77 counties - 77 distinct images

A few words about our progress

2013-10-30T12:39:00.000-05:00

As one of my photos was featured on Oklahoma Today's website and Facebook page I'm sure I will be getting a small spike in traffic. Thought it was time I update on the progress of this blog.

No, we did not give up on the project. It is still a work in progress and may be for quite some time. When I started this project I hoped to get it complete while my kids were still young. However, that didn't happen. Like most families can attest, life sometimes gets in the way of our plans. Most weekends these days are filled up with soccer games, Taekwondo meets, cross county, and my own marathon training.

I wasn't completely happy with a couple of the photographs I uploaded. I may replace them later and revisit those counties. A few of the counties I visited but did not upload because I decided the quality wasn't what I wanted to capture.

Never fear, the project will eventually get completed, however, I am not in a rush to get it done. I plan to take my time and complete it slowly, and most importantly, not rush through it just to get it done. Anything worth doing is worth taking the time to enjoy.

Adair County

2011-06-19T13:43:00.001-05:00

Adair County

County seat - Stilwell / County population per 2000 Census - 21,038

Did you miss us? As I have said numerous time this project is always a work in progress. I've had this photo processed for awhile but just haven't gotten around to publishing it. I would like to note that this is the first 77counties photo to actually feature a human in it. Your's truly is literally riding a fence in Adair County. I'm not sure who built this fence gate but I can't help but think they have a sense of humor. I would also like to think that by building a fence like this, they don't mind wandering travelers like myself stopping to jump on for a photo op. If they do mind, then I apologize in advance. At the same time I want to say thanks for giving us some laughs this wonderful afternoon.

Roadside oddities are one of my favorite things in life. I'm not sure why I enjoy them so much. Maybe it's growing up around route 66 and the roadside Americana that is much a part of it. Regardless, anytime I see something like this I am fascinated and have to take a closer look. So you can imagine my joy when we left Stilwell and headed towards Tahlequah only to find this gem along the way. I knew as soon as I flew past it that I had to do a U-turn because that was indeed "the photo" for Adair County.

The multitude of kids activities have kept us from doing a lot of road trips lately. However we will try to get back on the road and posting more counties for your enjoyment soon. We have a long way to go, but unlike "the Bandit" we don't have a short time to get there. So we hope you will continue to check in on us from time to time as we post more of the 77 counties.

Sequoyah County

2011-03-20T11:25:00.002-05:00

Sequoyah County

County seat - Sallisaw / County population per 2000 Census - 38,972

Greetings once again fellow travelers, explorers, wanderers, fans of photography, Okies, and Non-Okies as well. Next stop on our journey around the state is Sequoyah County. Named for the famous Cherokee, who created the Cherokee syllabary thus allowing his native language to be transformed into a written language in the early 1800's. A stunning achievement since he could neither read or write in any other written language. I am particularly familiar with Sequoyah since my childhood grade school also shared his name.

Sequoyah shares it's eastern boundary with the state of Arkansas and has also seen the passage of millions of travelers entering or leaving the state on Interstate 40. I-40 is the major east west corridor for the state of Oklahoma and the longest Interstate in the US. Sequoyah county also borders with Historic Fort Smith a major frontier passageway into Indian Territory from the east. Those of you not familiar with Oklahoma would probably remember Fort Smith from the book "True Grit" and the 2 movies based on that book.

I like to refer Sequoyah County as gateway to the Ouachitas myself. As you leave Sequoyah County at the lock and dam on the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir you start heading into the beautiful tree covered mountain area of Southeast Oklahoma which is just another of the numerous ecosystems found throughout the state.

Now I know there are numerous things I probably could have photographed in this county but I settled on the old Sequoyah Theatre in downtown Sallisaw. Just something about it spells Oklahoma to me. There are numerous small towns across the state that still have an operating theater such as this one. It reminds me of my childhood going to the old theater downtown in my hometown. The smell of popcorn smacking you in the face as you entered the door. The old crackle and pop sound of the film sound as the movie would start. The faint noise of the projector from the back of the room as the old house lights went dim. Nothing like the 72 screen megaplex 3D IMAX showings we have today. Technology is great but nothing will ever beat seeing "Empire Strikes Back" for the first time in the old classic theater.

