Joplin, MO - Bartlesville, OK - Pawhuska, OK

July 2 - 4 , 2023:

After a not so healthy, but hearty breakfast at Cracker Barrel and  getting yesterdays events documented, the camera and phone downloaded, looking at travel route for the day, its about 10 AM by the time I get on the road.  I take off heading west on route 166 which suddenly without warning or detour directions, just ends.  I then spend about an hour riding in circles, it seems, getting onto a detour route.  But, there are always, rays of sunshine in every dark period, as I end up across the border in Kansas in the town of Galena, yet another route 66 crazed town with a great old restored gas station, several good murals and interesting buildings.  I am now on the route 166 detour route, which I am carefully following and am again heading west.  I eventually get back on route 166 and make stops in several towns along the way as noted below.

Galena, KS:

Baxter Springs, KS:

Chetopa, KS:

Coffeyville, KS: 

Former great downtown business district practically empty now, very sad, but they are restoring the Midland Theater.  
Also there is the famous restored historic Condon Bank, famous due for the foiled Dalton Gang bank robbery attempt, in which town residents killed four of the Dalton Gang members.  The Dalton Gang Defenders Museum documents this event across the street.

 

Bank mural

Street paved with bricks manufactured inn Coffeyville

It's a beauty

Close up

Gory mural of the four dead Dalton gang members on the

The Midland Theater

 

Nowata, OK:

 

I pull into Bartlesville in late afternoon where yet again find a Walmart.  Bartlesville is a horrible town name, doesn’t roll off the tongue well, but it is the county seat of Montgomery County and looks very clean and prosperous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartlesville,_Oklahoma

In the morning I drive downtown, park and explore a 3-4 block radius.  This downtown area is immaculate, the streets and sidewalks are squeaky clean, the grass is green and trimmed.  The flower beds are kept nice, the store front are neat, no graffiti, no street art, no homeless people wandering around asking for money or a cigarette. It also seems to be the headquarters of the Phillips Petroleum Company, with a huge office building, the Phillips Petroleum Museum, and a downtown park named for Mr. Phillips.  I suspect that the Phillips Petroleum Company has done much to improve this city.  I’m not a big fan of oil companies, but I have to tip my hat to a company that sticks to their home base and supports their local economy.  As I wander around, I am wondering why they haven’t changed the city name to Phillips, but when I go to the Bartlesville Area History Museum, I find the answers.

The Community Center with 1,800 auditorium seats

This is another town that came to life when the railroad arrived and much to my surprise, the original station remains, is fully restored and is now used as a chamber of commerce visitors center.  Restored steam locomotive 940 and a few cars are on display next to the station and it is appropriate that this locomotive originally ran on these tracks.

I visit the  Museum where the docent is busy talking to an elderly man who has pertinent information about a historic town figure, she was really excited to hear his connection and told him bluntly, I need to interview you about this !  Initially he didn’t seem too interested in doing an interview, but he kept telling her more and more and she became even more excited.  I just wandered off and started going though the museum which had great stuff.  As usual this is Indian relocation country, the relocated Indians were the first people to live here and an Eastern tribe of all types, the Delaware Indians,  played a prominent role in the towns early history.  The docent related that the Delawares after being pushed across the country, with dozens of broken treaties, to this day do not have their own reservation.  The Cherokee have shared some of their land where they now exist, but because of their situation, they can’t even have a Casino !

She also enlightened me on the Osage tribe after I told her I had read the book, The killing of the August Moon, that sort of impressed her. She told me that the books author was having trouble getting information from Osage tribal members and he came to the museum for information and help.  The museum became involved and assisted with much information and tribal contacts which helped greatly with the completion of the book.  It’s gone on now to become  a highly anticipated Martin Scorsese film due to be released in the fall.

After that, I found my way to a park area which was the site of the first oil well, they now have an authentic reproduction of that drill rig.   

An accurate reproduction of the first oil rig

 Back to the original issue, why is the town called Bartlesville, it’s because Mr. Barthes built the first store, more like a trading post and was instrumental in developing the early town. He was a most ambitious businessman 

Mr. Bartles

I take a ride to the Osage Indian Reservation and into the Osage Hills SP, but do not stay.  I take a side road to explore and I’m passing through grass covered hilly terrain with oil rigs all over the hillsides. This area is truly beautiful.  The Osage tribe originally were located in , not that far away, but they agreed to relocate here and it was probably a good choice.  They did and continue to thrive here.

