  establishes  friendly  relations  with  the  wild  tribes. 

1835  Comanche  and  Wichita  Indians  enter  into  treaty  relations  with  the 
United  States  at  a  council  held  near  the  present  site  of  Lexington. 
Criminal  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts  of  Arkansas  is  extended  over 
Oklahoma. 

Cherokees  remaining  in  the  East  cede  their  land  to  the  United  States, 
thus  paving  the  way  for  the  removals  of  the  succeeding  three  years. 
Samuel  A.  Worcester  installs  a  printing  press  at  Union  Mission  and 
publishes  the  first  book  printed  in  Oklahoma. 

1837  Chickasaws  surrender  their  lands  in  the  East  and  begin  their  removal 
to  Oklahoma. 

1838  Choctaws  complete  a  council  house  of  hewn  logs  near  the  present  site  of 
Tuskahoma,  the  first  capitol  built  in  Oklahoma. 

1839  Newly  arrived  Cherokees  and  "Old  Settler  Cherokees"  adopt  a  new 
constitution  and  establish  a  council  ground  at  Tahlequah. 

1842  Fort  Washita  is  established  to  protect  the  Chickasaw  settlements  from 
the  wild  tribes  of  the  Southwest. 

Choctaw  congregation  at  Wheelock  builds  a  stone  church,  which  still 
stands  as  the  oldest  church  building  in  Oklahoma. 

1843  A  great  council  of  eighteen  Indian  tribes  is  held  at  Tahlequah,  and  a 
code  of  intertribal  law  is  drawn  up  and  adopted  by  the  Cherokees, 
Creeks,  and  Osages. 


418  OKLAHOMA 

1844  The  Cherokee  Messenger — the  first  newspaper  published  in  Oklahoma 
— is  issued  at  a  Baptist  missionary  station  north  of  the  present  Westville; 
it  is  followed  a  month  later  by  The  Cherokee  Advocate,  published  at 
Tahlequah. 

First  cotton  gin  in  the  Cherokee  Nation — probably  the  first  in  Okla- 
homa— is  constructed  on  the  Arkansas  fifteen  miles  above  Fort  Smith. 

1849  First  Masonic  Lodge  established  in  an  Indian  tribe  is  organized  at 
Tahlequah. 

Hordes  of  California  gold-seekers  follow  a  well-defined  trail  across 
Oklahoma. 

1850  Texas  relinquishes  the  land  north  of  36° 30',  thus  forming  the  southern 
boundary  of  the  Oklahoma  Panhandle. 

1851  Fort  Arbuckle  is  established. 

1852  Tahlequah  is  incorporated  under  Cherokee  law — the  first  incorporated 
town  in  Oklahoma. 

1854  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  defines  the  southern  boundary  of  Kansas  at  37°, 
thus  fixing  the  northern  boundary  of  Oklahoma. 

1856  Seminoles  separate  from  the  Creeks  and  form  their  own  government. 
Chickasaws  set  up  a  tribal  government,  adopt  a  constitution,  and  estab- 
lish Tishomingo  as  their  capital. 

1858  Butterfield  stage  and  mail  route  is  laid  out,  crossing  Oklahoma  from 
Fort  Smith  west  and  south  to  the  Red  River. 

1859  An  intertribal  law  code  is  drawn  up  by  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes 
(Cherokees,  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  and  Seminoles)  at  North 
Fork  Town. 

Fort  Cobb  is  established  on  the  western  frontier  of  civilized  Indian 
settlement. 

1860  Choctaws  adopt  the  constitution  under  which  their  government  func- 
tions until  the  end  of  the  tribal  period. 

1861  United  States  abandons  the  forts  in  Oklahoma;  most  of  the  Indian  tribes 
align  with  the  Confederates;  thousands  of  Union  Indians  flee  to  Kansas. 

1862  A  Union  military  expedition  from  Kansas  penetrates  to  Fort  Gibson. 

1863  Union  forces  defeat  the  Confederates  at  Honey  Springs,  the  most  im- 
portant battle  fought  in  Oklahoma  during  the  Civil  War. 

1865  Confederate  Indians  surrender  to  Union  forces  more  than  two  months 
after  Appomatox;  United  States  officials  hold  a  council  with  the  Indians 
and  lay  down  terms  for  the  resumption  of  treaty  relations. 

1866  Five  Civilized  Tribes  sign  treaties  with  the  United  States  freeing  their 
slaves,  ceding  the  western  half  of  Oklahoma  for  the  setdement  of  other 
Indians,  and  agreeing  to  a  tentative  intertribal  organization. 

The  name  Oklahoma  is  first  suggested  by  Allen  Wright,  member  of  the 
Choctaw  treaty  delegation. 

Congress  grants  franchises  for  the  construction  of  the  first  two  railroads 
across  Oklahoma. 


CHRONOLOGY  419 

1867  United  States  makes  the  first  of  a  series  of  treaties,  assigning  reserva- 
tions to  Indian  tribes  in  the  ceded  territory. 
Creeks  adopt  their  final  constitution. 

1869  Fort  Sill  is  established  as  the  base  of  operations  against  the  Plains 
Indians. 

1870  Construction  is  started  on  the  Missouri-Kansas-Texas  Railroad — the 
first  to  enter  the  Oklahoma  area. 

Federal  government  begins  the  survey  of  the  Chickasaw  district,  estab- 
lishing the  initial  point  from  which  all  of  Oklahoma  except  the  Pan- 
handle is  eventually  surveyed. 

First  meeting  of  the  intertribal  council  is  convened  at  Okmulgee. 
1872  First  coal  mining  on  a  commercial  scale  begins  at  McAlester  in  the 
Choctaw  Nation. 

1874  Fort  Reno  is  established, 

1875  Resistance  of  the  Plains  Indians  to  white  encroachment  is  finally 
crushed. 

Intertribal  council  at  Okmulgee  holds  its  last  session. 

1876  Last  buffalo  herd  is  reported  in  Oklahoma. 

1879  First  telephone  in  Oklahoma  is  set  up,  connecting  Fort  Sill  and  Fort 
Reno. 

"Boomers"  begin  their  attempts  to  settle  on  the  "Oklahoma  Lands." 
Will  Rogers  is  born  in  the  Cherokee  Nation  near  Oologah. 
Population  of  the  Indian  Territory  is  estimated  at  81,381;  this  includes 
Indians,  a  few  white  residents,  and  ex-slaves  of  the  Indians. 

1882  Isparhecher  begins  the  rebellion  against  the  Creek  government  known 
as  the  Green  Peach  War. 

Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad  establishes  a  station  in  the  Creek  Nation 
at  a  place  called  "Tulsey  Town"  by  the  Indians. 

1883  Isparhecher  faction  makes  peace  with  the  constitutional  Creek  gov- 
ernment. 

Cherokee  Strip  Live  Stock  Association  leases  the  "Outlet"  from  the 
Cherokee  Nation. 

1884  A  company  of  Choctaw  citizens  drills  for  oil  near  Atoka. 

1887  Congress  passes  the  Dawes  Act,  providing  for  breaking  up  the  Indian 
reservations  into  individual  allotments  and  opening  the  surplus  land 
to  white  settlement. 

1889  First  Federal  court  in  Oklahoma  is  established  in  Muskogee. 
Oklahoma's  first  producing  oil  well  is  drilled  near  Chelsea. 

First  Run  opens  an  area  in  Oklahoma  to  white  setdement;  Oklahoma 
City,  Guthrie,  Norman,  and  other  cities  and  towns  are  established. 

1890  Congress  creates  a  Territorial  government  for  the  settlers  in  the  "Okla- 
homa Lands";  Guthrie  becomes  the  capital;  George  W.  Steele  is  ap- 
pointed governor;  the  First  Territorial  Legislature  adopts  a  code  of  laws 
and  establishes  a  school  system. 


420  OKLAHOMA 

Panhandle  is  joined  to  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma. 
First  Federal  census  shows  a  population  of  78,475  in  Oklahoma  Terri- 
tory and  180,182  in  the  area  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes. 

1891  First  statehood  convention  is  held  in  Oklahoma  City. 

First  Territorial  college — later  the  Central  State  College — is  opened  at 
Edmond;  the  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  is  opened 
at  Stillwater. 

The  Sac  and  Fox,  Iowa,  Shawnee,  and  Potawatomi  reservations  are 
opened  for  settlement,  adding  two  new  counties. 

1892  University  of  Oklahoma  is  opened  at  Norman. 

The  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  country  is  opened  for  settlement,  adding 
six  new  counties. 

1893  Dawes  Commission  is  created  for  the  purpose  of  liquidating  the  affairs 
of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes. 

Oklahoma  Historical  Society  is  founded  at  Kingfisher. 

Cherokee  Outlet  is  opened  to  white  setdement  by  the  greatest  of  all  the 

Runs  in  Oklahoma. 

1896  Greer  County  is  awarded  to  the  United  States  by  a  Supreme  Court 
decision  and  joined  to  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma. 

1897  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  and  Seminoles  make  agreements  with  the 
Dawes  Commission. 

1898  Congress  passes  the  Curtis  Act  providing  for  compulsory  liquidation  of 
the  Five  Civilized  Tribes. 

Many  Oklahoma  and  Indian  frontiersmen  serve  with  Roosevelt's  Rough 
Riders  in  the  Spanish-American  War. 

1899  United  States  takes  over  the  schools,  the  Dawes  Commission  starts 
allotting  the  lands,  and  the  first  townsites  are  platted  for  the  Five  Civi- 
lized Tribes. 

1900  First  course  in  geology  is  taught  at  the  University  of  Oklahoma. 
Federal  census  shows  a  population  of  398,331  in  the  Territory  of  Okla- 
homa and  392,060  in  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  area. 

1901  Kiowa-Comanche  and  Wichita  reservations  are  opened  to  setdement, 
the  last  opening  in  Oklahoma. 

1905  Inhabitants  of  the  Five  Tribes  area  hold  a  convention  and  draw  up  a 
constitution  for  a  state  to  be  named  Sequoyah. 

Glenn  Oil  Pool  is  discovered. 

1906  Congress  passes  the  Enabling  Act  providing  statehood  for  Oklahoma; 
the  constitutional  convention  meets  at  Guthrie. 

1907  November  16.  Oklahoma  is  admitted  to  the  Union,  the  forty-sixth  state; 
the  first  election  reveals  overwhelming  Democratic  majority;  Charles  N. 
Haskell,  the  first  governor,  is  inaugurated  at  Guthrie. 

Special  Federal  census  enumerates  a  population  of  1,414,177  for  the 
new  state. 
1910  State  capital  is  removed  to  Oklahoma  City. 
Population,  1,657,155. 


CHRONOLOGY  421 

1911  State  legislature  provides  for  placing  a  statue  of  Sequoyah  in  Statuary 
Hall  in  the  national  Capitol. 

Lee  Cruce  is  inaugurated  as  governor. 

1912  Gushing  Oil  Pool  is  discovered. 

1913  Healdton  Oil  Field  is  discovered. 

1915  Robert  L.  Williams  is  inaugurated  as  governor. 

1916  Oklahoma  National  Guard  sees  service  on  the  Mexican  Border. 

1917  United  States  declares  war  on  Germany;  in  the  first  draft  Oklahoma 
registers  173,744;  the  sporadic  "Green  Corn  Rebellion"  breaks  out 
against  conscription. 

1918  End  of  first  World  War,  for  which  Oklahoma  furnished  88,496  men  in 
uniform  and  purchased  $116,368,045  worth  of  Liberty  Bonds. 

1919  J.  B.  A.  Robertson  is  inaugurated  as  governor  of  Oklahoma. 

1920  Oklahoma  for  the  first  time  in  its  history  votes  Republican. 
Oil  fields  in  Osage  County  begin  spectacular  production. 
Population,  2,028,283. 

1923  John  Calloway  (Jack)  Walton  becomes  governor,  is  impeached  and 
removed  from  office,  and  is  succeeded  by  Martin  Edwin  Trapp. 

1926  Greater  Seminole  Oil  Field  is  developed,  bringing  serious  overproduc- 
tion in  the  oil  industry. 

1927  Henry  S.  Johnston  becomes  governor. 

1928  Oklahoma  City  Oil  Field  is  opened. 

1929  Governor  Johnston  is  impeached  and  removed  from  office;  William 
J.  HoUoway  becomes  governor. 

1930  Population,  2,396,040. 

1931  William  H.  ("Alfalfa  Bill")  Murray  is  inaugurated  as  governor. 
Governor  Murray  closes  Oklahoma  oil  wells  in  an  effort  to  stabilize 
prices. 

Wiley   Post,   noted   Oklahoma   air   pilot,   completes    round-the-world 
flight  of  16,474  miles  in  8  days,  15  hours,  51  minutes. 

1935  E.  W.  Marland  is  inaugurated  as  governor. 

Will  Rogers  and  Wiley  Post  die  in  airplane  crash  in  Alaska. 

1937  Construction  begins  on  $22,750,000  Grand  River  Dam  in  eastern  Okla- 
homa. 

1939  Leon  C.  ("Red")  Phillips  becomes  governor. 

1940  Population,  2,336,434,  a  loss  of  59,606  since  census  of  1930. 


t^O/»i .  , rtO/t; ^  . M/^j , :^tl/i: ., ^jO^: ^  , :5ll'*j , r^O^: ^  , :jO^ 


Selected  Reading  List 


This  list  is  not  designed  as  an  exhaustive  or  scholarly  bibliography, 
but  as  a  guide  to  the  general  reader  seeking  further  information 
about  Oklahoma. 

Alford,  Thomas  Wildcat.  Civilization  (Florence  Drake,  editor).  University 
of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1936.  Life  on  the  Shawnee  res- 
ervation as  told  by  a  great-grandson  of  Tecumseh;  a  firsthand  account  of 
Indian  life  and  customs  and  the  adjustment  to  the  white  man's  institu- 
tions. 

Allen,  C.  M.  The  Sequoyah  Convention.  Harlow  Publishing  Company,  Okla- 
homa City,  Oklahoma,  1925.  A  history  of  the  movement  which  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  the  state  of  Oklahoma. 

