Land Rush Museum, blog photos, escaped prisoner
August 11, 2009

Whew, what a relief: that scary storm dropped its rain on us last night and moved on its way. I am unenamored of the weather here. It gives me the jitters, so today’s blue skies punctuated by fluffy sheep clouds feel so much better, even though the humidity has jumped up to 3,000 percent or something close to that.

A welcome laid-back day, Chris did laundry while I wrote a blurb to go on the Goat Hill Music website about offering house concerts. I will send it along to our trusty website designer tomorrow after I reread it hundreds of times, but of course one time short of finding that goof.

I have been disappointed that the blog site reduces my photos to the point that they're pretty unimpressive (not that my photography abilities are all that great to start with). I just discovered that when one clicks on them in the blog, they are instantly transformed to full-screen size, thus causing pics like the trumpet-vine-covered shack and the creepy clouds to appear much more as they were viewed and intended.

We’re trying out a nice hot-weather salad tonight that I found in my "Southern Living" cookbook. It involves melons, prosciutto, provolone, greens and homemade poppy seed dressing. Seems that simple cooking turns into a major megillah in this small space, but in a way is fun because of the necessary planning and organizing and reaching above, below and around each other while putting it together.

Seldom content to stay put all day, we did errands and shopping and ran off to Arkansas (pronounced like “r and the state we’re in, not the other state, Arkansas) City to check out the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum. It was actually not as well done as the one yesterday in tiny Udall, but inevitably, we learned some about that aspect of history. There were some super photos of anxious pioneers lined up ready to ride horses or drive wagons out to grab their bit of property.

Interestingly, Arkansas City publicized itself better than most as a place from which to start. The result was that approximately 145,000 additional bodies spent a good part of a year here waiting for the land grab to begin. It did wonders for local business, of course, but one wonders if the negative effects might not have outweighed the fiscal benefit. It seems there was much question and a multitude of rumors about just when the land would be opened, so folks were cooling their heels waiting. I’m not sure, but I suspect a hard date had not been set, perhaps awaiting the completion of surveying and marking the parcels to be had.

The museum sported a genealogical library, too. We browsed it, but confined ourselves to perusing only a few indexes.

There was some unfortunate events unfolding all around us here without any knowledge on our part until afterward. Seems a jail prisoner with a violent tendency attacked a guard and escaped on Friday, and was only recaptured yesterday, Monday, after several car chases, shootings, and hunts with dogs. The RV park manager told us this morning that he shot and killed a man near here while stealing a truck, but we think that part may be rumor. At any rate, we are grateful he didn’t come by while we were wandering around.

Tomorrow, we hit the road again (sorry, Rowdy).