Welcome gate to the Osage Reservation

In the morning, it’s now the forth of July, I leave Bartlesville heading west on route 60 for Pawhuska, OK.  This route quickly enter the Osage Indian reservation, the same ride I had taken yesterday into the Osage hills.  I arrive in Pawhuska to find that I have missed their July 4th parade, I suspect it was small, but there will be more festivities later. The central downtown area is all decorated, very patriotically with large banners and volunteers are setting up tables for the planned festivities to come later.  There is a large stage set up for a band, the fireman have their enormous ladder truck fully extended with the flag flying overhead.  Lots of people are along the sidewalk in chairs waiting for the action which doesn’t happen until mid afternoon. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawhuska,_Oklahoma

Welcome sign

Lots of flag waving going on here

Everyone seems to be shopping or eating at the "Mercantile" which is a bakery and Deli on the second floor and a General Store and Restaurant on the first floor.  This all part of the Pioneer Woman, Red Drummond, empire which seems to have taken over the downtown action.  They have a bright red mid 1940’s Dodge Power Wagon on the street out front and are selling a matching tee shirt in the store. The pioneer Woman herself was on the street during the event to sign books, she has several and have pictures taken with her fans, there was a line, she is like a rock star !

The downtown area of Pawhuska is interesting with well built stone buildings mostly from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.  This was the boom period when the oil industry in this area put this town on the map.

 

 

The Osage tribal leaders were smart and in the negations for the reservation had insisted that they have both physical property rights and also rights to any underground minerals.  Most Indian tribes do not own the underground rights and suffer greatly for that, they never realized the value and were sort of taken advantage of.

The Osage mineral rights were auctioned off (under the so called million dollar Elm Tree) with the Osage tribal members suddenly becoming very wealthy.  There were problems with this new found wealth as the award winning book and movie, Killers of the August Moon explains.

All this wealth, allowed the Osage tribe to build a modern town structure, somewhat out of place looking for a remote area in northern Oklahoma.  One interesting old stone house that remains in beautiful condition is actually the oldest house in town.  It was built by an Anglo blacksmith before the area became the Osage reservation, due to his blacksmithing skills the tribe permitted him to stay on the reservation as long as he worked on their horses. 

I roamed around downtown for a while checking the sights while the downtown activities were actually not happening.  There were no schedules posted and the band did not start until about 4 PM.  I took a break from the celebration to visit the Ben Johnson Cowboy Museum which was way better than imagined, I had no idea who he even was, but he was a super star western actor, a real cowboy and champion roper.  They had great exhibits on many other cowboy rodeo stars.

Ben"s dad was a champion also

Ben also won a championship when taking a break from the movie business

How Ben started

He was in dozens of movies 

It was kind of weird, the band was a rock band and the people were not into it at all, no one sat in the chairs or danced.  They played for about two hours, they were Ok but not very exciting.  There was then a break while they brought on the next older more traditional country band dressed in suits and ties.  Now, the crowd was into that, the seats filled, a few people danced, but it was to me, of little interest, I left after eating.  The food was great however, good ole country food like real beef burgers, hot dogs, beef strips, corn on the cob and cheap beer.

 

They had this calf roping machine for the kids to play, I took this video of this boy, not expected much, to my surprise he nailed it.  Might to be future champion ?

 

That's one of her books

A lineup of fans for book signings and photos

I had decided to drive about 6 miles away to the Lake Pawhuska where my app showed it as a free camping site.  I get there to find that it is actually a dam site and reservoir, but that’s fine and it’s scenic and I have it all to myself.  That is until about 8 PM when a few people showed to set off fireworks right behind my van.  They departed after using up all their explosives, then another group shows and they came very well prepared, they put on an almost professional fireworks show. I finally get to sleep about midnight and then I wake about 4 AM to violent wind, rain and lightning.  I check my weather app and it is showing violent storm warnings, but appears to be just skirting this area, but still pretty wild stuff.  After it stops and the sun rises, I return to the safety of the downtown area and go to the Osage County Historical Museum. 

Driving over the top of the Dam was a little weird

The boat dock in the lake

 The Osage County Historical Museum had lots of stories about pioneer people and prominent Indian chiefs.  It also had much information on the “Killers of the August Moon” movie shoot that took place in this area.  They spent an incredible sum of money constructing or modifying houses and buildings, bringing a steam locomotive from California and constructing track and a myriad of other details to make everything look authentic.  The docent told me that a preliminary screening is taking place in Tulsa and the movie is to come out in the fall. 

No expense was spared in the making of this movie

Oil changed everything

High stakes bidding took place under the Elm Tree

Frank Phillips was made an honoraryChief

The Osage tribal leaders rode to Washington in style

I could use this

Amazing story of an 18 year old Osage Indian girl who went to see the King of France

I then went to the Osage Tribal Museum which was housed in a beautiful stone building but it was focused mainly on the prominent chiefs and a few historic objects, no phots allowed. 

I then made one trip to central downtown area to the post office where they have a beautiful mural.

That’s enough, I’m tired of this town now, I’m going straight to Ponca City, Oklahoma