So we are tourists. We will agree. We recently went to Tishomingo, OK to meet with Mike’s cousin, Lisa Manchester, for lunch at Ole Red. This is a restaurant owned by Blake Shelton and Tishomingo is his hometown. He was not there, of course, but Lorraine did get her picture taken with him – well at least a cardboard picture.
Tishomingo was named after the Chickasaw chief who died of smallpox on the Trail of Tears near Little Rock, Arkansas, after the Chickasaws had been removed from their original homelands in and around Tishomingo, Mississippi.
Before the founding of Tishomingo in 1852, the area was known as “Good Springs”, for the presence of several springs that made the area a suitable campsite along the road between Fort Washita and Fort Arbuckle. A small town had replaced the old campsites with permanent structures and had been renamed “Tishomingo” by 1856, when it was designated as the Chickasaw capital. A post office was established in 1857.
The Chickasaw Capitol Building was constructed in 1897 from local red granite and officially dedicated in 1898. It housed the tribal governor, the bicameral legislature and other government officials and clerks. The territorial court also met there from time to time. The territorial government was dissolved at statehood. In 1910, the building was sold to Johnston County, becoming the county court house.
Not many murals but here are a few.
His art can also be viewed closer to home in Georgia, Florida, California, Arizona and Washington. His most recent venue is closer still, in Tishomingo, at the corner of Kemp and Main Streets on Houser Furniture’s western wall.
We wish that many things were open in this area. It would of been nice to see the Chickasaw influences.
Just a quick one day trip that we wanted to share.
