TULSA

    þ   As you travel up the river, Delaware becomes Riverside Drive.

Riverside Drive

When you reach the Arkansas River turn right/north. Immediately you will cross under the Creek Expressway, well named for the first Tulsans. At 96th and Delaware you will see the first native animals in bronze, gifts of NatureWorks, a non-profit organization located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It assists in the development and conservation of wildlife preserves, wildlife habitats, and educational opportunities for adults and children on the values of sharing our homeland with wildlife. NatureWorks dedicates beautiful sculpture to people who support conservation. You will be traveling against traffic. The best way to see the sculptures is to pull into a side street and look across. If you see a place to turn and park along the river, do so. The first bronze you see is a group of Cimarron Pronghorns which were sculpted by Stephen C. LeBlanc. They are dedicated to John Nickel who was honored with the 2004 Wildlife Stewardship Award.

All the other bronzes you will see will be dedicated to Wildlife Stewards. Irving mentioned antelopes, but didn’t describe them. Near the pronghorns you will see a sculpture of Oklahoma Whitetails. These deer were surely the game of choice in 1832 Oklahoma. The sculptor was Ron Lowery and the sculpture was dedicated to J. M. “Jack” Graves.

. . . we passed through a luxuriant bottom of meadow bordered by thickets, where the tall grass was pressed down into numerous “deer beds” where those animals had couched the preceding night . . . we beheld several deer bounding away in wild affright, until, having gained some distance, they would stop and gaze back . . . WI 65

When they caught up with the Rangers, the Tourists’ mess joined many others.

There was nothing so pretty as our camp site with its fourteen fires which lit up the forest. The animated groups around the fires cast long, moving shadows against the tree trunks. CP 51

The hunter’s repast that night before sleep was the epitome of good eating. They had everything in abundance with a profusion of honey. The cooks and the hunters actually served the Tourists very well until the last hungry miles before they were again back at Fort Gibson. It was that hunger and the November weather that turned the group east long before the Red River. Tonight in Tulsa though, the lack of food was far from Irving’s mind. This dinner scene was repeated campsite after campsite until coffee, sugar, flour, salt pork, and finally game disappeared.

The surrounding country . . . abounded with game . . . camp was overstocked with provisions, and, as no less than twenty bee-trees had been cut down . . . everyone revelled in luxury . . . The cooking was conducted in hunters’ style; the meat was perpendicularly into the ground . . . before the fire, where it was roasted or broiled with all its juices retained in it in a manner that would have tickled the most experienced gourmand . . . (bread) a paste made of flour and water, and fried like fritters . . . some adopted a ruder style, twisting it round the ends of sticks, and thus roasting it before the fire . . . A large dish . . . on the ground before us, and into it were emptied . . . wild turkey hashed . . . we had to proceed in hunters’ style, cutting off strips and slices with our hunting-knives and dipping them in salt and pepper . . . our beverage was coffee, boiled in a camp-kettle, sweetened with brown sugar, and drunk out of tin cups . . . WI 58 59

They ate, drank, and were merry. The evening of October 13 had a different musical accompaniment than the night before. Instead of Osage hunters, the vocals came from the rangers. It was as Irving stated, a nasal melody.

. . . there suddenly rose a strain of nasal melody . . . at which a choir . . . were uniting their voices in a most lugubrious psalm tune . . . led by one of the lieutenants . . . who . . . had officiated as schoolmaster, singing-master, and . . . as Methodist preacher, in one of the villages of the frontier. The chant rose solemnly and sadly in the night air . . . WI 60

Before Irving headed north again along the river, he slept under Tulsa stars. Irving camped along the Arkansas River between 101st and downtown on October 13.