Alley,  John.  City  Beginnings  in  0}{lahoma  Territory.  University  of  Okla- 
homa Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1939.  Shows  how  the  cities  of  Guthrie, 
Oklahoma  City,  Kingfisher,  El  Reno,  Norman,  and  Stillwater  sprang  up 
at  the  time  of  the  first  Run. 

Ball,  Max  W.  This  Fascinating  Oil  Business.  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indian- 
apolis and  New  York,  1940.  A  nontechnical  book,  giving  a  complete 
description  of  the  oil  industry  from  prospecting  to  the  finished  product; 
not  confined  to  Oklahoma,  but  presenting  an  adequate  background  of 
oil  development  in  the  state. 

Barnard,  Evan  G.  A  Rider  of  the  Cherokee  Strip.  Houghton  Mifflin  Com- 
pany, Boston  and  New  York,  1936.  A  firsthand  account  in  vivid,  narra- 
tive style  of  ranching  and  homesteading  in  Oklahoma. 

Bass,  Althea.  Chcro}{ee  Messenger.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 
Oklahoma,  1936.  A  readable  biography  of  Samuel  Austin  Worcester;  an 
account  of  the  missionary  work  of  the  Worcester  family,  and  the  early 
educational  progress  of  the  Cherokees. 

Brookings  Institution.  Organization  and  Administration  of  Ol^lahoma.  Har- 
low Publishing  Company,  Oklahoma  City,  1935.  A  critical  study  of  the 
functioning  of  Oklahoma  government  with  recommendations  for  im- 
provement. Since  its  publication,  of  course,  much  has  transpired  which 
could  not  have  been  anticipated  in  the  report  itself. 

Buchanan,  James  Shannon,  and  Dale,  Edward  Everett.  A  History  of  OJ{la- 
homa.  Row,  Peterson  and  Company,  New  York,  1935.  Designed  for  a 

422 


SELECTED  READING  LIST     423 

school  textbook  and  told  in  simple  language;  historically  sound,  and  one 
of  the  best  brief  surveys  of  Oklahoma  history. 

Buck,  Solon  J.  The  Settlement  of  Oklahoma.  A  reprint  from  Volume  XV, 
Part  II,  of  the  transactions  of  the  Wisconsin  Academy  of  Science,  Arts 
and  Letters,  Madison,  Wisconsin,  1907.  A  research  project,  well  anno- 
tated. 

Canton,  Frank  M.  Frontier  Trails  (Edward  Everett  Dale,  editor).  Houghton 
MifBin  Company,  Boston  and  New  York,  1930.  An  autobiography  of  a 
colorful  Oklahoma  pioneer. 

Collings,  Ellsworth,  and  England,  Alma  Miller.  The  101  Ranch.  University 
of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1937.  An  account  of  the  mani- 
fold activities  of  this  famous  ranch  near  Ponca  City;  traces  the  develop- 
ment from  range  catde  industry  to  agriculture,  oil  production,  rodeos, 
and  Wild  West  shows. 

Dale,  Edward  Everett.  The  Range  Cattle  Industry.  University  of  Oklahoma 
Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1930.  A  vivid  and  authentic  history  of  ranch- 
ing on  the  Great  Plains,  including  the  area  now  comprising  the  state  of 
Oklahoma. 

,  and  Litton,  Gaston,  editors.  Chero\ee  Cavaliers.  University  of  Okla- 
homa Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1939.  Forty  years  of  Cherokee  history, 
graphically  told  in  the  correspondence   of  the   Ridge-Watie-Boudinot 
family. 
-,  and  Rader,  Jesse  L.  Readings  in  OJ{lahoma  History.  Row,  Peterson, 


and  Company,  New  York,  1930.  A  collection  of  nontechnical  source 
material,  illustrating  phases  of  Oklahoma  history. 

Debo,  Angle.  And  Still  the  Waters  Run.  Princeton  University  Press,  Prince- 
ton, New  Jersey,  1940.  The  liquidation  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  in 
preparation  for  statehood,  and  the  picture  of  the  Indians  as  citizens  of 
Oklahoma. 

.  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Choctaw  Republic.  University  of  Oklahoma 

Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1934.  A  political,  social,  and  economic  history 
of  the  Choctaw  Indians. 

The  Road  to  Disappearance.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 


Oklahoma,  1941.  A  scholarly  study  of  the  Creek  Indians  to  the  dissolu- 
tion of  their  tribal  government  in  Oklahoma. 

Ferguson,  Mrs.  Tom  B.  They  Carried  the  Torch.  Burton  Publishing  Com- 
pany, Kansas  City,  1937.  The  spirited  reminiscences  of  a  pioneer  news- 
paper woman;  almost  a  social  history  of  the  development  of  Oklahoma 
Territory. 

Foreman,  Carolyn  Thomas.  OI{lahoma  Imprints.  University  of  Oklahoma 
Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1936.  A  comprehensive  history  of  printing 
in  the  area  forming  the  present  state  of  Oklahoma,  from  the  establish- 
ment of  the  first  press  in  1835  to  the  time  of  statehood.  Useful  as  a  ref- 
erence book,  presenting  in  its  newspaper  history  a  complete  cross  section 
of  Indian  and  pioneer  life. 


424  OKLAHOMA 

Foreman,  Grant.  Down  the  Texas  Road.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Nor- 
man, Oklahoma,  1936.  A  handy  little  booklet,  giving  an  authentic  de- 
scription of  historical  places  along  Highway  69  through  Oklahoma. 

.  Fort  Gibson.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma, 

1936.  A  readable  pamphlet  describing  the  active  life  that  centered  around 
this  frontier  post. 

.  Marcy  and  the  Gold  Seekers.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 

Oklahoma,  1939.  The  journal  of  Captain  Randolph  B.  Marcy  with  an 
account  of  the  gold  rush  over  the  "California  Trail"  across  Oklahoma. 

.  Sequoyah.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1938. 

The  definitive  biography  of  this  Indian  genius. 

.  The  Five  Civilized  Tribes.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 

Oklahoma,  1934.  Probably  the  most  interesting  of  this  historian's  many 
books;  an  authentic  picture  of  life  in  what  is  now  Oklahoma  before  the 
Civil  War. 

,  editor.  Adventure  on  Red  River.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Nor- 
man, Oklahoma,  1937.  Report  on  the  exploration  of  the  headwaters  of 
the  Red  River  by  Captain  Randolph  B.  Marcy  and  Captain  G.  B.  McClel- 
lan. 

.  Indians  and  Pioneers.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Okla- 
homa, 1936.  The  story  of  the  American  Southwest  before  1830. 

.  Advancing  the  Frontier.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 

Oklahoma,  1933.  A  well-told  and  documented  story  of  the  immigrant 
Indians  and  their  problems  from  1770  to  1830. 

.  Indian  Removal.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma, 

1932.  A  readable  and  authentic  account  of  the  emigration  of  the  Five 
Civilized  Tribes. 


Gittinger,  Roy.  The  Formation  of  the  State  of  Oklahoma.  University  of  Okla- 
homa Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1939.  A  scholarly  history  of  events 
leading  to  the  creation  of  the  state. 

Glasscock,  C.  B.  Then  Came  Oil.  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis  and 
New  York,  1938.  Oklahoma  history  as  affected  by  the  discovery  and 
development  of  the  oil  industry  of  the  state. 

Gould,  Charles  N.  Oklahoma  Place  Names.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press, 
Norman,  Oklahoma,  1933.  Explains  the  origin  of  numerous  names  of 
rivers,  cities,  towns,  and  mountains  of  Oklahoma. 

Hill,  Luther  B.  A  History  of  the  State  of  Oklahoma.  The  Lewis  Publishing 
Company,  Chicago  and  New  York,  1908.  An  early  attempt  to  tell  the 
story  of  Oklahoma  from  the  date  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  through  the 
formation  of  the  state. 

Hitchcock,  Ethan  Allen.  A  Traveler  in  Indian  Territory  (Grant  Foreman, 
editor).  The  Torch  Press,  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  1930.  An  extremely  inter- 
esting journal  of  Hitchcock's  visit  to  the  Indian  Territory  in  1842.  It  is 
especially  rich  in  Creek  material,  showing  how  that  recendy  transplanted 
tribe  was  establishing  its  institutions  upon  a  remote  frontier. 


SELECTED   READING    LIST  425 

Irving,  Washington.  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies  (George  C.  Wells  and  Joseph 
B.  Thoburn,  editors).  Harlow  Publishing  Company,  Oklahoma  City, 
1926.  The  well-known  classic  tracing  Irving's  route  across  Oklahoma, 
edited  with  reference  to  present-day  landmarks. 

Lewis,  Anna.  Along  the  Arl^ansas.  The  Southwest  Press,  Dallas,  Texas,  1932, 
Early  history  of  the  Arkansas  River  region  in  Oklahoma;  also  the  Cimar- 
ron and  Canadian. 

Marable,  Mary  Hays,  and  Boylan,  Elaine.  A  Handbook  of  Oklahoma  Writers. 
University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1939, 

Mathews,  John  Joseph.  Wah'Kon-Tah.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Nor- 
man, Oklahoma,  1932.  A  beautifully  written  interpretation  of  the  Osage 
spirit,  based  on  notes  kept  by  Laban  J,  Miles,  United  States  Agent  to  the 
tribe. 

Morrison,  William  Brown.  Military  Posts  and  Camps  in  Oklahoma.  Harlow 
Publishing  Company,  Oklahoma  City,  1936.  An  account  of  the  military 
posts  established  at  different  times  in  Oklahoma. 

Nye,  W.  S.  Carbine  and  Lance.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 
Oklahoma,  1937.  A  popular  and  accurate  account  of  Indian  campaigns 
in  western  Oklahoma,  centered  about  the  history  of  Fort  Sill. 

Oklahoma  Historical  Society.  Chronicles  of  Oklahoma.  Oklahoma  City, 
1921 — ■  A  quarterly  publication  containing  scholarly  articles  by  historians 
and  colorful  reminiscences  by  pioneers. 

Oklahoma  Writers'  Program.  Tulsa,  a  Guide  to  the  Oil  Capital.  Mid-West 
Printing  Company,  Tulsa,  Oklahoma,  1938.  Contains  information  about 
the  history,  industry,  and  cultural  institutions  of  Tulsa  with  directions  to 
its  points  of  interest.  Brief  and  factual. 

Rainey,  George.  The  Cherokee  Strip.  The  Co-operative  Publishing  Company, 
Guthrie,  Oklahoma,  1933.  An  intimate,  readable  history  of  the  Cherokee 
Outlet  from  the  date  of  its  acquisition  by  the  Cherokees  to  the  opening 
in  1893. 

.  No  Man's  Land.  Enid,  Oklahoma,  1937.  A  story  of  the  Oklahoma 

Panhandle  beginning  with  the  first  white  man's  visit  to  the  region.  Con- 
tains many  human-interest  stories  peculiar  to  the  section. 

Ridings,  Sam  P.  The  Chisholm  Trail.  Co-operative  Publishing  Company, 
Guthrie,  Oklahoma,  1936.  A  comprehensive  and  entertaining  account  of 
the  drives,  personalities,  and  places  along  the  trail  in  the  period  of  its 
greatest  use. 

Rister,  Carl  Coke.  Southern  Plainsmen.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Nor- 
man, Oklahoma,  1938.  A  history  of  the  southern  half  of  the  Great  Plains, 
especially  noting  the  characteristics  of  the  short-grass  country  which  in- 
cludes western  Oklahoma. 

Ryan,  Frederick  Lynne.  A  History  of  Labor  Legislation  in  Oklahoma.  Uni- 
versity of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1932,  A  scholarly  book, 
which  traces  the  important  developments  in  labor  legislation  since  the 
opening  of  the  Choctaw  coal  fields  in  1872. 


426  OKLAHOMA 

.  The  Rehabilitation  of  Of^lahoma  Coal  Mining  Communities.  Uni- 
versity of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1935.  A  systematic 
study  showing  the  condition  of  a  typical  modern  mining  area  and  sub- 
mitting constructive  proposals  for  social  betterment. 

Sears,  Paul  B.  Deserts  on  the  March.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman, 
Oklahoma,  1935.  A  brilliant  study  of  soil  erosion;  not  limited  to  Okla- 
homa, but  inspired  by  Oklahoma  problems. 

Seger,  John  H.  Early  Days  Among  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe  Indians 
(Stanley  Vestal,  editor).  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Okla- 
homa, 1934.  The  memoirs  of  a  great  educator  among  Plains  Indians;  an 
intimate,  informal  account  written  with  grace  and  charm. 

Snider,  Luther  Crocker.  Geography  of  0\lahoma.  Oklahoma  Geological  Sur- 
vey, Norman,  Oklahoma,  1917.  Describes  the  geology,  physical  features, 
mineral  resources,  plant  and  animal  life,  agriculture,  and  political  and 
social  institutions  of  Oklahoma.  Encyclopedic  in  style  but  nontechnical. 
Not  seriously  outdated. 

Starr,  Emmet.  History  of  the  Cherokee  Indians.  The  Warden  Company, 
Oklahoma  City,  Oklahoma,  1921.  In  this  genealogical  history  of  the 
Cherokees  is  included  much  of  the  tribe's  legends  and  folklore. 

Stewart,  Dora  Ann.  Government  and  Development  of  Oklahoma  Territory. 
Harlow  Publishing  Company,  Oklahoma  City,  1933.  An  account  of  the 
building  of  a  commonwealth  in  the  seventeen  years  from  1890  to  1907, 
with  special  emphasis  on  the  Federal  government's  program  of  Indian 
education. 

Thoburn,  Joseph  B.,  and  Wright,  Muriel  H.  Oklahoma,  a  History  of  the  State 
and  Its  People,  Vols.  I-IV.  Lewis  Historical  Publishing  Company,  New 
York,  1929.  A  convenient  set  that  may  be  found  in  most  public  libraries 
of  the  state. 

