Oklahoma - Day 19 - Anadarko, Lawton, to Great Plains

Great Plains State Park, Mountain Park
Wednesday, 19 August 2020

I had a lot of ground to cover today so I left the campground early this morning.

today's route

The drive to Anadarko
I passed the turnoff for Red Rock Canyon, which wasn't a place I'd heard of.  I now know it used to be a state park but now is a privately owned "adventure park."  But it sounds like a place I shouldn't miss next time I'm in the state.  It's a place full of history: the Plains Indians used to stop here as a winter campground; it was a stop on the California Road for those heading west to the California Gold Rush to get fresh water and repair the wagons; wagon wheel ruts are still visible; and it's the only remaining site of native Caddo maple trees.  Sounds like a place I should go before some of that is gone.  They still have the campgrounds left over from it being a state park.

I saw a license plate from Washington, DC.  They're not that common this far west.

All day I saw more fields of rolling hills with grass and trees and cows.  Very attractive landscape.

I passed through Binger, Home of Johnny Bench, they claim.  They've got a museum for him.  They also have the Caddo Museum and Cultural Center.

I crossed White Bread Creek, and would like to know the origin of that name.

I passed through Gracemont, a town of 309 with at least 3 churches that I could see.

I saw a small herd of Belted Swiss, one of the very few cattle breeds I can recognize.

I passed the Delaware Tribal Center, and then the Riverside Indian School, which seemed an odd name for a building perched up on a hill.

I passed a sign saying I was leaving the Wichita-Caddo-Delaware Nation, and another one saying I had arrived at the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Nation.

Anadarko
I'd read that the small town of Anadarko (pop. about 6,500) had a mural inside its post office that's worth seeing, but I found there's a great deal more than that.

From 1934 to 1943, the federal government funded art works in post offices around the country.  The program was inspired by a Depression-era WPA project that employed out-of-work artists for creating thousands of art projects in public buildings.  As a result, the post office here in Anadarko is filled with art produced primarily by Kiowa artist Stephen Mopope, depicting 19th century Kiowa life.  Mopope also has murals in the Interior Dept. Building in Washington, DC.  He was one of the group of artists internationally known as the Kiowa Five.

The third mural I'm showing here was chosen as one of 5 from post offices around the country to be on postage stamps.  The information I'm showing for these art works comes from a brochure by the Anadarko Chamber of Commerce they gave me at the post office.  I tried to buy the stamps but they were out of them.

Buffalo Hunting Scene
3 hunters have found buffalo to feed their tribe

Kiowa Camp Site

Kiowa Moving Camp

Buffalo Hunter's Shield
2 buffalo facing a rainbow (emblem of success

Medicine Man's Shield and Lance

The Deer Hunter
he's been successful but says
deer and game have become scarce

Two Men In Council

Fancy War Dancer
With Cedar Flute

Two Eagle Dancers
a ceremonial dance performed each spring & fall

Scalp Dance

Indian Mother And Child
In Cradle
Children were put in the cradle from
soon after birth until they could walk.
Each day they were taken out to bathe
and exercise, then put back in for safety.

Individual War Dance Drummer
(Sitting)

Buffalo Skull With Crossed Arrows
Depicts a desolate scene where
the buffalo have moved south
and the tribe must follow.

Eagle Whip And Flute Dancers
a ceremonial dance in honor of visiting tribes

fresh buffalo head, showing
the hunters were successful

Two Women And Child Watching Dancers

These paintings were ranged around the walls of this small post office, and I usually had to back up to a wall to get a photo of a painting opposite.  I'm putting in these next 3 photos to show how they appeared in the post office.

this one is above the mail boxes
but the other large pieces were
above the service windows

above the mail boxes

the wood structure on the left
is the entrance door

A historic marker outside the building says Stephen Mopope, the artist, was assisted by James Auchiah and Spencer Asah, all included in the Kiowa Five. It also says it was used as the Kiowa Indian Agency until 1947, and the original name is still on the building.

