One of my first thought too
Regrettably, I was forced to miss that trip. It was about the time of the boating accident. But, I'm sure Terry and Dennis have some stories!!!
Can't help you on photos of Camp Nichols, but below are links to places in the area of Kenton, OK, which is near where Florence was located. We did camp, fish, swim, and boat around the Lake Carl Etling State Park. I can remember with regards to Lake Carl Etling when they had built the dam and the accumulated water was just a channel. Someone had built a raft on metal 55 gallon barrels and placed it there to cross the channel. Later, after it became a full lake, a friend and I would have my dad tow us on the raft out to the middle of the lake and we would dive off the raft and swim around it.
Kenton and Black Mesa Area
Referencing back to Snattlerake's first post about the ghost town stuff, that story mentioned a dinosaur discovery in the area. This picture is of the area of the pit where the dinosaur was found. That vertical "pillar" on top of the "hill" is a concrete reproduction of a dinosaur bone.
Black Mesa
They have a hiking trail going up on the mesa on the north side of it, but when I was a kid, we climbed straight up the south side of the mesa. The hiking trail is probably a much easier climb.
One can barely see the start of the trail at the left hand side of this gate.
There are also interesting rock formations in the Kenton area.
This one is called "The Wedding Party," with the minister to the right and the bride and groom before him and the "spectators" being represented by the larger rock formation.
Lake Carl Etling State Park
Saw these on the way to Black Mesa in 2017.
Here is Arch Rock north of Kenton in Colorado near Picture Canyon on the Comanche National Grasslands
People are so misinformed about this event it is pathetic! The Indian Removal Act was taken all the way to the US Supreme Court, and ruled UN-constitutional! This CRIME took roughly 10 years to complete, some CIVILIZED INDIANS volunteered and moved west during this peroid, and signed fake treaties, giving land they didn't own to the Government! MANY OF THESE TRAITORS WOKE UP DEAD AFTER ALL THE PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO SETTLE IN OKLAHOMA! Jackson the founder of the Democratic Party, went ahead on his plan to STEAL THIS LAND, for his personal a gain and his political cronies. Even though he was President at the time, he could not us U.S. troops because the Supreme Court had ruled against this criminal act. So Jackeson and his cronies used state militias, to force these Americans off their land, and our of their homes. A date was set, and after that, the militia could ARRIVE AT THESE PEOPLE HOMES, THEY WERE SO CIVILIZED, LIKE THE WHITE PEOPLE, SOME EVEN OWNED HUMAN SLAVES! They would show up in the middle of the night , the people that owned the land, and homes, had to leave right then with only what they could carry. ALL LIVESTOCK, HOME FUIRNISHINGS THEY COULDN'T CARRY, CROPS IN THE FIELDS, AND IN STORAGE, CLOTHES, ETC. BECAME THE PROPERTY OF THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO CLAM IT! OF COURSE POLITICAL CRONIES WERE NOTIFIED OF THE TIME, AND PLACE, OF THESE MIDNIGHT RAIDS, AND WERE ON HAND TO CLAM THIS PROPERTY, THE MINUTE THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS WERTE FORCED OUT! JACKSON AND HIS TOP ELITE POLITICAL FRIENDS GOT THE PRIME LAND IN THE THOUDSNDS OF ACRES, MUCH OF IT AROUND MUSSEL-STOLES ALABAMA. This is a tragic story, if you can find the true version! The famous Davy Crockett, was forced out of Congress, lost his re-election bid, because he opposed Jackson on this land theft, and MURDER of these poor people! Some people that know the truth about this event, will not to this day, use a $20.00 bill, because it has Jackson's picture on it!
My family had some documented problems with President Jackson on both of his sides, seems like he was quite the player of people.
thats why I don’t get to be a Cherokee in the eyes of the Government. My kin left before the trail of tears and went Northwest to Kansas and Nebraska. “The Lost Cherokee” are now trying to get recognition but as far as I know it’s been of no use.
The Cherokees are, IIRC, the only tribe that doesn’t use blood quantum for citizenship. Their membership is tied to the Dawes Rolls.
I do know someone who told me he could help me get tribal citizenship, as it’s really just a political affiliation, the same as any other citizenship. He’s an actual authority on Indian law (he was, and may still be, sitting on the Supreme Court of one of the tribes), so I believe him, though I’ve not taken him up on it.
When I was a kid ,(a long, long time ago) my dad took me to Camp Nichols, where we got permission from the land owner. I used my low-end metal detector. I found a Minnie ball (I think that that's what that type of slug is called,) a soldered can lid, a forced padlock and several links of brass chain, and some pieces of old bottle glass. I don't member if there was anything else. I still have the stuff. I have wanted to return out to the present land owner or to a museum.
i probably won’t even try to get it. There’s to many blonde hair and blue eyed Guymonites that have Cherokee Nation license plates here.
