Road Trip through OK and KS..Suggestions

Two suggestions:

1. It is not even close to Meades Ranch (recommended) but the Dalton Gang Hideout and Museum in Southwest (Meade) Kansas along Route 54 protrays a fascinating bit of local history.

2. In my opinion, a "must see" is the Chisholm Trail Museum in Kingfisher, Oklahoma - NW of Oklahoma City.

We stopped at those two places on different trips but in each case we found the curators to be a wealth of information and overjoyed at the opportunity to share with persons interested in what they had to say.

Oh man, there's a ton o' stuff to see here in Oklahoma. The Severe Storms Lab is a pretty interesting place.

If you're into a great art collection the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa is a must see.

Personally my interests are more stimulated by Darryl Starbird's Car Museum in Afton, Oklahoma.

Our Initial Point is on private property, about a mile south of S.H. 7 that runs west out of Davis, Ok. Maybe somewhere near 34 30'24"N & 97 14'50"W.

The folks that run the ranch there are friendly enough, but they prefer a call ahead for visitors. Burk Cornelius of the Oklahoma Society of Land Surveyors probably has their phone number. His email is burk@osls.org.

The road up there is a rough dirt road. The last 1/2 mile is a 130' rise from the pasture. 2wd can make it. I took a street motorcycle up there in 2001 (the only person to ever do so I might add...).

Good "Q" is where you find it. There is a spot on old US66 outside of Luther, Ok. that a lot my scooter friends like to frequent. It's on the Indian Meridian. I think it's called the Boundary. It's an 'easy on-easy off' of I-44 between Tulsy and Okie-City.

As for Kansas, you could drop by Holy Cow's digs and help feed cows...or listen to hay dry...or whatever they do up there for fun....;-)

PS - You're welcome to all this red clay you can load in your car and take home!

There was a group trip to Meade's Ranch in 2008.

They had to make advance arrangements and pay the landowners something to escort them.

> ...a to Norman for a tour of the Storm Prediction Center...
About a half mile as the Turkey Buzzard flies from the National Weather Center in Norman is the Sam Noble Natural History Museum. Across the street from that to the west is the home of Norman's first citizen, Coach Barry Switzer, and across the parking lot to the NE is the OU Law School, and it's library, which houses a truly massive collection of books, many of which have something to do with surveying. Oh, and 6 blocks or so north is this huge structure where people from all over Oklahoma gather 6 times a year to watch a bunch of overgrown teenagers play a game against a bunch of overgrown teenagers from out of town.

Elsewhere in Norman there is a statue of James Garner, the actor, and also one of Abner Norman, the surveyor after which Norman is named.

Thanks for the ideas! My 6 year old boys will go crazy for some cowboy action at the Dalton Gang hideout, I will definitely look into that.

Thanks for the suggestions the Sam Noble museum looks like a good idea - I'm sure my boys will appreciate some dinosaurs that after the SPC tour, and some Sooner jerseys.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/

Couple of Kansas ideas for you to consider. First, enter Kansas south of Medicine Lodge and then go from Medicine Lodge to Coldwater (due west). If you like red and you like massive erosive behavior with a bunch of oil wells tossed in just for fun, you will find this leg of your journey quite entertaining. Second, consider going from Dodge City to Hays. Google dinosaur and Hays, Kansas together. Your boys will be totally amazed.

The Dalton Gang Hideout in Meade is nice. Of course, a little detour nearly straight west from Joplin to Coffeyville, KS will get you to the straight scoop on them bad boys at the Dalton Gang Museum. That's where they were at their baddest and you can pay a visit to several of them in the local cemetery. An added treat if you are a baseball fan is the display of items on Walter Johnson, the great big league pitcher.

You might cut over from Coldwater to Meade, then up to Dodge City. Drop back to the east and a little south of there to Greensburg to see the world's largest hand dug well and to also see how they are attempting to recover from the F5 tornado that took out about 70 percent of the city in 2007. Head straight north out of Greensburg to Lacrosse to see an excellent museum dedicated to barbed wire.

There is a ton of neat stuff to see between Hays and Lawrence including the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, historic Fort Riley, KSU, the Kansas Historical Museum in Topeka and be sure to keep an eye out for a herd of camels on the south side of I-70 several miles east of the Manhattan exit. The Haskell Indian Institute (college) in Lawrence might be rather interesting as well. That's where Jim Thorpe played college football back in the days when he was about the most famous athlete in the nation. (Oh, and in Oklahoma, you might want to drop through Claremore to visit the Will Rogers Museum and related opportunities.)

Now, to address Paden's comments about listening to hay dry. The crew putting up hay for me started to bale on a 60-acre field last Thursday in the late afternoon. About 30 minutes after getting started, a serious rain set in. It rained again on Saturday. Then again on Sunday. I noticed yesterday that they had wrapped up a few more bales but still hadn't got more than 10 acres baled. It rained again a bit this afternoon. So, to confirm Paden's suspicions, yes you can listen to hay dry all you want for the next several days at my place. Thank goodness they are putting this up on shares so I'm not paying directly for this.

A link to the Gypsum Hills near the Oklahoma border. http://www.travelks.com/ksbyways/gypsum-hills/
The Dalton Museum http://www.coffeyville.com/index.aspx?NID=316
The Dalton Hideout http://oldmeadecounty.com/hideout.htm
Haskell http://www.haskell.edu/

If you find yourself in western Kansas near Oakley, a trip to Monument rocks is worth it. Its an area with a few huge limestone rocks that have been carved away by the wind into natural archways.

I've done the drive from Texas to KC lots of times on I-35 and the prettiest stretch is the Flint hills north of Witchita.

Also if you want to get a feel for the landscape during the dust bowl, check out a book called "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. Its very well written and provides a lot of context to that part of the country.

Both the Monument Rocks area north of Scott City and the Castle Rocks area further to the northeast are amazing geological exhibits that make you realize the wonders of nature. Also near Scott City are the 450 year-old El Quartelejo Ruins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Quartelejo_Ruins

Oh man. It sounds like my original 4-5 day trip just became a two week one. I have for some time been reading numerous books on Kansas and the oddities that have occurred there over the years. I have read the Worst of Hard Times as well as PrairyErth. Another good one is "West of Wichita", lots of stories about the terrible things the original settlers dealt with; It was written by Craig Miner - also the author of Kansas - The Sunflower State, another great history book.

Maybe I can find one of you Kansas Surveyors that needs some help for an extended amount of time. 😉

Better print this thread and start plotting the route, the better half's summer break will be over before I know it.