Happy Holiday Travels

Season's Greeting from the family here at 77 Counties. I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the rest of the holiday season. Perhaps your holiday plans involve travel across this great state of ours. Hopefully you are taking time to take the road less traveled on your journeys.

It's been awhile since I have posted our travel map, so here is the current view of where we stand on counties. A long way to go for sure. Although we have progressed pretty well in the past six months. On our current pace we have 2 counties per month knocked out. Which would put us on course to finish the project in a total of 3 years time. Although I figure we will make much larger strides once we branch out on some of our future big road trips. However as I have said before this project is going to be a slow marathon and not a sprint to the finish. Please stick with us, as I promise there will be more photos in the future. You can always follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our feed if you want to be updated when things happen.

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Payne County

Payne County
County seat - Stillwater / County population per 2000 Census - 68,190

Hello fellow travelers, it's been awhile since my last post, but without further delay I bring you Payne County. The county is named for Captain David Lewis Payne who was responsible for leading the Boomer Movement. Payne and his Boomers were the first to attempt to settle in the unassigned lands in the center of Oklahoma that were not part of Indian Territory. Payne and his supporters argued that the federal government had no right to restrict their settlement on these lands and fought back. The term Boomer was reserved for white settlers who believed the Unassigned Lands were public property and open to anyone for settlement, not just Indian tribes. The Homestead Act of 1862, said that any settler could claim 160 acres of public land and thus Payne and his supporters believed it was their right to claim these lands. His work and persistence against the federal government would lead to the future settlement of Oklahoma and the land run of 1889, 4 years after his death.

Of course the county seat of Stillwater is also known for being the home of Oklahoma State University.  Seen in the picture above, Theta pond is a popular place for reading, relaxing, and feeding the ducks. Even on some rowdy campus occasions people have taken swims, often not by choice.  The pond is an icon of Oklahoma State University that is held near and dear to countless students and alumni.  A favorite moment of mine is when hundreds if not thousands of students gathered here at the pond to celebrate our 1995 Final Four appearance.  However, as an alumnus myself, I am most fond of Theta pond for one very important reason.  It has to do with the little bench you see at the bottom right hand corner of this photo.  It is in front of that very bench that I proposed to my wife on one cold late December evening almost 16 years ago.  For that reason the bench and Theta pond will always be in my memories.

If you have a favorite memory of Theta Pond please feel free to share it here as well.  Until next time, we bid you happy travels.

Muskogee County

Muskogee County

County seat - Muskogee / County population per 2000 Census - 69,451

There is nothing better than a good old fashion spontaneous road trip.  Brought upon this time by an online scavenger hunt for free stuff.  I won't go further into the details of how I ended up with my two boys in Muskogee on a work day.  That is because I already wrote a blog post about it here.  Let's just say that I somehow found myself standing at the retired USS Batfish. near the northeast corner of Muskogee.  Muskogee has one of several inland ports located in Oklahoma that allow transfer of cargo all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

After we were done at the Batfish we decided that we should at least take a tour of Muskogee and virtually plant our flag on another Oklahoma County.  So we ventured on into Muskogee where we took a quick visit to the County Court House.  Thus marking our "official" visit to the county.  Perhaps we should have made a visit to city hall as well to see if the Mayor was in.  He is the youngest mayor in Oklahoma, and one of the youngest Mayors in the entire US.  Muskogee Mayor John Tyler Hammons was actually only 19 when elected Mayor.

Our next stop is the perhaps the grand jewel of Muskogee.  Honor Heights Park is one place you must visit if you live in Oklahoma.  Although not particularly in bloom right now, they will be stringing up the park soon for the annual Garden of Lights holiday display.  The real time to visit the park is during the spring when the Annual Azalea Festival is in full swing.  Along with the thousands of azalea blooms there are hundreds of roses, tulips, dogwoods and other vegetation.  It is said to be a top spot for viewing butterflies as well.

In the photo above you see a shot of the "Lake" on the park grounds with one of the many friendly ducks.  We enjoyed a short stroll along the lake where we passed at least one other photographer out shooting.  All in all it was an enjoyable morning, the kids were getting tired and hungry so we decided to call it a day and head back home for the afternoon.

New County Coming Soon

Greetings once again travelers. As you can see by the updated map, we have finished all the trip reports from our trip to NM and back through the panhandle. Next trip report will be coming by the end of this week. Last week we made an unexpected and completely spontaneous trip to Muskogee County thanks to a world famous skateboarder and his Twitter hunt. Some of you may have all ready read the story on my other blog. If not feel free to check it out.

As always, we look forward to reporting our future trips and adventures. If you have a twitter account feel free to follow us for updates when we post to the blog.

Beaver County

Beaver County

County seat - Beaver / County population per 2000 Census - 5,857

After taking a trip through Hooker in adjacent Texas County we passed the Beaver county line just before running into Turpin. From there we continued on our easterly journey along highway 64 before hanging a right on highway 23 headed for the City of Beaver and another courthouse photo with the kids.

Along the way we hit a little jackpot for you off road fans. On the left side of the road we spotted a sign for Beaver Dunes State Park. Of course we also spotted giant dunes of sand rising in and out of view on the horizon. The park apparently has 300 acres of sandy dunes perfect for small ATV's and buggies. We pulled in and got a quick look at the dunes but figured our car wasn't much for a spin in the sand.

