KO’d By OK

Leg 6 – Knocked Out By Oklahoma

05/26/2023 – 06/01/2023

When you hear Oklahoma, what do you envision? I see flat, brown land and lots of tornados. I could not have been more wrong, at least with the parts of the state we visited. The areas we explored knocked us out with all the beautiful sights: green hills, lush forests, lakes, springs and even some mountains and grass prairies and not one storm! We stayed in the southern part of the state and visited Chickasaw National Recreation Area in South Central OK and the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in the Southwestern part of the state.

Home for the first few days was Arbuckle RV Resort in Sulphur OK, home to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. A super nice campground with a lot of amenities and a storm shelter, which I am happy to say we did not need. 😉

Chickasaw National Recreation Area

History of the Park

In the 1800’s, the federal government moved the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee and other Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to this area (Trail of Tears). The land was then deeded to the Chickasaw Nation in 1855. The town of Sulphur Springs was founded in 1890. Hotels and bath houses were quickly built and began promoting the healing power of the mineral springs nearby. Local residents became concerned that increased tourism would deplete this natural resource.

In order to preserve the natural area, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations sold the springs and a 640 acre buffer back to the US Department of Interior in 1902 and in 1906 the boundaries were expanded and Sulphur Springs Reservation became Platt National Park, the 7^th national park in the NPS.

In 1976 Platt National Park was demoted when it was combined with the Arbuckle Recreation Area and became the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. It was named after the Chickasaw to commemorate their cooperation to preserve the land.

The CCC Years (Civilian Conservation Corp)

During the 1930’s the CCC built roads, trails and pavilions in the park and planted over 500,000 trees. The best thing the CCC built, in my opinion, were the waterfalls along Travertine Creek. These “waterfalls” are actually little dams that were built to create swimming holes along the creek. Now, I don’t know if these dams are a good thing or not. I read that this would never be done today due to the impact on the environment and the plants and animals that call the stream home. Personally, I did not see anything wrong with it. Families were out enjoying the summer days with cool water, picnics and hiking. There was plenty of vegetation and wildlife. Just my two cents.

Platt Historic District

The Platt Historic District contains all the springs, several campgrounds, a bison pasture, a nature center and Travertine Creek with all its man-made swimming holes. There is a perimeter drive that leads you through the district with stops at most of the springs. Two springs, Antelope and Buffalo are only accessible by an easy 1-mile loop hike. Since we didn’t do any swimming we were able to see the park in about 4 hours.

Antelope and Buffalo Springs Hike

We took Perimeter Drive out to the Travertine Nature center, stopping at little Niagara on the way. Little Niagara would be an excellent place to spend the day and that’s exactly what a lot of families were doing. That water was a little too cold for my comfort and we went hiking instead.

Antelope Springs

The trail to Antelope & Buffalo Springs begins at the Travertine Nature Center and is an easy walk on a wide gravel path. Antelope Springs bubbles up right out of the rocks. The springs produce about 1.5 million gallons of water a day, however, during droughts the spring can go dry. This has happened 22 times in the last 100 years.

Further down the trail we passed a crystal clear pond with vibrant green algae growing in it. In the bushes next to the pond I noticed these beautiful dragonflies. But was it a dragonfly? It had wings like a butterfly. This creature had a vivid turquoise body with jet black butterfly wings. I’ve never seen anything like it and they were all over the place. It was magical! Google later told me these were a damselfly. Have you ever heard of a damselfly? The hike alone was worth it just to discover these beauties.

Buffalo Springs

On to Buffalo Springs. The CCC built a stone structure around the spring to protect these delicate springs and channel the water into a stream. While I was watching the water bubble up in the pool, I heard Bill chuckle. “What’s so funny?” I ask. He was reading the placard about the spring and was wondering what a Buffalo Bat head was. Buffalo Bat head? That’s when he realized it was bathed, as in a bath. The buffalo used the springs to bathe in. LOL

Combined Antelope and Buffalo Springs can produce approximately 5 million gallons of water a day during high flow years. WOW!

As we were leaving Buffalo Springs a dad and his two little boys were walking up and he says to us, “Be careful of ticks, they are very active right now. I’ve already pulled four off my boys.” Great… now I’m itchy and flicking at everything that feels like it is landing on me. The wind blows the hair around my ears, I’m flicking it away. Something lands on my arm, I’m flicking it away. I don’t quite look like a spaz, but close. And yes, I know ticks don’t fly and we have stayed in the middle of the trail and have not brushed up against any grass or bushes but still… We did do a tick check when we got home and found zero.

More Springs and Bison

We continued the Perimeter drive, stopping to see some of the other springs and Lincoln Bridge.

The last task for the day is to find some bison. The park has a herd of 60+ bison contained in the “Bison Pasture”. We hiked ½ mile, one way to the pasture and only saw two bison that were hiding in the shade of the trees. Can you find them?