Wardell,  Morris  L.  A  Political  History  of  the  Cherokee  Nation.  University 
of  Oklahoma  Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1938.  The  political  story  of  the 
Cherokees  from  the  Removal  in  1838  to  the  breakup  of  tribal  govern- 
ment. 

Weaver,  Findley.  Oklahoma's  Deficit.  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  Nor- 
man, Oklahoma,  1940.  A  thorough  study  of  state  finance.  It  discusses  the 
basic  causes  of  the  recurring  deficit,  the  revenues  and  expenditures,  the 
lack  of  adequate  financial  accounting,  the  nullification  of  the  constitu- 
tional debt  limitations,  and  recommended  reforms. 

Weidman,  Samuel.  The  Miami-Picher  Zinc-Lead  District.  University  of  Okla- 
homa Press,  Norman,  Oklahoma,  1932.  A  technical  study  dealing  with 
the  history,  geography,  geology,  mining  and  milling  methods,  and  pro- 
duction statistics  of  the  Oklahoma  portion  of  the  Tri-State  Mining 
Region. 

Wright,  Muriel  H.  Our  Oklahoma.  Co-operative  Publishing  Company,  Guth- 
rie, Oklahoma,  1939.  A  school  text  on  Oklahoma  history,  profusely  illus- 
trated, readable,  accurate. 


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Index 


Aaron,  May  Todd,  101,291 

Ada,  392,  393 

Adair,  332 

Adair,  John  L.,  77 

Adams,  A.  B.,  88 

Adams,  Alva,  246 

Adams  Springs,  239 

Addington,  376 

Afton,  286,  331 

Agriculture:  54-60;  broomcorn,  57,  267; 
corn,  305;  cotton,  272,  320;  cotton  crop, 
value  of,  58;  cotton  processing,  45;  crop 
failures,  5;  crop,  value  of,  37;  crops, 
staple,  Oklahoma,  54;  farm  buildings,  58; 
farm  extension  agents,  county,  59;  farm 
tenancy,  54,  57;  farm  valuation,  54; 
farming,  325;  Indian  farming,  55,  276, 
299;  livestock,  statistics  of,  51,  58,  88, 
281,  353;  potatoes,  325;  rainfall,  average 
annual,  57,  58;  soil  erosion,  57;  soils, 
Oklahoma,  54;  sorghum  crops,  57;  trac- 
tor and  combine  farming,  58 

Ahlschlager,  Walter,  99 

Albion,  327 

Alderson,  301 

Alessandro,  Victor,  1 1 1 

Alikchi,  317 

Altus,  97,  272 

Altus-Lugert  Reservoir,  383 

Alva,  246 

American  Legion  Home,  Ponca  City,  355 

Ameringer,  Oscar,  89 

Anadarko,  268,  276,  294 

Antelope  Hills,  297,  384 

Anders,  328 

Apache,  270,  277 

Appalachia,  240 

Arapaho,  380 

Arbuckle,  Mathew,  261,  362 

Archeology:  Dwellers  in  the  Thorny  Thick- 
ets, 389;  Dwellers  on  the  Hilltop,  389; 
fossils  and  stone  implements,  collection 
of,  382;  fossil  remains,  10;  pictographs, 
251 

Architecture:  94-99;  Allied  Architects 
(Oklahoma  City),   99;   bungalows    (air- 


plane, California,  Oklahoma),  96;  cha- 
teau, gothic,  97;  colonial,  96;  dugouts,  6, 
94;  eclectic  period,  95;  embellishments, 
architectural,  95;  French,  Norman,  97; 
garage  apartments,  96;  log  houses,  94; 
National  Guard  armories,  architecture  of, 
99;  skyscrapers,  98;  sod  houses,  6 

Ardmore,  125-30 

Armstrong,  William,  319 

Arnett,  297,  384 

Arnett,  Eugene  A.,  227 

Art:  99-103;  Association  of  Oklahoma, 
101;  "Cafe  Muralists,"  101;  Clubb,  Laura 
A.,  collection,  355;  decoration,  89;  Okla- 
homa Council  of,  103;  Oklahoma  WPA 
Program,  103;  U.S.  Indian  Service,  WPA 
project,  103 

Ary,  "Fighting  Jack,"  391 

Asah,  Spencer,  101 

Atoka,  341,  350 

Atoka  Agreement,  341 

Auchiah,  James,  101,  269 

Aviation:    Air  Corps  Service  Depot  (Okla- 
homa City),  360;  airlines,  52-53;  Ameri- 
can Airlines  (Oklahoma  City),  228;  Army 
Air    Corps   Flying    School    (Enid),    136 
Braniff  Airways  (Oklahoma  City),  228 
Cimarron  Training  School  (Yukon),  228 
Lake  Overholser  Seaplane  Base,  228;  Mid 
Continent  Airlines  (Oklahoma  City),  228 
Municipal  Airport  (Tulsa),  223;  R.A.F 
Training  (Miami),  220;  School  of  Avi 
ation  (Shawnee),  197;  Spartan  Air  School 
and   Factory    (Tulsa),   223,  224;    Wiley 
Post  Airport  (Oklahoma  City),  227;  Will 
Rogers  Army  Air  Corps  Base  (Oklahoma 
City),  170,  265;  U.  S.  Air  Base  (Musko- 
gee), 237;  U.  S.  Bomber  Assembly  Plant 
(Tulsa),  223-24 

Axelson,  Mary  McDougal,  90,  92 

Aydelotte,  Dora,  91 

Bailey,  Leonard,  98 
Bakersburg,  250 
Barber,  410 
Barnard,  Evan  G.,  88 


427 


428  OKLAHOMA 

Barnard,  Kate,  29,  30 

Barnes,  Cassius  M.,  359 

Barnctt,  Jackson,  184,  347 

Barnctt,  W.  F.,  297 

Barnum,  P.  T.,  252 

Baron,  402 

Bartlcs,  Jake,  131 

Bartlesville,  131-35,  287,  345,  346 

Barton,  Mrs.  C.  O.,  394 

Bass,  Althea,  90,  92 

Bassett,  Mabel,  30 

Bat  Cave,  394 

Battey,  Thomas  C,  84 

Bcal,  Mattie,  145 

Beard,  Henry  G.,  193 

Beattic's  Knob,  239 

Beattv,  Richmond  Croom,  90 

Beaver,  27,  249 

Becknell,  William,  251 

Beggs,  348 

Belknap,  William,  343 

Benedict,  Omer  K.,  81,  139 

Bennett,  Leo  E.,  77,  153,  348 

Bennington,  319 

Bentoneiii,  Giuseppi  (Joseph  Benton),  111, 

232 
Best,  Tom,  370 
Bethanv,  227 
Bethel,  406 
Big  Cabin,  221,  331 
Big  Cedar,  405 
Bigheart,  388 
Big  Skin  Bavou,  235 
Bird,  John,  291 
Birdsong,  Mrs.  Neda,  271 
Bishop,  W.  A.,  307 
Bitting,  Nicholas,  402 
Bixby,  237,  239 
Bizzell,  W.  B.,  88 
Blackburn,  241 
Blackowl,  Archie,  101 
Blackwell,  37,  228,  293 
Blackwell,  A.  J.,  293 
Blair,  386 

Blakeney,  Lena  Whittaker,  92 
Blanchard,  266 
Bianchard,  W.  G.,  266 
Blanding,  Don,  92,  144 
Blue  Mound,  335 
Blunt,  James  G.,  338 
Boggy  Depot,  318,  341,  342 
Bohemian  Association,  264 
Bohemians,  264 
Boise  City,  250 
Bokchito,  319 
Bolcv,  264 
Bolcv,  W.  H.,  264 
Bonfils,  Fred  G.,  359 
Bonillo,  Francisco  Leiva,  20,  21 
Boone,  Daniel,  244,  400 


Boone,  Nathan,  244,  400 

Boone,  Walker,  101 

Bos  well,  318 

Botkin,  B.  A.,  85,  92 

Boudinot,  Elias,  74,  399 

Boudinot,  Elias  C,  221 

Bourbonnais,  Anthony,  308 

Bowlegs,  391 

Box,  235 

Boynton,  263 

Braden,  323 

Braggs,  236 

Brahma,  234 

Brands,   Cattle:     Bar-Turkey   Track,   246; 

Bar-M,   246;    Lazy   B,   246;   Mule   Shoe, 

246;  "101,"  246 
Brandt,  Joseph  A.,  85 
Brazil  Station,  326 
Briartown,  237 
Brinkman,  385 
Bristow,  225 
Bristow,  J.  L.,  225 
Brittain,  Robert,  92 
Broken  Arrow,  43 
Broken  Bow,  63,  315,  407 
Bryan,  William  Jennings,  360 
Bryant,  William,  327 
Buffalo,  247,  280-81,377; 
Burbank,  292 

Burbank,  Elbridge  Aj'res,  100 
Burford,  Annette,   1 1 1 
Burton,  Will,  299 
Busch,  Adolphus,  232 
Bushyhead,  222 
Byer,  Mrs.,  84 
Byrd,  Edward,  38,  222 


Cache,  271,283 

Caddo,  342 

Cadmus,  234 

Calera,  343 

Callixylon,  394 

Calumet,  310 

Calvin,  349 

Camp  Alice,  228 

Camp  Napoleon,  268 

Campbell,  236 

Campbell,  Isabel,  91,  92 

Campbell,  W.  S.  (Stanley  Vestal),  86 

Camps:  Hanging  Rock,  409;  Hubbard's, 
410;  Mac's,  409;  Martin's.  409;  North- 
eastern Teachers,  409;  Radziminski,  381, 
382;  Station's  Store,  410;  Sullivan's,  409; 
Wichita,  275 

Canton,  313 

Canton,  Frank  M.,  88 

Canute,  231 

Capitol,  171-72 

Capitol  Oflice  Building,  172 


Cardin,  331 

Cardin,  Fred,  112 

Cardin,  W.C,  331 

Carr,  Nelson,  132 

Carson,  Kit,  234,  251 

Carter,  Chas.  D.,  30 

Cashion,  Roy,  371 

Castanada,  83 

Castillo,  Diego  de,  20 

Cadin,  George,  99,  236,  324 

Catoosa,  43,  223 

Caves:  Alabaster,  247;  Basket  Maker's,  251; 
Bat  (Cave  Creek),  385;  Cox's,  232;  Crys- 
tal, 403;  Dalton,  240;  Natural,  385;  Span- 
ish, 284;  White,  341 

Cayuga,  398 

Cedarvale,  363 

Central  Trades  and  Labor  Council  (Okla- 
homa City),  168 

Ceres,  358 

Chambers,  Henry  T.,  92 

Chandler,  226 

Chaney,  Lon,  146,  359 

Chapman,  Amos,  296 

Chapman,  Epaphras,  21,  334 

Chapman,  James  E.,  347 

Checotah,  339 

Checote,  Samuel,  339 

Chelsea,  38,  222 

Cherokee,  245 

"Cherokee  Kid,"  89 

Cherokee  Outlet,  25,  27,  79,  91,  239,  241, 
243,  245,  248,  354,  369,  Z76,  390 

Cherokee  Strip  Livestock  Association,  245 

Cherokees,  see  Indians  and  History 

Chesterton,  Polly,  257,  401 

Cheyenne,  384 

Chickasha,  265 

Chickasha  City  Hall,  97 

Childers,  Lemuel,  110,  112,  291 

Chisholm,  Jesse,  304 

Chockie,  341 

Chouteau,  332,  334,  361 

Chouteau,  Auguste  Pierre,  21,  38,  149,  333, 
336 

Chouteau  Trading  Post,  333 

Christie,  257 

Churches  and  religious  groups:  Amish,  312; 
Baptist  Assembly  Grounds,  363;  Boston 
Avenue  Methodist  Church  (Tulsa),  98, 
211;  Cherry  Tree  Baptist,  402;  Dunkards, 
312;  McFarlin  Memorial  Church  (Nor- 
man), 163;  Methodist  Assembly  Grounds, 
363;  Post  Chapel,  Fort  Sill,  98;  Presby- 
terian (Ardmore),  129;  River  Brethren, 
312-15;  St.  Phillips  (Ardmore),  129; 
Trinity  Episcopal  Church  (Tulsa),  98; 
True  Followers  of  Christ,  410;  Home  Mis- 
sion Society,  Woman's  American,  337 

Cimarron  Desert,  251 


INDEX  429 

City  Hall  (Guthrie),  359 

Civic  Center  (Oklahoma  City),  175 

Claremore,  222 

Clements,  Forrest  E.,  15 

Cleo  Springs,  295 

Cleveland,  38,  241,  390 

Cleveland,  Ingram,  112 

Clinton,  230 

Cloud  Chief,  380 

Clubb,  Laura  A.,  Art  Collection,  102,  293 

Coalgate,  349 

Cody,  W.  F.,  242 

Colbert,  343 

Colbert,  Frank  Overton,  101 

Collins,  Bradley,  150 

Collinsville,  346,  352 

Comanche,  375 

Commerce,  220,  331 

Concho,  372 

Confederate  Association,  365 

Conoco  Refinery  (Ponca  City),  191 

Conte,  Paolo,  113 

Goody's  Bluff,  287 

Cookson,  410 

Cookson  Hills,  233,  234,  235,  403,  409 

Cooper,  Gen.  Douglas  H.,  338 

Copan,  345 

Cordell,  380 

Coretta  Switch,  336 

Corn  Stalk  Shoot,  402 

Cornish,  322 

Coronado,   Francisco   de,    18,   20,   21,    83, 
248, 249 

Cotton  Carnival  (Frederick),  382 

Couch,  William  L.,  167,  198 

Courthouse,  Old  (Oklahoma  City),  98 

Covert,  Alice  Lent,  91 

Covington,  243 

Covington,  John,  243 

Cow  Boy  Capitol  (Kenton),  252 

Coweta,  237,  238 

Coyle,  255 

Coyote  Butte,  310 

"Coxey's  Army,"  360 

Creek,  Cherokee,  Osage  boundary  marker 
(Tulsa),  214 

Creckmore,  391 

Creeks:  Baron  Fork,  257,  402,  410;  Bird, 
291;  Bitter,  272;  Buck,  291;  Cabin,  331 
Cache,  271,  274;  Carrizzo,  251;  Cedar 
328;  Coweta,  238;  Cowskin,  298;  Cu 
cumber,  406;  Delaware,  395;  Dog,  291 
Eagle  Fork,  406;  Elk,  232;  Garrison,  362 
Glover,  406;  Greasy,  235;  Horse,  248 
Litde,  297;  Little  Sallisaw,  235;  Lost 
286;  Medicine  Bluff,  275,  278;  Otter 
381;  Pennington,  396,  397;  Pond,  388 
Post  Oak,  284;  Rock,  366,  388;  Saline 
236;  Sallisaw,  235;  Sand,  289,  292,  388 
Shell,  240;  Spavinaw,  399;  Spring,  400 


