Farewell to OKC: Cattle trails, wide open land and a park named for an Indian chief

What a beautiful Sunday! Though ... we again had to get up before sunrise... Compensation was the breakfast at Kitchen No. 324 in downtown OKC: Eggs Benedict on fried green tomatoes and "Green Egg & Ham" followed by a delicious apple fritter. Can it still get any better? Afterwards we walked over to the OKC National Memorial (picture) - remembering the horrible bombing in 1995 - and after a brief stop at the Stockyards (to check whether there are more cattle and cowboys around), we bate farewell to OKC and drove on to Duncan/OK, about 90 miles to the Southwest.


The route was interesting and boring at the same time: your typical rural America, authentic "Heartland" with small country towns, oil production sites, windmill parks (a new feature!), pasture land and cattle, some agriculture and endless horizon. It's relaxing to drive here, I just set the cruise control to 70 mph, the radio on a country music channel and then we "rolled" along in our big comfortable car, enjoying the scenery and the wide open flat landscape. It's become unseasonably hot: around 90 deg. F. (30 deg. C), but not having had much heat this summer at home, we enjoyed it.

At the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan - with its gorgeous bronze sculpture designed by Paul Moore (see pic) in front - we were expected and first drove up to the Chisholm Trail Monument at Addington, about 10 mi. away, where we not only had a great view (as far as to Texas), but also enjoyed a picnic with the executive director of the museum, Stacy.

Back in the Trail Center we watched two great multimedia presentions about the famous cattle trail (with sound, smell and even rain and thunder) and toured the museum, which is also renowned for the Garis Gallery of the American West.


The Chisholm trail was the first important cattle trail, in operation from 1867 to 1887, and named for the trader Jesse Chisholm. During that time period herds of thousands of longhorns were driven by a handfull of cowboys from Southern Texas to Abilene/Kansas, from where the railroad shipped them over to the slaughter houses in Chicago. The museum not only tells the story of the cattle drives, but, also, of the cowboys on the trail and their tough life. The famous trail will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year and that was the main reason for our visit.

On we drove to the North, partly following the Chisholm Trail, partly on famous Route 66, with a couple of stops, for about 125 miles to Watonga - a pretty unremarkable hicktown - and the Roman Nose State Park, our final destination for the day. We arrived around 5:30 pm and after having checked into the Park Lodge quickly, we had a little more than an hour of daylight left to explore the park, which is named for the Southern Cheyenne chief Roman Nose. The lodge and other buildings were constructed by the Civil Corps of Conservation (CCC) 1935-1937.


In a whirlwind tour we explored the park with its natural spring, caves, a pool, with two man-made lakes (popular with fishermen because of its huge trout and bass), stables (see pics) and many hiking trails. Unfortunately, it got dark shortly after 7 pm and we had to backtrack. The lodge was recently renovated and rooms are spacious and o.k. (though I am longing for a bathtub in the meantime), but unfortunately there is no balcony or patio, windows can't be opened, so we can't hear the "nature" and feel the fresh air. Instead there is a noisy A/C and high trees are blocking the view towards the lake.