Oklahoma - Day 24 - Washita Battlefield/Black Kettle Grassland

Little Sahara State Park, Waynoka
Monday, 24 August 2020

today's route -
I can't figure out how to edit these photos
into any shape but a rectangle -
this one needs to be a rhomboid shape

I left early again today because Google said I had nearly 3 hours of driving time ahead, which meant I actually had about 4½ hours, plus I figured I'd want to stop at the sights along the way.  Sure enough, the total drive took me more than 6 hours.  I'm getting better at my estimating.  Actually, I'd been awake since about 12:30 AM, so I was a little concerned about being able to stay awake for the whole drive and wanted to allow enough time for rest breaks.

Besides getting to tonight's campground, my goal was to stop at the combined visitor center for the Washita Battlefield and the Black Kettle National Grassland.  Apparently the battle took place on the area that's now protected as a national grassland, so the US Forest Service and the US Park Service combined forces.  What a concept.

On the road
I took I-40 west to pick up US Route 283 north, but after yesterday's experience I decided not to follow Google's involved directions about turning on Road N 1950, then on Road E 1110 Road, and only then onto US 283.  I was especially glad I'd decided that when I got to that exit and found the highway signs didn't say anything about those roads.  Google just adores little short cuts that they claim will shave a full mile or maybe 3 minutes off the drive.  Instead, I went down to an exit that said it was for Main Street in Sayre, which I was sure would run into US 283, which it did.  Besides, I got to see a little more of Sayre (pop. about 4,450).

Sayre's City Hall is in the Old Bank Building, very attractive.  They're proud of the Shortgrass Country Museum, which I think is about life in the early days of white settlements.  There's information about the museum and some nice photos of the town at this website.   http://sayreok.net/Shortgrass-Museum  My impression is that this is a nice residential town that was plunked down in the middle of farm country.  On every side I saw miles and miles of farms for cows, cotton, grass, and wind.

I stopped in Cheyenne, where the turn-off is for the combined visitor centers, and when I went to pay for my gasoline I saw Jamie Lee Curtis.  I mean, I know that's not who she was but the resemblance was incredible.

Cheyenne (pop. 801), unlike Sayre, looks like a town that's slowly dying.  Some of the houses are nice and many are ordinary, but with tended yards.  But I also noticed quite a few were vacant and starting to show signs of lack of care.  The small downtown area still looks nice, and it's the county seat, but I'm guessing what it's got are farming and tourism from the national memorials.

The visitor center is a split level building, using the hillside to advantage.
The battlefield and the grasslands have separate offices and entrances
but, since the grasslands section was closed, the battlefield section took up the slack.

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site
I knew nothing about this battle and hadn't planned to visit it, not being a fan of wars and so forth, but the first sign I saw explaining what it was about hooked me.

the sign -
don't try to read this - see below

enlargement of the text

more detail

the setting for the visitor center - pretty country, isn't it?

Inside the visitor center is a lengthy exhibit explaining the background, the battle, and the results.  Because I know only what I read here, and because these signs do a pretty good job explaining what this place is about, I'll leave this as mostly a photo essay.

the sign - text detail below right

blow-up of the sign text

a prophetic statement

The Sand Creek massacre colored the thinking about the trustworthiness of the US for all the Indians who heard about it.

a bit fuzzy but clear enough to get the gist

This mural of the Washita massacre covers an area about 15'-20' wide.

Points of view from various times - note the dates on each.

Maybe this writer from 1978 is right,
but Gen. Custer's record on treatment of Indians
hasn't survived in history any better than Andrew Jackson's. 

Perhaps a more accurate reflection of Gen. Custer's
view of Indians than that 1978 commenter indicated.

referring to the blanket pictured below

referring to the chair pictured below left

the spider chair and Hudson Bay blanket

Black Kettle

Black Kettle National Grasslands
The sign below is just outside the entrance to the grasslands part of the building.

The Black Kettle National Grasslands has a paved walk about a half mile long through the grasslands near the visitor center.  I found these signs and artifacts along that walkway.

I see why Sooners are part of the state's history
and maybe it makes sense the Univ. of OK would
want to make land thieves its mascot.

a model dugout

This photo reminds me of one I have
of long ago members of my family.

I was surprised to find this windmill actually functioning.  I expected the vanes to be spinning around on this windy day, but they were actually connected to the rod or cable or whatever that is in the center that pumps the water out of the ground.  Barely visible on the right side is a tank that's kept full of water with the windmill.

the left side of this sign

the right side of that same sign

top part of this sign

right side of the same sign

left side of that same sign

The Dust Bowl

text is enlarged in the details below

Back on the road
OK has a town called Roll.

I passed several working oil wells, a large field of sunflowers, and all the cows I saw were hiding under the trees to get relief from the heat.  I passed a whole field of dead trees and wondered - was it a fire?  a disease?  did the water dry up?

At one point the road took me across a wind farm and later took me in the middle of another one, driving the length of it with wind turbines close by on either side.  A little intimidating.  I saw a whole lot of wind turbines in western OK and wondered what Pres. Trump's position on them is, since this is such a Republican area of the state.  It turns out he's mostly against them, according to this speech   https://www.washingtonpost.com/pres-trump-and-windmills  and others he's made like it.  I guess that doesn't matter to those who want him as president despite not liking their wind farms .

Speaking of wind farms, all traffic was stopped on 2-lane Route 60 a couple of miles west of Seiling.  It took the entire width of the highway for these big transport trucks to turn out of a narrow road with their loads of wind turbine vanes.  I was at the head of the blockage so got a decent shot of the sight.

This is a propeller for a wind turbine,
and there's a 2nd one on the road ahead of it.
This is all traffic stopped on US Hwy. 60,
heading into Seiling, OK.

I can tell you that the Crooked Arrow Cafe in Seiling is very popular - the parking lot was full.

A little farther down the road I got to the tiny town of Chester, population 117 in 2010.  A highway sign said there was a rest area ahead, and apparently it referred to Chester Heritage Park, where we stopped to stretch our legs.  In this very tiny park I found this sign and though it unusual to have all this chipped into granite or whatever kind of stone this is.

I thought it was interesting they had the sense of humor
to carve this story into a stone marker.

At Seiling I'd turned north on US 281 and passed cropfields and goats and cows along the way.  As I drove north I found the road closely lined with tall walls of dirt that was intensely orange.  I wanted very much to stop for a photo but couldn't: the walls blocked any long view and the road curved often.  Just after crossing the Cimarron River again I came to this striated landscape within a few miles of Little Sahara State Park.  This is the only area I saw these stripes.

nearing Little Sahara State Park - I thought the soil colors were interesting

And on to the campground for the evening.