Day 110 of 117 on our “Go West, Young Man” Two Lane Adventure – Sunday 10/14/18

We departed the Shawnee Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center before 7:30 am. Jack and Jackie headed east of I-40, Charlie and I headed southeast on 177 S / 270 S / 3W East. We had a great time touring the Oklahoma City and Shawnee area. Jackie and I found the overall company that made the Guinness Book of World Record’s largest pair of overalls, but they were not on display outside of their factory.

The first town we came to was Tecumseh, the City of Tecumseh was born overnight when the town site was rushed by settlers in an 1891 Land Run, one of only two ever done for individual towns. The tent city that sprang up was named in honor of the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, a famous Indian leader who fought with the British and died in the Battle of Thames in 1812. Two Presbyterian missionaries held church services at the courthouse square on the first Sunday after the land rush, although a saloon had already been established as had a hardware store, a bakery and a sawmill. Schools were established in 1892 and 1896, and businessmen organized and built their railroad connecting with the Choctaw Railroad east of Shawnee. Since Tecumseh was originally the county seat, a brick courthouse was built in 1897. But in 1930, Tecumseh lost the county seat status to Shawnee in a controversial election. The Tecumseh City Hall now stands on that historic spot.

We were greeted by this blazing Braum’s sign in the pre-dawn hours. Making ice cream and dairy products are second nature to the Braum Family. Their expertise spans three generations with over eight decades of history. It all started in 1933 at the beginning of the Great Depression, and the rest, as they say, is history. Peter Pan was the name of their first ice cream, sold both at their stores and in the grocery stores. In 1968, the first Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That year, twenty-three more stores opened throughout Oklahoma. By 1975, the Braum’s dairy herd, the largest dairy herd in Kansas moved to Oklahoma. This “modern-day cattle drive” consisted of over 900 cows traveling down the highway in a convoy of semi-trucks to their new home at the Braum Farm in Tuttle, Oklahoma. Over the years, this farm has grown to 24,000 acres, about 38 square miles. Becoming One of the World’s Largest Milking Operations. In 1993, Braum’s construction crews built what is touted as one of the largest milking operations of its kind in the world. 

Built on the Tuttle Farm, it consists of a milk barn and 17 free-stall barns (covering 35 acres) that house the Braum’s private dairy herd. Calves born and raised on the farm will eventually become part of the milking herd. In 2010, Bill Braum designed and built a “cow trolley” to transport the dairy herd to and from the milk barn. This eliminated the long walk several times each day and improved the cows’ overall comfort. Today, the Braum family owns and operates 280 stores located throughout Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas. All Braum’s stores are located within a 300-mile radius of the Braum’s Processing Plant located in Tuttle. Their fleet of delivery trucks are on the road seven days a week delivering fresh product to each store every other day.

It was a dreary and overcast morning, as we drove. It was not a heavy rain, just annoying.

In the town of Asher, there was a long trail of red dirt on the road. There are still many county roads that are dirt in this area.  It is now a small community of just barely over 400 people, but it was once a bustling oil community that people in the area considered “the big city.” In 1892, George "Matt" Asher, from Kentucky, purchased land in Oklahoma Territory, and the town was named after Mr Asher when he opened his land, asking only that the community would carry his namesake. Asher became a “railroad town” in October 12, 1900, when the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf (CO&G) bought the Shawnee to Tecumseh Railway branch from the Tecumseh Railway Company and promptly extended the branch to Asher. For 40 years, “Old Beck,” as the rail engine was called, ended and turned around in Asher, making the city a bustling trade center for the area.

In Oklahoma generally called the "South" Canadian River, the Canadian was known to seventeenth and eighteenth-century Spanish explorers as the Rio Buenaventura and the Magdalena. French explorers, perhaps assuming that the stream flowed northward into Canada, may have attached the name while they were seeking a route to Santa Fe. We have been criss-crossing this river for a few days.

