I visited the Crook County Courthouse in Prineville today to search the commissioner’s journals for the establishment records of the 1902 Davenport Road.
Some segments of Davenport are paved and other segments are nearly abandoned dirt roads winding through BLM land. It was a main north-south wagon road until the around 1918 or so. 10 years ago we retraced a portion of Davenport out in the boonies and this old “bill board” helped confirm that we were searching in the right area:
(The Skuse Hardware store was in business from 1910 to 1918. This sign is about 6 miles from town. Shrewd marketing to place the sign on the rough-as-a-cob wagon road a couple of hours ride from civilization)
In the area where we found the Skuse sign, Davenport Road hasn’t changed much since 1902:
But I digress. The Crook County courthouse is a real gem of a building, built in 1909 after the original 1885 wooden structure was deemed unsafe:
The Clerk’s office is a tidy little office
…with a veritable wonderland of old land records in a fireproof vault. I was able to find the entry I was looking for to confirm that Davenport was a valid R/W:
But the best part of the day was on the drive back home when I spotted this at the Prineville airport –
A fully restored 1944 T-6 "Texan" trainer
It was pretty cool. I'd never seen one of these up close before. Below is a photo from my dad's flight class of 1943 of T-6 Texans over the Grand Canyon:
Very cool Mike as always. Thanks for posting!
> I visited the Crook County Courthouse in Prineville today .... The Clerk’s office is a tidy little office
The Crook County courthouse looks like pretty much every courthouse in Oklahoma (outside of OKC and Tulsa).
Finding old survey records and old field evidence is pretty exciting,but going to a small airport,and finding World War II aircraft, may top that!
Thank you for the pictures.
This, the DC-3 (C-47) and the T-28 Trojan are probably the most beautiful aircraft ever made. The look like an airplane should!!
> The Crook County courthouse looks like pretty much every courthouse in Oklahoma (outside of OKC and Tulsa).
Mark - I can well imagine there's some real humdingers in the small towns. You should add Lawton to your parenthetical exceptions. In high school we took a field trip to the Comanche County courthouse in Lawton. Not a pretty sight. Inside or out.
That's the same paint job as the one I saw! Meaning it was a trainer used by the South African Air Force circa 1965 to 1995. Here's what the owner told me about his plane.
Built in 1944 it was crated up with a couple hundred others and sent to England as lend-lease trainers. The Brits decided they'd like them shipped to South Africa where the weather was better for training pilots year round. The war ended soon afterwards, and the Brits said if you want your planes back Uncle Sam you can find them in South Africa. The US declined and the planes sat around for 20 years when the South African Air Force either acquired them or just started using them for the next 30 years. Then they were sold off in the mid 90s. He said there are LOTS of parts on the market from all the wrecked ones from ca 1965 to 1995 that were cannibalized. The roundel on the fuselage is the South African A.F. insignia of the time, a springbok in a weird star.
> Mark - I can well imagine there's some real humdingers in the small towns. You should add Lawton to your parenthetical exceptions. In high school we took a field trip to the Comanche County courthouse in Lawton. Not a pretty sight. Inside or out.
I haven't been to all 90-some yet. But there are a number of county seat towns in OK with one gas station and a "downtown" of very substantial stone buildings centered around a brick courthouse from around 1910 now all but deserted. But when you get inside the clerks office it's teaming with oil company title researchers madly photographing records.
BTW - I've spent a good deal of time at Prineville Airport. We topo'd the runway a few years ago and installed PACs and SACs there. The purpose of the job was to upgrade Prineville to serve as a suitable alternate for passenger service into Bend/Redmond. The major - nearly the only - user of Prineville at the time was Les Schwab's corporate jet fleet.