430  OKLAHOMA 

Spunky,  223;  Travertine,  366;  Vian,  235; 

Wild  Horse,  255;  Wolf,  378 
Cross,  188 
Crouch,  J.  R.,  386 
Cruce,  Lee,  31,  127,  341 
Crumbo,  Woodrow,  101 
Cunningham,  William,  91 
Curtis  Act,  38 
Cushing,  39,  254 
Cushing,  Marshall,  254 
Custer,  Gen.  George  A.,  242,  278,  297,  383, 

385 
Cypress  tree,  315 

Dale,  309 

Dale,  Edward  Everett,  87,  88 

Dale,  Frank,  309 

Dalton,  Bill,  254 

Dalton  Boys,  371 

Dams:  Canton,  313;  Denison,  35,  321, 
343,  388,  397;  Grand  River,  20,  34,  11, 
111,  332;  Lugert,  386;  Tenkiller  Ferry, 
411 

Dancing  Rabbit  Creek,  treaty  of,  327,  342 

Dangcrfield,  Royden  J.,  88 

Darrough,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  318 

Davenport,  226 

Davenport,  James  S.,  30 

Davidson,  382 

Davis,  362 

Davis,  Jefferson,  261 

Davis,  J.  M.,  222 

Davis,  N.  L.,  85 

Dawes  Commission,  56,  88 

Debo,  Angie,  87 

Deer,  406 

Delaware,  351 

Democrats,  31 

Denison,  Texas,  397 

De  Soto,  Hernando,  20 

Devil's  Tombstone,  253 

De  Vinna,  Maurice  A.  Jr.,  103 

Dewey,  345 

Dick,  Cecil,  101 

Diehl,  Cora  V.,  359 

Dicrks  Brothers,  315 

Dille,  John  I.,  359 

Dinosaur  Quarry,  251 

Disney,  Dorothy  Cameron,  90 

Doaksville,  315,  317 

Doby,  Chris,  248 

Doby  Springs,  248 

Dodge,  Col.  Richard  Henry,  274,  296 

Donahoe,  Edward,  91 

Doolin,  Bill,  254 

Doublcday,  Doran,  89 

Dover,  371 

Dowd,  Jerome,  88 

Downing,  Todd,  90 

Dripping  Springs,  401 


Drought,  survivors  of  1901,  24 

Drumm,  Maj.  Andrew,  245 

Drumm  Monument,  244 

Drummond,  2'^5 

Drumright,  254,  390 

Dugan,  William  McKay,  78 

Duke,  273 

Duncan,  375 

Duncan,  William,  375 

Dunning,  John  H.,  prize,  87 

Durant,  319,  321,  343 

Durant,  Dixon,  319 

Durant,  W.  A.,  319 

Dust  Bowl,  9 

Dwellers  in  the  Upland  Forest,  389 

Eagletown,  314 

Eaton,  Howard  O.,  88 

Edmond,  360 

Education:  65-73;  Brooking  Institution, 
educational  survey,  72;  Federal  grant  of 
$5,000,000,  73;  Indian,  65-69;  Okla- 
homa Territory,  69;  public  schools,  en- 
rollment in,  72;  Seminole  schools,  67; 
Seneca  schools,  286;  State  College  Co- 
ordinating Board,  72;  Training  School 
for  Boys,  362;  tribal  schools,  71;  "Twin 
Territories"  rural  schools,  71;  WPA,  con- 
tributions to  education,  72 

Edwards,  W.  J.,  168 

Elk  City,  232 

EllerviUe,  409 

Elliott,  Franklin,  308 

Elm  Springs,  245 

El  Reno,  228,  246,  277 

English,  F.  M.,  144 

Enid,  136-41 

Erick,  232 

Erick,  Beech,  232 

Eufaula,  339 

Evarts,  Hal  G.,  248 

Ewing,  Cortez  A.  M.,  88 

Fairfax,  292 

Fairland,  286 

Fairview,  296 

Fairview  City  Hall,  97 

Falls  City,  336 

Farm  organizations:  Cotton  Growers  Asso- 
ciation, 60;  County  Agents,  59;  Oklahoma 
Crop  Improvement  Association,  60;  Farm- 
er Labor  Reconstrucdon  League,  48; 
Farmers'  Co-operative  Grain  Growers  As- 
sociation, 60;  Farmers  Union,  29,  32,  47, 
48,  60;  4-H  Clubs,  55,  59;  Future  Farm- 
ers of  America,  55,  59;  Grain  Growers 
Association,  60;  home  demonstration 
agents,  county,  59;  Master  Farmers  of 
America,  59;  Southern  Tenant  Farmers' 


Union,  49;  United  Cannery,  Agriculture, 
Packing,  and  Allied  Workers,  49 

Federal  agencies:  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  270;  Bureau  of  Mines,  131.  134; 
Civilian  Conservation  Corps,  12;  Fish  and 
Wild-life  Service,  13;  Geological  Survey, 
43;  Great  Plains  Field  and  Experiment 
Station,  379;  National  Forest  Service,  13; 
National  Park  Service,  13;  PWA,  34; 
Soil  Conservation  Service,  13,  231,  236, 
250,  310;  Wildlife  Refuge,  Wichita  Moun- 
tains, 12;  WPA  34,  35,  72 

Ferber,  Edna,  81,  379 

Ferguson,  Thompson  B.,  81,  85,  100,  311 

Ferguson,  Mrs.  Walter,  89,  244 

Ferris,  Scott,  30,  146 

Finley,  328 

First  National  Building  (Oklahoma  City), 
174 

Fish  hatcheries,  Federal,  62 

Fisher,  Lillian  Estelle,  87 

Fitts,  John,  394,  395 

Fittstown,  395 

Fixico,  Katie,   184,  347 

Fixon,  Tom,  410 

Flatfoot  Four  (Oklahoma  City),  110 

Fleming,  John,  334 

Flint,  400 

Folklore  and  folkways:  "codding,"  115; 
"crowbar  hole,"  115;  dance  callers,  117; 
Folr{-Say,  85-91;  play  party  songs,  107; 
Paul  Bunyan's  great  gray  wolf,  115;  ranch 
songs,  116,  117;  singing  school,  119; 
speech,  peculiarities  of,  120-21;  typical 
square  dance  calls,  117-18;  superstitions, 
country,  119-21 

Foquart,  J.  A.,  97 

Foreman,  Caroline  Thomas,  82 

Foreman,  Grant,  88 

Forests:  Ouachita  National,  38,  45,  62,  326, 
404,  405;  Wichita  Mountains  Wildlife 
Refuge,  45,  62,  272 

Forgan,  249 

Forgan,  James  B.,  249 

Forney,  329 

Forsvthc.  John  Duncan,  97 

Fort' Cobb,  269,  382 

Fort  Smith,  Ark.,  25,  234,  236,  261,  262, 
323,  332 

Fort  Wayne  Store,  399 

Forts:  Arbuckle,  "362;  Camp  Mason,  361 
Camp  Sharon,  410;  Cantonment,  311 
313;  Cobb,  270,  275;  Coffee,  324;  Davis 
338;  Doak's  Stand,  342;  Edwards,  304 
Gibson,  21,  50,  236,  257,  260,  261,  262 
274,292,330,332,337,  400;  Holmes,  304 
McCulloch,  343;  Nichols,  251;  Reno,  24 
80,  84,  100,  229,  311;  Sewell's  Stockade 
370;  Sill,  24,  36,  88,  98,  100,  270,  273- 
74,  275-76,  277,  279;  Spunky,  223;  Sup- 


INDEX  431 

ply,  24,  297,  371;  Towson,  21,  315,  317, 

323;  Wayne,  399,  400 
Foster,  H.  V.,  133 
Fowler,  David,  49 
"Fraternal     Capitol     of     the     Southwest," 

(Guthrie),  358 
Fred,  Frank,  266 
Frederick,  382 
Freedom,  246 
French,  Jim,  131 
Fulkerson,  390 
Fulton,  Elmer  L.,  30 

Gano,  Gen.  R.  M.,  332 

Garber,  243 

Garvin,  316 

Gate,  241,  248 

Gayle,  Newton,  90 

Geary,  310 

German-Russian  Colony,  384 

Gerrer,  Father,  102 

Giant  Pecan  Tree,  381 

Gibson,  335 

Giflord,  Al,  388 

Girl  Scouts,  61 

Gist,  George  (Sequoyah),  234 

Gittinger,  Roy,  87 

Glenn,  Hugh,   149 

Glenn,  Ida  E.,  347 

Goff,  Bruce,  98 

Good,  Leonard,  101 

Goodbear,  Paul,  101 

Goodwell,  250 

Gore,  236,  407 

Gore,  Thomas  P.,  30,  146 

Gould,  273 

Governor's  mansion,  174 

Gowen,  300 

Grand  (ghost  town),  384 

Grand  Lodge  Temple  (Guthrie),  359 

Granite,  385 

Grant,  329 

Gray,  Ethel,  103 

Gray,  Otto,  242 

Grayhorse,  292,  389 

"Green  Corn  Rebellion,"  48,  91,  392 

Green.  D.  R.,  370 

Greenfield,  310 

Greenfield,  William,  310 

Greer,  Frank  Hilton,  80 

Gregg,  Josiah,  251 

Grierson,  Col.  Benjamin  H.,  275 

Grinstead,  Jesse  E.,  90 

Gritts,  Franklin,  101 

Grofl,  Fred,  59 

Groll,  Father  Ignatius,  113 

Groseclose,  Elgin,  88 

Grove,  398 

Guerrier,  Ed  310 

Gun  collection  (Claremore),  222 


432 


OKLAHOMA 


Guthrie,  27,  28,  29,  97,  168,  189,  256,  297, 

358 
Guymon,  250 
Gypsum  deposits,  44 

Hailey,  David  Morris,  301,  365 

Haileyville,  301 

Hale,  Tom,  300 

Hallctte,  390 

Halliburton,  Maurine,  92 

Halseli,  W.  E.,  352 

Hammon,  231 

Hamon,  Jake  L.,  127,  146,  322 

Hanraty,  Peter,  29 

Harpe,  Bernard  de  la,  20,  301,  323,  337 

Harrah,  265,  310 

Harreld,  J.  W.,  32,  127 

Harreld,  Mack,  111 

Harris,  Foster,  90 

Harris,  Paul,  97 

Harris,  Roy,  112 

Harrison,  G.  L.,  256 

Hartshorne,  301,  328 

Harvey,  David  A.,  28 

Haskell,  238 

Haskell,  Charles  N.,  30,  31,  238,  360 

Hawkins,  Benjamin,  149 

Hayden,  Katharine  Shepard,  92 

Headrick,  272 

Heavener,  403 

Heavener,  Joe,  403 

Henderson,  Nola,  91 

Hennessey,  371,  372 

Hennessey,  Patrick,  371 

Henryetta,  37,  263,  348 

Hine,  Marie  M.,  113 

Hinton,  230 

History:  20-26;  alliance  with  confederacy, 
23;  Boomers,  4,  26,  198,  230,  293;  catde 
trails,  25;  civil  war,  23,  25,  26;  constitu- 
tion makers,  29;  Dawes  Commission,  28, 
29,  42;  early  forts  and  missions  (map), 
22;  enabling  act,  29,  82;  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  organize,  23;  frontier  living  con- 
ditions, 27;  Grandfather  Clause,  31 ;  Greer 
County,  27;  Guthrie  designated  capital, 
27;  Indian  removal,  23,  234,  258;  In- 
dians' problem,  25;  Jim  Crow  Law,  31; 
land  openings:  Cherokee  Outlet,  and 
others,  27,  28;  oil  development,  30;  Okla- 
homa City  becomes  capital,  31;  Old  Okla- 
homa, 27;  opening  to  white  setdement, 
26;  organic  act,  27,  69,  249;  Osage  depre- 
dations, 261 ;  Osage  removal,  288;  Quaker 
peace  policy,  276;  raiding  of  white  settle- 
ments, 24;  recent  development,  35-36; 
Socialist  Party,  31;  Sooncrs,  5,  243;  Span- 
ish and  French  explorers,  20,  21;  state- 
hood, 30,  56;  statewide  prohibition,  30; 
Territory  of  Cimarron,   249;   Tonkawas 


"Cannabalism,"  269-70;  unassigned 
lands,  26;  U.S.  establish  forts,  24 

Hitta,  Father  Aloysius,  269 

Hobart,  381 

Hobart,  Garrett  A.,  381 

Hochatown,  407 

Hokeah,  Jack,  101 

Holcomb,  Galen,  113 

Holdcnville,  304 

Hollaman,  A.  H.,  382 

Hollis,  273 

Holloway,  Gov.  Wm.  J.,  33 

Holmes,  Theopolis  Hunter,  304 

Holy  City,  Easter,  282 

Hominy,  389,  390 

Homes:  Ainsworth,  324;  Brown,  John  F., 
392;  Chief  Bacon  Rind's,  289;  Chigley, 
Nelson,  362;  Fleming,  George,  390;  Home 
of  the  Poor  Prophet,  227;  Maplewood, 
222;  McCurtain,  328;  Parker,  Quanah, 
271;  Phillips,  Frank,  287;  Rogers,  'Will, 
birthplace,  351;  Rogers,  Will,  replica  of 
birthplace,  351;  Root  Hog,  318;  Ross, 
Lewis,  333;  Saucy  Chief's,  291;  Sequoyah 
(George  Gist),  234;  Westhope,  96; 
"White  House"  (101  Ranch),  356;  Wig- 
wam Neosho,  337;  Wright,  Allen,  342 

