Duchess Mountain Domain

Bayfield, Colorado - As NW Okie puts some finishings touches to her Eagle Totem, this unique butterfly used the sculpture piece as a landing pad to rest its little wings. What kind of butterfly is it?

This last weekend was a cool one at that! Temperatures in the 60s with on again off again rain showers. It was cool enough to start a fire in the fireplace. That is one of the many perks I like about the Rocky mountains, besides the wildlife that feeds in your own front and backyards. By late Monday afternoon we have accumulated .75 inch of rain and the highs reaching 61F. Has it started to cool down in Oklahoma yet?

Good Night and Good Luck! View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

NW Okie's Ramblings & Sculpture

Bayfield, Colorado - We are at the sanding and smoothing stage of our sculpturing on our Eagle Totem. You can view the last 27 days updates of our sculpturing from beginning to end, on our NW Okie Flickr - Eagle Totem Sculpture site.

I just need to do some sanding with fine sandpaper to smooth up the rough edges before I seal the finish product with (I think) a beeswax preservative. Does anyone have any other preservative suggestions that I could use to treat this ponderosa pine, greenwood piece that will be an inside sculpture? I would love to hear, learn of your suggestions.

I am still Googling the web for a couple of eagle glass eyes to place my Eagle totem. They say the correct eyes for bald eagles are hard to find. Yellow is not the correct color. They should be "straw" colored, which will look yellow when put in the carving. Secondly, eagles have a limbus ring around the eye. This is a dark circle around the edge of the eye. You can order eyes with these two specifications from: www.tohickanglasseyes.com and vandykestaxidermy.com. I also found some glass eyes at www.leevalley.com that were the size (10mm) that might work. I might have to paint the black limbus edge around the outside of the eye, though. View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (1 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Rose Hill Schoolhouse - Perry, OK

Perry, Oklahoma - The Rose Hill schoolhouse was constructed in 1895 in Black Bear Township, District 32. It was located five miles north of Perry and one mile east.

Like many other country schoolhouses, it served both as a place of learning and as a community center. Spelling bees, plays, pie suppers, cakewalks, and other educational and civic activities were held in this building.

Rose Hill school changed little over the years. A cloakroom was added, as were a bell tower, a back door, and electric lights. Classes consisting of eight grades were held in the structure until the late 1940s.

Afterward, the building continued to be used as a social center for the community. In 1970 the schoolhouse was over to the grounds of the Cherokee STrip Museum. In 2008 railings and a platform were added to the front porch for accessibility. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Baker Memories - Cherokee OK

Cherokee, Oklahoma - Rich Perkins (Tulsa, OK) says, "I too have many memories of Mr. Baker and his farm and ranch, as I recall Ray Cloyd ran the ranch and another gentleman ran the farm, having trouble remembering his name.

Bakers store and Parker Hardware next door, connected by an indoor pass thru.

The Resler twins also worked at the store with Faye Griffin running the show most of the time. Spent a lot of time on Mr. Bakers lap up in his office upstairs at the back of the store. Played catch with him behind the store in the alley and fondly remember calling him ballplayer in my younger years. Great people! Where did all of these kinds of people go?" View/Write Comments (count 2)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1938 - Fairview Old Settlers Day Parade

Fairview, Oklahoma - Bill Bowers sent us this 1938 photo taken in Fairview, Oklahoma, at Fairview's Old Settlers Day Parade, September 20th.

Bill says, "This picture was taken at the Fairview, Oklahoma Old Settlers Day Parade September 20th 1938. Mrs Oscar Case riding Snowflake, who was raised by my Grandmother. Cora was one of the pioneers that lived in the Phroso area." View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Phroso, Oklahoma

Phroso, Oklahoma - Phroso, Oklahoma was considered a Hamlet and situated in Major county, Section 21, Township 21N, Range 15 West Indian Meridian (1 mile north, 19 miles west of Fairview, Oklahoma.

The Post Office ran from September 19, 1900 through May 29, 1937. Phroso, OK (Mapqquest view) shows Phroso located east of US 281, Northeast of Chester and Northwest of Orion, Oklahoma (where my PARIS and HURT ancestors settled.


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Phroso is somewhat typical of numerous hamlets that developed in the dryer and rougher western part of the Cherokee Outlet. Soon after the Outlet was opened for settlement, a small store was started. The area had no roads, and transportation, either on horseback or in a horse or ox drawn vehicle, was slow.

