Expedition Oklahoma

Loco, Oklahoma

I just had a comment from a reader questioning the existence of Loco, Oklahoma.  I happened to go through Loco on my little drive today and shot a couple of photos.   The photo below is  of the old Methodist Church building. 

According to Oklahoma Place Names by George H. Shirk this is the information provided about Loco:  "In southeastern Stephens County.  Post office established June 3, 1890.  Took its name from the locoweed, an herb of the pea family, usually poisonous to livestock" (143).

Loco is located on Highway 53, if you continue west you will end up in the town of Comanche.  

I was too lazy to attempt a good shot of the old gymnasium.   

 

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Agawam Sunset

These were shot on my way home tonight on Highway 81 between Chickasha and Rush Springs,  Ninnekah and Agawam to be exact.  I had the telephoto lens on - my first shot is not zoomed.   

I love the song "Time is Love" by Josh Turner.  What do you spend your time on?  What do you love?  I guess, I love photography quite a bit, if time is love.   

The Wichita Mountains are a nice drive from Agawam, probably 45 minutes to an hour.  I'm not sure of the mileage.  But this is quite a view.

  If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe?  The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions.  ~Author Unknown

 

Tonight I read an essay titled "Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner" by Elizabeth Cook-Lynne.  I love the writing of Wallace Stegner.   I like the writing of Stegner.  I expected to disagree with this critic's perspective.   I found I did not.   I bought something, just to disagree with -  although-  I do have an affinity for Western culture and history, I feel that there are voices which have been silenced for the sake of white historians and the idea of "Manifest Destiny," our job as academics is to find those voices and disseminate them, to change the future.   

 

Talimena Scenic Drive

If you leave Talihina Oklahoma going east towards Mena Arkansas, you can take the Mountain Gateway and go down Talimena Scenic drive which will take you over the Ouachita Mountains into beautiful Arkansas, driving on a ridge that presents a spectacular view that you will be surprised to find in Oklahoma.   

I took most of these shots with my fisheye lens (which has not been to visit this drive).   Of course our morning began at the hospital where my cousin met his newest addition to his family, a beautiful baby boy.   I have posted all of those photos here, feel free to like my personal photography page and view these beautiful family moments: 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.478094295551749.120389.206919052669276&type=1

I love this view.  I like taking shots in the middle of the road too.   Obviously.  If you've spent any amount of time looking at my photography.  

My brother in law took this shot of me and my baby sister.  Way up high..up on the ridge.   

This is my favorite shot, my sister, brother in law and the bumblebee taken with the fisheye lens, although it wanted to chase me!  

We went to Mena, and then to the Little Missouri Falls - which is for another post.  Went swimming and then drove -  a long drive home.  

A beautiful drive in July - it was hot at least a 100 degrees but worth it.  

Beautiful summer day. 

I love the view of the road on top of the mountains.  

I love summer,  haven't enjoyed enough of it this year! 

This is my favorite view, shot from the middle of the highway. 

I am almost finished for this post - promise.. just a few more shots.  

I love how the green mountains fade to blue in the distance...  

 

Dust Storm on New Years Eve near Blair

Today we decided to take the Kayak to the Altus Lake near Quartz Mountain.  It was supposed to be 70 degrees and we've been enjoying the new Kayak and decided not to battle the celebrating crowds elsewhere.  Beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky on the way over.  When we initially stopped at Blair on our way to the lake it was 78 degrees outside.  Weather we didn't have this summer or very much of this spring.  I will post more about our visit to the lake later, but I wanted to put the photos from this dust storm up.   I've never been in a dust storm, but my fascination with the lives of people during the 30s on the Great Plains has been long lasting.   I've read Steinbeck, Egan and other authors, bought the documentaries and read old accounts of dust bowl survivors.   So, to see this cloud of dust approaching was something else.  It is hard to imagine what it must be like to experience something like that, until you do.  

On the horizon, we stopped so I could take photos of the cloud which was moving fast. I didn't realize it was moving as fast as it was...

This is the view towards Blair as the wind was just starting to hit...  

Not a minute or two later in the other direction...  with a very upset ten year old demanding I get in the vehicle..we left.   He was not pleased about this new weather event.   

I went hoping for a beautiful mountain sunset...and I found the sun blotted out by the dust.  I still wonder what the man who was holding the "End of Times" sign in downtown Altus thought today..when this storm blew in.    

Outside of Blair, this photo was kind of strange.

Tumbleweeds Tumbling...  

This was a "dog shot"  hanging out the window with my camera...  I know, dangerous. I know very well as I was almost the victim of a Buzzard this summer.  But...  what can you do when you need to photograph something.  Oh, the antenna, really was a distraction for the shot.  

This shot shows how the wind was blowing the powerlines...

Entering Blair Oklahoma..during the New Year's Eve duststorm.  

The quickstop in Blair during the storm 

A girl running into a store during the dust storm in Blair this afternoon.  

a shot of downtown Blair 

It was something else...  

Can you see the Farm in the dust?  More tomorrow

Oklahoma Autumn Leaves

The leaves are turning colors and I knew the window of opportunity was short for getting photographs of the reds, yellows, and oranges.  While the fresh dousing of rain has left new traces of green emerging from this Summer's drought.   Here are a few photos of the Autumn leaves.  All were taken near Lindsey Oklahoma and Lake Fuqua in Stephens County.  