. . . a beautiful pale light gradually sprang up in the east, a precursor of the rising moon . . . A bear-skin spread at the foot of a tree was my bed, with a pair of saddle-bags for a pillow. Wrapping myself in blankets, I stretched myself on this couch, and soon fell into a sound and sweet sleep, from which I did not awake until the bugle sounded at daybreak. WI 61 62

On the morning of October 14, the camp was full of food and frolic. The rangers set off with whoop and halloo. For nearly ten miles, you will parallel the Arkansas River as Irving, the guides, and the rangers did. You will look at more animals placed on the river by NatureWorks and read Irving’s comments about them.

It was a bright sunny morning, with a pure transparent atmosphere that seemed to bathe the very heart with gladness. Our march continued parallel to the Arkansas, through rich and varied country; sometimes we had to break our way through alluvial bottoms . . . where the gigantic trees were entangled with grape-vines, hanging like cordage from their branches; sometimes we coasted along sluggish brooks, whose feebly trickling current just served to link together a succession of glassy pools, imbedded like mirrors in the quiet bosom of the forest, reflecting its autumnal foliage, and patches of the clear blue sky. WI 63

Even with the development of the 21st Century, there are the remains of forests and prairies to the east and rolling hills to the west. Maybe one of those shadowy hills was Turkey Mountain, evident at 71st Street.

We are about eighty or more in number, and our group looks absolutely warlike . . . a long line of individuals on good mounts, armed with carbines, dressed in moccasins, leggings, leather shirts, coats, trousers, hats of all possible descriptions, part American, part Indian . . . CP 50

As you travel north, Delaware Avenue becomes Riverside Drive.

Sometimes we scrambled up broken and rocky hills, from the summits of which we had wide views stretching on one side over distant prairies diversified by groves and forests, and on the other ranging along a line of blue and shadowy hills beyond the waters of the Arkansas. WI 64

You will soon see the Creek Nation Casino at 81st and Riverside Drive. This is an echo of the Creek farms and settlements that enchanted Irving and of the Creek maidens that the young Count Pourtalès fell temporarily in love with. At 71st Street, you can see Bruins’ Riverpark Picnic. Robert E. Lorton was honored with the only bears left on this bank today, a bronze of a mother and her cubs.

Bears and the signs of bears were common sights in Oklahoma in 1832. Until Tulsa Irving saw recent signs of bear, not the bear itself. Soon he would see bears.

The broad, sandy shore where we had landed, was intersected with innumerable tracks of elk, deer, bears, raccoons, turkeys, and water-fowl . . . the claws of bears were to be traced on various trees. “A bear! A bear!” was the cry. WI 68

As you travel, note the landscape. Beside the river are trees that Irving may actually have seen. On the right are planted trees, but here and there a beautiful and ancient giant stands among them

. . . . we travelled in Indian file, one following the other . . . indicating our line of march by a narrow, deeply indented trail . . . CJL 37

The bronze of the Arkansas River Otters at 69th was dedicated to Kenneth R. Greenwood.

The sculptor was Robert Ball. These delightful animals were all over the watercourses of the continental United States in 1832. They were once endangered, but are making a comeback. Remember that Commissioner Ellsworth wore an otter skin hat on the Tour along with a pistol on one hip and a corncob on the other.

The Wichita Wapiti on 63rd was sculpted by Jocelyn Lillpop Russell and was dedicated to L. Beauchamp Selman by NatureWorks. Wapiti is a Shawnee word for elk. One day after Riverside Drive, a young ranger killed and elk.

. . . young rangers came parading round the various fires, carrying one of their comrades in triumph on their shoulders. He had shot an elk for the first time in his life, and it was the first animal of the kind that had been killed on this expedition. The young huntsman . . . was the hero of the camp . . . WI 66

At 59th and Riverside you will see an Osage Cougar dedicated to W. C. “Tiny” Tomsen and sculpted by Jim Gilmore. Another name for cougar is panther.

Sergeant Isaac Bean, brother of Captain Bean told about his experience with one of these fierce beasts. Washington Irving retold the story.