In 1988 OK State Highway 3 between the cities of Ada and Broken Bow was dedicated as a memorial to the OK National Guard's 45th Infantry Division, a component of the US Army, for their service in WWII and the Korean Conflict. The 45th Infantry Division's long and distinguished history. The 45th Infantry Division of the US Army was a major formation of the Oklahoma Army National Guard from 1920 to 1968. Headquartered mostly in Oklahoma City, the guardsmen fought in both World War II and the Korean War. They trace their lineage from frontier militias that operated in the Southwestern United States throughout the late 1800s. The 45th Infantry Division guardsmen saw no major action until they became one of the first National Guard units activated in World War II in 1941. They took part in the attack on Salerno in the 1943 Italian Campaign. After landing in France during Operation Dragoon, they joined the 1945 drive into Nazi Germany that ended the War in Europe. After a brief deactivation and subsequent reorganization, the division returned to duty in 1951 for the Korean War. It joined the UN troops on the front lines during the stalemate of the second half of the war. The division remained on the front lines in such engagements as Old Baldy Hill and Hill Eerie until the end of the war, returning to the US in 1954. The division remained a National Guard formation until its deactivation in 1968 as part of a downsizing of the Guard. Several units were activated to replace the division and carry on its lineage. Over the course of its history, the 45th Infantry Division sustained over 25,000 battle casualties, and its men were awarded nine Medals of Honor, twelve campaign streamers, the Croix de Guerre and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.

George and Clyde Welch built forts, played games and fished the ponds of a 42 acre tract of land in Oil Center. Little did they realize that someday that very same piece of land would be filled with the laughter of children and families enjoying the speed and thrill of watching their heroes of the dirt track take the checkered flag at Oklahoma Sports Park. They have worked hard to make the facility one of the best in the State. It's a Family Show, from the youngest to the oldest of race fans, they find a home here. Hundreds of spectators fill the stands on a normal race night and they never leave disappointed. If your looking for a great time, the thrill of victory, and sometimes an unexpected ending, this is the place to be on a Saturday night.

We skirted Ada on OK 3 East. In the 1890s families settled in the Chickasaw Nation in an area then called Daggs Prairie, named for the James and John Daggs families. Jeff Reed, an original settler, submitted his daughter's name for acceptance as the post office designation there, and on July 10, 1891, the settlement became known as "Ada." Ada was incorporated on April 1, 1901, and the first newspaper, the Ada Star, began circulation on the next day. The newspaper was a means by which organizations such as the Masons, the Sorosis, the Twentieth Century, and the 25,000 Club (which later became the Chamber of Commerce) reported their activities. The arrival of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway line spurred rapid growth. Within a decade the Santa Fe and the Oklahoma Central lines also provided service. The town's many saloons, together with related problems, gave Ada a reputation for violence. In 1908 there were thirty-six murders. The lynching of four accused murderers, including the notorious "Shotgun" Jim Miller, by vigilante townsmen on April 19, 1909, was a symbolic end of the Old West.

We saw a sight, I have never seen. We saw a man doing puzzles along Oklahoma 3 near Centrahoma, Turned out it is called “Jigsaw Ranch.” Created in 2011, by John Cerney it is a set of 12 feet tall murals. The rancher is 'building' his cattle using jigsaw puzzle pieces. It is located on the property of Kim and Deward Strong. Deward is the rancher, seen in the mural.

In Atoka, we were going to take a break and get some breakfast at McDonald’s. However, the computers were down, so they could not take any order. One customer even asked if they could take an order, if we paid cash. Their answer was no. It is incredible, that because they had no computer, there was no service … I guess no one knows how to work without electronics anymore! It is becoming a sad reality …

This area of Oklahoma is rich in Choctaw history, the bad and the good. The Military Road is one the first highways connecting Arkansas to Fort Towson in the 1820s, which served as one route of the Choctaw Trail of Tears. Cut from Washington, Ark., to Fort Towson in 1831 for removal of Choctaws from Miss., became known is Choctaw Trail of Tears after thousands of suffering Indians used it to reach new lands. Road served as major east-west artery for Choctaw Nation until early 1900s. Imported early Choctaw settlements on road were Harris Mill, Eagletown, Lukfata. Wheelock and Clear Creek. Segments of road still identifiable still visible.

Oklahoma Indians have the distinction of being the first American Indian code talkers in both World Wars. Two forms of American Indian Code Talking exist: Type One or intentionally encoded native languages, and Type Two or non-coded native languages. While the former served as a foreign and coded language form usually with organized training, the latter served only as a foreign language and in impromptu situations. Among Oklahoma Indians only the Choctaw in World War I and the Comanche in World War II are known to have served as Type One code talkers. The first code talkers were a group of Choctaws in the 141st, 142d, and 143d Infantry Regiments of the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division in World War I. During the Meuse-Argonne campaign of 1918 in France, Germans broke Allied communication codes, monitored radio and telephone lines, and captured one of every four runners between companies. Needing a more secure means of communication, an American army officer overheard some Choctaw soldiers conversing in their native language. After an initial test and brief training in telephone messages, a Choctaw was placed in each post command. Coded words were soon devised for military terms foreign to the Choctaw language. For instance, "little gun shoot fast" meant machine gun. Choctaw messages transmitted by field telephone and in writing led to major successes in the battles of St. Etienne and Forest Ferme, contributing to the war's end.