Homestead  Law,  69 

Honey  Springs,  Battle  of,  338 

Hood,  John  B.,  259 

Hooker,  250 

Hoover,  Herbert,  291 

Hope,  John  C,  97 

Hope,  Welborn,  92 

Horgan,  Paul,  85 

Hospitals:  Central  State  (Norman),  163; 
Community  (Elk  City),  232;  Crippled 
Children  (Oklahoma  City),  174;  East- 
ern Oklahoma  (Vinita),  222;  Negro  In- 
sane (Taft),  238;  Tubercular  Sanitorium 
(Clinton),  231;  (Talihina),  (Soldiers), 
367;  United  States  (Indian),  222;  United 
States  Veteran's  Facility,  154;  University, 
174;  'Valley  View  (Community),  394; 
Washington  County  Memorial  (Bardes- 
ville),  134;  Western  Charity  (Clinton), 
231 

Hotchkin,  Ebenezer,  317 

House,  Rov  Temple,  85 

Houscr,  Allan,  101 

Houston,  Sam,  91,  234,  236,  317,  337,  379, 
386 

Houston,  Temple,  86,  379 

Hrdy,  Olinka,   101 

Hubbell,  Carl,  265 

Hudson,  Peter,  328 

Hugo,  318,  329 

Hugo,  Victor,  318 

Hunter,  Charles,  81,  139 

Hurley,  Patrick  J.,  349 


Idabel,  314,  316 

Indiahoma,  271 

Indian  Territory,  3,  21,  23,  24,  26,  28,  29 

Indian  agencies  and  agents:  Apache,  269; 
Cheyenne  and  Arapaho,  78,  100,  313, 
372,  384;  Choctaw,  324;  Creek,  50,  336; 
Kiowa,  269;  Miles,  Laban  J.,  291;  Paw- 
nee, 251;  Quapaw,  220,  286;  Sac  and 
Fox,  391;  Shawnee,  308;  Wisdom,  D.  M., 
46 

Indian  archeology,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18,  250, 
325,  335,  391 

Indian  artists:  Asah,  Spencer,  101,  269; 
Auchiah,  James,  101,  269;  Blackowl,  Ar- 
chie, 101;  Blue  Eagle,  Acee,  99;  Boone, 
Walker,  101;  Crumbo.  Woodrow,  191; 
Dick,  Cecil,  101;  Goodbear,  Paul,  101; 
Gritts,  Franklin,  101;  Hokeah,  Jack,  101, 
269;  Houser,  Alien,  101;  Mopope,  Steph- 
en, 269;  Murdock,  Cecil,  101;  McCombs, 
Solomon,  101;  Silver  Horn,  102;  Tsatoke, 
Monroe,  101;  West,  Richard,  101 

Indian  arts:  Bacone,  337;  basket  makers, 
14;  crafts,  337,  380;  Kiowa  painters,  99, 
102;  murals  (location),  102 

Indian  batdes:  Adobe  Walls,  271;  Buffalo 
Wallow,  296;  Cabin  Creek,  331,  332; 
Comanche  and  Chickasaw,  395;  Custer 
massacre,  246;  Goingsnake  District 
Court  House,  401;  Goingsnake  massacre, 
58;  Green  Peach,  263,  339;  Jacksboro, 
275;  Kiowa  and  Osage  massacre,  280; 
Pea  Ridge,  Ark.,  399;  Washita,  275,  297, 
311,  385 

Indian  burial  grounds,  240,  292,  311 

Indian  cemeteries,  231,  260,  272,  289,  316, 
318,324,328,334,  389,399,410 

Indian  ceremonials,  235,  238,  276,  291, 
292,  318,  337,  370,  388,  389,  390,  399 

Indian  chiefs  and  leaders:  Apukshunnub- 
bee,  314;  Bacon  Rind,  234,  241,  289;  Big- 
heart,  James,  388;  Big  Track,  333;  Big 
Tree,  275;  Black  Ketdc,  296,  385;  Bow- 
legs, Billy,  260,  391;  Bushyhead,  Dennis 
W.,  222;  Cole,  Coleman,  302;  Dull  Knife, 
234,  246;  Geronimo,  100,  105,  146,  275, 
278;  Harjo,  Chitto  (Crazy  Snake),  348; 
Harjo,  Oktarharsars,  338,  339;  Iron  Jack- 
et, 297,  298;  Isparhecher,  207;  Johnston, 
Douglas  H.,  396;  Joseph,  294;  Journey- 
cake,  Charles,  132;  LeFlore,  Basil,  342; 
Little  Robe,  297;  Man-On-Cloud,  246; 
Moshulatubbee,  324;  Nokoni,  Pita,  271; 
Porter,  Pleasant,  238,  239;  Roman  Nose, 
Henry,  311;  Ross,  John,  100,  333;  Satank, 
275,  276;  Satanta,  275,  276;  Sitting  Bull, 
277;  Standing  Bear,  183;  Watie,  Stand. 
259,  261,  317,  332;  Watonga,  311;  White 
Hair,  290;  Whiteshield,  231;  Yellow  Bull, 
294 


INDEX  433 

Indian,  Civil  War  in  relation  to  the,  51, 
261 

Indian  councils,  74,  75,  182,  183,  184,  185, 
236,  255,  258,  290,  305,  328, 361, 380 

Indian  dances,  17,  117,  220,  225,  273,  276, 
289,  310,  348,  373 

Indian  fairs,  269,  271 

Indians,  Five  Civilized  Tribes:  3,  4,  18, 
19,  21,  23,  24,  25,  28,  29,  38,  50,  55,  68, 
83,  88,  257,  268,  274;  agricultural  de- 
velopment, 18,  55;  cultural  level  at  re- 
moval, 83;  education,  state  of,  68;  in- 
dustries, 38;  intermarriage  with  whites, 
19;  knowledge  of  diplomacy,  4;  military 
protection  for,  21;  states  of  origin,  50; 
settlement  in  West,  8 

Indian  games,  324,  372 

Indian  hospitals  and  sanitoriums,  230,  260, 
271,  308,  327 

Indian  legend:  Cherokee,  333,  334;  Choc- 
taw, 326;  Osage,  389 

Indian  language  stocks:  Algonquian,  15; 
Athapascan,  15;  Caddoan,  15,  16,  21; 
Muskhogean,  15;  Shoshonean,  15;  Siouan, 
15;  Tanoan,  15 

Indian  mineral  resources:  37,  38;  Choctaw 
Nation  (coal),  38,  42,  46;  Osage  (oil),  41 

Indian  music  (recording),  104,  105 

Indian  nations:  Cherokee,  235,  237,  285; 
Chickasaw,  207,  314,  361,  392,  396; 
Choctaw,  253,  299,  324,  327,  328,  387, 
390;  Creek,  18,  23,  26,  28,  235,  244, 
330,  336;  Osage,  387;  Seminole,  18,  23, 
26,48,305,306,309 

Indian  reservations:  Cheyenne-Arapaho, 
230,  231,  377;  Kickapoo,  309;  Kiowa- 
Comanche,  229,  267,  315,  322;  Osage, 
239,  240,  241,  285,  288,  292;  Pawnee, 
239,  292;  Ponca,  189,  293;  Potawatomi, 
387;  Sac  and  Fox,  254,  387,  391;  Shaw- 
nee, 387;  Tonkawa,  293 

Indian  society:  Kee-Too-Wah,  235 

Indian  trails:  Black  Dog  War  Trail,  370; 
Trail  of  Tears,  233,  351 

Indian  tribes:  Anadarko,  268;  Apache,  15, 
257,  269;  Arapaho,  183,  268;  Caddo,  15, 
16,  21,  183,  268,  269,  270;  276,  330; 
Cherokee,  18,  21,  23,  24,  25,  28,  257, 
330,  336;  Chickasaw,  18,  23,  28,  330; 
Cheyenne,  183,  268,  297,  310;  Cheyenne 
and  Arapaho,  15,  17,  27,  383;  Choctaw, 
18,  23,  24,  28,  42,  66,  330;  Comanche, 
15,  16,  17,  21,  27,  183,  257,  268,  269, 
274,  276,  305,  317,  374;  Creek,  18.  23, 
26,  28,  235,  244,  330,  336;  Delaware, 
18,  269,  270,  287,  351;  Iowa,  27,  309; 
Kaw,  19,  28;  Keechis,  269;  Kickapoo, 
192,  309;  Kiowa,  15,  17,  27,  183,  257, 
268,  269,  276;  Lipan,  269;  Missouris,  28; 
Natchez,  236;  Nez  Perce,  294;  Osage,  15, 


434  OKLAHOMA 

16,  21,  25,  27,  28,  50,  89,  183,  268,  270, 
274,  280,  286,  330,  336,  388;  Oto,  28 
Ottawa,  183;  Pawnee,  16,  241,  317;  Pc 
oria,  183;  Plains  Indians,  17,  23,  24,  27 
68,  71;  Ponca,  28,  286,  356,  357;  Pota 
watomi,  27,  192,  309;  Quapaw,  19,  183 
220,  356;  Sac  and  Fox,  19,  27,  183,  192 
309;  Shawnee,  19,  27,  183,  192,  270 
309;  Seminole,  18,  23,  26,  48,  305,  306 
309;  Tawakoni,  269,  337;  Tonkawa,  269 
270,  286,  293;  Wichita,  27,  257,  268 
269,  274,  276,  337;  Wyandotte,  183,  286 

Indian  writers,  84 

Industries:    37-49;    asphalt,    43;    building 
stone,   44;   carbon   black,   232,   250;   ce- 
ment, 44,  345;  coal,  30,  42,  43,  53,  302 
earthen  products,  378;  flour  milling,  140 
228;  glass  manufacture,   185,   186,  371 
gypsum,  313;  laboratories  (Fidelity),  348 
lead  and  zinc,  219,  220;  lumber,  38,  45 
315,   318,   329;    oil   refining,    191,   209 
215;  pecan  shipping,  226;  Petroleum  Ex 
periment  Station,  131,  134;  printing,  75 
pottery,  224;  railway  shops,  195;  salt,  44 
236,   334,   335;    Sand   Springs  Interests. 
240;  sawmills,  94;  stockyards  and  meat 
packing,  179 

Ingalls,  254 

Ingalls,  John  J.,  254 

Initial  Point,  Indian  Meridian,  362 

Irrigation  District,  Lugert-Altus,  387 

Irving,  Washington,   8,   61,   83,  233,  239, 
255,  330,  333,  336,  337 

Irwin,  Clinton  F.,  230 

I-see-o  (Kiowa  soldier),  276 

Isham,  R.  M.,  184 

Itzamna,  234 

Jackson,  Andrew,  21,  325,  342 
Jackson,  Jacob  B.,  329 
Jacobson,  Oscar  B.,   101 
James,  Marquis,  86 
Jamieson,  J.  C,  359 
Japanese  Garden,  237 
Jay,  399 
Jefferson,  370 
Jennings,  390 
Jennings,  Al,  31,  373 
Jesup,  Thomas  S.,  305 
Jones,  Evan,  401 
Jones,  John  B.,  401 
Jones,  Richard  Lloyd,  96 
Jones,  Robert  M.,  317 
Jones,  Wilson  N.,  46,  301,  319 
Johnson,  Albert  Sidney,  259 
Johnson,  Edith,  89 
Johnson,  Gov.  Henry  S.,  33 
Johnson,  Hugh,  184,  245 
Johnson,  Richard  Mentor,  66 
Johnson,  Roy,  127 


Johnston,  Douglas,  396 
Johnstone,  William,  132 
Journcycakc,  Charles,  287 

Kaufman,  Kenneth  C,  92 

Kaw  City,  102,  355 

Kceler,  George  B.,  132 

Keith,  Harold,  89 

Kelly,  Edward  P.,  359 

Kellyville,  225 

Kemp,  Joel,  316 

Kent,  Bennie,  226 

Kenton,  251 

Kersting,  Kathleen,  111 

Key,  Gen.  William  S.,  35 

Keystone,  240,  253 

Keystone  City  (Wavnoka),  246 

Kiamichi,  323,  327 

Kickapoo,  Indian  village,  309 

Kickapoo  Canyon,  230 

Kiefer,  347 

Kilpatrick,  Jack,  1 12 

King,  Charles  Bird,  234 

King,  John,  309 

Kingfisher,  372 

Kingman,  Eugene,  101 

Kingsbury,  Cyrus,  66,  342 

Kiowa,  340 

Kirk,  Dorothy,  101 

Kirkpatrick,  Albert,  112 

Konovva,  391 

Krebs,  301 

Ku  Klux  Klan,  32,  33 

Labor:  37-49;  anti-picketing  bill,  48;  Bill 
of  Rights,  48;  Child  Labor  Law,  47;  coal 
miners'  wages,  46;  court  bill,  48;  factory 
and  boiler  inspection  laws,  47;  Oklahoma- 
Arkansas  Industrial  Council,  49;  railway 
shopmen's  strike,  48;  Shawnee  conven- 
tion, 47;  strike  breakers,  47;  strike,  coal 
mines,  47,  301;  unemployment  councils, 
49;  Workmen's  Compensation  Law,  48 

Labor  organizations:  A.  F.  of  L.,  49;  Cen- 
tral Trades  and  Labor  council,  168; 
Knights  of  Labor,  46;  Oil  Workers'  In- 
ternational Union,  49;  Oil  Workers' 
Union,  168;  Railroad  Brotherhoods,  47- 
48;  Southern  Tenant  Farmers'  Union,  49; 
State  Federation,  48;  Twin  Territories 
Federation,  47;  United  Cannery,  Agricul- 
ture Packing  and  Allied  Workers,  49; 
United  Mine  Workers,  46;  Veterans  of 
Industry  of  America,  49;  Workers  Al- 
liance, 49 

