Oklahoma - Day 3 - across southern OK

Beaver Bend State Park, Broken Bow
Monday, 3 August 2020

today's route

I left the KOA at about 8:30 this morning so I’d have time to stop by a local tire shop. When I got the 4 new rear tires in Alabama, I kept the old front tires because the shop there and I agreed they were still in good condition. And the left one still is, but the right one has lost e nough tread to make me concerned.

The Alabama tire shop was advertised in the local KOA brochure.  I was completely satisfied with the service there so I went to the tire shop advertised in the Durant KOA brochure. Casteel’s Tire is in the center of Durant and has probably been in business for a very long time.  The guy who came out to help me was young and had an OK accent so thick you could cut it with a knife.  But he clearly knew his business and was honest.  I explained my situation, he looked at the tires, agreed the right one should be replaced but said he thought I could go another 5,000 miles on them without a problem. He said I should stop somewhere and get new ones before I go on to Colorado (in Sept., I hope).

Durant claims to be the City of Magnolias and celebrates that with its annual Magnolia Festival of Oklahoma.  Well, annual since 1997 and this year, thanks to the stupid virus, it'll be delayed from its usual early June date until November.  Not, strictly speaking, magnolia season, but surely likely to be safer.

All day I crossed bridges named, according to the signs, for WWI Choctaw Code Talkers: Ben Colbert, Benjamin Hampton, Tobias Frazier, Jeff Nelson, Solomon Bond Lewis.  I’d thought these guys were in WWII and assumed I’d read the sign wrong, so I took a close look when the 2nd one came along and they definitely said WWI.  Brave men who weren’t treated well by the US military (as seems to be usual with minorities).  I’m glad they at least get public recognition here in their home state.

I crossed Caddo Creek and wondered if it were the same Caddo Creek I came to in Texas.  And then I remembered the Red River being in the way.

Because I didn’t have to take part of my day getting new tires, I knew I’d have plenty of time to take the 2-3 hour trip to tonight’s campground.  And I did.

I came to Bokchito (“Biggest Little Town in Oklahoma”) and thought about the variations on this name that show up in so many states – even Ohio, I think, or Indiana.

I came across a town named Bennington and suddenly felt disoriented, as if I’d dropped down into Vermont by accident.  Odd feeling.  The Bennington Bears claims it’s the “best rural school in Oklahoma.”

Anhinga

I saw a large bird sitting on top of a utility pole with its wings stretched out like an Anhinga does to dry them out after it’s been diving.  But I connect Anhingas with the coastal areas where there’s water, not rural OK, and assumed it must be a vulture acting weirdly, although after spending some quality time with the bird book, I think it probably really was an Anhinga.  They're actually larger than vultures, head to toe, though with quite different wingspans, but the size is what convinced me.  Turns out they come up to southeastern OK for breeding season, which it still seems to be, though they hang out year round in freshwater in states along the Gulf of Mexico.   I don’t know where on earth this particular Anhinga would have been swimming because it seems pretty dry around here except for occasional creeks.   But he was sure ornamenting the utility pole.

I crossed Muddy Boggy Creek.   I’ve found Muddy Creeks in most states, and Boggy Creeks ditto.  But I think this is my first Muddy Boggy Creek.  It looked fine to me.

The tiny town of Soper seems to have too many churches for the number of inhabitants, so each church could only have about 5 families in its congregation.  Very devout town, apparently.

I passed the turn for Antlers (I enjoy the local names established for places - they give a feel for the history or landscape of each state), and the turn that would take me south to Paris, TX.

OK is assiduous in putting ridges in the road along the center line and on its shoulders.  I appreciate the warning they provide but OK’s ridges are deeper than I’m used to.   Speaking of which, I came across a road construction zone where some worker had put the cones blocking off one lane so far into the lane of travel that none of us could get by easily.   I noticed that I wasn’t the only one who had to move onto the shoulder to avoid hitting cones. The shoulder, you know, where there are deep ridges.   After a mile or so of this, I was ready to have a little heart-to-heart talk with the worker who did it.

The Kiamichi River flows out of the Kiamichi Mountains farther north and is one of OK’s major rivers.   It’s been dammed up to create the Hugo Reservoir, near the town of Hugo, natch, and the dam sits right by the highway.   I had a good view of it.

The whole drive today I saw crop fields, cows, hills and trees.   I was on a 2-lane road with shoulders, but with enough curves to make me glad of the shoulders (a surprising number of drivers fudge the center line on curves, making me want to move over).

I passed through Ft. Towson, established 1902, but it's the nearby fort itself that saw a surprising amount of history in its 40 years of use.  It seems that everything that happened between 1824 and 1865 happened here, from Davy Crockett through the Trail of Tears to the last Civil War surrender.   https://www.okhistory.org/fort-towson  I didn't stop to visit because they charge $5 for senior admission and anyway are limiting the number of visitors to 8 at a time in the museum.  But its odd the amount of history that can be bound in one location.

The Western Farmers Electric Coop has an enormous coal-fired power plant out here.

I passed a sign leading to the Doaksville Archaeological Site, which I hadn't heard of.  According to this website I found (with way too much advertising on it), Doaksville was once the center of Choctaw life in the area, predated Ft. Towson (the fort), and was the precursor of Ft. Towson (the town).   https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ok-doaksville  Despite the extraneous matter, the article is interesting.

I saw filled logging trucks often from here on for the rest of the drive.