I heard a strange dismal cry . . . it was not an owl, but must be a panther. I kept watch . . . nodded and dozed, and started awake . . . and looked round, expecting to see the glaring eyes of the panther . . . somehow or other . . . I fell asleep outright. In the morning I found the tracks of a panther . . . as large as my two fists. WI 79 80

Behind the panther is another beautiful view of Turkey Mountain. On a nearby plaque there is a dedication to Charles W. Estes by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. He protected that beauty. Stop and read why he was honored.

OKLAHOMA
Game Warden
Charles W. Estes
1878-1911

You will see Tishomingo Canadas in flight at 49th and Riverside. These geese are dedicated to James W. Pielsticker and sculpted by Geoffrey C. Smith.

Above us, a streaming flight of wild geese, high in air, and making a vociferous noise, gave note of the waning year. WI 40

Prairie Wolves are at 42nd and Riverside. Dedicated to the Indian Nations Council Boys Scouts of America, the statue was created by Jocelyn Lillipop Russell.

. . . a grand burst after what they supposed to be a gang of bears, but soon pulled up on discovered them to be black wolves, prowling in company. WI 98

There is a park at 31st Street. You will see the Southern Bald Eagle dedicated to John S. “Jack” Zink. Bald eagles can be sighted over the Arkansas River.

Also in this park are Riverside Mallards dedicated to Ducks Unlimited. The sculptor is Ronnie Wells.

Turn left, west, off Riverside Drive at the19th Street Port and you will see an American Bison sculpted by Stephen C. LeBlanc and dedicated to Joseph H. Williams. He alerts you that the crossing of the Arkansas River is near.

. . . we shall reach the Red Fork to-morrow; then cross the Arkansas above it, into the Pawnee country, and then in two days we shall crack buffalo bones.WI 57

 

Council Oak
        þ   Take a short trip to the Council Oak.
        þ   Continue left/north on Riverside Drive and turn right/north on Denver.
        þ   Turn right/east on 18th Street to Cheyenne.
        þ   Retrace your path to Riverside Drive.

The Tourists continued parallel to the Arkansas River. You are going to take a short side trip to an important Muscogee Creek landmark. Travel on Denver to 18th Street and turn right/east. Travel two blocks to 18th and Cheyenne where you will see the Council Oak of the Tulsa’s earliest citizens. This ancient and mighty post oak stood sentinel when the Creeks came to Lochapoka (Tulsa), named for their lost home in the east. Lochapoka meant place of the turtles, but though there were plenty of turtles here, it was the Alabama turtles they were remembering. Here the Muscogee Creeks of this community met in government. The street sign is in English and in Muscogee.

When you have seen the Council Oak, travel north on Boston to see Tulsa’s one National Historic Landmark, the Boston Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. It was built well after Tulsa’s Art Deco 1920’s, it surpasses the best in its Art Deco beauty.

Travel back to Riverside Drive. When you turn east/north, travel a few blocks farther to Galveston and you will see the Black Mesa Muleys. The sculpture of two mule deer, a buck and doe is dedicated to George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center. The sculptor of the larger-than-life piece is Daniel Parker.

Route 66
        þ   Turn right/north on Riverside Drive.
        þ   Continue to Southwest Boulevard and turn right/northeast
        þ   Continue on Southwest Boulevard to West 7th and turn right/east.
        þ   Continue east on West 7th to Denver. 

When you pass Hudson, look to your right to see the McBirney Mansion. Today it is an elegant bed and breakfast. At the far northwest edge of the property is a natural spring. Passing here and enjoying this spring would have been wonderful - limpid, potable water along a river not noted for being limpid and often not noted for being potable. Continue on Riverside until you reach Southwest Boulevard. You now turn away from the Arkansas River. Irving and his fellow Tourists often did this because the vines and undergrowth along the river were sometimes just more than they could handle. For one block, you will be on Route 66, Tulsa’s Main Street. Later you will travel parallel to Route 66 at a far west point on the Tour. Be careful to follow the directions exactly.