Lakes:  Altus,  63,  272;  Bar  Dew,  345; 
Boomer,  242;  Burts  Lake  (Frederick), 
382;  Carl  Blackwell,  63,  242;  Carlton, 
299,  300;  Clayton,  328;  Crater,  282; 
Francis,  401,  407,  408;  French's,  284; 
Grand,  61,  62,  286,  398;  Great  Salt  Plains, 


62;  Greenleaf,  236;  Horseshoe,  265; 
Holdenville,  304;  Indian  Hill,  282;  Jed 
Johnson,  282;  Lawtonka,  63,  280;  Lost, 
283,  284;  McAlestcr,  63,  303,  304;  Mo- 
hawk, 61,  353;  Murray.  61;  Okmulgee, 
263;  Osage,  283;  Overholser,  61,  228; 
Pawnee,  241;  Ponca,  355;  Post  Oak,  284; 
Pretty  water,  225;  Quanah  Parker,  283; 
Rush,  282;  Sequoyah,  352;  Silver,  346; 
Spavinaw,  61,  63,  399;  Stillwater,  241; 
Thomas,  281;  Treasure,  285;  Veterans, 
367;  Wewoka,  306 

Lamont,  294 

Langston,  255 

Langston,  John  M.,  255 

Lapham,  Claude,  112 

Larvin,  Jackson  (Standing  Deer),  410 

La  Salle,  Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de,  20 

Laverne,  384 

Lawton,  47,  142-47 

Leavenworth-Dodge  Expedition,  99 

Lee,  Muna,  85,  92 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  259 

Le  Flore,  Basil,  329 

Le  Flore,  Carrie,  329 

Le  Flore,  Charles,  341 

Lehigh,  349 

Lehrer,  Oscar  J.,  113 

Lenapah,  350 

Libraries:  Carnegie,  Guthrie,  359;  Langston, 
256;  Library  of  Congress  Annex,  234;  Me- 
morial Library,  240;  Newberry  Library, 
100;  Phillips  Collection  (University  of 
Oklahoma),  87;  school  libraries,  72 

Lewis,  Anna,  88,  328 

Lewis,  Howell,  100 

Lewis,  Silan,  299 

Lexington,  361 

Lightfoot,  W.  C,  99 

Lille,  Guilliaume  de,  236 

Lillie,  Gordon  W.  (Pawnee  Bill),  242 

Limestone  Gap,  341 

Lisa,  Manuel,  333 

Literature,  83-93 

Lloyd,  W.  J.  B.,  319 

Locke,  Victor  M.,  329 

Loco,  John,  105 

Lookout  Point,  282 

Loughridge,  Olivia,  238 

Loughridge,  Robert  M.,  (H ,  111,  238,  239 

Lugert,  272,  386,  387 
Lukfata,  318 

Lushanya  (Tessie  Mobley),  111 
Lynch,  J.  Harvey,  47 

Magazine  publications:  Boo\s  Abroad,  85; 
Chronicles  of  Of^lahoma,  87;  Hatchet, 
The,  359;  Indian  Missionary,  76;  Inter- 
state Art  Netvs,  103;  Langston  Lion,  256; 
Our  Brother  in  Red,  76;   Our  Monthly, 


INDEX  435 

76;  Sooner  Magazine,  102;  Sturm's  State- 
hood Magazine,    82 
McAdam,  Rezin,  128 
McAlester,  302,  303,  340 
McAIester,  J.  J.,  38,  42,  302,  365 
McCabe,  E.  P.,  255 
McCloud,  John  W.,  309 
McClure,  Anne  Dinsmore,  92 
McClure,  John,  85,  92 
McCombs,  Solomon,  101 

McCurtain,  Jackson,  328 

McCurtain,  Jane,  328 

McDougal,  Violet,  92 

McFarland,  M.,  101 

McFarlin,  Robert,  347 

McGinnis,  Allen,  91 

McGuire,  Bird  S.,  30 

Mclntyre,  Edwin  Vaile,  112 

McLoud,  309 

McNeill,  Don,  64 

McReynolds,  Samuel  A.,  113 

McSpadden,  Sallie,  222 

Madill,  314,320,397 

Madsen,  Chris,  359 

Mahier,  Edith,  101 

Makovsky,  Bohumil,  113 

Mallett,  Pierre  and  Paul,  21 

Mangum,  386 

Mangum,  H.  C,  386 

Manitou,  382 

Mann,  Tom,  253 

Mannford,  253 

Marble  City,  402 

Marcy,  Randolph  B.,  8,  274,  362 

Marietta,  365 

Market  hunting,  12 

Marland,  357 

Marland,  Gov.  E.  W.,  34,  36,  189,  355 

Marlow,  374 

Marlow  Brothers,  374 

Mason  Hotel,  222 

Masonic  Children's  Home,  359 

Masonic  Home  for  aged,  359 

Mathews,  John  Joseph,  89,  291 

Maxey,  S.  B.,  317 

Mayes,  Joel  B.,  76 

Mayes,  Samuel  Houston,  259 

Maytubby  Springs,  342 

Mazie,  335 

Medford,  369 

Meeker,  265 

Memorial  Park,  360 

Mencken,  Henry  Louis,  85 

Mennonites,  295 

Mcno,  295 

Meridian,  100th,  273 

Miami,  220 

Milburn,  George,  85,  91 

Milly  Francis  Monument,  337 

Miles,  Laban  J.,  89,  291 


436 


OKLAHOMA 


Miller,  Gcorpc  W.,  355,  356 

Miller,  Joe,  356 

Miller,  Zack,  356 

Miilerton,  316 

Milstcn,  David  N.,  89 

Minco,  373 

Mineral  Waters,  366 

Mix,  Tom,  359 

Moore,  361 

Moore  and  Hudgins,  97 

Moore,  E.  H.,  184 

Mopope,  Stephen,  99 

Morris,  Joseph  Sequiche,  102 

Morris,  Joseph  W.,  312 

Morrison,  W.  B.,  87 

Mountain  Park,  381 

Mountains,  peaks  and  ranges:    Arbuckles, 

8,  62,  253;  Black  Gum,  235;  Blue  Boun- 
cer, 405;  Blue  Hawk,  242;  Boktukola, 
406;  Cathedral,  296;  Cavanal,  326;  Glass, 

9,  295,  296;  Green  Leaf,  236;  Kiamichi, 
314;  Lookout,  223;  Ouachita,  286,  403, 
405;  Ozarks,  286;  Pine,  405;  Poteau,  403; 
Radziminski,  381;  Rich,  405;  Round, 
241,  288;  Scott,  282;  Sheridan,  282;  Sig- 
nal, 275;  Sugar  Loaf,  326;  Summit,  405; 
Treasure,  284;  Turkey  Snout  Ridge,  405; 
Walnut,  405;  Wichita,  8,  270,  271,  279; 
Wild  Horse,  403;  Winding  Stair,  323, 
326 

Mueller,  Gustav,  88 

Muldrow,  234 

Mulhall,  Lucille,  358 

Mulhall,  "Uncle  Zack,"  358 

Murdock,  Cecil,  101 

Murdock,  John,  346 

Murray,  William  H.,  29,  33,  35,  344,  396 

Murrell,  George,  260 

Murrow,  J.  S.,  341 

Music,  104-13 

Museums:  Field,  Fort  Sill,  100;  Gerrer 
(Shawnee),  308-309;  Historical  Society 
Building  (Oklahoma  City),  101,  172, 
173;  Indian  (Goodland),  329;  Northeast- 
ern Historical  (Tahlequah),  259;  Osage 
Tribal  (Pawhuska),  290-91;  Panhandle 
Agricultural  College  (Goodwell),  250; 
Philbrook  Art  (Tulsa),  101,  103,  214; 
Paleontology  (University  of  Oklahoma), 
250;  Wagoner,  335;  Woolaroc  (Bardes- 
ville),  100,  287,  288 

Muskogee,  148-55,  237,  263,  336,  338 

Myers,  Helen,  113 

Nagle,  Patrick  S.,  33 
Nail's  Crossing,  343 
Nation,  Carry,  240,  296,  297,  359 
National  Guard,  31,  33 
Nationalist  Party,   "Choctaw   Political    Dis- 
turbance," 299 


Natural  Setting:  7-13;  area,  7;  Black  Mesa, 
233,  252;  climate,  10;  Cross  Timbers,  8; 
elevation,  7;  geology,  9,  10;  Grand  Sa- 
line, 21,  333;  Great  Plains,  7;  Great  Salt 
Plains,  9,  13,  233,  244;  Gypsum  Hills, 
310;  Little  Salt  Plains,  246;  Natural  Arch, 
252;  No  Man's  Land,  27,  79,  248,  249, 
250;  Ozark  foothills,  62;  Panhandle,  3, 
7,  9,  27,  36,  233,  243,  248;  Red  Beds, 
9;  Red  Hills,  311 

Negroes,  25,  305,  393;  Masonic  Temple  for, 
264;  area  for,  Piatt  National  Park,  368; 
community  of,  237;  Negro  insane  hospital 
(Taft),  238;  state  institutions  for,  238 

New  Deal,  36 

Ncwkirk,  354 

New  Mexico,  243,  251 

Newspapers:  Ada  News,  393;  Alliance 
Courier  (Ardmore),  60,  127;  American 
Guardian  (Oklahoma  City),  82;  Ardmore 
Chronicle,  128;  Ardmore  newspapers,  78; 
Ardmoreite,  78,  128;  Ardmore  Appeal, 
128;  Ardmore  Bulletin,  128,  393;  Ard- 
more Morning  Democrat ,  128;  Ardmore 
Sun,  128;  Ardmore  Wind  Bag,  127;  Atol{a 
Independent,  77;  Atoka  newspapers,  75; 
Baptist  Rival  (Ardmore),  128;  Bartles- 
ville  Magnet,  81;  Beaver  City  Pioneer,  79, 
249;  Benton  County  Banner,  79;  Black. 
Dispatch  (Oklahoma  City),  82;  "Booster 
Sheets,"  11;  Cherol{ee  Advocate  (Tahle- 
quah), 74,  258;  Chcrok.ee  Messenger,  76, 
90,  401;  Cherokee  Phoenix,  74;  Cherokee 
Republican,  245;  Cheyenne  Transporter, 
78;  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw  Herald 
(Tishomingo),  77;  Chickasaw  Chieftain, 
128;  Chickasaw  Intelligencer  (Tishomin- 
go), 77;  Chickasha  Express,  267;  Choctaw 
Intelligencer,  11;  Choctaw  Telegraph 
(Doaksville),  77;  Cordell  Beacon,  380; 
Daily  Chieftain  (Ardmore),  78;  Daily 
Citizen  (Ardmore),  128;  Daily  Leader 
(Guthrie),  80;  Daily  News  (Guthrie), 
80;  daily  newspapers,  number,  82;  Daily 
Oklahoman  (Oklahoma  City),  81;  Dur- 
ant  Democrat,  320;  Enid  Eagle,  81,  137; 
Enid  Events,  139;  Evening  Gazette  (Okla- 
homa City),  81;  Fort  Gibson,  newspaper 
at,  77;  Garfield  County  News,  139;  Guth- 
rie Get  up,  79;  Guymon  Herald.  79;  Har- 
desty  Times,  and  Herald,  79;  Indian  Ar- 
row (Fort  Gibson),  77;  Indian  Champion 
(Atoka),  75;  Indian  Chieftain  (Vinita), 
77;  Indian  Citizen  (Atoka),  77;  Indian 
Herald  (Pawhuska),  78;  Indian  Journal 
(Muskogee),  75,  153,  340;  intertribal 
newspaper,  75;  Lawton  State  Democrat, 
143;  Morning  News  (Enid),  139;  Morn- 
ing Times  (Muskogee),  78,  339;  Musko- 
gee Phoenix,  11-1%;  newspapers,  Wood- 


ward,  378;  New  State  Farm  and  Home 
(Tulsa),  82;  Oklahoma  City  Times.  80- 
81;  Oklahoma  City  Times-Journal,  81; 
Oklahoma  Constitution  (Tulsa),  82; 
Oklahoma  Journal,  81;  Oklahoma  News 
(Oklahoma  City),  82;  Oklahoma  Times, 
80;  Oklahoma  War  Chief,  Boomer  news- 
paper, 78;  Okmulgee  newspapers,  185; 
Pawhuska,  first  newspaper  at,  78;  Press 
Association,  Indian  Territory,  78;  Press 
Association,  Oklahoma,  87;  Press  Asso- 
ciation, Oklahoma  Territory,  81;  Press, 
University  of  Oklahoma,  85,  103;  Scripps- 
Howard  newspaper,  (Oklahoma  News), 
82;  Statesman,  128;  Tahlequah  Tele- 
phone, 77;  Territorial  Advocate,  79; 
Times-Democrat  (Muskogee),  78,  82; 
Tulsa  newspapers,  209-10;  Tulsa  Trib- 
une, 82;  Tulsa  World.  82,  103;  Watonga 
Republican,  81,311;  Woman's  Viewpoint, 
A,  245 

Nielsen,  N.  L.,  400 

Nineteenth  Kansas  Cavalry,  275 

Noble,  John,  100 

Nolen,  Bryan,  99 

Norman,  156—63 

North,  Capt.  Luther,  242 

Norton,  Spencer,  110,  112 

Nowata,  287,  351 

Nuhfer,  Olive,  101 

Nuttall,  Thomas,  21,  148,  149 

Nuvaka,  263 

Nye,  W.  S.,  88 

Oaks,  400 

Observation  House,  Turner  Falls,  Arbuckle 
Mountains,  364 

Ochclata,  346 

Oddfellows'  Home  (Checotah),  339 

Odin,  234 

Ogden,  George  Washington,  243 

Ogma,  234 

Oil:  37-42;  before  discovery  of,  5;  develop- 
ment of,  37,  195;  first  oil  well,  38;  In- 
dian Territory  Illuminating  Oil  Com- 
pany's discovery  well,  Oklahoma  City, 
133;  pools,  41;  production  for  Oklahoma, 
42;  schools  of  Petroleum  Engineering  and 
Geology,  University  of  Oklahoma,  39; 
College  of  Petroleum  Engineering,  Uni- 
versity of  Tulsa,  40;  waste,  39;  wild  gush- 
er, 41 