The store prospered and expanded as those living in the vicinity traded there because of the difficulty of getting to a larger place. Accordingly, other businesses were attracted. Soon a blacksmith shop had located nearby, and in 1900 a post office was located at the site.

By 1905 a second blacksmith, a doctor who also started a drugstore, a shoe and boot maker, and a livestock dealer made their headquarters in Phroso. A few farmers bullet homes near the hamlet. A school was organized and a church started. In 1908 Phroso had a population of about sixty persons.

With the changing economic conditions and the technological advances since the late 1920s plus the movement of population from rural to urban areas, hamlets like Phroso have disappeared. Much of the land formerly in crops has reverted to pasture. There is no longer a need for the sotre or the garage that eventually replaced the blacksmith shop. All that now remain are the unused school, its outbuildings and a storm cave that stood in 1975. Does it still stand today in 2010? View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

19th Amendment (Aug. 18, 1920)

America - The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits each state and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920.

History -- On January 9, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the amendment. The House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment the next day, but the Senate refused to debate it until October. Because of this, the National Woman's Party urged citizens to vote against anti-suffrage Senators up for reelection in the 1918 midterm elections.

Following those elections, most members of Congress were pro-suffrage. On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment by a vote of 304 to 89 and the Senate followed suit on June 4, by a vote of 56 to 25.

On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly, by a one-vote margin, became the thirty-sixth state legislature to ratify the proposed amendment, making it the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On August 26, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment's adoption.

Proposal & Ratification - Amendment XIX in the National Archives. The Congress proposed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, 1919 and the following states ratified the amendment:

1. Illinois (June 10, 1919, reaffirmed on June 17, 1919)
2. Michigan (June 10, 1919)
3. Wisconsin (June 10, 1919)
4. Kansas (June 16, 1919)
5. New York (June 16, 1919)
6. Ohio (June 16, 1919)
7. Pennsylvania (June 24, 1919)
8. Massachusetts (June 25, 1919)
9. Texas (June 28, 1919)
10. Iowa (July 2, 1919)
11. Missouri (July 3, 1919)
12. Arkansas (July 28, 1919)
13. Montana (August 2, 1919)
14. Nebraska (August 2, 1919)
15. Minnesota (September 8, 1919)
16. New Hampshire (September 10, 1919)
17. Utah (October 2, 1919)
18. California (November 1, 1919)
19. Maine (November 5, 1919)
20. North Dakota (December 1, 1919)
21. South Dakota (December 4, 1919)
22. Colorado (December 15, 1919)
23. Kentucky (January 6, 1920)
24. Rhode Island (January 6, 1920)
25. Oregon (January 13, 1920)
26. Indiana (January 16, 1920)
27. Wyoming (January 27, 1920)
28. Nevada (February 7, 1920)
29. New Jersey (February 9, 1920)
30. Idaho (February 11, 1920)
31. Arizona (February 12, 1920)
32. New Mexico (February 21, 1920)
33. Oklahoma (February 28, 1920)
34. West Virginia (March 10, 1920, confirmed on September 21, 1920)
35. Washington (March 22, 1920)
36. Tennessee (August 18, 1920)

Ratification was completed on August 18, 1920 and the following states subsequently ratified the amendment:

37. Connecticut (September 14, 1920, reaffirmed on September 21, 1920)
38. Vermont (February 8, 1921)
39. Delaware (March 6, 1923, after being rejected on June 2, 1920)
40. Maryland (March 29, 1941 after being rejected on February 24, 1920; not certified until February 25, 1958)
41. Virginia (February 21, 1952, after being rejected on February 12, 1920)
42. Alabama (September 8, 1953, after being rejected on September 22, 1919)
43. Florida (May 13, 1969)
44. South Carolina (July 1, 1969, after being rejected on January 28, 1920; not certified until August 22, 1973)
45. Georgia (February 20, 1970, after being rejected on July 24, 1919)
46. Louisiana (June 11, 1970, after being rejected on July 1, 1920)
47. North Carolina (May 6, 1971)
48. Mississippi (March 22, 1984, after being rejected on March 29, 1920) View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 90 Years Ago (Aug. 18, 1920)

America - Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters, Jackson Place Washington, D.C. Left to right: Mrs. lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right).

Women endured for the right to vote 90 years ago today. This is the story of our mothers and grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. By the end of the night they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of obstructing sidewalk traffic.

