Monthly Archives: June 2009

My World – Doaksville Oklahoma

I found Doaksville, Oklahoma last week during a trip to southeast Oklahoma. I had never heard of Doaksville and found it only because I was looking for a geocache. I love serendipity and this is a good example why.

Doaksville was once the biggest city in is now Oklahoma. It was started as a trading post by Josiah Doaks in the 1820’s. It grew quickly and for a time was the Choctaw Tribal Capital. The Civil War started its decline and it became a ghost town by 1900. In the mid 1990’s the Oklahoma Historical Society did extensive archeological excavations of many of the former structures. The site is now well maintained and has excellent interpretive displays.

To get to Doaksville you walk through the massive Doaksville Cemetery. It is very easy for me to get distracted by old cemeteries.

I get to wondering things like, “Does anybody know anything about Little Lonzo Wilson?” a three year old who died on Christmas Day 1918.
The grave of David Folsom, former chief of the Choctaws. A Christian slave owner who brought missionaries to Indian Territory and supported education efforts. “Christian slave owner” is a concept that is very hard to imagine right now. It also applies to some of the founders of our country.
Old piece of a gravestone – separated from its grave. I love the held hands.
Jimmie Dale I hope that you are fishing somewhere.After you walk through the cemetery you get to Doaksville. Nobody there but me for over two hours one day.

Excavated Tavern- this was the hearth.

A plaque commerating the surrender of General Stand Watie. A Cherokee born in Calhoun, Georgia. A wealthy plantation owning slaveholder. Supported Cherokee removal to Indian Territory. For a time he was Principal Chief of the Cherokees. Led the First Indian Brigade of the Confederate Army. Fought Union troops in Arkansas, Indian Territory, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. He also fought fellow Indians who did not support the Confederacy. Surrendered to Union troops after the battle of Doaksville.

The jail. Three cells, not very big. Three foot thick limestone.
Here is the cache I was looking for.
For other views of our world check out That’s My World Tuesday.
Article from Smithsonian Online about the Final Confederate Surrender at Doaksville

Dental Geocaching

I know that you are tired of Idaho. Too bad, because I’m not done with it.
It was pretty wet and rainy much of the time so I didn’t get any caches out in the woods. The last full day there I found some urban caches.
My favorite was a cache that a premium emergency dentist from Westinghouse Dental placed right outside his window. I was there on a Sunday so there was nobody there. I know three dentists in Oklahoma. Randy, Bert, Michael you guys step up! Geocaching dentistry is the latest thing!
I found my first LDS (“Mormon”) Church cache. I’ve done about every denomination cache that there is except Orthodox, Islam, and, Buddhism. Anybody know any such caches I could go find?

It’s amazing how the various church caches are consistent to their religions. For example this LDS Church cache was in vary good condition and was spot on with the coordinates. The rules are changed but used to be men could have many caches but women have just one. However it is still the rule that a wife can find a cache only after her husband finds it first. Baptist caches have strict rules but at least once you find it you can just log it and forget about it. Methodist caches have to make sure that you understand just what the cache is about and you can lose credit for the cache in the future if you forget. Episcopal caches are very complicated because Whiskeypalians are much smarter than anyone else. Unitarian caches are a mess, they are way off on their coordinates and they keep yammering on about peace cranes. Enough already with the peace cranes!

I hope nobody took the previous paragraph seriously.

This cache is called “The Drink is on Me.” Only two guesses why. It is out in the middle of a wheat field.

Speaking of drinking, take look at a small portion of a grocery store beer case. More variety there than in an Oklahoma liquor store. Notice the “1554” and “Fat Tire” beer. You can buy them almost any where in the country except Oklahoma. I’m not sure why but I’m positive that keeping it out is keeping me safe. I guess. Same as the law not allowing strong beer to be refrigerated at liquor stores. Keeps Okie children from being born naked.


Not into beer? How about some Yogi Tea?

Trail Ride

On our trip to Idaho we took a two hour trail ride

SuperPizzaBoy about to mount his horse under supervision of Gramps, his grandfather.

Sweetie, always has a smile.

My cousin Merri Ann is all set to go.

We crossed a little stream.

My sister, Ellen, brother Bob, and cousin Karol.


I liked this picture mainly because of the horses ears.

It was a cool misty afternoon and we all had a pretty good time.

Sky Watch Friday – Idaho Rain Showers

I love Oklahoma but one of the things I miss about the west is being able to see the weather miles away. From our lodge we could see the rain way out to the east.

To the south it looked like a bomb had gone off. It must have been a heck of a rain. Click on the photograph to get the full effect.

For more views of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.

Up, the Movie

Last weekend the Yogi’s went to see “Up” the new animated Disney – Pixar movie. It’s basically about an old guy, Carl Fredrickson, that wants to move his house to South America to a waterfall to fulfill a promise that he made to his late wife. So he ties a bunch of balloons to the house and after the house breaks free and is heading south, he finds out that he has a stowaway, Russell, a Wilderness Explorer.

Anyway, Fredrickson and Russell have a great adventure down in South America involving some bad guy. Lots of close calls and heart warming type stuff happens.

If you want to find out what happened at the start of the movie talk to Sweetie or SuperPizzaBoy. I was fast asleep. Apparently a lot of the back story with Frederickson and his bride as children that explains why he wanted to move his house down there in the first place. Yawn, like I said I slept through it. Talk to Sweetie if you are interested. I wasn’t. She slept through the last half of the movie.

Anyway it was an ok movie except how good could it be if so many people were snoozing. Good kid flick. 2.5 stars out of 4. Sorry. Hey visit the web site. It is amazing.

