Enid/OK - Conspiration, characters and lots of interesting sights

Boy, what a day today! All these people, who always think we are on vacation when traveling, should have come with us today! First, the day was packed - can't remember how often we climbed into the car (see pic) and out again and how many museums we visited - and, second, it had 92 deg F (33 deg. C) today with strong winds. When we drove through the countryside it was authentic "Dustbowl feeling" out of Steinbeck's novel: strong wind and dust in thick clouds.

At Simpson’s Old Time Museum we met with Marcy and Rob from the local CVB and got an introduction into cowboy life (and movie screening) by Rick, who together with his brother Larry owns Skeleton Creek Productions Movie Studio and is a western author, actor and co-producer of western movies. Besides movie settings like a saloon,a jail or a church there is a colorfull cornucopia of western & cowboy memorabilia mostly from the family collection (see morre pics on www.facebook.com/VisitEnid).

Then we got to hear a conspirational story about John W. Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, who was supposedly sentenced to death briefly afterwards. But there were always people who claimed, that he got away and disappeared into Teaxs and later into Oklahoma's Indian Territory. Here in Enid he finally found his end: He committed suicide in one of the rooms of the Garfield Furniture Store (see pic) – that's a theory the owner of the store firmly cherishes.

"Cactus Jack" was our next interesting acquaintance – in real life a local store owner and tour guide. Dressed up fancily, he told us stories about the landrun and the early settlers and cowboys. In 1893, settlers where allowed to move into the so-called Cherokee Strip, the NW corner of nowadays Oklahoma and formerly the hunting grounds of the Cherokee. After having staked a claim, settlers had to register at one of four land offices. Only one of them is preserved in the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, our next stop. This modern, very instructive museum tells the whole story about the landrun and the first settlers, mostly Czechs, Germans and Wolga Germans. In addition to the landrun, Cactus Jack showed us places in town, which tell stories about the cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail, like a watering hole for horses in Government Spring Park (see pic).

We went on a driving tour through different neighborhoods, partly with fancy big mansions from the early 20th century, and - besides a modern mural (see pic) - we admired the famous historic murals in the Courthouse, painted by Ruth Monro Augur in the 1930ies.

Last stop on our 2 hour whirlwind visit was the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma, where the 95 year old (!) founder gave us a tour. Besides different memorabilia like railroad dining car porcellan, bills, signs and model railroads we explored various cabooses and other cars outside. What a collection! After lunch at Five80 - a pay-what-you-can non-profit coffee shop - we had to hurry out to get to Ponca City in time.
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