GREETINGS FROM POTEAU, Oklahoma (OK) USA
Where ?#%! I hear you ask. Well, we wanted to fit in a couple of scenic byways in this general area – today and tomorrow – and have skipped back into Oklahoma to find a “midpoint” to let us tackle these over our last couple of driving days.
As far as I can find, Poteau’s only claim to fame is that nearby Cavanal Hill is billed as “the tallest hill in the world” at 1,999 feet -if it was 2,000 feet it would be classified as a mountain!
And I’m sure the “Carousel Room” at the Black Angus Motel was the place to be seen in its day – I can just picture it with “Murph and the Magictones” headlining the bill !
We left Eureka Springs heading generally south and through the western regions of Arkansas. And not far away is the other of the “structures” I mentioned yesterday – an award winning piece of architecture called “Thorncrown Chapel” – inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
The inside of Thorncrown Chapel
… and outside
The drive most of the way today was generally more picturesque than yesterday. The area, with the national forests, is more grazing farmland than the crop farmland in the states to the north. Devil’s Den Dam is a State Park area just inside the Arkansas border. It is a lovely spot and by the looks of it quite popular “during the season”. But now, outside “the season” it is very quiet indeed. The dam was actually built by the CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps – established by President Roosevelt during the Depression to create work for the unemployed. We have come across the work they did during that time on a number of occasions and it is very impressive.
The dam at Devil’s Den State Park
Fort Smith is right on the border. The city began as a western frontier military post in 1817 and would later become well known for its role in the settling of the “Wild West” and its law enforcement heritage. We visited the site, and remnants of, the old fort and had a look around. It sits at the junction of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers which was significant as across the river at that time was “Indian Territory”. Later, at the beginning of the Civil War, the Fort was overrun by Confederate forces as the Union garrison was too small to defend it.
Part of old Fort Smith
Our last stop for the day was at a place called Heavener, just south of Poteau. Here we jumped from American history to Viking folklore ! Carved on a large piece of stone are runes – supposedly spelling out “Glome’s Valley”. They are said to have been left by Vikings who arrived via the Mississippi River. As you can imagine, there is another side to the story which doesn’t quite come to the same conclusion !
The weather has again been erratic today – we started with a few cloud’s which cleared to sunny patches. Then heading toward Fort Smith we ran into a brief storm but with a tremendous amount of rain and this evening, after we walked back from dinner at the nearby “Montana Mike’s Steakhouse”, we had a HUGE storm with loads of lightning – which briefly blacked out the hotel – and a deluge of rain. Mind you, with some of the weather around the country as a whole, we haven’t done too badly overall.
Tomorrow, we have our last “driving day” as we head to our last stop, Dallas.
Today’s Trivia – Poteau (1955) became the first city in Oklahoma to allow African Americans to attend school with white students in its primary and secondary schools !