Just outside the town of Valliant, I passed a funeral in progress that was so heavily attended I was a little surprised to find people still at work in town.  I passed a business called Prince Mini-storage and wondered if the owners were named Prince or if it was a reference to Prince Valiant (Sunday comics).

I passed the International Paper Co.'s containerboard mill at Valliant.  And I later learned that Weyerhaeuser also has a containerboard plant at Valliant, though I didn't see it.  But I found a fascinating reprint of an article from The Wall Street Journal from 2004 about gun control in OK in general and this plant in particular.   https://www.thehighroad.org/12-fired-from-weyerhaeuser-for-guns

It's campaign season along here and the race for the local state senate seat is seriously contested (based on the signs).  Although political parties aren't identified on the signs for some reason, one of the candidates says he is "Standing Strong with President Trump," which seems a little odd to me since he's only running for a state office, not a national one.

I passed the McDaniel Livestock Exchange and can report that Monday seems to be the day for livestock exchanges: the parking lot was packed with pickup trucks and more were arriving as I drove by.

One of the cross streets is named Seedtick Crossing (very colorful).

All along today's drive I passed farmers selling watermelon from the backs of their pickups.

Most of the historical markers I've passed today have been on the opposite side of the road, and I didn't want to try to cross the road twice just for markers.  I saw the title of the one I passed near Millerton, "Wheelock Mission," and looked it up.  Some of OK's historical markers aren't noted separately online - just in a list by title, that can also be searched by county, but it's not quite the information I was hoping for.  Anyway, I learned that this marker honors a nearby stone church, the oldest in OK, built in 1846 and still being used.

I was surprised by the name of the volunteer highway cleanup crew along this stretch: Kiamichi Independent Bikers Inc.  Kiamichi is the name of the closest mountain range, part of the Ouachita Mountains which, taken with the Ozarks, form the US Interior Highlands (one of the few mountainous regions between the Appalachians and the Rockies, per Wikipedia).  Anyway, these bikers are apparently a local family-oriented social group - at least, as far as I can tell without looking at their website, which is on Facebook which I can't access.

I passed the town of Idabel, which is a name that captivates me for some reason.  Weyerhaeuser has a sawmill there that also supplies woodchips for the Valliant factory.  Idabell claims the title of Dogwood Capital of Oklahoma and celebrates the Dogwood Days Festival every April.

I got an MC Escher view of the highway at this point: the road climbed a tall hill ahead of me and it zigzagged part way up.  So what I saw was the part just ahead of me and the upper part also straight ahead but farther up the hill, with the section in between set at an angle apparently unconnected to either the lower or the upper parts.  Part of my brain knew what it was looking at, but another part of it kept trying to connect the parts even though it couldn't, and still another part told me to take a photo of it - and I kept thinking all those things and my mind was just mesmerized by the sight - and when I snapped out of it I was too late for the photo op.  Weird view.

I turned north for Broken Bow, where I stopped at a grocery store.  I was one of the few in the place to be wearing a mask, and it took a while for me to remember OK is one of the states without a mandatory mask order.  One clue was the sign on the store's front door: "It is strongly recommended that everyone wear a mask inside the store."  Of course, zero of the employees were wearing masks so ....  The Durant KOA was rigid about wearing masks indoors, so I forgot that's not the prevailing opinion in the state.

Broken Bow has a very large Tyson processing plant.  Both the town (as well as Idabel) and the plant had a sudden outbreak of the coronavirus in June, which I'm really glad I didn't know about while I was there.  But I'd have thought, if there'd been a spike in cases just 2 months previously, the local folks would be much more cautious about wearing masks than they obviously were.  Unless this whole region is filled with folks who believe the assertions by some in authority that masks don't do any good on this virus.

I saw a couple of billboards with the message "DiscoverTheForest.com" so I looked it up.  It seems to be mostly aimed at parents trying to keep themselves and their kids sane during these times by getting into the Great Out-Of-Doors.  I found the tree identification link interesting.   https://discovertheforest.org

I passed the Little River National Wildlife Refuge and remembered that I was near OK's lowest point (289'), which is where the Little River runs from OK into Arkansas.  Tomorrow I'll start climbing into the mountains.

I passed another Choctaw Casino, presumably sited here because it's close to the Arkansas border.

North from Broken Bow is Hochatown (and your guess is as good as mine about the pronunciation), which isn't actually a place any more, though it certainly used to be.  The town was named for Hocha, a Choctaw Indian who traveled here on the Trail of Tears in 1833.  The land was owned by the Choctaw tribe and the town was settled around the local lumber and coal company.

During Prohibition, the town was a noted moonshine capital.  Despite this heyday, the last family left in 1966 and the town is now covered in 40' of water from Broken Bow Lake.  These days, highway signs says it's a town again, except all that's there is a very long unbroken string of tourist-oriented businesses (guides, rentals, cafes, bars, liquor stores, wineries, and so forth) that stretch from Broken Bow up past all 4 entrances to Beavers Bend State Park, where I stayed.

This southeastern area of OK is known as Little Dixie, and I saw that name and the Confederate battle flag all over.  The name came from the number of Southerners who settled here after the Civil War.

The mimosa are still blooming here.

When I finally got to my campsite, which took a while because the campground is huge and discontinuous (I found), I was greeted by a Red-headed Woodpecker.  Beautiful birds.  All that black and white and red when they're flying.  The bird book says they're here year round.

And when I first took the dogs for a quick walk, we saw 2 deer.  Actually, I don't know if Gracie saw them but Dexter sure did.

This part of the campground is heavily wooded, making our campsite fairly uneven and walking difficult.  But it's certainly picturesque.