In December 1940 the army recruited seventeen Comanches to become code talkers. Assigned to the Fourth Infantry Division's Fourth Signal Company at Fort Benning, Georgia, they received phone, radio, Morse code, and semaphore training. In August 1941 they were placed under Lt. Hugh F. Foster to develop an unbreakable Comanche-language code. Foster provided approximately 250 specialized military terms for which the Comanches developed coded equivalents. By October 30, 1941, the Comanche had completed their training and conducted field exercises in Louisiana soon thereafter. Thirteen Comanche Code Talkers landed at Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion in France. Maintaining wire telephone lines and sending secure messages via field telephone and radio, they served in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Germany. Their service included important battles at Cherbourg, St Lo, Paris, the Siegfried Line, the Huertgen Forest, and Bastogne. Although several were wounded in action, none were killed. The Comanche code was never broken. Efforts to identify and gain federal recognition for all American Indian Code Talkers led to the proposal of the Code Talkers Recognition Act in the 109th Congress. The Oklahoma Indian Code Talkers have contributed to a growing national awareness of American Indian Code Talkers and the importance of maintaining indigenous languages.

The clouds have cleared and the sun is shining now!

The Little River is a tributary of the Red River, with a total length of 217 miles. 130 miles of the river are in southeastern Oklahoma and 87 miles in southwestern Arkansas. It is also part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. Six large reservoirs impound the Little River and its tributaries. The Little River and its upper tributaries are popular for recreational canoeing and kayaking. We saw a sign for the Lost Rapids Park, which is a Corps of Engineer park.

The town of Broken Bow was incorporated and the post office established in 1911. Although Broken Bow was located on land previously owned by Choctaw, it did not receive its name from its local American Indian roots. Instead, it was named after Broken Bow, Nebraska, the home of Herman and Fred Dierks, who had moved to southeastern Oklahoma to establish the Choctaw Lumber Company. The area platted for Broken Bow was at the eastern terminus of the Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern Railroad. The land on the north side of the tracks was designated for residences, schools, churches, and retailers. The land south of the tracks was reserved for the lumber mill, employee housing, and other parts of the Choctaw Lumber Company. The firm provided a doctor for its workers and their families and built a hospital chiefly for the company employees but open to anyone needing care.

By 1923 Broken Bow enjoyed a public water and sewage system and electric lighting. Five churches, two elementary schools, a high school, and thirty-two businesses were established. There were three lawyers, two dentists, and five physicians. At the beginning of the twenty-first century timber remained the economic base of Broken Bow. The Dierks brothers sold their holdings in Oklahoma and Arkansas to Weyerhaeuser Company in late 1969. Included was the Broken Bow mill, then one of the largest lumber mills in the nation. Another important business in the area is Tyson Industries' chicken-processing plant. Originally established by Lane Industry in 1970, the Broken Bow plant currently processes an average of one million birds per week.

We crossed the Oklahoma state line into Arkansas. But, we lost our sunshine!

In DeQueen Arkansas we moved off our Route 3 and turned onto Route 71 / Route 59. Route 3, made like a stair step action heading toward Texarkana, but this route is more like an inverted L heading into Texarkana. Since our campground is on the north western side of Texarkana in Texas, taking this route makes sense. The history of the City of De Queen is entwined with the construction of the Kansas City Southern Railroad. The Kansas City Southern railroad connects Kansas City, Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico at Port Arthur, Texas. The KCS railroad was extended through a frontier settlement known as Hurrah City, that later became De Queen. De Queen was named after Jan de Goeijen, a Dutch coffee merchant who helped finance the completion of the railroad. However, de Goeijen’s name was difficult for area residents to pronounce and the name was eventually changed to De Queen. The City of De Queen became the county seat of Sevier County in 1905 and has steadily grown into a prosperous community.

I think today is the day we crossed the most state lines. We just crossed from Arkansas into Texas!

We arrived at Texarkana KOA, just below the raised entrance ramps for Interstate 30 … hopefully, we are low enough for the road noise to travel right over us for the night! We were on a few pins and needles tonight, as tornado watches were on and off for our area. All was well, when we went to bed!