Haskell County

2011-03-13T11:28:00.001-05:00

Haskell County

County seat - Stigler / County population per 2000 Census - 11,792

So were back in the saddle again for another set of counties. At the end of January we got a nice blast of warm air that pushed temperatures up into the 70's for one Saturday afternoon. That was shortly before we got dumped on by over 26 inches of snow in a 2 week period along with sub-arctic temperatures that plunged down to -12 F here at home. It was worse in Bartlesville where they hit the coldest recorded temperature of all time for Oklahoma at -28 F! Luckily we chose that warm weekend to do a little day road trip that took us to Haskell, Sequoyah, Adair, and Cherokee counties.

Our first stop of the day was the Haskell County courthouse in Stigler to make the official log of the county. You might remember this tiny town of under 3,000 making the national news with its display of the 10 commandments on the courthouse front lawn. The federal courts made them remove the display which was probably a good thing since they forgot to proofread the 7th commandment and left the letter "e" out of the word adultery.

After our visit to the courthouse we continued east through Stigler and headed towards Sequoyah county. Along the way we turned down an old dirt road that went down the edge of an arm of the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir. On this road we found the small and quite old Simon Isaac Cemetery. That's were we took our photo for this county. Along the edge of the fence in the middle of several small evergreen trees was on old moldy leather and metal dining room chair. Not sure why it was in the cemetery or why it had obviously been there for quite some time. Nevertheless I decided it would make an interesting addition to our photos.

Stay tuned for more counties coming soon, including the first 77 counties photo featuring an actual human. You won't want to miss the odd little piece of roadside art we found in Adair county.

Status Update

2011-03-05T16:42:00.000-06:00

Just in case you have been wondering where we've been, we are still alive and well. I wanted to post an updated map of our progress. As you can see we have much left to cover, but we are making some progress again. Four more counties have been conquered and hopefully I will get around to posting the photos soon.

Kay County

2011-02-27T09:00:00.002-06:00

Kay County

County seat - Newkirk / County population per 2000 Census - 48,080

In the summer of 2009 we hit county number 20 on the way north for a vacation road trip to visit 2 states I had never been too. (South Dakota and Wyoming) We left that morning and headed north on I-35 before taking a side trip through Blackwell and then east and north to the county seat of Newkirk. While I have been to Kaw Lake, Ponca City, Blackwell and other parts of Kay county before, this was my first stop to the small town of Newkirk. We enjoyed the stroll around the courthouse grounds and a walk through the downtown area looking for shots. I took several shots around downtown but ended up coming back to this one in the end.

This marks the first time I have actually used the county courthouse as one of my county photos. This will probably be a rare occasion, however I liked the way the water drops looked frozen in the morning light. After our short visit we loaded up in the car and headed due north to Arkansas City, KS and eventually Nebraska for the night.

On a side note, we did make it to South Dakota and Wyoming as planned. As of this posting I now only have the smallest and largest US states to visit before hitting all 50. We have not posted in quite awhile as life has gotten in the way. However, we did hit 4 more counties several weeks ago. Look for them soon.

Nowata County

2010-07-20T08:00:00.010-05:00

Nowata County

County seat - Nowata / County population per 2000 Census - 10,569

Our next stop on the list is Nowata County which shares it's northern border with the State of Kansas. The county is roughly dived by the Verdigris River as it runs from the north to the south and eventually empties into Lake Oologah. The county seat is aptly named Nowata which is where the county name was derived. The real question at hand is how did Nowata get it's name. No one seems to really have the true answer to this burning question.

There are two theories, although the second is more amusing, I'm inclined to believe the 1st one is correct. The first story is that the railroad surveyors building the railroad and station adopted the Delaware tribe word for "Welcome" as the station post's name. I've seen various claims that it should have been spelled one of three ways "noweta", "nuwita", or "noweata". The only thing that matters is that the railroad workers, who may not have been the most literate fellows constantly spelled it pronounced it as "Nowata". Thus the current name stuck and Nowata was born. The other theory is that someone posted a sign claiming the that the town spring was out of water, "no wata" to warn passing travelers.