Break Time

It is a little past 1PM and I’m feeling pretty accomplished with our two hikes and ice cream sounds good. It took a little bit of arm twisting to get Bill to agree but it worked and we stopped at Braum’s. Braum’s is a regional ice cream and dairy store located in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas and they have over 100 flavors of ice cream. Sounds good to me.

Now when I said let’s get an ice cream, I was thinking a one or two scoop cone, I didn’t want to eat back ALL those calories I just worked off. But my husband decides to “go big or go home” and had a ginormous banana split and don’t let the two spoons fool ya, this was ALL his! 😊 Very tasty. If you are traveling thru OK, KS, TX, MS or AR and get a craving for ice cream, stop in to Braum’s. Great ice cream for a small price.

Chickasaw Cultural Center

The Chickasaw Cultural Center is a living history of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian culture. We arrived just in time to watch a stomp dance demonstration, which was pretty awesome.

After the demonstration we wandered around the village, gardens and memorial. The entire campus is beautifully landscaped and peaceful. Very well done.

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is known as the modern frontier. With one day left in the area we decided to head north and check it out. OKC offers everything from triple-A baseball to museums, to working stockyards, parks and gardens. We planned to visit the state capitol building, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the Brickyard.

State Capitol Building

Our first stop was the capitol building. We arrived around 11AM, the parking lot was empty and we only saw a few people wandering around so we walked around the exterior and looked at some of the statues. Then I saw the signs for the entrance. What the heck, let’s just go see if it is open. The Utah capitol building was open on Sunday, maybe this one is too. Lo and behold, the sliding glass door opens and we were told to come on in.

As soon as we walked through security, I saw this fabulous quilt and it looked like all the wildflowers I’ve seen across Oklahoma. Turns out it is Oklahoma’s state wildflower, Indian Blanket. The wildflowers are beautiful and so was this quilt.

Oklahoma was the 46th State?

The first stop was an introduction to Oklahoma’s history and journey to statehood. It was then I learned Oklahoma was the 46^th state admitted to the union in 1907. What? Did I read that right? The 46^th state and in 1907? This was one year after Platt National Park was created. This also got me thinking, what states were 47 and 48? New Mexico and Arizona, both in 1912. I guess I always thought the 48 states were all states prior to the 1900’s. Every day I learn something new.

The Oklahoma capitol building was completed in 1917 and due to cost overruns the dome was never built. For the next 90 years, no improvements to the building were made and the people’s house fell into disrepair. In 2014 and 2016 the OK legislature passed two bills appropriating $245 million to make needed repairs and modernize this 100-year-old building and to install the dome that was cut from the original build.

Exploring the Building

The results of the facelift are stunning. Each floor contains artwork depicting different parts of Oklahoma’s history. My favorite area was the dome and the grand staircase. The area was bright and airy. I loved the pastel colors in the dome and the murals of the sky that could easily be a sunrise or sunset.

There is a small museum with displays of the reconstruction process, tools used during the original construction and the quill used by Theodore Roosevelt when he signed to documents to admit Oklahoma into the Union.

This is the third capitol building we have toured this year and I have to say we have really enjoyed each one and how they represent their states.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum

Do you remember the Oklahoma City Bombing? I had sort of forgotten about it. I remember Timothy McVeigh and the Ryder truck and the children in the daycare center but that was really about it. Maybe it is because I was busy raising two small babies of my own. It could be I did not closely follow the news or politics in those days either. When I was looking for things to do in OKC, I was quickly reminded of this tragic event. The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum is rated #1 on the list of places to visit.

The memorial tells the story of the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The bombing claimed the lives of 168 innocent men, women and children and injured 680 others. It is the worst act of domestic terrorism in the history of the U.S.

The blast damaged 324 other buildings in a 16-block radius. We were talking to a gentleman by the reflection pool and he said he was in his high school class, five miles away and felt the blast.

The museum does an excellent job telling the story of that awful day. The exhibits walk you through that beautiful spring morning when kids are being dropped off at daycare, workers are arriving to begin their day and people are coming to the federal building to take care of personal business. It takes you through the blast, the confusion afterwards, the rescue and recovery efforts, the investigation, the arrests, the trials and leaves you with thoughts on how to change the world for the better.

The Blast

We started the journey with an exhibit on the building of radicalism in the U.S. with the OJ trials, Waco and Rodney King. Then we are led into the conference room of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board Meeting that started promptly at 9AM that spring morning. We are listening to the actual recording of that hearing. Two minutes into the hearing, the blast is heard, 1 block away. At that moment, pictures of all the casualties appear on a screen ☹

Confusion, Comfort and Stories of Those Who Survived

The doors open and we are now subject to all the voices and sirens of the first responders. We hear the chaos on the streets as everyone is shocked and confused. The rescue and recovery efforts lasted for 16 days. In addition to searching for survivors, the rubble was being collected and searched for clues that would lead the FBI to the persons responsible for this heinous act.

There are many displays showing damaged pieces of the building and buildings surrounding the Alfred P Murrah Building. There were pictures showing part of a room completely gone and a full, untouched coffee pot right next to it.

