I’ve always had an interest in the American Civil War.

There’s so much fascinating history there. The figure of Abraham Lincoln…the freeing of the slaves…Gone with the Wind and Lee and Grant and Confederate money not worth the paper it was printed on. Brother against brother. Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to know more. I also always wanted to see a battle reenactment, but I knew I’d have to go to the “real” south to see one. This is Oklahoma. We’re barely the south.

Then I learned about the Battle of Honey Springs, which took place near present-day Rentiesville.

According to the state travel website, the fight that took place on the Honey Springs Battlefield was the largest of 107 documented hostile encounters of the Civil War that occurred in Indian Territory. Additionally, it was one of the few if not the only battle that involved African American, American Indian, Hispanic and Anglo American soldiers. Records show it was the heroics of the African American regiment known as the First Kansas Colored that won the victory for the Union. The Battle of Honey Springs took place July 17, 1863.

This is a big place, and there are trails all over it for walking around and learning more. There are also signs along the way that have information about what happened there.

The director, Christopher Price, was there when we came and invited us into the little interpretive center trailer, where they had videos, a model of the battlefield, and other items of interest – plus gift shop items that held my children’s interest. My children liked the models, especially the horses, but they mostly liked running around in the wooded areas with Price’s sons, who were out of school for the Thanksgiving holiday and spending the day at work with their dad. They were pretending to be soliders for part of it, so that was hands-on education, I think.

The interpretive center was very small, but a new one is currently being constructed. A 5,000 square foot visitors’ center will replace the existing interpretive center soon.

They also hold reenactments each year, and this is going to be a big one, since this year is the 150th anniversary of the battle. Even though it was originally in July, the reenactment will be held November 8-10, 2013. I’ve never been to a reenactment, but I can’t think of many reasons that I won’t be there this November.

This picture came from their facebook page, and shows some reenactment scenes. You can also sort of see the little picture of what the new interpretive center is going to look like.

It’s free to visit the battlefield; hours vary for the interpretive center. It’s always closed Sundays, Mondays and state holidays. Other days, send an email to cprice@okhistory.org to ensure someone will be there to let you inside.

Here’s a link to a pdf flyer that has more info about the battlefield.

The place was a little hard to find at first. The address is 1863 Honey Springs Battlefield Road in Checotah. We tried putting that in the GPS and it wasn’t particularly helpful. Try these old-school directions instead: From I-40, take exit 264B north on Hwy 69 to the Checotah/Rentiesville exit, turn left onto old 69 and drive north 1.75 miles to the Rentiesville/Honey Springs Rd, then turn right and drive east 2 miles to DC Minner St and turn left. Drive north 1 mile where the road turns east, drive east 1/4 mile then turn back north.

When I was a kid, it seemed like there were butterflies everywhere. White ones, yellow ones, spotted ones…and the monarchs. I loved to get one to sit on my finger, the wings slowly opening and closing until it few away.

I don’t think I see as many butterflies anymore – and definitely not as many monarchs.

You can see them again in an historic rural Oklahoma area though.

In between the towns of Washington and Cole, in McClain County, sits a building marking the Jerusalem Community Heritage Center and Park. It marks a former black community. Many residents moved away around World War II. Recently, people who live nearby decided to clean up the area, which includes an old cemetery and historical markers.

Kids love the festival, and there are tons of them around. They have different things each year, since it’s relatively new. I’ve seen face painting, clowns, a butterfly parade, and the crowning of the butterfly queen. They have food for sale and monarchs to see.

There’s a lot of awesome photo opportunities for your kids. Bring money. It’s free to go, but there’s a lot of fun things to do – like releasing a monarch or playing games – and your kids will want to do that.

This is also a port-a-potty only event. My youngest child used a port-a-potty for the first time at the Monarch Festival. She was horrified. I took a picture. (Bad mom.)

The Monarch Festival is held in September – last year on the fourth Saturday. I think the actual date depends on the butterfly migration. All in all, it’s a fun time and a neat experience for kids.

Did you know that the town of Blanchard has a splash park?

I might not know if I didn’t live near it.