Route 66
    Main Street of America
        The Mother Road

1832  Tourists traveled Route 66.
1916  Congress passed the Federal Aid Road Act.
1921  Cyrus Avery, a Tulsan, was elected President of the Associated Highways Association.
1926  Route 66 was named and its path decided. It would go right through Tulsa. In 1926, Route 66 would have been as motley as that early group of Oklahomans: concrete, gravel, asphalt over brick, dirt, and wooden planks.
1937  The last small fraction of Route 66 was paved.
1956  The Federal Aid Highway Act spelled out the guidelines for an Interstate Highway System.
1984  The final bit of Route 66 was replaced in Oklahoma Interstate 44, between Tulsa and Oklahoma City by the Turner Turnpike. 1990  Michael Wallis wrote Route 66, The Mother Road.

When you reach 3 North Lawton, look to your right/east and back in the parking lot, you will see a huge and aged oak that might have been spied by the party. This tree, so close to the bright, white jail, was once used for hangings. Continue on Denver. Pass the jail. Travel under the highway on Denver.

After you go under the bridge on Denver, turn left, west on Edison. On Edison you will travel under another bridge. Just after you emerge, you will see Owen Park on your left, south. As you enter the park you will see an incredibly important monument that sums up a great deal of what makes Tulsa a wonderful city. The Cherokee, Muscogee Creeks, and Cherokees were here in 1832. They are here still.

Three Nations Monument
        þ   Turn left/north on Denver and continue until you reach Edison.
        þ   Turn left/west on Edison and turn left/south at the entrance to Owen Park.

The memorial honors the Three Nations of Tulsa, the Cherokee, the Muscogee Creek, and the Osage. It notes the Treaty of June 2, 1825 between the United States and the Osage Nation. The signing of the Treaty is on the walls of the Oklahoma Capitol. It can be found among the Senate Art at www.oksenate.gov.

The artwork on the memorial is a scene of the Indians’ great gifts to the world, corn, beans, and squash.

Indian Memorial
682 feet east of this marker
the territories of the
Cherokee - Creek - Osage
Tribes of Indians
join in a common boundary point.
On June 2, 1825, the Osage Nation, under treaty with the U.S.
granted certain lands to the government for the
use and benefit of the
Cherokee and Creek Tribes
who were being removed from the southern states.
This monument is to commemorate that treaty
and to mark that spot
where the lands of the three great Nations joined.

Owen Park
        þ   Go through Owen Park.

Look ahead and to your right, southeast. You will see an early Tulsa home, saved for today’s Tulsans to view and reflect upon. It was built by Dr. Morris in the l880’s at about the time that railroad tracks first entered the city and before paved streets were the standard. It is much like the small homes that Irving recorded on the tour.

Continue through Owen Park. Note the ancient trees and the natural creek. See if you notice any of the trees Irving mentioned such as elm, oak, or sycamore. Look out over the park. The park is suggests Irving’s landscapes.

. . . a luxuriant bottom of meadow bordered by thickets . . . WI 64

Washington Irving Monument
        þ   Turn left/south on Quanah.
        þ   Turn right/west on Easton and continue and circle the Washington Irving Memorial.
        þ   Return to Quanah and to Edison and turn left/west.

Turn left/south out of the park on Quanah. Quanah was named for the great Comanche leader, Quanah Parker. His father was a Comanche warrior and his mother was Cynthia Parker, the daughter of Texas ranchers. Her kidnapping and in the end her love for her Comanche husband, affected history. Look left/south at the skyline of Tulsa. Turn right, west, on Easton and continue until you see the Washington Irving Monument which contains quotes from A Tour on the Prairies. It is dedicated to Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur, D.D., L.L.D. and to Charles Dillon, journalist. It was erected and donated by Mr. & Mrs. Gabriel Norman Wright in 1915.

