First up Sam Noble Museum in Norman. Prior to headed South in the afternoon we went to the library and checked out all sorts of books on Oklahoma, The Trail of Tears, various Native American Tribes, the land runs, and the dust bowl. That about covers early Oklahoma history. We read a few books about Native American history before leaving, a brief overview of the Trail of Tears, to which Zane literally asked if I was joking. Nope, kiddo there was a lot of genocide and horrible things that happened early on this neck of the woods. I have a true soft spot in my heart for the Native Americans and kind of wish I had been a Native American studies major in undergrad. The few Native American studies classes I took were my absolute favorite classes, besides cadaver anatomy of course. After naps, and with our new found fun facts about Oklahoma, we headed South.
We usually go to Sam Noble once or twice a year, but never with the goal of actually learning about one particular things. Turns out it's really hard to get a child to read anything in a museum, but we knew this already. Zane can read well, but in order to read about anything you must first stand still for a hot second, there in lies the problem. While in the Native American exhibit I told him he had to learn something new before we could leave. The fun fact he came out with was that Native American children enjoyed skateboarding, which there was a skateboard with Native American art on it. Don't worry I forced him to read and tell me about how Native American papoose boards were made and used as well. This trip was Thatcher's first try at going to a museum out of his stroller. Turns out he was the child who was most entertained and had the longest attention span while going through exhibits. He loved all the dinosaurs, lizards, birds, everything was new and exciting to him and it made for quite the fun trip. We even managed to not lose him one time.
Tuesday morning we headed to the farm with grand plans of going to the Cherokee Strip museum, the rock museum, and riding the rides at the park. I'll save you the gory, highly frustrating details, but we only actually got to go to the Cherokee Strip museum. It's alright, that is the one thing that was actually about Oklahoma, so it's fine, though frustrating that our other two funtivities were closed. Also as a side note no one in Enid can work the internet well enough to update their hours of operation on their websites.
We played outside in the morning and mom gave a quick history lesson to the kids about their Great Great Grandpa Blakley, and his four brothers, who ran in the 1893 Land Run. Zane was very interested in the story, asking all sorts of questions, and being highly entertained by the fact that his Great Great Grandfather's name was George Washington. We showed them the replica stake that my parents got during the centennial celebration in 1993, they looked at the Centennial Farm sign in the yard, and look at some pictures of the house I grew up in. My father would have loved this day. He would have loved to tell these stories and pass on this history. He would have loved how interested Zane was in in it. Nine years later and there are moments like these where I still cannot believe that he isn't here. That he doesn't know my children, that they will never be able to meet him, and get one of those famous bear hugs. Oh how he would have loved my sweet blonde headed boys.
These steps are made from what was the foundation of the house I grew up in. Dad built these steps when they got their new house.
Four generations later, Blakley genes are strong with these boys. Rowan is holding the replica stake from 1993. This was what was in the ground on each plot of land and the boomers running would put their flags on the top to "stake" their claim.
Zane with his mulberry tree in Maggie's Wood.
I think we decided this peach tree would be Rowans. We all had fruit trees assigned to us when we were growing up so it's fun they have their own trees now as well.
In the afternoon we headed to Enid in hopes of going to the Enid rock museum. This is a random little house that is covered in petrified wood, rose rocks, and all sorts of random rocks. Inside, so I hear, they have a large collections of all sorts of gems, stones, rocks, and lots of animal heads (randomly.) I have been in one time in high school, but so far as I can tell it's never actually open. Their website said they were open on Tuesdays from one to four. Their sign said Wednesdays through Saturdays. I maintain they are never open. We did look at the rocks and petrified wood on the outside and so this random attraction remains on our bucket list.
Then off to the Cherokee Strip Museum. This museum got a total overhaul probably a decade ago so I hadn't been since I was in grade school, when there was a violin from some relative of ours on display in the basement. At the time it was all focused on the Land Run and random things that belongs to people who had made the run. It now has a small section on the land run and then two other galleries that is more the history of Enid. The boys enjoyed the video at the beginning that talked about all the things mom had told them earlier in the day. There is still the village outside, which has a house, a school, a church, and the only remaining land office building from the 1893 Land Run.