We’ve been to others, and we’ve been to bigger, but I sure like this one.

It’s got what I like in a spash park. It’s wet and fun, and it’s in a super-safe place. I feel good about letting my kids run and play here. There’s benches around it, and there’s even a covered picnic table right next to it – perfect for hosting a splash park birthday party!

I also like that since it’s out of the way, it’s usually not crowded. Sometimes we even have the whole area to ourselves. I like that…I think the kids like having other kids to play with. Either way, we win!

I took my eldest to a 4-H summer sewing camp in Chickasha.

Now Chickasha is just far enough from me that it didn’t make sense to go home. The camp was four hours long. I had two smallish kids with me.

One day it rained. We hit the library. Now, it was all right, but I’ve been spoiled by our favorite library, at Mustang, and so the kids area didn’t last us nearly long enough at Chickasha.

Then we headed for the parks.

There are sooo many parks in Chickasha. According to the City of Chickasha website, Chickasha Parks and Recreation Department has over 2,000 acres of land in the Parks System which includes seven park sites, one swimming pool, one recreation center, one community center, six tennis courts, four softball fields, one football field, eight baseball fields, seven covered picnic pavilions, fishing at Shannon Springs Park for persons under 16, over 65 or handicapped, agility course, ADA accessible walking path, three basketball courts, one lake with camping, fishing, hunting and recreation areas.

That’s a lot of parks.

They don’t even mention that this includes two splash pads and a skate park.

The website, which informative to a point, doesn’t give directions to all of the parks. That’s not cool.

But I’ll tell you what I know.

The awesome wooden park is Centennial Park. It’s in the 600 block of West Texas Avenue. This playground is so stinkin’ cool, it should have been crawling with kids.

We were the only ones there. It had an almost ghost town feel, and it looked a little neglected. There was some graffiti. That’s a shame because I remember when the community came together to build this great ADA compliant park. People volunteered and got this thing built. I don’t know why no one was here. Maybe it is some kind of drug user hangout and I just don’t know. Didn’t see anyone creepy…didn’t see anyone. Kids had fun anyway.

We also like the Shannon Springs Park. This is THE park in Chickasha. It’s got the pond and the splash pad and the playground and the little kids’ area and all the fun stuff. This is the one that has the big light display at Christmas. This is the good one.

Even a real, honest-to-goodness old-fashioned metal merry-go-round. Craziness.

Those are the only two parks we went to that week, but we also like Borden Park (the skate park is here) at the east side of Borden Park just off of 18th Street, and the Washita Valley Park, which they don’t have directions to, but basically when you’re downtown Chickasha, you sort of go east to the train tracks and then go south for a while. It’s got some cool old-fashioned playground equipment and another splash pad.

There’s also a newish sports park that isn’t of much interest to those looking for playgrounds and non-organized fun. The Chickasha website says there are more parks: Twelve and Alabama Park, Austin Park (which has no address listed), and Richie Park (also no address). Anyone know these parks? Are they fun?

We celebrated a birthday on Sunday by meeting family for dinner. We didn’t want anyone to have to travel three hours for a birthday meal, so we picked a location that was centrally located to all three travel parties. The winner? Seiling, Oklahoma…population 875, according to Wikipedia.
Now I don’t know about you, but in my experience towns with only eight hundred and seventy-five people aren’t the best travel destination. But a visit to the Seiling Chamber of Commerce website proved there were four restaurants in town…a good start for any get together. Our selections were Heath’s Steakhouse, My Way Café, Subway, and Willy’s Café.

Read more »

My family visited Lake Optima in March 2009. We didn’t plan the trip; instead, we went to see relatives in the Texas Panhandle, and while there, we hit geocaching.com and a couple of letterboxing sites to see what we could do for fun up there.

There were a couple in Texas, but the biggest clump of geocaches was located north, in Lake Optima. I was intrigued, since I’d never heard of Lake Optima. My brother-in-law said that it was a failed lake, and had never reached capacity. Sounded interesting, so the next day we packed a lunch, four adults and seven children into two vehicles and headed up the highway.

Read more »