I can attest that when I passed through and stopped at the local gas station, there was indeed water to be found in Nowata. Even if it's just sold in bottles out of the store reach in cooler. After passing through the small town of Nowata we made our required visit to the local court house. After stopping for and taking sevreal shot of a passing train we headed back home to Tulsa and figured we might be able to find a few more photo spots around the northwest side of the lake to shoot. It didn't take long before we spotted an amazing field of yellow flowers.

We pulled down an old gravel road to take a look. As I stepped out of the car camera in hand I was met by another long time Oklahoma resident, the killdeer. You may find them cute, but I think they often act dumber than the rocks they build their nests in. Often right in the middle of a gravel road such as the one I just drove down. As you can imagine she broke into her loud and crazy broken wing dance trying to lure me away from the nest. I ignored her long enough to get what I was after, not eggs, but a few shots of the field. I hope you enjoy.

Pottawatomie County

2010-06-27T12:24:00.000-05:00

Pottawatomie County

County seat - Shawnee / County population per 2000 Census - 65,521

It's difficult to write a trip report about this county seeing as I have been here so many times. There are hundreds of things I could tell you about, and thousands of photos I could take. You see I grew up in the county seat of Shawnee. Shawnee is a small bedroom community on the east side of Oklahoma City. It's the home of our current 2 term governor Brad Henry and another governor's mansion. Shawnee was in the running to become the state capitol of Oklahoma along with Oklahoma City and Guthrie. The mansion was built in hopes that it would house the governor once Shawnee became the capitol. At last check I don't think the house was in very good shape, but that may have changed.

For this county photo I chose a landmark common across the central and western parts of our state. Grain production is one of our core markets. In fact it was also a center piece of my Beckham and Grant County photos as well. During the Oklahoma Land Run in 1895, the J.L. Ford family settled in what is today Shawnee, OK in a tiny log cabin. That cabin has been preserved and still stands today like the company Ford started. Shawnee Milling company, started in 1906 is now over a hundred years old. As a boy I always remember the smell of the feed and grains that were present downtown. The silos and towers were always there just on the edge of downtown.

When the sun sets in the west the white monolithic structures would glow bright white in the summer blue sky. This is a scene played out over and over across the state. I know that many of our residents out in the "flat parts" can attest that they know they are close to home with the silos pop out of the horizon and shine against the blue sky.

Grant County

2010-06-16T08:00:00.008-05:00

Grant County

County seat - Medford / County population per 2000 Census - 5,144

Grant County was part of the east end of the Cherokee Outlet until it was opened to settlers in 1893. The county was named after President Ulysses S. Grant in a general election held November 6, 1894. Medford became the county seat through an election held on May 27, 1908. The Cherokee Strip Land Run was the largest such land run in world history. It was depicted in the Hollywood movie "Far and Away" with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. And it's still depicted by school children in Oklahoma schools to this day to celebrate our history and statehood. The Cherokee Strip as it's still called today was a 60 mile wide and 225 mile long swath of land which was ceded to the US by the Cherokee Tribe for 8.5 million in 1893 after great pressure from the US Congress.

Over the Memorial Day holiday I got a phone call from my old friend Eric who just like me likes to do crazy things and go to obscure places just for the adventure of it. We've had some crazy adventures including a summit of Black Mesa and a Class II-III ride down the Buffalo River in a 2 man kayak. He asked what I was up to and I replied that I was going to visit a few of the counties with the family. He was planning on a little trip to grab some geocaches with another friend. So the deal was made that we would meet up in Medford, OK so I could get Grant County and then we would meet up again in Stillwater for some grub.

We left out of Tulsa early on a Sunday morning and loaded up on some sunflower seeds to eat after our coffee was all gone. We arrived in Medford and waited for Eric to arrive while walking around the grounds of the Grant County court house. They have a nice big tank and a water tower both on the lawn of the court house. My son's walk around snapping their own photos of the things they saw as well.

Once Eric arrived we made a quick walk down the street to the downtown area where they found the geocache in a lot that was vacated most likely due to a fire. It's always sad to see those vacant holes in old crumbling downtowns. You know that once a shop stood there but is now gone to the memories of our history. After that we headed back east again to a spot I had picked out on the way into Medford. You knew sooner or later that the iconic "Waving Wheat" that certainly did smell sweet was going to make it on to the 77 Counties collection. We hope you enjoy it.

