Oklahoma

We've completed our 2 month committment volunteering at Lake Whitney, TX and are on the move as of July 1st. We stayed two nights at Fort Richardson State Park, Jacksboro, TX on our way North.  We were the only visitors to the fort on Monday. After the civil war, this fort was in operation for only about 12 years; and used primarily for attracting settlement to the area. The fort had no walls and indian trouble was rare.  The few remaining buildings are mostly reproductions, but the exterior walls on the one remaining troop barracks are original.

Troop Barracks Bldg. Vertical pole walls.

Fort Richardson Park, Like Lake Whitney, has lots of deer. We see several with young fawns every morning and evening right across from our camp site. 

After Ft. Richardson we crossed into Oklahoma and stayed three nights at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area near Sulphur, OK.  The surrounding land is now Chickasaw Indian land, which was once Choctaw land.   We visited the Chickasaw Cultural Center and learned a good deal about the tribe.  I have this story pretty close - Many years ago, the Chickasaw and Choctaw were one people. To escape warring with other tribes they started west, led by a sacred pole they put into the ground each night. The next mornoing they would find the pole leaning and they followed that direction.  One morning the pole was wobbling and the chiefs two sons could not agree which direction to travel, so they split.  Each son guided those who would follow. One group was called Choctaw after the son named Chahta and the other son Chikasha.    The Choctaw ended up in Oklahoma while the Chickasaw were in Mississippi. Our government later gave half the Choctaw land to the Chickasaw nation when they were kicked out of Mississippi, breaking both treaties.

Some of the museum art.

As I write this, we are camping for three nights at Eufala Lake near the dam in a Corp of Engineers Park.  Eufala Lake is really big and spreads for 50 miles every direction.  This is a great water sport destination;  Too bad we don't have our boat anymore, it would be wonderful to take time and explore this lake.

Eufala Dam

On Monday we'll head to Mount Magazine State Park in Arkansas. Mount Magazine is the highest point in the state and is supposed to be 10 degrees cooler there becasue of the altitude.... We sure look forward to getting out of this 100 degree heat we've been in for the past month.