This piece of window was blown out of the church across the street from the federal building.

One story that shocked me was from a manager of the Federal Credit Union. She was conducting a weekly team meeting with her 8 employees. They were commenting on all the pretty spring dresses everyone was wearing. In the next moment, all 8 ladies were gone, however, the manager was still standing there, untouched. Her dress had one small rip in it. I could not even imagine what that must feel like.

Investigation and Arrest

It was very interesting how they pieced all the evidence together so quickly and found their guy. He was sitting in a jail cell just 80 miles north of OKC. 90 minutes after the bombing, Timothy McVeigh was pulled over by a local deputy who noticed his car did not have a license plate. While questioning Mr. McVeigh, the deputy asked him to step out of the vehicle and that is when he noticed a concealed gun. The deputy arrested McVeigh and took him to the local jail. He was just about to be released when the FBI pieced everything together and discovered their suspect was being held in Noble County on concealed weapon charges. The FBI then took McVeigh into federal custody.

Part of the displays in this exhibit included pieces of evidence the FBI used to trace McVeigh and tie him to the bombing. These included the receipt from the motel, the VIN from an axle of the Ryder truck and the identification sketches made based on descriptions from the people where he rented the Ryder truck. It also included the shirt he was wearing, the gun and knife he had on him when he was arrested and the get-away car. It made me angry that these personal items were included as part of the exhibit. I feel it is memorializing him and that is just wrong, in my opinion. I went back and forth with myself whether to take this picture and include it in my journal and well, here it is.

Hope

The end of the journey leaves us with hope. Hope was found that day in the resilience of the families who lost loved ones, the survivors and the rescuers. Hope was found in a community who mourned and rebuilt together. Billy Graham said it best at the prayer service organized by Oklahoma’s first lady on April 23^rd:

Today, on the grounds where the federal building once stood, sits an empty chair for each life lost. The reflecting pool sits where 5^th Street was and at either end of the pool sits a gate. One gate has 9:01 etched in it to signify the innocence before the attack and the second gate has 9:03 etched in it to mark the moment the healing began.

The Survivor Tree

The Survivor Tree sits on the highest point of the memorial. The tree is an American Elm that was planted around 1920. It has survived commercial development, storms, drought and on April 19, less than 150 feet from Ground Zero, it survived the full force of a 4,000 pound explosion. Many of the leaves and branches were blown off and pieces of metal, glass and plastic are still imbedded in its wood, yet it still survives. It has become a symbol of resilience.

Left, right, religious, non-religious… fanaticism is wrong. We all need to take personal responsibility for our actions and encourage our families and friends to do the same. If we all do this, maybe we can make our world a better and safer place.

OKC is a nice town with plenty to do and see. It’s time for a quick bite before we head back to Sulphur.

Wichita Mountains

Once again, Oklahoma is knocking us out with her beauty. The Wichita Mountains are located in the SW part of the state and protects one of the last remnants of the mixed grass prairies. We arrived early in the afternoon on Memorial Day and our camp host told me about a festival that might still be going on in Medicine Park with some live music. Sounds good to me.

Medicine Park

The jeep is unhooked and we head into town. Medicine Park began in 1908 as Oklahoma’s first resort town. It attracted celebrities, politicians and even a few outlaws. For a brief time, Bonnie and Clyde even hid out here.

The majority of the buildings in Medicine Park are constructed of pink granite cobblestones and there is a large swimming hole, called Bath Lake, in the center of town on Medicine Creek. For $3 you can swim all day 😊. We did not swim and meandered through town instead. It is a cute little town with a few shops and restaurants.

Medicine Park also sits as the gateway to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and we decided to go on in and look around.

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

The wildlife refuge was established in 1901 and is one of the oldest refuges in the U.S. It provides a home for bison, elk, deer, long-horn cattle and many other animals. OK-49 is the main road through the refuge and is about a 20 mile drive from one end to the other. On this 20-mile drive (well actually 40-mile because we had to come back) we found a large herd of bison, waaayyy off in the distance and a few long-horns. Not bad for the middle of the day. Kona enjoyed running around in the wildflowers too!

Later in the week, we drove through the refuge again around dinner time and hit the jackpot! There was a small herd of bison walking along the roadway and we stopped to watch them. One of them stopped, turned his head towards us and stared us down. When he realized we were not a threat, he continued on his way. It was incredible riding alongside these beasts.

On our way back to camp we drove to the top of Mt Scott. A 3-mile road leads to the summit at 2,464 feet and the views were pretty spectacular, it would have been better if not for the afternoon haze and sun position late in the day. The next morning, we planned to get up early and take our coffee to the summit and enjoy the sunrise. That didn’t work out though, the skies were overcast. Oh well…

Our visit to Oklahoma was very enjoyable and we have now checked the state off on our map. Thanks for knocking us out, Oklahoma, with all your beautiful sights!

What’s Next

We will make a short stop in Albuquerque for some Birria Pizza and then head in to explore Arizona a little bit.