Lincoln County

2010-05-16T13:20:00.002-05:00

Lincoln County

County seat - Chandler / County population per 2000 Census - 32,080

Lincoln county is located between Tulsa and Oklahoma City and is literally caught in the middle in many ways. The population stays pretty small because most inhabitants of this county have tended to move to to where the centers of education and industry lie. In fact many of the residents that haven't moved work in Oklahoma City to the west, Tulsa to the east, Shawnee to the south, or Stillwater to the north. In fact the population center of Oklahoma for many years tends to lie smack dab in Lincoln County. Currently it is just outside Sparks, OK as seen here.

The county is one of the better Route 66 stretches in Oklahoma featuring many spots to stop and enjoy. In fact there are many stretches of original road still left, often running right beside the old road. One of the highlights is the old "Rock Cafe" in Stroud. The owner Dawn Welch was the inspiration for Sally in the Pixar film "Cars". In addition to having many celebs eat here over the years it's been featured on Guy Fieri's "Diners Drive-Ins and Dives". The restaurant re-opened a year ago after a terrible fire gutted the original interior 2008 along with most of it's prize memories. But neither fire or the 1999 tornado can keep it down.

So at this point you may be wondering why I didn't feature a shot of old Route 66. Well we did take some photos along Route 66. In the end, who can resist the big wet nose of a local calf? We couldn't. We saw the herd standing at the corner of a mile section along Highway 18 and stopped to say hello. We thought you would enjoy them too. Until next time, we bid you happy travels.

9:01

2010-04-19T09:00:00.001-05:00

It all changed at 9:02

Roger Mills County

2010-04-16T07:02:00.006-05:00

Roger Mills County

County seat - Cheyenne / County population per 2000 Census - 3,436

Next stop on our journey is Roger Mills county which is named for the prominent politician of the same name. He was born in Kentucky, lived in Texas, was a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was a Confederate officer, and served as a US senator for Texas. So why he gets a county in Oklahoma is news to me. Someone out there I'm sure can answer that question for me.

We entered into the county from Beckham County to the south after our long drive out to Arizona and back for Spring Break. As we crossed into Oklahoma we decided that we wanted to snag at least one more western county. The only problem was that we were also racing against the sunset. The fabled photographers "magic hour" was upon us and would be going quickly away. I managed to catch a field just starting to turn green as the sun was dipping into the horizon for the night. I wasn't sure I was going to get any useful photos but in the end I was pleased with the resulting photo.

Next we headed north again to visit the small county seat of Cheyenne. Had we arrived back in the state sooner we would have loved to visit the Washita National Grasslands and the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site. The site recognizes the attack by Lt. Col. Custer on the Cheyenne encampment of Peace Chief Black Kettle. Yes, the same Custer of Little Big Horn fame. While not a high moment in our state or national history we must learn from the mistakes of our past. Another lesson learned on the Black Kettle grasslands was the Dust Bowl. This area of rolling hills and wooded valleys was extremely hard hit by over farming and stripped top soil in the 30's and 40s'.

As always thanks for visiting and viewing, come back soon as we will be featuring new county photos and visits for Pottawatomie, Lincoln, and more soon.

Beckham County

2010-03-26T08:00:00.002-05:00

Beckham County

County seat - Sayre / County population per 2000 Census - 19,799

Our next stop here at 77 counties is Beckham County, another Oklahoma Route 66 town located halfway between Oklahoma City and Amarillo, TX. Beckham is one of 4 counties in southwest Oklahoma that was once part of Greer County, TX. In 1896, Texas was required to give the land back to the Federal Government and ultimately it was split into 4 counties once Oklahoma achieved statehood.

The family was on another trip out west to see the Grand Canyon and visit some historic Route 66 spots through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona over spring break so we decided to hit Sayre on the way through Beckham county. We stopped first at the historic county courthouse where director John Ford filmed parts of The Grapes of Wrath in 1940.

While there an older lady pulled up beside us and inquired if we were "locals". No I informed her that we were just passing through. This disappointed her as she was really hoping someone could tell her if there was a Sonic in town. She really didn't want to mess with the local truck stop and just knew this town had to have a Sonic. Being a Sonic loving Okie and growing up in the same town where Sonic's founder built his first restaurants I was eager to help her out. Thanks to the modern advantages of in dash GPS I quickly punch a few buttons and located the address of the Sonic.

After our short visit we didn't feel the need to look far for our next photo. I had already spotted the old grain facility next to the rail lines running through the town. The way the early morning sun was kicking off the shiny metal panel and the orange pipes was perfect. So we headed over and captured a few more photos to add to our 77 counties collection.

Up next time, Roger Mills County.

Travel Update

2010-03-24T08:30:00.000-05:00

Spring Break has come and gone again. Hopefully with that it means better weather and more counties for us to hit. We kicked off spring break with another trip out west with the family. This time to the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and 4 corners. On the way we grabbed 2 more western counties including Beckham and Roger Mills. A few weeks prior to that we grabbed Lincoln County as well. Look for those photos to come on line very soon. I will try to upload at least one of those before weeks end.

That brings our grand total to 16 of 77 counties visited.

2009 Okie Blog Awards

2010-02-09T08:00:00.013-06:00

Well folks it appears that I have made the cut for 2 categories in the 2009 Okie Blog Awards. I have been selected for the "Best Photography Blog" and "Best Representation of Oklahoma" categories. Let me start by saying that I'm shocked and humbled. I really didn't expect to see my blog on the list, but somehow I managed to make the cut.

Two of the nominees in photography are Erin Conrad and Zach Gray. I have followed each of them on Flickr and was very happy to see them both make the list as well. They both do such great work. I hope to spend more time viewing the work of the other nominees over the next week before casting my own ballot.

Being in the Best Representation of Oklahoma category really means a lot as well. I have often been critical of my home state. There are many reasons that I don't like Oklahoma. I often said while going through high school and college that I wanted to get far away from Oklahoma once I got my graduated. Lo and behold I'm still here. I've learned over the years how extremely diverse this state is if you just get out and enjoy it. For every thing I don't like I have found many other reasons why I do like Oklahoma. Let's just say that I've been to 42 other states over the years and it always feels good to come back home.

For those of you visiting for the first time, I guess I should tell you a little more about myself and this project. I'm not a photographer by trade. Photography has always been something I have enjoyed looking at. In 2007 I finally broke down bought a Pentax DSLR and started creating my own visions. I've had a lot of practice since then and I hope it shows. My goal for this blog is two fold, one to bring you a little taste of the great state of Oklahoma, and two to help my kids get a better understanding of what their home state has to offer.

This blog/project will be a slow process, but we will complete it eventually. We are often hampered by weather, the kids weekend sporting events, my busy work schedule, and just plain old life. You shouldn't expect to see daily posts here, but there are a few ways you can follow us to know when updates do happen. Subscribe to the blog's RSS feed, follow our Twitter stream, or follow our Tumblr page.

(In case you are wondering about the photo above it's just me being goofy as usual. I'm standing on top of a marker that you can learn more about here.)

I Tumblr for you

2010-01-17T22:10:00.001-06:00

One of my complaints about my blog is that there is no nice way to just view the photos. Well that is not entirely true, you can look at them on the Flickr groups and sets I have created. My main complaint with Flickr has always been the annoying white backgrounds. I tend to work in dark colors and prefer to view most of my photos on black. I realize that there are several plugins and websites that allow you to view photos on black. Still I wanted something that I am in control of that doesn't require my users to run and special scripts or visit 3rd party API sites that cull Flickr photos.

With that in mind, I decided to run my photos through a tumblr page. Tumblr is simply put, a "Tumblelog" or microblogging site that usually works best with small short informative posts or simply photos. Microblogs tend to be a small stream of conscience from the author and by nature often more artistic. So I created a 77counties page on Tumblr using a black 3x3 page that allows you to look at 9 photos on one page. Clicking the photos will take you to the Flickr page for that photo.

This blog will still remain here, it is not going away anytime soon. I will continue to update the blog with photos and complete commentary about the trips. I will also continue to provide informative posts about the photo and what you are seeing. The Tumblr page is simply meant as a place for you to appreciate the photos by themselves without the text.

I realize the photos on the tumblr page are presented very small. At some point I may release them in a larger format if there is enough request for such. For now they will be presented as shown.

View 77counties on Tumblr

4....3....2....1....

2009-12-31T12:08:00.001-06:00

4....3....2....1...., originally uploaded by okbeatnik.

Happy New Year from 77Counties! We look forward to another new year full of images from around the state. Our new years resolution is to hit an average of no less than 2 counties per month in 2010. We have 64 more counties to work our way through, we hope you will join us in our travels.

Happy Holiday Travels

2009-12-04T23:44:00.004-06:00

Season's Greeting from the family here at 77 Counties. I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the rest of the holiday season. Perhaps your holiday plans involve travel across this great state of ours. Hopefully you are taking time to take the road less traveled on your journeys.

It's been awhile since I have posted our travel map, so here is the current view of where we stand on counties. A long way to go for sure. Although we have progressed pretty well in the past six months. On our current pace we have 2 counties per month knocked out. Which would put us on course to finish the project in a total of 3 years time. Although I figure we will make much larger strides once we branch out on some of our future big road trips. However as I have said before this project is going to be a slow marathon and not a sprint to the finish. Please stick with us, as I promise there will be more photos in the future. You can always follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our feed if you want to be updated when things happen.

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Payne County

2009-11-22T10:31:00.001-06:00

Payne County
County seat - Stillwater / County population per 2000 Census - 68,190

Hello fellow travelers, it's been awhile since my last post, but without further delay I bring you Payne County. The county is named for Captain David Lewis Payne who was responsible for leading the Boomer Movement. Payne and his Boomers were the first to attempt to settle in the unassigned lands in the center of Oklahoma that were not part of Indian Territory. Payne and his supporters argued that the federal government had no right to restrict their settlement on these lands and fought back. The term Boomer was reserved for white settlers who believed the Unassigned Lands were public property and open to anyone for settlement, not just Indian tribes. The Homestead Act of 1862, said that any settler could claim 160 acres of public land and thus Payne and his supporters believed it was their right to claim these lands. His work and persistence against the federal government would lead to the future settlement of Oklahoma and the land run of 1889, 4 years after his death.

Of course the county seat of Stillwater is also known for being the home of Oklahoma State University. Seen in the picture above, Theta pond is a popular place for reading, relaxing, and feeding the ducks. Even on some rowdy campus occasions people have taken swims, often not by choice. The pond is an icon of Oklahoma State University that is held near and dear to countless students and alumni. A favorite moment of mine is when hundreds if not thousands of students gathered here at the pond to celebrate our 1995 Final Four appearance. However, as an alumnus myself, I am most fond of Theta pond for one very important reason. It has to do with the little bench you see at the bottom right hand corner of this photo. It is in front of that very bench that I proposed to my wife on one cold late December evening almost 16 years ago. For that reason the bench and Theta pond will always be in my memories.

If you have a favorite memory of Theta Pond please feel free to share it here as well. Until next time, we bid you happy travels.

Muskogee County

2009-10-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Muskogee County

County seat - Muskogee / County population per 2000 Census - 69,451

There is nothing better than a good old fashion spontaneous road trip. Brought upon this time by an online scavenger hunt for free stuff. I won't go further into the details of how I ended up with my two boys in Muskogee on a work day. That is because I already wrote a blog post about it here. Let's just say that I somehow found myself standing at the retired USS Batfish. near the northeast corner of Muskogee. Muskogee has one of several inland ports located in Oklahoma that allow transfer of cargo all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

After we were done at the Batfish we decided that we should at least take a tour of Muskogee and virtually plant our flag on another Oklahoma County. So we ventured on into Muskogee where we took a quick visit to the County Court House. Thus marking our "official" visit to the county. Perhaps we should have made a visit to city hall as well to see if the Mayor was in. He is the youngest mayor in Oklahoma, and one of the youngest Mayors in the entire US. Muskogee Mayor John Tyler Hammons was actually only 19 when elected Mayor.

Our next stop is the perhaps the grand jewel of Muskogee. Honor Heights Park is one place you must visit if you live in Oklahoma. Although not particularly in bloom right now, they will be stringing up the park soon for the annual Garden of Lights holiday display. The real time to visit the park is during the spring when the Annual Azalea Festival is in full swing. Along with the thousands of azalea blooms there are hundreds of roses, tulips, dogwoods and other vegetation. It is said to be a top spot for viewing butterflies as well.

