Choctaw Land Run

April 19th, 2014

As I'm sure most of you have read about, or studied in school at one time or another, the Great Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 was when the United States Government opened up part of the "Indian Lands" for settlement by offering free 160 acre homesteads on a one day rush to claim and stake the land holdings out. Chaos was a good word to describe it, but by the end of the day, virtually all of the available land was staked out and claimed. There were a few that snuck into the "promised land" the day before to seek out the more desirable pieces, then at the start time the following day ......drove in their stakes, claiming their land well before anyone else could get there. These "Sooners" had established a name for themselves, and with it, established a nickname for the population of the entire area, that held up to this day. Oklahoma is still called "The Sooner State".  Many accused them of cheating, but the letter of the law was upheld, in that they did not claim their land until the start time.

So now, we have a bike ride with the "Land Run" name. Actually two .....there is the Land Run 100 up in Stillwater that is all gravel, and this one here in Choctaw that is all paved. This is the Tee for the ride......

The ride organizers said they named the ride for the fact that we travelled on the "Indian Meridian" road for a while during the ride. I had assumed that the name had to do then with dividing the "Indian Lands" to the east, and the "open settlement lands" to the west. I'd have been wrong. The Indian Meridian was an arbitrary north-south line that intersected with an east west line called the "Indian baseline" and between the two, all land measurements were drawn for the State of Oklahoma. The only reason for the "Indian" part of the name is because all of Oklahoma was called "Indian Territory" at the time land measurements were initiated. So, I guess, in that way, the Land Run could not have happened if a land survey was not done first. And so, enough history, .....here we all are at the start. There were around 150 or so riders this year, the biggest turnout they've ever had.

My good friend and riding buddy from last year, Crystal wanted to get back on the bike, and decided that this would be a good one to start on. She runs long distance marathon runs during the winter running season, but that ended for her early this year with a severely sprained ankle. This is our first organized ride of the year ..... at least the first I've attended.

It was cool enough at the start to warrant the use of light jackets, but with a promise of a good warm up later, most wore shorts. My useful little trunk bag not only carried my ride number, but also held our excess clothing when we "undressed "a little later. I'm not really sure why we needed numbers at all. Two rest stops and no food, only a little water and a few bottles of Gatorade at each of the two rest stops were hardly enough to worry about needing numbers for.

The countryside and the little farms and ranches were very picturesque.

This course was very, very hilly, plus ...... they saved them all for the last half, along with the 20mph headwinds. I took this picture for the Lil' Abner house on the hillside to the left. You could almost see "Grannie" sittin' out on the front porch with her corncob pipe in her mouth. This was near the top of one of the long, steep rollers that persisted throughout most of the ride.

Empty roads, and pretty scenery was the order of the day.

By the time we got here, we were both getting a bit tired. Crystal had put on two brand new Conti tires just before the ride, and she had two flats within the first ten miles. Both pinch flats. It's a good thing she had two tubes, because my huge touring tire tubes wouldn't have fit in her tires. To be fair. her rims make installing tires very, very difficult. I can usually install Conti folding tires on my rims without a tire lever, just using my thumbs. With hers, it's a struggle even with two tire levers. But, I used all the care I could installing them, and after we had changed both, there were no more flats. Good thing too, or I'd have had to break out my patch kit which I carry on my touring bike. My trusty Topeak Road Morph pump got a good workout this day. The time spent changing tires just gave the wind that much more time to gain strength, and it took it's cue, and did just that.

The countryside was very pretty, however, and kept us trudging up and down the rollers, and struggling into the wind. Then we got to a point where the map had us retrace our route for one mile, turn around and come back ...... three times over the same piece of road, so we wouldn't be shorted on miles. About this time, I didn't care. We finished the ride ..... not the fifty we had started out to do, but cut it short to forty-one miles. We were tired, it took longer than we anticipated, muscles getting a bit sore, and Crystal's ankle was bothering her. Ah yes ...... Crystal's ankle...... seems she fell while trail running 6 weeks ago and severely sprained her ankle. Not 100% yet, and she did this ride anyway. Never complained once. Except like me ...... I'm sure hungry!!!! I didn't take any bars or Gu along because there is usually an abundance of food on these rides. However, I talked to several riders after the ride, and they all voiced the same thought ..... "Why wasn't there any food?" So we quickly put our bikes on the carrier and headed for Braums and FOOD!!! Seems like after my weight gain this winter, I want to eat more. It was a pretty ride, and a challenging ride, and I have a little more understanding of some of the hardships that confronted the early Land Run settlers that pioneered this country.

 

 

 

A Long Spring Ride

April 11, 2014:

This is one of my favorite routes to ride, however, because of the wild spring weather fluctuations we've had this year, it's been difficult to get an early start. Today looked perfect! So, off to an early start, the sun almost peeking over the hill to the east.

Six miles down the road, I turned to go north for two miles before the long ride over to Hwy 99. The shadows were still long, and the morning still young.