After someone staked their claim they then had to go register their land at a land office. There were only three land offices in the Cherokee Strip and thousands of people ran in the land run. People spent days in line waiting to register their land, sometimes dying while they waited. This led to the phrase "doing land office business" when referring to a store being busy. This building is the land office that was in Enid. Zane's favorite part was the sign that said "no spitting on the floor," obviously.
We woke up tired on Wednesday and headed back home after a trip to the bridge to play Pooh sticks, a childhood favorite of mine. On the way home I made a spur of the moment decision to go see the old capital in Guthrie and turns out there is an Oklahoma Territory Museum there as well. This museum was definitely more centered on the founding of the state and the first land run in 1889. They had the flag that was presented to Oklahoma by the federal government upon becoming a state in 1907. There was also a little more history about the famous stealing of the state seal. Turns out they did vote to move the capital to OKC in 1910. However the bill never specified a date that it would be moved. So the night of the election they proponents of OKC being the capital went to Guthrie and stole the seal and OKC has been the capital ever since.
Of course my children immediately found the old baseball glove.
After reading Boom Town last year I recognized lots of the important being from this time in the state.
The creepy old mannequin in the jail scared Zane, which was highly entertaining.
I feel like it should be noted that I have been sick for a solid three weeks at this point. I've been battling a sinus infection and just got my second round of antibiotics yesterday. I have had no energy, a splitting headache, and have had green snot pouring from my head this whole time. So as fun as our adventures have been they have been beyond exhausting. So on Thursday I contemplated numerous places we could go to see some Oklahoma history/culture. Instead I opted for the twenty minute drive to Arcadia's Round barn along Route 66. Zane had learned about Route 66 somewhere and was very excited to see that, which turns out is just a road through a rundown tiny town, a la Radiator Springs in the movie Cars. He still found it all very exciting. Don't over think your children's entertainment people.
The round barn is as advertised round and an amazing feet of constructions given that it was built in 1898. It has had it's roof collapse once and was rebuilt. The now have receptions and parties in the top portion and the bottom level is a museum of sorts to the barn's history. Not a lot to see and my children might have found the outhouse just as exciting as the world's only truly round barn. (Yes, there are other similar ones, but it was made very clear this is the only one that is truly, geometrically round.)
Right up the road from the round barn is Pops soda shop, where you can choose from hundreds of unique flavors of very sweet soda. They also had amazingly crunchy french fries. My children ate every last piece of food on their plates, in an amazing turn of events.
Yes, little T got an orange soda which he loved almost as much as the pickles that came with his burger.
Those were all our Oklahoma adventures along with learning all sorts of fun Oklahoma facts. I can confidently say that at least Zane, and possibly Rowan, can now tell you when Oklahoma became a state, what this area was and what it was called prior to statehood. They can name the State bird, song, animal, reptile, tree, flower, official dinner, and location of both of Oklahoma's capitals. They now know when both land runs took place, their personal history with the land run, as well as learning about the Native American suffrage that went along with it. We read a book about Sequoyah and Wilma Mankiller, two very important Native Americans from Oklahoma. On Friday we talked about the dust bowl, as well as Grandma telling them stories about Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Dotter's personal experiences living through it. We also briefly touched on the Oklahoma City bombing and Zane requested to go to the Bombing museum, but I cry just at the thought of it so I'm not sure I could handle it. I lived that history and it's all to real.
Zane is going to be in third grade next year and that's the year they do all the Oklahoma history here. They do a land run at school, which they don't call a land run anymore, but I can't remember what it's called. He should be way ahead of the curve. Zane has become quite the little history buff and he thoroughly enjoyed this week, soaking up all kinds of knowledge. Rowan struggled with having a terrible attitude all week so we had lots of conversations about choosing to be happy no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. That's good advice for Oklahomans who frequently find themselves in difficult situations. We made an Oklahoma playlist on spotify which everyone enjoyed, lots of country music, Oklahoma the musical songs, and lots of knee slapping tunes that you can't help but sing along to. And as you might have guessed Thatcher remains an amazing sport through everything. Here's hoping I feel better soon. Next weeks theme is still up in the air. We shall see!
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