Route 66, day 2

Thursday, April 25, 2019

We continued our Route 66 journey today. We headed northwest this time.

First we visited Ft. Reno in El Reno, OK.

 

The fort’s beginnings came about in the Indian War time period in 1875. Oklahoma was not yet a state and was simply called Indian Territory or IT. This map shows how the Indian Territory was divided up between the different tribes. Oklahoma didn’t become a state until 1907, 32 years later.

 

A synopsis of Ft. Reno from Travelok.com:

This military post was established in 1874 to protect the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Troops from the fort were instrumental in directing an orderly transition from reservations to individual farms, ranches and towns, and were the major force in supervising the Land Run of 1889. It served as two remount depots from 1908 to 1947, when it became an agricultural research station. It also served as a German prisoner of war camp in WWII. Much of the fort has been restored, and several activities are held on the site throughout the year. Over 25 historic structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and several exhibits and displays are also available for viewing. Some include 1876 through 1948 Indian Wars, parade ground, cemetery and chapel built by German POW’s in 1944. 70 POW’s, Buffalo Soldiers and Indian Scouts are buried in the cemetery.

Do you know what a “buffalo soldier” is? It’s the name the American Indians gave to the African-American soldiers. They wore buffalo skin coats, their skin was brown and their hair resembled that of the buffalo.

 

 

Visitor’s center

 

 

 

One of the officers assigned to Ft. Reno brought his wife with him. She didn’t want to live in base housing so she had this Victorian style house build in the fort. It looks very out of place here.

After her husband died, she stayed at the fort and used the second floor of the house as a hospice for terminal soldiers.

Other buildings on the property:

Adjuntant’s office

 

Guard house

 

Calvary Barracks

 

Commissary

Ben Clark and his third wife, a Cheyenne named Moka (mo-kay) lived in this house along with their children (they had 12 in all…not all survived to adulthood). Ben Clark served the longest at Ft. Reno. He served as an interpreter for the tribes and also helped stop a massacre of Indian women and children.

Their house on base

 

 

The Chapel was build by German and Italian prisoners of war.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a separate section where German and Italian POWs are buried.

 

This name was interesting…

 

 

This is the only Chinese buried here.

From the US government archives http://files.usgwarchives.net/ok/canadian/cemetery/ftreno.txt

Wee Gan Wah was born in December, 1863 in China. He came to the United States in 1881. He was
not a naturalized citizen. Mr. Wah could not read or write, but he did speak English. He lived with another
Chinese man named Guig Yee, who was a cook at the fort.
     Two soldiers dressed like women came to his door and wanted to come in. He would not let them in
and they left. About 30 minutes later, around 10:00 o'clock, while he was working in his laundry, he was
shot. Wee Gan Wah had $360 in his house and robbery was probably the reason for the murder.  He
died November 16, 1901 in the Fort Reno Hospital. His grave is off by itself.

 

This fort at one time housed 60,000 horses. It was a remount station. They trained and refreshed the supply of horses for the Cavalry.

Black Jack, a famous military horse that walked in JFK’s funeral and never had a rider, walked in over 1,000 military funerals, was from Ft. Reno.

 

 

After the fort, we drove west to the next town called Yukon to the Express Clydesdale Barn.

They have black Clydesdale horses. They show them and also do competitions with them.

 

 

There was a momma and her 10 week-old colt in a pen out front.

 

 

 

 

This one had cool blue eyes.

 

The barn was amazing.

 

 

 

They had two of these coin-operated riding horses….anyone remember these from their childhood?? I do, they were outside our local K-mart store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upstairs

 

Out back, they have another barn with black Percherons (also draft horses).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horse print compared to Suzie’s footprint.

 

Down the road from the barn is a memorial to Bob Funk (founder of the Express Clydesdales and many other businesses) as well as the Chisholm trail.

 

The Chisholm trail came right through this pasture after crossing the Canadian River.

 

 

 

 

We then decided to drive into OKC to check in the motor home at the shop (since we hadn’t heard anything from them all day) and took Route 66 so we could catch a few more places.

We drove on the Lake Overholser bridge.

 

 

 

We tried to visit the Yukon’s Best Railroad Museum, which is housed in three railroad cars, but they weren’t open when we arrived. We found out that you have to schedule an appointment to visit the museum as they aren’t open regular hours.

 

 

Then we headed to the shop to find out what’s up with the motor home. The RV was in the shop but the techs and the guy overseeing our repairs were gone for the day so we really don’t know what the status of the RV is. We’d really like to head west this weekend so hopefully they’ll be done with it tomorrow.

We went home and had baked pork chops and stir fry for supper and then sat outside for a bonfire until bedtime.