Oklahoma
Abandoned Homesteads: Modern Fossils of the Great Plains
Waiting
Outside Hildreth, Nebraska
Traveling 2000 miles across the Great Plains by mule wagon, I’ve filmed, interviewed and photographed Plains folk and their marine fossils.
I’ve also collected photos of another type of more modern fossil; the contents of abandoned homesteads.
Continue readingFour Miles Down, Four Barrels Up: Oklahoma Stripper Wells
We’re in oil country now, riding through Oklahoma. There’s clanking in the bushes where the crickets buzz at noon.
If you take a closer look, you’ll find an oil well.
They call them “stripper wells” around here. They get four or five barrels up per day. Some more, some less.
But most of them make that clanking noise.
I take Woody and Maggie closer for a look.
Far Enough West the Light Looks Different
Woody, Magnolia and I have walked far enough west that the light looks different from back in North Carolina, where we started our journey. Back there, the light felt thick, moist and blue. Here, it feels dry, thin and dusty. The shadows, too.
Here are three photos I snapped while riding along the sidewalk of a town so small I don’t even remember its name.
The Fine Grey Lines: Mule Travel on Oklahoma Dirt Roads
The DeLorme road map of Oklahoma looks like a sheet of graph paper.
The roads are set out on a grid. The fat lines are your major interstates and highways. I-40’s the big blue line. Highway 9 is red and slim.
The dirt roads are the fine grey lines.
I like to follow them because they cut right through the heart of Sooner Country. That means few… Continue reading
It Pays to Stop and Turn Around: Oklahoma Sunrise at Lake Eufala
With luck I’m on the road by the first rays.
Usually I’m walking West with the rising sun at my back. It pays to stop and turn around. It’s the only way to catch the day sneaking up on you.
“The Jumbos Bite”: Rick’s Rodent Ranch in Lexington, Oklahoma
“You’ve got different rat sizes,” Rick explains as he gently lifts a young rat onto his lap.
“You’ve got your fuzzies, hoppers, smalls, mediums, larges.” The rat scrabbles across his leg. “Oh, you’ve got your jumbos too. But they bite.”
Rick got into the feeder rat business with “four rats a friend gave me.” Now he has over 1,200… Continue reading
Bring Detergent: A Mule Rider Crosses Into Oklahoma
The sign in front of Arkoma’s school says “Ice Cream Social” followed by a date and the words “Bring detergent.”
We’ve made Oklahoma.
It’s late in the day for mule travel. Two hours before sunset, you’d better have a place to stay or you’ll be driving your tent pegs by starlight.
I continue down Highway 9A, out of town. An hour later, I find lodging with Jason and Stephanie Shelton.
Jason’s a fellow traveller.… Continue reading