Oil  fields:  Ardmore  (Healdton  Field),  127; 
Bardesville,  133;  Burbank,  292,  293; 
Carter  Knox,  267;  Cement,  267;  Crom- 
well, 195;  Gushing,  253,  254,  390;  Drum- 
right,  253;  Duncan,  375;  Earlsboro,  192; 
Fitts,  394;  Glenn  Pool.  38,  224,  345,  347; 
Oil  Springs,  321;  Oklahoma  Citv,  170- 
71,  353;  Osage,  288;  Ponca  Citv,    189; 


INDEX  437 

Red  Fork,  347;  Seminole,  192,  226,  304, 
307 

Oil  industry:  carbon  black,  44;  Cudahy  Oil 
Co.,  38;  gasoline,  44;  Halliburton  well 
cementing  process,  375;  Mid-Continent 
Oil  Co.,  49;  Mid-Continent  Oil  and  Gas 
Association,  31;  pipe  lines,  52;  refineries, 
44,  45;  repressuring,  287;  stripper  wells, 
350;  tank  farms,  52;  Tulsa,  "The  Oil 
Capital,"  82;  wildcatting,  41 

Oil  items:  The  Derrick,  82;  influence  of  oil 
on  journalism,  81;  The  Oil  and  Gas  Jour- 
nal, Tulsa,  82;  oil-field  lingo,  121,  122; 
Oil  Workers'  Union,  49,  168 

Oilton,  390 

Okemah,  264 

Oklabbi,  316 

Oklahoma  City,  31,  36,  164-80,  227,  265, 
310,360 

Oklahoma  Historical  Society,  74,  81,  87, 
172-74,262 

Okmulgee,  24,  37,  181-86,  263,  348 

Oktaha,  338 

Oldham,  Demma  Ray,  91 

Old  Maid  Rock,  252 

Old  Steamboat  Landing,  on  the  Arkansas, 
262 

Old  Town,  242 

Oliver,  Jennie  Harris,  91,  92 

O'Neill,  John,  101 

Oiiate,  Juan  de,  20,  21 

Oologah,  222,  351 

Opothle  Yahola,  241 

Optima,  250 

Ord, 329 

Orienta,  295 

Orlando,  189,  358 

Oskison,  John  Milton,  91 

Oudaws:  Dalton  Gang,  253,  332,  390; 
Doolins,  the,  390;  Kimes,  Mat,  390;  Ter- 
rill,  Ray,  390;  Underbill,  Wilbur,  390 

Overholser,  Ed,  228 

Owen,  Sen  Robert  L.,  30,  77 

Owen,  Thomas  H.,  33 

Page,  404,  405 

Page,  Charles,  239,  240 

Pakanli,  Princess  (Mrs.  Edwin  Underwood), 
111 

Panama,  325 

Parker,  Cynthia  Ann,  271 

Parker,  George  B.,  89 

Park  Hill,  76,  84,  259 

Parks:  Ardmore,  128,  395;  Beavers  Bend, 
407;  Blaine,  190;  Boiling  Springs,  63, 
379;  Boulder,  211,  283;  Cedar  Canyon, 
247;  Central,  378;  Cookson  Hills  Play- 
grounds, 236;  Cratervillc,  271;  Crj-stal 
Beach,  379;  Devils  Den,  396;  Fuqua,  375; 
Government  Springs,    140;   Government 


438 


OKLAHOMA 


Square,  243;  Ilallock,  25;  Honor  Heights, 
154;  Kiwanis,  230;  Lake  Murray,  63,  364 
Lincoln,  265;  Medicine,  280;  Memorial 
360;  Mineral  Wells,  360;  Mohawk,  352 
Osage  Hills,  289;  Ouachita,  404;  Owen 
215;  Piatt  National,  63,  366,  367,  368 
Quartz  Mountain,  386;  recreation  parks 
62;   Jack  Nichols,  264;   Johnstone,   135 
Riverside,  409;  roadside,  226,  400,  409 
Robber's  Cave,  299;   Rock  Island,  370 
Roman    Nose,    311;    Shannoan    Springs, 
267;  Spavinaw  Hills,  334,  399;  Turner 
Falls,  363;  Wintersmith,  395;  Woodland, 
196 

Parr,  J.  O.,  97,  99,  359 

Parrington,  Vernon  M.,  89 

Pauls  Valley,  362 

Pawhuska,  289,  290,  388 

Pawnee,  241 

"Pawnee  Bill,"  241 

Payne,  Charles,  145 

Payne,  David  L.,  78,  167,  228 

Peace  Officers'  Monument,  375 

Penrose,  W.  H.,  252 

Pensacola,  332 

Perkins,  255 

Perry,  189,  243,  358 

Perry,  Charles  M.,  88 

Perry,  Lincoln  (Stepenfetchit),  300 

Perryman,  George,  206,  239 

Perryman,  James,  334 

Perryman,  Josiah  C,  239 

Perryman,  Legus  C,  183 

Perryville,  340 

Pevote,  289 

Phillips,  Frank,  87,  100 

Phillips,  Gov.  Leon  C,  35 

Phillips,  Waite,  214 

Picher,  331 

Pike,  Gen.  Albert,  343 

Pike,  Zcbulon  M.,  261,  290 

Pine,  W.  B.,  127,  184 

Pioneer  Woman  Statue,  355 

Piatt,  Sen.  Orville  Hitchcock,  366 

Pocasset,  373 

Point  of  Pines,  258 

Ponca  Citv,  34,  187-91,  288,  293,  355 

Pond  Creek,  294,  370 

Pontotoc,  395 

Porum,  237 

Posey,  Alex,  78,  85,  153,  339 

Post,  Henry  B.,  279 

Post,  Wiley,  360 

Potato  Hills,  323 

Poteau,  37,  326,  403 

Potts,  R.  D.,  319 

Powys,  John  Cowper,  92 

Prague,  264,  391 

Prairie  City,  286 

Prairie  Dog  Town,  283 


Price's  Falls,  363 

Proctor,  257 

Proctor,  Ezekiel,  257,  258,  401 

Pryor,  332 

Pryor,  Nathaniel,  149,  332 

Public  Market  (Oklahoma  City),  179 

Purcell,  361 

Putnam,  380 

Quapaw,  220 

Quinn,  Richard  Briggs,  79 

Rabinovitz-Travis,  Mayme,  113 

Radio  stations:  Ada,  KADA,  393;  Ardmore 
KVSO,  125;  Enid,  KCRC,  136;  Lawton 
KSWO,  142;  Muskogee,  KBIX,  148;  Nor- 
man, WNAD,  156;  Oklahoma  City 
KOCY,  KOMA,  WKY,  KTOK,  164;  Ok 
mulgee,  KHBG,  181;  Ponca  Citv,  WBBZ 
187;  Shawnee,  KGFF,  192;  Tulsa,  KTUL 
KVOO,  KOME,  104 

Railroads:  Arkansas  Valley  and  Western 
243;  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  51,  221;  Beav 
er,  Meade  and  Englewood,  249;  Choctaw 
Coal  and  Railwav  Co.,  51;  Choctaw,  Okla- 
homa and  Gulf,  195,  299,  309;  Fort 
Smith  and  Western,  264;  Frisco,  51,  223, 
228,  239,  263,  380;  Kansas  Citv  South- 
ern, 325,  403;  Midland  Valley,  291;  Mis- 
souri-Kansas-Texas, 51,  149,  221,  249, 
250,  262,  302,  335;  Rock  Island,  51, 
194,  229,  266,  369,  375;  Santa  Fe,  26, 
51,  226,  251,  365;  Wichita  Falls  and 
Northwestern,  249,  250,  385 

Rainey,  George,  87 

Ralston,  292 

Ramona,  346 

Ramsey  Tower,  97 

Ranches:  Berryman,  297;  Cedar  Plantation, 
282;  Chapman-Barnard,  291;  Figure-4, 
239;  Mashed -O,  352;  Midget  Cattle  Farm, 
242;  Red  Fork,  371 ;  Swinging-Ring,  266; 
Turkey  Track,  254;  Turner,  Roy,  395; 
"101,"  63,  189 

Ranlett,  322 

Rascoe,  Burton,   89 

Ray,  Etta,  193,  194 

Ream,  Vinnic,  221 

Recreation:  basket  ball,  61;  "Blue  Hole," 
Turner  Falls,  363;  Bov  Scouts,  61;  Camp 
Fire  Girls,  61;  Cleo  Springs.  295;  Cold 
Springs  Camp  Grounds,  368;  deer,  62; 
ducks,  62;  Field,  Jelsma  (Guthrie),  360; 
fishing,  408,  409;  football,  61,  64;  fox 
hunting,  62;  golf,  61;  ice  hockey,  61; 
Negro  facilities,  61;  Northeast  Outing 
Club,  409;  polo,  64;  quail  shooting,  re- 
stocking, 62;  rabbit  drive,  250;  rodeos: 
63,  64;^^  Dewey,  345;  Mulhall,  242;  Will 
Rogers  Memorial,  221;  Woodward,  379; 


INDEX 


439 


small  game,  377;  softball,  64;  sports  and 
recreation,  61;  still  hunt,  406;  swimming, 
61;  tennis,  61;  Terrapin  Derby,  63;  "Tex- 
as Strawberry  Bream,"  343;  Wentz  Edu- 
cational Camp,  354;  Wildlife  Council, 
12;  wolf  hunt,  389;  wresding  and  box- 
ing, 61 

Red  Fork,  38,  208,  222,  224 

Red  Oak,  299 

Reed,  385 

Reed,  Docl,  101 

Reed,  Jeff,  392 

Reed,  Jim,  237 

Remington,  Frederic,  100 

Reno  City,  229 

Reno,  Jesse  L.,  229 

Reptiles,  11 

Rhodes,  May  Frank,  92 

Richards,  Samuel,  Memorial  Hall,  337 

Richards  Spur,  270 

Ricklin,  Father  Isadore,  269 

Ridge,  John,  399 

Ridge,  John  Rollin,  84,  92 

Ridge,  Major,  399 

Riggs,  Lynn,  85,  90 

Riggs,  Melvin  G.,  Ill 

Ringling,  322 

Ringling,  John,  127,  322 

Ringwood,  295 

Ripiey,  254 

Rister,  Carl  Coke,  88 

Rivers:  Arkansas,  7,  15,  50,  238,  241,  244, 
251,  261,  262,  292,  323,  334,  370,  390, 
402;  Big  Eagle,  405,  406;  Black  Fork, 
62,   403;   Blue,  319,  343;   Canadian,  7, 
237,  265,  392;   Canev,  388;   Chikaskia, 
79,   293;   Cimarron,   7,   239,   240,  246, 
247,  249,  250,  253,  295,  390;  Deep  Fork, 
265;  Eagle  Fork,  405;  Fourche  Maline, 
299,   326;    Glover,    405;    Grand,   7,   21, 
261,  285,  298,  333;   Illinois,   258,   401, 
408,  411;  Kiamichi,  62,  323,  405;  Litde, 
62,  304,  315,  323,  406;  Medicine,  245; 
Mountain  Fork,  63,  315,  405,  406,  407; 
Neosho,    333;    Nescatunga,    244;    North 
Canadian,   7,   24,   249,    265,    309,   312, 
339,  379,  391;  North  Fork  of  Red,  232, 
272,  386;  Poteau,  20,  62,  299,  323,  326, 
403;  Prairie  Dog  Town  Fork,  387;  Red, 
7,  15,  17,  20,  21,  24,  27,  34,  273;  Salt 
Fork,  7,  244       294;  Verdigris,  7,  261; 
Washita,  7,  230.  266,  268,  342,  374,  396 
Robbers  Roost,  252 
Roberts,  Myron  P.,  75 
Robertson,  Alice,  263 
Robertson,  Gov.  J.  B.  A.,  32 
Robertson,  Lexie  Dean,  92 
Robertson,  W.  S.,  67 
Robinson,  Adah,  98 
Rocky,  381 


Roe,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walter  C,  380 

Roe,  Vingie,  90 

Rogers,  Bettv  Blake,  89 

Rogers,  Clem,  222 

Rogers,  Tiana,  260,  337 

Rogers,  Will,  4,  89,  222,  303,  359 

Rook,  Marion  Tuttle,  87 

Roosevelt  Fund,  255 

Roosevelt,  381 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  32,  85,  271,  280,  382 

Ross,  John,  24,  399,  400,  401 

Ross,  William  P.,  75,  77 

Rosston,  384 

Rough  Riders,  32,  371 

Runs:  4,  5,  26;  Cherokee  Oudet,  27;  Chey- 
enne-Arapaho,  27;  First  Run,  26,  27; 
Iowa,  27;  Kickapoo,  27;  Kiowa-Coman- 
che, 375,  381;  Sac  and  Fox,  27;  Shaw- 
nee-Potawatomi,  27;  Tonkavva  and  Paw- 
nee, 27 