In the photo above you see a shot of the "Lake" on the park grounds with one of the many friendly ducks. We enjoyed a short stroll along the lake where we passed at least one other photographer out shooting. All in all it was an enjoyable morning, the kids were getting tired and hungry so we decided to call it a day and head back home for the afternoon.

New County Coming Soon

2009-10-19T22:40:00.004-05:00

Greetings once again travelers. As you can see by the updated map, we have finished all the trip reports from our trip to NM and back through the panhandle. Next trip report will be coming by the end of this week. Last week we made an unexpected and completely spontaneous trip to Muskogee County thanks to a world famous skateboarder and his Twitter hunt. Some of you may have all ready read the story on my other blog. If not feel free to check it out.

As always, we look forward to reporting our future trips and adventures. If you have a twitter account feel free to follow us for updates when we post to the blog.

Beaver County

2009-09-29T22:24:00.001-05:00

Beaver County

County seat - Beaver / County population per 2000 Census - 5,857

After taking a trip through Hooker in adjacent Texas County we passed the Beaver county line just before running into Turpin. From there we continued on our easterly journey along highway 64 before hanging a right on highway 23 headed for the City of Beaver and another courthouse photo with the kids.

Along the way we hit a little jackpot for you off road fans. On the left side of the road we spotted a sign for Beaver Dunes State Park. Of course we also spotted giant dunes of sand rising in and out of view on the horizon. The park apparently has 300 acres of sandy dunes perfect for small ATV's and buggies. We pulled in and got a quick look at the dunes but figured our car wasn't much for a spin in the sand.

Although we got a brief bit of sun near the dunes, the line of thunderstorms we hit at our last photo was now firing up to our south. Of course, in my usual "panhandler" luck, we were headed right for it. So we put the pedal to metal and headed south threading a line between to large barrages of rain filtering down through the sky on either side of the highway. Once we were back on 412, there was only one choice, punch right through the center of a dark black line of storms dead ahead.

Luckily the other side of the rain belt was still within the county line. In fact the photo above was taken right on the edge of the Beaver County Line and Highway 412. This area is often referred to by many as the the gateway to No Man's Land. You see until 1907 The entire area of Beaver County consisted of the Current counties of Beaver, Texas, and Cimarron. It was one large county when it was given to Oklahoma Territory in 1890 in an attempt to bring law and order to the area.

The area became No Man's Land because the Republic of Texas sought statehood as a slave state and set latitude 36 30' N for the northern border. Kansas was a free state and used the Compromise of 1850 to set the latitude 37 N as it's southern border. New Mexico Territory was established at the 103rd Meridian. Finally, Oklahoma or "Indian Territory" was bounded by the 100th Meridian. Thus, this lawless public land strip was truly, "No Man's Land" before 1890.

Texas County

2009-09-23T08:00:00.005-05:00

Texas County

County seat - Guymon / County population per 2000 Census - 20,107

The tenth county in our travels is the ironically named Texas County. In case you wondered, there is no Texas County in Texas but there is another one in Missouri. It is not alone in it's unique name, there are four US counties that border the state that also shares their name.

We entered the county on highway 412 headed east towards the county seat of Guymon. Since I have been through this area before we opted to swing north and drive through Hooker on the way into our next county. Therefore I didn't make a second visit to one of the oddest sites you will ever see, Optima Lake. A 5,340 acre lake that has only acheived 5% of its intended capacity. The mile long earthen dam doesn't hold back much water, but I guess it does a good job catching winds. The concrete tower built as part of the project is essentially a multi-million dollar cliff swallow habitat. As boring as it seems it's oddly worth a quick visit just for the pure strangeness of the abandoned campgrounds and empty lake.

Another thing that this little part of Oklahoma is known for, is storms. BIG STORMS. I figure the sheer size and enormity of the thunderstorms you see here has a lot to do with the flat land allowing you to see the storms for miles. But having ridden through some real "gully washers" out here I can attest they are scary up close. The panhadle, as well as the rest of the state, is located in Tormado Alley. Often storms build as the cold air comes off the Rockies and into the hot plains of New Mexico, they move east building through the Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle before slamming into Kansas and Oklahoma.