Although we got a brief bit of sun near the dunes, the line of thunderstorms we hit at our last photo was now firing up to our south. Of course, in my usual "panhandler" luck, we were headed right for it. So we put the pedal to metal and headed south threading a line between to large barrages of rain filtering down through the sky on either side of the highway. Once we were back on 412, there was only one choice, punch right through the center of a dark black line of storms dead ahead.

Luckily the other side of the rain belt was still within the county line. In fact the photo above was taken right on the edge of the Beaver County Line and Highway 412. This area is often referred to by many as the the gateway to No Man's Land. You see until 1907 The entire area of Beaver County consisted of the Current counties of Beaver, Texas, and Cimarron. It was one large county when it was given to Oklahoma Territory in 1890 in an attempt to bring law and order to the area.

The area became No Man's Land because the Republic of Texas sought statehood as a slave state and set latitude 36 30' N for the northern border. Kansas was a free state and used the Compromise of 1850 to set the latitude 37 N as it's southern border. New Mexico Territory was established at the 103rd Meridian. Finally, Oklahoma or "Indian Territory" was bounded by the 100th Meridian. Thus, this lawless public land strip was truly, "No Man's Land" before 1890.

Texas County

Texas County

County seat - Guymon  / County population per 2000 Census - 20,107

The tenth county in our travels is the ironically named Texas County.  In case you wondered, there is no Texas County in Texas but there is another one in Missouri.  It is not alone in it's unique name, there are four US counties that border the state that also shares their name.

We entered the county on highway 412 headed east towards the county seat of Guymon.  Since I have been through this area before we opted to swing north and drive through Hooker on the way into our next county.  Therefore I didn't make a second visit to one of the oddest sites you will ever see, Optima Lake.  A 5,340 acre lake that has only acheived 5% of its intended capacity.  The mile long earthen dam doesn't hold back much water, but I guess it does a good job catching winds.  The concrete tower built as part of the project is essentially a multi-million dollar cliff swallow habitat.  As boring as it seems it's oddly worth a quick visit just for the pure strangeness of the abandoned campgrounds and empty lake.

Another thing that this little part of Oklahoma is known for, is storms.  BIG STORMS.  I figure the sheer size and enormity of the thunderstorms you see here has a lot to do with the flat land allowing you to see the storms for miles.  But having ridden through some real "gully washers" out here I can attest they are scary up close.  The panhadle, as well as the rest of the state, is located in Tormado Alley.  Often storms build as the cold air comes off the Rockies and into the hot plains of New Mexico, they move east building through the Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle before slamming into Kansas and Oklahoma.

Throughout the spring and summer you have a really good chance of seeing some form of crazy clouds building.  This one, for example, I shot in New Mexico last summer on a trip out the same way.  Well this is also the reason I chose the photo above for this trip post.  I took it on the edge of Texas county after leaving Cimarron County.  To the left you can see the backside of a storm which made for really poor overcast skies for the rest of the trip through Texas County.  Just south of Beaver, everything went dark as night, and the sky ripped open and dumped buckets on us for about 20-30 miles.  We finally caught a small break at the far edge of Beaver County which is where you will see our next photo here at 77 counties.

Cimarron County

Cimarron County

County seat - Boise City / County population per 2000 Census - 3,148

No that's not a typo up there, the county population of Cimarron is actually that small and might be even smaller today as the population actually declines. The county is mostly rural farming in the south and cattle grazing in the north.  It's quite sparse, and mostly free of trees to boot.  We made our entrance to Cimarron County via New Mexico at the tail end of a family vacation. Entering from the southwest corner we made a quick stop at a neat geographical feature of the county. We stopped at the Tri-State marker where Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico all meet.

However, that's not the only interesting spot on the map you will find here. You can actually visit not one, not two, but three tri-state markers in Cimarron County. In addition to the one above you can also drive north and visit the corner of New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Then head east, and just before you reach Texas County, you will find an interesting windmill that marks the corner of Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  In fact Cimarron County is the only county in the United States that borders 4 states as well as 5 counties from 5 different states including Oklahoma.

Also located along the western border of the county is the highest point in the State of Oklahoma.  Black Mesa is a highly recommended hike that takes you from the plains below up 750 feet to the top of the mesa.  The trail is almost completely flat except for the trek up the side of the mesa midway through the hike.  At the top you will find a large granite obelisk that marks the highest point in the state at 4,973 feet above sea level.  It's about a four hour hike up and back so we didn't make the trek this time.  However, I did make the trek a couple of years ago and would love to do it again someday.  If you plan on a summer hike it is recommended that you camp at Black Mesa State Park the night before and do the climb early in the day to beat the extreme heat.  If it's open, make sure you stop in Kenton at the "Merc" for Dino burgers and your free highpointers certificate.

We didn't spend much time in Cimarron County this trip.  After our visit to the Tri-Point we headed on in to Boise City for a quick fill-up on gas.  From there we headed north into Keyes.  Northwest of Keyes you will find the barn pictured in the photo above.  I have photographed this barn for the past 3 summers.  Sadly it has gone downhill as of late.  Like many old structures in this part of the state, it is being taken back by Mother Nature.  After taking a series of photos of the barn we headed east again for our next County, ironically named Texas.