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the Night of Terror on November 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occuquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food (colorless slop) was infested with terrible vermin.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. When was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Follow this Suffrage Prisoners PDF Link, The Library of congress, Amerian Memory, Women of Protest, Photographs form the Records of the National Woman's Party, gives the following information:

"The following individuals depicted in Women of Protest were among the many National Woman's Party activists who were arrested and imprisoned for their role in suffrage protests. An asterisk next to the individual's name indicates that an image portrays them under arrest, in jail, wearing prison garb, or as speakers on the 'Prison Special,' the cross-country speaking tour to several major American cities undertaken by 26 former inmates in February-March 1919 to inform audiences about their experience as political prisoners. Among those listed below who participated in the "Prison Special," are Pauline Adams, Edith Ainge, Berthe Arnold, Lillian Ascough, Abby Scott Baker, Lucy G. Branham, Lucy Burns, Sarah T. Colvin, Lucy Ewing, L. W. E. Havemeyer, Vida Milholland, Mary Nolan, Elizabeth S. Rogers, Mabel Vernon, and Sue Shelton White." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Battle of Turkey Springs & Red Hills

Freedom, Oklahoma - Homer Hawkins sent us this link to Freedom, Oklahoma website concerning The Battle of Turkey Springs & Red Hills.

The Battle of Turkey Springs & Red Hills was the last armed conflict between the US Cavalry and American Indians, in Indian Territory, September 13 and 14, 1878.

What brought on this conflict was when a band of Northern Cheyenne left the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency near Fort Reno without permission and fled north and westward toward their former homelands on the Northern Plains. This exodus has been known as the Cheyenne Outbreak or dull Knife's Raid. The Northern Cheyenne people were merely attempting to return to their home in Montana and Wyoming.

The flight of the Cheyenne brought about a pursuit by companies G and H of the 4th U.S. Calvalry, stationed at Fort reno, under the command of Captain Joseph Rendlebrock.

The Northern Cheyenne were led by Morning Star or Dull Knife and Little Wolf. They fled through Northwest Oklahoma. Twelve hours later, the cavalry made a move to follow the Cheyenne. On the rolling red hills and canyons north of the Cimarron River in Woods county (approximately twelve miles north of present day Freedom, Oklahoma, a battle pursued, known as the "Battle of Turkey Springs."

It is stated on the Freedom website, "The band of Cheyenne likely had been moving as one group with scouts flung out in all directions to screen their flanks and forage. They avoided the road from Camp Supply to Fort Reno, rather moving through the breaks of the Canadian watershed and over the divide to the Cimarron River country, crossing west of Eagle Chief Creek. While on scout, the Northern Cheyenne encountered two cowboy without he Comanche Pool Cattle co. These salt-haulers were killed for their guns and horses. The peaceful flight and ended. The exodus then was named the Last Indian Raid. More civilians would die as the band made their way through Kansas, especially along Sappa Creek in the northwest. The Cheyenne Band was comprised of 92 men, 120 women and 141 children. They did not want to fight their way north, but had pledged to do so in order to return home. The Cheyenne were determined to leave the land of their southern kin, and go home." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

History of Route 66 (The Mother Road)

America - Here is another link that Homer sent us concerning Route 66 History.

As the short history of US "RT 66" goes, "U.S> Highway 66 evolved from a government sponsored wagon road program initiated just before the Civil War.

BUT first here is a Historic Route 66 website showing the the road trip from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California as it travels throughSt. Louis, MO; Tulsa & OKC, OK; Amarillo & Shamrock, TX; Tucumcari, Albuquerque & Gallup, NM; Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff & Kingman, AZ; Barstow & Santa Monica, CA.

In the 1900s America's infatuation with personal ability brought borward the notion of an all-weather, surfaced highway connecting Chicago to Los Angeles. Proponents joined a populist-based national cause known as the "Good Roads Movement."

What sets Route 66 apart from other roads is (1) it was America's first continuously paved link between Los Angeles and Chicago, gateway to the industrialized Northeast; and (2) it (along without he segments of interstate highway that replaced it) remains the shortest all-weather route between these two cities.

Its oiled surface etched a trail across the landscape by way of St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, San Bernadino, and Pasadena.

Route 66 is revered by hundreds of thousands of motorists as the model of the modern American highway and the emerging automobile culture it serviced.

U.S. Highway 66 had its origin in the wake of the nation's first trans-Mississippi migration. The official origin of Route 66 was the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe