Finding Alabama in Oklahoma (4)

In May 2016 daughter Becca and husband Matt Leon moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, so he could start his new faculty position at the University of Central Oklahoma. Dianne and I went along for the move, and as a result of that trip I posted a blog entry on Creek names that had followed Native Americans on the Trail of Tears from Alabama to Oklahoma. 

Dianne and I recently made a trip through Edmond to Colorado Springs to visit her father. In this post and two more I'm sharing some of the photos I took in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Bear with me, and in the final post there are several Alabama-related payoffs!

I'm discussing these photos somewhat randomly, so here goes. Part 2 of this series can be found here and part 3 here.

We spent our second Saturday with the kids wandering around the town of Guthrie. Unfortunately, Amos had already returned to Baton Rouge from Colorado Springs, so he was not with us.

Guthrie, Oklahoma, was once the state capitol, and the Guthrie Historic District contains over 2000 buildings. The Carnegie Library seen below was the first tax supported library in the state. 

Guthrie has a number of antique shops, and we visited several. In one we found this item among a set of plates featuring all the states. 

Once upon a time J.C. Penney stores even reached smaller towns like Guthrie. 

OK, now we come to another Alabama connection in Oklahoma. Upstairs in a rather dark corner of one of those antique stores we found this item. The close-up above comes from the lower left of the poster below. That poster advertises The Phenix City Story, a 1955 film about the widespread corruption in that town. Albert Patterson ran for state attorney general intending to clean up the criminal activities, but he was assassinated. As a result Governor Gordon Persons declared a minimal martial law and sent in the National Guard to take over law enforcement duties.  

The poster cost $75.00 and  was not in the greatest shape, but it's probably an original and now I wish I'd bought it!

Guthrie has historical markers outside many buildings, including this bar. Future silent film star Tom Mix supposedly tended bar here before leaving for fame in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the place is not in business at the moment but the interior that we could see from outside was impressive. 

Here's the entrance to the Blue Bell. 

Guthrie has LOTS of wonderful old buildings to explore!

Our visit to Guthrie began in the Oklahoma Frontier Drugstore Museum where we found lots of fascinating stuff including this display. That's a ceramic chamber pot on the left; the odd looking one on the right is a bedpan from England. Once upon a time in my days as an Auburn University student I came across a bedpan just like that, which until it disintegrated Dianne used as a flower pot on our deck.

Another Alabama related item popped up as Dianne and I were heading home. Somewhere in the rural flatness of Oklahoma along I-70 we passed a giant billboard that read, "Alabama! Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail."

So for now we bring to an end this latest episode of "Finding Alabama in Oklahoma." Before we left on this trip, daughter Becca asked us to bring some Alabama-related items they can't find in Oklahoma: Good People beer, Conecuh sausage, and boiled peanuts! We were happy to oblige. 

Until next time....

Finding Alabama in Oklahoma (3)

In May 2016 daughter Becca and husband Matt Leon moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, so he could start his new faculty position at the University of Central Oklahoma. Dianne and I went along for the move, and as a result of that trip I posted a blog entry on Creek names that had followed Native Americans on the Trail of Tears from Alabama to Oklahoma. 

Dianne and I recently made a trip through Edmond to Colorado Springs to visit her father. In this post and two more I'm sharing some of the photos I took in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Bear with me, and in the final post there are several Alabama-related payoffs!

I'm discussing these photos somewhat randomly, so here goes. Part 2 of this series can be found here. 

One of the defining features of Colorado Springs is the view of Pikes Peak. Other features include the U.S. Air Force Academy and the large numbers of current and retired military personnel. 

Although the town was founded in the late 19th century, most development seems to have taken place in the past three or four decades. The hills are crowded with vistas of new housing developments, and major roads are lined with commercial development---endless strip malls, mostly. 

Fortunately, history and great natural beauty can be found there also. After a week or so, however, I start to miss all the southern greenery! 

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, and we got to visit on this trip. A snow-covered Pikes Peak is in the background. 

Here was pretty much our view coming and going across Kansas and eastern Colorado. Did you know that part of the country is very flat???

We had spotted this church on our way to Colorado Springs, and we stopped on the route home to take pictures. I believe it's in the small town of Simla, a bit over halfway between the Springs and I-70 on U.S. 24. 

The wind farms were ubiquitous in Kansas and eastern Colorado. Some towers were close to I-70, others were far in the distance. We could not help thinking of the Martian invaders from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. 

A common sight in Oklahoma are the "grasshoppers" or pumpjacks that draw oil from onshore wells with weak pressure. They are everywhere, including neighborhoods. 

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In Kansas we often saw these high-rises of the plains. We also passed several small towns with significant history. From I-70 you can see the twin spires of the Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria. When it was dedicated in 1911, Saint Fidelis Catholic Church was the largest church west of the Mississippi. We also passed the exit to Nicodemus, the only surviving western town founded by African-Americans after the Civil War. 

Did I mention that we saw a lot of windmills? Now and then we also saw the much smaller wooden windmills on individual farms.  