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  ~Albert Camus

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.  For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.  ~Edwin Way Teale

Bittersweet October.  The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.  ~Carol Bishop Hipps

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.  ~George Eliot

How beautifully leaves grow old.  How full of light and color are their last days.  ~John Burroughs

Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes.  Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.  ~Samuel Butler

There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!  ~Percy Bysshe Shelley


The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

There is something nearly perfect about finding the sun, the leaves, the tree and the bend in the road at the right place, at the right time; all by accident.  

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

What a pretty scene along this blacktop road that winds around Stephens County's Lake Fuqua.  

It was a crisp day in the 50s.  It feels like Fall now.  It may feel like May next week though, this is Oklahoma.  

Often I am driving down this road thinking when I get to the intersection I am almost home.  Of course almost home for me, is about 15 miles left to go.  But hey, that's country!  

I love the leaves but I know soon they will be gone leaving the shell of the trees naked and cold through the winter. 

 

Oklahoma Autumn Leaves

The leaves are turning colors and I knew the window of opportunity was short for getting photographs of the reds, yellows, and oranges.  While the fresh dousing of rain has left new traces of green emerging from this Summer's drought.   Here are a few photos of the Autumn leaves.  All were taken near Lindsey Oklahoma and Lake Fuqua in Stephens County.  

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  ~Albert Camus

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.  For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.  ~Edwin Way Teale

Bittersweet October.  The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.  ~Carol Bishop Hipps

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.  ~George Eliot

How beautifully leaves grow old.  How full of light and color are their last days.  ~John Burroughs

Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes.  Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.  ~Samuel Butler

There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!  ~Percy Bysshe Shelley


The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

There is something nearly perfect about finding the sun, the leaves, the tree and the bend in the road at the right place, at the right time; all by accident.  

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

What a pretty scene along this blacktop road that winds around Stephens County's Lake Fuqua.  

It was a crisp day in the 50s.  It feels like Fall now.  It may feel like May next week though, this is Oklahoma.  

Often I am driving down this road thinking when I get to the intersection I am almost home.  Of course almost home for me, is about 15 miles left to go.  But hey, that's country!  

I love the leaves but I know soon they will be gone leaving the shell of the trees naked and cold through the winter. 

 

Rush Springs Wildfire Part 2

Some more photos from the fire at Rush Springs.  

The fire crept across the road and is at the neighbors houses...

When the world is burning all around you.....  

 

Truly frightening and emotional day...

This was too close to home. 

Friends and family were there to evacuate the clinic.  I was documenting.  

The firefighters in the filed trying to keep the fires away from the houses.  

Friends and family watching and waiting...   they were evacuated soon afterthis.  

For as many acres as it burned, only one house burned and I believe from what I heard no one lived in it.  

Rush Springs Wildfire Part 1

Last Wednesday there was a wildfire about two miles west of Rush Springs on Highway 17, it was less than a 1/4 of a mile away from our family property.  Where my brothers, sister and my Grandma's old house is located.  It was probably one of the most destructive things I've ever witnessed. I watched the smoke plume from my Grandma's yard.  It was something I struggled to look away from,  like impending doom.  While everyone else was preparing to evacuate and packing all the available vehicles I was taking photos, because, as I've said sometimes I'm pretty useless under extreme stress.   

This photo was taken on the edge of Marlow on Highway 81, about 10 miles away from the fire.  

Heading west on Highway 17 this photograph was taken at the top of the hill from the family property.  

This is from the top of the hill heading to the family property.   Westbound Highway 17.  

This is the view from my Sister's driveway 

Destructive for mankind, but ultimately good fror the soil.  Wildfires seem to be a common occurence in Oklahoma recently.   

What was scary about this fire is it was less than a mile from so many memories...  and the possibility of it all being gone was reality. 

The wind was blowing my direction and I could see the flames consuming the brush and the trees on the top of the hill.   

Wildfire on Highway 7 Near Tishomingo

These photos were taken Friday....  These were all north of Tishomingo, in between Wapanucka and Reagan I think.  Near the Blue River Fishing and Hunting area.  

 

This photo was taken in the morning. 

This is on the way back from my appointment, the fire was still burning.

These photos were taken the morning after the car accident.  Really, I've witnessed enough drama in a week. 

I was the passenger when I shot all of these photos, these were drive by photography. It was very smoky.  

Fort Arbuckle

So, Fort Arbuckle isn't here anymore. You can't go stand outside of any impressive ruins of the 19th century Fort that stood between the Chickasaws and the Comanche Indians, the fort that protected the trail for those westward bound Pioneers.  Built on Wildhorse Creek Fort Arbuckle was a fort that stood on Indian Meridian Road and near present day Highway 7.  

The marker is not easy to see from the Highway.  

Here is a link for some more information on Fort Arbuckle.  Besides this marker, there is not much that you can find of Fort Arbuckle. 

If you turn on this road and go north, for a little over a mile you'll find Wildhorse Creek.  

Wildhorse creek flooded a few years back and it was quite a sight to see.  This year is so dry, we still need more rain.   The heat continues.  These photos were taken mid-July.  

The Fort was located near this creek.