In this episode we take another trip through Oklahoma history in what we like to call our two fold trip.

Welcome to Blog Oklahoma

Back in April 2012, our family we went on a trip around southern Oklahoma from Marlow to Atoka to Ardmore and back. We call this our two fold trip since we traveled across two folds of our highway map.

On that bright sunny morning I, my wife Donna, my mother Carleta, and grandmother Edna, set out on one of our many exploring Oklahoma history trips. Our primary goal was to visit the Boggy Depot State Park near Atoka, Oklahoma and collect as many of the historical markers we find along the way.

Now this is going to be an abbreviated travel log. I’m just going to highlight the towns we traveled to and mention some of the historic places you’ll find near each location. If you would like to know more about any of these historic places, please visit the Exploring Oklahoma History website at blogoklahoma.us and look through our historic places database. The database has been organized by county and these are the counties we’re talking about today: Atoka, Carter, Garvin, Marshall, and Murray.

We began our trip in Marlow, Oklahoma, and we headed east to Elmore City, our first stop in our trip. There in an out of the way place in front of the senior citizens center is a small plaque for a unique bit of Oklahoma history. It's a marker noting Gary England of KWTV (channel 9) issuing the first tornado warning based on doppler radar in 1982.

From there we headed south then east again to Davis, Oklahoma. Now in this particular trip we didn’t stop, but in a previous trip we visited the Arbuckle Historical Museum there, it’s a really nice museum and worth a visit. From Davis we continued east to Sulphur and stopped by the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, one of our favorite parks in all of Oklahoma. It’s a natural wonder and a real treasure.

From there we traveled cross country to the southeast through the small community of Wapanucka and about 5 miles east of there you’ll find the Boggy Depot historical marker. Now from this marker you can travel a back road south and you’ll end up at the north side of the Boggy Depot State Park. Oh sorry correction it’s no longer a State Park. Due to state budget cuts it was turned over to the Chickasaw Nation, who now maintain the park.

On the north side of the park is a cemetery and in the back part of this cemetery is a historical marker memorializing Muriel H. Wright, a famous Oklahoma historian. The rest of Boggy Depot has kiosks scattered throughout the park sharing all sort of history of the area. Boggy Depot is basically a ghost town that was turned into a park. Fascinating history and worth a visit just for that.

From Boggy Depot we traveled east then north to Atoka, Oklahoma. On the north side of town you’ll find the Confederate Memorial Museum and Cemetery. Unfortunately by the time we got there the museum was closed, but you can still wander around the grounds see the historic buildings on display and visit the confederate cemetery.

From Atoka we traveled north yet again to the edge of Stringtown, Oklahoma, to visit the Stringtown Shootout historical marker, noting the 1932 shootout with Atoka County Sheriffs and Clyde Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, and Everett Milligan.

From there we turned around and headed back southwest. We traveled through Caddo, Oklahoma and then west again to stop by Fort Washita. Again unfortunately we arrived too late to walk around the grounds. You can see the old fort from the gates, and there’s a nice historical marker right there at the entrance.

After a quick stop in Madill to see the Marshall County Courthouse, we swung over to Ardmore where we had dinner at a nice mexican restaurant. Afterwords we traveled back to Marlow, Oklahoma ending our day long trip.

It was a fun trip through parts of Oklahoma we don’t get to visit nearly often enough.

I’m sadden to say though it was the last exploring Oklahoma history trip we got to take as a family. My mother passed away in 2013 after a long hard fought battle with cancer, and my grandmother moved down to Florida to live with my aunt.

Again I encourage you to visit these wonderful historic places in Oklahoma and create fond memories with your family. I’ll have links to more information in the show notes including to a Flickr set of the pictures I took on this trip.

Thank you again for taking this look back with me in exploring Oklahoma history.

This episode's writing suggestion

Is to write about a recent day trip you took. I look forward to reading it.

Note

This was a bittersweet episode to put out. For those of you who’ve been following the Blog Oklahoma Podcast for a while might recall an episode I did before the big reboot called depression sucks. I attempted to write this very episode way back then and I just couldn’t do it. I was still grieving the lost of my mother. Then all those memories just pulled me in deeper and deeper into my grief and depression. Now though, the memories of this and all the other trips we took with my mother are no longer so painful. They’re happy memories and I cherish them.

I was inspired this week to write this episode in one part because of last week’s episode in talking about my favorite historical marker, and in another part because we recently watched the Disney movie Inside Out that dealt with sadness, but for the most part it was thanks to Vice President Joe Biden. I was reminded this week of a talk he gave in 2012 with some military families and he said this:

“... There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later.. But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I’m telling you it will come. ...” - Washington Post

And you know what, I think I’m there.

Top 5

Here are my top 5 favorite Studio Ghibli anime movies.

Links from this episode

This episode's bonus interesting articles

This episode's bonus musical selection

You can listen To the Blog Oklahoma Bonus playlist on YouTube or Spotify. Enjoy.

New To The Playlist: Q.U.E.E.N. by Janelle Monáe: YouTube, Spotify Rise Up by Andra Day: YouTube, Spotify Clap Boom by Charli XCX: YouTube, Spotify Cut You Up by Peter Murphy: YouTube, Spotify



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