Now we come to some serious stuff. We arrived back in Edmond, Oklahoma, on the second Friday of our trip. The next day daughter Becca, son-in-law Matt, Dianne and I traveled a few miles to Guthrie, a town once the capitol of Oklahoma. The Guthrie Historic District contains over 2000 buildings, so there's a lot of history to see. One place is the Oklahoma Drug Store Museum, which is filled with fascinating things!

More about Guthrie in the final post in this series. 

Finding Alabama in Oklahoma (2)

In May 2016 daughter Becca and husband Matt Leon moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, so he could start his new faculty position at the University of Central Oklahoma. Dianne and I went along for the move, and as a result of that trip I posted a blog entry on Creek names that had followed Native Americans on the Trail of Tears from Alabama to Oklahoma. 

Dianne and I recently made a trip through Edmond to Colorado Springs to visit her father. In this post and two more I'm sharing some of the photos I took in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Bear with me, and in the final post there are several Alabama-related payoffs!

I'm discussing these photos somewhat randomly, so here goes.

We drove to Edmond on a Friday. Here's the son-in-law and daughter as we dined alfresco for lunch the next day. Son Amos flew into Edmond Friday night from Baton Rouge so he could join Dianne and I for the drive to Colorado Springs. So except for Dianne we were all Alabama natives in Oklahoma!

That Saturday afternoon we all walked around downtown Oklahoma City in the area where Becca works for the Parks and Recreation Department. We spent some of that time at the Myriad Botanical Gardens which was well worth the visit! 

I'll be discussing some photos from Kansas and eastern Colorado in the next two posts. While Dianne, Amos and I were in Colorado Springs we visited Manitou Springs, a nearby hamlet nestled at the foot of the Rockies. In contrast to that warm day in Oklahoma, the Colorado Springs area presented us with five or more inches of snow a couple of days after we arrived. 

Manitou Springs is full of shops, art galleries, and restaurants to keep you busy when you're not looking at the mountains. 

One of our favorite landmarks in Manitou Springs is this Sinclair station and its dinosaur. 

For more than 50 years my mother, Carolyn Shores Wright, has been painting, mostly in watercolors. Many of her works have been licensed for prints and other objects. While in Manitou Springs we went into The Taos Maos shop and found one of several stained-glass sun catchers made by Amia from her work. Mom's an Alabama native too, so there you go. 

Over the years we've run across mom's work or items licensed from it at numerous places ranging from J.C. Penney to Cracker Barrel and Disney World. 

Her original watercolors, prints and other items are sold on ArtFire and Etsy. If you are ever in the Pelham, Alabama, area, her work is also available at Encore Resales and Vintage Interiors.  

Here are Dianne and Amos clowning around with a bear in Manitou Springs.

This sight greeted us outside our hotel on Wednesday morning.

And now for a taste of things to come. Here are a few of the many windmills we saw driving across Kansas and eastern Colorado along I-70. Did you know that part of the country is really flat???

Finding Alabama in Oklahoma

Recently Dianne and I helped our daughter Becca and son-in-law Matt move from Tuscaloosa to Edmond, Oklahoma, where he has accepted a faculty position at the University of Central Oklahoma. Matt and his father took the U-Haul; Dianne and his mother drove one of their cars; and Becca and I drove the other one, the one with their two dogs. We left Tuscaloosa around 6:30 am and arrived in Edmond about 13 hours later. 

As we made our way across Oklahoma on I-40, Becca and I noticed something familiar. We passed an exit for "Eufaula." Some miles further on we passed an exit for "Wetumpka." This Twilight Zone feeling quickly passed as we realized why there are towns in Oklahoma with names so familiar to us in Alabama.

Those Alabama towns of Eufaula and Wetumpka carry names associated with settlements of various Muscogee/Creek tribes in the state. Several towns by those names were identified by early European traders and settlers in the area. For an in-depth look at such matters, see Amos J. Wright, Jr.'s 2003 book, Historic Indian Towns in Alabama, 1540-1838.

In the 1830's the Creeks---along with Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Seminoles---were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast to the Indian Territory in the west. Naturally, some of their town names went with them. Another such name was Tuskegee, now an Oklahoma ghost town. 

Below are three maps. The first one shows the locations of the two towns south of I-40. Downtown Wetumka [without the P] is shown on the second map. There we can see some specifics that would not be out of place in its Alabama counterpart: a Diary Queen, a Dollar General, Wetumka Elementary and High Schools. Oh, wait---that Cowkickers Smokin Barbeque gives it away. You seldom see a barbeque place in Alabama that doesn't use Bar-B-Que in it's name. 

If you look at the water near Eufaula on the third map, you'll see Lake Eufaula there in the middle of the Canadian River. It's a reservoir created by a dam. Gee, isn't there one of those in Alabama, too?

These names are not limited to Alabama and Oklahoma. There is an unincorporated Wetumpka in Florida. A town of Tuskegee in Tennessee associated with the Cherokee and the birthplace of Sequoyah was covered by water in the 1970's after the construction of Tellico Dam. Alabama actually had several settlements by that name; see the book cited above. 

On our trip we also passed an exit for "Prague." And yes, the town was settled in the early 1890's by--wait for it--Czech immigrants.