Eastern Oklahoma

To broaden our experience in Oklahoma, we took a drive to Claremore (northeast of Tulsa) and Tahlequah for a couple of new sights.

Claremore, OK is near the birthplace of one of the most famous Oklahomans, Will Rogers. We visited this rather large memorial which was built on land that he purchased for a homesite. Never having had the chance to build the home on the property, the family used the land to house a memorial for this amazing entertainer, athlete and statesman.

The Rogers family is interred near the gravesite for Will Rogers and is marked with the striking statue of a mounted Mr. Rogers.

The memorial is surrounded by a large plot of land, as shown in this photo taken from near the mounted statue.

Being a museum, photos weren't allowed of most of the exhibits. We toured several rooms within the museum that documented Will Roger's achievements as a cowboy, entertainer, actor, author, columnist and statesman. We enjoyed seeing more of his famous quotes within context, such as:

'When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read 'I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn't like'. I'm so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved. And when you come to my grave, you will find me sitting there, proudly reading it.'

The museum offers a comprehensive review of this man's life - from the humble beginnings in rural Oklahoma, to the independent working as a cowboy, to the surprising jump to entertainment and the Ziegfield Follies, to acting in movies and of course, the columns and radio work. We enjoyed several highlights of his rope tricks and couldn't leave without picking up a video, a CD highlighting his Sunday night radio broadcast and a small book of quotes.

We think his life demonstrates a real American success story and find his humor refreshing, even today.

From there, we moved on to the city of Tahlequah - chosen because of its status as the capitol of the Cherokee nation and designation as the end of the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee Heritage Center pays fitting tribute to the Cherokee history and also serves as a research center for tracing family roots to the Cherokee tribe. We didn't have much daylight left by the time we made the drive over, but we enjoyed touring the grounds and enlightening ourselves regarding the Trail of Tears.

The stories told here seem to share a common thread with other sights we've seen in Oklahoma - of a population with great resiliance and determination despite circumstances beyond their control. The tribe not only survived after being relocated, but has preserved their heritage (including language), emphasized education amongst the descendents and achieved a prosperous future for many members. We'll be reminded of their stories as we trek eastward along some of the same ground crossed in their infamous journey.

That adventure closed out our sight-seeing in Oklahoma and we were off to Arkansas before another snow storm arrived. Along our way, we saw evidence of Okie humor in the dog walking section at a rest area:


Off to beat the snow and Arkansas....