Rush  Springs,  274,  374,  382 

Ryan,  322,  376 

Ryan,  Frederick  Lynne,  88 

Salaison,  234 

Salina,  333,  399 

Sallisaw,  234,  403 

Salt  Springs,  232,  235 

Samuel  Richards  Memorial  Hall,  337 

Sand  Bar  Saloon,  361 

Sandoz,  Mari,  85 

Sand  Springs,  37,  239,  332 

Sans  Oreille,  244 

Sapulpa,  11,  208,  224 

Sapulpa,  Jim,  224 

Sarekup,  Anton,  381 

Sasakwa,  392 

Saucy,  Nellie,  291 

Savanna,  340 

Sawyer,  317 

Sayre,  232,  385 

Savre,  Robert  H.,  232 

Schurz,  Carl,  151 

Scott,  Hue:h  L.,  276 

Scott,  S.  H.,  255 

Scott,  Angelo  C.  and  Winfield  W.,  80,  282 

Scottish  Rite  Temple,  359 

Scullyville,  318,  324 

Sears,  Paul  B.,  57,  86,  89 

Selective  Service  Act,  277 

Selling,  296,  313,  379 

Seminole,  306-308,  391 

Seven  Cides  of  Cibola,  82 

Severs,  F.  B.,  150,  184 

Sexton,  W.  Mark,  303 

Sequoyah  (George  Gist),  4,  29,  65,  74,  76, 

83,  234,  259 
Sequoyah,  proposed  state  of,  151 
Sequoyah  trees,  234 
"Sequoyah  Memorial,"  76 


440  OKLAHOMA 

Shadid,  Dr.  M.,  232 

Shady  Point,  325 

Shakespeare  Garden,  360 

Shattuck,  384 

Shawnee,  19,  27,  192-97,  308 

Shawnee  Town,  318 

Sheets,  Nan,  101,  103 

Shelter  Belt,  12,  13 

Shelterbelt  plantings,  383-84 

Shelterbelt  Project,  12 

Shepherd,  Nellie,  100 

Shepley,  Rutan  and  Coolidge,  98 

Sheridan,  Philip,  270,  275,  371 

Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  275,  278 

Shrine  Temple,  178 

Siblev,  George  C.,  244 

Sibley,  John,  327 

Sill,  Joshua  W.,  275 

Silver  City  Trading  Post,  site  of,  373 

Silver  Lake,  132 

Sixkiller,  Blackhawk,  258 

Skedee,  241 

Skelton,  L.  S.,  184 

Sleepyville,  336 

Smay,  Joe,  98 

Smiser,  Buder  S.,  77 

Smith,  Edwin  Kirby,  259 

Smith,  Harold,  101 

Smith,  Silas,   183 

Smithville,  406 

Smokey,  Lois,  102 

Snyder,  272 

Socialist  Party,  31,  32 

Soper,  318 

Sorey,  Hill,  and  Sorey,  97 

Soucek,  Apollo  and  Zens,  369 

Soule,  Jules,  128 

South  Coffeyville,  350 

Spanish-American  War,  Oklahoma  in,  32, 
371 

Spanish  War  Veterans  colony,  300 

Spavinaw,  334,  399 

Spears  Hill,  392 

Spiro,  325 

Splidog,  Mathias,  398,  403 

Springer,  364 

Springer,  Fleta  Campbell,  91 

Springs:  Antelope,  367;  Black  Sulphur, 
366;  Bromide,  366;  Buffalo,  367;  Bvrd's 
Mill,  395;  Dripping,  401;  Hillside  (Piatt 
National  Park),  368;  Jay  Buckle,  385; 
Pavilion,  368;  Refuge,  365;  Saline,  334 

Springs,  John,  327 

Springs  Station,  327 

Stage  Station  (Pond  Creek),  370 

Stage  Station,  site  of  at  Hennessey,  371 

Standley,  James  S.,  77 

Stanley,  John  Mix,  99 

Stark,  O.  P.,  329 

Starr,  Belle,  116,  236,  237 


Starr,  Emmctt,  87 

Starr,  James,  237 

Starr,  Tom,  237 

"State  Capital"  (Guthrie),  80 

State  institutions  and  agencies:  Board  of 
Education,  110;  Bureau  of  Mines  (Bart- 
lesville),  131;  Central  State  Hospital, 
163;  Charities  and  Corrections,  47;  Con- 
federate Home  (Ardmore),  365;  Corpo- 
ration Commission,  13,  29,  53;  Eastern 
Oklahoma  Hospital  for  Insane  (Vinita), 
222;  Fish  Hatchery  (Cherokee),  245; 
Fish  Hatchery  (Caddo),  343;  Game  Farm 
(Concho),  372;  Game  and  Fish  Depart- 
ment, 33,  62;  Geological  Survey,  37; 
Highway  Department,  33:  Hospital  for 
Insane  (Negroes)  (Taft),  238;  Northern 
Oklahoma  Hospital  (Enid),  140;  Plan- 
ning and  Resources  Board,  13;  Reforma- 
tory (Granite),  385;  School  for  Blind 
(Muskogee),  262-63;  Soldiers  (Sulphur), 
367;  State  College  Co-ordination  Board, 
72;  State  Game  Preserve  (Smithville), 
406;  State  Tuberculosis  Sanatorium  (Clin- 
ton), 231;  Tax  Commission,  34;  Tuber- 
culosis Sanatorium  (Talihina),  327; 
Western  Oklahoma  Charity  Hospital 
(Clinton),  231;  Western  Oklahoma  Hos- 
pital, 377;  Whitaker  Orphan  School  (Pry- 
or),  334 

Statuary  Hall,  234 

Stevenson,  Dorothea,  101 

Stewart,  J.  E.,  259 

Stillwater,  97,  198-203,  242,  402 

Stockyards  and  packing  plant,  179 

Stokes,  Montford,  261 

Stoddard,  Amos,  334 

Stringtown,  341 

Stroud,  225,  391 

Stumbling  Bird,  278 

Suegs,  Sidney,  78,   128 

Sullivan,  Louis,  97 

Sulphur,  366 

Supply,  377 

Svobada,  Frank,  381 

Sweezy,  Carl,  102 

Taft,  237,  263 

Taft,  Lorado,  240 

Taft,  William  Howard,  237 

Tahlequah,  258,  407,  409 

Tahlontuskee,  235,  236 

Tahmurath,  234 

Takotokah,  258 

Talihina,  326 

Taloga,  380 

Tatum,  Laurie,  271 

Taylor,  Joseph,  101 

Taylor,  Ross,  91 

Taylor,  Zachary,  261,  343 


f 


Tccumseh,  194 
Terasaz,  Marian,  102 
Terral,  376 

Texas  Rangers,  271,  382 
Texhoma,  250 
Texola,  233 
Thieves'  Path,  388 
Thoburn,  J.  B.,  87 
Thomas,  312 
Thomas,  A.  B.,  87 
Thorns,  Elmer,  146 
Thomas,  Heck,  146 
Thomas,  Maude  O.,  79 
Thomas,  Paul,  1 12 
Thompson,  Paul,  92 
Three  Forks,  262,  336 
Tiger  Hill,  391 
Tilghman,  Bill,  359 
Tilghman,  Zoe  A.,  92 
Time  Zone  Boundary  Line,  252 
Tishomingo,  77,  396 
Tomlin,  Truman  (Pinky),  113 
Tonkawa,  293 
Tower  of  Memories,  360 
Towers:  Carter  Mountain,  407;  Crow's  Nest, 
405;  Tucker,  Lake  Murray,  365;  Wind- 
ing Stair,  405 
Trails    and    roads:    California,    302,    339; 
Chisholm,  25,  226,  231,  371,  376;  Dog- 
wood,   402;    East,    West,    Shawnee,   25; 
Fort  Supply-Fort  Sill,  379;  Indian  Buf- 
falo, 297;  Marcy,  343;  Osage,  330;  Pen- 
rose, 252;  Santa  Fe,  251 ;  Seminole  Beach, 
283;  Texas  Road,    149,   261,   302,  330, 
337,  338,  339;  Texas  Cattle,  231;  Trail 
of  Tears,  323;  Western,  25,  231,  111 
Transportation:    50-53;    Butterfield,    John, 
Stage  line,  340;  "Facility"  and  "Florence," 
steamboats,  262;  "Leadville  Cannon  Ball," 
stage  coach,  370;  trucks  and  busses,  52; 
travois,  50 
Trapp,  Gov.  M.  E.,  32,  33 
Treaties,  1,  327,  341,  342 
Trent,  Spi  M.,  89 
T'sang  Chich,  234 
Tuilahassee,  67 

Tulsa,  l(>,  37,  204-15,  222,  224,  239,  241 
Turbyfill,  Mark,  92 
Turley,  Jesse,  149 
Turner,  Leo  C,  92 
Turpin,  250 
Tuskahoma,  327 
Tuttle,  373 
Twin  Territories,  28 
Twine,  W.  H.,  237 

Union,  373 

Universities,  colleges,  and  schools:  A.  and 
M.,  Stillwater,  12,  57,  59,  70,  72,  97, 
108;  199-203;  Bacone  College,  73;  Bart- 


INDEX  441 

lesvilie  Junior  College,  134;  Bethany 
Peniel  College,  73,  227;  Cameron  Agri- 
cultural College,  97;  Capitol  Hill  High 
School,  98;  Catholic  College  for  Wom- 
en, 73;  Central  State  College,  70,  226; 
Connors  State  Agricultural  College,  236; 
East  Central  State  College,  70,  71,  393, 
394;  Eastern  Oklahoma  A.  and  M.,  300; 
Junior  Colleges,  72,  378,  381;  Langston 
University,  59,  70,  72,  255;  Murray  State 
School  of  Agriculture,  396-97;  Muskogee 
Junior  College,  154;  Negro  Training 
School,  Boys,  264;  Negro  Training  School, 
Girls,  238;  Northeastern  Junior  College, 
221;  Northeastern  State  College,  71,  259; 
Northwestern  State  College,  108,  245; 
Oklahoma  Baptist  University,  73,  113, 
197;  Oklahoma  City  University,  73,  169, 
179;  Oklahoma  College  for  Women,  71, 
267;  Oklahoma  Military  Academy,  223; 
Panhandle  A.  and  M.,  250;  Phillips  Uni- 
versity, 73,  108,  140;  Presbyterian  Col- 
lege for  Women,  320,  321;  Seminole  Jun- 
ior College,  307;  Southeastern  State  Col- 
lege, 71,  320;  Southwestern  Bible  Col- 
lege, 136;  Southwestern  State  College, 
70,  230;  St.  Gregory's  College,  73,  102, 
113,  308,  392;  St.  Mary's  Academy,  392; 
Tonkawa  University  Prep.  School,  294; 
Tulsa  University,  73,  108,  214,  215;  Uni- 
versity of  Oklahoma,  15,  70,  72,  98,  101, 
102,  108,  158-63,  251;  University  of 
Oklahoma  Medical  School,  169,  174 
U.S.  Army,  275 

U.S.  Seventh  Cavalry,  275,  278,  297 
U.S.  Southwestern  Reformatory,  229 

Valiant,  316 

Van  Dorn,  Earl,  374,  382 

"Vazzures,"  341 

Vera,  346 

Verden,  268 

Verdigris,  336 

Verdigris  Landing,  336 

Vestal,  Stanley,  85,  86,  90,  91,  92 

Vici,  297 

Vincent,  385 

Vinita,  51,  62,  77,  206-207,  221,  287,  331 

Vinson,  385 

Vivia,  260 

Wagoner,  334 

Wagoner,  "Big  Foot,"  335 

Wah'Kon-Tah,  89 

Walker,  William,  359 

Walnut  Bayou,  318 

Walton,  Gov.  J.  C,  32,  3,1,  49,  127 

Wanamaker,  John.  254 

Waner,  Lloyd,  265 

Waner,  Paul,  265 


442 


OKLAHOMA 


Wapanucka,  395 

Wardcll,  Morris  L.,  87 

Warner,  236 

Washburn,  Rev.  Cephas,  402,  403 

Washburn,   Jay,   399 

Washington,  Jerry  and  Bill,  365 

Water  Canyon,  230 

Water  Melon  Festival,  294 

Waters,  E.,  241 

Watic,  Stand,  24,  399,  400,  401 

Watonga,  311 

Watson,  John,  346 

Watts,  401,  407,  408 

Waukomis,  371 

Waurika,  322 

Waynoka,  246 

Weatherford,  230 

Weatherford,  William  J.,  230 

Weaver,  James  B.,  167 

Weaver,  Gen.  J.  V.,  359 

Webber,  Walter,  236 

Webbers  Falls,  236 

Weleetka,  348 

Wellman,  Paul  I.,  88,  91 

Wells,  Carl,  97 

Wentz,  Lew,  190 

West,  Richard,  101 

Westville,  257,  401 

Wetumka,  349 

Wewoka,  305,  306 

Wharton  (now  Perry),  243 

Wheeless  Post  Office,  251 

Wheelock,  Eleazcr,  316 

Wheete,  Glenn  and  Treva,  101 

White,  David,  394 

White  Eagle,  188,  356 

Whitchand,  Robert,  91 

Wilburton,  299 

Wildlife,  281 

Wildlife  Refuge:  Bird  Sanctuary,  Ellen  How- 
ard Miller,  346;  wild-fowl  refuge,  244; 
Wichita  Mountains,  280 


Wilkinson,  James  B.,  261 

Will  Rogers  Courts,  179 

Will  Rogers  Memorial,  223 

Willard,  Jess,  232 

Williams,  Laurence,  103 

Williams,  Loring  S.,  315 

Williams,  Robert  L.,  31 

Willis,  "Uncle"  Wallace,  105 

Willow,  385 

Wilson,  Enos,  184,  347 

Wilson,  John,  276,  289 

Wilson,  R.  H.,  32,  33 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  31 

Wimbcrly,  Jack,  388 

Winkler,  George,  98 

Wister,  326 

Woodford,  364 

Woodville,  397 

Woodward,  63,  378 

Woodward   Race  Meet,   American  Legion, 

379 
Worcester,  Ann,  260 
Worcester,  Samuel  Austin,  65,  74,  84,  90, 

260,  334 
World  War,  First,  31,32,48 
Wright,  Allen,  24,  75 
Wright  City,  317 
Wright,  Frank  Llovd,  97 
Wright,  Muriel,  87 
Wrigley,  William,  359 
Wyandotte,  286 
Wvnnewood,  362 
Wynona,  388,  389 


York,  Wynn,  112 

Young,  Ruth  Alexander,   111 

Yukon,  228 


Zolnay,  George  Julian,  234 
Zuetzalcoad,  234 


UNIVERSITY    OF    OKLAHOMA    PRESS 
NORMAN 


i^W 


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