Shawnee Jamboree, AC Rally, Shawnee, OK (Jun 19-24)
Each year the makers of our coach, American Coach, has a National Rally. This year it was located in the heated Shawnee, OK which is just outside of Oklahoma City. OK. http://www.myamericancoach.com/2017-shawnee-rally
These rallies are great to see many other RVers. Some are also Full-timers like us while others just do it during the summer or during specific trips. We like these rallies because you meet a lot of great, nice people. We have yet to find anyone who is not nice. We are grateful for the friends we met in Oregon and who we got to see again here – Dave and Joanie Parriott. These two kicked us off to rallies in Oregon and it was fun to see them again. In addition to them, we were lucky to be right next to Brian and Pat Howe and close to Bev and Jerry. We have made new friends with them. Overall, the rally is breakfast and dinner along with some seminars. It is a great learning experience in addition to all the fun.
In addition to the rally, we were able to go to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, https://oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/. This memorial was very nice. The memorial is on the site of the bombing which was on 5th Street. They have blocked off that section of the street so you have to enter the memorial to be right next to the event.
When you enter, you see a reflection pool across the area. Behind that are chairs for all those who lost their lives. They are placed on the floor and the area of the building they lost their lives. They are placed according to the floor they died on. You see the smaller chairs in the 2nd row which was the floor where the day care was. In addition, there are 5 chairs to the right which are for those who lost their lives outside of the building. In the back has the parts of the original building.
In Shawnee was also the Sante Fe Depot Station. http://www.pottcountymuseum.org/ This station was built in 1903-1904 and was operational as a train depot until 1973.
“The area surrounding Shawnee was settled after the American Civil War by a number of tribes that the federal government had removed to Indian Territory. The Sac and Fox originally were deeded land in the immediate area but were soon followed by the Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Pottawatomi Indians. Descendants of these federally recognized tribes continue to reside today in and around Shawnee.
Over the course of the 1870s, Texas cattle drovers pushed their herds across Indian Territory; there were four major trails, with the West Shawnee trail crossing near present-day Kickapoo and Main streets. With the cattle drives, railroads were constructed through the territory, with the government forcing tribes to cede rights of way.
In addition, white settlers pressed for more land; they were encroaching on territories previously reserved by treaty to Native Americans.
Beginning in April 1889, the United States government succumbed to the pressure that had built to open the tribal lands to white settlement. By allocating communal lands to individual households and extinguishing tribal land claims, Congress was preparing the territory for eventual statehood. The end of communal holdings was also intended to be the end of traditional tribal government, to be replaced with leaders appointed by the federal government.
The Dawes Act allocated the tribes’ communal lands into 160-acre plots to individual tribal members believing it would support a family farm. The government declared that tribal land in excess of what was allocated to member households was “surplus” and available for settlement by non-Native Americans. It allocated that surplus land through land runs, essentially races by which people staked claims on land. Some tribes lost parts of their communal lands, disrupting traditional governments and practices.
The first Land Run took place in the central area of Oklahoma Territory in 1889 known as the Unassigned Land. Then in the Land Run of 1891 onto surplus land of the Sac & Fox, Citizen Pottawatomie and Shawnee, just east of the original run, was opened for settlement.”
We went to the Land Run Monument which is a free site to visit. http://landrun.marbleart.us/ “April 22, 1889, was a day of chaos, excitement, and total confusion in Oklahoma. This was the day of the incredible, and notorious, first Land Run, when 50,000 people rushed into the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma Territory to stake their claim for free land. Over two million acres in Oklahoma, both farm land and town lots, had previously been measured out by the government. The vast crowd of hopeful settlers massed all along the border. All were armed with a flag, to claim their stake — farmers and scholars, Yankees and southerners, the rich and the poor, black and white, soldiers and laborers, even women riding side-saddle. At the sound of a cannon shot at noon, the anxious settlers surged forward in a tumultuous avalanche of wagons and horsemen all in one breathtaking instant. Many did not achieve their dream; in the chaos of the mad dash, people were crushed, horses fell, wagons toppled, and fights ensued. Besides, hundreds, maybe thousands, of settlers had already snuck in over the border a day or two sooner, to claim the choicest land. These “sooners”, pretending to be exhausted from the mad dash, even having run their horses around in circles to get them all sweaty beforehand, made a show of slamming their flags into their chosen ground just as the first legitimate settlers appeared in the distance.”
The Land Run Monument shows the stampede. http://landrun.marbleart.us/ In the monument, there were approximately 20 horses which were 1.5 times the normal height running across the land. The horses even cross over a creek and you can see the hoofprints in the sand. It was fun looking at all these pieces.
In addition to all of that, we also went to the Oklahoma State Capital and Oklahoma Veteran’s Memorial.
Across the street from the Capital was the Oklahoma Veteran’s Memorial. http://oklahomaveteransmemorial.us/