Geocaching Bomb Scare in Enid, Oklahoma

News story from the “Enid News and Eagle” in Enid, Oklahoma dated June 12, 2009. Original link. (Note that the Braum’s pictured above is not the one in Enid and was not in the article.)

UPDATE: Suspicious object turns out to be ‘geocache’

By Cass Rains
Staff Writer

A suspicious object reported to police Thursday night that caused the evacuation of a local restaurant was determined to be a “geocache,” or treasure to be located with GPS devices.

Enid Police Department Lt. Scott Miller said members of Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s bomb squad discovered what the object was after a detonation was placed beneath it.

“It came open and the papers came out,” Miller said. “It was a couple pieces of paper explaining what a geocache was and whoever had ever found it. It was a false alarm.

”Police were called 7:41 p.m. to Braum’s, 4202 W. Garriott, in reference to a man who had entered the restaurant and stayed for a few minutes, then was seen placing something in a tree on the southwest corner of the property before leaving in a vehicle.

Miller said the man likely entered the restaurant looking for the geocache before searching the tree.“He found it, signed off and left,” he said. “A few people had already been there and signed off on it. It’s been there for at least a couple weeks.”

Officers responding to the call evacuated the restaurant and cordoned off a 50-yard area near the device as they awaited arrival of the bomb squad.

According to the Web site www.geocaching.com searchers can register with the site and be given GPS coordinates to geocaches, which are signed and dated by whoever finds and returned to be found by the next searcher.“Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices,” the group’s Web site reads. “The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.”

Not very funny. Big scare, bomb squad called out, area cordoned off.

Two things went wrong here. First whoever placed the cache didn’t get permission from the store manager to hide the cache.

Second the finder apparently was acting furtively.I have found lots of caches out in public areas. I think the best thing to do is act like you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Most people don’t care but if you act sneaky then they get suspicious.

So, if you are hiding geocaches, get permission! If you are looking for caches, don’t be sneaky! Got it?

The Addict by Michael Stein

“The Addict” is an interesting book written by a doctor Michael Stein about his efforts at treating a Vicodin addict over the course of a year.

It has a lot of interesting information about addicts and their drugs and how they are treated. However I lost interest in the book about three fourths of the way through it. I got tired with all the relapses. The book is just a little too long.

I rate this as 2 stars out of 4.

“The Lost City of Z” by David Grann

David Grann has written a heck of nonfiction book with “The Lost City of Z.” The book is about a British explorer named Percy Fawcett and his search for a lost city in the Amazon Basin. He called the city “Z.” He never found it and he and his companions disappeared without a trace in 1925 while on an expedition in the Amazon basin to find “Z.”

But really who cares about Percy Fawcett? What I loved about this book was the bugs, the diseases, the critters, and the fierce tribes. How about flies that could deposit eggs into your skin, from outside your clothes? The eggs hatch worms and then the worms dig through your flesh. Pretty amazing huh? What about the natives who could whistle the worms out? I love it. What about uncurable tropical brain diseases that can take 20 years to develop? How about tiny candiru (aka “toothpick fish”) that can swim up any orifice, including the urethra, and then stop and feed off your blood? They have external spines so when they get where they want to go, you cannot make them leave. As one web site put it they can be “resolved” only through “surgical intervention.” In other words they have to be cut out. OUCH!! I always wondered why I was never much into resolutions, now I know why. I’m not booking any tours to the Amazon either.

Of course the boring old piranhas are covered but so are electric eels that have a shock so powerful they can kill you without touching you.

The natives can be fierce, especially way back when. Some of them supposedly were cannibals. The author claims that the Brazillian government estimates there are about 60 tribes that have never encountered anyone from the outside. Or at least anyone that lived to tell about it. To be fair the tribes, yhey are very unfriendly because, the author reports, to this day – in 2009, many of the tribes people are enslaved under terrible conditions by loggers who are illegally cutting down the rain forest.

All these are the real stars of this book. Yes, the story about Percy Fawcett is interesting, but I think the guy was crazy. I like reading about the stuff that drove him crazy.

I read this book in one day. It is a great read, especially if you read just the real good parts about the bugs, diseases, critters, and fierce tribal guys.

I rate this a solid 3.5 stars out of 4.

That’s My World – Little Dixie Geocaching

I went on a little geocaching expedition in southeast Oklahoma last Friday. Southeast Oklahoma is nicknamed “Little Dixie” because historically and culturally it shares a lot of traits with Arkansas, Lousiana, and east Texas.

At Hugo lake I had to hiking across a couple bridges. The first one, although shaky, was doable.

The second bridge was under water. As we say in natural gas business. I plugged and abandoned this cache.
I ran into a major distraction at two caches in an abandoned town named Doaksville. I had never heard of Doaksville but at one time it was one of the largest towns in Indian Territory. It has been a major archeological site and there are tons of interpretive signs and information. I spent a couple hours their poking around. I’m researching another “My World” post for Doaksville. It is of major historical importance. For instance the last confederate general to surrender after the Civil War did it at Doaksville. The town was abandoned for various reasons in the 1880’s and was just left to rot.
Next, Idabel, home of the Girls of Today in Idabel Oklahoma. I had been there several times but had never found a cache there.

The cache I found in Idabel was in a bamboo patch. What’s up with that? Bamboo?

Then I drove up to Beaver’s Bend State Park. One of the jewels of the Oklahoma State Park System. I found a couple caches there and two whitetail deer and a deer fawn who popped up from its hiding place about 15 feet away from me.

Beaver’s Bend is a beautiful place to visit. Fortunately for geocachers. I think only about 1 in a hundred people go more than 50 yards off the trails.

At about 7 pm I called it quits. I called Sweetie and told her that I was driving home.

I got home a few minutes after midnight. What a day!

Check out That’s My World for other views of our world.