This post office building is a sort of
Clark Kent: mild-mannered on the
outside and Superman
on the inside.

I had to darken this photo a lot to bring up the name,
making the building itself look like it needs sandblasting.
But you can see in the photo above left that it's perfectly clean.

Anadarko is an old town, getting its name and its post office in 1873.  A public land auction was held in 1901 and, though 20,000 waited to bid on the land, only about 2,000 lived here in 1907.  Still, the town is proud of its heritage.

the Masonic Lodge

The dogs and I found the lodge building a couple of blocks from the post office.  We also found the Methodist Church, that's old enough to still have "First Methodist Episcopal Church" in stained glass above the front door.

The front steps need some paint, but the building
seems in decent condition.

detail over front door

lots of stained glass showing
from the side

I stumbled on these murals as I was driving into Anadarko.








This one looks like it should be titled "Life Goes On Forever."

Given the name on the railroad station, I assume this mural portrays an earlier Anadarko.  The level of detail is amazing, and the group of men lounging at the railroad station (at the far right and below) fascinates me.

detail from the mural

Anadarko is home to the American Indian Hall of Fame, and Indian affairs are a runner-up to agriculture as the basis of the local economy.

It looks like there're a lot of churches in this town, which otherwise seems very pleasant.



Apache
This town, a short distance down the road from Anadarko, was established in 1901, they say, and apparently has a thriving art culture of its own.  As I was driving into town I noticed this large painting.  And when I stopped to look I saw others.

what caught my eye

close-up of that painting

painting in the window next door

I recognized Allan Houser's name as an artist whose work I'd seen at the State Museum a few days earlier.

This painting of him (left) must surely capture his spirit, as well as his skill.







Apache displays its art in its public buildings as well.  These 2 were across the street from each other.

Apache Municipal Building

formerly a bank, now the
Apache Historical Society Museum

Continuing the drive south
I passed a huge field of either cotton or soybeans and saw yet another very large wind farm.

I saw a billboard that had this headline: "1 in 4 Women and 1 in 7 Men are Victims of Domestic Violence."  The background was so busy that I found it hard to read the headline and passed by too soon to see what the rest of the message was.  But I was glad to see that men were recognized as frequent victims of domestic violence, which is too little known.  It's something our culture hasn't wanted to acknowledge.

I passed Fort Sill, which has historic sites I wanted to visit.  Unfortunately, those are located inside the still very active military base, so even to go to them requires going through clearance processes.  Without a military ID, all visitors have to undergo a background check and be issued a photo ID pass card.  I wasn't worried about the background check, which I had to do to practice law in both WA and TX, but I just didn't think the visit was worth the trouble.  Maybe on another visit, I'll go through the process just for the experience.

I passed a sod farm, and a home with a very tall stucco pyramid in the side yard.  Maybe 20' tall.  I have no idea why.  It was just sitting there.

I saw a sign that read "Bobwhite Quail For Sale" with a phone number.  Seemed odd since I've seen lots of signs for hay and cows and eggs for sale.  Are they selling live quail?

I saw an older woman come out of a grocery store bent at a right angle from her hips, with her torso parallel to the ground.  She was using a cane, but she still got in the driver's seat of her car.  I didn't wait to see her drive away.  She must have had to do some serious physical adjustments to be able to drive with her body bent like that.

I drove out to Pumpkin Center, which I saw on the map OK has one of - like Alabama, but this one turned out to be even less than AL's.  Google's aerial view showed a small collection of houses off the main road, but I couldn't see any of that at all.  And there wasn't a highway sign, though that's not unusual in this state.  But instead of trying to hunt for this alleged collection of houses, I made a u-turn and came back to town.

Lawton

Miss America
Lauren Nelson

I saw a sign claiming Lawton is Home to Miss America Lauren Nelson.  That was in 2007, when she was the 2nd winner in a row to come from OK.  And from her photos, I agree she's a beautiful woman.  As Miss America, she promoted making kids safe online and, during that year, she worked with the show America Most Wanted by posing as a teenager online to catch potential child predators.

