300 miles/480 km driven and a flat tire - and, nevertheless we made our appointment in Spiro with only 10 min. delay! Interesting day, but ,,, a looong drive! Sometimes Travel Oklahoma sends us around quite a bit!
We drove to Tahlequah in the morning - the headquarter of the Cherokee Nation, the largest tribe in America, made up of 370,000 citizens, more than 137,000 in the nation’s land in northeast Oklahoma. Main Street (pic below) is a vivid axle with lots of shops and little restaurants. Besides historic sites and a (currently closed) Heritage Center, the town itself is worth a visit!
We visited the new Cherokee National History Museum in Tahlequah, the center of Cherokee Country, situated in in the original Cherokee National Capitol Building. The interesting exhibitions focus on the history and culture of the Cherokee, most unique is probably the written syllabary, developed by Sequoiah, whose statue we visited lateron on the Northeastern State University campus (pic below). Also, parts of the History Museum Complex are the Cherokee National Supreme Court with the Nation Prison Museum, both equally interesting.
On the drive over to Spiro, in the far east of OK, we made a little detour to Tenkiller Lake (pic below) and Dam, a beautiful recreation area. Landscape had changed dramatically during the drive, from rather flat prairie (with oil industry omnipresent) to pituresque hills and woods and curvy roads. It showed, that it was a good decision to skip lunch, otherwise - with our flat tire - we wouldn't have made it in time for our appointment at the Spiro Mounds. Or not at all.
Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center preserves land along the Arkansas River. There is the center itself, with exhibitions (left photo), and, there are interpretive trails, which lead to twelve mounds, once built and inhabited by prehistoric Native Americans. It is the only prehistoric, American Indian archaeological site in Oklahoma open to the public.
The prehistoric Spiro people created a sophisticated culture, an exemplary "Elite Town", which influenced the entire Southeast. The location became a permanent settlement around AD 800 and was used until about AD 1450 - a period, known as the "Mississippian period". The site remained unoccupied until the 1930s, but then commercial, and later academic, excavations revealed one of the greatest collections of artistic and utilitarian prehistoric American Indian artifacts in the USA.
Wish we would have had more time to explore and to talk to the knowledgeable archeologist who greeted us, but we had to drive all the way back to Tulsa. Arrived there in the evening and concluded this eventful day with a visit to, first, Neff Brewery (for chicken wings and fish & chips) and, then, to Welltown Brewery's rooftop at sunset (photo below) with a view towards Tulsa's skyline.
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