The swallows are back from where ever they go to in the winter months, and they were busy moving into old nests under the bridges and raising this year's family. They always return to the same place every year.  I love to watch them fly, it seems as though they just love to be out there, a lot like me .... kindred souls.



The countryside is starting to finally turn green after a winter of black and white. None too soon for me either.

 

 



The politicians were out doing what they do best.

And the Oklahoma Redbuds were still much in evidence although the time for blooming is almost past. The Redbud is the Oklahoma state tree.

Long empty roads is the order of the day. The crossroad down there is Oklahoma State Hwy 9.To get here, I had to head east and south to the Little Cemetery, then east again for 4 miles and then continue south from the Strother School. This will bring me out 4 miles east of Seminole when I got here.

A very persistent tree.

Continuing south for another 4 miles, I turned back west toward Seminole on Lake road and back into town. There's a little hill on Lake road that I was going to get a picture of. It's kind of one of those OMG hills. A gentle curve to the right and a gentle upgrade is all you can see until you get around the curve, then it's straight up. Fortunately, it's not too long. To make matters worse, I couldn't get the front derailleur to shift onto the little ring on my triple, so I had to stand and struggle on up, no chance for a picture. Crystal and I went up that one last year, and as strong as she is, she almost didn't make it. It helps to know it's there. After that, it's an easy cruise back to Seminole

 This below is the bike path through the sports park in Seminole, the old oil derrick is part of an outdoor museum sort of thing. They have a real oil museum up on hwy 9 next to the Wrangler jeans factory. I didn't stop at that one, maybe another time.

 

A huge old walking beam pump. Behind it is an old steam boiler to power the engine, in the background, that turned the pump. Nothing is where it is supposed to be, except for the pump itself, but it's an interesting stop anyway.

How many of you are old enough to remember when oil wells were all drilled using the old derricks, and afterwards, the derricks just stayed there for maintenance purposes. Such an eyesore. I remember scenes like this very well when I was young. The photo is older than I, but scenes like this were still around in the fifties.

This is the old steam pump engine laying there, the huge flywheels, and the cylinder sticking out to the left. The piston was still in the cylinder. Engines like this both steam and producer gas, pumped a lot of oil in this area.

By this time, it was time for lunch. I was going to eat breakfast at the Bus Stop Cafe in Seminole, but by the time I got there, it was past breakfast time. A little early for lunch, but my stomach told me it thought someone must've slit my throat. So ..... Braum's is only a short ride from here and I made my way over there. I do like their burgers. 1/3 pound of fresh ground beef, and piled high with fresh veggies. I think the young lady and the counter must have thought I looked extra hungry because it came with double the veggies on it. Almost four inches high. I ate it ALL! With fries and a root beer ....

From there, it was west through Pleasant Grove, and into Earlsboro, then west into Tecumseh and back north to the Citizen Pottawatomie Nation Complex. Business offices, grocery store, casino, hospital, etc. Also, this cool bridge....

This bridge was closed to car traffic several years ago, but there is a gap in the barricade just wide enough for my little bicycle, so I still use it.

It crosses over a pretty little creek, and the tribe has built several walking bridges from the expo area and campground on the south side of the creek to the Firelake store,casino, bowling alley, whatever on the north side. It's a pretty area, made even prettier by the addition of my touring bike. 

"Put the pavilion right THERE"! "But boss, what about that tree?" "Well, you know ......Do whatever you have to...." "Okay boss, whatever you say".....

As you can see by the flag flying in the midst of the tree, the light balmy breeze didn't stay that way all day. The art work on the tribal water tower is well done.

One of the little pedestrian and bicycle bridges crossing the creek. I used to always go across that bridge, and into the supermarket parking lot and out their driveway to cross the busy four lane main road and head north. For years I did it that way, and it was always a long wait until traffic cleared from both directions long enough to safely get across.

 Then as I was talking to a young woman picnicking with her son, I noticed this .......

It's tight .... I ducked, even though I wouldn't have had to, but a taller person probably might have bumped their head. After I got under the main road, I rode through the tribal business complex and back onto the north bound side of Gordon Cooper Drive. Gordon Cooper was an astronaut from the Mercury era who made two trips up as a command pilot. He was scheduled for Apollo 13, but was prevented from going. Gordon Cooper was a Shawnee native son. This is painted on the side of one of the downtown buildings, and such a shame to see the paint peeling off, as it is a wonderful piece of art.

Right across from the Gordon Cooper painting is another mural depicting early Shawnee, including our Santa Fe depot.

After that, it was just wind my way north and west through town around our Expo Center where they have a Little Britches Rodeo every year, as well as a big Pro Rodeo that brings participants from all over the country. Hardly a week goes by that I don't see hundreds of horse trailers parked there. Then, north out of town on Acme (I always think about Roadrunner cartoon) to Garretts Lake road and then east to home again. On the last few miles there was this absolutely stunning lilac bush.

