Exhibit explores our outdoor heritage

By Max Nichols

Published: March 30, 2008

Even as a boy, I noticed the diversity of Oklahoma's broad plains, wooded areas, rivers and streams. I was taken on horseback rides across the prairie west of Geary, fishing in streams, rabbit hunting near Chandler and hikes through wooded hills in northeastern Oklahoma.

Before World War II, we stalled in my family's 1933 Chevy while fording a stream that had flooded a road near Miami, OK. We had to be towed out. During my teenage and college years, I was fortunate to stand atop Black Mesa, Oklahoma's highest elevation at 4,973 feet near Kenton. I visited the Great Salt Plains State Park near Jet, the startling Red Rock Canyon near Hinton, and I fished in the Mountain Fork River at Beavers Bend State Park near Broken Bow.

All this is just a small part of Oklahoma's diverse outdoors, which will be presented in a special exhibition at the Oklahoma History Center, 2501 N Laird. "Field, Forest and Stream: The History of Oklahomans and the Outdoors” will be presented by the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. It opens Friday and continues all year.

"Three main topics will be represented as hiking trails,” said David Davis of the Oklahoma History Center staff. "They include the Water Trail, the Forest Trail and the Camp Trail. Exhibit visitors can follow these trails while they learn about Oklahoma's parks, game management areas, waterways and camp culture.”

The basic idea is to give visitors a history of Oklahoma's streams, rivers and lakes, as well as the development of natural forests, game management areas, wildlife refuges, preserves and state parks, said Bob Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

"Visitors will be encouraged to personally explore diverse areas,” Blackburn said, "such as the Wichita Mountains, the Salt Plains, Hackberry Flats, the 77-foot waterfall in the Ozark highlands and numerous other areas in state parks and recreation areas.”

The Water Trail exhibit will display how early explorers depended on rivers and prairie streams as highways in Indian Territory at the turn of the 19th century, Davis said. Some major waterways were dammed later, forming large lakes and sporting opportunities. Soothing sounds of flowing water, wind and an occasional motorboat will accompany a high-definition video aquarium with real life Oklahoma game species in their natural setting. Adults and child- ren will be able to experience catfish noodling.

A stroll down the Forest Trail will reflect what many considered a hunter's paradise with a boundless supply of wildlife long before Oklahoma became a state, Davis said. Beginning in the 1820s, as the U.S. Indian removal policies forced thousands to resettle here, game populations declined. Hunting in Indian Territory was a necessity for some and profit for others supplying wild game to eastern markets. Laws passed by the Territorial Legislature of the 1890s started the recovery of Oklahoma's wildlife.

The Forest Trail will provide a life-size hunting blind for visitors to climb inside and choose an outdoor activity such as a waterfowl hunt with a special guide, or a glimpse of an early Oklahoma explorer such as S.W. Woodhouse.

The Camp Trail exhibit will feature the cultural history of a campfire, examples of vintage camping equipment and methods, and Oklahoma recipes for campfire cooking over the years. Visitors also will enjoy camping tall tales, myths and legends from Oklahoma's past and present.

"From the simple single family camp at a state park to the major camp communities that spring up every fall in southeastern deer woods, most Oklahomans have been enjoying camping in one form or another,” Davis said. "For those who truly love to sit by a campfire, the Camp Trail will feature camp stories. Guests will be able to sit next to the simulated campfire and choose historical re-enactors, who will appear on a screen and relate past experiences in the Oklahoma outdoors.”

These will include Washington Irving, an early explorer and writer who traveled through Oklahoma in 1832; wolf hunter Jack Abernathy, who hunted with Theodore Roosevelt and R.D. Hull, who was known for his revolutionary fishing reel, first marketed by Zebco of Tulsa.

This exhibit was derived from the book "Field, Forest and Stream in Oklahoma” by Frederick S. Barde, a Guthrie journalist from 1897 to 1916. The book was published in 1912 as a companion to a biennial report by state Game Warden John Doolin to Gov. Lee Cruce, laying the foundation for state game and fish policies.

"As a result,” Blackburn said, "the ‘Field, Forest and Stream' exhibit connects the past with the present for Oklahomans enjoying the outdoors. It connects the future for those who have yet to venture into state parks as varied as Beavers Bend near Beaver, Brushy Lake near Sallisaw, Osage Hills near Pawhuska, or Quartz Mountain near Altus. Outdoor gems are inviting and available in every part of Oklahoma.”

Max Nichols writes a monthly column for the Oklahoma Historical Society.

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