East
It seems to me as if these beautiful regions
Answer literally to the
Description of the land of promise,
A land flowing with milk and honey.
West
As the night advanced we perceived above the trees
to the west a ruddy glow
flushing up the sky.
“It is at the Red Fork(Cimarron),” said Beatte .
Regarding the sky.
“It seems but three miles distant.
Yet it perhaps is twenty.”
North
If you keep along yonder, by the edge of the prairies you will come to a bald
hill with a pile of stones upon it.
Well those stones were set up by the Osages
as a land mark.
From that spot you may have a sight of the
Red Fork (Cimarron).

Gilcrease, Museum of the Americas
        þ   Continue west on Edison.
        þ   Turn right/north on Gilcrease Drive and stop at Gilcrease, America’s Museum.

Bald hill is north into the Osage Nation. Irving and company saw it, but didn’t climb it. You can see bald hill from Gilcrease, America’s Museum. To get to Gilcrease, America’s Museum, circle the monument and continue back to Quanah and then back to Edison. Turn left/west, on Edison and continue until you reach Gilcrease Museum Road. Turn right/north toward Gilcrease Museum of History and Art, a stunning gift from a great Muscogee Creek Tulsan named Thomas Gilcrease.

Valley and Osage Hills
    From the Vista Room
        Gilcrease Museum

1776  A certified copy of the Declaration of Independence is here.
1824  The Osages hunted here and claimed this land as theirs.
1825  The Osages left and it became part of the Cherokee Outlet.
1872  The Osages came back to Tulsa.
1905  Land belonging to Thomas Gilcrease in Glenn Pool gushed with oil.
1949  Thomas Gilcrease lived in his Osage County home and opened his art collection to the public. It contained treasure after treasure.
1955 Thomas Gilcrease deeded his collection to Tulsa.

Stop at Gilcrease and enjoy the collection of art and history. Go to the Vista Room and look out across the valley to the Osage Hills. It easy to spy bald hill in its grass cover among the forested hills. Enjoy Stuart Park, toward the valley to the back/west of the Museum. Here you will find the sculpture of a Plains Grizzly by Jim Agius and dedicated to Harold C. Stuart in 1994.

This powerful and ferocious animal is a favorite theme of hunters’ story . . . his enormous claws are worn round the neck of an Indian brave as a trophy . . . The grizzly bear . . . is prone to unprovoked hostility. His prodigious size and strength make him a formidable opponent; and his great tenacity of life often baffles the skill of the hunter, notwithstanding repeated shots of the rifle, and wounds of the hunting knife. WI 158 159

Post Oak Lodge
        þ   Turn left/north on Gilcrease Drive.
        þ   Turn left/west on Apache.
        þ   Turn left/north on Gilcrease Drive.
        þ   Turn left/west on Apache.
        þ   Angle right/north at 41st Street North.
        þ   Travel to 31st Street North and turn left/west toward Post Oak Lodge.
        þ   Travel to the lodge gate and from the gate to the lodge.
        þ   You now see bald hill up close.
        þ   Retrace your path back to Edison.

To see a close-up bald hill, take a side trip north. As you leave turn left/north on Gilcrease Museum Road. At Apache Road turn left/ west, and continue one and one half miles to 31st Street North. A sign on your left directs you to Post Oak Lodge. This lodge will be surrounded by a marvelous botanical garden by 2007, the year of Oklahoma’s Centennial. When you reach the gate to the lodge, travel six-tenths of a mile and stop the car. You can see bald hill and Tulsa’s skyline. You can see Post Oak Lodge at the end of the road. Drive on to the lodge and park the car.

Walk back to the place you stopped your car earlier. Look at bald hill, now Holmes Peak, named for the great detective. It is on this hill that Irving thought he might see, far in the distance, the Red Fork, the place where the Cimarron River flows into the Arkansas River. If you have received permission and have the time, walk to the top of bald hill. You will see a splendid view of the Tulsa skyline. The Cimarron River, Red Fork, you will not see.

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