I passed Wayne's Drive Inn Since 1950.  And it looks like it.  Imagine what the drive-in restaurants - the kind with carhops - looked like in the 1950s and that's what this place looks like.

I stopped at a Target and noticed they had more than twice as many books as DVDs.  Is this a new trend or is everybody besides me just using Netflix?

The Big Dill (according to the front tag)

I stopped in Lawton for a name tag for Dexter and for groceries - this time at a local chain called Country Mart.  That's where I saw this vehicle, whose owner clearly has a sense of humor.

Comanche County, where Lawton is, has a county-wide mask mandate.  So refreshing.  And the people I saw were complying with it.

The drive west from Lawton
Just outside Lawton I came to Cache: Gateway to the Wichitas, they claim.  And I was starting to notice some low mountains to the west, presumably the Wichitas.  I thought they looked old - clearly mountains, not hills, but smaller and more rounded than those I'm used to.

It was as I was leaving town that I fell victim to Google's bizarre driving instructions.  They have a tendency to call a street by a name that may well be accurate, but it's not reflected on the street signs so it's not helpful to a non-local.  In this case, they said I should turn left on Quanah Parker Trailway, which I did, but then told me I should merge right on US Route 62.  In real life, the 2 roads are the same road and there was no merging involved.  Because I was looking for a road in about the location they said I'd merge right, I found an exit ramp there but, because it wasn't labeled with any name at all, let alone Rte. 62, I didn't make the turn but kept going on Quanah Parker Trailway.  And kept going.  There were no places to even cross over, let alone turn around, and the next exit was 10 miles farther down the road.  By the time I'd gotten there, I'd decided I should have taken that earlier exit, which meant crossing over the highway and heading back the other direction.  For 10 miles.  I'd just gotten to that earlier exit when I realized I'd passed a highway sign saying the road I was on, Quanah Parker Trailway, was also marked as being Rte. 62.  Google had lied yet again, there had been no merging necessary, and I'd just done a 20-mile round trip for no reason except their stupid directions.  Grrr.  So I crossed back over the highway once again and retraced those 10 miles and, that time, kept going.

I passed the exit for Indiahoma, which seems an odd name.  I couldn't find anything much online, except that its population is about 330, with about 30% of those being Native Americans.  So my best guess is that the town's name comes from a mash-up of Indian and Oklahoma.

I saw a mama nursing her baby calf.  So sweet.

Lots of mesquite trees out here.

I crossed Deep Red Creek and wondered with it's a deep creek or the creek is a deep red in color.

I turned off Rte. 62 to head north on US Hwy. 183 and wondered about the coincidence of there being a US Hwy. 183 in Austin too.  I've looked it up now and learned that, in fact, it is the same road.  US Hwy. 183 runs from Refugio, the Gulf Coast town that got flattened by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, all the way north to I-90 in South Dakota.  Which means I'll be seeing it again when I get to the other Midwestern states.

I passed a church with the sign: Exercise daily - Walk with the Lord.

As I drove north on Rte. 183, I had the Wichitas ranged around in front of me in a 180° arc.

A few miles past Mountain Park I turned left for the Great Plains State Park.  This road was barely 2 lanes wide so for the first time I could clearly see the crops growing in enormous fields that I'd been passing for much of the day but couldn't identify.

this is what I'd been seeing as we drove today -
miles of these plants

this is the close-up I finally got

Once I finally had that close-up, it didn't take but a couple of minutes to compare these plants to photos of both cotton and soybeans.  No question - it's cotton.  The leaves are a dead giveaway.

I may have been seeing soybeans also at places, but it's likely I was incorrectly identifying it over the last little while.

I got a surprise when I got to the campground.  Wednesdays are usually the very lightest days, as far as number of campers goes and, while this campground was by no means packed, there were maybe 20 campers and I'd expected 10 at the most.  But it sits right on a very popular reservoir and has very pleasant campsites, so it's probably often in demand.