And so, arriving home after a wonderful day, it was indeed a long ride, especially on a thirty pound bike, but such an enjoyable day that the time passed like an eagle on the wind.

A Historical Ride

March 24, 2014

The blog post that almost didn't get written!

This blog post was about the history of Railroading in the Shawnee, Oklahoma area, and one of the prominent parts of it was to be the history of the A-OK Railroad that now has it's western routes based here in the Shawnee, area. And so, just as I was into it, and suffered a bit of writers block, I saved it and went elsewhere ..... including Facebook where, low and behold, a fellow bicycle rider in this area published a history of the A-OK railroad on Facebook. I was a bit unhappy about it ..... and I went back and wiped everything that I had written. After thinking about it for a while however, I realized that my blog post wasn't going to be about that particular railroad, but more of the impact of railroading in general to the history of this area. So, I decided to give it another try.

First off, lets go on back when there were no paved roads, and everything was dirt, and a few gravelled roads. Bicycles were more common than motorcars, and horses, or mules and wagons ruled the day.

Of course, you will just have to pretend it's on a dirt road. The gentleman driving this fine team of mules is training for a cross-Oklahoma mule trail ride, much like our bicycling freewheel ride.

So then ...... it's off the main roads, and on to gravel for a while on our historical tour.

Some was more dirt than gravel.

And some roads looked pretty good.

And then I came across the North Canadian River. This must have been a formidable obstacle for early travellers in this area. Certainly for the early railroads as this river floods violently in the Spring rainy season, making it difficult at best to maintain wooden trestle type railroad bridges.
 

 

 

There is still some historical farm implements scattered about also, like this old dump rake being used as a gate.

 



 

 

From there, I followed gravel roads and pavement back into Shawnee where we will begin our historical part of the tour. The old Santa Fe Depot here in Shawnee dates back to the 1890's and is now preserved as a museum and historical monument.

 



 

 

Believe me, it took a bit of concentration and effort to convince the bike to stand there and wait for me to take this picture. There is no kickstand on this bike, and the wind was blowing. Below is a shot of the front of the Depot with my trusty steed standing in front.

 



 

From there, it was downtown through Shawnee on Main Street, where I found this building ..... and from the description of their services above the doorway, it seemed to fit right in with the historical theme. One can almost imaging fur trappers bringing in their pelts and hides for barter. Probably not a pawn shop at that time either. It always amazes me that I can ride my bicycle right down through a two lane Main drag in the middle of the day, but there really is no problem.

 

Main Street, looking west.

The Rock Island Railroad had extensive services here as Shawnee was a major yard and maintenance facility. Today, this is how the old Rock Island shops look. This is now a grain and feed storage building.

But ..... back in 1911 it had an altogether different look, the look of a busy railroad service and maintenance facility.

The Rock Island was a busy place, and was one of Shawnee's largest employers at the time. The "Rock" also gathered up some of the smaller railroads in this area at the time, one of which was the fledgling Oklahoma and Arkansas Railroad which had rights of way and rails throughout the eastern Oklahoma coal fields, through places like Coalgate, McAlester, Krebs, and Wilburton. Today, the tracks between Shawnee and McAlester are abandoned, but the railroad still has plans of reconnecting .....darn ..... there goes another rail-trail down the tubes. As one might imagine, a railroad with that much influence and payroll would spawn cottage industries. One of the more famous, and one that is still operating today is Roundhouse Industries, makers of some of the toughest overalls made. They also made them in sizes to fit everybody, all the way up to an 80 inch waist size! A welcome industry indeed with all the workers in the rail yards needing just that type of clothing. Today, Roundhouse still makes overalls, still to the same overall quality and specifications, and while their location is no longer on Main street, they are still a part of the Shawnee economy. This picture is of their building on Main. From the looks of the cars, I'd say sometime in the Twenties. Shawnee's Main street is not nearly that busy today.

Another business that is still operating even though they had some rough times is the A-OK Railroad. Shawnee is the Maintenance and dispatch yard for the western Oklahoma region. Wilburton, Oklahoma services the eastern regions and Arkansas. Today, they are primarily a sand hauler for the oil field industry, as well as a grain hauler for our local Shawnee Mills. One of their engines was in the yard today and being serviced ...... note the pile of oil filters on the ground next to it. Twenty-four filters and 12 fifty-five gallon barrels of oil it takes for an oil change. They change filters regularly, but not oil, just top it off with a barrel or two.

After talking to the workers maintaining the engine if I could take my camera inside, they said "sure, climb on up", even though the engine was sitting there running at the time. So .... I did. Not too often one gets to see the inside of an operating railroad locomotive.

And a close up of the control block.

A railroad without a crane would be amiss. This is called a "Little Burro", and they were using it just a bit ago while they are rebuilding the trestle over the North Canadian River just east of town.

And, on the way home, the urge to stop and take a selfie was irresistable, especially under the shade of a convenient cedar.

 

 A fun thirty mile ride, over pavement, gravel, dirt and history.