Our World – Hanging out in Okmulgee

Monday morning, I drove 43 miles south of Tulsa to the little burg of Okmulgee, Oklahoma in order to pursue my geocaching hobby. First up on the list is an Adventure Lab geocache at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. Adventure Lab caches don’t involve finding a physical object, instead you have to navigate to various places and then answer questions about what you find. You use an app on your phone to navigate and it has technology that makes sure you are physically there where you say you are. It discourages “armchair geocachers.”

So it had me go all over the campus finding information. I learned that the campus started out as an Army Hospital during World War II and then later a hospital for German POWs. After the war the USA sold the campus to what is now Oklahoma State University for a dollar.

OSU loves the color orange, they put it on everything. Even their flowers are orange.

It is an applied technology school. You don’t go here to think the big thoughts. You go here to learn nursing, engine repair, cooking and a bunch of other fields. It has a 100% placement rate for their graduates.

This is a solar pond that helps reduce the campus heating and cooling costs. The water is circulated through a heat pump is how it works.

This is OSU’s mascot, Pistol Pete. He’s based on a real person, Frank Eaton. At eight years old, he witnessed his father’s murder by six vigilantes. Young Frank practiced shooting until he was fifteen years old and then spent the next six years hunting down and killing his father’s murderers. He later served as a US Marshall for Oklahoma under the Hanging Judge, Isaac Parker. He became the mascot for OSU after he died in 1958. You can’t make this stuff up!! I love stories like this.

Nothing to do with the cache but this is the Natural Gas Compression Technology building. I spent about 40 years messing with natural gas compressors in various capacities. Compressors are what is used to move the natural gas all the way from the wellhead to industrial and home use. It is hard to get into this program. For years all of the graduates have had jobs before they graduate.

And then shifting gears to downtown Okmulgee. It was an oilfield boom town way back when and then went into a long slow decline as the production in the area waned. There is a new spirit in town. People are moving in buying and renovating the many beautiful old buildings that were decaying. They are also commissioning murals such as the one above by famed Native American Muralist, Yatika Starr Fields. The mural above may be the most beautiful mural I have ever seen, (and I have seen a lot of them.)

Even OSU Tech got in on the action converting the above building to an off campus dorm.

So with this cache I went to a lot different murals. It was fun.

With a Where I Go geocache, you eventually have to find a physical object and I did. I don’t want to spoil it for anybody but it is a nanocache which makes it tiny. Lots smaller than the tip of my pinkie fingers.

Anyway, a good morning. It took me a little more than an hour to log both caches and then headed home.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

To find out more about Geocaching

8 thoughts on “Our World – Hanging out in Okmulgee

  1. Penelope Notes

    This geocaching sounds like fun and educational and it has me wondering what teeny-tiny thing you found. The campus certainly is rich in history even though it only cost a buck!

  2. Pat

    Glad to hear that you are keeping up with your geocache hobby, Yogi!. It takes you to interesting places. I enjoyed seeing these murals and learning about this college.

  3. DrillerAA

    Wow!!! I haven’t been through Okmulgee in a decade. Another 10 miles south of town is my birthplace, Henryetta, Between Henryetta and Okmulgee there are several abandoned coal mines. My grandfather was a coal miner. Great set of images Yogi. I photographed some of those old buildings years ago. I need to get back down to the area and photo graph some of the new stuff. Have a blessed week.

  4. sallie rainville

    Really enjoyed this! Did not know the use of the term “applied technology” although we both have somewhat of a background in what used to be called “career education” (in K-12 )– which valued and made available exactly that kind of education as well as the “big thought” kind. Still so needed! … Anyway, that’s a beautiful campus; coincidentally, orange is the color for the OSU in Corvallis (rival of the UO which is here where we live) .I Now I want to visit that campus to see if their plantings also match their color scheme. … Your hobby is such a great one — getting you outside exploring these fascinating places and giving you wonderful stuff to share. Thanks for that! (And Pistol Pete, oh my gosh, that *is* a story!

  5. Fun60

    Amazed you managed to see all that and register your geocaches in an hour. Loads to see. I’ve never heard of a solar pond before.

Comments are closed.