Throughout the spring and summer you have a really good chance of seeing some form of crazy clouds building. This one, for example, I shot in New Mexico last summer on a trip out the same way. Well this is also the reason I chose the photo above for this trip post. I took it on the edge of Texas county after leaving Cimarron County. To the left you can see the backside of a storm which made for really poor overcast skies for the rest of the trip through Texas County. Just south of Beaver, everything went dark as night, and the sky ripped open and dumped buckets on us for about 20-30 miles. We finally caught a small break at the far edge of Beaver County which is where you will see our next photo here at 77 counties.

Cimarron County

2009-09-14T13:20:00.002-05:00

Cimarron County

County seat - Boise City / County population per 2000 Census - 3,148

No that's not a typo up there, the county population of Cimarron is actually that small and might be even smaller today as the population actually declines. The county is mostly rural farming in the south and cattle grazing in the north. It's quite sparse, and mostly free of trees to boot. We made our entrance to Cimarron County via New Mexico at the tail end of a family vacation. Entering from the southwest corner we made a quick stop at a neat geographical feature of the county. We stopped at the Tri-State marker where Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico all meet.

However, that's not the only interesting spot on the map you will find here. You can actually visit not one, not two, but three tri-state markers in Cimarron County. In addition to the one above you can also drive north and visit the corner of New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Then head east, and just before you reach Texas County, you will find an interesting windmill that marks the corner of Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In fact Cimarron County is the only county in the United States that borders 4 states as well as 5 counties from 5 different states including Oklahoma.

Also located along the western border of the county is the highest point in the State of Oklahoma. Black Mesa is a highly recommended hike that takes you from the plains below up 750 feet to the top of the mesa. The trail is almost completely flat except for the trek up the side of the mesa midway through the hike. At the top you will find a large granite obelisk that marks the highest point in the state at 4,973 feet above sea level. It's about a four hour hike up and back so we didn't make the trek this time. However, I did make the trek a couple of years ago and would love to do it again someday. If you plan on a summer hike it is recommended that you camp at Black Mesa State Park the night before and do the climb early in the day to beat the extreme heat. If it's open, make sure you stop in Kenton at the "Merc" for Dino burgers and your free highpointers certificate.

We didn't spend much time in Cimarron County this trip. After our visit to the Tri-Point we headed on in to Boise City for a quick fill-up on gas. From there we headed north into Keyes. Northwest of Keyes you will find the barn pictured in the photo above. I have photographed this barn for the past 3 summers. Sadly it has gone downhill as of late. Like many old structures in this part of the state, it is being taken back by Mother Nature. After taking a series of photos of the barn we headed east again for our next County, ironically named Texas.

Custer County

2009-08-22T12:26:00.001-05:00

Custer County

County seat - Arapaho / County population per 2000 Census - 26,142

After our visit to Canadian County we made a morning coffee stop at EC's house that happens to be on the Caddo/Blaine County line and consequently not too far from the Custer County line. We didn't have time to make it to Blaine and Caddo county seats but we will be back as we already have some ideas in mind for photographs. I'm sure EC will want to tag along for those two and take his own photos. After filling up on coffee and pastries we headed west again to the Route 66 town of Clinton.

Although Clinton has the 2nd largest population in Custer County, it isn't the county seat. Nor is the slightly more populated city of Weatherford. In fact, the county seat is the tiny town of Arapaho, OK located just a short distance north of Clinton on US Highway 183. The 2000 census population of Arapaho is 7½ times larger than the number of wind turbines at the Weatherford Wind Energy Center at 748. In fact the entire county seat covers less than 1 square mile of land.

Custer County was part of the original Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation established by treaty in 1867. It was named for General George A. Custer and was part of 3.5 million acres opened for settlement by the Land Run of April 19, 1892. Weatherford is the hometown of astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, commander of the Apollo 10 mission and the Apollo-Soyuz project. If you like flight you can visit the exhibits at the Stafford Air and Space Museum located at the Stafford Airport. If you prefer transportation by car then you should instead head over to the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton which is operated by The Oklahoma Historical Society.

That concludes our report on Custer County, next time we will be visiting that famous little strip of land to the northwest called the "Panhandle".