Oklahoma Sights

Driving across western Oklahoma has been a joy. I don't know if it always looks this good, but the rolling green fields are just lovely. And the flashes of red dirt just add the highlights. I have a feeling we're going to lose the red dirt in eastern Oklahoma, but we'll gain lots of lakes. This is our second night at Lake Stanley Draper right in the city limits of Oklahoma City (or OKC as the locals refer to it.) Although we're tucked into a wooded campground and not parked on the shore line, we can't complain. It's conveniently located and only $8 a night. I was expecting it to crowd up for the weekend, but there are still only about five spaces taken.

On our way here, we stopped in Elk City at the 'National' Route 66 Museum. It's cute, but not very substantial. However at only $3, I guess you get what you pay for. On the other hand, it you are ever driving I80 across Nebraska, be sure to stop at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. It's an overpass over the road at about mile marker 272 - rather pricey, but really something. But I digress.

I did like this metal sculpture of a Texas (Oklahoma) Longhorn.


And I always wanted to slide down a firemen's pole. Here's Ron performing a nice controlled slide - mine was more of a free-fall.




They had this cute mock-up of an old gas station. . .


And this antique RV (although I think it was supposed to be a scene from The Grapes of Wrath.)


Today we visited a place my father has been telling me about for years. Probably 30 years ago, he and my mother came through Oklahoma City and stopped at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Well, now it's about three times as big and is the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. It was pretty amazing.

This 19-ton, 30-foot metal sculpture of Buffalo Bill Cody overlooks the highway, waving people in to the museum (with his rifle.)


There are exhibits on American Rodeo, Native Americans, Military in the West, firearms, Western performers, and, of course, the American Cowboy. But by far the largest exhibit was on Western artists and that was my favorite. Photography was not allowed in those rooms so you'll just have to take my word that the paintings and sculptures were fantastic. My absolute favorites were the Remmington sculptures, but I guess that's pretty predictable.

I took this in the Western performers exhibit where photography was allowed, but not flash. This was part of the John Wayne tribute, just to give you an idea.


In the main lobby was this 18-foot plaster version of The End of the Trail - the widely reproduced image by James Earle Fraser.

This plaster statue has quite a history. It seems Mr. Fraser created it for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. At the end of the exposition, the plaster work was cut up and discarded! Then in 1920, the citizens of Tulare County, California, salvaged the pieces and had the statue reassembled. It stood for 48 years in Mooney Grove Park, outside of Visalia. In 1968, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame acquired the statue. Following extensive restoration, molds were made and a full-scale bronze sculpture was cast in Italy and unveiled in Visalia in 1971. Now I have to go to Visalia. I hope it's still there.

Ron really enjoyed the circa 1900 Western cattle town with full-sized structures, including this jail. How about my 'deer in the headlights' look?


And every once in awhile, I have to throw in a flower.